Historia, filosofía-biografia-pensamiento

But Spain claimed this territory, and Pedro Melendez a Spanish soldier, was in 1565 sent by Philip II. to conquer it from the French, doubly detested as Protestants. He landed in the harbor and at the mouth of the river, to both of which he gave the name Saint Augustine. Melendez lost no time in attacking Fort Carolina, which he surprised, putting the garrison mercilessly to the sword. The destruction of the French colony was soon after avenged by Dominic de Gourgues, who sailed from France to punish the enemies of his country. Having accomplished his purpose by the slaughter of the Spanish garrison he returned home, but the French Protestants made no further effort to colonize Florida. Spain claimed the land by right of discovery, but, although maintaining the feeble settlement at Saint Augustine, did next to nothing after this to explore or civilize this portion of America. The nation that had sent out Columbus was not destined to be permanently the great power of the New World. Th...

Thus no settlement had as yet been made in Florida by the Spanish. The first occupation destined to be permanent was brought about through religious jealousy inspired by the establishment of a French Protestant (Huguenot) colony in the territory. Ribault, a French captain commissioned by Charles IX., was put in command of an expedition by that famous Huguenot, Admiral Coligny, and landed on the coast of Florida, at the mouth of the St. John's, which he called the River of May. This was in 1562. The name Carolina, which that section still bears, was given to a fort at Port Royal, or St. Helena. Ribault returned to France, where civil war was then raging between the Catholics and the Protestants or Huguenots. His colony, waiting for promised aid and foolishly making no attempt to cultivate the soil, soon languished. Dissensions arose, and an effort was made to return home. Famine having carried off the greater number, the colony came to an end. In 1564 Coligny sent out Laudonniere, ...

The disastrous failure of the expedition of Vasquez de Ayllon to Florida did not discourage attempts on the part of others in the same direction. Velaspuez, governor of Cuba, jealous of the success of Cortez in Mexico, had sent Pamphilo de Narvaez to arrest him. In this attempt Narvaez had been defeated and taken prisoner. Undeterred by this failure he had solicited and received of Charles V. the position of governor over Florida, a territory at that time embracing the whole southern part of what is now the United States, and reaching from Cape Sable to the Panuco, or River of Palms, in Mexico. With three hundred men he, in 1528, landed near Appalachee Bay, and marched inland with the hope of opening a country rich and populous. Bitterly was he disappointed. Swamps and forests, wretched wigwams with their squalid inmates everywhere met his view, but no gold was to be found. Discouraged, he and his followers returned to the coast, where almost superhuman toil and skill enabled them to...

1510. Dá á costa na Bahia de Todos os Santos hum navio Portuguez. A maior parte da tripulação e passageiros morreo ou no naufragio ou ás mãos dos Indigenas. Diogo Alvares Corrêa porém consegue a sua salvação e até fazer-se respeitado e amado desses póvos anthropophagos por ter podido salvar comsigo huma arma de fogo, com a qual ajudou-os a debellar e vencer os seus formidaveis inimigos. Denominarão-o por isso o Caramurú, que quer dizer o homem de fogo. 1515. João Dias Solis ao serviço da Hespanha percorre a costa do Brasil desde o Cabo de Santo Agostinho até o Rio da Prata, ao qual deo o seu nome (e, posto que este rio tivesse perdido o nome de Solis para receber o de Prata, comtudo ainda hoje ha o rio de Solis que nelle desagua, e que conserva immortal o nome deste illustre navegante). N'esta viagem descobre elle a Bahia de Nictherohy, depois chamada do Rio de Janeiro. (É grave questão quem tenha sido o descobridor desta Bahia, si Americo Vespucio, si Gonçalo Coelho, si Solis,...