s
commission to pursue the discovery of America. On Friday, September 7,
1565, Melendez founded St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest town in the
United States. On Friday, November 10, 1620, the Mayflower, with the
Pilgrim Fathers, reached the harbor of Provincetown. On Friday, December
22, 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock. On Friday,
February 22, 1732, George Washington was born. On Friday, June 16, 1755,
Bunker Hill was seized and fortified. On Friday, October 17, 1777,
Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga. On Friday, September 22, 1780,
Benedict Arnold's treason was discovered. On Friday, September 19, 1791,
Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. On Friday, July 7, 1776, a
motion was made by John Adams that "the United States are and ought to
be independent." On Friday, July 13, 1866, the Great Eastern steamship
sailed from Valentia, Ireland, with the second and successful Atlantic
cable, and completed the laying of this link of our civilization at
Heart's Content, Newfoundland, on Friday, July 27, 1866. In Spanish
history it is noteworthy that on Friday the Christians under Ferdinand
and Isabella had won Granada from the Moors. On a Friday, also, the
First Crusaders, under Geoffrey de Bouillon, took Jerusalem.

A PREVIOUS DISCOVERY.

PAUL GAFFAREL. Summarized from "Les Decouvreurs Francais du XIVme
au XVIme Siecle," published at Paris in 1888.

Jean Cousin, in 1488, sailed from Dieppe, then the great commercial and
naval port of France, and bore out to sea, to avoid the storms so
prevalent in the Bay of Biscay. Arrived at the latitude of the Azores,
he was carried westward by a current, and came to an unknown country
near the mouth of an immense river. He took possession of the
continent, but, as he had not sufficient crew nor material resources
adequate for founding a settlement, he re-embarked. Instead of returning
directly to Dieppe, he took a southeasterly direction--that is, toward
South Africa--discovered the cape which has since retained the name of
Cap des Aiguilles (Cape Agulhas, the southern point of Africa), went
north by the Congo and Guinea, and returned to Dieppe in 1489. Cousin's
lieutenant was a Castilian, Pinzon by name, who was jealous of his
captain, and caused him considerable trouble on the Gold Coast. On
Cousin's complaint, the admiralty declared him unfit to serve in the
marine of Dieppe. Pinzon then retired to Genoa, and afterward to
Castille. Every circumstance ten