The Household History of the United States and its people

Preface

. The present work is meant, in the first instance, for the young — not alone for boys and girls, but for young men and women who have yet to make themselves familiar with the more important features of their country's history. By a book for the young is meant one in which the author studies to make his statements clear and explicit, in which curious and picturesque details are inserted, and in which the writer does not neglect such anecdotes as lend the charm of a human and personal interest to the broader facts of the nation's story. That history is often tiresome to the young is not so much the fault of history as of a false method of writing by which one contrives to relate events without sympathy or imagina tion, without narrative connection or animation. The attempt to master vague and general records of kiln-dried facts is certain to beget in the ordinary reader a repulsion from the study of history — one of the very most important of all studies for its widening influence on general culture.

As the traits which render an historic narrative attractive to the young are likely to make it interesting to older people, I do not despair of finding readers beyond the special class for which this book is prepared. There are intelligent people, no longer young, may be, who will think none the worse of

PREFACE.

. IV my book that it strives to make the causes and results of public events clear, and to trace with simplicity our present institutions from their springs downward, that it relates curious details of life and manners, and now and then turns aside to tell an incident illustrative of character, or dwells with a little momentary fondness on the exploits of a Benjamin Church, the heroism of a Nathaniel Bacon, and the adventures of a Daniel Boone. I know of no surer way of making life tedious to a reader than the method of considering the early history of the United States as the history of thirteen petty communities and their intestine squabbles. It is, of course, indispensable that one shall give an account of the origin of each of the thirteen colonies, but for the rest I have preferred to consider the country as a whole, and the people before and after the Revolution as essentially one, omitting particulars which are neither interest ing nor instructive.

Two classes of facts have especially claimed attention : First, those events, great or small, which have exerted an influence on the general current of our history or modified our institutions. These must be understood, in order to keep in mind that chain of causes and effects which makes history reasonable and intelligible. The second class includes those facts which make the individual traits of great men vivid to us, and, more important still, those which enable us to understand the character and modes of life of the body of the people in times different from our own. The old his torians took note of nobody but princes, courtiers, and generals. But history, like everything else, has become more democratic PREFA CE. V in these modern days, and the real hero of the historian's story to-day is the community itself.

" We need a history of fire sides," said Daniel Webster. It would be specially unfortunate if the writer on the history of a republic like ours should be so taken up with what Sir Walter Scott would call " the big bow-wow" of public events as to neglect the story of the evolution of a great people. As its title indicates, this is a " household edition." The school edition of the book has already appeared, and the instantaneous favor it has met with, not only as a text-book, but also as a book for general use, encouraged the preparation of the present edition. The omission of a hundred pages of questions and other machinery for teaching has enabled the writer to greatly enlarge the text by incorporating many interesting facts which could not be compressed into the limits of a school edition.

To adapt the work to the pur poses of the general reader, the text has been rearranged and in many parts rewritten. Of course, I am aware that one of the very chief attrac tions of the book is due to the liberality with which the publishers have availed themselves of so many of the resources of the modern art of illustration to enhance its value. The pictures represent the work of many of the best designers and engravers of our time. A very considerable body of knowledge regarding the history of civilization may be acquired from the illustrations of costume, armor, inventions, implements, sea and river craft, vehicles, and of manners generally. The drawings have been mostly made under the personal super- PREFA CE. VI vision of the writer, and have required no less thought and care than the text itself.

Many of these designs are founded on rare prints, and others are from ancient original drawings not before engraved, while a few have been made from written descriptions of contemporary writers. Mr. John A. Fraser has had charge of the book on its artistic side, and the illustrations have been made under his direction. For assistance in pro curing illustrations I am indebted to the kindness of several friends, and especially to Justin Winsor, LL. D., Librarian of Harvard University ; Major J. W. Powell, of the U. S. Geo logical Survey ; and Prof. G. Brown Goode, of the Smithsonian Institution. Special acknowledgment is likewise due to the Century Company for favors in this matter. The main purpose in making so great a number of small maps has been to preserve the utmost simplicity. A crowded map is a vexation to the brain and eye.

In most cases a map for historical illustration should be a diagram of the fact under consideration, showing no names or details not necessary to the comprehension of that fact. Not only is the reader saved from much needless toil by this plan, but maps thus arranged serve the double purpose of elucidating the narrative and impressing it on the memory at the same time by giving it form to the eye. Each little map becomes a local diagram of some historical fact, and the form of the map will remain in the memory inseparably associated with the event to which it belongs — a geographical body to an historical soul. This smaller history by its earlier issue reaps a benefit from many laborious years of investigation for a larger work

PREFACE.

