Excerpt from A Pictorial Geography of the World, Vol. 1: Comprising a System of Universal Geography, Popular and Scientific, Including a Physical, Political, and Statistical Account of the Earth and Its Various Divisions, With Numerous Sketches From Recent Travels; The Old World

Oontiuent had not been defined; large portions of the in terior had not been explored; vast seas and rivers were but partially known the shape of the earth had not been ascertained; the continent of America and the Oceanic islands, were as yet undiscovered. But a new era was approaching. The Republics of Italy, and especially that 0 Venice, are the sta'tes in which a spirit of commerce and inquiry had arisen, and rapid advances were made in geogra hical knowledge. About this time Marco Polo, a nob e suetian spent twenty-five years in traversi the remote parts of, Asia. His narrative was soon trans ated into various langu s, and spread over Europe. The dis covery of America, y Columbus, soon followed. The prog rear of discovery over the globe, when the first steps had been taken, was astonishingly rapid; no cost, no peril, de terred even private adventurers from equipping fleets, cross ing the oceans, and facing the rage of savage nations in the remotest extremities of the earth. Before Columbus had seen the American continent, and the mouth of the Orinoco, Cabot, of Venetian descent, but sailing under English auspices, discovered Newfoundland, and coasted along the 'present territory of the United States, probably as far as irginia. In the next two or three years, the Cortereals, a daring family of Portuguese navigators, be gan the long and varn search of a passage round the north of America; they sailed alon the coast of Labrador, and entered the spacious inlet 0 Hudson's Bay, which they seem to have mistaken for the sea between Africa and America but two of them unhappily perished. In 1501, Cabral, destined for India, struck unex tedly on the coast of Brazil, which he claimed for Ponummerigo Vespucci had sailed along a great part of Terra Firms and Guiana, and he now made two extensive vctiyages alon the coast of Brazil; services which obtained or im the igh honor of giving his name to the whole continent. Grijalva and (fieda went round a great part of the circuit of the coasts o the Gulf of Mexico. In 1513, Nunez Balboa, crossing the narrow isthmus of Panama, beheld the boundless expanse of the Pacific Ocean. These discoveries afi'orded the im pulse which prompted Cortez and Pisarro to engage in their adventurous and sanguinary career; in which, witha hand thi of daring followers, they subverted the extensive and populous empires of Mexico and Peru. Expeditions were soon 'pushed forward on one side to Chili, and on the other to C ifornia, and the re 'ons to the north. Nearl a full view was thus obtained, th of the great interior readth of America, and of that amazing range of coast which it presents to the southern ocean.

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