_The paragraph headings, following the paragraph numbers, will be
found useful for topical reference, and, if desired, as questions;
by simply omitting these headings, the book may be used as a reader._
_Teachers who wish a regular set of questions on each section will
find them at the end of the section. Difficult words are defined or
pronounced at the end of the numbered paragraph where they first
occur; reference to them will be found in the index._
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
(1436-1506).[1]
1. Birth and boyhood of Columbus.--Christopher Columbus,[2] the
discoverer of America, was born at Genoa,[3] a seaport of Italy, more
than four hundred and fifty years ago. His father was a
wool-comber.[4] Christopher did not care to learn that trade, but
wanted to become a sailor. Seeing the boy's strong liking for the
sea, his father sent him to a school where he could learn geography,
map-drawing, and whatever else might help him to become some day
commander of a vessel.
[Illustration: COLUMBUS AS A BOY. (From the statue in the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston.)]
[Footnote 1: These enclosed dates under a name show, except when
otherwise stated, the year of birth and death.]
[Footnote 2: Christopher Columbus (Kris'tof-er Ko-lum'bus).]
[Footnote 3: Genoa (Jen'o-ah); see map in paragraph 21.]
[Footnote 4: Wool-comber: before wool can be spun into thread and
woven into cloth the tangled locks must be combed out straight and
smooth; once this was all done by hand.]
2. Columbus becomes a sailor.--When he was fourteen Columbus went
to sea. In those days the Mediterranean[5] Sea swarmed with war-ships
and pirates. Every sailor, no matter if he was but a boy, had to stand
ready to fight his way from port to port.
In this exciting life, full of adventure and of danger, Columbus grew
to manhood. The rough experiences he then had did much toward making
him the brave, determined captain and explorer[6] that he afterwards
became.
[Footnote 5: Mediterranean (Med'i-ter-ra'ne-an).]
[Footnote 6: Explorer: one who explores or discovers new countries.]
3. Columbus has a sea-fight; he goes to Lisbon.--According to some
accounts, Columbus once had a desperate battle with a vessel off the
coast of Portugal. The fight lasted, it is said, all day. At length
both vessels were found to be on fire. Columbus jumped from his
blazing ship into the sea, and catching hold of a floating oar,
managed, with its help, to swim to the shore, about six miles away.
He then went to the port of Lisbon.[7] There he married the daughter
of a famous sea-captain. For a long time after his marriage Columbus
earned his living partly by drawing maps, which he sold to commanders
of vessels visiting Lisbon, and partly by making voyages to Africa,
Iceland, and other countries.
[Footnote 7: Lisbon: see map in paragraph 21.]
4. What men then knew about the world.--The maps which Columbus made
and sold were very different from those we now have. At that time
not half of the world had been discovered.[8] Europe, Asia, and a
small part of Africa were the chief countries known. The maps of
Columbus may have shown the earth shaped like a ball, but he supposed
it to be much smaller than it really is. No one then had sailed round
the globe. No one then knew what lands lay west of the broad Atlantic;
for this reason we should look in vain, on one of the maps drawn by
Columbus, for the great continents of North and South America or for
Australia or the Pacific Ocean.
[Illustration: The light parts of this map show how much of the world
was then well-known; the white crosses show those countries of
Eastern Asia of which something was known.]
[Footnote 8: See map in this paragraph.]
5. The plan of Columbus for reaching the Indies by sailing
west.--While living in Lisbon, Columbus made up his mind to try to
do what no other man, at that time, dared attempt,--that was to cross
the Atlantic Ocean. He thought that by doing so he could get directly
to Asia and the Indies, which, he believed, were opposite Portugal
and Spain. If successful, he could open up a very profitable trade
with the rich countries of the East, from which spices, drugs, and
silk were brought to Europe. The people of Europe could not reach
those countries directly by ships, because they had not then found
their way round the southern point of Africa.
[Illustration: This map shows how Columbus (not knowing that America
lay in the way) hoped to reach Asia and the East Indies by sailing
west.]
6. Columbus tries to get help in carrying out his plans.--Columbus
was too poor to fit out even a single ship to undertake such a voyage
as he had planned. He asked the king of Portugal to furnish some money
or vessels toward it, but he received no encouragement. At length
he determined to go to Spain and see if he could get help there.
On the southern coast of Spain there is a small port named Palos.[9]
Within sight of the village of Palos, and also within plain sight
of the ocean, there was a convent,[10]--which is still
standing,--called the Convent of Saint Mary.
One morning a tall, fine-looking man, leading a little boy by the
hand, knocked at the door of this convent and begged for a piece of
bread and a cup of water for the child. The man was Columbus,--whose
wife was now dead,--and the boy was his son.
It chanced that the guardian of the convent noticed Columbus standing
at the door. He liked his appearance, and coming up, began to talk
with him. Columbus frankly told him what he was trying to do. The
guardian of the convent listened with great interest; then he gave
him a letter to a friend who he thought would help him to lay his
plans before Ferdinand and Isabella,[11] the king and queen of Spain.
[Footnote 9: Palos (Pa'los); see map in paragraph 12.]
[Footnote 10: Convent: a house in which a number of people live who
devote themselves to a religious life.]
[Footnote 11: Isabella (Iz-ah-bel'ah).]
7. Columbus gets help for his great voyage.--Columbus left his son
at the convent, and set forward on his journey full of bright hopes.
But Ferdinand and Isabella could not then see him; and after waiting
a long time, the traveller was told that he might go before a number
of learned men and tell them about his proposed voyage across the
Atlantic.
After hearing what Columbus had to say, these men thought that it
would be foolish to spend money in trying to reach the other side
of the ocean.
People who heard what this captain from Lisbon wanted to do began
to think that he had lost his reason, and the boys in the streets
laughed at him and called him crazy. Columbus waited for help seven
years; he then made up his mind that he would wait no longer. Just
as he was about leaving Spain, Queen Isabella, who had always felt
interested in the brave sailor, resolved to aid him. Two rich
sea-captains who lived in Palos also decided to take part in the
voyage. With the assistance which Columbus now got he was able to
fit out three small vessels. He went in the largest of the
vessels--the only one which had an entire deck--as admiral[12] or
commander of the fleet.
[Footnote 12: Admiral (ad'mi-ral).]
8. Columbus sails.--Early on Friday morning, August 3d, 1492,
Columbus started from Palos to attempt to cross that ocean which men
then called the "Sea of Darkness,"--a name which showed how little
they knew of it, and how much they dreaded it.
We may be pretty sure that the guardian of the convent was one of
those who watched the sailing of the little fleet. From the upper
windows of the convent he could plainly see the vessels as they left
the harbor of Palos.
[Illustration: COLUMBUS LEAVING PALOS, AUGUST 3D, 1492.]
9. What happened on the first part of the voyage.--Columbus sailed
first for the Canary Islands, because from there it would be a
straight line, as he thought, across to Japan and Asia. He was obliged
to stop at the Canaries[13] more than three weeks, in order to make
a new rudder for one of his vessels and to alter the sails of another.
At length all was ready, and he again set out on his voyage toward
the west. When the sailors got so far out on the ocean that they could
no longer see any of the islands, they were overcome with fear. They
made up their minds that they should never be able to get back to
Palos again. They were rough men, used to the sea, but now they bowed
down their heads and cried like children. Columbus had hard work to
quiet their fears and to encourage them to go forward with the voyage
which they already wanted to give up.
[Footnote 13: Canaries (Ka-na'rez); see map in paragraph 12.]
10. What happened after they had been at sea many days.--For more
than thirty days the three ships kept on their way toward the west.
To the crew every day seemed a year. From sunrise to sunset nothing
was to be seen but water and sky. At last the men began to think that
they were sailing on an ocean which had no end. They whispered among
themselves that Columbus had gone mad, and that if they kept on with
him in command they should all be lost.
Twice, indeed, there was a joyful cry of Land! Land! but when they
got nearer they saw that what they had thought was land was nothing
but banks of clouds. Then some of the sailors said, Let us go to the
admiral and tell him that we must turn back. What if he will not listen
to us? asked others; Then we will throw him overboard and say when
we reach Palos that he fell into the sea and was drowned.
But when the crew went to Columbus and told him that they would go
no further, he sternly ordered them to their work, declaring that
whatever might happen, he would not now give up the voyage.
