The new century history of the United States

Front matter

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Prefatory Note

The preparation of this book was the last literary work that Edward Eggleston undertook. He was convinced that there was a peculiar need of such a book in all our schools, and it was a matter of special concern to him to supply it.

His purpose was to tell the story of our country so briefly that it might be mastered within the limited time allowed for its study in the schools, and yet to preserve the interest of the narrative unimpaired by too severe a condensation.

Especially he wished to preserve and to present those facts with respect to life conditions at various periods which he held to be even more essential to the history of a people than is the record of public events.

To no other of his books did he give a greater or a more conscientious care than to this. In no other did he feel a deeper interest, or an interest more completely unselfish.

He had finished the manuscript, in its first draft, when increasing infirmity of health compelled him to cease work forever. There was yet a good deal to be done upon the book in the way of revision and otherwise, in order to make it what he wanted it to be. He asked me to do that work for him, and I have done it with scrupulous care to carry

6 - PREFATORY NOTE

out his purpose in every detail, and especially to preserve his work untouched and unchanged in any of its essentials.

It was his purpose to write a preface to this book himself, but he was not spared to do so.

It is in love and reverence for his memory that I now introduce the volume with this note.

George Gary Eggleston.

Culross-on-Lake George, September, 1903.

Contents

FRONllsriECE. From a photograph taken by Miss L. Bernie Gallaher Washington, D. C.

I. — The discovery of America, II. — The Indians, . ...

III. — The age of discovery, IV. — Exploration and attempts at settlement, V. — English explorations,

Chapter I. The Discovery Of America

Legends of Early Discovery. — In the old romantic legends of the brave Norsemen who ^settled Iceland, it is related that as early as the year looo a Norse sailor, Leif, the son of Eric, sailed southwest from Greenland and discovered the coast of a new land. If the story is true, the coast found must have been that of the continent of America. In Wales, too, there is a tradition that about the year 1170 a Welsh prince named Madoc discovered a land west of Ireland, and founded a colony there, which was never again heard of.

Even if these stories are true, the discoveries of Leif and Madoc led to nothing. If either or both of these sailors found the coast of America, people forgot all about it. America was not discovered to any profitable purpose until

Columbus landed upon its shores in the

^ .^^ T7 ii u J • 11 J.1 Statue of Leif , in Boston

year 1492. Even then nobody m all the '

civilized world knew or dreamed that an unknown continent

on this side of the ocean had been discovered.

The Unknown Seas. — The mariner's compass was then in

use, and so was the astrolabe, an instrument by which the

captain of a ship at sea could calculate his latitude. But

the use of these instruments was little understood. Sailors lO at that time ventured only a little way out upon the great ocean which lay to the west of Europe. They feared to go farther for many reasons. They believed that the western ocean was covered with thick black fogs, that the water was boiling hot there, and many other fanciful things of a terrifying kind.

The Trade with the East. — But the trading nations of Eu-

The world as known in 1492

rope, and particularly the merchants of Venice and Genoa, carried on a rich traffic with the countries of central and eastern Asia, all of which they grouped together in their minds under the one name, India. Many years before that time a Venetian named Marco Polo had lived for thirty years in those Eastern lands, wandering from Persia all the way to Japan. On his return he had told glowing stories of the vast wealth of that region in gold, silks, cotton

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

II

Marco Polo fabrics, cashmeres, precious stones, spices, pepper, ivory, and other desirable merchandise.

In order to trade with countries so rich in the goods that Europe desired, the merchants of Venice and Genoa sent their ships to the most eastern ports of the Mediterranean and Black seas. There the ships met caravans from Persia, India, and other parts of the East richly laden with precious wares. But presently the half-savage Turks and Arabs, pushing their way towards Europe, began interfering with the caravan routes and plundering the caravans. This seriously interrupted the trade, and threatened to destroy it completely, so that the merchants of Europe sorely felt the need of finding some new and safer route by which to reach what they called India.

Portuguese Voyages. — In this search for a new route to India the Portuguese were the leaders. They were the boldest sailors of that age, and they hoped, by finding a new route, to take for themselves the commerce of Genoa and Venice. Little by little they extended their voyages along the west coast of Africa, hoping to find a way through or round that continent into the Indian Ocean. It took them seventy years to do this, but at the end of that time they had accomplished it. They had found and rounded what we now know as the Cape of Good Hope. The route thus discovered was very long, however, and there was one .sailor in Europe who believed that he could find a shorter way.

