Part 111 (1/2)

CIRc.u.mNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE, 1519-1522 A.D.

The Spanish ruler, Charles V, grandson of the Isabella who had supported Columbus, looked with favor upon Magellan's ideas and gave him a fleet of five vessels for the undertaking. After exploring the east coast of South America, Magellan came at length to the strait which bears his name.

Through this channel he sailed boldly and found himself upon an ocean which he called the Pacific, because of its peaceful aspect. Magellan's sailors now begged him to return, for food was getting scarce, but the navigator replied that he would go on, ”if he had to eat the leather off the rigging.” He did go on, for ninety-eight days, until he reached the Ladrone Islands. [24] By a curious chance, in all this long trip across the Pacific, Magellan came upon only two islands, both of them uninhabited. He then proceeded to the Philippines, where he was killed in a fight with the natives. His men, however, managed to reach the Spice Islands, the goal of the journey. Afterwards a single s.h.i.+p, the _Victoria_, carried back to Spain the few sailors who had survived the hards.h.i.+ps of a voyage lasting nearly three years.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FERDINAND MAGELLAN From a portrait formerly in the Versailles Gallery, Paris.]

MEANING OF THE CIRc.u.mNAVIGATION Magellan's voyage forms a landmark in the history of geography. It proved that America, at least on the south, had no connection with Asia; it showed the enormous extent of the Pacific Ocean; and it led to the discovery of many large islands in the East Indies. Henceforth men knew of a certainty that the earth was round and in the distance covered by Magellan they had a rough estimate of its size. The circ.u.mnavigation of the globe ranks with the discovery of America among the most significant events in history. In the company of great explorers Magellan stands beside Columbus.

223. THE INDIANS

PEOPLING OF AMERICA

The first inhabitants of America probably came from the Old World. At a remote epoch a land-bridge connected northwest Europe with Greenland, and Iceland still remains a witness to its former existence. Over this bridge animals and men may have found their way into the New World. Another prehistoric route may have led from Asia. Only a narrow strait now separates Alaska from Siberia, and the Aleutian Islands form an almost complete series of stepping-stones across the most northerly part of the Pacific.

THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES

The natives of America, whom Columbus called Indians, certainly resemble Asiatics in some physical features, such as the reddish-brown complexion, the hair, uniformly black and lank, the high cheek-bones, and short stature of many tribes. On the other hand, the large, aquiline nose, the straight eyes, never oblique, and the tall stature of some tribes are European traits. It seems safe to conclude that the American aborigines, whatever their origin, became thoroughly fused into a composite race during long centuries of isolation from the rest of mankind.

INDIAN CULTURE

Because of their isolation the Indians had to work out by themselves many arts, inventions, and discoveries. They spoke over a thousand languages and dialects; and not one has yet been traced outside of America. Their implements consisted of polished stone, occasionally of unsmelted copper, and in Mexico and Peru, of bronze. They cultivated Indian corn, or maize, but lacked the other great cereals. They domesticated the dog and the llama of the Andes. They lived in clans and tribes, ruled by headmen or chiefs. Their religion probably did not involve a belief in a ”Great Spirit,” as is so often said, but rather recognized in all nature the abode of spiritual powers, mysterious and wonderful, whom man ought to conciliate by prayers and sacrifices. In short, most of the American Indians were not savages, but barbarians well advanced in culture.

THE MAYAS

Indian culture attained its highest development in Mexico and Central America, especially among the Mayas of Yucatan, Guatemala, and Honduras.

The remains of their cities--the Ninevehs and Babylons of the New World-- lie buried in the tropical jungle, where Europeans first saw them, four hundred years ago. The temples, shrines, altars, and statues in these ancient cities show that the Mayas had made much progress in the fine arts. They knew enough astronomy to frame a solar calendar of three hundred and sixty-five days, and enough mathematics to employ numbers exceeding a million. The writing of the Mayas had reached the rebus [25]

stage and promised to become alphabetic. When their hieroglyphics have been completely deciphered, we shall learn much more about this gifted people.

THE AZTECS

Several centuries before the arrival of Europeans in America, the so- called Aztecs came down from the north and established themselves on the Mexican plateau. Here they formed a confederacy of many tribes, ruled over by a sort of king, whose capital was Tenocht.i.tlan, on the site of the present city of Mexico.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AZTEC SACRIFICIAL KNIFE British Museum, London. Length, twelve inches. The blade is of yellow, opalescent chalcedony, beautifully chipped and polished. The handle is of light-colored wood carved in the form of a man masked with a bird skin.

Brilliant mosaic settings of turquoise, malachite, and sh.e.l.l embellish the figure.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: AZTEC SACRIFICIAL STONE Now in the National Museum in the City of Mexico.]

AZTEC CULTURE

The Aztecs appear to have borrowed much of their art, science, and knowledge of writing from their Maya neighbors. They built houses and temples of stone or sundried brick, constructed aqueducts, roads, and bridges, excelled in the dyeing, weaving, and spinning of cotton, and made most beautiful ornaments of silver and gold. They wors.h.i.+ped many G.o.ds, to which the priests offered prisoners of war as human sacrifices. In spite of these b.l.o.o.d.y rites, the Aztecs were a kind-hearted, honest people, respectful of the rights of property, brave in battle, and obedient to their native rulers. Aztec culture in some ways was scarcely inferior to that of the ancient Egyptians.

THE INCAS

The lofty table-lands of the Andes were also the seat of an advanced Indian culture. At the time of the Spanish conquest the greater part of what is now Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and northern Chile had come under the sway of the Incas, the ”people of the sun”. The Inca power centered in the Peruvian city of Cuzco and on the sh.o.r.es of Lake t.i.ticaca, which lies twelve thousand feet above sea-level. In this region of magnificent scenery the traveler views with astonishment the ruins of vast edifices, apparently never completed, which were raised either by the Incas or the Indians whom they conquered and displaced. Though the culture of the Incas resembled in many ways that of the Aztecs, the two peoples probably never had any intercourse and hence remained totally unaware of each other's existence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, WEST INDIES]