11. Signs of land.--The very next day such certain signs of land were
seen that the most faint-hearted took courage. The men had already
noticed great flocks of land-birds flying toward the west, as if to
guide them. Now some of the men on one vessel saw a branch of a
thorn-bush float by. It was plain that it had not long been broken
off from the bush, and it was full of red berries.
But one of the crew on the other vessel found something better even
than the thorn-branch; for he drew out of the water a carved
walking-stick. Every one saw that such a stick must have been cut
and carved by human hands. These two signs could not be doubted. The
men now felt sure that they were approaching the shore, and what was
more, that there were people living in that strange country.
12. Discovery of land.--That evening Columbus begged his crew to keep
a sharp lookout, and he promised a velvet coat to the one who should
first see land. All was now excitement; and no man closed his eyes
in sleep that night.
Columbus himself stood on a high part of his ship, looking steadily
toward the west. About ten o'clock he saw a moving light; it seemed
like a torch carried in a man's hand. He called to a companion and
asked him if he could see anything of the kind; yes, he, too, plainly
saw the moving light, but presently it disappeared.
Two hours after midnight a cannon was fired from the foremost vessel.
It was the glad signal that the long-looked-for land was actually
in sight. There it lay directly ahead, about six miles away.
[Illustration: Map showing the direction in which Columbus sailed
on his great voyage across the ocean.]
Then Columbus gave the order to furl sails, and the three vessels
came to a stop and waited for the dawn. When the sun rose on Friday,
October 12th, 1492, Columbus saw a beautiful island with many trees
growing on it. That was his first sight of the New World.
13. Columbus lands on the island and names it; who lived on the
island.--Attended by the captains of the other two vessels, and by
their crews, Columbus set out in a boat for the island. When they
landed, all fell on their knees, kissed the ground for joy, and gave
thanks to God. Columbus named the island San Salvador[14] and took
possession of it, by right of discovery, for the king and queen of
Spain.
[Illustration: LANDING OF COLUMBUS.]
He found that it was inhabited by a copper-colored people who spoke
a language he could not understand. These people had never seen a
ship or a white man before. They wore no clothing, but painted their
bodies with bright colors. The Spaniards made them presents of
strings of glass beads and red caps. In return they gave the Spaniards
skeins of cotton yarn, tame parrots, and small ornaments of gold.
After staying here a short time Columbus set sail toward the south,
in search of more land and in the hope of finding out where these
people got their gold.
[Footnote 14: San Salvador (San Sal-va-dor'): meaning the Holy
Redeemer or Saviour.]
14. Columbus names the group of islands and their people.--As
Columbus sailed on, he saw many islands in every direction. He
thought that they must be a part of the Indies which he was seeking.
Since he had reached them by coming west from Spain, he called them
the West Indies, and to the red men who lived on them he gave the
name of Indians.
15. Columbus discovers two very large islands; his vessel is wrecked,
and he returns to Spain in another.--In the course of the next six
weeks Columbus discovered the island of Cuba. At first he thought
that it must be Japan, but afterward he came to the conclusion that
it was not an island at all, but part of the mainland of Asia.
Next, he came to the island of Hayti,[15] or San Domingo.[16] Here
his ship was wrecked. He took the timber of the wreck and built a
fort on the shore. Leaving about forty of his crew in this fort,
Columbus set sail for Palos in one of the two remaining vessels.
[Footnote 15: Hayti (Ha'ti).]
[Footnote 16: San Domingo (San Do-min'go); see map in paragraph 17.]
16. Columbus arrives at Palos; joy of the people; how Ferdinand and
Isabella received him.--When the vessel of Columbus was seen
entering the harbor of Palos, the whole village was wild with
excitement. More than seven months had gone by since he sailed away
from that port, and as nothing had been heard from him, many supposed
that the vessels and all on board were lost. Now that they saw their
friends and neighbors coming back, all was joy. The bells of the
churches rang a merry peal of welcome; the people thronged the
streets, shouting to each other that Columbus, the great navigator,
had crossed the "Sea of Darkness" and had returned in safety.
The king and queen were then in the city of Barcelona,[17] a long
distance from Palos. To that city Columbus now went. He entered it
on horseback, attended by the proudest and richest noblemen of Spain.
He brought with him six Indians from the West Indies. They were gaily
painted and wore bright feathers in their hair. Then a number of men
followed, carrying rare birds and plants, with gold and silver
ornaments, all found in the New World. These were presents for the
king and queen. Ferdinand and Isabella received Columbus with great
honor. When he had told them the story of his wonderful voyage, they
sank on their knees and gave praise to God; all who were present
followed their example.
[Illustration: COLUMBUS RECEIVED BY THE KING AND QUEEN OF SPAIN.]
[Footnote 17: Barcelona (Bar-se-lo'na); see map in paragraph 12.]
17. The last voyages of Columbus.--Columbus made three more voyages
across the Atlantic. He discovered more islands near the coast of
America, and he touched the coast of Central America and of South
America, but that was all. He never set foot on any part of what is
now the United States, and he always thought that the land he had
reached was part of Asia. He had found a new world, but he did not
know it: all that he knew was how to get to it and how to show others
the way.
[Illustration: The light parts of this map show how much of America
Columbus discovered. (The long island is Cuba; the large one to the
right is San Domingo.)]
18. Columbus in his old age.--The last days of this great man were
very sorrowful. The king was disappointed because he brought back
no gold to amount to anything. The Spanish governor of San Domingo
hated Columbus, and when he landed at that island on one of his
voyages, he arrested him and sent him back to Spain in chains. He
was at once set at liberty; but he could not forget the insult. He
kept the chains hanging on the wall of his room, and asked to have
them buried with him.
Columbus was now an old man; his health was broken, he was poor, in
debt, and without a home. Once he wrote to the king and queen, saying,
"I have not a hair upon me that is not gray, my body is weak, and
all that was left to me ... has been taken away and sold, even to
the coat which I wore."
Not long after he had come back to Spain to stay, the queen died.
Then Columbus felt that he had lost his best friend. He gave up hope,
and said, "I have done all that I could do: I leave the rest to God."
19. His death and burial.--Columbus died full of disappointment and
sorrow--perhaps it would not be too much to say that he died of a
broken heart.
He was at first buried in Spain; then his body was taken up and carried
to San Domingo, where he had wished to be buried. Whether it rests
there to-day, or whether it was carried to Havana[18] and deposited
in the cathedral or great church of that city, no one can positively
say. But wherever the grave of the great sailor may be, his memory
will live in every heart capable of respecting a brave man; for he
first dared to cross the "Sea of Darkness," and he discovered
America.
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO COLUMBUS. (In the Cathedral of Havana,
Cuba.)]
[Footnote 18: Havana (Ha-van'ah): a city of Cuba.]
20. Summary.--In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain to
find a direct way across the Atlantic to Asia and the Indies. He did
not get to Asia; but he did better; he discovered America. He died
thinking that the new lands he had found were part of Asia; but by
his daring voyage he first showed the people of Europe how to get
to the New World.
When and where was Columbus born? What did he do when he was fourteen?
What about his sea-fight? What did he do in Lisbon? How much of the
world was then known? How did Columbus think he could reach Asia and
the Indies? Why did he want to go there? What did he try to do in
Portugal? Why did he go to Spain? Where did he first go in Spain?
How did Columbus get help at last? When did he sail? What happened
on the first part of the voyage? What happened after that? What is
said about signs of land? What about the discovery of land? What did
Columbus name the island? What did he find on it? What is said of
other islands? What is said of the return of Columbus to Spain? What
about the last voyages of Columbus? Did he ever land on any part of
what is now the United States? What about his old age? What is said
of his death and burial?
JOHN CABOT[1]
(Lived in England from 1472-1498).
21. John Cabot discovers the _continent_ of North America.--At the
time that Columbus set out on his first voyage across the Atlantic
in 1492, John Cabot, an Italian merchant, was living in the city of
Bristol,[2] England. When the news reached that city that Columbus
had discovered the West Indies, Cabot begged Henry the Seventh, king
of England, to let him see if he could not find a shorter way to the
Indies than that of Columbus. The king gave his consent, and in the
spring of 1497 John Cabot, with his son Sebastian,[3] who seems to
have been born in Bristol, sailed from that port. They headed their
vessels toward the northwest; by going in that direction they hoped
to get to those parts of Asia and the Spice Islands which were known
to Europe, and which Columbus had failed to reach.
