e Spice Islands, they turned about and went south. They sailed
along what is now the eastern coast of the United States for a very
long distance; but not finding any passage through to the countries
they were seeking, they returned to England.

[Illustration: Map showing how much of the continent of North America
was discovered by the Cabots.]

The English now began to see what an immense extent of land they had
found beyond the Atlantic. They could not tell, however, whether it
was a continent by itself or a part of Asia. Like everybody in Europe,
they called it the New World, but all that name really meant then
was simply the New Lands across the sea.

[Footnote 9: Labrador (Lab'ra-dor).]

26. How the New World came to be called America.--But not many years
after this the New World received the name by which we now call it.
An Italian navigator whose first name was Amerigo[10] made a voyage
to it after it had been discovered by Columbus and the Cabots. He
wrote an account of what he saw, and as this was the first printed
description of the continent, it was named from him, AMERICA.

[Footnote 10: Amerigo (A-ma-ree'go): his full name was Amerigo
Vespucci (A-ma-ree'go Ves-poot'chee), or, as he wrote it in Latin,
Americus Vespucius.]

27. Summary.--In 1497 John Cabot and his son, from Bristol, England,
discovered the mainland or continent of North America, and took
possession of it for England. The next year they came over and sailed
along the eastern coast of what is now the United States.

An Italian whose first name was Amerigo visited the New World
afterward and wrote the first account of the mainland which was
printed. For this reason the whole continent was named after him,
AMERICA.

Who was John Cabot? What did he try to do? Who sailed with him?
What land did they see? Had Columbus ever seen it? What did Cabot
do when he went on shore? What is said of his return to Bristol? What
did the Cabots carry back to England? What is said about the second
voyage of the Cabots? How did the New World come to be called America?

PONCE DE LEON,[1] BALBOA,[2] AND DE SOTO[3]
(Period of Discovery, 1513-1542).

28. The magic fountain; Ponce de Leon discovers Florida; Balboa
discovers the Pacific Ocean.--The Indians on the West India Islands
believed that there was a wonderful fountain in a land to the west
of them. They said that if an old man should bathe in its waters,
they would make him a boy again. P