The story of the United States

Preface

Beside the Muskingum River, and at the mouth of the Licking, stands a city where tall factory chimneys rise like soot-wreathed monuments to Labor. It is a town of potteries, of brick-yards, and of all those creative industries whereby men produce form out of malleable clay. At one factory they make the minute tiles that are used in decorative paving, and there I once spent an enthralling afternoon watching the piecing together of a mosaic depicting the landing of Columbus. The plan of the picture was spread out upon a platform. It was divided into colored squares above each one of which a workman fitted a correspondingly colored tile. Tiny blocks of turquoise blue made a realistic sea. Gray tiles represented a neutral sky against which green palm trees stood out in vivid contrast.

As the artisan drew upon the store of colored tiles for the working out of his plan, so I have drawn upon the prepared facts of history in writing this book. The stories incorporated here are taken from so many sources that it is out of the question to acknowledge my obligation to each of the authors whose past industry has made this work possible. Through such magazines as The Century, Harper's, and Scribner's, I am beholden to writers whose very names are a part of American history. My hope for this Story of the United States is that it may help to quicken interest in the growth of our great Republic, and that it may lead, at least a few, young readers into that fascinating realm of literature which deals with the development of our country. In so far as it does this, it will relieve my indebtedness to other authors, since to further the appreciation of the mosaic of history is the true aim of every historian. ^ ^ H.

Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Contents

AFTER PAGE

I IN THE BEGINNING 1

II COLUMBUS DREAMS OF A NEW WAY TO INDIA . 5

Chapter I In The Beginning

MANY thousands of years ago North America was probably a land of perpetual snow and ice. There was no summer then, so there were neither forests nor flowers and, strangest of all, there were no towns and no people! But in the course of ages the southern part of the country shook off its frozen sleep and was free from the frost that had bound it.

Later grass began to appear and at last forests of great trees covered the land. Beneath these trees roamed strange animals such as you will not find in any zoo today because they have disappeared off the face of the earth. The mastodon and the mammoth lived then, beasts so much stronger and larger than elephants that their tread must have shaken the forests ! There were also rhinoceros and horses with three and four toes to each foot. But long ago these curious creatures vanished or decreased in size and we might never have known of their existence had not their bones been discovered. The plowshare has turned up human bones, as well as those of animals ; and men digging in the earth have found rough arrowheads and tools ; so we know that a race of people lived in North America when the mastodon and the mammoth were there, although we have no means of telling who these people were.

There are traces of other races who inhabited North America before the days of books or written history, possibly about two thousand years ago. We call them the Mound Builders because we know them only through the huge mounds they have left. These mounds are made usually of earth, but sometimes of brick and stone ; many of them are very high and they are often built in the shape of animals or men. One in the State of Ohio is nearty a thousand feet long and formed like a serpent. We can only guess what these mounds were intended for. Pieces of charred wood have been found in them, and this has led to a belief that they were used by priests as places of sacrifice. The wood might be the remains of beacon fires or altar fires, and the mounds might have been built for fortifications, or intended for burial places. In them have been found bones, carvings in stone, also pottery, silver and copper tools, axes, knives and chisels, as well as beads, bracelets and pipes; showing that the Mound Builders knew arts that were quite unknown to the natives of America at a later time.

It is probable that the first Europeans to visit America were the Norsemen. They were always bold sailors, venturing far out to sea and delighting in its risks and dangers. In Iceland they tell how Eric the Red was so unjustly treated by his neighbors that he decided to sail away and find a new home. For many weeks he sailed the seas, and in 985 reached a country which he named Greenland. Biarni, a friend of Eric, determined to follow him to the new land, so he put to sea with a few men, but not knowing the course that Eric had taken, he wandered for a long time upon the ocean. One day he saw land — a sandy beach and low hills crowned with trees. But he knew it was too far south to be the land where Eric was living and he sailed past it to the north, coming finally to Greenland.

The story he told of the land he had seen interested his friends; and Leif, a son of Eric, purchased Biarni's vessel and with thirty-five men set out on a voyage of discovery.

IN THE BEGINNING 3

They first came to an island that they named Helluland (Flat Land) and then went on to the country spoken of by Biarni; this Leif called Markland (Woody Land). Two days later they landed on an island covered with trees, which may have been Nantucket. They sailed up between the island and the mainland and landed on the bank of a river. Here they built huts and prepared to pass the winter. Finding delicious wild grapes there they called the place Vinland. In the spring they loaded their ship with wood and sailed back to Greenland.

