ll South America was not a part of
Asia. So he named it the New World. Columbus all the time was declaring
that the lands he had found were a part of Asia. It was natural,
therefore, that people in thinking of the New World should think of
Americus Vespucius. Before long some one even suggested that the New
World should be named America in his honor. This was done, and when it
became certain that the other lands were not parts of Asia, the name
America was given to them also until the whole continent came to be
called America.

[Illustration: AMERICUS VESPUCIUS.]

[Sidenote: Balboa sees the Pacific, 1513.]

[Sidenote: Magellan's great voyage, 1520. _Eggleston_, 10-11.]

9. Balboa and Magellan, 1513, 1520.--Balboa was a Spaniard who came
to San Domingo to seek his fortune. He became a pauper and fled away
from those to whom he owed money. After long wanderings he found
himself on a high mountain in the center of the Isthmus of Panama. To
the southward sparkled the waters of a new sea. He called it the South
Sea. Wading into it waist deep, he waved his sword in the air and took
possession of it for his royal master, the King of Spain. This was in
1513. Seven years later, in 1520, Magellan, a Portuguese seaman in the
service of the Spanish king, sailed through the Straits of Magellan and
entered the same great ocean, which he called the Pacific. Thence
northward and westward he sailed day after day, week after week, and
month after month, until he reached the Philippine Islands. The natives
killed Magellan. But one of his vessels found her way back to Spain
around the Cape of Good Hope.

CHAPTER 2

SPANISH AND FRENCH PIONEERS IN THE UNITED STATES

[Sidenote: Indian traditions.]

10. Stories of Golden Lands.--Wherever the Spaniards went, the
Indians always told them stories of golden lands somewhere else. The
Bahama Indians, for instance, told their cruel Spanish masters of a
wonderful land toward the north. Not only was there gold in that land;
there was also a fountain whose waters restored youth and vigor to the
drinker. Among the fierce Spanish soldiers was Ponce de Leon (Pon'tha da
la-on'). He determined to see for himself if these stories were true.

[Sidenote: De Leon visits Florida, 1513. _Higginson_, 42.]

[Sidenote: De Leon's death.]

11. Discovery of Florida, 1513.--In the same year that Balboa
discovered the Pacific Ocean, Ponce de Leon sailed northward and
westward from the Bahamas. On Easte