A text book of American history

Front matter

AMERICAN HISTORY

CHANCELLOR

^ V

Preface

Hall High School, Brooklyn, New York ; and Wm. H. Mace, Ph.D., Professor of History, Syracuse University. As now developed in the text, the plan represents fairly a composite of the views of many men of the highest professional standing.

The manuscript and proofs have been read critically by Mr. Eobert Comin, Instructor of History, Eastern District High School, Brooklyn, New York. The account of the War of Secession was read in manuscript and in type by a distinguished General in the Army of the United States. The entire plan and the manuscript were reviewed by Mr. Eugene E. Beecher, of the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Eailroad Company, Birmingham, Alabama, a business man who has found time to preserve in his own scholarship and literary skill the traditions of his family.

To Mr. Fletcher W. Hewes, author of the Statistical Atlas of the Census of 1880, a monumental work, and to Miss L. Pearl Hewes, instructor in the Montclair Eree Common Schools, I am indebted for the selection of most of the illustrations in the text.

To all of these friendly critics and to others not mentioned here, I desire to extend my thanks.

I shall receive with gratitude any corrections of errors, typographical or other, that may remain in the text of this, the first edition.

Bloomfield, N. J., December 1, 1903. W. E. C.

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS.

1. This book is an outline of American history from 1492 to 1903. At points of especial interest, do not hesitate to bring other material to the class, for outside reading and study will greatly expand the student's knowledge, and widen his interest.

2. Pictures, such as are found in various histories and in current magazine articles, are of great value in developing the historical imagination. A portfolio of pictures, even though some are the crude illustrations of newspapers, will be examined day after day and month after month by the students with great pleasure and profit.

3. The relation of histor3 r to geography is so immediate and so vital, that constant reference of events to the places in which they occurred help the child's knowledge, not only in history, but also in geography. Innumerable repetitions are necessary in order to locate permanently in the mind the maps of various regions. Such mapknowledge is extremely valuable, though the majority of people are still deficient in their knowledge of geography, and journey through life without knowing whether Chicago is north, northeast, or northwest of St. Louis, and whether Cincinnati is or is not on a direct line between Philadelphia and St. Louis. Nothing, perhaps, more greatly assists the pupil to a discriminating knowledge of the difference between colonial and modern times, than an explanation upon the map of the fact that rapid stage-coaching between Boston and Philadelphia two hundred years ago involved two weeks 1 travel, while now the two cities are but one-third of a day apart by the rapid express trains.

4. This book is designed either for reading, or for exposition by the teacher with discussion by the class, or for text-book study, or as a basis for wider examination and discussion of its various topics. It may be used by the same class for several years.

5. The ever-recurring question of dates may be answered by saying that there are two uses for dates. One use is to show the relative

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS.

times of events ; the other use is for the permanent equipment of the mind. While the pages of a History require a considerable number of dates in order to show the sequence in which events occurred, no one needs to know permanently more than a dozen, or at most a score of dates in American chronology. From these, all other important dates can be easily estimated with sufficient accuracy. On pages 9-11 will be found lists of dates of primary importance.

6. The questions at the end of each chapter have been placed there for the purpose of assisting the children to review by themselves, or with others, the facts of the lessons that have been studied. Questions such as these show a child what the author of the book regards as the principal things to be learned from the pages. Teachers will necessarily ask many mor^ questions thau are given here.

7. I have introduced certain lists of books suitable for reading by the pupils, and lists suitable for reading by teachers. I have presented also a bibliography, pages 633 el seq., of such books as a school library may reasonably be expected to have.

8. The length of the lessons to be assigned daily must depend upon so many different elements in different schools as greatly to vary. Reviews are of extreme importance in history. Every day should include a review, as well as an advance. There should also be days wholly given up to reviews, and these should come frequently. We who are grown up never tire of reviews when we make them for ourselves, because we introduce with the old material some that is new, making the whole body of knowledge vital and interesting. At the time of the review, simple analyses, such as have been introduced upon some of these pages, may be placed upon the blackboard.

