and snow, the sailors saw with terror a
rocky, jagged coast in front of them.

This land proved to be the South Georgia Islands, and was a wretched
and forlorn country composed of rocks and glaciers, and entirely
deserted. For a day and a half they sailed in sight of this frightful
shore, fearing each moment that their ship would be cast on the rocks
and that they would all perish. As soon as the weather permitted,
therefore, Vespucci signaled his fleet, and the ships were headed for
home, reaching Portugal in 1502.

This voyage secured Brazil for Portugal, and added greatly to the
geographical knowledge of the day.

The ancients had said that no continent existed south of the equator.
But the great length of coast along which Vespucci had sailed proved
that the land was not an island. It was plainly a continent, and south
of the equator.

Vespucci called the land he found the New World. For a time it was
also called the Fourth Part of the Earth, the other three parts being
Europe, Asia, and Africa. In 1507 a German writer published an account
of the discovery, in which he called the new country America, in honor
of Americus Vespucius,[1] the discoverer.

[Footnote 1: Americus Vespucius is the Latin form of Amerigo
Vespucci.]

This land was not connected in any way with the discovery of Columbus,
for he was supposed to have found Asia.

The name America was at first applied only to that part of the country
which we now call Brazil, but little by little the name was extended
until it included the whole of the Western Continent.

You will be glad to know that Vespucci, in the time of his success,
did not forget his old friend Columbus, who was then poor and in
disgrace. Vespucci visited him and did all he could to assist him.

After Vespucci had made three other voyages to the New World, he was
given an important government position in Spain, which he held during
the remainder of his life.

PONCE DE LEON.

You have heard many surprising things which the people of the fifteenth
century believed. It seems almost impossible for us to think that those
people really had faith in a Fountain of Youth; yet such is the case.

[Illustration: Ponce de Leon.]

This fountain was supposed to exist somewhere in the New World, and
it was thought that if any one should bathe in its waters, he would
become young and would never grow old again.

In 1513 Ponce de Leon, who was then governor of Puerto Rico, sailed