A grammar-school history of the United States

Front matter

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Sheldon & Compa77/y's Text-!Books,

Section I

1. When America was discovered by Christopher Cokimbus, ahnost four hundred years ago, its inhabitants were all of a reddish brown color. Thinking he had reached a country then known as the East Indies, Columbus called these inhabitants Indians. By that name they are now known in every part of America.

2. The Indians in the colder parts of America were dressed in the skins of wild-beasts, and in the warmer parts they were almost naked. They got their food chiefly by hunting and fishing. They also raised a grain which was called Indian corn, and a few vegetables.

3. The Indians were divided into large and small families. The larger were known as Nations, and each spoke a different language. The smaller were known as Tribes, and the languages of these, in the same Nation, were sometimes different. They lived in huts made of poles, covered with the bark of trees or the skins of beasts, which were called wigwams.

Questions. — i. What can you tell about the inhabitants of America, when Columbus came, and the name given them ? 2. Tell about their clothing and food. 3. Tell about their language and dwellings.

A WIGWAM.

THE INDIANS.

WAR WEAPONS.

4. The Indians were generally warlike ; and Nations and Tribes fought each other with bows and arrows, clubs, hatchets of stone and iron called tomahawks, and knives. Like the inhabitants of Europe, these enemies would b*^- come friends, when the chief men of opposing parties would sit together around a large tire and smoke a

pipe that was passed from one to the other, in token of friendship. This was called calumet, or pipe of peace.

5. The religion of the Indians was simple. They believed in a Great Good Spirit, and a Great Evil Spirit ; and anything which they could not understand or control, like the sun, moon and stars, lightning, wind, fire and water, they thought to be a kind of god. They believed that at death, each one went to a beau- calumets. tiful land where there was plenty of game ; and so, when a man was buried, they put into his grave bows and arrows to use in that spirit-land.

6. Their Government, also, was very simple. The head ruler or President, was called Sachem^ and the head warrior, Chief. The Sachem listened to the talk in great meetings or councils, and decided what was best for all to do. The warriors followed the Chief wherever he might lead. These head men were chosen by the people, to lead them.

7. Such were the inhabitants of America when Columbus discovered it. They were nearly all wanderers, doing almost nothing towards raising grain and fruit. White men

Questions. — 4. What can -you tell about their wars and peacemaking ? 5. What did they believe ? 6. What can you tell me about their government ? 7. What were their habits, and what will be their fate.

THE INDIANS.

MEETING OF WHITE MEX AND INDTAN8.

came from Europe to do so ; and ever since that time, the Indians have been going further from the sea, into the forests, and are becoming fewer every year. They will finally become extinct as a separate people.

DISCOVERIES.

CHAPTER I I.

THE GREAT SAILORS OR DISCOVERERS.

SECTION I.

THE DISCOVERERS FROM SPAIN.

I. Christopher Columbus, noa, in Italy, was an eminent born in Gesailor. He made a voyage to Iceland where he heard, no doubt, of some bold seamen of the northern countries of Europe who in small vessels crossed the Atlantic Ocean to America several hundred years before.

2. At that time the countrymen of Columbus were masters of the Mediterranean Sea, .^^j and had a profitable trade with the people IToRTHMAN. of that part of Asia, called India. The merchants of the western part of Europe wished to trade there too, but the Italians would not allow them to sail over the Mediterranean Sea. So they sought some other way to get there.

ed around the southern point of Africa called the Cape of Good Hope, and then across a broad ocean to India. It was a long voyage, and the merchants of Spain and Portugal desired a shorter way.

Questions —I. What can you tell about Columbus and northern sailors ? 2. What did the Italians do about trade with India ? 3. What can you tell about Portuguese Navigators } What did Columbus believe ?

DISCOVERERS FROM SPAIN.

Columbus, then in Portugal, meditated upon it. He believed the Earth to be round like an orange and not flat like a cake as everybody then believed it to be. He believed India could be reached as well by sailing westward as by sailing eastward, and that it was not half as far to it across the Atlantic Ocean as around the Cape of Good Hope.

