icism. The new religious feeling,
which had swept over Europe, and which had made the Protestants ready
to suffer and die for their new-found faith, took the form in Spain of
this great love for the old religion. The nation seemed inspired. It
is when these things happen that a people turns to great enterprises
and adventure. The Spaniards of the sixteenth century regarded
themselves, and were almost regarded by the other nations, as
unconquerable. The great aim of Elizabethan Englishmen was to "break
the power of Spain," and this they did at last when they scattered
the "Invincible Armada" in 1588. But before this Spain had done great
things.

The Portuguese had been the first great adventurers, but they were
soon left far behind by the Spanish sailors, who explored almost every
part of South America, settling there, and sending home great
shiploads of gold to make Spain rich. And wherever they explored and
settled they spread about these beautiful names to honour the saints
and holy things which their religion told them to love and honour.

It was the great discoverer Christopher Columbus who first gave one of
these beautiful names to a place in South America. He had already
discovered North America, and made a second voyage there, when he
determined to explore the land south of the West Indies. He sailed
south through the tropical seas while the heat melted the tar of the
rigging. But Columbus never noticed danger and discomfort. He had made
a vow to call the first land he saw after the Holy Trinity, and when
at last he caught sight of three peaks jutting up from an island he
gave the island the name of _La Trinidad_, and "Trinidad" it remains
to this day, though it now belongs to the British. As he sailed south
Columbus caught sight of what was really the mainland of South
America, but he thought it was another island, and called it _Isla
Santa_, or "Holy Island."

It might seem curious that as Columbus had discovered both North and
South America, the continent was given the name of another man. As we
have seen, its name was taken from that of another explorer, Amerigo
Vespucci. The reason for this was that Columbus never really knew that
he had discovered a "New World." He believed that he had come by
another way to the eastern coast of Asia or Africa. The islands which
he first discovered were for this reason called the _Indies_, and the
_West Indies_ they remain to this day.

It was Amerigo Vespucci who firs