[Illustration: Map showing the city of Venice, Italy, where John
Cabot had lived.]
Early one bright morning toward the last of June, 1497, they saw land
in the west. It was probably Cape Breton[4] Island, a part of Nova
Scotia.[5] John Cabot named it "The Land First Seen." Up to this time
Columbus had discovered nothing but the West India Islands, but John
Cabot now saw the continent of North America; no civilized man[6]
had ever seen it before. There it lay, a great, lonely land, shaggy
with forests, with not a house or a human being in sight.
[Illustration: Map showing Nova Scotia.]
[Footnote 1: Cabot (Cab'ot).]
[Footnote 2: See map in paragraph 62.]
[Footnote 3: Sebastian (Se-bast'yan).]
[Footnote 4: Breton (Bret'on).]
[Footnote 5: Nova Scotia (No'vah Sko'she-a).]
[Footnote 6: The Northmen: an uncivilized people of Norway and
Denmark discovered the continent of North America about five hundred
years before Cabot did. Nothing came of this discovery, and when
Cabot sailed, no one seems to have known anything about what the
Northmen had done so long before.]
22. John Cabot takes possession of the country for the king of
England.--Cabot went on shore with his son and some of his crew. In
the vast, silent wilderness they set up a large cross. Near to it
they planted two flag-poles, and hoisted the English flag on one and
the flag of Venice,[7] the city where John Cabot had lived in Italy,
on the other. Then they took possession of the land for Henry the
Seventh. It was in this way that the English came to consider that
the eastern coast of North America was their property, although they
did not begin to make settlements here until nearly a hundred years
later.
[Illustration: LANDING OF THE CABOTS.]
[Footnote 7: Venice (Ven'is).]
23. John Cabot and his son return to Bristol.--After sailing about
the Gulf of St. Lawrence without finding the passage through to Asia
for which they were looking, the voyagers returned to England.
The king was so pleased with what John Cabot had discovered that he
made him a handsome present; and when the captain, richly dressed
in silk, appeared in the street, the people of Bristol would "run
after him like mad" and hurrah for the "Great Admiral," as they called
him.
24. What the Cabots carried back to England from America.--The Cabots
carried back to England some Indian traps for catching game and
perhaps some wild turkeys--an American bird the English had then
never seen, but whose acquaintance they were not sorry to make. They
also carried over the rib of a whale which they had found on the beach
in Nova Scotia.
Near where the Cabots probably lived in Bristol there is a famous
old church.[8] It was built long before the discovery of America,
and Queen Elizabeth said that it was the most beautiful building of
its kind in all England. In that church hangs the rib of a whale.
It is believed to be the one the Cabots brought home with them. It
reminds all who see it of that voyage in 1497 by which England got
possession of a very large part of the continent of North America.
[Footnote 8: The church of St. Mary Redcliffe.]
25. The second voyage of the Cabots; how they sailed along the eastern
shores of North America.--About a year later the Cabots set out on
a second voyage to the west. They reached the gloomy cliffs of
Labrador[9] on the northeastern coast of America, and they passed
many immense icebergs. They saw numbers of Indians dressed in the
skins of wild beasts, and polar bears white as snow. These bears were
great swimmers, and would dive into the sea and come up with a large
fish in their claws. As it did not look to the Cabots as if the polar
bears and the icebergs would guide them to the warm countries of Asia
and the Spice Islands, they turned about and went south. They sailed
along what is now the eastern coast of the United States for a very
long distance; but not finding any passage through to the countries
they were seeking, they returned to England.
[Illustration: Map showing how much of the continent of North America
was discovered by the Cabots.]
The English now began to see what an immense extent of land they had
found beyond the Atlantic. They could not tell, however, whether it
was a continent by itself or a part of Asia. Like everybody in Europe,
they called it the New World, but all that name really meant then
was simply the New Lands across the sea.
[Footnote 9: Labrador (Lab'ra-dor).]
26. How the New World came to be called America.--But not many years
after this the New World received the name by which we now call it.
An Italian navigator whose first name was Amerigo[10] made a voyage
to it after it had been discovered by Columbus and the Cabots. He
wrote an account of what he saw, and as this was the first printed
description of the continent, it was named from him, AMERICA.
[Footnote 10: Amerigo (A-ma-ree'go): his full name was Amerigo
Vespucci (A-ma-ree'go Ves-poot'chee), or, as he wrote it in Latin,
Americus Vespucius.]
27. Summary.--In 1497 John Cabot and his son, from Bristol, England,
discovered the mainland or continent of North America, and took
possession of it for England. The next year they came over and sailed
along the eastern coast of what is now the United States.
An Italian whose first name was Amerigo visited the New World
afterward and wrote the first account of the mainland which was
printed. For this reason the whole continent was named after him,
AMERICA.
Who was John Cabot? What did he try to do? Who sailed with him?
What land did they see? Had Columbus ever seen it? What did Cabot
do when he went on shore? What is said of his return to Bristol? What
did the Cabots carry back to England? What is said about the second
voyage of the Cabots? How did the New World come to be called America?
PONCE DE LEON,[1] BALBOA,[2] AND DE SOTO[3]
(Period of Discovery, 1513-1542).
28. The magic fountain; Ponce de Leon discovers Florida; Balboa
discovers the Pacific Ocean.--The Indians on the West India Islands
believed that there was a wonderful fountain in a land to the west
of them. They said that if an old man should bathe in its waters,
they would make him a boy again. Ponce de Leon, a Spanish soldier
who was getting gray and wrinkled, set out to find this magic fountain,
for he thought that there was more fun in being a boy than in growing
old.
He did not find the fountain, and so his hair grew grayer than ever
and his wrinkles grew deeper. But in 1513 he discovered a land bright
with flowers, which he named Florida.[4] He took possession of it
for Spain.
The same year another Spaniard, named Balboa, set out to explore the
Isthmus of Panama.[5] One day he climbed to the top of a very high
hill, and discovered that vast ocean--the greatest of all the oceans
of the globe--which we call the Pacific.
[Footnote 1: Ponce de Leon (Pon'thay day La-on') or, in English, Pons
de Lee'on. Many persons now prefer the English pronunciation of all
these Spanish names.]
[Footnote 2: Balboa (Bal-bo'ah).]
[Footnote 3: De Soto (Da So'to).]
[Footnote 4: Florida: this word means flowery; the name was given
by the Spaniards because they discovered the country on Easter Sunday,
which they call Flowery Easter.]
[Footnote 5: Panama (Pan-a-mah').]
29. De Soto discovers the Mississippi.--Long after Balboa and Ponce
de Leon were dead, a Spaniard named De Soto landed in Florida and
marched through the country in search of gold mines.
In the course of his long and weary wanderings, he came to a river
more than a mile across. The Indians told him it was the Mississippi,
or the Great River. In discovering it, De Soto had found the largest
river in North America; he had also found his own grave, for he died
shortly after, and was secretly buried at midnight in its muddy
waters.
[Illustration: BURIAL OF DE SOTO.]
30. The Spaniards build St. Augustine;[6] we buy Florida in
1819.--More than twenty years after the burial of De Soto, a Spanish
soldier named Menendez[7] went to Florida and built a fort on the
eastern coast. This was in 1565. The fort became the centre of a
settlement named St. Augustine. It is the oldest city built by white
men, not only in what is now the United States, but in all North
America.
[Illustration: OLD SPANISH GATEWAY AT ST. AUGUSTINE. (Called the
"City Gate.")]
In 1819, or more than two hundred and fifty years after St. Augustine
was begun, Spain sold Florida to the United States.
[Footnote 6: St. Augustine (Sant Aw'gus-teen').]
[Footnote 7: Menendez (Ma-nen'deth).]
31. Summary.--Ponce de Leon discovered Florida; another Spaniard,
named Balboa, discovered the Pacific; still another, named De Soto,
discovered the Mississippi. In 1565 the Spaniards began to build St.
Augustine in Florida. It is the oldest city built by white men in
the United States or in all North America.
