of
Francisco Pizarro--who in this manner began his conquering career--he
embarked in the pirate ship, but had hardly cleared the harbor before
he began a fierce quarrel with the commander, Talavera, by whose
orders he was seized and fettered. Even when chained to the deck, the
undaunted cavalier dared Talavera and his crew to fight him, two at a
time, and when they refused denounced them all as cowards.

A violent gale arose, with the result that their ship was wrecked on
the southern coast of Cuba. Escaping to shore, they endured terrible
sufferings for weeks, wandering half famished in forests and through
swamps, until finally rescued by a tribe of Indians who had not heard
of Spanish atrocities and who gave them freely all the provisions they
needed. A canoe was despatched to Jamaica with the tidings of
disaster, and in the end Ojeda reached Hispaniola, where he had the
satisfaction of seeing his late companions hung for their crimes, and
where he passed the remainder of his life in poverty. He died in 1515,
so poor, says Bishop Las Casas, "that he did not leave money enough to
provide for his interment, and so broken in spirit that, with his last
breath, he entreated his body might be buried in the monastery of San
Francisco [the ruins of which may still be seen in Santo Domingo],
just at the portal, in humble expiation of his past pride, 'that every
one who entered might tread upon his grave.'"

XI

ON THE COAST OF BRAZIL

1501-1502

The New World, subsequently to be called America, did not reveal
itself to navigators during the lifetime of any one of those first
engaged in its discovery. Its islands and coast-lines were brought to
view one by one, and bit by bit, so that many years elapsed between
the voyage of Columbus, in 1492, and that which finally enabled the
map-makers to complete the outlines of the continents. It is
interesting and instructive to trace the movements of the explorers,
and note how, after the initial work of Columbus, they emulate one
another in pushing farther and farther into the great ocean of
darkness, their voyages overlapping at times, but ever extending,
until at last the islands of the West Indies are all revealed and the
vast southern continent is circumnavigated.

Columbus, in his first three voyages, brought to view most of those
islands now known as the Antilles, and on his fourth and last he
skirted the eastern coast of Central America; but he left gaps here
and