. VII yet far from ready for publication, and some facts of considerable importance first see the light in these pages. Statements in this narrative which seem novel and different from those hitherto accepted are based upon a personal study of original authorities, and in many cases are the result of an examination of ancient manuscripts in the British Public Record Office, the British Museum, the Library of Congress, and some other collections, public and private. It is impossible, however, to write a book covering the whole period of the history of the United States without incur ring obligations to a great multitude of other writers and investigators. I owe much to the several writers in Mr. Winsor 's " Narrative and Critical History of America," to Mr. Parkman's various works relating to the conflicts between the English and French colonies, and to Mr. Schouler's " History of the United States under the Constitution."

I am also indebted to Mr. Bancroft, to Mr. Lossing, and to Mr. Mc- Master. Nor ought I to omit Ripley's " Mexican War " or Dodge's " Bird's-Eye View of the Civil War." For the rest I must crave indulgence. It would be impossible to enu merate here or even to recall all the writers on special subjects to whom I have referred. One word is due in regard to the treatment of recent events. Occurrences of our own time do not properly belong to his tory, nor can a dispassionate and historical judgment be formed regarding the debates and conflicts in which living men have borne a part. I have, therefore, treated the period from about 1850 by a method different from that employed in giving an

PREFACE.

. VIII account of earlier times, contenting myself with a narrative of the events, and not venturing on premature judgments. We who were in some sense victims of the passions of the civil-war period are not the best judges of questions between the participants. Moreover, I have desired that this little book, which will be read largely by the young, may contribute to bring about that oneness of sentiment in which lies the only hope for national union and prosperity. The true work of patriotism in this time is conciliation and the consolidation of our national life. Joshua's Rock, Lake George, November, 1888. CONTENTS.

Chapter I

How Columbus discovered America i Illustrations : The ships of Columbus ; Head-piece ; Prow of ancient war-ship ; Sailor ; Columbus ; Ferdinand and Isabella ; Stern of ancient war-ship ; Map, World as known when Columbus sailed.

Chapter II

Other Discoveries in America 8 Illustrations : Americus ; Cabot at Mecca ; Henry VII ; Indian needles for making nets ; Indian trap ; "A great man of that time" ; Caught in an Indian trap ; Map, Voyages of Columbus, Magellan, and Da Gama ; Magellan ; Spanish explorer.

Chapter VII

The Coming of the Pilgrims . -37 Illustrations : Ship ; Puritan man ; Puritan woman ; Pilgrim farewell at Delft Haven ; Map, Plymouth and Jamestown ; Map, Vicinity of Plymouth ; " Welcome, Englishmen " ; Pilgrims going to church. CONTENTS. X

Chapter VIII

The Coming of the Puritans 42 Illustrations : Oliver Cromwell ; Puritan gentleman ; Puritan lady ; John Win throp ; John Davenport ; House of the first Governor of Rhode Island ; Merchant's wife, 1620 ; Map, Early New England settlements.

Chapter IX

The Coming of the Dutch • 47 Illustrations : The Half-Moon in Hudson River ; Dutch country people, seventeenth century ; Dutch women, seventeenth century ; Map, Early Dutch and Swedish settlements ; Peter Stuyvesant ; Street in New Amsterdam ; New York in the Dutch period.

Chapter X

The Settlement of Maryland and the Carolinas . . .52 Illustrations : First Lord Baltimore ; Charles I ; Second Lord Baltimore ; The landing in Maryland, 1634 ; Map, Virginia and Jirst Maryland settlement ; Charles II ; Huguenot merchant and wife ; Map, Early Settlements in the Carolinas.

Chapter XI

The Coming of the Quakers and others to the Jerseys and Pennsylvania r . 58 Illustrations : Scotch woman ; Scotch man ; William Penn ; Penn's house in Philadelphia ; Map, Settlements in the Jerseys and Pennsylvania ; Treaty-belt.

Chapter XII

The Settlement of Georgia, and the Coming of the Germans, Irish, and French 63 Illustrations : General Oglethorpe ; Map, Coast 0/ Georgia and Carolina ; a Georgia road ; Highland piper ; German countryman ; German countrywoman ; Irish man ; Irish woman ; French countryman ; French countrywoman.

