The leading facts of American history

Prefatory Note

HIS work is based on a careful study of the highest recognized authorities on the subject. Its purpose is to present in a clear, connected, and forcible manner the important events in the history of our country.

The author has had three chief objects in view, — accuracy of statement, simplicity of style, impartiality of treatment.

In the preparation of this work his grateful acknowledgments are due to J. Franklin Jameson, Professor of History in Brown University, for his valuable assistance in the revision of the proof-sheets. The author also desires to express his thanks for the use of books and papers in the Library of Harvard University, the Library of Congress, and the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and he is especially indebted to the Librarian and the attendants of the Boston Athenaeum for the aid they have so courteously rendered him.

DAVID H. MONTGOMERY.

ffig^' The numbering of the paragraphs or sections in this edition corresponds to the numbering in all earlier editions.

Contents

SECTION* PAGE

I. The Discover}- and Naming of America, 1492 to 1521 . . . 1 II. Attempts at Exploring and Colonizing America (the Country, the Natives, Effects of the Discovery of America on

III. Permanent English and French Settlements (the Thirteen

I

•• He [the Most High] gave to thee [Columbus] the keys of those gates of the Ocean . . . which were fast closed with such mighty chains." — Dream of Colum bus, narrated in his Letter to the King and Queen of Spain, !5°3-

THE DISCOVERY AND NAMING OE AMERICA.

(1492-1521.)

COLUMBUS. — CABOT. — AMERIGO VESPUCCI. -

i. Birth of Columbus; Ideas about the Earth; the " Sea of Darkness." — Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America, was born in Genoa. Italy, about the year 1436.-

At that time the earth was generally supposed to be flat, to be much smaller than it actually is. and to be habitable on its upper side alone.

The only countries laid down on the rude and imperfect maps then in use were the continent of Europe.' 3 part of Asia, a narrow strip of Northern and Eastern Africa : and,, finally, a few islands, the largest of which were the British Isles and Iceland.

1 Amerigo Vespucci (or Americus Vespucius) : Italian pronunciation. Ah-maree'go Ves-poot'chee.

- The exact year of his birth cannot be determined : several excellent authorities favor 1436. 3 See Map of the World on page 2.

The Atlantic was popularly called the "Sea of Darkness." It was believed to be covered with thick black fogs, and to be

guarded by terrible monsters, which alike made it impassable. For these reasons, though the mariner's compass had long been known, yet navigators seldom dared to go out of sight of land, except to reach such islands as the Canaries and Azores, which some storm-driven sailor had originally discovered by chance.

Europe, at this period, had no true ocean commerce: its trade by sea was confined to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coast.

2. The Voyages and Discoveries of the Northmen. — To these statements one marked exception must be made. The Northmen, those daring sailors of Norway and Denmark, from whom our own English-speaking race has largely sprung, 1 braved even the tempests and the terrors of the Atlantic. By accident they made a number of remarkable discoveries several centuries before Columbus. Though they had no compass, — no guide, in fact, but the sun and the stars, 2 — yet they were

1 The Northmen invaded and permanently settled the northeastern half of England in the ninth century. In the next century they established themselves in Northwestern France, which district was called from them Normandy (the country of the Normans, or Northmen). In 1066 the Normans crossed the Channel and conquered England. Hence many English, since the ninth century, and their descendants in America, must have sprung from the Northmen.

2 Sometimes the Northmen, in their distant expeditions, took ravens with them ; when doubtful which way to steer for land they let the birds loose and followed their flight.

Copy of a map of the worid as known in 1436. The faint, dotted outline of the coast of Africa shows the unexplored portion. The monsters represent the terrors of unknown regions.

accustomed to make long voyages in rudely built vessels not larger than fishing-smacks.

About the year 850 a famous sea-rover of the Northmen was caught in a violent tempest and driven upon the coast of Iceland. Not long after, an expedition was sent and a settlement made in the new land. In the course of the next hundred years the Northmen pushed their light barks farther and farther west, until at last they reached the bleak shores of Greenland. There, also, they established a colony. But even that distant and dreary outpost was not to be the utmost limit of their wanderings. The coast of North America had already been seen by these adventurous explorers. In the year 1000 Leif, the son of Eric the Red, reached that coast, and was henceforth called "Leif the Lucky."

The place where he and his companions landed, and where they later spent one or more winters, cannot be exactly determined. According to their account they found wild grapes growing in such abundance that they named the region Vinland. 1 This may have been, as many have supposed, a part of Massachusetts or Rhode Island, 2 or it may have been as far north as Labrador. There are no ruins or other remains to mark their temporary settlement on the American coast, although in Greenland the walls of a stone church and of other buildings show where they had a colony.

