Stories of American discoverers for little Americans

Front matter

^ E

,:::, .ECLECTIC READINGS

STORIES OF

Preface

The study of history is not ordinarily enjoyed by children. This is perhaps due to the fact that the text-book employed is dull, or that the subject is not of interest to the teacher presenting it, or to the fact that the pupil's previous experience with the primary grade history stories has not been such as to create any desire for fuller knowledge of the subject.

Now and then a girl or a boy is found to whom the study appeals, who sees the plan of action, who delights in the carrying out of large and small designs, to whom accidents have their meanings. Such a pupil has a mind for more than dry facts. He seizes upon the romance of the situation, whether it be in the case of Columbus with his handful of men crossing an unknown sea, or in the case of the last political campaign. It is in the hope of helping more minds to attain to this condition that these stories have been written.

The discoverers and explorers of the Western Hemisphere have, in their adventures, given us a fair field from which to glean stories wonderful enough to hold the attention of young children The swords and helmets of these men shine as brightly as those of even fairy princelings. What they dared and did is not less than the deeds

VI

PREFACE of him who cHmbed the glass hill or of Jack of Beanstalk fame. What they searched for is not less wonderful than the bird from whose wings dropped golden feathers, or the cambric which was drawn through the eye of a needle. And what they found appeals to the imagination in as great a degree as the finding of enchanted castles and fairy gold.

It is the aim of these stories so to deal with the adventurers and the adventures that the first touch of history shall come to the pupil in the form of tales as amazing as those in the well-loved fairy books. That these tales are true should not detract from their power to interest. Live men instead of tinseled princes played the great games herein recorded — at what cost of peril and hardship !

As nearly as possible the stories are written in chronological order, and in several instances are somewhat connected, since the lives of many of the adventurers were interwoven. An attempt has been made to define so plainly the explorations by the different nations that the reason for the occupation of the two continents in parts by the Spanish, English, French, and Dutch will be readily comprehended and perhaps remembered.