HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS.
DISCOVERY OF MASSACHUSETTS.
THE discovery of America is due to the courage of CHAP. Christopher Columbus. The existence of this country mayn have been known to the civilized world before his day, several of the Northern Nations of Europe claiming to have visited its shores so early as the eleventh century; but by him conjecture was converted into certainty. Previ ously, profound ignorance prevailed concerning the Western Regions of the mighty Atlantic. Its vast expanse was viewed by many with superstitious dread. No mariner had penetrated deeply into its bosom. Cautiously skirting its coasts, and feeling their way along from point to point, few had ventured to lose sight of land, and the boldest and most daring regarded its obscurity as a gulf into which conjecture could not reach, and which it was madness in any one to attempt to fathom.
The voyage of Columbus broke the charm of this spell, and the news of his discovery of a World in the West, struck Europe with an electric thrill. In every court the tidings were received with singular joy; the glowing descriptions of the productions and wealth of that World caused fancy to revel in visions of affluence; and an enthu