Introductory American History Part 8

[Ill.u.s.tration: RUINS OF A SPANISH MISSION HOUSE]

Gradually Spanish emigrants settled in the mission stations, and planters established farms around them, and they became Spanish villages in every respect like those in the islands or in the Old World, except that many inhabitants in the towns on the mainland were Indians. The emigrants freely intermarried with the Indians and a mixed race took the place of the old inhabitants. The customs, language, religion, and rule of Spain prevailed in this New Spain, though in some ways the new civilization was not so good as that of the Old World.

QUESTIONS.

1. In what ways did the Aztecs resemble the Europeans? How did they differ from them? Why were the Spaniards particularly anxious to conquer Mexico?

2. Why did many of the Mexicans refuse to fight the Spaniards? How many soldiers and Indian allies did Cortes lose in one battle? How long did it take Cortes to conquer Mexico?

3. What other Indian people was conquered a few years later? By whom? What seemed to be the main object of these conquerors, Cortes and Pizarro, in their expeditions?

4. Why did the Spaniards make slaves of the Indians in the West Indies? Why did they later cease making slaves of Indians and begin making slaves of negroes? What share had Las Casas in this change?

5. What good work did the priests and monks in the Spanish Missions accomplish? What became of the Aztecs or other Indian tribes in Mexico?

EXERCISES.

1. Find all you can about the houses, food, clothing, and occupations of any Indians living in your part of the United States, or if none are there now, learn this from your parents or from some neighbor who knew the Indians. Did they resemble the Aztecs in these respects or the West Indians?

2. Review the account of emigrating to Spanish America four hundred years ago. Who could not go to Spanish America then? Find out who may not come into the United States to-day. What did it cost one traveler to get to America in the sixteenth century? Find out the cost of a voyage from Europe to America to-day. How long did it take to make such a voyage? Find out the usual length of a voyage from Europe to-day.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE SPANISH EXPLORERS OF NORTH AMERICA.

PONCE DE LEON. While men like Cortes were exploring and conquering the countries on the west sh.o.r.e of the Gulf of Mexico, others began to search the vast regions to the north. One of these explorers was Ponce de Leon, who had come to Espanola with Columbus in 1493. He afterwards spent many years in the West Indies capturing Indians, and understood from something they said that a magic fountain could be found beyond the Bahamas which would restore an old man to youth and vigor, if he bathed in it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PONCE DE LEON]

As Ponce de Leon was beginning to feel aged he went in search of this wondrous fountain, but he found instead a coast where flowers grew in great abundance. It was the Easter season in 1513. Since the Spanish call this season Pascua Florida or Flowery Easter, Ponce called the new flowery country Florida. He went ash.o.r.e near the present site of St. Augustine, and later, while trying to establish a settlement, lost his life in a battle with the Indians.

EXPLORATIONS OF NORTH AMERICAN COAST. Other Spanish explorers between 1513 and 1525 followed the whole Gulf coast from Florida to Vera Cruz, and the Atlantic coast from Florida to Labrador. They sought continually for a pa.s.sage to India. Every large inlet was entered, for it might prove to be the long-looked-for strait. Slowly the coast of North America took shape on the maps of that time. Two famous expeditions into the interior of the country did much to enlarge this knowledge. One was made by De Soto through the region which now forms seven southern states of the United States, and the other was by Coronado through the great southwest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HERNANDO DE SOTO]

DE SOTO. Hernando de Soto, a n.o.ble from Seville in Spain, had won fame and fortune with Pizarro in Peru. The King of Spain, to reward his bravery and skill in conquering Indians, made him Governor of Cuba. In those days the Governor of Cuba controlled Florida. It was a larger Florida than the present state of that name, for Spanish Florida included the whole north coast of the Gulf of Mexico running back into the continent without any definite boundary.

THE STORY OF THE GILDED MAN. De Soto had heard a fanciful story of a country so rich in gold that its king was smeared every morning with gum and then thickly sprinkled with powdered gold, which was washed off at night. De Soto thought this country might be somewhere in Florida, and prepared to search for the Gilded Man, or in the Spanish language El Dorado.

THE COMRADES OF DE SOTO. More than six hundred men, some of them from the oldest families of the n.o.bility of Spain and Portugal, flocked to De Soto's banner. They sold their possessions at home and ventured all their wealth in the hope of obtaining great riches in Florida.