The next year Thorvald, Leif's brother, went to Vinland and remained there through two winters. It is claimed that he sailed down the coast as far as the Carolinas. The second summer, while coasting round Cape Cod, he went ashore. His party was attacked by natives and Thorvald was killed.

The Norsemen seem often to have gone to Vinland after this, to get timber to use in barren Greenland. A story is told of Fredys, the cruel daughter of Eric; how when she was on her way to Vinland she killed her husband and brothers and seized the ship for herself. She was brave as well as cruel, for later we are told that in battle with the Shraellings, as the Norsemen called the natives, "she slew many men with her own hand."

Another story is told of Gudrid the Beautiful who went with her husband Thorfin to live in Vinland, and of how her son Snorri was born there.

If these legends are true, and if the Vikings of the North knew and lived in Cape Cod and on Rhode Island hundreds of years before America was dreamed of by the rest of Europe, it is strange that they should have forgotten their discoveries. They probably went home to fight in the wars with France and England and once in their native country the land beyond the sea may have seemed of little importance. At any rate the glory of giving a new continent to the world does not belong to the Norsemen, but to one man who lived in the fifteenth century. It is possible, however, that it was the legends of these dauntless rovers,

"Vague legends giving no man place or name — Which kindled in Columbus' breast, like flame His dream of western lands of boundless stores."

Chapter II Columbus Dreams Of A New Way To India

YOU have been taught that the world is round like an orange. But there was a time when no one knew the real shape of the earth, and when most people thought that it was quite flat with the ocean lying around its edges. In those days men dared to venture only a very httle way out into the ocean, for thej'^ were afraid of being lost in such a great trackless space of water. You see the sailors guided their ships by the position of the sun and the stars in the sky, and if a cloud came to hide the heavens from their sight, there was no way for the mariners to tell where they were ; so even the bravest captains did not dare to go very far from the land that they knew.

But there were wonderful stories told of the fairylike islands that were away in that flat ocean I The most interesting things are always those about which we are not sure. The sailors felt this long ago; they did not know what lay beyond all that they could see of the ocean, but they imagined that if they could sail far enough, they would find islands of gold with walls of crystal. They even had a story about an old giant called Mildum, whom they said had seen one of these imaginary islands.

There were things, too, which made it seem that there truly might be land somewhere out in the Atlantic. One man had found a piece of curiously carved wood that had been washed ashore after a storm, and an old pilot had picked up a carved paddle that was floating on the water west of Portugal. These things were not like anything that the Europeans had ever seen before, so they felt sure they must have been made by some unknown race of men.

More than four hundred years ago there was one little boy, in the city of Genoa, who was very much interested in all these tales of what might be out in the ocean. This boy's name was Christopher Columbus.

Genoa is a seaport town in beautiful Italy. Columbus used to play down by the wharves, watching the ships entering and leaving the harbor, and he probably had many friends among the sailors. At any rate he was a very small boy when he decided that he, too, would be a sailor, and spend his life on the sea that he loved so well — the sea that might hold so many strange secrets. It is believed that when he was ten years old his father sent Christopher to the University of Pavia to learn all that could be taught on land about the management of ships at sea; this study is called navigation. Young Columbus may have studied in Pavia for four years, but it is certain that when he went home to Genoa he worked in his father's shop at combing wool. You may be sure that though his hands were busy with the wool, his thoughts were far away, and he was dreaming of wonderful voyages in the ships upon the sea. His father knew his thoughts, and he probably saw that the boy would make a better sailor than a wool-comber, for I imagine that the wool often got tangled while Columbus was day-dreaming ; so he was sent to sea when he was not yet fifteen years old, in a vessel commanded by his greatuncle Colombo.

