discovery of the New World.

The bright autumnal morning dawned in richest glory, presenting to
them a scene as of a celestial paradise. The luxuriance of tropical
vegetation bloomed in all its novelty around them. The inhabitants,
many of them in the simple and innocent costume of Eden before
the fall, crowded the shore, gazing with attitude and gesture of
astonishment upon the strange phenomena of the ships. The adventurers
landed, and were received upon the island of San Salvador as angels
from heaven by the peaceful and friendly natives. Bitterly has the
hospitality been requited. After cruising around for some time among
the beautiful islands of the New World, Columbus returned to Spain to
astonish Europe with the tidings of his discovery. He had been absent
but seven months.

A quarter of a century passed away, during which all the adventurers
of Europe were busy exploring these newly-discovered islands and
continents. Various colonies were established in the fertile valleys
of these sunny climes, and upon the hill-sides which emerged, in the
utmost magnificence of vegetation, from the bosom of the Caribbean
Sea. The eastern coast of North America had been during this time
surveyed from Labrador to Florida. The bark of the navigator had
discovered nearly all the islands of the West Indies, and had crept
along the winding shores of the Isthmus of Darien, and of the South
American continent as far as the River La Plata. Bold explorers,
guided by intelligence received from the Indians, had even penetrated
the interior of the isthmus, and from the summit of the central
mountain barrier had gazed with delight upon the placid waves of the
Pacific. But the vast indentation of the Mexican Gulf, sweeping far
away in an apparently interminable circuit to the west, had not yet
been penetrated. The field for romantic adventure which these
unexplored realms presented could not, however, long escape the eye of
that chivalrous age.

Some exploring expeditions were soon fitted out from Cuba, and the
shores of Mexico were discovered. Here every thing exhibited the
traces of a far higher civilization than had hitherto been witnessed
in the New World. There were villages, and even large cities, thickly
planted throughout the country. Temples and other buildings, imposing
in massive architecture, were reared of stone and lime. Armies, laws,
and a symbolical form of writing indicated a very considerable advance
in the arts and th