DE SOTO'S ROUTE THROUGH THE SOUTH OF NORTH AMERICA. De Soto crossed from Cuba to the west coast of Florida in 1539, and advanced northward by land to an Indian village near Apalachee Bay. Here he spent the first winter. A white man, whom the Indians had taken captive twelve years before and finally adopted, joined De Soto and became very useful as an interpreter.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SPANISH KNIGHT OF 16TH CENTURY]

In the spring De Soto renewed his explorations. It was like a journey into the interior of Africa. The expedition pa.s.sed northeasterly through the country now within Georgia and South Carolina, as far, perhaps, as the border of North Carolina. From here it pa.s.sed through the mountains, and turned southwesterly through Tennessee and Alabama until a large Indian village called Mauvilla was reached. This was near the head of Mobile Bay. Mobile was named from the Indian village Mauvilla. The Alabama Indians, whose name means "the thicket clearers," were near by. Here again De Soto changed his course to the northwest into the unknown interior.

THE HARDs.h.i.+PS OF THE JOURNEY. His army was almost exhausted by the difficulties of the journey. A road had to be cut and broken through thickets and forest, paths had to be made through the many swamps, and fords found across the rivers. It frequently became necessary to stop for months at a time, to let the horses, worn out from travel and starving because of the scarcity of fodder, fatten on the gra.s.s. The stores which the army brought with them soon gave out. The men were forced to live like Indians, and were often reduced to using the roots of wild plants for food. Where they could, they robbed the Indians of their scanty stores of corn and beans.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INDIANS BROILING FISH]

CRUEL TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS. De Soto was cruel in his treatment of the conquered natives along his route. Many of his officers came with him really for the purpose of obtaining Indian slaves for their plantations in Cuba. Indian women were made to do the work of the camp. Indian men were chained together and forced to carry the baggage. The chiefs were held as hostages for the good behavior of the whole tribe. The Indians who tried to s.h.i.+rk work or offered resistance were killed without mercy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF DE SOTO'S ROUTE--1539-1542]

De Soto's cruelties made the Indian of the South hate the white men, and left him the enemy of any who should come to those regions in after-years. More than once De Soto narrowly escaped destruction at the hands of the enraged savages. They attacked the Spaniards with all their strength at Mauvilla, and again while they were in camp in northern Mississippi for the winter of 1540-1541. These two battles with the Indians cost the Spaniards their baggage, which was destroyed in the burning villages. New clothing, however, was soon made from the skins of wild animals. Deerskins and bearskins served for cloaks, jackets, s.h.i.+rts, stockings, and even for shoes. The great army must have looked much like a band of Robinson Crusoes.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. De Soto marched on northwesterly until May 8, 1541, when he was somewhere near the site of the present city of Memphis. There he came upon a great river. One of his officers tells us that the river was so wide at this point that if a man on the other side stood still, it could not be known whether he were a man or not; that the river was of great depth, and of a strong current; and that the water was always muddy.

De Soto called it, in his own language, the Rio Grande or Great River, but the Indians called it the Mississippi. Americans have adopted the Indian name. Other Spanish explorers had probably pa.s.sed the mouth of the Mississippi River before De Soto, and wondered at its mighty size, but De Soto was the first white man to approach it from the land and to appreciate the importance of his discovery.

WANDERINGS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. The Spaniards cut down trees, made them into planks and built barges on which they crossed the Mississippi. Then they wandered for another year through the endless woods and marshes of the low-lying lands now within the state of Arkansas. They probably went as far west as the open plains of Oklahoma or Texas. In these border regions between the forests and the prairies they met Indians who used the skins of the buffalo for clothing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BURIAL OF DE SOTO IN THE MISSISSIPPI]

DEATH AND BURIAL OF DE SOTO. The severe winter of 1541-1542 discouraged the hardy travelers, who had now spent nearly three years in a vain search. The natives whom they had found made clothing from the fiber in the bark of mulberry trees and from the hides of buffaloes, and stored beans and corn for food, but such things seemed of little value to the seekers for the Gilded Man.