4. With these ideas Columbus asked for help in fitting a ship in which he mi^ht search for In-

COLUMBUS.

dia. He first asked the King of England to help him. He refused. So did the King of Portugal. Then he went to Spain on the same errand.

5. Ferdinand, the King of Spain, had a pious wife, name Isabella.

She, like Columbus, was a Christian, and when he told her that one of his objects was to carry a knowl-

THE VESSELS OF COLUMBUS.

edge of Christianity to the heathen, she promised to help him even though she should be compeUed to sell the diamonds in her crown to enable her to buy a ship for him.

6. Ferdinand was

Questions. — 4. What did Columbus do ? 5. What can you tell about Columbus and Queen Isabella ? 6. What did the Queen do?

DISCOVERIES.

willing to have Isabella help Columbus, and she fitted out two ships for him. His fi-iends fitted out another and larger one, and the three vessels, well-manned, left; the town of Palos, on the Tinto River, in Spain, on the 3d day of August, 1492.

7. Week after week they sailed on westward, out of sight of land. All but Columbus grew afraid, and wanted to turn back, when, just at sunset one day in October, the air was filled with the perfume of flowers. Columbus knew

Question. — 7. Tell about the voyage of Columbus.

DlSCOVEREPvS FROM SPAIN.

that land was nigh. He watched all night, and in tlie morning he saw green forests, and heard birds singing.

8. The voyagers had reached the islands of the Bahama group not far from the continent. They all went ashore.

where they saw men, women and children hiding among the bushes, in fear. They were copper-colored, and had never seen white men before. Thinking the island was a part of India, he called the inhabitants, Indians.

9. Columbus called the island on which he landed, San Salvador, the Spanish words for Holy Savior. He afterward found other islands in the neighborhood, and these were called the West Indies. When he returned to Spain, the King and Queen rewarded him with riches and honors.

10. When the news of the discovery of Columbus spread, another Italian named Amerigo Vespucci came over the Atlantic [1499] with Ojeda, one of the companions of the former. He visited the West India Islands, sailed southward, and discovered the American Continent near the mouth of the Oronoco river, in South America.

II. When Amerigo returned, he published a letter [1504] givmg an account of his discov-

Questions. — 8. What occurred at the end of the voyage of Coiumbus ? 9. What did Columbus then do, and what did he receive ? 10. Tell about another Italian discoverer. 11. How came America to receive its name ?

DISCOVERIES.

eries, and the newly-found world was named America, in honor of him. Colmnbus was not allowed to publish an account of his discoveries, so he lost the honor of having the country called by his name.

12. Many Spanish people went to live in the West India Islands, especially in Cuba, the largest. Among them was John Ponce de Leon, who was told that on an island northwest from Cuba, was a spring, whose waters, if used, would keep him perpetually young. He sailed [15 12] in search of this fountain of youth.

13. De Leon did not find the spring, but he discovered that portion of our country, called Florida, which was so named by that adventurer partly because he found it a land covered with flowers. Other Spaniards went to., the same countiy afterward, under De Soto, and traveling westv/ard, discovered the Mississippi River [1541.] Others, chiefly warriors under Fernando Cortez, had sailed to Mexico. These took possession of that country in 1521. The natives were ill-treated by these Spaniards everywhere.

A SPAMr<U V,'.'

Section II. The Discoverers From England And France

I. When it was known in Europe that a new World had been found beyond the Atlantic Ocean, Kings and merchants, especially in England, Holland, Spain, France and Italy, were anxious to have some profitable connection with it.

Questions. — 12. What can you tell about a fountain of perpetual youth ? 13, What did De Leon discover ? What did other Spaniards do ? I. What effect did the knowledge of the discoveries of Columbus have ?

ENGLISH DISCOVERERS.

II Sebastian Cabot

2. Henry, the King of England who refused to listen to Columbus before his first voyage, [Verse 4, page 7], was now glad to do all he could to assist John Cabot and others, who were merchants in Bristol, in sending ships across the Atlantic in search of new countries.