Christopher Columbus. — This sailor was a Genoese named Christopher Columbus.* He had sailed along all the coasts of western Europe to the far north lands. It is believed that he had also made several voyages in Portuguese ships along the coast of Africa. His brother, at any rate,

* For biography, see Appendix.

had done so. Columbus was one of the comparatively few people who at that time believed the earth to be round. The general belief was that it was flat, and that if one should sail too far west on the ocean, he would come to the edge of the world, and fall off. Believing the world to be round, Columbus was sure that he could reach India by sailing to the Christopher Columbus ^^^^^^ Thinking the

earth to be somewhat smaller than it is, and Asia to be much larger, he supposed that eastern Asia lay about three thousand miles west of Europe. He knew nothing of this great continent of ours, and supposed that the Atlantic Ocean reached from western Europe to eastern Asia.

Columbus was anxious to make a voyage westward in search of the Indies, but to do that he must have ships and provisions, and he had no "money with which to buy these things.

Columbus in Search of Patrons. — He first appealed to the king of Portugal, who gave him little encouragement. Indeed, wherever he went he succeeded only in convincing nearly everybody that he was a half-crazy fellow, possessed of a foolish notion. Men argued that if the world was, in fact, round, a ship that sailed down the side of it could never sail back again, because the return voyage would be all uphill. They argued that no people could live on the other side of the world, because if they did they must be upside down. All this seems very foolish to us

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA I3

now, but in tliat day it seemed as plain as the simplest facts.

The king of Portugal was somewhat impressed by what Columbus said, but he was not willing to pay the large reward which Columbus asked for if he should find the Indies; so he tried to steal Columbus's idea. He secretly sent ships of his own to see if India did, in fact, lie on the other side of the Atlantic. This expedition went but a little way. The sailors quickly became discouraged and came back laughing at Columbus as a crack-brained dreamer.

Isabella to the Rescue. — Columbus went next to Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of Spain, and laid his plan before them. - They called a council of men who believed themselves to be far wiser than any mere sailor could be. This council considered the matter, and reported that nothing could be more foolish than the Genoese sailor's idea. They proved its absurdity and impossibility so conclusively that after long waiting Columbus was dismissed.

While waiting for an answer he had spent all the money he had, and had become a laughingstock in the streets. But Queen Isabella with some of her friends was inclined to believe that there might be something in his project. She sent for him at the last moment, and offered him the help he needed.

Columbus Sails. — At last Columbus had an opportunity to test his own theory. Equipped with .three little ships scarcely bigger than fishing smacks of our time, two of them being in part open boats, he sailed from Palos (pahlos), Spain, in August, 1492. He had ninety men with him. His ships were the " Santa Maria " (sahn-tah mahree'ah), the " Pinta " (peen-tah), and the " Nina " (neenyah). The Canary Islands lay in his course, and Columbus was delayed there a brief time.

When he set out to sail farther west the courage of his sailors failed. As they found themselves going farther and farther out on an unknown sea, their fears increased. They

Santa Maria threatened to throw Columbus overboard and turn back, but he managed to hold them in check, concealing from them the distance they had come. After weeks of sailing to the west and southwest, a sailor one night saw a light, and early the next morning land was in sight. This was on the 12th of October, 1492.

There was the wildest joy on the ship.

The men who had hated Columbus and threatened to kill him now revered him.

Columbus went ashore with many of his men, and set up a large cross as a sign that he took possession of the land for Spain. His landing was on an island which he named San Salvador (sahn sahl'vah-dor), or Holy Savior, because that was the Church name of the day on which he landed. Columbus's Return. — The island upon which Columbus landed was one of the smallest in that part of the West Indies which we now call the Bahama Islands. It was inhabited by people who wore no clothes of any kind, and who lived in the rudest manner. After sailing among the Bahamas for a time, Columbus went on southward, discovering Cuba and Haiti, and losing one of his ships by wreck and another by desertion. As he had then only one little ship, he left a part of his men on what is now the island of Haiti, to which he gave the name of Hispaniola.

As he had sailed westward about three thousand miles, he set out on his return voyage in the full belief that the lands he had discovered were islands near the eastern coast of Asia. That belief he carried with him to his grave, never knowing or dreaming that he had found a new world. His return voyage was begun early in 1493. He took with him a little gold, some fruits and birds of the new land, and some of the inhabitants of

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Lands discovered by Columbus the islands. He was received by Ferdinand and Isabella with the greatest honor, and the crowds who once jeered at him for a fool now applauded the great discoverer, taking off their hats, and bowing low in reverence as he passed through the streets.

