It is well known how Columbus discovered this New World which to-day bears the name of America (although the application of that name is quite restricted in this country to the United States)— what hardships that un daunted sailor and his followers had to endure, their sufferings, their hopes and their faith in some supernatural fate, a trait which is due in part to the influence of Moorish ancestors in Spain through the mingling of both races dur ing the occupation wars which lasted over eight centuries. The discovery of America has a tinge of romance, such as inspires the soul of the adventurer and the buccaneer. It was a romance that began at the Ribida, grew in the presence and with the help of good Queen Isabella, developed into a mad desire for ad venture at Palos, and ended with the planting of the Spanish standard on the shores of Guanahani, now called Watling's Island. From here Columbus went to what is to-day called Cuba, thence to Hispaniola — now divided into Haiti and Dominican Republic — and in this latter island founded the first white settlement in the New World. It is not necessary to follow Columbus' voyages or his adventures step by step, but the discovery of America is an epic worthy of the mettle of the great explorer and his men.
And so the civilization of what is called Latin America began with the first Spanish settlement, the first Indian blood shed by the greed of the white conqueror and the first attempt to Christianize the inhabitants of the new-found land. The inevitable features of conquest — war, treachery, destruction, fire, sword, deeds of valor but little known and endurance almost superhuman — marked along the trail of the discoverers the birth and first steps of the nations of the New World. And in the midst of this turmoil, bravely battling against unknown odds, the Spanish missionary fathers worked unceasingly, founding hamlets and towns, thus planting in the wilderness the seeds of many a large city to-day, building their temples of worship, going from place to place struggling with disease and hunger, teach ing the Indians the Spanish language and with it their religious faith, and laying the founda tion of what is known to-day as Latin America.
The second stage of Latin-American civil ization began when the Crown of Spain finally took an active interest in its new possessions and men of a better class than the soldiery which landed with the discoverers and con querors began to come to the New World, bringing their wives and daughters, and sur rounding themselves with whatever comforts could be had in their new home. They were in many cases scions of noble families, who came either as viceroys, governors or in some other administrative capacity, or as “oidores,)) or judges, and men of letters in general. There came also learned monks, and among these, philosophers, poets, musicians, painters and skilled artisans. Hence some of the oldest descriptions and chronicles of Latin America are in verse or in choice prose, either in Span ish or in Latin, and we find in some of the oldest cities in Spanish America wonderful ex amples of wood carving, either in churches or in old houses, beautiful specimens of the gold and silversmith's art, some fine paintings, and unexcelled samples of the art of illuminating books, particularly missals.
The scholars, either members of the reli gious orders or laymen, began to gather books imported from Europe, and so our libraries were started, mainly in the convents. With this feature of civilization the necessity of educating the children of the Spaniards and the Indians became more pressing, and private schools and seminaries were established, as a first step toward the foundation of universities. Both in Mexico and in Peru schools were founded by order of the Crown of Spain for the education of the Indians, where they learned not only reading and writing, but the manual arts as well.
Latin Americans point with natural pride to the fact that the first university founded in the New World was that of Santo Tomas de Aquino at Santo Domingo, in 1538. This uni versity is no longer in existence, but there still exists that of San Marcos at Lima, Peru, founded in 1551; the University of Mexico, established in 1553 and refounded in 1910; the University of Cordoba, in Argentina, dating from 1613; that of Sucre in Bolivia, founded in 1623, or 13 years before Harvard, which dates from 1636, and that of Cuzco, in Peru, established in 1693, or eight years earlier than Yale, which was founded in 1701. The Uni versity of Caracas, in Venezuela, dates from 1721, and that of Habana, Cuba, from 1728, the other universities founded before the 19th century being that of Santiago, Chile, in 1743, and the University of Quito, Ecuador, in 1787.
The great agent of civilization and progress, the printing press, has been known in Latin America since 1536, when the first printing outfit was introduced into Mexico and the first hook printed in the New World, a plea of Father Las Casas for a better life. Cartagena, Colombia, is said to have been the second city of America to have a printing press, in 1560 or 1562, but Peru seems to hold the record for the first book printed in South America, about 1584, and La Paz, Bolivia, had a printing establishment about 1610. There were also a press and other printing paraphernalia at the Jesuit missions of Paraguay, about the first decade of the 17th century. The first work in Bogota was printed about 1739; Ecuador printed its first book in 1760 and Venezuela in 1764, while the earliest production of the Chilean press bears the date of 1776; and there was a printing outfit in C6rdoba, Argen tine, in 1767. With the foundation of univer sities and schools and more frequent com munication with Spain and other European countries of Latin origin, and the printing of books and newspapers in the New World, the 'desire for learning was developed and a new field was opened to intellectual culture.