printed. For this reason the whole continent was named after him,
AMERICA.


Who was John Cabot? What did he try to do? Who sailed with him?
What land did they see? Had Columbus ever seen it? What did Cabot
do when he went on shore? What is said of his return to Bristol? What
did the Cabots carry back to England? What is said about the second
voyage of the Cabots? How did the New World come to be called America?




PONCE DE LEON,[1] BALBOA,[2] AND DE SOTO[3]
(Period of Discovery, 1513-1542).


28. The magic fountain; Ponce de Leon discovers Florida; Balboa
discovers the Pacific Ocean.--The Indians on the West India Islands
believed that there was a wonderful fountain in a land to the west
of them. They said that if an old man should bathe in its waters,
they would make him a boy again. Ponce de Leon, a Spanish soldier
who was getting gray and wrinkled, set out to find this magic fountain,
for he thought that there was more fun in being a boy than in growing
old.

He did not find the fountain, and so his hair grew grayer than ever
and his wrinkles grew deeper. But in 1513 he discovered a land bright
with flowers, which he named Florida.[4] He took possession of it
for Spain.