were anticipated from trading on their servitude;[58] the
dreary and distant land of their birth, covered with snow for half the
year, was despised by the Portuguese, whose thoughts and hopes were ever
turned to the fertile plains, the sunny skies, and the inexhaustible
treasures of the East.[59]

But disaster and destruction soon fell upon these bold and merciless
adventurers. In a second voyage, the ensuing year, Cortereal and all his
followers were lost at sea: when some time had elapsed without tidings
of their fate, his brother sailed to seek them; but he too, probably,
perished in the stormy waters of the North Atlantic, for none of them
were ever heard of more. The King of Portugal, feeling a deep interest
in these brothers, fitted out three armed vessels and sent them to the
northwest. Inquiries were made along the wild shores which Cortereal had
first explored, without trace or tidings being found of the bold
mariner, and the ocean was searched for many months, but the deep still
keeps it secret.

Florida was discovered in 1512 by Ponce de Leon, one of the most eminent
among the followers of Columbus. The Indians had told him wonderful
tales of a fountain called Bimini, in an island of these seas; the
fountain possessed the power, they said, of restoring instantly youth
and vigor to those who bathed in its waters. He sailed for months in
search of this miraculous spring, landing at every point, entering each
port, however shallow or dangerous, still ever hoping; but in the weak
and presumptuous effort to grasp at a new life, he wasted away his
strength and energy, and prematurely brought on those ills of age he had
vainly hoped to shun. Nevertheless, this wild adventure bore its
wholesome fruits, for Ponce de Leon then first brought to the notice of
Europe that beautiful land which, from its wonderful fertility and the
splendor of its flowers, obtained the name of Florida.[60]

The first attempt made by the French to share in the advantages of these
discoveries was in the year 1504. Some Basque and Breton fishermen at
that time began to ply their calling on the Great Bank of Newfoundland,
and along the adjacent shores. From them the Island of Cape Breton
received its name. In 1506, Jean Denys, a man of Harfleur, drew a map of
the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Two years afterward, a pilot of Dieppe, named
Thomas Aubert, excited great curiosity in France by bringing over some
of the savage natives from the New World: t