De Soto returned to the Mississippi and prepared to establish a colony somewhere near the mouth of the Red River. It was his purpose to send to Cuba for supplies, and, with this settlement as a base, make a farther search in the plains of the great West. He did not live to carry out his plan. Long exposure and anxiety had weakened him. The malaria of the swamps attacked him, and he died within a few days. His body was wrapped in mantles weighted with sand, carried in a canoe, and secretly lowered in the midst of the great river he had discovered.

His successor tried to conceal De Soto's death from the Indians. The Spaniards had called their leader the Child of the Sun, and now he had died like any other mortal. They were afraid if the Indians found his body they would cease to believe that the strangers were immortal and would ma.s.sacre them all. The Indians were told that the great leader had gone to Heaven, as he had often done before, and that he would return in a few days.

RESULTS OF DE SOTO'S JOURNEY. The weary survivors built boats, floated down the Mississippi into the Gulf, and sailed cautiously along the coasts to Mexico. They had been gone four years and three months, and half of the army which set out had perished. However, the expedition of De Soto will always remain one of the most remarkable journeys in the history of North America. It had extended the Spanish claims far into the interior. With it had begun the written history of the country now composing at least eight states in the United States, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas. It had perhaps reached the present Oklahoma and Texas, and had certainly pa.s.sed down the Mississippi River through Louisiana.

THE STORY OF THE SEVEN CITIES. While De Soto was exploring the southeastern part of North America a second expedition searched the southwest. Both were looking for rich Indian kingdoms like Mexico and Peru. The second expedition came about in this manner. Some of the Indians from northern Mexico told the Spaniards a strange tale of how in the distant past their ancestors came forth from seven caves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN INDIAN OF NORTHERN MEXICO]

The Spaniards, however, confused the tale with a story of their own about Seven Cities. They believed that at the time Spain was overrun by the Moors in the eighth century, seven bishops, flying from persecution, had taken refuge, with a great company of followers, on an island or group of islands far out in the Atlantic Ocean, and that they had built Seven Cities. Wonderful stories were told in Spain of these cities, of their wealth and splendor, though n.o.body ever pretended to have actually seen them. The Spaniards thought the Indians meant to tell them of these Seven Cities instead of seven caves.

The mistake was natural, as the Spanish explorers had much trouble in understanding the Indian languages. They had long expected to find the Seven Cities in America. Indeed there was rumor that white travelers had seen them north of Mexico.

THE JOURNEY OF FRIAR MARCOS. In 1539 the Viceroy of Mexico sent a frontier missionary, Friar Marcos by name, together with a negro, Stephen, and some Christianized Indians to look for them. Friar Marcos traveled far to the north. He inquired his way of the Indians, always asking them about Seven Cities. He described them as large cities with houses made of stone and mortar. The Indians, half-understanding him, directed him to seven Zuni villages or pueblos. The first of these they called Cibola. Friar Marcos henceforth spoke of them as the Seven Cities of Cibola.

The good friar himself never entered even the first of them. His negro, Stephen, had been sent on in advance to prepare the way, but this rough, greedy fellow offended the Indians, who promptly murdered him. When the friar approached he found the Indians so excited and hostile that he dared not enter their village. He did, however, venture to climb a hill at a distance, from which he had a view of one of the cities of Cibola. The houses, built of light stone and whitish adobe, glistened in the wonderfully clear air and bright sunlight of that region, and gave him the idea of a much larger and richer city than really existed. Friar Marcos, by this time thoroughly frightened, hurriedly retraced his steps.

CORONADO. There was great excitement in Mexico over the story Friar Marcos told. The account of what had been seen grew, as such stories always do, in the telling and retelling. Nothing else was thought of in all New Spain. The Viceroy of Mexico made ready a great army for the conquest of the Seven Cities of Cibola. He gave the command to his intimate friend, Francisco de Coronado. Everybody wanted to accompany him, but it was necessary to have the consent of the viceroy. Sons of n.o.bles, eager to go, traded with their more fortunate neighbors for the viceroy's permit. Some men who secured these sold them as special favors to their friends. Whoever obtained one of them counted it as good as a t.i.tle of n.o.bility. So high were the expectations of great wealth when the Seven Cities should be discovered!