3. The Discovery of America by the Northmen had no Practical Result. — But however interesting it may be to us to know that the Northmen visited our shores as early as the year 1000, still their discovery led to nothing. The reasons are

1 In the account of their return from Vinland to Greenland the records of the Northmen say : u And when spring came the}' got ready and sailed off ; and Leif gave a name to the land after its sort, and called it Vinland (Vineland). They sailed then . . . until they saw Greenland . . . after that, Leif was called ; Leif the Lucky.' "

2 It was thought at one time that the ancient round stone tower at Newport, commonly called the " Old Stone Mill." was the work of the Northmen ; but that idea is now pretty generally abandoned, and the old mill is believed to have been built by Governor Benedict Arnold of Rhode Island, in 1676-7.

LEADING FACTS OF AMERICAN HISTORY.

readily found. First, they were then only partly civilized, and appear to have made no efforts to establish a permanent settlement here. Next, their colony in Greenland perished after a while, and a great change for the worse also took place in Iceland. In the time of Columbus the inhabitants of that island had probably little, if any, communication or trade with any part of the world except Bristol, England. The energy and enterprise for which these men of the north had once been famous had in great measure died out. They no longer engaged in daring adventures.

There is a strong probability that Columbus went to Iceland in 1477, 1 but there is little likelihood that he got any information while there of a land farther west. Had he done so, he certainly would have mentioned the fact when he came to solicit help for his great voyage of discovery a number of years later. But though he urges every argument in favor of his enterprise, he does not say that the people of Iceland even hinted to him that such a country as Vinland existed. The truth seems to be that the descendants of " Leif the Lucky " and his brave comrades had lost all remembrance of any traditions or records of that far-off shore where their forefathers declared that they had feasted on American wild grapes.

More than this, we have no evidence that the nations of Europe knew anything of such a country as Leif describes. It is therefore quite safe to say that when Columbus sailed, in 1492, one half the world did not so much as suspect the existence of the other half.

4. What Land Columbus wished to reach ; Marco Polo's Travels; First Motive of Columbus. — What, then, let us ask, first induced Columbus to undertake a voyage that no other man of

1 " In the year 1477, in February, I navigated one hundred leagues beyond Thule [Thule is generally thought to have been Iceland], . . . The English, principally those of Bristol, go with their merchandise to this island, which is as large as England. When I was there, the seaNvas not frozen." — Letter of Columbus.

that age dared embark upon ? It was not the expectation of finding a new or fourth continent ; for he probably believed as firmly as any one of his day that the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, with some islands, comprised all the land in existence. His object was not to reveal a new world beyond the Atlantic, but simply to reach the Indies by sailing to the westward.

The interest he felt was partly awakened by a noted book, published many years before, and it was partly the result of the condition of the India trade at the time when Columbus matured his enterprise.

Let us see what that book was. In the thirteenth century ( 1 260-1 295 )/ Marco Polo, who, like Columbus, was a native of Italy, made an overland journey to Central Asia and the far East. He spent nearly thirty years there, and on his return wrote a volume of travels of great value. In that remarkable work he described India and China, and spoke of the island of Cipango or Japan, whose existence he then first made known to Europe. Polo gave the best account of the countries he visited which had been published since Alexander the Great penetrated India (327 B.C.), and he spoke particularly of the wealth and pow T er of the Great Khan, or Emperor of China, in whose service he had spent upwards of seventeen years. 2

This book made a deep impression on the mind of Columbus, and later he constructed a map of the world, based in large measure on the geographical discoveries made by Polo. He burned with a desire to visit those marvellous Eastern lands, with which all intercourse, except that of commerce, had long practically ceased. His purpose, as he himself re-

1 Dates so enclosed need not be committed to memory.

2 An eminent authority (M. Walckenaer) says, " When in the long series of ages we search for three men who, by the grandeur and influence of their discoveries, have contributed most to the progress of geography . . . the modest name of the Venetian traveller [Marco Polo] presents itself in the same line with the names of Alexander the Great and Christopher Columbus."

peatedly tells us, was, first of all, that of a missionary, 1 — he hoped to convert the Khan and his people to Christianity. If they rejected the religion he offered them, then, according to the ideas of the time, any Christian king might seize their possessions, and make slaves of them.

Such was one great object with Columbus in going to the Indies, as all Eastern Asia was then called. Throughout his career he never lost sight of this purpose. In fact, he came at length to believe that the Most High had specially chosen him as his instrument to carry the light of faith into the kingdoms of Oriental paganism. That motive, whether wise or not, inspired the great Genoese navigator with a certain enthusiasm and dignity of character which mark his course throughout. His life was not always blameless, — he shared many of the errors of his time, — but it was always noble.

