The history of the United States and its people

Front matter

THE HISTORY OF

THE UNITED STATES

AND ITS PEOPLE

CHAPTER I. PAGE 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 n.

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 HI.

Sir Walter Ralegh tries to settle a Colony in America . 14

Illustrations: Sir Walter Ralegh; Queen Elizabeth; Map, Roanoke Island ; Sir Francis Drake ; Ralegh on fire ; Indian pipes.

CHAPTER IV.

How Jamestown was settled 20

Illustrations : James I ; A merchant of the Virginia Company ; Present appearance of Jamestown ; The night-watch ; Captain John Smith ; Soldier with matchlockg^n ; Map, yamestown and Roatioke Island.

CHAPTER V.

The Starving Time, and what followed 26

Illustrations: Deliverance of Jamestown ; Lord De la Warr ; Pocahontas; Common people in the seventeenth century.

CHAPTER VI.

The Great Charter of Virginia, and the First Massacre by

THE Indians 32

Illustrations : English countryman ; countrywoman ; "Jack of the P'eather" ; The warning.

CHAPTER VII.

The Coming of the Pilgrims 37

Illustrations : Ship ; Puritan man ; Puritan woman ; Pilgrim farewell at Delft Haven; Map, Plymouth and Jatnestown ; Map, Vicinity of Plymouth ; "Welcomes Englishmen " ; Pilgrims going to church.

J. CONTENTS.

CHAPTER Vlir.

PAGE

Illustrations : Oliver Cromwell ; Puritan gentleman ; Puritan lady ; John Winthrop ; 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 first Maryland settlement \ Charles II ; Huguenot merchant and wife ; Map, Early Settlements in the Carolitias.

CHAPTER XI.

The Coming of the Quakers and others to the Jerseys and

Pennsylvania 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 of Georgia arid Car-olina ; a Georgia road ; Highland piper ; German countryman ; German countryvk'oman ; 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 15S5 ; Stone axe ; Indian kindling fire ; Making a canoe ; Indian vase ; Indian girl with baskets ; Indian girls with water-jars ; Pottery from Missouri.

CHAPTER XIV.

Early Indian Wars ji

Illustrations : Shell axe ; Florida warrior, 1565 ; Calumet ; Indian mask ; Iroquois Indian mask ; Belt of wampum ; King Philip ; North Carolina warrior, 1585.

CONTENTS. Xi

CHAPTER XV.

Traits of War with the Indians 86

Illustrations : War-club ; Matchlock ; Matchlock-gun ; Soldier with matchlock-gun ; Pikeman ; Matchlock-gun ; Snow-shoes ; Block-house ; Tail-piece.

CHAPTER XVI.

Life in the Colonial Time 91

ILLUSTRAIIONS : Cabin of round logs ; A calash ; Birch canoes ; Pack-horses ; School scene in 1740 ; A wedding in New Amsterdam ; Dut^.h woman skating.

CHAPTER XVII.

Farming and Shipping in the Colonies 99

Illustrations : Colonial plow ; Flag of the New York merchant-ships ; Ensign carried by New England ships ; Pirate Blackbeard.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Bondservants and Slaves in the Colonies . . . . 104

Illustrations : Enghsh farm laborer, seventeenth century ; Kidnapping a man for the colonies ; Sir John Hawkins.

CHAPTER XIX.

Laws and Usages in the Colonies 108

Illustrations : Drumming for meeting ; The ducking-stool ; The stocks ; Punishment of a drunkard.

CHAPTER XX.

The Spaniards in Florida, and the French in Canada , .113

Illustrations : Champlain ; Quebec in Champlain's time ; La Salle ; French gentleman, 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 ivas claimed be/ore 1 763.

CHAPTER XXI.

Colonial Wars with France and Spain 120

Illustrations : Map, The home of the Iroquois ; Queen Anne ; Old house at Deerfield \ 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 ; W^ashington rallying Braddock's troops ; Map, Braddock's march ; Sir William Johnson ; Map, Lake George and vicinity ; Lord Loudon.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Fall of Canada I34

Illustrations : William Pitt ; yVmherst ; Map, Acadia ; Wolfe ; Montcalm ; Wolfe scales the Heights of Abraham ; Map, Vicinity of Quebec ; Old view of C^uebec.

Xii COJVTEA'TS.

CHAPTER XXIV.