[Ill.u.s.tration: A ZUnI PUEBLO FROM A DISTANCE]

THE ARMY OF CORONADO. In the early part of 1540, Coronado set forth from his home in western Mexico near the Gulf of California. He had an army of three hundred Spaniards, nearly all the younger sons of n.o.bles. They were fitted out with polished coats of mail and gilded armor, carried lances and swords, and were mounted on the choicest horses from the large stock-farms of the viceroy. There were in the army a few footmen armed with crossbows and harquebuses. A thousand negroes and Indians were taken along, mainly as servants for the white masters. Some led the spare horses. Others carried the baggage, or drove the oxen and cows, the sheep and swine which would be needed on the journey. A small fleet carried part of the baggage by way of the Gulf of California, prepared also to help Coronado in other ways, and to explore the Gulf to its head.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ROUTE OF CORONADO]

THE ROUTE OF CORONADO TO CIBOLA. The large army marched slowly through the wild regions of the Gulf coast. Coronado soon became impatient and pushed ahead of the main body with a small following of picked hors.e.m.e.n. They went through the mountainous wilderness of northern Mexico and across the desert plains of southeastern Arizona. After a march lasting five months, over a distance equal to that from New York to Omaha, Coronado came upon the Seven Cities of Cibola; but the real Seven Cities of Cibola as Coronado found them bore little resemblance to what he had expected.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A ZUnI PUEBLO]

THE REAL SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA. The first city of Cibola was an Indian pueblo of about two hundred flat-roofed houses, built of stone and sun-dried clay. The houses were entered by climbing ladders to the top and then pa.s.sing down into the rooms as we enter s.h.i.+ps through hatches. The people wore only such clothes as could be woven from the coa.r.s.e fiber of native plants, or patched together from the tanned skins of the cat or the deer. They cultivated certain plants for food, but only small and poor varieties of corn, beans, and melons. They had some skill in making small things for house and personal decoration, mainly in the form of pottery and simple ornaments of green stone.

The kingdom of rich cities dwindled to a small province of poor villages inhabited by an unwarlike people. We know now that Coronado had found the Zuni pueblos in the western part of New Mexico. The conquest of these was a wofully small thing for so grand and costly an expedition. No gold or silver or precious jewels had been found.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CANYON OF THE COLORADO]

THE CANYON OF THE COLORADO. Yet the wonders of the natural world about them astonished and interested the Spaniards. Some of their number found the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River and vividly described it to their comrades. As they looked into its depths it seemed as if the water was six feet across, although in reality it was many hundred feet wide. Some tried without success to descend the steep cliff to the stream below or to discover a means of crossing to the opposite side. Those who staid above estimated that some huge rocks on the side of the cliff were about as tall as a man, but those who went down as far as they could swore that when they reached these rocks they found them bigger than the great tower of Seville, which is two hundred and seventy-five feet high.

CORONADO IN NEW MEXICO. Coronado marched from the Cities of Cibola eastward to the valley of the Rio Grande River, and settled for the winter in an Indian village a short distance south of the present city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Spaniards drove the natives out, only allowing them to take the clothes they wore.

A WINTER IN AN INDIAN VILLAGE. The soldiers pa.s.sed the severe winter of 1540-1541 comfortably quartered in the best houses of the Indian village. A plentiful supply of corn and beans had been left by the unfortunate owners. The live stock brought from Mexico furnished an abundance of fresh meat. Coronado required the Indians to furnish three hundred pieces of cloth for cloaks and blankets for his men, to take the place of their own, now worn out. Nor did the officers give the Indians time to secure the cloth that was demanded, but forced them to take their own cloaks and blankets off their backs. When a soldier came upon an Indian whose blanket was better than his, he compelled the unlucky fellow to exchange with him without more ado.

Coronado's strenuous efforts to provide well for the comforts of his men made him much loved by them, but much hated by the Indians. It is no wonder that such treatment drove the Indians into rebellion, and that Coronado was obliged to carry on a cruel war of reconquest and revenge.

THE TALE OF QUIVIRA. An Indian slave in one of the villages cheered Coronado and his followers with a fabulous tale about a wonderful city, many days' journey across the plains to the northeast, which he called Quivira. The king of Quivira, he said, took his nap under a large tree, on which were hung little gold bells, which put him to sleep as they swung in the air. Every one in the city had jugs and bowls made of wrought gold. The slave was probably tempted by the eagerness of his hearers to make his tale bigger. He perhaps made it as enticing as he could in order to lead the strangers away to perish in the pathless plains where water would be scarce and corn unknown.