For twenty years Columbus was a sailor. During that time he was in many battles and he always behaved as a brave man should. He visited all the known ports ; but he was not satisfied, for he had a wonderful idea: he thought that men had been mistaken about the shape of the earth. He had studied a great deal and he believed that instead

A NEW WAY TO INDIA 7

of being flat the world was round, and his idea was that he could sail west across the Atlantic and come to land. He did not expect to find a new country, but he thought that the world was much smaller than it is, and he imagined that by sailing westward he could reach India sooner than by going the usual way. He was not afraid, because by this time men had something safer than the stars to guide them on the ocean. A stone had been found that seemed almost like a fairy gift, it had such wonderful properties; a needle brought into contact with it pointed ever afterward straight to the north. You can understand that if men at sea always knew where the north was, it became as easy for them to guide themselves at sea as on the land, so that the need to keep close to shore was gone, and the danger of venturing out into the unknown ocean was much less after the "Mariner's Compass" was discovered.

Filled with hope and faith in his belief, Columbus tried to interest people in his scheme for getting quickly to India; but he was only laughed at and called a dreamer. Some weary years went by and Columbus had spent all his money in traveling about in the hope of finding some one willing to help on his plans. One day he was tramping along a dusty road in Spain, with his little son Diego beside him. It was a very warm day and the boy was so tired and thirsty that his father stopped at the door of the Convent of Santa Maria de Rabida and asked the porter for bread and water for the child. While they rested in the shade the Prior came out and saw Columbus and began talking with him. He became so interested in him and in his ideas that he kept him as a guest at the Convent and made arrangements for him to have an audience with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

These Christian monarchs were busy over a great war with the Moors, and it was not until the end of the year 1491 that they had time to think of Columbus and his dreams. They then summoned him to their camp outside the city of Granada, which they were besieging. The kind-hearted Queen, hearing how poor Columbus was, sent him money to buy clothes that were suitable to wear at court. At last his chance had come and he told the King and Queen all about his wonderful idea ; but he demanded great things. He was so sure that he could reach India by the west that he said he must be made Admiral and Viceroy of all the new seas and countries that he should discover and have one-tenth of all the gains. His demands were laughed at and he was sent away from the Spanish Court.

But he had friends who were influential with the Queen and they had faith in him, so they told Queen Isabella more about the scheme and how fine it would be to get more quickly to India, to the land where the ivory and precious stuffs came from, until it is said that she cried out, "I will undertake the enterprise for my crown of Castile and will pledge my jewels to raise the necessary funds 1"

Poor Columbus had ridden sadly away on his mule, but now a messenger was sent to bring him back to the Queen and it was settled that he should undertake one of the greatest voyages that the world has ever known.

Before Columbus set out on this voyage. Queen Isabella appointed his son, Diego, page to Prince Juan, with an allowance for his support. This was an honor usually granted only to the sons of persons of rank and it shows how thoughtful the Queen was, for she knew that unless Columbus could leave his boy well looked after, he would sail away with a heavy heart.

Chapter III A New World Is Discovered

ON August 3rd, 1492, three ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina left the Port of Palos under the command of Christopher Columbus. The ships were so small that no present-day sailor would be wilhng to try to cross the Atlantic in one of them. They were not very much larger than one of the life-boats that our great steamers carry on board, only of course they were of different shape and very different appearance.

The sailors who went with Columbus were not fearless as he was; indeed, they went on the voyage most unwillingly and only because of the Queen's orders. They thought their commander mad and his plan impossible of being fulfilled; so they did everything they could to dishearten Columbus and to make the voyage so difficult that he might be frightened into putting the ships about and returning to Spain. But in spite of every discouragement Columbus sailed steadily forward, and after nearly two months his courage was rewarded, for signs of land began to appear. Land birds flew about the ships. Can't you imagine how glad the sailors would be to see them? A piece of carved wood was picked up by a man on the Pinta and one of the sailors on the Nina saw floating on the water a branch of thorn with berries. Then Columbus felt sure that they were at their journey's end. He had offered a reward to the crew of the ship which first sighted land; and at two o'clock of the morning of Fridaj^ October 12th, 14)92, the men on the Pinta fired a gun, the signal that land was to be seen, llodrige Triana, a sailor on the Pinta, was the first to see the New World.

The ships lay to and all waited impatiently for morning. Daj^light came at last and about six miles away there was seen an island thickly covered with trees and with crowds of natives running up and down the shore. Small boats were lowered and Columbus, carrying the royal standard of Castile, and JNIartin Pinzon and his brother, each bearing a flag with a green cross, were rowed to the shore to the sound of music.