3. Four years and a half after Columbus made his first voyage, John Cabot prepared two ships, and with these liis son Sebastian sailed. He was then a young man about twenty years of age.

At first he sailed towards Greenland j then he turned southward, and in the course of a few weeks he came in sight of the rugged shores of Labrador.

4. Cabot did not land, but sailed southward, and discovered a large island, which he properly named Newfound-land. There he saw great numbers of cod-fishes, which are yet abundant ' in the sea in that region. He landed at several places, and then sailed to England to tell his countrymen of the new world he had found.

5. Young Cabot crossed the Atlantic Ocean the next year, and sailed all along America from the icy coasts of Labrador to the sunny shores of our Carolinas. He was the first discoverer of North America, for this voyage along the shores of the United States was made about fourteen years before John Ponce de Leon, [verse 13, p. 10], landed in Florida.

6. Sebastian was a ver)' great sailor, and was upon the ocean nearly all his life.

He sailed all along the coast of

Questions. — 2. What did the King of England do ? 3. Who sailed for America from England, and how ? 4. What did Cabot * discover ? 5. What else did he do ? 6. What other discoveries did Cabot make .''

DISCOVERIES.

Brazil, in South America, discovered the great river La Plata, and wept on its bosom in a boat four hundred miles up into the broad wilderness. He lived to be a very old man.

7. After Cabot had told of the many codfishes near Newfoundland, bold sailors went from England, Brittany, and Normandy, to catch them, and were very successful. Some of these fishermen saw the neighboring coasts of Nova Scotia, and the stories they told of the beautiful land there, got to the ears of Francis, the first French King of that name.

8. At that time there was a great sailor in France, who came from Florence. His name was John Verrazzani. The king fitted out four vessels, with plenty of men and provisions, and sent Verrazzani with them [1524] to explore the coasts of America along which Cabot had sailed.

9. Three of Verrazzani's ships were injured by a storm, and he crossed the Atlantic with only one. He first reached the coast of our North Carolina, and then he went into almost every bay from there to Newfoundland. He talked a great deal with the Indians who came out of the

woods to see him and his big canoe, as they called his ship. He named the whole country New France.

10. Ten years afterward, another great sailor, named James Cartier, came from France [1534] to this New World. He first landed at Newfoundland. Afterward he sailed into a great gulf and the mouth of a very and then returned to

CARl'IER S SUIP.

large river.

France.

Questions. — 7. What did other sailors do, and what was discovered ? 8. What was done in France ? 9. Tell about Verrazzani's voyage. 10. What other French sailor came to America, and what did he see ?

FRENCH DISCOVERERS.

11. Cartier came back in another ship the next year, and sailed up that great river to a town which the Indians called Hochelaga. He named the gulf and the river, St. Lawrence. The Indian town he called Mont Real, or Royal Mountain, because there was a high mountain just behind it.

12. The St. Lawrence flows between the United States and Canada, a part of the way, and Montreal [Mont Real] is now a large city. From that place Cartier wickedly carried away the King of the Indians, whom he coaxed to go on board of his ship. He took him to France, where he died of a broken heart. This circumstance made the Indians hate the white people, and give them trouble after, ward.

13. A few other French sailors came to explore America soon afterward. But the French King had his hands so full of business at home, because his people had commenced fighting each other, that he paid no more attention to fitting out ships to sail to America.

14. That Civil War, as the fighting of one part of a people against another, is called, was between Roman Catholics and Protestants, who quarrelled and fought because they could not agree about the true way to worship God.

15. There was an eminent man in France at that time, named Coligny. He was a Huguenot, as the Protestants in France were then called. As the Roman Catholics were a stronger party, he wished to find a place for his friends to live in with more peacefulness than they could in France, and he believed that America would be just the place for them.