Chapter XIII

How the Indians lived 69 Illustrations : Indian mother and child ; Medicine-man, 1585 ; Indian children playing ; Navajo Indian woman weaving a belt ; Wampum ; Indian wigwams of bark ; Manner of boiling ; Zuni Indian woman making pottery ; Indian bottle ; Indian manner of broiling in 1585 ; Stone axe ; Indian kindling fire ; Making a canoe ; Indian vase ; Indian girl with baskets ; Indian girls with water-jars ; Pottery from Missouri.

Chapter XX

The Spaniards in Florida, and the French in Canada . .113 Illustrations : Champlain ; Quebec in Champlain's time ; La Salle ; French gentle man, 1700 ; Coureur des Bois ; Missionary priest ; Long-house of the Iroquois ; Map, French claim in Maine ; Map, Present territory of the United States, showing by whom it was claimed be/ore 1763.

Chapter XXI

Colonial Wars with France and Spain 120 Illustrations : Map, The home of the Iroquois ; Queen Anne ; Old house at Deer field ; Gateway at St. Augustine ; Map, Georgia and Florida in Oglethorpe's time.

Chapter XXII

Braddock's Defeat, and the Expulsion of the Acadians . . 128 Illustrations : Map, French and Indian Wars ; Washington rallying Braddock's troops ; Map, Braddock's march ; Sir William Johnson ; Map, Lake George and vicinity ; Lord Loudon.

Chapter XXIII

Fall of Canada .134 Illustrations : William Pitt ; Amherst ; Map, Acadia ; Wolfe ; Montcalm ; Wolfe scales the Heights of Abraham ; Map, Vicinity of Quebec ; Old view of Quebec. CONTENTS. XII

Chapter XXIV. Page

Characteristics of the Colonial Wars with the French. . 139 Illustrations : French officer ; French regular ; Canadian soldier ; Flint-lock ; In dian moccasins ; Flint-lock gun ; Lord Howe ; Lord Howe washing his linen ; Rogers's slide, Lake George ; White captives ; Redoubt at Pittsburg, built 1764.

Chapter XXVIII

The Outbreak of the Revolution, and Declaration of Independence 165. Illustrations : Pine-tree flag ; General Gage ; Ethan Allen ; Ruins of Ticonder oga ; Battle of Bunker Hill ; Map, The Revolution about Boston ; Rattlesnake flag ; Map, The Revolutionary War at large ; American flag, beginning of the Revolu tion ; Monticello, the home of Jefferson.

Chapter XXIX

The Battle of Trenton, and the Capture of Burgoyne's Army 174 Illustrations : George III ; Destroying the statue of George III in New York city ; Admiral Lord Howe; Map, The Revolution about New York; The retreat from Long Island ; Hessian trooper ; Map, Trenton and Princeton ; Hessian trooper's boot ; American flag, 1777 ; General Burgoyne ; Map, Lake Champlain and vicin ity ; Hessian made prisoner by militiaman ; General Gates.

Chapter XXX

The Dark Period of the Revolution 180 Illustrations : General Sir William Howe ; Map, The Revolution about Philadelphia ; Baron Steuben ; De Kalb ; La Fayette ; Sir Henry Clinton ; Pulaski ; General Lincoln ; General Moultrie ; General Sumter ; General Marion.

Chapter XXXI

The Closing Years of the Revolution 186 Illustrations : Uniforms of French soldiers in America ; Map, Revolutionary posts on the Hudson ; Benedict Arnold ; Major Andre ; Map, The Revolution at the CONTENTS. XIII PAGE South ; Colonel Tarleton ; one of Morgan's riflemen ; General Nathanael Greene ; Royal flag of France ; Lord Cornwallis ; Rochambeau ; American artillery drawn by oxen ; Map, Vicinity of Yorktown ; House in which the surrender at Yorktown was made.

Chapter XXXII

Traits and Incidents of the Revolutionary War . . .190 Illustrations : Esek Hopkins ; American seaman, 1776 ; John Paul Jones ; Amer ican marine, 1776; A Revolutionary block-house; Revolutionary powder-horn and canteen ; Soldier of the Congress ; American rifleman ; American major-general English grenadier ; Israel Putnam ; " Brown Bess."