9. The topical recitation by the pupil standing at his desk is a very good method of interesting the individuals and the class in history, and consequently should be introduced frequently to vary the brisk question-and-answer recitation in which all members of the class are involved. In my own experience, which has included the teaching of many classes in history, I have found that the most successful device is that of sending a few pupils to the blackboard, each to write a few sentences on different topics. These sentences are then discussed by the class. As this exercise correlates with instruction in English language and grammar, it becomes an

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS.

extremely valuable one in the child's education. Further, it requires the child to express history through written language, thus employing eye and hand ; and when the sentences are read, the ear also is trained.

10. Students often find interesting newspaper accounts both of recent events, and of history long past. While the reading of such accounts must not be allowed to interfere with the progress of the class in s} T stematic and progressive study, yet due attention to this current literature helps to develop an enthusiasm in historical study that is the certain guarantee of the student's improvement in knowledge and understanding.

11. The preparation of compositions and essays upon history gives opportunity to the pupils to make booklets and pamphlets illustrated by their own work with pen, pencil, or brush, and by pictures from magazines. Such compositions are always interesting additions to the annual school exhibit, and are highly prized by the pupils themselves.

12. An extra-illustrated American history book may be made by taking two copies of this or another text and tearing them apart, to use the pages in as large a scrap-book as may seem advisable. Upon the large pages may then be pasted, or otherwise fastened, additional illustrations from books, or the student's own work, and also clippings or copies of passages from various other books, or from magazines, or from the student's own essays. Such an enlarged American history made each year by the class represents the student's own interests. A shelf full of such histories is a valuable record of a school's teaching through a period of years.

13. A visit to museums and libraries with historical collections stimulates interest. Often visits to scenes where famous events have taken place are also helpful. Historical fiction, when read critically, is not objectionable, since it quickens the imagination. A few good books are suggested in Appendix VII.

14. Everyone nowadays knows the helpfulness of the modern librarian of the public library. It is not perhaps quite as well known that the public librarian of a neighboring town or city is always ready to advise and to assist, and usually to lend books to the teacher of the village or country school.

AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY.

LOOKING BACKWARD FROM NOW.

Twelve Landmarks.

1898. The War with Spain.

1861-5. The Civil War.

1846-8. The Mexican War.

1812-5. Second War with Great Britain.

1803. The Louisiana Purchase.

1787. Adoption of the Constitution and Northwest Ordinance.

1733. Georgia, the last of the " Original States," is founded.

1607. Virginia, the first of the " Original States,' 1 is founded.

1541. De Soto discovers the Mississippi River.

1497. Cabot discovers the Continent of North America.

1492. Columbus discovers the " New AVorld" (San Salvador) .

The original date of American history is at the bottom.

Accessions of Territory.

Square Miles.

> by war and purchase . . . <

Philippine Islands S ( 114,000

1898. The Hawaiian Islands by annexation 7,000

1867. Alaska Purchase 577,000

1853. Gadsden Purchase 46,000

1848. Mexican Cession by war and purchase .... 523,000 1846. (Oregon Boundary settled.)

1845. Texas by annexation 371,000

1819. Florida Purchase ; . 59,000

1803. Louisiana Purchase 1,033,000

1783. British Recognition of American Independence.

10 DATES.

Great Expositions.

1904. Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis.

1902. Inter-State and West Indian at Charleston.

1901. Pan-American at Buffalo.

1898. Trans-Mississippi at Omaha.

1895. Southern Exposition at Atlanta.

1893. Columbian at Chicago.

1876. Centennial at Philadelphia.

1853. World's Fair at New York.

LOOKING FORWAED FEOM 1000 A. D.

Critical Dates.

1000 (?) The Northmen visit our coasts.

1492. Columbus discovers San Salvador, Oct. 12.

1497. The Cabots discover North America.

1513. Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean.

1522. Del Cano in Magellan's ship completes the first voyage

around the world. 1541. De Soto discovers the Mississippi River. 1565. The Spanish settle St. Augustine, Florida. 1598. The Spanish found Santa Fe, New Mexico. 1605. The French establish Port Royal (Annapolis) in Acadia.

1607. The English settle in Jamestown, Virginia.

1608. The French found Quebec.

1613. The Dutch found a trading-post on Manhattan Island (New

York). 1620. The English (Pilgrims) settle at Plymouth, Massachusetts. 1634. The English settle in Maryland. 1638. The Swedes settle on the Delaware River.

1664. The English take New Amsterdam and call it New York.

1665. The English settle in New Jersey. 1670. The English settle in South Carolina. 1682. The English found Philadelphia. 1689-97. King William's War.