5. The Second Motive of Columbus; Trade with the Indies. —

But the question naturally arises, if Columbus wished to reach the Indies, why did he not follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Polo, and go overland to that country ?

The answer to that inquiry is found in the second motive which actuated him ; that was his desire to open up direct commercial intercourse with the East, not by land, but by the ocean. Columbus was, as we have seen, a sailor ; and for this reason the condition of trade had a great influence on his plans.

Europe had at all times depended on the Indies for much of its supply of silks, cashmeres, and muslins, as well as for dyewoods, perfumes, spices, precious stones, and pearls. Howlarge that trade was in the fifteenth century we cannot say with precision, but it must have been considerable. The control of it was then practically in the hands of the two rival Italian ports of Venice and Genoa. They held such complete possession of this lucrative traffic that it was said

1 In this respect Columbus may be compared with the celebrated modern missionary and explorer, David Livingstone, who did so much, a number of years since, toward opening up the " Dark Continent " of Africa, not only to religion, but to trade.

THE WORLD AS KNOWN SHORTLY BEFORE AND SHORTLY AFTER THE SAILING OF COLUMBUS.

Light arrows show voyages made up to 1492 ; (light track, Da Gama's voyage, 1497). Dark arrows, voyages of Columbus and Cabot.

White crosses, countries of which something was known before 1492.

White area, including western coast of Africa, the world as known shortly before the sailing of Columbus.

that no one in Western Europe could season a dish of meat or spice a cup of wine, without adding something to the profits of one of those cities.

Each had a route of its own. Genoa took the northern one, and sent her ships by way of Constantinople to the ports of the Black Sea. There they loaded with goods brought either across from the Caspian Sea or up the valley of the Euphrates and the Tigris from the Persian Gulf — part of the way by boats, and part by caravan.

Venice took the southern route, and conducted her traffic by way of Cairo and the Red Sea. This gave her the advantage of a nearly all-water line of communication with the East, though there were points where the navigation was both difficult and dangerous. Trade over these two competing routes had gone on for centuries; but in 1453, when Columbus was a lad of seventeen, a great change suddenly took place.

That year the Turks besieged and took Constantinople, which before that had been a Greek city. When they got possession they refused to allow the Genoese vessels to pass through the straits of the Bosphorus into the Black Sea. This completely broke up the commerce of Genoa with the East, and henceforth Venice had the trade entirely to herself. That result, so disastrous to Genoa, must have made a decided impression on Columbus ; for in future he would see no more ships unload their rich cargoes of silks and spices at the wharves of his native city.

6. Attempt of the Portuguese to reach the Indies by a New Route.

— While these events were happening on the Mediterranean, the king of Portugal, anxious to get the control of the Oriental trade away from Venice, was doing his utmost to find an all-sea route to the treasures of the Indies. His plan was to send out successive expeditions to explore the western coast of Africa, in the hope of finding a way round that continent into the Indian Ocean. But the progress made was very slow. Though they had already done something, yet it took the cautious mariners of that age more than fifty years to creep down the coast — a distance of over five thousand miles — to the extreme southern point. Finally, in 1487, that feat was accomplished by a Portuguese captain of the name of Diaz. 1 He, however, had such a rough experience that he named the point the Cape of Storms.

It is an interesting and significant fact that Bartholomew Columbus, Christopher's younger brother, accompanied Captain Diaz in that expedition. The elder Columbus must have felt no little interest in the success of the undertaking, since he himself was then maturing a scheme for seeking the Indies in a different direction.

When Diaz returned with the news of what he had achieved, the Portuguese monarch felt sure that he should accomplish his end. To show his confidence in the new route which he foresaw would be opened, he called for Diaz's chart, drew his pen through the name Cape of Storms, and in its place wrote in bold letters that name full of promise, Cape of Good Hope.

7. Plan of Columbus for reaching the Indies by sailing West. —

But Columbus thought that he could improve on the king of Portugal's project. He felt certain that there was a shorter and better way of reaching the Indies than the track Diaz had marked out. The plan of the Genoese sailor was as daring as it was original. Instead of sailing east, or south and east, he proposed to sail directly west. He had, as he believed, three good and solid reasons for such an undertaking: First, in common with the best geographers of his day, Columbus was convinced that the earth was not flat, as most men supposed, but a globe. Secondly, he supposed this globe to be much smaller than it is, and the greater part to be land instead of water. Thirdly, as he knew nothing, and surmised nothing, of the existence of the continent of America or of the Pacific

1 Diaz (Dee'az).

Ocean, he imagined that the coast of Asia or the Indies was directly opposite Spain and the western coast of Europe. The entire distance across to Cipango, or Japan, he estimated would probably not exceed about four thousand miles.