What is said about a magic fountain? What did Ponce De Leon do? What
is said about Balboa? What about De Soto? What did Menendez do in
Florida? What is said of St. Augustine?
SIR WALTER RALEIGH[1]
(1552-1618).
32. Walter Raleigh sends two ships to America; how the Indians
received the Englishmen.--Although John Cabot discovered the
continent of North America in 1497 and took possession of the land
for the English,[2] yet the English themselves did not try to settle
here until nearly a hundred years later.
Then (1584) a young man named Walter Raleigh, who was a great favorite
of Queen Elizabeth's, sent out two ships to America. The captains
of these vessels landed on Roanoke[3] Island, on the coast of what
is now the state of North Carolina. They found the island covered
with tall red cedars and with vines thick with clusters of wild grapes.
The Indians called this place the "Good Land." They were pleased to
see the Englishmen, and they invited them to a great feast of roast
turkey, venison,[4] melons, and nuts.
[Illustration: Map showing Roanoke Island.]
[Footnote 1: Raleigh (Raw'li).]
[Footnote 2: See paragraph 22.]
[Footnote 3: Roanoke (Ro-a-nok').]
[Footnote 4: Venison (ven'i-zon or ven'zon): deer meat.]
33. Queen Elizabeth names the country Virginia; first settlers; what
they sent Walter Raleigh.--When the two captains returned to England,
Queen Elizabeth--the "Virgin Queen," as she was called--was
delighted with what she heard of the "Good Land." She named it
Virginia in honor of herself. She also gave Raleigh a title of honor.
From that time he was no longer called plain Walter Raleigh or Mr.
Raleigh, but Sir Walter Raleigh.
Sir Walter now (1585) shipped over emigrants[5] to settle in Virginia.
They sent back to him as a present two famous American plants--one
called Tobacco, the other the Potato. The queen had given Sir Walter
a fine estate in Ireland, and he set out both the plants in his garden.
The tobacco plant did not grow very well there, but the potato did;
and after a time thousands of farmers began to raise that vegetable,
not only in Ireland, but in England too. As far back then as that
time--or more than three hundred years ago--America was beginning
to feed the people of the Old World.
[Illustration: THE FIRST PIPE OF TOBACCO. (Raleigh's servant thought
his master was on fire.)]
[Footnote 5: Emigrants: persons who leave one country to go and
settle in another. Thousands of emigrants from Europe now land in
this country every month.]
34. The Virginia settlement destroyed.--Sir Walter spent immense
sums of money on his settlement in Virginia, but it did not succeed.
One of the settlers, named Dare, had a daughter born there. He named
her Virginia Dare. She was the first English child born in America.
But the little girl, with her father and mother and all the rest of
the settlers, disappeared. It is supposed that they were either
killed by the Indians or that they wandered away and starved to death;
but all that we really know is that not one of them was ever seen
again.
35. Last days of Sir Walter Raleigh.--After Queen Elizabeth died,
King James the First became ruler of England. He accused Sir Walter
of trying to take away his crown so as to make some one else ruler
over the country. Sir Walter was sent to prison and kept there for
many years. At last King James released him in order to send him to
South America to get gold. When Sir Walter returned to London without
any gold, the greedy king accused him of having disobeyed him because
he had fought with some Spaniards. Raleigh was condemned to death
and beheaded.
But Sir Walter's attempt to settle Virginia led other Englishmen to
try. Before he died they built a town, called Jamestown, on the coast.
We shall presently read the history of that town. The English held
Virginia from that time until it became part of the United States.
36. Summary.--Sir Walter Raleigh sent over men from England to
explore the coast of America. Queen Elizabeth named the country they
visited Virginia. Raleigh then shipped emigrants over to make a
settlement. These emigrants sent him two American plants, Tobacco
and the Potato; and in that way the people of Great Britain and
Ireland came to like both. Sir Walter's settlement failed, but his
example led other Englishmen to try to make one. Before he was
beheaded they succeeded.
What is said about Walter Raleigh? What is said about the Indians?
What name did Queen Elizabeth give to the country? What did she do
for Walter Raleigh? What did Sir Walter then do? What American plants
did the emigrants send him? What did he do with those plants? What
happened to the Virginia settlement? What is said of the last days
of Sir Walter Raleigh? Did Sir Walter's attempt to settle Virginia
do any good?
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH
(1579-1631).
37. New and successful attempt to make a settlement in Virginia;
Captain John Smith.--One of the leaders in the new expedition sent
out to make a settlement in Virginia, while Raleigh was in prison,
was Captain John Smith. He began life as a clerk in England. Not
liking his work, he ran away and turned soldier. After many strange
adventures, he was captured by the Turks and sold as a slave. His
master, who was a Turk, riveted a heavy iron collar around his neck
and set him to thrashing grain with a big wooden bat like a ball-club.
One day the Turk rode up and struck his slave with his riding-whip.
This was more than Smith could bear; he rushed at his master, and
with one blow of his bat knocked his brains out. He then mounted the
dead man's horse and escaped. After a time he got back to England;
but as England seemed a little dull to Captain Smith, he resolved
to join some emigrants who were going to Virginia.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.]
38. What happened to Captain Smith on the voyage; the landing at
Jamestown; what the settlers wanted to do; Smith's plan.--On the way
to America, Smith was accused of plotting to murder the chief men
among the settlers so that he might make himself "King of Virginia."
The accusation was false, but he was put in irons and kept a prisoner
for the rest of the voyage.
In the spring of 1607 the emigrants reached Chesapeake[1] Bay, and
sailed up a river which they named the James in honor of King James
of England; when they landed they named the settlement Jamestown for
the same reason. Here they built a log fort, and placed three or four
small cannon on its walls. Most of the men who settled Jamestown came
hoping to find mines of gold in Virginia, or else a way through to
the Pacific Ocean and to the Indies, which they thought could not
be very far away. But Captain Smith wanted to help his countrymen
to make homes here for themselves and their children.
[Illustration: Map showing Jamestown.]
[Footnote 1: Chesapeake (Ches'a-peek).]
39. Smith's trial and what came of it; how the settlers lived; the
first English church; sickness; attempted desertion.--As soon as
Captain Smith landed, he demanded to be tried by a jury[2] of twelve
men. The trial took place. It was the first English court and the
first English jury that ever sat in America. The captain proved his
innocence and was set free. His chief accuser was condemned to pay
him a large sum of money for damages. Smith generously gave this money
to help the settlement.
As the weather was warm, the emigrants did not begin building log
cabins at once, but slept on the ground, sheltered by boughs of trees.
For a church they had an old tent, in which they met on Sunday. They
were all members of the Church of England, or the Episcopal Church,
and that tent was the first place of worship that we know of which
was opened by Englishmen in America.
When the hot weather came, many fell sick. Soon the whole settlement
was like a hospital. Sometimes three or four would die in one night.
Captain Smith, though not well himself, did everything he could for
those who needed his help.
When the sickness was over, some of the settlers were so discontented
that they determined to seize the only vessel there was at Jamestown
and go back to England. Captain Smith turned the cannon of the fort
against them. The deserters saw that if they tried to leave the harbor
he would knock their vessel to pieces, so they came back. One of the
leaders of these men was tried and shot; the other was sent to England
in disgrace.
[Footnote 2: Jury: a number of men, generally twelve, selected
according to law to try a case in a court of law; in criminal cases
they declare the person accused to be either guilty or not guilty.]
40. The Indians of Virginia.--When the Indians of America first met
the white men, they were very friendly to them; but this did not last
long, because often the whites treated the Indians very badly; in
fact, the Spaniards made slaves of them and whipped many of them to
death. But these were the Indians of the south; some of the northern
tribes were terribly fierce and a match for the Spaniards in cruelty.
The Indians at the east did not build cities, but lived in small
villages. These villages were made up of huts, covered with the bark
of trees. Such huts were called wigwams. The women did nearly all
the work, such as building the wigwams and hoeing corn and tobacco.
The men hunted and made war. Instead of guns the Indians had bows
and arrows. With these they could bring down a deer or a squirrel
quite as well as a white man could now with a rifle. They had no iron,
but made hatchets and knives out of sharp, flat stones. They never
built roads, for they had no wagons, and at the east they did not
use horses; but they could find their way with ease through the
thickest forest. When they came to a river they swam across it, so
they had no need of bridges. For boats they made canoes of birch bark.
