Our first century . their own horizon. It is difficult in our time of populareducation, newspapers, railroads, telegraphs and cheapbooks to understand the condition of mind which then^prevailed in Europe ; yet we must understand it if wewould understand what happened in that time. The Spaniards conquered Mexico and Peru and madesettlements at St. Augustine in Florida, at Sante Fe inNew Mexico and elsewhere. But these settlements wereall made with a primary view to the discovery of goldand the exploitation of the country for profit. Therewas nowhere any sufficient thought of settling the countr
Our first century . their own horizon. It is difficult in our time of populareducation, newspapers, railroads, telegraphs and cheapbooks to understand the condition of mind which then^prevailed in Europe ; yet we must understand it if wewould understand what happened in that time. The Spaniards conquered Mexico and Peru and madesettlements at St. Augustine in Florida, at Sante Fe inNew Mexico and elsewhere. But these settlements wereall made with a primary view to the discovery of goldand the exploitation of the country for profit. Therewas nowhere any sufficient thought of settling the countryand living in it, and cultivating it for the sake of whatits soil could produce. The thought of homes in Amer-ica was not yet born. The English claimed practically all of Canada and allof what now constitutes the United States north of 6 OUR FIRST CENTURY Florida by virtue of the discoveries made by John Cabotand other Enghsh navigators of the early time. But fornearly a hundred years the English made no attempt to. Spanish Explorations in North America to 1600. plant colonies here or turn to account in any way thesplendid resources of the country they owned. There were several reasons for this. Some of those A STORY OF ACCIDENTS 7 reasons have been indicated already. Another was thatthe Spanish power was at that time dominant. Whenthe French had made a settlement upon the southernAtlantic coast it had been promptly assailed and destroyedby the Spanish who claimed dominion over the entirecontinent, and who had power to enforce the claim. Then came a period of sea fighting in which at lastthe power of Spain was crippled, and England rose to aplace among the nations of the first class. In that day ships at sea made war upon each other andcaptured each other with very little reference indeed tothe question whether or not a state of war existed betweenthe two nations whose flags the several ships carried attheir mastheads. Spain and England were nominally atpeace with each other b
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