1702-13. Queen Anne's War.

1718. The French found New Orleans.

DATES. 11

1732. The English establish Georgia.

1744-8. King George's War.

1748. A company is formed to make settlements on the Ohio River.

1754-63. French and Indian AVar.

1770. Boston Massacre.

1776. Declaration of Independence.

1778. French Alliance.

1787. The Constitution of the United States is adopted.

1789. Northwest Ordinance.

1789. George Washington becomes the first President.

1803. Napoleon Bonaparte sells the Louisiana Territory to us.

1807. Robert Fulton invents the steamboat.

1812-5. Second War with Great Britain.

1820. The Missouri Compromise becomes law.

1823. The Monroe Doctrine is published.

1828. The steam railroad is begun.

1832. Jackson replies to the Nullification Ordinance of South Carolina.

1844. Samuel F. B. Morse sends the first telegram.

1845. Texas is annexed. 1846-8. The Mexican War.

1846-57. The development of practical sewing-machines takes place.

1850. The Fugitive Slave Law is passed by Congress.

1854. " Uncle Tom's Cabin " is published.

1861-5. The Civil War.

1863. Lincoln puts into effect the Emancipation Proclamation.

1866. The first successful Atlantic Cable is laid.

1876. A. G. Bell invents the first successful telephone.

1879. Specie payment is resumed.

1883. First Civil Service Act is passed by Congress.

1898. War with Spain.

1898. The Hawaiian Islands are annexed.

1902. The President's Commission settles the coal-mine contro-

versy between " Capital and Labor. 1 '

1903. The Alaska Boundary is settled by arbitration.

PART THREE. Building the Nation, 1775-1789

CHAPTER ONE, Developing the Idea of a Nation CHAPTER TWO, The War of Independence . . CHAPTER THREE, The Story of Expansion . . CHAPTER FOUR, From Revolution to Constitution CHAPTER FIVE, Making the Fundamental Law

217 232

278 292 298

CONTENTS. 13

CHAPTER FOUR, American and European History ..'.-. 582 Review of the Story and Outlook 590

APPENDIX I. Admission of States 609

APPENDIX II. The Presidents and Their Parties . . . . 610

APPENDIX III. European Rulers in American History . . 611

APPENDIX IV. Immigration Statistics 612

APPENDIX V. The Declaration of Independence .... 613

APPENDIX VI. The Constitution of the United States . . 617

APPENDIX VII. Bibliographical Notes 633

INDEX 000

LIST OF MAPS AND CHIEF ILLIJSTEATIONS.

PAGE

The United States, including

Extensions of Territory . Front.

Physical Relief Map of the

United States 20

The Known and Unknown

The First Circumnavigation of

Route of the Northmen ... 39 Ancient Trade Routes to the

East and New Sea Route . 41 The New World and the Great

Voyages 46

The Expedition of De Soto . 52 The Claims of European Nations in America (4 maps) . 76 The Middle Colonies .... 83 The Grants to the London and Plymouth Companies . . 92

England in 1600 93

The Northern Colonies ... 98 Early New England . . . .102 The Southern Colonies . . . 121 The Indians in 1600 .... 133 King Philip's War .... 142 The French Forts and Settlements in Mississippi Valley . 165

Louisburg, 1745 168

The Early French Wars . .169

The French and Indian War . 172 Before and After the French

and Indian War . . . . 181

Kentucky and Tennessee . . 188

Map of Boston 236

The Campaigns of 1775 and

1776 239

Washington's Retreat from

Long Island 241

Clinton's Retreat from Philadelphia 255

Cornwallis's Campaign . . . 266 The Thirteen Original States

and their Land Claims . . 278

PAGE

The Philippine Islands . . 280

Porto Rico 281

The Hawaii Islands .... 282 The Progress of the Center of

Population 290

Black Outline Map of the

United States 291

The Mexican War and Cessions of Territory .... 433

Bird's-Eye View of Fortress Monroe ....... 461

The War in Virginia .... 464

The Vicksburg Campaign . . 472 The Battle of Gettysburg . . 476 Sherman's March to the Sea . 482 The War in Virginia . . . 486 Confederate Territory, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 (6

Outline War-Maps . . . 506-507 French Fort at Oswego . . . 176 Franklin's Letter to Strahan . 216 George Washington in Uniform 220 Signatures to the Declaration

of Independence .... 224 Signatures to the Constitution

of the United States ... 303 The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World .... 306 Washington's Welcome to

Theodore Parker's Placard Against the Fugitive Slave

Law 353

"Charleston Mercury*' Announcement of Secession

Ordinance 362

Dewey Arch, New York City . 404 Steel-Frame Construction of a

Modern Building .... 528 In all, 51 Maps, 14 Facsimiles of Handwriting, and 221 Pictures.

