PAGE Places of Interest in Connection with Columbus's Earlier Life, 3 The First Voyage of Columbus, and Places of Interest in Connection with his Later Voyages, 11 Routes Traversed by De Soto and De Leon, 27 Cabot's Route. Land Discovered by him Darkened, 33 Section where Raleigh's various Colonies were Located, 37 Jamestown and the Surrounding Country, 48 The Pilgrims in England and Holland, 67 The Pilgrim Settlement, 72 The Rhode Island Settlement, 88 The Pennsylvania Settlement, 97 Map Showing Routes of Cartier, Champlain, and La Salle, also French and English Possessions at the Time of the Last French War, 107 The English Colonies and the French Claims in 1754, 121 The French in the Ohio Valley, 123 Quebec and Surroundings, 138 Paul Revere's Ride, 167 Franklin's Journey from New York to Philadelphia, 178 Map Illustrating the Battle of Long Island, 196 Map Illustrating the Struggle for the Hudson River and the Middle States, 201 Map Showing the War in the South, 213 The Kentucky Settlement, 223 Map of Louisiana Purchase: also United States in 1803, 242 Map Illustrating Two of Andrew Jackson's Campaigns, 258 Map of the United States showing the Southern Confederacy, the Slave States that did not Secede, and the Territories, 297 Map Illustrating Campaigns in the West in 1862-63, 307 The United States Coast and the West Indies, 315 Portion of the Coast of China and the Philippine Islands, 325
Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of America
From very early times there existed overland routes of trade between Europe and Asia. During the Middle Ages traffic over these routes greatly increased, so that by the fifteenth century a large and profitable trade was carried on between the West and the East. Merchants in Western Europe grew rich through trade in the silks, spices, and precious stones that were brought by caravan and ship from India, China, and Japan. But in 1453 the Turks conquered Constantinople, and by frequent attacks upon Christian vessels in the Mediterranean made the old routes unsafe. A more practicable one became necessary.
Already in the early part of the fifteenth century Portuguese sea-captains had skirted the western coast of Africa, and by the close of the century others of their number had rounded the Cape of Good Hope, in their search for a water route to the Indies. But Spain, at that time the most powerful nation of Europe, adopted a plan quite different from that of the Portuguese. What this plan was and how it was carried out, we can best understand by an acquaintance with the life and work of the great sea-captain and navigator, Christopher Columbus.