ABSTRACT
The term America, which was at first applied to the territories south of the Equator, ended by describing the whole of the New World. In reality, the New World consists of two continents, connected by a string of islands and isthmuses. In the centre are the plains, from Hudson’s Bay to the Gulf of Mexico in the north, and from the mouth of the Amazon to Tierra del Fuego in the south. The fantastic loop which the Spanish caravels in less than fifty years, drew upon the map of the American continent began at Palos in Andalusia. The peopling of America, which probably began about the time of the ice age, continued during the palaeolithic age, then the neolithic, and expanded as the circumstances of the primitive tribes improved. The Adelantado was seized, laden with chains, and dragged before an improvised tribunal and condemned to death.