OUTLINE OF THE STOEY.

1492-1904.

§ 1. The Age of Discovery and Exploration, 1492-1607. More than four hundred years ago, the people who lived upon the other side of the Atlantic Ocean discovered that the lands that they knew were not all of the earth. To one man, Christopher Columbus, belongs the credit of the discovery of a New World, 1492, but by many men the truth of the discovery was confirmed till all people knew that the earth is round, and that two vast continents are west of Europe, three thousand miles away. For a hundred and more years after Columbus, sailors and soldiers came in slow-sailing ships from Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, and England to explore the wonderful land of which men had only dreamed before. Here they marched hundreds and thousands of miles, toiling, fighting, praying, and dying, some for gold, some for " the passage to India," some for lands for their sovereigns, and some for the souls of the native Indians.

§ 2. The Amazing Success of Three Centuries, 1607-1904.

Scarcely three centuries ago these adventurous spirits from across the sea, to whom Europe was beginning to seem like an Old World, hopeless, made their first efforts permanently to settle here. The history of our country, now the United States of North America, is the history of the permanent colonies that, beginning in Virginia, 1607, and Massachusetts, 1620, have steadily increased and multiplied, until from Maine to California, and from Florida to Washington, we have covered the land with the homes of

16 OUTLINE OF THE STORY.

eighty millions of people. Meantime we have secured independence from every nation in that Old World, whose offspring we are ; and we have grown rich beyond any other people, not only because Nature gave to this part of the earth great forests, extraordinarily fertile fields, abundant minerals in the mountains, and mighty lakes and rivers, but also because we are a self-governing nation of men equal before the law, to whom all opportunities have been in common.

§ 3. "Wars with the Red Men.

In these three hundred years since Virginia was first settled, great wars and little wars have been fought upon our soil. Our ancestors came here from different nations, and settled in various communities, often not friendly to each other. The " red men," who had been here for untold centuries before any white men had ever set foot upon this continent, usually resisted the advance of the new-comers into their hunting-grounds and gardens of corn and tobacco. We have had battles with the Indians within the memory of men now living, in the prime of their years, but the greatest Indian wars were fought two hundred years ago.

The great nations of Europe, especially France and England, were extremely jealous of each other two centuries ago, and each wished to get possession of all of North America above the Rio Grande, leaving to Spain all of Central and South America. When England had won the final victory, 1763, after long and terrible conflicts, the various colonies of settlers from England, France, Sweden, and Holland, all of which had been subject to her for a hundred years, found that they were expected to help pay the money-costs of these wars. They resisted the rule of

OUTLINE OF THE STORY. 17 the mother-country across the ocean, 1775-1783, and after a long war, in which they were greatly helped by France, they became the United States of North America, only a century and a quarter ago.

§ 4. A Nation with a Republican Constitution, 1787-1904.

The new nation adopted a republican Constitution, and elected the hero of the War of Independence, George Washington, our first President. EA'en at that time, 1787-1789, nearly two centuries after the first settlement in Virginia, there were less than four million citizens in the United States. But we soon began to grow very rapidly in numbers, and to spread over a vastly greater territory than that of the original thirteen States.

§ 5. The Early Expansion of the Republic, 1773-1803.

At first the colonists from Europe settled only along the Atlantic coast. At the time of the Revolutionary War there was but one town of any size more than a few miles from the sea-coast. This town was Lancaster in Pennsylvania. The largest cities were New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Charleston. But during the War of Independence and after it was over, our forefathers began to move their families into the West beyond the Appalachian Mountains. One of our great Presidents, Thomas Jefferson, secured beyond the Mississippi River a vast area, which then belonged to France, 1803 ; this purchase doubled the size of our country.