Chapter XXXIV

The New Republic and its People 200 Illustrations : George Washington ; Diagram of comparative population ; Map, The United States at the close of the Revolution ; Wagons and carriages of that time ; Singing with the harpsichord and flute ; River bateau ; Benjamin Franklin Birthplace of Franklin.

Chapter XLIII

The Army in the War of 1812 255 Illustrations: Map, Detroit and vicinity; Infantryman, 1812-1834 ; Perry; Map, Battle of Lake Erie ; French Canadian ; French Canadian woman ; Map, Lundy's Lane and vicinity ; Map, Battle of Lake Champlain ; Macdonough ; Map, British capture of Washington ; The Star-Spangled Banner, 1795-1818 ; Map, Jackson's defense of New Orleans ; Major-general, 1812.

Chapter XLIV

Expansion of the Union 263 Illustrations : Gentleman's riding-dress ; Head-dress, 1806 ; Turban head-dress Opera head-dress ; Evening dress in Jefferson's time ; Map, New States admitted up to 1821 ; Child's dress ; Walking costume, 1807.

Chapter XLV

From Monroe to Van Buren. — Rise of the Whigs and Democrats 269 Illustrations : James Monroe ; Spanish standard ; Monroe's home at Montpelier, Va. ; John Quincy Adams ; Adams houses at Braintree, Mass. ; Andrew Jackson ; Dress of a lady in Jackson's time ; ' ' The Hermitage " of Jackson ; John C. Calhoun : Home of Calhoun ; Henry Clay ; Birthplace of Clay ; Daniel Webster ; Webster's home.

Chapter XLVI

The Steamboat, the Railroad, and the Telegraph . . . 277 Illustrations : Robert Fulton ; Baltimore clipper ; Fulton's first steamboat ; The first railroad passenger-car in England ; First steam passenger-train in America ; S. F. B. Morse ; Little girl's dress ; A bonnet of 1830. CONTENTS. XV

Chapter XLVII. Page

Annexation of Texas.— Beginning of the Mexican War . . 282 Illustrations : William H. Harrison ; John Tyler ; James Knox Polk ; Sam Houston ; Diagram, Comparative size of Texas and France ; Map, Texan annexation and disputed territory, 1845 ; Mexican flag ; Map, Taylor's campaign.

Chapter XLVIII

The Close of the Mexican War and the Annexation of New Territory 288 Illustrations : Santa Anna ; Map, Relation of Scott's to Taylor's campaign ; Map, Scott's campaign ; Winfield Scott ; Map, showing territory acquired from Mexico ; Map, The Oregon country.

Chapter LII

Confederate Victory at Bull Run.— The First Western Campaign 311 Illustrations : Map, Campaigns in Kentucky and West Virginia ; Map, First battle of Bull Run ; Irvin McDowell ; P. G. T. Beauregard ; Charging an earth work ; Map, Battles in Missouri and Arkansas; Andrew H. Foote; John Pope; Map, From Fort Donelson to Corinth ; A. S. Johnston ; D. C. Buell.

Chapter LIII

The War in the East.— From Bull Run to Gettysburg . . 318 Illustrations : George B. McClellan ; Stonewall Jackson ; Map, Peninsular campaign ; Map, The campaigns about Washington ; A. E. Burnside ; George G. Meade Map, The campaign in Pennsylvania.

Chapter LIV

Various Operations in 1862 and 1863 323 Illustrations : Map, Hampton Roads ; John Ericsson ; The Monitor and the Merrimac; Farragut ; Map, Capture of New Orleans; Braxton Bragg; Map, The campaign against Vicksburg. CONTENTS. XVI

Chapter LV

The Campaign between Nashville and Atlanta .... 329 Illustrations : Holding the line ; W. S. Rosecrans ; Map, Battles about Chatta nooga ; George H. Thomas ; J. E. Johnston ; J. B. Hood ; Map, From Nashville to Atlanta.

Chapter LXII

Literature and Art in the United States 368 Illustrations: Rittenhouse ; Washington Irving ; William Cullen Bryant ; Henry W. Longfellow ; Oliver Wendell Holmes ; Edgar A. Poe ; Ralph Waldo Emerson ; James Fenimore Cooper ; Nathaniel Hawthorne ; Harriet Beecher Stowe ; William H. Prescott ; John L. Motley ; John J. Audubon ; Benjamin West ; John S. Copley ; Gilbert Stuart. THE SHIPS OF COLUMBUS.

