ent of America was known to the
Ancient Carthaginians, and that it was the great island Atalantis, of
which mention is made by Plato, who represents it as larger than Asia
and Africa. The Carthaginians were a maritime people, and it is known
that they extended their discoveries beyond the narrow sphere which
had hitherto limited the enterprise of the mariner. And although Plato
represents Atalantis as having been swallowed by an earthquake, and
all knowledge of the new continent, if any such ever existed, was
entirely lost, still it is by no means improbable, that it had been
visited by some of the inhabitants of the old world, prior to its
discovery by Columbus in 1492. The manner of this discovery is well
known, as is also the fact that Americo Vespucci, a Florentine, under
the authority of Emmanuel king of Portugal, in sailing as far as
Brazil discovered the main land and gave name to America.

These discoveries gave additional excitement to the adventurous spirit
which distinguished those times, and the flattering reports made of
the country which they had visited, inspired the different nations of
Europe, with the desire of reaping the rich harvest, which the
enlightened and enterprising mind of Columbus, had unfolded to their
view. Accordingly, as early as March 1496, (less than two years after
the discovery by Columbus) a commission was granted by Henry VII king
of England, to John Cabot and his three sons, empowering them to sail
under the English banner in quest of new discoveries, and in the event
of their success to take possession, in the name of the king of
England, of the countries thus discovered and not inhabited by
_Christian people_.

The expedition contemplated in this commission was never carried into
effect. But in May 1498 Cabot with his son Sebastian, embarked on a
voyage to attain the desired object, and succeeded in his design so
far as to effect a discovery of [4] North America, and although he
sailed along the coast from Labrador to Virginia, yet it does not now
appear that he made any attempt either at settlement or conquest.

This is said to have been the first discovery ever made of that
portion of our continent which extends from the Gulph of Mexico to the
North pole; and to this discovery the English trace their title to
that part of it, subsequently reduced into possession by them.[1]

As many of the evils endured by the inhabitants of the western part of
Virginia, resulted from a co