Columbus's Later Voyages. — In September, 1493, with a large expedition he sailed again for the West. During this voyage he planted a colony on Hispaniola, and discovered Jamaica, Porto Rico, and several smaller islands to the east. During his third voyage, in the year 1498, he saw a small part of the American continent near the mouth of the Orinoco River; and on his fourth and last voyage (1502- 1 504) he reached the mainland in what we now call Honduras and Nicaragua. Still believing that he had reached the coast of Asia, he thought this part of the continent was the Malay Peninsula. As he failed to bring back to Spain the gold and precious stones, and the rich fabrics of the East for which the Spanish merchants were greedy, Columbus fell into disgrace, and died at last in poverty.

Summary^ — i. Possible early discoveries of America by Northmen and Welsh led to no useful result.

2. In the fifteenth century Turks threatened the caravan routes over which a rich trade passed between Europe and India, and thus prompted search for a new trade route.

3. Columbus, believing the earth to be round, thought he could find a shorter sea route by sailing directly westward.

4. After many years of waiting he obtained three little ships with which he set out from Palos.

5. After sailing westward to about the point where he expected to find Asia, he discovered some islands, October 12, 1492, which he believed lay close to the coast of Asia, but which were really a part of the West Indies in America.

i6

6. Later he made three more voyages to the West Indies, and landed on the mainland of South and Central America, but he died in his mistaken belief that he had discovered parts of Asia.

Collateral Reading. — Irving's " Life of Columbus," Stratford edition, 52-84; Seelye's " Story of Columbus," 25, 40-42, 46, 59-62, 105- 106.

Chapter II. The Indians

The First Americans. — The continent which Columbus had discovered, ahhough nobody in Europe, Asia, or Africa knew of its existence, was ah-eady inhabited by a people who had lived there for hundreds, and probably for thousands, of years. Whence they came, and how they got here, nobody has ever yet been able to find out. Columbus called them Indians because he believed this country to be India. They did not belong to any of the known races of mankind. They were not white like the Europeans, or black like the Africans, or yellow like the Malays and Chinese. Their skins were of a dirty copper color. Their hair was thick, straight, coarse, and intensely black in color. Their eyes were small and black, their noses prominent and their cheek bones unusually high. They had little or no beard. They were tall, slender, lean, and very muscular.

The Indian Tribes. — ^There were never more than a few hundred thousand of these Indians within the mainland of the United States. They lived and wandered about in tribes of a few hundred each. Sometimes several tribes joined together for defense, or for the plunder of other tribes, but each tribe was ruled by its own sachem in time of peace, and by its own chief in time of war.

Indian warrior

The Indian Nations. — East of the Mississippi the Indians formed three great groups of alHed tribes, sometimes called nations. The Iroquois lived in what is now New York, a part of Canada, and parts of the South. The Algonquins held most of Canada and the greater part of the present United States north of Tennessee and east of the Mississippi. The Muscogees, or Muskokees, held the region now constituting our Gulf States. The Muskokees were the most advanced of all the Indians in the art of making things, but the Iroquois were the most skillful in war. West of the Mississippi the greater part of our country was occupied by the Dakota, Shoshone, and Apache nations.

The Higher Tribes. — -The Indians of Mexico and Peru were much more nearly civilized than any other American tribes. But in a history of the United States we need not concern ourselves with them. It was once supposed that the curious " Indian mounds " found in the Mississippi valley were the work of an earlier and higher race of men, but it is now pretty well settled that the mound builders were none other than the Indians themselves, and that the Indians were the only inhabitants of this country before the white man came.

Indian Ways of Living. — The habits of the Indians were those of savages who lived mainly upon what grew wild, and what they could get from the woods and streams. They did, indeed, raise a few beans, squashes, and pumpkins, and a little corn among trees which they had killed by burning ofif the bark. The work of cultivating these

Indian mounds, Adams County, Ohio

I8 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION

things, like most other work among" the Indians, was done by the women. As a true savage the " Big Indian," as he called himself, thought it beneath his dignity to do much but hunt and fight.

Indian Tools and Farming. — For tools the Indians used bones, sticks, sharp stones, and the like. Their cooking utensils, when they had any, were usually wooden vessels.

Indians at home hollowed out by burning. In these they heated water by dropping hot stones into it. They roasted their green corn in the ashes without removing the husks. They beat the hard corn into a coarse meal, in rude wooden mortars, using stones for pestles. They baked their bread in the fire, and roasted their meat over the fire or before it when the)^ were not too careless to cook at all. Often they ate their food raw. They made fire by rubbing dry sticks together until the wood ignited from the friction. They did this often by using a bowstring with which to turn one

Making a fire

Stick very rapidly while holding it in contact with another.

