These visible realities had been supplemented by extravagant fables of the riches of the East, until the minds of navigators were inflamed with an eager desire to reach these inexhaustible treasures and bring them quickly home in their ships of the sea, instead of upon the "ships of the desert," as they had so slowly come before. This desire led to great events. It developed navigation into a science. It took the Portuguese around the southern extremity of Africa, to which they gave its auspicious name, because it furnished a good hope of reaching India by sea. It brought Columbus across the Atlantic to discover a new world. It brought great and intrepid navigators to explore the coast of North America from Greenland to the Gulf of Mexico, and, finally,.in 1609, it brought Henry Hudson into the river that bears his name, and revealed our beautiful hills and fertile valleys to the gaze of civilized men.

Europeans were very slow to reap a profit, in any intelligent manner, from the discovery of America. Spain first sought to gain some advantage to herself, and, in the blindest way, filled her coffers with treasure and destroyed the peoples who produced the wealth. Caring only for immediate gain, she despoiled the Incas and overthrew the institutions of the Aztecs, and everywhere turned prosperity into ruin. Later, she made a settlement in Florida, whose monuments still remain. The daring fishermen of France sought the shores of Newfoundland in the pursuit of their vocation, and were followed into the St. Lawrence by the flag and arms of their country, where they so tenaciously remained. England waited for the reign of Elizabeth for the enterprise that developed her greatness in every direction and planted colonies in North Carolina and Virginia, and later, showed her energy and colonizing power in the planting of New England.