§6. The Terrible Question of the Negro Slaves was Involved in that of the Right of a State to Secede, 1820-1865.

The Northern section of the United States became very

largely industrial and commercial, while the Southern part

18 OUTLINE OF THE STORY.

had a wonderful agricultural development in raising cotton and tobacco. Free labor became the system in the North, and slave labor that in the South. This difference led to misunderstandings, which grew worse and worse through the years. Meantime the United States fought a war with Mexico, 1846-1848, securing as a result another vast area. The question whether in these vast new regions industry and agriculture were to be carried on by free labor or by slave labor, and the question whether a State of the United States has the right to withdraw from the Union of States so as to control all its affairs, political, social, economic, and international, finally led to a terrible conflict, 1861-1865.

§ 7. All Men Became Free and Equal before the Law, 1863-1870.

During this War of Secession, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, issued an Emancipation Proclamation, 1863, setting free all slaves in the States that had confederated against the Union. The results of this, the greatest civil war in the history of the nations of the world, were that slavery ceased, and that the Union of the States was maintained. These matters were legally settled by amendments, 1865-1870, to the Constitution.

§ 8. The Number and Wealth of Our People and the Extent of Our Empire.

By the beginning of the Civil War, the thirteen original States had added to their number twenty-one more ; and the total population was over thirty-two millions, more than six times as many as at the beginning of our nation, scarcely seventy years before. In the next forty years, despite the terrible loss of life and property due to the war, we grew in numbers to more than seventy-six million people.

OUTLINE OF THE STOKY. 19

The development of the railroads and of the telegraph lines, and the finding of precious and useful metals, together with many inventions in machinery and discoveries in science, and especially in electricity, have made us very rich. We purchased Alaska from Russia, in 1867, and gained Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands as the result of a war with Spain, which we began because of Spanish oppression in Cuba, and because of the destruction of an American naval vessel, the Maine, in Havana harbor, in 1898.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States had thirty-eight different cities with over one hundred thousand people each ; while the largest city, New York, only a hundred and ten years before then had only fortytwo thousand. Our largest city had three and a half million people, 1900, which was more than were in all the colonies together when the Revolutionary War began, in 1775.

§ 9. The Purpose of the Study of Our Country's History is that "We may become Wise as well as Loyal Citizens.

In a century and a quarter our nation has grown to be

a great power in the general affairs of all the nations of

the world, and our people have become in culture and wealth

equal to any other people. Such, in outline, is the history

of the United States. If we study all the rest of our lives,

we can never learn all the details of this rise of a great

nation, which has been more rapid and more astonishing in

its range and vigor than the rise of any other nation in

all the history of mankind. But we do not need to know

all the details. It is enough for us now to learn sufficient

facts to inspire us to be intelligent, good, and patriotic

citizens of so great and so dear a country.

SURFACE RELATIONS. 21

HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONS.

American history tells of —

1. The English settlement of the Atlantic coastal plain and of the New England foothills.

2. The winning of the St. Lawrence basin and of the great interior Mississippi basin by the French.

3. The conquest of New France, beyond the barriers of the Alleghany platean and of the Adirondacks, by the English.

4. The national independence- of the English colonies and the formation of the United States to hold the coastal plain as far south as Florida, and also New England, the Alleghany plateau, and the northeastern quarter of the Mississippi basin.

5. The settlement of " the land of the western waters."

6. The purchase of the western part of the Mississippi basin.

7. The purchase of the southeastern part of the Gulf- Atlantic coastal plain.

8. The Struggle between slavery, which held the Gulf- Atlantic coastal plain, and free-labor, which held the Alleghany plateau and the Ohio river section of the upper Mississippi basin, for the possession of the whole of the western part of the basin.

9. The annexation of Texas and the completion of our ownership of the Gulf coastal plain as far south as the Rio Grande.

10. The winning of nearly all of the great Rocky

22 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

Mountain plateau by war with Mexico, and the settlement of various localities in the Far West by adventurers in search of the precious metals.

11. The adjustment of our northern boundary by which we secured the rich Columbia plateau and valley.

12. The epochal war between the slaveholders who held all the Gulf-Atlantic coastal plain from the Rio Grande to the Delaware, the Mississippi valley from the rivers mouth to and above the Missouri, the Alleghany plateau to Mason and Dixon's Line, and the southern side of the Ohio valley, and the free-labor people in the regions north and west of the slave-labor regions.