Indian Manufactures.— Some of the Muskokees had learned to make a coarse kind of cloth. Some other tribes, chiefly in the far Southwest, made rude pottery. In the region where copper is found they sometimes fashioned that soft metal into hatchets.

But they knew nothing of the art of working iron.

The Canoe. — The most notable product of Indian skill was the canoe. This was of two kinds. Some tribes fashioned it out of a log, which they hollowed out by burning the top surface and scraping 6f( the charred parts with shells or sharp stones. This was a slow and laborious way of working, but these log canoes when finished served their purpose well, and sometimes were large enough to carry thirty or forty men. The Northern tribes made a much more beautiful canoe out of birch bark, which they stretched over a light framework of the shape they desired, and made watertight by the use of gums.

These canoes were graceful in shape, and so light that they could be carried easily from one water to another. Indeed, the Birch canoe birch bark canoe is the one product of Indian handiwork that white men have never been able to improve either in beauty of form or in usefiihiess.

The Clothing and Decorations of the Indians. — The Eastern Indians clothed themselves mostly in deer skin. A whole deer skin was thrown about the shoulders, a strip of the same material was wound around the loins, and leggings, worn in winter, were made of it. The Northern tribes wore beaver skins and other thick furs wrapped about them. In the South the Indians wore a garment woven of the fiber of the plant which we call Spanish bayonet. The women wore deer-skin aprons. Their shoes or moccasins were made of deer skin, sometimes embroidered and ornamented with porcupine quills or shell beads. Indian warriors were fond of decorating themselves in hideous ways. They painted red, yellow, and blue stripes and spots upon their faces, and some of them wore the claws of animals and birds of prey as ornaments. In Virginia, Indians sometimes fastened living snakes to their ears and wore the hand of a dead enemy in the same way. The object of all this was to terrify the Indian's enemy.

Both men and women in certain tribes decorated themselves with beads made of sea shells. These were called wampum, and were worn in strings, belts, necklaces, and bracelets. Wampum was also used for money and for presents in making treaties between tribes or with white men. " The treaty belts usually had upon them rude pictures that served in place of writing.

Indian Weapons. — Before white men came to this country the chief weapon of the Indians was the bow and arrow. The arrow w^as pointed with a sharpened flint, a bit of * deer's horn, the sharp spur of a wild turkey, the claw of an eagle, or a splinter of bone. Besides the bow and arrow the Indians used war clubs or battle-axes made by fastening a stone to a handle. Sharpened stones and shells were also used for knives, but when white men came with steel knives and hatchets and guns, the Indians quickly quit making their own rude weapons and tools, and bought better ones from the white man, giving furs and the like in exchange.

The Indian House. — The Indians in the East built rude houses of bark. In the South they used palmetto leaves. In the prairie regions where trees were scarce the Indian house or wigwam w^as made by setting up a circle of poles, leaning them together at the top, and covering them with skins. In the far Southwest the houses were built of adobe or sun-dried mud. These houses were very large, some of them rising to five stories in height. A whole village usually lived in a single building. Such a building

came, therefore, to be called by the Spanish piichlo, which means village. The Indians inhabiting such houses were called pueblo Indians, or village Indians. In the North the Iroquois often built their bark houses so large and long that twenty or more families could dwell in one of them.

Clans. — The Indians were grouped in clans or families descended from the same grandmother or great-grandmother. Each clan was named after some animal, bird, or reptile, which was supposed somehow to look after the fortunes of the clan. Each clan

Wigwam

Iroquois house had a rude drawing of its particular animal, bird, or reptile, which served as a sort of coat of arms. This picture was called a totem, , '-— r - _ .. - and the members of each

clan were called by the name of their totem — the Turtles, the Eagles, etc.

All the families living m one house were of one clan. When an Indian wished to marry he must go to some other clan for a wife, and when he married he became a member of his wife's clan.

Indian Religion. — The Indian was exceedingly superstitious. He had many ways of appeasing evil spirits, and especially the spirits of the animals he had killed, for he believed that both animals and men live again after death. But before the discovery of America he had little that could properly be called a religion.