The bewildered natives of the island thought the white men were gods and they watched in wonder as Columbus stepped on to the beach, the others following, and knelt down and kissed the ground with tears and prayers of thanksgiving. Then Columbus stood up, shook out the beautiful red and gold flag of Spain, and drawing his sword took possession of the island ; that is, he said that it now belonged to Spain, and he called it San Salvador.

Columbus never realized that it was a new country he had reached; he always thought that the beautiful island he had discovered was off the coast of Asia. It was not until after he was dead that men knew that what he had found was the Bahama Islands, off the coast of America.

When the sailors who had made this great voyage of discovery so difficult for Columbus, saw that they had really reached land and that their leader was not mad after all, they were ashamed of their conduct. They thronged around Columbus, kissing his hands and asking forgiveness. The natives, too, kissed Columbus and bowed down before him, for they still thought he must be some great white god. They told him, with signs, of land to the west and south. So Columbus put to sea again and found another island more beautiful than the first, where birds of brilliant colors never ceased to sing and where clear streams and rivers flowed into the sea. This island is now called

A NEW WORLD IS DISCOVERED 11

Cuba and is off the coast of Florida. From island to island the three ships sailed, seeing strange and interesting things. In Cuba the sailors saw for the first time potatoes and tobacco.

At last Columbus wanted to return to Spain to tell the Queen of all he had seen ; so the ships were turned toward home, and after weathering terrible storms they safely reached the Spanish harbor of Palos just seven months after their departure.

The people hailed the ships with great excitement, and the journey of Columbus and his followers from the coast to the court was like a procession. The roads were lined with villagers who gazed in wonder at the six natives whom Columbus had brought home with him. Never had the people seen such strange looking men as these, painted in their savage fashion, and decorated with ornaments of pure gold. Then there were forty parrots and other birds of brilliant coloring to marvel at, as well as skins of unknown wild animals, and strange plants. Columbus rode on horse-back, a proud and splendid figure, with his long gray hair and air of calm dignity. The King and Queen rose to meet him when he reached their presence, and as he stooped to kiss their hands they bade him be seated, a very great honor in that proud Spanish Court.

Not Spain alone, but all the countries of the civilized world were filled with interest and delight by the success of this first voyage of Columbus, and there were many men who longed to set out as he had done and find "New Worlds." Every one was now ready to believe in his opinion that the islands he had found lay off the coast of Asia in the Indian Seas. So they were called the West Indies; and they bear that name now, although we know that they are not near Asia.

Other voyages Columbus made, discovering the island of Jamaica on his second voyage; and on the third voyage,

Trinidad. Four voyages he made in all, but his great work was done. He suffered shipwreck and disappointment and finally disgrace. False accusations were made against hun; jealous enemies told the King and Queen that he used his power as Viceroy in the new land cruelly and for his own ends. The death of Queen Isabella, who had been his warm friend, ended his hope of being given a chance to prove that he had not been disloyal to his trust. The King would not listen to his defense. He was tricked out of money that should have been his ; his honors were taken from him ; and he died at last nearly friendless and very poor. It was a sad reward for the man who had led the way across "The Sea of Darkness."

It was for other explorers to find the greatness of the discoveries that Columbus had made ; but there is a story told which shows that he was aware of what a service he had rendered mankind by showing the way to the west :

He was sitting at dinner one day when a Spaniard, jealous of Columbus' good fortune, said that if he had not found the new country, some other person might easily have done so. Columbus said nothing, but taking an egg in his hand he asked if any one there could make it stand upright. All tried but no one could do it. Then Columbus took the egg, cracked one end of it on the table and stood it up. What he meant was that a thing done once was easy enough to do again; and so it proved. After Columbus had shown them the way to the New World, there were many men ready to "follow the leader."

Chapter IV The Voyage Of The Cabots And Of Americus Vespucius

ONE of the most important explorers who followed the example of Columbus was John Cabot. He was a merchant of Bristol, England, although, like Columbus, he was an Italian by birth. He set out at his own expense, but by permission of the English King, in May, 1497. He took with him his son Sebastian and a crew of eighteen sailors. By the end of June they reached Newfoundland, but they thought it was China. In July they were home again, telling His Majesty, Henry VII, of their discovery; and that worthy King is said to have given as a reward to "him that found the new isle" the sum of ten pounds!