His plan was this: he would start from Europe; head his ship westward toward Japan, and follow the curve of the globe until it brought him to what he sought. To his mind it seemed as sure and simple as for a fly to walk round an apple.

If successful in the expedition, he would have this immense advantage : he would enter the Indies directly by the front door, instead of reaching them in a roundabout way, and by a sort of side-entrance as the Portuguese must.

We see that this man who understood practical mathematics, geography, and navigation, as well as any one of his day, was right on the first point, — the shape of the earth, — but utterly wrong on the other two.

Yet, singularly enough, his errors were in one respect a help to him. The mistake that he made in regard to distance was a most fortunate one. Had Columbus correctly reckoned the size of the globe, and the true length of such a voyage, he probably would not have sailed, since he would have seen at once that the proposed Portuguese route was both far shorter and cheaper. Again, could he have imagined or in any way foreseen that the American continent lay right across his path, that in itself might not then have induced him to start on a voyage of discovery, for his object was not to find a new country, but a new way to an old one.

8. Columbus seeks and obtains the Assistance of Spain. — This project was not a recent thought of Columbus. He had meditated on it for many years, during which time he sought to get the help first of his native city, then of Portugal, and finally of Spain (1485-1486). He met with nothing but disappointment. He was regarded as a foolish schemer, and the street boys openly mocked him as a lunatic.

At last Columbus, now fast sinking into poverty, received permission from the Spanish rulers to lay his plans before a committee or council. That body listened to his arguments with impatient incredulity. To them such a voyage " appeared as extravagant as it would at the present day to launch a balloon into space in quest of some distant star."

The council ridiculed the idea that the earth is round like a ball. If so, said they, then the rain and snow must fall upward on the under side, — the side opposite where we stand, — and men there must walk with their heads downward : that would be inconvenient, nay more, it would be impossible. Finally, they objected that in case the earth could be proved to be a globe, that very fact would render such a voyage as Columbus proposed a failure. For how, they asked of him, could your ships come back when they had once advanced so far west as to begin to descend the curve of the earth ? Could they turn about and sail up hill to Spain again ? No answer that Columbus could make seemed satisfactory to the council. After much deliberation and vexatious delays they made their report to Ferdinand and Isabella, joint sovereigns of Spain. The report stated that the scheme was "vain and impracticable, and rested on grounds too weak to merit the support of the government."

Sick at heart, Columbus set out to leave the country, when he was recalled. He had a few stanch friends at court who believed, with him, that "wherever ships could sail, man might venture." Through their influence, and especially through the generous encouragement of Queen Isabella, he obtained the assistance he required. 1 Thus, chiefly by a woman's help, the brave sailor got the power to undertake his daring enterprise. It was indeed high time that some one should furnish the means if Columbus was to be the leader; for he

1 The whole amount raised to fit out the expedition was 1,640,000 maravedis, or (according to Harrisse's estimate) about £93,000, f which sum the Queen contributed over two-thirds.

1492.] THE DISCOVERY AND NAMING OF AMERICA. II was then a gray-bearded man of fifty-six — an age when not many persons, however fond of adventure, care to embark on new and perilous expeditions.

9. Columbus sails. — Columbus had succeeded in getting his own terms, — he had received the rank of admiral, he was to be governor of all lands that he might discover or acquire, and he was to have a tenth of whatever treasure he might find. He now pushed forward his preparations for the voyage as rapidly as possible. When all was ready, he and his men went to church, and implored the blessing of God on their great enterprise. The next day, Friday, August 3, 1492, "half an hour before sunrise," as Columbus himself says, he set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small vessels, and one hundred and twenty men. 1

Of these vessels, only the largest, the admiral's ship, had an entire deck, and even his was probably of not over one hundred tons' burden, or about the size of an ordinary coasting schooner.

He took his route by way of the Canary Islands, because Cipango, or Japan, the nearest Asiatic land, was supposed to lie in that latitude. 2 At the Canaries he was detained several weeks repairing the rudder of one vessel, and altering the sails of a second.