THE SEARCH FOR QUIVIRA. The slave's story deceived the Spaniards. Coronado grasped eagerly at the only hope left of finding a rich country and marched away in search of Quivira. He traveled to the northeast for seventy-seven days. There were no guiding land marks. Soldiers measured the distance traveled each day by counting the footsteps. The plains were flat, save for an occasional channel cut by some river half buried in the sand; they were barren, except for a short wiry gra.s.s and a small rim of shrubs and stunted trees along the watercourses.

QUIVIRA. The most marvelous sight of the long journey was the herds of buffaloes in countless numbers. The Indians guided Coronado in the end to a cl.u.s.ter of Indian villages which they called Quivira. This was somewhere in what is now central Kansas near Junction City. The Indians were in all probability the Wichitas. Here again the great explorer met with a bitter disappointment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INDIAN TEPEES]

Instead of a fine city of stone and mortar, he found scattered Indian villages with mere tent-like houses formed by fastening gra.s.s or straw or buffalo skins to poles. The people were the poorest and most barbarous which he had met. Coronado was, however, fortunate in securing a supply of corn and buffalo meat in Quivira for his long return journey.

CORONADO'S OPINION OF THE WEST. A year later a crestfallen army of half-starved men clad in the skins of animals stumbled back homeward through Mexico in straggling groups. Great sadness prevailed in Mexico, for many had lost their fortunes besides friends and relatives in the enterprise. Coronado seemed to the people of the time to have led a costly army on a wild-goose chase. He himself thought that the regions he had crossed were valueless. He said they were cold and too far away from the sea to furnish a good site for a colony, and the country was neither rich enough nor populous enough to make it worth keeping.

RESULTS OF CORONADO'S EXPLORATIONS. We know better to-day the value of Coronado's great discoveries. He had solved the age-long mystery of the Seven Cities, and explored the southwest of the United States of our day. The rich region now included in the great states of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas had been seen, and it was soon after described for the European world. His men had explored the Gulf of California to its head, and the Colorado River toward its source for two hundred miles. They had proved that lower California was not an island but a part of the mainland. Others soon explored the entire coast of California to the limits of the present state of Oregon.

HOW DE SOTO AND CORONADO CAME NEAR MEETING. De Soto and Coronado together pushed the Spanish frontier far northward to the center of North America. A story which was told by De Soto's men shows how close together the two great explorers were at one time. While Coronado was in Quivira, De Soto was wandering along the borders of the plains west of the Mississippi River, though neither knew of the nearness of the other. An Indian woman who ran away from Coronado's army fell in with De Soto's, nine days later. If De Soto and Coronado had met on the plains there would have been a finer story to tell, almost as dramatic as the meeting of Stanley and Livingstone in central Africa. One cannot refrain from wondering how different would have been the ending with the two great armies united and encouraged to continue their explorations.

QUESTIONS.

1. What story had Ponce de Leon heard in the West Indies? What did he find? Why did he call the new country which he discovered Florida? What was included in Florida as the Spaniards understood it?

2. What was De Soto looking for in North America? How long did he search? What did he find? Was he disappointed? What was he planning to do when he died? Why was his journey very remarkable? Through what present states of the United States did he pa.s.s?

3. Where did the Spaniards expect to find the Seven Cities? Why did he expect to find them there? What was the story of the Seven Cities? Of the Seven Caves?

4. What did Coronado expect to find at the Seven Cities of Cibola? What did he find there? Why did he go far on into North America in search of Quivira? What did he find on the way to Quivira? What did he find Quivira to be?

5. What did Coronado think of his own discoveries? What had he found out of interest or value to the rest of the world? Which of the present states of the United States did his route touch?

REVIEW 1. Review the effect of the discoveries of Columbus, Magellan, De Soto, Coronado, on the knowledge of the new world.

Important date--1541. The discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto.

CHAPTER XVIII.

RIVALRY AND STRIFE IN EUROPE.

THE RIVALS OF SPAIN. When the early voyages to America and Asia were ended, the French, the English, and the other northern peoples of Europe seemed to be beaten in the race for new lands and for new routes to old lands. The French had sent a few fishermen to the Banks of Newfoundland, and that was all. The English had made one or two voyages and appeared to be no longer interested. (See Chapter XIV, Cabot) The Dutch seemed to be only st.u.r.dy fishermen, thrifty farmers, or keen traders, occupied much of the time in the struggle against the North Sea, which threatened to burst the dikes and flood farms and cities.