Torture and Running the Gantlet. — In war the Indians were treacherous and cruel in the extreme, though in peace they were to be trusted. They tortured their prisoners in

Runniug the gantlet ways too shocking for description. Sometimes they made a frolic for themselves and gave a prisoner a chance of life by making him " run the gantlet." Indians armed with clubs and stone axes formed themselves in two hues near together, and the prisoner was required to run through the lane thus made between them, while each Indian struck at him with his club or battle-axe. Sometimes the prisoner was beaten to death before going half the distance, but often he escaped; and if he got through the lane with life still in him, he was suffered to go free.

Summary. — ^i. Columbus gave the name of Indians to the natives of the country he discovered.

2. There were probably never more than a few hundred thousands of Indians in what is now the main part of the United States. They were organized into widely separated tribes, each governed by its own sachem in time of peace and by its own chief in time of war.

3. The Muskokees and the Iroquois were the most advanced tribes within what is now the United States.

4. The Indians were tall, slender, lean, and very muscular. They were copper-colored, with black, coarse hair and small eyes, high cheek bones, and prominent noses. They lived in villages, and made their houses of bark, deer skins stretched on poles, palm leaves, or dried mud.

5. They did not know how to use iron, but made their tools and weapons of stones, shells, deer horns, and the like. Their principal weapons were bows and arrows. They made canoes of logs and of birch bark.

6. They raised a little corn and a few vegetables in a rude way. They cooked their food in wooden vessels or over the fire. Often they ate it raw.

7. Their clothing consisted mainly of skins and furs. For adornment they stained their faces and wore beads, animals' teeth and claws, feathers, and shells.

8. The Indian's religion was little more than a belief in charms and spells.

9. The Indian was a savage. He loved war, and delighted in killing and torturing his enemies, but in peace he kept his promises, and was a trusty friend.

Collateral Reading. — Dodge's "Our Wild Indians," 185-193; Bancroft's " History of the United States," II., 418-433; McMaster's " History of the People of the United States," I., 6-8.

CHAPTER III m' Chesapeake Bay

THE AGE OF DISCOVERY

Americus Vespucius. — The discoveries made by Columbus awakened great curiosity to know more of the New World. Other adventurers quickly set out to see what more there was to be found beyond the seas. Americus Vespucius* was a Florentine merchant who had removed to Spain a short time before Columbus sailed on his first voyage. In 1497, ^"<^ again in 1499, Vespucius was with expeditions from Spain that discovered parts of America. It was seventeen months before the first of these expeditions got back to Spain, and the explorers are now believed to have reached the coasts of Mexico and Florida, and even to have sailed north as far as the Chesapeake Bay during the summer of 1498. Vespucius made a third voyage to

the western continent in 1501 in the service of Portugal. He landed on Cape San Roque in South America, and explored the coast southward nearly to the Plata.

The voyages of Vespucius and the written accounts he gave of his discoveries aroused interest in Europe, and a German geographer suggested that the land he had explored should be called America in his honor. This land, South America, was supposed to be a continent lying south of Asia, for Lands discovered by Vespucius ^^^j^ y^^ ^he notion that Asia lay

only about three thousand miles west of Europe was hardly questioned. On maps of that time the name America was given only to what is now Brazil, but it came later to be appHed to all of South America, and finally to the whole western world.

* For biography, see Appendix.

THE AGE OF DISCOVERY

Lands discovered by the Cabots

Voyages of John Cabot. — Though Cohimbus had found few gold mines or spices or other sources of weahh, John Cabot,* a Venetian merchant who hved in Bristol, England, hoped for better fortune for himself. He laid his plans before Henry VH., king of England, and received permission to make a voyage of discovery at the expense of some Bristol merchants.

He set out in May, 1497 — the year of Vespucius's first voyage — with one ship and eighteen men.

On June 24 he reached land. It lay far to the north of the islands discovered by Columbus, and was probably the coast of Labrador.

Cabot is commonly said to have been the first person to reach the mainland of America. Upon his return to England honors were showered upon him, and he was everywhere greeted as the " Great Admiral." During the next year he made another voyage to the mainland, which he supposed to be the coast of China. On this voyage he was accompanied by his son Sebastian. After going far to the north he turned about and sailed down the coast possibly as far as North Carolina. Cabot, like Columbus, died in the belief that he had actually reached Asia.

Vasco da Gama. — During the same year in which Cabot made his first voyage, Vasco da Gama (dah gah-mah) sailed from Portugal down the coast of Africa. He rounded the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the Indian Ocean, and reached India at last. In 1499 he returned to Portugal, having his ships loaded with the coveted treasures of the East. For a while after this men ceased to care about sailing to the west. They had begun at last to suspect that the land discovered by Columbus was not a part of Asia.

* For biography, see Appendix.

CARIBBEAN SEA