These canoes were almost as light as paper, yet they were very strong
and handsome, and they
"floated on the river
Like a yellow leaf in autumn,
Like a yellow water-lily."[3]
In them they could go hundreds of miles quickly and silently. So every
river and stream became a roadway to the Indian.
[Illustration: BUILDING A WIGWAM.]
[Footnote 3: Longfellow's _Hiawatha_ (Hiawatha's Sailing).]
41. Captain Smith goes in search of the Pacific; he is captured by
Indians.--After that first long, hot summer was over, some of the
settlers wished to explore the country and see if they could not find
a short way through to the Pacific Ocean. Captain Smith led the
expedition. The Indians attacked them, killed three of the men, and
took the captain prisoner. To amuse the Indians, Smith showed them
his pocket compass. When the savages saw that the needle always
pointed toward the north they were greatly astonished, and instead
of killing their prisoner they decided to take him to their chief.
This chief was named Powhatan.[4] He was a tall, grim-looking old
man, and he hated the settlers at Jamestown, because he believed that
they had come to steal the land from the Indians.
[Illustration: POCKET COMPASS.]
[Footnote 4: Powhatan (Pow-ha-tan').]
42. Smith's life is saved by Pocahontas;[5] her marriage to John
Rolfe.[6]--Smith was dragged into the chief's wigwam; his head was
laid on a large, flat stone, and a tall savage with a big club stood
ready to dash out his brains. Just as Powhatan was about to cry
"strike!" his daughter Pocahontas, a girl of twelve or thirteen, ran
up, and, putting her arms round the prisoner's head, she laid her
own head on his--now let the Indian with his uplifted club strike
if he dare.[7]
Instead of being angry with his daughter, Powhatan promised her that
he would spare Smith's life. When an Indian made such a promise as
that he kept it, so the captain knew that his head was safe. Powhatan
released his prisoner and soon sent him back to Jamestown, and
Pocahontas, followed by a number of Indians, carried to the settlers
presents of corn and venison.
Some years after this the Indian maiden married John Rolfe, an
Englishman who had come to Virginia. They went to London, and
Pocahontas died not far from that city. She left a son; from that
son came some noted Virginians. One of them was John Randolph. He
was a famous man in his day, and he always spoke with pride of the
Indian princess, as he called her.
[Footnote 5: Pocahontas (Po-ka-hon'tas).]
[Footnote 6: Rolfe (Rolf).]
[Footnote 7: On Pocahontas, see List of Books at the end of this
book.]
43. Captain Smith is made governor of Jamestown; the gold-diggers;
"Corn, or your life."--More emigrants came over from England, and
Captain Smith was now made governor of Jamestown. Some of the
emigrants found some glittering earth which they thought was gold.
Soon nearly every one was hard at work digging it. Smith laughed at
them; but they insisted on loading a ship with the worthless stuff
and sending it to London. That was the last that was heard of it.
The people had wasted their time digging this shining dirt when they
should have been hoeing their gardens. Soon they began to be in great
want of food. The captain started off with a party of men to buy corn
of the Indians. The Indians contrived a cunning plot to kill the whole
party. Smith luckily found it out; seizing the chief by the hair,
he pressed the muzzle of a pistol against his heart and gave him his
choice,--"Corn, or your life!" He got the corn, and plenty of it.
[Illustration: "CORN, OR YOUR LIFE!"]
44. "He who will not work shall not eat."--Captain Smith then set
part of the men to planting corn, so that they might raise what they
needed. The rest of the settlers he took with him into the woods to
chop down trees and saw them into boards to send to England. Many
tried to escape from this labor; but Smith said, Men who are able
to dig for gold are able to chop; then he made this rule: "He who
will not work shall not eat." Rather than lose his dinner, the laziest
man now took his axe and set off for the woods.
45. Captain Smith's cold-water cure.--But though the choppers worked,
they grumbled. They liked to see the chips fly and to hear the great
trees "thunder as they fell," but the axe-handles raised blisters
on their fingers. These blisters made the men swear, so that often
one would hear an oath for every stroke of the axe. Smith said the
swearing must be stopped. He had each man's oaths set down in a book.
When the day's work was done, every offender was called up; his oaths
were counted; then he was told to hold up his right hand, and a can
of cold water was poured down his sleeve for each oath. This new style
of water cure did wonders; in a short time not an oath was heard:
it was just chop, chop, chop, and the madder the men got, the more
the chips would fly.
46. Captain Smith meets with an accident and goes back to England;
his return to America; his death.--Captain Smith had not been
governor very long when he met with a terrible accident. He was out
in a boat, and a bag of gunpowder he had with him exploded. He was
so badly hurt that he had to go back to England to get proper treatment
for his wounds.
He returned to America a number of years later, explored the coast
north of Virginia, and gave it the name of New England, but he never
went back to Jamestown again. He died in London, and was buried in
a famous old church in that city.[8]
[Footnote 8: The church of St. Sepulchre: it is not very far from
St. Paul's Cathedral.]
47. What Captain Smith did for Virginia.--Captain John Smith was in
Virginia less than three years, yet in that short time he did a great
deal. First, he saved the settlers from starving, by making the
Indians sell them corn. Next, by his courage, he saved them from the
attacks of the savages. Lastly, he taught them how to work. Had it
not been for him the people of Jamestown would probably have lost
all heart and gone back to England. He insisted on their staying,
and so, through him, the English got their first real foothold in
America. But this was not all; he wrote two books on Virginia,
describing the soil, the trees, the animals, and the Indians. He also
made some excellent maps of Virginia and of New England. These books
and maps taught the English people many things about this country,
and helped those who wished to emigrate. For these reasons Captain
Smith has rightfully been called the "Father of Virginia."
[Illustration: A SETTLER'S LOG CABIN.]
48. Negro slaves sent to Virginia; tobacco.--About ten years after
Captain Smith left Jamestown, the commander of a Dutch ship brought
a number of negro slaves to Virginia (1619), and sold them to the
settlers. That was the beginning of slavery in this country. Later,
when other English settlements had been made, they bought slaves,
and so, after a time, every settlement north as well as south owned
more or less negroes. The people of Virginia employed most of their
slaves in raising tobacco. They sold this in England, and, as it
generally brought a good price, many of the planters[9] became quite
rich.
[Footnote 9: Planter: a person who owns a plantation or large farm
at the South; it is cultivated by laborers living on it; once these
laborers were generally negro slaves.]
49. Bacon's war against Governor Berkeley;[10] Jamestown
burned.--Long after Captain Smith was in his grave, Sir William
Berkeley was made governor of Virginia by the king of England. He
treated the people very badly. At last a young planter named Bacon
raised a small army and marched against the governor, who was in
Jamestown. The governor, finding that he had few friends to fight
for him, made haste to get out of the place. Bacon then entered it
with his men; but as he knew that, if necessary, the king would send
soldiers from England to aid the governor in getting it back, he set
fire to the place and burned it. It was never built up again, and
so only a crumbling church-tower and a few gravestones can now be
seen where Jamestown once stood. Those ruins mark the first English
town settled in America.
[Illustration: THE BURNING OF JAMESTOWN.]
[Footnote 10: Berkeley (Berk'li).]
50. What happened later in Virginia; the Revolution; Washington;
four presidents.--But though Jamestown was destroyed, Virginia kept
growing in strength and wealth. What was better still, the country
grew in the number of its great men. The king of England continued
to rule America until, in 1776, the people of Virginia demanded that
independence should be declared. The great war of the Revolution
overthrew the king's power and made us free. The military leader of
that war was a Virginia planter named George Washington.
After we had gained the victory and peace was made, we chose
presidents to govern the country. Four out of six of our first
presidents, beginning with Washington, came from Virginia. For this
reason that state has sometimes been called the "Mother of
Presidents."
51. Summary.--In 1607 Captain John Smith, with others, made the first
lasting settlement built up by Englishmen in America. Through
Captain Smith's energy and courage, Jamestown, Virginia, took firm
root. Virginia was the first state to demand the independence of
America, and Washington, who was a Virginian, led the war of the
Revolution by which that independence was gained.
What can you tell about Captain John Smith before he went to Virginia?
