1521. A. D. he again assembled an army, and on the 13th of August 1521 A.D., a second time he conquered the city. In 1536 A.D. Cortez discovered the Peninsula of California. In 1547, he died of a broken heart at the ingratitude evinced by his master. During these occurrences Ferdinand Magellan had sailed, on the 10th of August, 1519, from Seville, to find, if possible, a passage to India. He went to Brazil, crossed the mouth of the great La Plata, and passed the winter of 1520 A.D. in St. Julian, where he observed the unusual stature of the Patagonians; and on the 21st of October, in the same year, he effected this longwished passage through those straits now called the Straits of Magellan. On the 28th of November, the Spaniards, under Magellan, sailed from these straits into the open ocean, thinking that India could not be very widely separated from America, and they could reach it in a few days. It proved, however, that with even the most favourable winds the passage occupied three months and twenty days. In this time their provisions failed, and they suffered incredibly from hunger. At last, on the 6th of March, 1521 A.D., they discovered the Ladrone Islands, and after these the Philippines: here, on the 27th of April, Magellan was killed in a skirmish. Of the five ships with which he originally sailed, only two remained sea-worthy; in these the crews again set sail, and, to the astonishment of the Portuguese, reached the Moluccas sailing from the east. Here 1530. another ship was declared unfit for service; and A. D. in the last remaining ship only eighteen Spaniards, the remains of a crew of 235, had the good fortune to reach Spain, being the first men who had ever sailed round the world. When they landed they wrote on their ship "Saturday, September the 6th, 1522 A.D.," and were not a little surprised to hear on land it was reckoned Sunday, the 7th of September. It follows, however, quite naturally from the diurnal revolution of the earth on its own axis, and its annual course round the sun, that he who sails round the world towards the west must, on his return home, count one day less; but he who circumnavigates the world to the east must reckon one day more. At last, Francisco Pizarro, a man of great military enterprise, conquered, in the year 1530 A.D., the long-desired gold land of Peru; and true it is that an immense quantity of gold was found. The Inca (that being the title of the prince of Peru) offered for his ransom a room full of gold; this room was to be twenty-two feet long, and sixteen feet wide. Each common soldier received a sum equal to about 10,000 dollars; and pieces of gold were played and gambled away like pence of the present day. Every one now was bent on reaching Peru. The Peruvians were treated with no more regard than mere animals; for the love of gold caused an utter forgetfulness of all laws, or of the eternal obligations of justice and equity between man and man. The Spanish government 1814. A. D. at length interfered; and in the year 1546 A.D. they sent to Peru a man of high talent and integrity named Pedro de la Gasca. This man restored the laws to their former vigour, established order, and mitigated the severity of the slavery to which the Peruvians were condemned. He then liberally rewarded all his followers, collected a sum of about 6,000,000 German dollars for his sovereign, and left Peru; himself actually poor, but admired and almost worshipped by all who knew him. The Spanish colonies, however, have not flourished to the present day; for rich and beautiful as are those countries, agriculture is but little regarded, there are few factories of any importance, and the trade is in the hands of foreigners. Their rulers follow their own will and caprice, and the laws are feebly administered. When the old royal family in the mother country was deposed, it proved the commencement of a new era with those colonies. Since the year 1809 A.D., several have refused to obey the mother country: some desired complete independence, and to be their own masters, with full power to choose their own constitution; others limited their opposition to the new royal family. After the restoration of the ancient royal family in 1814 A.D., this contest still continued, but is now almost wholly at an end; for through the inability of Spain to reduce her colonies to subjection, they have now almost without exception formed themselves into independent states. CHAP. LII. THE PORTUGUESE IN INDIA-THE DUTCH THE ENGLISH. A.D. In the East Indies, the Zamorin of Calicut, sup- 1515. ported by the Mahomedans, opposed the Portuguese with a large force. On the other hand, a king of Cochin, who was at enmity with the Zamorin, exerted himself in the cause of the Portuguese. The Portuguese built a fortress, which Pereira, with only 150 men, defended for five months with surprising ability against the whole army of the Zamorin. Since the year 1505 A.D., the Portuguese have founded many colonies; and since the year 1506 A.D., have opened a trade in cinnamon with the island of Ceylon, and endeavoured to deprive the Mahomedans altogether of the commerce of India. Albuquerque conquered Ormus in the Persian Gulf, a town which had long been the principal rendezvous of commerce. This town, however, he was obliged to give up for a time, till in 1510 A.D., as viceroy of the East Indies, he had conquered Goa, and in the year after, Malacca and the Molucca Isles, and had also reduced Calicut into subserviency. Then Albuquerque suddenly made another descent on Ormus, which surrendered in the year 1515 A.D. He died before Goa, and his memory is held in universal veneration. In the A. D. 1600. year |