16. So Coligny helped a good many of the Huguenots

Questions. — 11. What did Cartier afterward do .? 12, What wicked thing did he do "i 13, 14. What now happened in France ? 15. What can you tell about the Huguenots .'' 16. What did they do .''

to fit out ships in which to sail to America. Tliey came over in the Spring of 1562, or a Uttle more than three hundred years ago. They landed in Florida near where John Ponce de Leon did when he gave the country that name. [Verse 13, p. 10].

17. The Huguenots did not like the spot, and sailed northward to Carolina. But these nearly all perished. Two years afterward some more came, and ~^ lived in tents on the coast of Florida, while they PRENcnMAN IN 1560. ^gj-g bulldlng 3. fort, which they named Carolina, in honor of King Charles of France.

1 8. The Spaniards claimed Florida as theirs, because John Ponce de Leon, a Spaniard, first saw it. Melendez, a warrior, went there [1565] with many soldiers, and laid the foundation of the city of St. Augustine. There he killed almost a thousand of the French setders, partly because he and his men, and his king, did v not believe what the Frenchmen did in rehgion.

19. When these events were known in France, a brave soldier, named De Gourges, sailed to America with many others, and killed nearly all of the Spaniards. So the white people were in Florida no more. That first white settlement in Eastern North America was broken up, and the Indians - had the whole country to themselves again,

. , . FRENCH S'LDIEB IN

lor a long time. Florida.

20. Some of the great English sailors supposed they could get to India by going northwest, not dreaming that

Questions. — 17. What happened to them.? 18. What did the Spaniards do ? 19. What did French soldiers do ? 20. What can you tell about searches for a north-west passage to India ?

ENGLISH DISCOVERERS. I5

they would find the ocean in that direction continually covered with ice. So, many years after Cabot discovered North America, Martin Frobisher and others crossed the Atlantic to find a northwest jDassage, and to seek gold in the rough soil of Labrador. They found neither, were discouraged, and went no more.

21. When that remarkable woman, Elizabeth, was the Queen of England, she and her chief men heard of the beautiful region of our North and South Carolina, which received the name from the French fort Carolina. Some of the Huguenots in Florida, who escaped the massacre by the Spaniards, went to sea in a boat. They were picked up and carried to England, and it was they who told the queen about that fine country.

22. Elizabeth was delighted, and recommended her navigators to take people to that warmer climate to till the soil, rather than to Labrador in search of gold which they were not likely to find. So it was that the attention of the English was first turned toward the more Southern and delightfijl portions of the coasts of North America.

23. At that time there was a worthy and wealthy young Englishman, named Walter Raleigh, and a favorite of Queen Elizabeth. His step-brother^ Sir Humphrey Gilbert, was one ^^'^''^^ ^^'•^'"°-

of the most eminent of the English navigators, at that time, and had thought of planting a colony.

24. Gilbert proposed an expedition for the purpose, to

Questions.— 21, 22. How came the attention of the English to be called to the Carolina coasts ? 23. What can you tell about two eminent Englishmen.-* i6

DISCOVERIES.

EALEiGn's snip.

Raleigh. The Queen gave them permission to undertake it : and early in the year 1579, they both started for America. Storms and Spanish enemies soon drove them back, and they gave up the voyage.

25. Four years afterward Gilbert started again, but did not reach Carolina. He was at Newfoundland awhile, and then started for home. A dreadful storm arose, which beat so heavily upon the ship he was in, that at midnight it went to the bottom of the sea with Gilbert and all on board.

26. Raleigh was much grieved at the loss of his step* brother. But he was a man of courage. He had much wealth left, so he fitted out two more ships to carry people to America. They were commanded by two good sailors, named Amidas and Barlow.

27. It was in the hot month of July, [1584] when Raleigh's ships reached the Carolina coast. The people in them landed on an island which the Indians called Roanoke. They traded with the Indians for several weeks, and then returned to England. Two Indian chiefs who wished to see the world went to England with them.