What happened to him on his way to Virginia? What is said about the
landing of the settlers in Virginia? What did they want to do? What
did Captain Smith want to do? What about Captain Smith's trial? What
is said about the church in Jamestown? What happened to the settlers?
What did some of them try to do? Who stopped them? Tell what you can
about the Indians. What kind of houses did they live in? Did they
have guns? Did they have iron hatchets and knives? Did they have
horses and wagons? What kind of boats did they have? What happened
to Captain Smith when he went in search of the Pacific? What did
Pocahontas do? What is said about her afterward? What about the
gold-diggers? How did Captain Smith get corn? What did he make the
settlers do? What is said about Captain Smith's cold-water cure? Why
did Captain Smith go back to England? What three things did he do
for Virginia? What about his books and maps? What is said of negro
slaves? What about tobacco? What about Governor Berkeley and Mr.
Bacon? What happened to Jamestown? What did the war of the Revolution
do? Who was its great military leader? Why is Virginia sometimes
called the "Mother of Presidents"?
CAPTAIN HENRY HUDSON
(Voyages from 1607 to 1611).
52. Captain Hudson tries to find a northwest passage to China and
the Indies.--When Captain John Smith sailed for Virginia, he left
a friend, named Henry Hudson, in London, who had the name of being
one of the best sea-captains in England.
While Smith was in Jamestown, a company of London merchants sent out
Captain Hudson to try to discover a passage to China and the Indies.
When he left England, he sailed to the northwest, hoping that he could
find a way open to the Pacific across the North Pole or not far below
it.
If he found such a passage, he knew that it would be much shorter
than a voyage round the globe further south; because, as any one can
see, it is not nearly so far round the top of an apple, near the stem,
as it is round the middle.
[Illustration: Map showing how Captain Hudson hoped to reach Asia
by sailing northwest from England.]
Hudson could not find the passage he was looking for; but he saw
mountains of ice, and he went nearer to the North Pole than any one
had ever done before.
53. The Dutch hire Captain Hudson; he sails for America.--The Dutch
people in Holland had heard of Hudson's voyage, and a company of
merchants of that country hired the brave sailor to see if he could
find a passage to Asia by sailing to the northeast.
He set out from the port of Amsterdam,[1] in 1609, in a vessel named
the _Half Moon_. After he had gone quite a long distance, the sailors
got so tired of seeing nothing but fog and ice that they refused to
go any further.
Then Captain Hudson turned his ship about and sailed for the coast
of North America. He did that because his friend, Captain Smith of
Virginia, had sent him a letter, with a map, which made him think
that he could find such a passage as he wanted north of Chesapeake
Bay.
[Footnote 1: See map in paragraph 62.]
54. Captain Hudson reaches America and finds the "Great
River."--Hudson got to Chesapeake Bay, but the weather was so stormy
that he thought it would not be safe to enter it. He therefore sailed
northward along the coast. In September, 1609, he entered a beautiful
bay, formed by the spreading out of a noble river. At that point the
stream is more than a mile wide, and he called it the "Great River."
On the eastern side of it, not far from its mouth, there is a long
narrow island: the Indians of that day called it Manhattan Island.
55. The tides in the "Great River"; Captain Hudson begins to sail
up the stream.--One of the remarkable things about the river which
Hudson had discovered is that it has hardly any current, and the tide
from the ocean moves up for more than a hundred and fifty miles. If
no fresh water ran in from the hills, still the sea would fill the
channel for a long distance, and so make a kind of salt-water river
of it. Hudson noticed how salt it was, and that, perhaps, made him
think that he had at last actually found a passage which would lead
him through from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He was delighted with
all he saw, and said, "This is as beautiful a land as one can tread
upon." Soon he began to sail up the stream, wondering what he should
see and whether he should come out on an ocean which would take him
to Asia.
[Illustration: Map showing the Great River.]
56. Hudson's voyage on the "Great River"; his feast with the
Indians.--At first he drifted along, carried by the tide, under the
shadow of a great natural wall of rock. That wall, which we now call
the Palisades,[2] is from four hundred to six hundred feet high; it
extends for nearly twenty miles along the western shore of the river.
[Illustration: THE PALISADES.]
Then, some distance further up, Captain Hudson came to a place where
the river breaks through great forest-covered hills, called the
Highlands. At the end of the fifth day he came to a point on the
eastern bank above the Highlands, where the city of Hudson now stands.
Here an old Indian chief invited him to go ashore. Hudson had found
the Indians, as he says, "very loving," so he thought he would accept
the invitation. The savages made a great feast for the captain. They
gave him not only roast pigeons, but also a roast dog, which they
cooked specially for him: they wanted he should have the very best.
These Indians had never seen a white man before. They thought that
the English captain, in his bright scarlet coat trimmed with gold
lace, had come down from the sky to visit them. What puzzled them,
however, was that he had such a pale face instead of having a red
one like themselves.
At the end of the feast Hudson rose to go, but the Indians begged
him to stay all night. Then one of them got up, gathered all the arrows,
broke them to pieces, and threw them into the fire, in order to show
the captain that he need not be afraid to stop with them.
[Footnote 2: Palisades: this name is given to the wall of rock on
the Hudson, because, when seen near by, it somewhat resembles a
palisade, or high fence made of stakes or posts set close together,
upright in the ground.]
57. Captain Hudson reaches the end of his voyage and turns back;
trouble with the Indians.--But Captain Hudson made up his mind that
he must now go on with his voyage. He went back to his ship and kept
on up the river until he had reached a point about a hundred and fifty
miles from its mouth. Here the city of Albany now stands. He found
that the water was growing shallow, and he feared that if the _Half
Moon_ went further she would get aground. It was clear to him, too,
that wherever the river might lead, he was not likely to find it a
short road to China.
On the way down stream a thievish Indian, who had come out in a canoe,
managed to steal something from the ship. One of the crew chanced
to see the Indian as he was slyly slipping off, and picking up a gun
he fired and killed him. After that Hudson's men had several fights
with the Indians.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN HUDSON ON THE GREAT RIVER.]
58. Hudson returns to Europe; the "Great River" is called by his name;
his death.--Early in October the captain set sail for Europe. Ever
since that time the beautiful river which he explored has been called
the Hudson in his honor.
The next year Captain Hudson made another voyage, and entered that
immense bay in the northern part of America which we now know as
Hudson Bay. There he got into trouble with his men. Some of them
seized him and set him adrift with a few others in an open boat.
Nothing more was ever heard of the brave English sailor. The bay which
bears his name is probably his grave.
59. The Dutch take possession of the land on the Hudson and call it
New Netherland; how New Netherland became New York.--As soon as the
Dutch in Holland heard that Captain Hudson had found a country where
the Indians had plenty of rich furs to sell, they sent out people
to trade with them. Holland is sometimes called the Netherlands; that
is, the Low Lands. When the Dutch took possession of the country on
the Hudson (1614), they gave it the name of New Netherland,[3] for
the same reason that the English called one part of their possessions
in America New England. In the course of a few years the Dutch built
(1615) a fort and some log cabins on the lower end of Manhattan Island.
After a time they named this little settlement New Amsterdam, in
remembrance of the port of Amsterdam in Holland from which Hudson
sailed.
After the Dutch had held the country of New Netherland about fifty
years, the English (1664) seized it. They changed its name to New
York, in honor of the Duke of York, who was brother to the king. The
English also changed the name of New Amsterdam to that of New York
City.
[Footnote 3: New Netherland: this is often incorrectly printed New
Netherlands.]
60. The New York "Sons of Liberty" in the Revolution; what Henry
Hudson would say of the city now.--More than a hundred years after
this the young men of New York, the "Sons of Liberty," as they called
themselves, made ready with the "Sons of Liberty" in other states
to do their full part, under the lead of General Washington, in the
great war of the Revolution,--that war by which we gained our freedom
from the rule of the king of England, and became the United States
of America.
The silent harbor where Henry Hudson saw a few Indian canoes is now
one of the busiest seaports in the world. The great statue of Liberty
stands at its entrance.[4] To it a fleet of ships and steamers is
constantly coming from all parts of the globe; from it another fleet
is constantly going. If Captain Hudson could see the river which
bears his name, and Manhattan Island now covered with miles of
buildings which make the largest and wealthiest city in America, he
would say: There is no need of my looking any further for the riches
of China and the Indies, for I have found them here.