THE TRADE-WINDS. The Portuguese and the Spaniards had a great advantage in living nearer the natural starting-point for such voyages. To go to Asia s.h.i.+ps went by way of the Cape of Good Hope. To go to America a southern route was taken, for in the North Atlantic the prevailing winds are from the southwest, while south of Spain the trade-winds blow towards the southwest, making it easy to sail to America. To take the northern route, which was the natural one for French and English sailors, would be to battle against head winds and heavy seas.

THE SPANIARDS AND THE PORTUGUESE DIVIDE THE WORLD. The Spaniards and the Portuguese believed that their discoveries gave them the right to all new lands which should be found and to all trade by sea with the Golden East. Two years after the first voyage of Columbus the Spaniards agreed with the Portuguese that a line running 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands should separate the regions claimed by each. The Spaniards were to hold all lands discovered west of that line, and the Portuguese all east of it. This left Brazil within the region claimed by the Portuguese. The rest of North and South America lay within the Spanish claims. It is the future history of this region that especially interests us as students of American history.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CABOT MEMORIAL TOWER Erected at Bristol, England, in memory of the first sailor from England to visit America]

THE MAIN QUESTION. Were the Spaniards to keep what they claimed and continue to outstrip their northern rivals? The answer to this question is found in the history of Europe during the sixteenth century. Unfortunately for the Spaniards they were drawn into quarrels in Europe which cost them many men and much money. The consequence was that they were unable to make full use of their discoveries, even if they had known how. Before the century was ended their rivals, the English and the French, were stronger than they; and the Dutch, their own subjects, had rebelled against them.

THE ENGLISH AND THE FRENCH DESIRE A SHARE. Men had such great ideas of the immense wealth of the Indies that the successes of one nation made the other nations eager for some part of the spoil. Englishmen and Frenchmen were not likely to allow the Portuguese to take all they could find by sailing eastward around the Cape of Good Hope, and the Spaniards to keep whatever they discovered by sailing directly westward or by following the route marked out by Magellan. Both would search for new routes to the East, and both would lay claim to lands they saw by the way, regardless of any other nation. Many quarrels came from this rivalry, but quarrels arose also from other causes.

KING CHARLES AND KING FRANCIS. About the time Cortes conquered Mexico, his master, King Charles of Spain, began a war against Francis, the king of France. As long as these two kings lived they were either fighting or preparing to fight. Had Charles been king of Spain only, there might have been no trouble, but he ruled lands in Italy and claimed others which the French king ruled. He also ruled all the region north of France which is now Belgium and Holland, and he owned a district which forms part of eastern France near Switzerland. As he was the German emperor besides, the French king thought him too dangerous to be left in peace. These wars have little to do with American history, except that they helped to weaken the king of Spain and to prevent the Spaniards from making the most of their early successes in colonizing.

RELIGION A CAUSE OF STRIFE. Religion was the most serious cause of quarrel in the sixteenth century, and the king of Spain was the prince most injured by the struggle. At the time of Prince Henry of Portugal and of Columbus all peoples in western Europe wors.h.i.+ped in the same manner, taught their children the same beliefs, and in religious matters they all obeyed the pope. But by 1521 this had changed. The troubles began in Germany when Charles V was emperor. Before they were over Philip II, son of Charles, lost control of the Dutch, who rebelled and founded a republic of their own. The English finally became the princ.i.p.al enemies of Spain. The French, most of whom were of the same religion as the Spaniards, came to hate Spanish methods of defending religion, especially after the Spaniards had ma.s.sacred a band of French settlers in America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EMPEROR CHARLES V]

THE "REFORMERS." Many men became discontented at the way the Church was managed. At first all were agreed that the evils of which they complained could be removed if priests, bishops, and pope worked together to that end. After a while some teachers in different countries not only complained of evils, but refused to believe as the Church had taught and as most people still believed. They did not mean to divide the Christian Church into several churches, but they thought they understood the words of the Bible better than the teachers of the Church.

