men, being thus speedily come out of the extreme heat, found the air so cold that, being pinched with the same, they complained of the extremity thereof.'

58. Thinking it best to seek the land, he soon made the American coast, and endeavored to approach it so as to anchor; but finding no proper harbor there he sailed along the shore southward until the seventeenth of the month when it pleased God to send him into a fair and good bay, within thirty-eight degrees towards the line.' In this bay (San Francisco, or Bo-de'-ga), the English remained five weeks, employed in refitting their vessel, and obtaining such supplies for their voyage as the country offered.

6

59. The natives, having their houses close by the water's side,' at first exhibited signs of hostility; but they were soon conciliated by the kind and forbearing conduct of the strangers; and their respect for Drake so increased that, when they saw him about to depart, they earnestly implored him to continue among them as their king. The naval hero, though not disposed to undertake, in person, the duties of sovereignty over a tribe of naked or skin-clad savages, nevertheless 'thought not meet to reject the crown because he knew not what honor or profit it might bring to his own country; whereupon, in the name and to the use of her majesty, Queen Elizabeth, he accepted the crown, sceptre, and dignity of the country, wishing that the riches and treasure thereof might be so conveniently transported for the enriching of her kingdom at home.' The coronation accordingly took place. with most ludicrous solemnity, and Drake bestowed on his dominions the name of New Albion.

60. The vessel having been refitted, Drake erected on the shore a pillar bearing an inscription commemorating the fact of this cession of sovereignty; and on the 22d of July he took leave of his worthy subjects to their great regret. Having, however, by this time abandoned ail idea of seeking a northern passage to the Atlantic, he sailed directly across the Pacific, and thence through the Indian seas, and around the

Cape of Good Hope, to England, where he arrived on the 26th of September, 1580."1

61. Four years later the celebrated courtier, Walter Raleigh, having obtained from Eliza

beth a grant of land on the eastern

RALEIGH.

their return to England that Elizabeth declared the event to be the most glorious in her reign. As a memorial of her unmarried state she named the country Virginia. Upon Raleigh she conferred the honor of knighthood.2

1 Elizabeth received Drake with the most distinguished honor. His vessel was brought to the Thames, and a banquet was held on board, at which Elizabeth was present, and the occasion was used to give Drake the honor of knighthood.

2

Attempts, by direction of Raleigh, were afterward made to plant per manent settlements on Roanoke island, but they proved unsuccessful.

The tobacco plant was first carried to England by some of Raleigh's returning colonists, and he introduced the habit of smoking it. "It is related that when his servant entered his room with a tankard of ale, and for the first time saw the smoke issuing from his master's mouth and nostrils, he cast the liquor in his face. Terribly frightened, he alarmed the household with the intelligence that Sir Walter was on fire."

The death of Elizabeth (1603) proved fatal to Raleigh's fortunes. He was tried on a false charge of treason, convicted, and imprisoned. During his imprisonment he wrote a History of England. Being released, in order that he might point out a gold mine which he said existed in the northern part of South America, and having failed in the expedition, he was, on his return, beheaded, under the sentence which had been almost forgotten (1618). "He met death with the most heroic indifference. Before he laid his head upon the block he felt the edge of the axe, and said, with a smile upon his face, that it was a sharp medicine, but would cure the worst disease. When he was bent down, ready for death, he said to the executioner, finding that he hesitated,' What dost thou fear? Strike, man!' So the axe came down and struck his head off, in the sixty-sixth year of his age."

1608

Marquette on the Mississippi.

41

Explorations

by the

French.

62. "The French competed without delay for the New World." Cartier (car-te-a') made two voyages, discovered the St. Lawrence river, and, in the name of his king, took possession of all the country he saw. Later, Port Royal, now Annapolis, in Nova Scotia, was settled; and, later still, Champlain (sham-plain') founded the city of Quebec, and explored the lake which bears his name (1608). To the region now included in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick the French gave the name A-ca'-di-a. They extended their efforts at settlement to Carolina and Florida, but without permanent success. No expeditions, however, were marked with more heroism and selfsacrifice than those conducted by the French Catholics in their efforts to explore the country in the region of the great lakes and along the Mississippi river, and to convert the Indians to their faith.

Marquette

63. Prominent among these heroic men was Marquette (mar-ket'). "In the spring of 1673, he, with Joliet (zhuh-lyā) for his chieftain, and five other Frenchmen, embarked at Mackinaw in two frail bark canoes. With paddle in hand, and full of hope, they soon glided merrily over the crystal waters of Lake Michigan. Before on the entering the Wisconsin, they looked back a last Mississippi. adieu to the waters which, great as the distance was, connected them with Quebec and their countrymer. They knelt on the shore to offer, by a new devotion, their lives, their honor, and their undertaking to their beloved mother, the Virgin Mary Immaculate. Then, launching their boats on the broad river, they sailed slowly down its current amid its vineclad isles, and its countless sand-bars. No sound broke the stillness, no human form appeared, and at last, after sailing seven days, they happily glided into the great river-the Mississippi.

64. Joy that could find no utterance in words filled the grateful heart of Marquette. The broad river of the Conception, as he named it, now lay before them, stretching away

hundreds of miles to an unknown sea.

Soon all was new.

Mountain and forest had glided away; the islands, with their groves of cotton-wood, became more frequent; and moose

and aeer browzed on the plains; strange animals were seen traversing the river, and monstrous fish appeared in its waters. But they proceeded on their way amid this solitude,

1673 La Salle descends the Mississippi.

43

frightful by its utter absence of man. Descending still further, they came to the land of the bison, which, with the turkey, became sole tenants of the wilderness: all other game had disappeared.

65. At last, on the 25th of June, they descried footprints on the shore. They now took heart, and Joliet and the mis sionary (Marquette), leaving their five men in the canoes, followed a little beaten path to discover who the tribe might be. They traveled on in silence almost to the cabin doors, when they halted, and, with a loud halloa, proclaimed their coming. Three villages lay before them. The first, roused by the cry, poured forth its motley group, which halted at the sight of the new-comers and the well-known dress of the missionary. Old men came slowly on, step by measured step, bearing aloft the all-mysterious calumet. All was, silence: they stood at last before the two Europeans, and Marquette asked, 'Who are you?' 'We are Illinois,' was the answer, which dispelled all anxiety from the explorers, and sent a thrill to the heart of Marquette. The Illinois missionary wast at last amid the children of that tribe which he had so long, so tenderly yearned to see (1673)." 1

66. "We now turn from the humble Marquette, and by our side stands the masculine form of Cavelier de la Salle (sal)." La Salle was no missionary. His object was fame and fortune. "Three thoughts were mastering him. First, he would achieve that which Champlain had vainly attempted, and of which our own generation has but now seen the accomplishment—the opening of a passage to India and China across the American Continent. Next, he would occupy the great West, develop its commercial resources, and anticipate the Spaniards and the English in the possession of it. Thirdly, he would establish a forti

La Salle descends the Mississippi.

1 Marquette descended the Mississippi a distance of seven hundred miles. His death occurred two years after, near a small stream in Michigan, which bears his name.