[Footnote 4: In her right hand Liberty holds a torch to guide vessels
at night.]
61. Summary.--In 1609 Henry Hudson, an English sea-captain, then in
the employ of the Dutch, discovered the river now called by his name.
The Dutch took possession of the country on the river, named it New
Netherland, and built a small settlement on Manhattan Island. Many
years later the English seized the country and named it New York.
The settlement on Manhattan Island then became New York City; it is
now the largest and wealthiest city in the United States.
Who was Henry Hudson? What did he try to find? What did the Dutch
hire him to do? Where did he go? What did he call the river he
discovered? What is said about that river? Tell what you can of
Hudson's voyage up the river. What is said about the Indians? Why
did Hudson turn back? What did he do then? What is the river he
discovered called now? What happened to Captain Hudson the next year?
What did the Dutch do? What did they name the country? Why? What did
they build there on Manhattan Island? Who seized New Netherland? What
name did they give it? What is said of the "Sons of Liberty"? What
would Hudson say if he could see New York City now?
CAPTAIN MYLES[1] STANDISH
(1584-1656).
62. The English Pilgrims in Holland; why they left England.--When
the news of Henry Hudson's discovery of the Hudson River reached
Holland, many Englishmen were living in the Dutch city of Leyden.[2]
These people were mostly farmers who had fled from Scrooby[3] and
neighboring villages in the northeast of England. They called
themselves Pilgrims, because they were wanderers from their old
homes.
The Pilgrims left England because King James would not let them hold
their religious meetings in peace. He thought, as all kings then did,
that everybody in England should belong to the same church and
worship God in the same way that he did.[4] He was afraid that if
people were allowed to go to whatever church they thought best that
it would lead to disputes and quarrels, which would end by breaking
his kingdom to pieces. Quite a number of Englishmen, seeing that they
could not have religious liberty at home, escaped with their wives
and children to Holland; for there the Dutch were willing to let them
have such a church as they wanted.
[Illustration: Map of England and Holland]
[Footnote 1: Myles (Miles): Standish himself wrote it Myles.]
[Footnote 2: Leyden (Li'den): see map in this paragraph.]
[Footnote 3: Scrooby (Skroo'bi): see map in this paragraph.]
[Footnote 4: There were some people in England who thought much as
the Pilgrims did in regard to religion, but who did not then leave
the Church of England (as the Pilgrims did). They were called
Puritans because they insisted on making certain changes in the
English mode of worship, or, as they said, they wished to _purify_
it. Many Puritans came to New England with Governor Winthrop in 1630;
after they settled in America they established independent churches
like the Pilgrims.]
63. Why the Pilgrims wished to leave Holland and go to America.--But
the Pilgrims were not contented in Holland. They saw that if they
staid in that country their children would grow up to be more Dutch
than English. They saw, too, that they could not hope to get land
in Holland. They resolved therefore to go to America, where they
could get farms for nothing, and where their children would never
forget the English language or the good old English customs and laws.
In the wilderness they would not only enjoy entire religious freedom,
but they could build up a settlement which would be certainly their
own.
64. The Pilgrims, with Captain Myles Standish, sail for England and
then for America; they reach Cape Cod, and choose a governor
there.--In 1620 a company of Pilgrims sailed for England on their
way to America. Captain Myles Standish, an English soldier, who had
fought in Holland, joined them. He did not belong to the Pilgrim
church, but he had become a great friend to those who did.
About a hundred of these people sailed from Plymouth,[5] England,
for the New World, in the ship _Mayflower_. Many of those who went
were children and young people. The Pilgrims had a long, rough
passage across the Atlantic. Toward the last of November (1620) they
saw land. It was Cape Cod, that narrow strip of sand, more than sixty
miles long, which looks like an arm bent at the elbow, with a hand
like a half-shut fist.
[Illustration: Map of Cape Cod and part of New England.]
Finding that it would be difficult to go further, the Pilgrims
decided to land and explore the cape; so the _Mayflower_ entered Cape
Cod Harbor, inside the half-shut fist, and then came to anchor.
Before they landed, the Pilgrims held a meeting in the cabin, and
drew up an agreement in writing for the government of the settlement.
They signed the agreement, and then chose John Carver for governor.
[Footnote 5: Plymouth (Plim'uth).]
65. Washing-day; what Standish and his men found on the Cape.--On
the first Monday after they had reached the cape, all the women went
on shore to wash, and so Monday has been kept as washing-day in New
England ever since. Shortly after that, Captain Myles Standish, with
a number of men, started off to see the country. They found some
Indian corn buried in the sand; and a little further on a young man
named William Bradford, who afterward became governor, stepped into
an Indian deer-trap. It jerked him up by the leg in a way that must
have made even the Pilgrims smile.
[Illustration: AN INDIAN DEER-TRAP.]
[Illustration: BRADFORD CAUGHT.]
66. Captain Standish and his men set sail in a boat for a blue hill
in the west, and find Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Harbor; landing from
the _Mayflower_.--On clear days the people on board the _Mayflower_,
anchored in Cape Cod Harbor, could see a blue hill, on the mainland,
in the west, about forty miles away. To that blue hill Standish and
some others determined to go. Taking a sail-boat, they started off.
A few days later they passed the hill which the Indians called
Manomet,[6] and entered a fine harbor. There, on December 21st,
1620,--the shortest day in the year,--they landed on that famous
stone which is now known all over the world as Plymouth Rock.
Standish, with the others, went back to the _Mayflower_ with a good
report. They had found just what they wanted,--an excellent harbor
where ships from England could come in; a brook of nice
drinking-water; and last of all, a piece of land that was nearly free
from trees, so that nothing would hinder their planting corn early
in the spring. Captain John Smith of Virginia[7] had been there
before them, and had named the place Plymouth on his map of New
England. The Pilgrims liked the name, and so made up their minds to
keep it. The _Mayflower_ soon sailed for Plymouth, and the Pilgrims
set to work to build the log cabins of their little settlement.
[Illustration: THE _Mayflower_ IN PLYMOUTH HARBOR.]
[Footnote 6: Manomet (Man'o-met).]
[Footnote 7: See paragraph 46.]
67. Sickness and death.--During that winter nearly half the Pilgrims
died. Captain Standish showed himself to be as good a nurse as he
was a soldier. He, with Governor Carver and their minister, Elder
Brewster, cooked, washed, waited on the sick, and did everything that
kind hearts and willing hands could to help their suffering friends.
But the men who had begun to build houses had to stop that work to
dig graves. When these graves were filled, they were smoothed down
flat so that no prowling Indian should count them and see how few
white men there were left.
68. Samoset,[8] Squanto,[9] and Massasoit[10] visit the
Pilgrims.--One day in the spring the Pilgrims were startled at seeing
an Indian walk boldly into their little settlement. He cried out in
good English, "Welcome! Welcome!" This visitor was named Samoset;
he had met some sailors years before, and had learned a few English
words from them.
The next time Samoset came he brought with him another Indian, whose
name was Squanto. Squanto was the only one left of the tribe that
had once lived at Plymouth. All the rest had died of a dreadful
sickness, or plague. He had been stolen by some sailors and carried
to England; there he had learned the language. After his return he
had joined an Indian tribe that lived about thirty miles further west.
The chief of that tribe was named Massasoit, and Squanto said that
he was coming directly to visit the Pilgrims.
In about an hour Massasoit, with some sixty warriors, appeared on
a hill just outside the settlement. The Indians had painted their
faces in their very gayest style--black, red, and yellow. If paint
could make them handsome, they were determined to look their best.
[Footnote 8: Samoset (Sam'o-set).]
[Footnote 9: Squanto (Skwon'to).]
[Footnote 10: Massasoit (Mas'sa-soit').]
69. Massasoit and Governor Carver make a treaty of friendship; how
Thanksgiving was kept; what Squanto did for the Pilgrims.--Captain
Standish, attended by a guard of honor, went out and brought the chief
to Governor Carver. Then Massasoit and the governor made a solemn
promise or treaty, in which they agreed that the Indians of his tribe
and the Pilgrims should live like friends and brothers, doing all
they could to help each other. That promise was kept for more than
fifty years; it was never broken until long after the two men who
made it were in their graves.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN STANDISH AND MASSASOIT.]
