home builders and artisans. The early discovery of great quantities of
gold and silver had the effect of encouraging the continued search for
treasure. In this treasure-quest, often fruitless, the Spanish
practically confined themselves to Mexico and the region to the south.
In these areas they did valuable work in Christianizing and educating
the natives, but little industrial progress was made. Except for the
missionary work of the Spanish, their earlier colonization was largely
transient and engaged in for the purpose of exploitation.

6. FRANCE.--France disputed the claim of Spain to North America soon
after the opening of the sixteenth century. The French attempted to
settle in Florida and in South Carolina, but the opposition of the
near-by Spanish forced the newcomers to leave. In 1524 Verrazano
explored the North Atlantic coast for the French, and ten years later
Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence and founded the claim of France to
that section of the New World.

Following the example of Spain, France dispatched missionaries to the
New World to convert the Indians. Soldiers and trappers were sent out
to develop the valuable fur trade by the establishment of widely
separated forts and trading posts. But the French settlers had no
popular lawmaking bodies, being completely under the power of the
king. Only along the St. Lawrence, where agricultural colonies were
planted, did the French really attach themselves to the soil.
Elsewhere there were few French women and therefore few normal French
homes, and when in 1763 all of the French possessions east of the
Mississippi were ceded to England, it was largely true that the French
colonies had not yet taken root in the country. Infinite courage,
devotion, and self-sacrifice were ultimately wasted, largely because
of the lack of homes, the absence of self-government, and the failure