13. The defeat of the barriers of the Alleghanies and of the Rockies by the steam locomotive running upon iron and later upon steel rails, and the demonstration that by means of steam transportation and of electric communication a democratic government can administer efficiently the affairs of a great people.

14. Through all this course of events the occupation of fertile soils, the finding of coal, iron, gold, silver, copper, and petroleum, discoveries in science, the accompanying progress in mechanical invention, the multiplication of our people, and the advance in personal liberty, culture, and morality, and in international power.

15. The development of a new and characteristic civilization, essentially better than that of any other land or time, and manifested in a wider region and by more people, the whole amounting to a practical demonstration of the economic value of religious and political liberty.

A thousand relations appear between the physical geography of our country and its history. To understand the

SURFACE RELATIONS. 23 principle, imagine how different the history would have been in the following conditions : —

1. If the Alleghanies had run east and west, the slaveholders could have fortified themselves impregnably behind that natural mountain barrier, and there would have been two or more nations here. Thus the Alps have separated the peoples of Europe into nations.

2. If the Mississippi River ran east, the story of settlement here would have been entirely different. Probably we would have become one solid nation, not a federation of States.

3. If the Rockies had been in the East and the Alleghanies in the West, it is likely that the whole land to-day would be Spanish by settlement from Mexico.

4. If a mountain plateau separated the St. Lawrence basin from the Mississippi, probably the French would never have held the Mississippi valley.

5. If all the country had been a great plain from the Rockies to the Atlantic, it is almost certain that Spain, France, and England would have fought upon this Continent, terrible wars, one feature of whose outcome is certain. Doubtless not a republic, but a monarchy, would be the government of whatever people were here.

6. If from Lake Superior there had stretched westward a great valley to the Pacific Ocean, the French certainly would have pushed on, still further extending the empire of New France. And if, at the same time, there had been a plateau where there is now the Mississippi valley, western Canada might have remained French to this day, while the English nation here would have been confined to the eastern part of our country.

24 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

7. If that bow of plateaus and mountains, resting upon a submerged plain which presents itself above the waters lying between North and South, in the form of the islands of the Greater and Lesser Antilles, had been a continuous land-barrier to the advance of the Spaniards, the discovery of the Pacific would have been long delayed. The first circumnavigation of the globe might not have taken place for a century. And the history of the sixteenth century in Europe as well as in America would have been very different from what it was.

SUGGESTED READINGS.

1. Brigham's Geographical Influences in American History.

2. Semple's American History and its Geographic Conditions.

3. Standard, textbooks of Physical Geography and such elementary school texts on Geography as deal with physiography.

4. West Indies, in Encyclopedia Britannica. Note map of oceandepths in Gulf of Mexico.

SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION.

1. Rivers as State and National Boundaries : also Rivers not Boundaries. Why not ?

2. Rivers as Inlets for Settlers, especially the Potomac and the Hudson.

3. The Mississippi and its Tributaries, especially the Ohio.

4. The Appalachian Ranges as Barriers.

5. The Arid West and its Effects : (a) Upon Early Exploration ; (6) Upon the Extension of Slavery ; (c) Upon Migration and Settlement, after 1848.

6. The many Harbors upon the Atlantic Coast in Relation to Early Settlement and Trade.

7. Lakes, Mountains, Forests, and Deserts as Boundaries of North American Nations.

8. Climate and the Indians : also the Relations of Coastal Plains, Mountains, River Valleys to Indian life.

Chapter I. The Early Sea Voyages

§ 1. Columbus Spent His Life in Adventure. In 1470, there came to Lisbon, the capital city, of Portugal, a sailor who was dreaming of lands far, far away on the western side of the ocean. He had barely escaped with his life from a sea-fight, and was borne ashore upon a plank from the wreck. Ever since he was a boy in Genoa, the great seaport town of Italy, Christopher Columbus had listened with eager soul to stories of strange adventures out on the Sea of Darkness, supposed by the common people to girdle the flat earth. Before he was thirty years of age he could say of himself, "Wherever ship has sailed, there have I journeyed." It was his life-mission to make a pathway for mankind across the stormy and mysterious Atlantic.