In 1498 Sebastian Cabot sailed again from England and reached, not an island this time, but Labrador, on the American continent. He was much disappointed when he found himself in a land of great cold and where, instead of trees and flowers such as Columbus described, he could see nothing but ice and snow ; nor could he understand why this land should be so cold, for it was in the same latitude as England, and Cabot reasoned that it should have the same pleasant climate. He had never heard of the Gulf Stream and so did not know, as we do, that the western shores of northern Europe are kept warm and saved from perpetual winter by a great river of hot water flowing between banks of cold water eastward from the Gulf of Mexico.

Driven south by the cold, Cabot sailed down the coast as far as what is now known as Virginia, claiming the whole country for the English King. A third voyage he made when he explored Hudson Bay, but the accounts he gave of the "New World" had much in them about hardship, cold, and savage Indians, so that men in England did not care to leave their own pleasant homes to venture into an uncertain wilderness. It was long years after Cabot's death before much attention was paid by the English to the great possessions he had gained for them in the west.

Another Italian who went on a voyage of discovery was Americus Vespucius. He was born in Florence, but, like Columbus, he set out on his expedition from Spain. It was in 1499 that he sailed, and the first land that he came to was Venezuela (or Little Venice). It must have been a curious village that he saw! He gave it the name that it bears because it reminded him of the Italian city of Venice; but it was an unfriendly place. There were forty-four houses, all built upon tree-trunks that were driven into the water, and these houses were connected bj'- drawbridges. Vespucius and his men would have liked to visit the queer village ; but the Indians who lived there sent out warriors in canoes to shoot arrows at the ship of the strangers, and Vespucius had to order the guns to be fired to frighten them away. He dared not land, but sailed on farther south until he found a more friendly tribe of Indians, who treated him and his men with great kindness.

Vespucius made many voyages to the New World, and he was probably the first person to realize that this great land to which Columbus had found the way was neither Asia nor Africa, but a countrj^ of itself. He wrote a letter to a friend in Florence giving an account of his voyages and of the strange places he had seen. This letter was printed, and a great many people read it with interest, until every one began to talk about the land of Americus

THE CABOTS AND VESPUCIUS 15

Vespucius, and so at last it came to be spoken of as the land of Aniericus or America.

It may seem unfair that this new country was not called after Christopher Columbus, since he was its undoubted discoverer; but America took its name by chance and not by design. The continent itself is not named after Columbus, but in Canada there is an immense tract of country known as British Columbia, and America has mountains, rivers, and towns that preserve the name of the great explorer. The United States is often spoken of as Columbia; and in the America of to-day, on legal holidays, thousands of children may be heard singing a song that besins :

'O Columbia, the gem of the ocean.

The home of the brave and the free, The shrine of each patriot's devotion, A world offers homage to thee ! "

Chapter V

THE STORIES OF PONCE DE LEON, FERDINAND DE SOTO, AND VASCO DE BALBOA

THERE was a Spaniard named Ponce de Leon who was much interested in all that he could learn of the great New World. He sailed with Columbus on his second voyage and was made governor of the island of Porto Rico. There he lived contentedly enough for a time ; but at last he began to grow old and to sigh for the years that were gone. While he was making himself miserable thinking of his vanished youth and wishing it back, a story was told to him by some of the natives of Porto Rico that gave him a new hope in life. They said that somewhere among the Bahama Islands there was a wonderful fountain of everlasting youth, and that whosoever should bathe in and drink of the water of this fountain would be j^oung again, no matter what his age.

When Ponce de Leon heard the story, and saw that the Indians believed it, he made up his mind to go in search of this marvelous fountain himself. He was a rich man, so he had no difficulty in buying three ships and getting sailors to man them for a voyage. He sailed for some time among the islands searching for the magical fountain; and one beautiful Easter morning, in the year 1512, he beheld an unknown shore of what might well have been Fairyland, it was so lovely. Never had he dreamed of so charming a country; gorgeous flowers carpeted all the ground, and giant trees spread sheltering branches above them. De Leon thought that this must surely be the land of the

DE LEON, DE SOTO, AND BALBOA 17

Fountain of Youth. He called the new country Florida, because it was a land of flowers, and because he had discovered it on Easter Sunday, which is known to Spaniards as Pascua Florida (Flowery Easter) . Long he searched for the fountain of his dreams, but found it not. The foolish old man saw many strange and beautiful sights, but nowhere did the Fountain of Perpetual Youth gush out to meet his need.