Chapter I How Columbus Discovered America

It is now about four hundred years since Columbus Trade with India dj a ¥-!•*--¥-< in the time of iscovered America. People in Europe, up to that time, coiumbus. had known nothing of any lands on the western side of the Atlantic. Travelers were very liable to be robbed as soon as they reached a foreign land, and the ships of the time made but short voyages, and were often plundered by ships of other nations. The people of Europe, therefore, did not know much of Asia, except that it was the land of spices, which spices, grown in India, were sold from one country to another until the Turks sold them to European merchants. But, about two hundred years before Columbus was born, a Venetian, by the name of Marco Polo, had succeeded in visiting China, and had written a book giving many wonderful accounts of the splendor of the Chinese cities and of the riches of the Eastern countries generally, as well as many curious stories about the people who lived in those far-away lands.

PROW OF ANCIENT WAR-SHiP. When Columbus was a boy, there was a prince of Portugal, Don Henrique by name, who is known to us as Prince Henry the Navigator. He first turned men's minds in the direction of discovery. Though the maps of his time made Africa extend to the south pole, Prince Henry believed, from what he found in ancient Portuguese explorations. a way to get around Africa to thus to bring the spices and those lands to Europe by sea. books, that there was India and China, and other commodities of But the seamen of that day were accustomed to sail mostly in the Mediterranean, and they were timid in the Atlantic Ocean. The Portuguese sent out expedition after expedition for seventy years before they succeeded in discovering the Cape of Good Hope, and they had not yet got around that cape when Columbus offered to find a new and shorter way to India.

A SAILOR OF THAT TIME. Early life of Columbus. Christopher Columbus, the most renowned of all discoverers, was born in the city of Genoa, in Italy. The exact date of his birth is uncertain. His father was a wool-comber by trade, but, though the family was humble, Columbus received considerable education, and he was all his life studious to acquire knowledge about navigation and about geography as far as it was then understood. He knew Latin, wrote a good hand, and drew maps exceedingly well. He sometimes supported himself by making maps and charts. At fourteen he went to sea, and before his great voyage he had sailed to almost all the countries of the known world. He had gone some distance down the newly discovered coast of Africa with the Portuguese, and to the north beyond Ice land. Columbus married the dausshter of a Portuguese navigator, and thus came into possession of his charts.

HOW COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA j As learned men already be lieved the world to be round, Co lumbus asked : Why try to get to India and China by going around Africa? Why not sail straight to the west around the world to Asia ? He did not know that America was in the way, and he thought that the world was small er than it is, and therefore he believed that he could reach the rich lands of gold and spices in Asia by sailing only two or three thousand miles to the westward. COLUMBUS. So that Columbus Columbus prodiscovered America in consequence of two mistakes. way" "nX. He first offered to make this discovery for the city of Genoa, in which he was born. Then he offered his plan to the Kingof Portugal. But a voyage on the False notions great Atlantic Ocean seemed a dreadful thing in those '" ' e way' days.

It was called the " Sea of Darkness," because no one knew anything about it, and people imagined that it was inhabited by hideous monsters. The King of Portugal was an enlightened man, and A shiP sent out secretly. the ideas of Columbus made an impression on him after a while. But he did not like to grant the great rewards demanded by the navigator if he should find land ; so he secretly sent out a ship under another commander to sail to the westward and see if there was any land there. The sailors on this ship were easily discouraged, and they returned laughing at Columbus and his notions. But Columbus was not a man to be discouraged. No Columbus rebuff from the great, no amount of ridicule, no bitterness of poverty, could ever make him give up his great thought of discovering the western boundary of the At lantic.

Finding that he had been trifled with, he proudly refused to reopen negotiations with King John of Portugal. Poor and in debt, he secretly left that country and traveled into . Spain afoot, leading his little son by the hand. He had determined to offer his idea to the King and Queen of Spain, the ferpin.no and isabelca. celebrated Ferdinand and Isabella. The Spanish monarchs were very busy in their war against the Moors, and Columbus spent six or seven years in trying to persuade them to furnish him ships and sail ors for his voyage. The matter was at one time re ferred to a meeting of learned men, some of whom tried to prove from the Scriptures and other writings that the world was flat and not round. Others said that, if the world was round and a ship sailed down one side, it could never get back up again.

