[then] eten also or otherwyse lyue they longer tymes and many yeres
more than other people for they haue costely spyces and rotes [roots]
where they them selfe recouer with and hele [heal] them as they be
seke [sick].

[1] The volume from which this passage is taken was first printed
in Antwerp as a compilation with additions based on the letters of
Americus Vespucius. It is included by Edward Arber in his "First
Three English Books on America." The author's name is unknown.




THE DISCOVERY OF FLORIDA BY PONCE DE LEON

(1512)

PARKMAN'S ACCOUNT[1]


Toward the close of the fifteenth century Spain achieved her final
triumph over the infidels of Granada, and made her name glorious
through all generations by the discovery of America. The religious zea
and romantic daring which a long course of Moorish wars had called
forth were now exalted to redoubled fervor. Every ship from the New
World came freighted with marvels which put the fictions of chivalry
to shame; and to the Spaniard of that day America was a region of
wonder and mystery, of vague and magnificent promise. Thither
adventurers hastened, thirsting for glory and for gold, and often
mingling the enthusiasm of the crusader and the valor of the