On September 6th, he hoisted anchor, and resolutely set out to cross that ocean which no civilized man had ever before attempted to pass over. As the last dim outline of the islands

1 Columbus kept a regular journal of the voyage from the start. In the introduction to that journal he says, respecting one object he had in view : " In consequence of the information which I had given to your Highnesses [the king and queen of Spain] of the lands of India, and of a prince who is called the Grand Khan, which is to say . . . King of Kings . . . therefore your Highnesses . . . determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the said parts of India to see the said prince and the people and lands . . . and to discover the means to be taken for the conversion of them to our holy faith ; and ordered that I should not go by land to the East, by which it is the custom to go, but by a voyage to the west, by which course, unto the present time, we do not know for certain that any one hath passed."

2 See chart of Columbus, page 12, and compare also the chart of his course, page 13.

faded from their sight many of the sailors were completely overcome. Some shed tears, as if they "had taken leave of the world"; others, unable to restrain their grief, broke out into loud and bitter lamentations.

But Columbus himself had no such fears. He did not feel that he was making a leap in the dark. He had carefully calculated

Correct chart of westward route from Europe to Asia, for comparison with the chart of Columbus given above.

everything and provided for everything. No one understood navigation better than he. Here was his equipment: First, he had a chart of the globe, made by himself, and based on the highest authorities. Next, he had the compass for his guide. Finally, he carried with him an improved astrolabe, or instrument for determining his position by observation of the sun.

But these were not all. These, in fact, were but the material and mechanical means of success. He had the conviction that he was engaged in a Providential work, and that he was certain to accomplish it. There are occasions in life when such a faith is worth everything to its possessor: this was one.

We can judge of the strength of his conviction from the fact that he carried with him, by his own special request, letters of introduction and recommendation from the joint sovereigns of Spain to the Grand Khan of China.

10. The Voyage ; Variation of the Needle ; the Crew are greatly Alarmed ; the Winged Guides. — For a time all went well, then a new and strange circumstance was noticed. It was

Route of Columbus, 1492.

found that the compass no longer pointed toward the North Star, but that it varied more and more, as they went on, to the west of north. 1

This astonished Columbus, and greatly alarmed the seamen. They began to think that they had now entered a region where the ordinary laws of nature were suspended, and that to persist in keeping on would be destruction. Columbus pacified their fears as best he could. He however would not hear of turning back then, though he afterward promised to do so if land was not discovered in a few days.

1 Humboldt remarks that it had probably been noticed before this voyage that the magnetic needle varied to the northeast. Now it was found that this variation varied ; and that from northeast the needle swung round to the northwest. This was the new and startling feature of the situation.

On the 7th of October an event occurred which induced the admiral to change his course. He was then sailing due west, but that day a flock of land-birds was seen flying to the southwest. Alonzo Pinzon, captain of one of the vessels, urged Columbus to follow those birds. He refused ; but at length yielded to entreaty, and reluctantly turned the prow of his ship in the direction of his winged guides. 1

That seemingly trifling circumstance had important results. Had Columbus kept on in his directly westerly course, he would have struck the mainland of America at the peninsula

of Florida. In that case it is probable that Spain would have planted her first colonies on what is now the eastern shore of the United States, instead of spending her strength, as she did, in getting possession of Cuba and San Domingo. Such a settlement might have changed — at least, for a long period — the future of this country. It might have made a second Mexico of the southeast, — planting there a Spanish population, Spanish laws, and the Spanish language. Had that happened, — and there is no reason to> think it would not, — then despotic Spain would have got firm control of a part of the new world that to-day belongs to the American Union, and such a hold, even if but temporary, certainly would not have resulted in our present advantage.

l See Paragraph 2, note 2, on the Northmen following ravens.

Columbus watching for Land.

ii. Land! San Salvador; the West Indies and the Indians.—

The result of following the birds was that, five days later, Friday, October 12th, at two o'clock in the morning, the cry of "Land! Land!" was heard. It proved to be a small island of the Bahamas, called by the natives Guanahani. 1 It is now thought to be Watling's Island. 2

When the sun rose, revealing the low sandy shore, —the humble threshold of the new world, — Columbus, clad in complete armor, landed with his men. Kneeling, they kissed the soil, and with tears gave thanks to God for having crowned their voyage with success. Then, with solemn ceremonies, the admiral planted the royal flame-colored banner of Spain, and took possession of the country for Ferdinand and Isabella. To the island he gave the name of San Salvador, or the Holy Redeemer.

Columbus believed this little island to be part of the Indies. Since he had reached it by sailing westward he called the group to which it belongs the West Indies. To the natives he naturally gave the name Indians. However incorrect that designation may seem to us, knowing, as we do, that the Indies are many thousand miles west of the Bahamas, still that name will doubtless cling to that people as long as they continue to exist.