THE REFORMATION. At that time people who were not agreed in their religious beliefs did not live peaceably in the same countries. The princes and kings who were faithful to the Church ordered that the new teachers and their followers should be punished. Other princes accepted the views of the "reformers," and soon began to punish those of their subjects who continued to believe as the Church taught. In Germany these princes were called "Protestants," because they protested against the efforts of the Emperor Charles and his advisers to stop the spread of the new religion. This name was afterwards given to all who refused to remain in the older Church, subject to the bishops and the pope.

CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT LEADERS. The most famous leaders of the Roman Catholics at this time were Ignatius Loyola, a Spaniard, Reginald Pole, an Englishman, and Carlo Borromeo, an Italian. Loyola had been a soldier in his youth, but while recovering from a serious wound, resolved to be a missionary. With several other young men of the same purpose he founded the Society of Jesus or the Jesuit Order. Of the Protestants the greatest leaders were Martin Luther, a German, and John Calvin, a Frenchman. Luther was a professor in the university at Wittenberg in Saxony, which was ruled by the Elector Frederick the Wise. Calvin had lived as a student in Paris, but when King Francis resolved to allow no Protestants in his kingdom, Calvin was obliged to leave the country. He settled in the Swiss city of Geneva.

THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. Luther's teachings were accepted by many Germans, especially in northern Germany. He translated the Bible into German. After a while his followers formed a Church of their own which was called Lutheran. It differed from the Roman Catholic Church in the way it was governed as well as in what it taught.

THE FRENCH HUGUENOTS. Calvin lived in Geneva, but most of those who accepted his teachings continued to live in France. The nickname Huguenots, or confederates, was given to them. They were not permitted by the French king to wors.h.i.+p as Calvin taught, but by 1562 so many n.o.bles had joined them that it was no longer possible to treat them as criminals. They were permitted to hold their meetings outside the walled towns. The leader whom they most honored was Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. Both he and they, as we shall see, soon had reason to fear and hate the Spaniards. But we must first understand the difficulties which the king of Spain had in dealing with his Dutch subjects.

THE KING OF SPAIN AND THE NETHERLANDS. Philip II inherited from his father Charles seventeen duchies, counties, and other districts north of France in what is now Belgium and Holland. Charles had known how to manage these people, because he was brought up among them. The task of managing them was not easy. Each district or city had its own special rights and its people demanded that these should be respected by the ruling prince. Charles had remembered this, but Philip wished to rule the Netherlanders, as these people were called, just as he ruled the people of Spain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE DIKES ALONG THE YSSEL IN THE NETHERLANDS]

PROTESTANTS IN THE NETHERLANDS. The trouble was made worse because many of the Netherlanders became followers of Luther or Calvin, and brought their books into the country. Now Philip, like his father Charles, was faithful to the teachings of the Church, and thought it was his duty to punish such persons. The result was that Philip soon had two kinds of enemies in his Netherland provinces, those who did not like the way he ruled and those who refused to believe as the Church taught, and the two united against him. After a while most of the Lutherans were driven away, but the Calvinists kept coming in over the border from France.

THE NETHERLANDS. The Netherlands, or Low Countries, are well named, especially the northern part where the Dutch live, because much of the land is below the level of the sea at high tide, and some of it at low tide. For several hundred years the Dutch built dikes to keep back the sea, or pumped it out where it flowed in and covered the lower lands. Occasionally great storms broke through the dikes and caused the Dutch months or years of labor. A people so brave and industrious were not likely to submit to the will of Philip II. The chances that they would rebel were increased by the spread of the new religious views, which the Dutch accepted more readily than their neighbors, the southern Netherlanders. The southern Netherlanders who became Calvinists generally emigrated to the northern cities, like Amsterdam, where they were safer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map Of The Netherlands]

WILLIAM OF ORANGE. William, Prince of Orange, was the leader of the Dutch against Philip II. He had been trusted by Charles, Philip's father, who had leaned on his shoulder at the great ceremony held in Brussels when Charles gave up his throne to Philip. William was called the "Silent," because he was careful not to tell his plans to any except his nearest friends. When Philip returned to Spain, William was made governor or stadtholder of three of the Dutch provinces--Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht. Philip was angry because William and other great n.o.bles in the Netherlands opposed his way of dealing with the heretics and of ruling the Netherlands. In this both the southern Netherlanders and the northern Netherlanders were united, although the southern Netherlanders remained faithful to the Roman Catholic religion.