During his long waiting on the king and queen, Columbus followed the Spanish court in its movements in the war with the Moors, and he even took a brave part in some of the battles of the time. He was laughed at for a visionary, and the children in the streets tapped their foreheads with their fingers when he passed by, to intimate their belief that he was crazy. At length, when the war was over, his affair was consid ered and his offer rejected. For eighteen years he had sought in vain an outfit for his voyage. But, not yet _ out of heart, he resolved to quit Spain, and he set out to begin his solicitations anew at the court of the King of France. Some of his friends now made la strong appeal to the Spanish queen, which so STERN OF ANCIENT WAR-SHIP. HOW COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA. 5 impressed Isabella that she offered to sell her jewels, if necessary, to procure money to send Columbus on his expedition.

A messenger on horseback recalled him, and by this prompt action Spain secured the glory of finding the New World. Columbus sailed from Spain on the 3d of August, His departure on ■41 .1 n his great voyage, 1492, with three small vessels, two of which were withand his discovery out decks, and he was more than two months on the °fland' voyage. The sailors were more and more frightened as they found themselves going farther and farther out of the known world. They some times threatened to pitch Columbus over board and return. He kept their courage up by every means he could think of, even by conceal ing from them how THE PART OF THE WORLD KNOWN WHEN COLUMBUS SAILED IS IN WHITE. far they had come. The flight of land-birds, the dis covery of a twig, with berries on it, floating in the water, and at length the picking up of a carved stick, served to encourage the mariners, whose eyes were strained day after day to catch sight of anything but the wild waste of unknown waters through which they had been sailing for so many weeks.

At last, one night, Columbus saw a glimmer of light, and the next morn ing one of the other ships fired a gun, to signify that land was seen. This was the 12th of October, 1492. There was the wildest joy among the seamen. They had lately hated their commander, and wished to kill him; they now crowded about him to embrace him or to kiss his hands. Instead of finding the rich cities of Asia, Columbus had come upon one of the smallest of the West India islands, which was inhabited by people entirely naked, and living in the rudest manner. He afterward dis covered larger islands, and then sailed homeward. What he had found. He took with him to Spain some of the wild inhabitants, who were exhibited at the court in all their showy decorations of paint and feathers, and he also made a display of the golden ornaments he had pro cured.

Ferdinand and Isabella received him with the pomp due to a great conqueror, and he, who had been but a beggar before, was welcomed by the monarchs under a rich canopy of brocade of gold. The king and queen rose to welcome him, and made him sit down in their presence, a favor never shown except to the great est grandees. The people, who had believed him a fool when he went away, followed him with cheers as he walked along the street. Return of Columbus. Later voyages of Columbus. Columbus, in his second voyage to America, planted a colony on the island of Hispaniola, or Hayti. In this and in two other voyages he discovered other islands and a portion of the coast of South America, which he first saw in 1498. He made four voyages to America in all, setting out on the first in 1492, the second in 1493, the third in 1498, and the fourth in 1502.

Though a great navigator, he was not a wise governor of the colonies he planted, and he had many enemies. In 1500 he was cruelly sent home to Spain in chains. But Ferdinand and Isabella, as well as the people, were shocked at this degradation, and he was at once set HOW COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA. 7 free. His last voyage was unfortunate, and when he returned to Spain, in November, 1504, the monarchs paid little attention to him. Queen Isabella died soon after his return, while Columbus lay sick, and when the great navigator came to court the king was deaf to his petitions. Worn out with fatigue, exposure, and anxiety, the great admiral died on the 20th of May, 1506. He never knew that he had found a new world, but lived and died in the belief that the large, island of Cuba was a part of the mainland of Asia.

The investigations of scholars give us some reason to believe that America may have been visited from Europe before the time of Columbus. The inhabitants of Scan dinavia (the country now divided into Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) were known as Norsemen. In the old romantic tales of Scandinavia there are stories which go to show that these Norsemen, under the command of Leif, the son of Eric, in the year 1001, and afterward, probably explored the coast of America from Labrador southward for some distance. Fanciful theories have been built on these stories, such as the notion that the old stone windmill at Newport, Rhode Island, is a tower built by the Norsemen. There is also a tradition in Wales that one Madoc, a Welsh prince, in the year 1 170, discovered land to the west of Ireland, and took a colony thither, which was never heard of afterward.