28. Queen Elizabeth and Raleigh were delighted with the stories which Amidas and Barlow told them, about the beautiful

Roanoke and the main land near by. The Queen called the whole country Virginia. It was the same region which

ENGLISH GENTLEMAN,

Questions. — 24. What did Raleigh and Gilbert do ? 25. What happened to Gilbert afterward ? 26 What did Raleigh then do ? 27. What can you tell about the English at Roanoke .-* 28. How came the region of Virginia to be called by that name ?

ENGLISH DISCOVERERS. I7

Verrazzani had named Neiv Fratice [verse 9, page 12] sixty years before.

29. Queen Elizabeth granted the use of the whole country to Raleigh, who prepared to send settlers there with a prospect of making a large fortune for himself, for he was to share in all the gold they might find. So, in the Spring of the following year [1585] he sent Sir Richard Grenville, with seven ships to carry settlers to Roanoke Island.

30. Grenville and his party landed in June, and the natives were glad to see the two chiefs back again, who had returned with this expedition. These natives differed from the more Northerly Indians. They lived in houses, and had fine gardens, and fields of maize or Indian corn, and tobacco. Some of the latter was sent to England ; and it is said that Raleigh was the first man who smoked it, in Europe.

31. The Indians treated the English well, but were used so badly in turn that they determined to kill them all. At this time Grenville went back to England with the ships, and the angry Indians prepared to murder all the settlers.

32. Sir Francis Drake soon afterward arrived, [1586J in a large ship. He was one of the greatest war-sailors England ever had, and was the first Englishman who sailed around the world. The settlers went on board his ship and returned to England. Others were landed there afterward, but these were all murdered by the offended Indians.

33. Raleigh afterward sent over quite a large number of men and women to form a colony. John White was appointed their Governor. His daughter, and her husband named Dare, accompanied the expedition. She gave birth

Questions. — 29. What did the Queen and Raleigh do ? 30. What can you tell about the Indians ? What can you say about tobacco } 31. How did the Indians behave ? 32. Who came to Roanoke, and what happened to the settlers ? 33. What can you tell about Virginia Dare ? 2 to a daughter on Roanoke Island, the first English child born in America. She was named Virginia.

34. Governor White went back to England on business, and when he returned to Roanoke, his daughter and little Virginia Dare, with all the rest of the settlers, had disappeared, and were never heard of afterward. It was supposed that they were carried off into the great forests on the main land, and there lived with the Indians.

35. Raleigh was now discouraged. His money was nearly all spent, and he gave up making attempts to establish a colony in America. He afterward lost favor with King James, Elizabeth's successor to the throne, and was imprisoned on a false charge of treason, and finally beheaded. He wrote a Histoiy of the World, while he was in prison.

36. In the year 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold, an English navigator, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and explored the coast from the site of Boston, in Massachusetts, to that of Newport, in Rhode Island. Seeing great numbers of cod-fishes near a low sandy point, he called it Cape Cod.

37. Other English sailors soon afterward visited what is now the New England Coast. Two of them explored the coast of Maine. One of them (Captain Weymouth), carried oif some Indians in his ship, and caused great hatred of the white people among the natives of that region.

38. It was now more than a hundred years since Columbus revealed the New World to Europe, and yet there was not a settlement of white people in all this broad land. One was made soon afterward, [1608] on the river St. Lawrence, by some French people, who named the place Qucr bee. They came with Samuel Champlain, a great French

Questions. — 34. What happened to her and the settlement ? 35. What can you tell about Raleigh? 36. What can you tell me of an* other great English sailor? 37. And what of others ? 38. Whaf can you tell about settlements in America ?

ENGLISH AND FRENCH DISCOVERERS.

sailor, who discovered the lake of that name, in the northern part of the State of New York.

39. A little earlier, [1605] some French people had attempted to settle in Nova Scotia, and they named that country Acadie. They were compelled to leave it, but the settlement at Quebec remained. The latter is the oldest permanent settlement of the French in North America.

40. The English having failed in their attempts to make settlements in America, several London merchants concluded to employ some navigator to make another effort to find a northwest passage to India. They employed a famous man named Henry Hudson. He sailed twice in that direction, but like others before him, he could not get through the ice, so the London merchants gave it up.

