beyond all that Europe had
even dreamed. Pizarro found in Peru[21] a civilization whose remarkable
advance we are only lately beginning to realize. And he annihilated
it--for gold. Lima was founded, and Buenos Aires, to be twice destroyed
by Indians and yet become the metropolis of South America.[22] Even here
extended the rivalry of the great European monarchs, Charles and
Francis. Cartier, in the service of the latter, refused to acknowledge
the claims of Spain to America, and exploring the St. Lawrence planned
for France a colonial empire to match that of her enemy.[23] De Leon
discovered Florida, and died while seeking there to emulate the
successes of Cortes. De Soto discovered the Mississippi[24] and he also
perished, lured on in the same knight-errant search for another golden
empire to conquer. Who, having read the lives of such adventurers as
these, shall ridicule the wildest extravagance in all the romances of
chivalry? Wonderland grew real around these men. They achieved
impossibilities. The maddest imaginings of the poets, the most fantastic
tales of knightly wanderings and successes, seem slight beside the
exploits of these daring, dauntless, heartless cavaliers of Spain.

[FOR THE NEXT SECTION OF THIS GENERAL SURVEY SEE VOLUME X]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See _Luther Begins the Reformation in Germany_, page 1.

[2] See _The Field of the Cloth of Gold_, page 59.

[3] See _Liberation of Sweden_, page 79.

[4] See The Peasants' War in Germany, page 93.

[5] See _France Loses Italy_, page 111.

[6] See _Sack of Rome by the Imperial Troops_, page 124.

[7] See _Great Religious Movement in England_, page 137.

[8] See _England Breaks with the Roman Church_, page 203.

[9] See _Calvin is Driven from Paris_, page 176.

[10] See _Revolution of Astronomy by Copernicus_, page 285.

[11] See _Founding of the Jesuits_, page 261.

[12] See _Introduction of Christianity into Japan_, page 325.

[13] See _Council of Trent_, page 293.

[14] See _Protestant Struggle against Charles V_, page 313.

[15] See _Collapse of the Power of Charles V_, page 337.

[16] See _The Religious Peace of Augsburg_, page 348.

[17] See _Akbar Establishes the Mogul Empire in India_, page 366.

[18] See _First Circumnavigation of the Globe_, page 41.

[19] See _Negro Slavery in America_, page 36.

[20] See _Cortes Captures the City of Mexico_, page 72.

[21] See _Pizarro Conquers Peru_, page 156.

[22] See _Mendoza Settles B