the year 1496, Sebastian Cabot discovered the continent of North
America. Thirty-three years passed away of many wild adventures of
European voyagers, when, in the year 1539, Ferdinand de Soto landed at
Tampa Bay, in Florida, and penetrating the interior of the vast
continent, discovered the Mississippi River. Twenty-six years more
elapsed ere, in 1565, the first European colony was established at St.
Augustine, in Florida.

In the year 1585, twenty years after the settlement of St. Augustine,
Sir Walter Raleigh commenced his world-renowned colony upon the
Roanoke. Twenty-two years passed when, in 1607, the London Company
established the Virginia Colony upon the banks of the James river.

In the year 1524, a Florentine navigator by the name of Jean de
Verrazano, under commission of the French monarch, Francis I.,
coasting northward along the shores of the continent, entered the bay
of New York. In a letter to king Francis I., dated July 8th, 1524, he
thus describes the Narrows and the Bay:

"After proceeding one hundred leagues, we found a very
pleasant situation among some steep hills, through which a
very large river, deep at its mouth, forced its way to the
sea. From the sea to the estuary of the river, any ship
heavily laden might pass, with the help of the tide, which
rises eight feet. But as we were riding at anchor, in a good
berth, we would not venture up in our vessel without a
knowledge of the mouth. Therefore we took the boat, and
entering the river, we found the country, on its banks, well
peopled, the inhabitants not much differing from the others,
being dressed out with the feathers of birds of various