PAGE

Characteristics of the Colonial Wars with the French. . 139

Illustrations : French officer ; French reg:ular ; Canadian soldier ; FHnt-lock ; Indian moccasins ; Flint-lock gun ; Lord Howe ; Lord Howe washing his linen ; Rogers's slide, Lake George ; White captives ; Redoubt at Pittsburg, built 1764.

CHAPTER XXV.

How THE Colonies were Governed 148

Illustrations : Colonial court-house, Philadelphia ; A hatter's shop in old times.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Early Struggles for Liberty in the Colonies .... 153

Illustrations : The pillory as used in America ; Governor Andros.

CHAPTER XXVII.

The Causes of the Revolution 159

Illustrations : James Otis ; Patrick Henry ; Hanover Court-House ; Samuel Adams ; " The Boston Tea-party."

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The Outbreak of the Revolution, and Declaration of Independence 165

Illustrations : Pine-tree flag ; General Gage ; Ethan Allen ; Ruins of Ticonderoga ; Battle of Bunker Hill ; Map, The Revolution about Boston ; Rattlesnake flag ; Map, The Revolutionary War at large \ American flag, beginning of the Revolution ; 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 vicinity ; 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 i86

Illustrations : Uniforms of French soldiers in America ; Map, Revolutionary i>osts on the Hudson ; Benedict Arnold ; Major Andre ; Map, The Revolution at the

CONTENTS. Xiii

PAGB

South ; Colonel Tarleton ; one of Morgan's riflemen ; General Nathanael Greene ; Royal flag of France ; Lord Comwallis ; 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 ; American 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 XXXIII.

Adoption of the Constitution 194

CHAPTER XXXIV.

The New Republic and its People 200

Illustrations : George Washing^ton ; Diagram of comparative popttlation ; 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 XXXV.

Home and Society in Washington's Time 209

Illustrations : Wool-wheel ; Flax-wheel ; Hat of Washington's time ; High head-dress of the time.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Washington's Presidency, from 1789 to 1797 213

Illustrations : Martha Washington ; Alexander Hamilton ; Kentucky captives ; General St. Clair ; Anthony Wayne ; Map, Wayne's campaign ; Mount Vernon.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Troubles with England and France. — Presidency of John

Adams 221

Illustrations: John Jay ; John Adams; Cannoneer, 1797; Seaman, 179S ; The White House.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Election of Jefferson. — War with Tripoli . . ^ . . 225

Illustrations : Jefferson's seal ; Thomas Jefferson ; American seaman in Jefferson's time ; American soldiers about 1800 ; Map, The Barbary states ; Stephen Decatur.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

The Settlement of the Great Valley 231

Illustrations : Daniel Boone ; Map, Northwest Territory.

Xiv CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XL.

The Purchase of Louisiana, and the Treason of Aaron Burr 238

ILI.USTRATIONS : Maps, The United States be/o7-e the piircliase of Louisiana ; The United States after the purchase of Louisiana ; Aaron Burr.

CHAPTER XLL Beginning of the Second War with England . . . .242

Illustrations: George Clinton ; Tecumseh ; Map, Tippecatioe battle-ground \ The Prophet ; Map^ Detroit and the Western forts ; Madison's home at MontpeHer.

CHAPTER XLH.

The Navy in the War of 1812 . 2a8

Illustrations : James Madison ; Constitution and Guerriere ; British flag ; Mrs. Madison ; The Constitution ; Seaman, 1815 ; Lawrence.

CHAPTER XLHL The Army in the War of 181 2 255

Illustrations: Map, Detroit and vicinity; Infantryman, 1812-1834 ; Perry; Map, Battle of Lake Erie ; French Canadian ; Frencli Canadian woman ; Afap, Limdy's Lane and vicinity; Map, Battle of Lake Champlain ; Macdonough ; Map, British capture of Washington; The Star-Spangled Banner, 1 795-1818; Map, Jacksoii's defeiise of Neiv 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

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 ; Henrj' Clay ; Birthplace of Clay ; Daniel Webster ; Webster's home.

CHAPTER XLVL The Steamboat, the Railroad, and the Telegraph . . .277

Illustrations -. i^obert 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.

COiV TENTS. XV

PACK

CHAPTER XLVII.

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 XLIX.

The Question of Slavery in Politics 295

Illustrations : Zachary Taylor ; Millard Fillmore ; Franklin Pierce.

CHAPTER L.

Break-up of Old Parties.— Approach of the Civil War . . 301

Illustrations : Stephen A. Douglas ; James Buchanan.

CHAPTER LI.