41. Hudson was an ambitious man. He was very anxious to be the first sailor who should reach India by a northern route. At that time there were a number of merchants in Holland who had joined together to trade in India. They were called the Dutch East India Company.

Hudson went to Amsterdam to see the managers of that Company. He told them that he firmly believed that he could reach India by going around the north of Europe, instead of the north of America. They liked the idea, and fitted out a small vessel, called the IIalf-7noon, for him to sail in.

He went into the Arctic Ocean, where he found as much ice as in He did not like to return without doso he sailed westward, after passing Iceland, and steered across the Atlantic.

HALF-MOON.

the Other direction, ing something great

Questions. — 39. What can you tell about French settlements ? 40. What did London merchants do ? 41. What can you tell about Henry Hudson and the Dutch ? 42. What did Hudson do t

DISCOVERIES.

43. Hudson first saw America on the coast of Maine. He then sailed southward to the Capes of Virginia, and explored the bays and rivers northward until he entered the waters which now form the harbor of New York.

44. Hudson saw a great river rolling down from among the blue hills at the north, and he sailed up that stream more than one hundred and sixty miles to the site of the present town of Waterford. He had many adventures with the Indians, who had never before seen a white man, nor such a " big canoe " as they called his ship. That stream now bears the name of Hudson's river.

45. When Hudson returned to Europe, and told of the immense and beautiful country which he had discovered, the people of Holland, who were great traders, began at once to send ships to Hudson's river to traffic with the Indians. That matter we will consider presently.

46. Hudson tried once again to find a north-west passage. In so doing, he discovered the bay in the far north which bears his name. There he lost his life. Some of his sailors becoming discontented, bound Hudson and his son with strong ropes, and putting them in a little boat, with seven sick companions, they sailed off with the ship and left them. Hudson and his companions all perished with cold or hunger, on that icy sea.

HENEr HUDSON,

Questions. — 43. What were Hudson's first discoveries ? 44. What can you tell about Hudson's greatest discovery ? 45. What effect did h's discoveries have ? 46. What happened to him afterward }

Chapter III. Section I

THE ADVENTURERS OR SETTLERS.

1. A Settlement and a Colony are different things. A settlement is the first step toward founding a colony. A settlement may last only a short time. It may be broken up by enemies or sickness. A colony is a settlement made permanent, out of which may grow a province or a nation.

2. We will first consider the attempts to found colonies by settlers in several parts of what is now the region of America called the United States, and observe how those settlers became Planters and formed colonies. It took some of the settlements ten years, and some twenty years, to become colonies, while one of them was about sixty years in so doing. We will first consider the

ADVENTURERS IN VIRGINIA.

3. Because of the discoveries of their Great Sailors, the English claimed a right to settle anywhere in America between the mouth of the Cape Fear river in North Carolina, and the town of Halifax in Nova Scotia. They allowed the Spaniards to have all the country south of that, and the Frenchmen all north of it.

4. Queen Elizabeth, we have noticed, [verse 28, page 16] gave the name of Virginia to that w^hole territory. When she died, a man named James Stuart, who was a king

Questions. — i. Can you explain the difference between a settlement and a colony ? 2. What have you to say about founding colonies ? and how long did it take some settlements to become colonies ? 3. What can you tell about the claims of the English.? 4. What can you say of a new King of England ?

of Scotland, became King of England, and a very mean, and unlovely man he was. But he did some good things.

5. That vast country in America claimed by the English was divided into North and South Virginia. Quite a number of men in the town of Plymouth, England, joined together Tor the purpose of making settlements in North Virginia. The King gave them a written agreement, in which he promised to let them have the use of all that country if they would agree to do so and so. They were called the Flymouth or North Virgmia Company.

6. A number of men in London joined together in the same way, to settle in South Virginia. The king gave them a similar paper, and they made a similar agreement with the king. They were called the London or South Virginia Cofnpany. These papers given by the king were called Charters, which means written agreements.