How THE Great Civil War began 306

Illustrations : Map, Charleston and vicinity ; Jefferson Davis ; Confederate flag of 1861 ; Map, Seceding .States.

CHAPTER LU.

Confederate Victory at Bull Run.— The First Western Campaign . . . 311

Illustrations : Map, Campaigns in Kentucky and IVest Virginia ; Map, First battle of Bull Run ; Irvin McDowell ; P. G. T. Beauregard ; Charging an earthwork ; Map, Battles in Missouri and Arkansas ; Andrew H. Foote ; John Pope ; Map, From Fort Donelson to Corinth ; A. S. Johnston ; D. C. Buell.

CHAPTER LHI.

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 catnpaign 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 Neiv Orleans ; Braxton Bragg ; Map, The campaign against Vicksburg.

xvi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER LV.

PAGE

The Campaign between Nashville and Atlanta 329

Illustrations: Holding the line; W. S. Rosecrans; Map, Battles about Chattanooga; George H. Thomas, J. E. Johnston; J. B. Hood; Map, From Nashville to Atlanta.

CHAPTER LVI.

From the Wilderness to Petersburg. — The War in the Valley . . 334

Illustrations: Ulysses S. Grant; Robert E. Lee; Map, Wilderness campaign; Map, The Valley campaign; Jubal Early; Philip H. Sheridan; Cold comfort.

CHAPTER LVII.

Close of the Civil War 312

Illustrations: General Schofield; William Tecumseh Sherman; Map, Sherman's march; Map, Lee's retreat.

CHAPTER LVni.

Traits and Results of the Civil War. — Death of Lincoln . . . 346

Illustration: Abraham Lincoln.

CHAPTER LIX.

Political Events since the Civil War 352

Illustrations: Andrew Johnson; Rutherford B. Hayes; James A. Garfield; Chester A. Arthur; Grover Cleveland; Benjamin Harrison.

CHAPTER LX.

The Administration of McKinlev 365

Illustrations: William McKinley; Map, The Election of jSq6; The Maine; Dewey; Map. Field of the Campaign in Cuba; Sampson; One of the Destroyed Spanish Ships; Miles; Map, The Philippine Islands; Map, Puerto Rico; Lowering the American Flag to make Way for that of the Cuban Republic; William J. Bryan.

' CHAPTER LXI.

The Administration of Roosevelt 374

Illustration: Theodore Roosevelt.

CHAPTER LXn.

The Administr.\tion of Taft 380

Illustrations: William H. Taft; Map, The Distribution of the Population in iQio; The S. S. Titanic.

CONTENTS. xvii

CHAPTER LXIII. page

The Condition of the Country under Wilson's Administration . . 394

Illustrations: Map, The Election of 1912; Woodrow Wilson; Hiram W. Johnson; William Sulzer; John Pierpont Morgan; A Modern Steam Locomotive; A Modern Electric Locomotive; Map, The Progress of Prohibition; Map, Woman Suffrage in IQI2; The Culebra Cut on the Panama Canal; Map, The Panama Canal Zone; The Gatun Lock on the Panama Canal.

CHAPTER LXIV.

Development of the Country 412

Illustrations: The Oregon in Battle of July 3, 1898; Map, Alaska; Table showing Growth of Manufacturing and Industry in the United States; Table shmving Relative Areas of the United States as Compared with European Countries; Map, The United States and its Dependencies; Custer; Indian of the Plains Watching for Buffaloes; Battle of Washita.

CHAPTER LXV.

Population, Wealth and Modes of Living 420

Illustrations: Map, The Center of Population, 17Q0-IQ10; The Pennsylvania Fireplace, Invented by Franklin; Old Fireplace.

CHAPTER LXVI.

Science, Literature and Art in the United States from the Earliest

Times to 1913 424

Illustrations: Doctoress Gathering Herbs; A Quack Doctor at a Fair; Rittenhouse; Washington Irving; William Cullen Bryant; Henry W. Longfellow; Oliver Wendell Holmes; Edgar Allan Poe; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Mark Twain; Harriet Beecher Stowe; William H. Prescott; John J. Audubon; Benjamin West; John S.Copley; Gilbert Stuart; Thomas A. Edison; Wilbur Wright; Robert E. Peary.

m nvwrnw'

■;i 'ifrvT'Miii'ii" ^^^«r!'\T

CHAPTER L

HOW COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA.

It is now about four hundred years since Columbus Trade with udia

in the time of

discovered 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 K people who lived in those far-away lands. '^^ ' ''

A SAILOR OF THAT TIME l:Z^:Zl.. ^^^^^" Columbus was a boy, there was a prince ot

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 books, that there was a way to get around Africa to India and China, and thus to bring the spices and other commodities of those lands to Europe by sea. 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. To?JJlll°' 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 Iceland. Columbus married the daughter of a Portuguese navigator, and thus came into possession of his charts.

HOW COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA.

As learned men already believed the world to be round, Columbus asked : Why try to get to India and China by going around x\frica? 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 smaller 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. So that Columbus coiumbus pro.

, . 1 A • • r • 1 poses a new

discovered America in consequence of two mistakes. way to india.

He first offered to make this discovery for the city of Genoa, in which he was born. Then he offered his plan to the King of Portugal. But a voyage on the False notions great Atlantic Ocean seemed a dreadful thing in those 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 ^ ^'^'p ^^^^

° ^ ^ 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 coiumbus

1 rr r i r ■ ^• i ^ " '" Spain.

rebuii from the great, no amount ot ridicule, no bitter-

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.

FERDINAND AND ISABfci_L, ness of poverty, could ever make him give up his great thought of discovering the western boundary of the Atlantic. 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 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 sailors for his voyage. The matter was at one time referred 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 considered 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 a strong appeal to the Spanish queen, which so

STERN OF

ANCIENT

WAH-SHIP.

HOW COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA.

and his discovery of land.

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, "'^ departure on

his great voyage,

1492, with three small vessels, two of which were without decks, and he was more than two months on the voyage. The sailors were more and more frightened as they found themselves going farther and farther out of the known world. They sometimes threatened to pitch Columbus overboard and return.

He kept their courage up by every means he could think of, even by concealing from them how

far they had come. The flight of land-birds, the discovery 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 morning 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

THE PART OF THE WORLD KNOWN WHEN COLUMBUS SAILED IS IN WHITE.

him ; they now crowded about him to embrace him or to kiss his hands.

What h« had Instead of finding the rich cities of Asia, Columbus

found.

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 discovered larger islands, and then sailed homeward. Return of f^e took with him to Spain some of the wild inhab-

Columbus.

itants, who were exhibited at the court in all their showy decorations of paint and feathers, and he also made a display of the golden ornainents he had procured. 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 w^elcome him, and made him sit down in their presence, a favor never shown except to the greatest grandees. The people, who had believed him a fool when he went away, followed him with cheers as he walked along the street.

Later voyages Columbus, in his sccoud voyage to America, planted

of Columbus. -^ ^ ^

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. y

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 Discoveries before Columbus.

believe that America may have been visited from Europe before the time of Columbus. The inhabitants of Scandinavia (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 100 1, 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 1 70, discovered land to the west of Ireland, and took a colony thither, which was never heard of afterward. If these stories of Leif and Madoc represent real voyages, the discoveries which they relate would probably never have been recalled to memor}^ if Columbus had not opened a wide door at the right moment.

HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES.

CHAPTER IL

Naming of America.

Voyages of

Atnericus

Vespucius.

OTHER DISCOVERIES IN AMERICA.

A FART of the glorv of Columbus's great discovery was taken awav from him bv accident. Instead of bearing the name of the great navigator whose persevering devotion to an idea led him to discover it, the western hemisphere is named after Amerigo Vespucci, better known to us as Ameri- ^ cus Vespucius, the Latin form of his name. Vespucius was born in Florence, but he removed to Spain a little before Columbus sailed on his first voyage. He was with an expedition that discovered a part of South America in 1499. A false claim was made that Vespucius saw that continent twc years earlier. But it is now believed that this first date is incorrect ; there are documents which go to show that Vespucius was in Spain during all that year, so that the earliest discover}- of the South American Continent was by Columbus in 1498.

Americus undoubtedly went to America several times, both from Spain and Portugal. In 1503 he built a fort on the coast of Brazil ; and he left there a little colony, the first in that part of South America. Ferdinand of Spain made him pilot-major of his kingdom in 1508, and he died in 15 12. Americus wrote pleasantl}* about the new lands which he had seen, and some German geographers were so pleased with his descriptions that they called the country America, in honor of Americus, supposing him to have first seen the continent. When North America came to be placed on the maps,- this name was

OTHER DISCOVERIES IN AMERICA.

CABOT AT MECCA.

applied to it also. Thus, nearly half the world goes by the name of a man who had no claim to be called its discoverer.