When the Pilgrims had their first Thanksgiving, they invited
Massasoit and his men to come and share it. The Indians brought
venison and other good things; there were plenty of wild turkeys
roasted; and so they all sat down together to a great dinner, and
had a merry time in the wilderness.
Squanto was of great help to the Pilgrims. He showed them how to catch
eels, where to go fishing, when to plant their corn, and how to put
a fish in every hill to make it grow fast.
After a while he came to live with the Pilgrims. He liked them so
much that when the poor fellow died he begged Governor Bradford to
pray that he might go to the white man's heaven.
70. Canonicus[11] dares Governor Bradford to fight; the palisade;
the fort and meeting-house.--West of where Massasoit lived, there
were some Indians on the shore of Narragansett Bay,[12] in what is
now Rhode Island. Their chief was named Canonicus, and he was no
friend to Massasoit or to the Pilgrims. Canonicus thought he could
frighten the white men away, so he sent a bundle of sharp, new arrows,
tied round with a rattlesnake skin, to Governor Bradford: that meant
that he dared the governor and his men to come out and fight. Governor
Bradford threw away the arrows, and then filled the snake-skin up
to the mouth with powder and ball. This was sent back to Canonicus.
When he saw it, he was afraid to touch it, for he knew that Myles
Standish's bullets would whistle louder and cut deeper than his
Indian arrows.
[Illustration: ARROWS BOUND WITH SNAKE-SKIN.]
But though the Pilgrims did not believe that Canonicus would attack
them, they thought it best to build a very high, strong fence, called
a palisade, round the town.
[Illustration: THE PALISADE BUILT ROUND PLYMOUTH.]
They also built a log fort on one of the hills, and used the lower
part of the fort for a church. Every Sunday all the people, with
Captain Standish at the head, marched to their meeting-house, where
a man stood on guard outside. Each Pilgrim carried his gun, and set
it down near him. With one ear he listened sharply to the preacher;
with the other he listened just as sharply for the cry, Indians!
Indians! But the Indians never came.
[Footnote 11: Canonicus (Ka-non'i-kus).]
[Footnote 12: Narragansett (Nar'a-gan'set): see map, paragraph 84.]
71. The new settlers; trouble with the Indians in their neighborhood;
Captain Standish's fight with the savages.--By and by more emigrants
came from England and settled about twenty-five miles north of
Plymouth, at what is now called Weymouth. The Indians in that
neighborhood did not like these new settlers, and they made up their
minds to come upon them suddenly and murder them.
Governor Bradford sent Captain Standish with a few men, to see how
great the danger was. He found the Indians very bold. One of them
came up to him, whetting a long knife. He held it up, to show how
sharp it was, and then patting it, he said, "By and by, it shall eat,
but not speak." Presently another Indian came up. He was a big fellow,
much larger and stronger than Standish. He, too, had a long knife,
as keen as a razor. "Ah," said he to Standish, "so this is the mighty
captain the white men have sent to destroy us! He is a little man;
let him go and work with the women."[13]
The captain's blood was on fire with rage; but he said not a word.
His time had not yet come. The next day the Pilgrims and the Indians
met in a log cabin. Standish made a sign to one of his men, and he
shut the door fast. Then the captain sprang like a tiger at the big
savage who had laughed at him, and snatching his long knife from him,
he plunged it into his heart. A hand-to-hand fight followed between
the white men and the Indians. The Pilgrims gained the victory, and
carried back the head of the Indian chief in triumph to Plymouth.
Captain Standish's bold action saved both of the English settlements
from destruction.
[Footnote 13: See Longfellow's _The Courtship of Miles Standish_.
This quotation is truthful in its rendering of the _spirit_ of the
words used by the Indian in his insulting speech to Standish; it
should be understood, however, that the poem does not always adhere
closely either to the chronology, or to the exact facts, of history.]
72. What else Myles Standish did; his death.--But Standish did more
things for the Pilgrims than fight for them; for he went to England,
bought goods for them, and borrowed money to help them.
He lived to be an old man. At his death he left, among other things,
three well-worn Bibles and three good guns. In those days, the men
who read the Bible most were those who fought the hardest.
Near Plymouth there is a high hill called Captain's Hill. That was
where Standish made his home during the last of his life. A granite
monument, over a hundred feet high, stands on top of the hill. On
it is a statue of the brave captain looking toward the sea. He was
one of the makers of America.
[Illustration: MYLES STANDISH'S KETTLE, SWORD, AND PEWTER DISH.]
[Illustration: COPY OF MYLES STANDISH'S SIGNATURE.]
73. Governor John Winthrop founds[14] Boston.--Ten years after the
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, a large company of English people under
the leadership of Governor John Winthrop came to New England. They
were called Puritans,[15] and they, too, were seeking that religious
freedom which was denied them in the old country. One of the vessels
which brought over these new settlers was named the _Mayflower_. She
may have been the very ship which in 1620 brought the Pilgrims to
these shores.
Governor Winthrop's company named the place where they settled
Boston, in grateful remembrance of the beautiful old city of
Boston,[16] England, from which some of the chief emigrants came.
The new settlement was called the Massachusetts Bay[17] Colony,[18]
Massachusetts being the Indian name for the Blue Hills, near Boston.
The Plymouth Colony was now often called the Old Colony, because it
had been settled first. After many years, these two colonies were
united, and still later they became the state of Massachusetts.
[Footnote 14: Founds: begins to build.]
[Footnote 15: See footnote 4 in paragraph 62.]
[Footnote 16: Boston, England; see map in paragraph 62.]
[Footnote 17: Massachusetts Bay; see map in paragraph 84.]
[Footnote 18: Colony: here a company of settlers who came to America
from England, and who were subject to the king of England, as all
the English settlers of America were until the Revolution.]
74. How other New England colonies grew up; the Revolution.--By the
time Governor Winthrop arrived, English settlements had been made
in Maine, New Hampshire, and later (1724), in the country which
afterward became the state of Vermont. Connecticut and Rhode Island
were first settled by emigrants who went from Massachusetts.
When the Revolution broke out, the people throughout New England took
up arms in defence of their rights. The first blood of the war was
shed on the soil of Massachusetts, near Boston.
75. Summary.--The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, New England, in 1620.
One of the chief men who came with them was Captain Myles Standish.
Had it not been for his help, the Indians might have destroyed the
settlement. In 1630, Governor John Winthrop, with a large company
of emigrants from England, settled Boston. Near Boston the first
battle of the Revolution was fought.
Why did some Englishmen in Holland call themselves Pilgrims? Why had
they left England? Why did they now wish to go to America? Who was
Myles Standish? From what place in England, and in what ship, did
the Pilgrims sail? What land did they first see in America? What did
they do at Cape Cod Harbor? What did the Pilgrims do on the Cape?
Where did they land on December 21st, 1620? What happened during the
winter? What is said of Samoset? What about Squanto? What about
Massasoit? What did Massasoit and Governor Carver do? What about the
first Thanksgiving? What is said about Canonicus and Governor
Bradford? What did the Pilgrims build to protect them from the
Indians? What is said about Weymouth? What did Myles Standish do
there? What else did Myles Standish do besides fight? What is said
of his death? What did Governor John Winthrop do? What did the people
of New England do in the Revolution? Where was the first blood shed?
LORD BALTIMORE
(1580-1632).
76. Lord Baltimore's settlement in Newfoundland; how Catholics were
then treated in England.--While Captain Myles Standish was helping
build up Plymouth, Lord Baltimore, an English nobleman, was trying
to make a settlement on the cold, foggy island of Newfoundland.
Lord Baltimore had been brought up a Protestant, but had become a
Catholic. At that time, Catholics were treated very cruelly in
England. They were ordered by law to attend the Church of England.
They did not like that church any better than the Pilgrims did; but
if they failed to attend it, they had to take their choice between
paying a large sum of money or going to prison.
Lord Baltimore hoped to make a home for himself and for other English
Catholics in the wilderness of Newfoundland, where there would be
no one to trouble them. But the unfortunate settlers were fairly
frozen out. They had winter a good share of the year, and fog all
of it. They could raise nothing, because, as one man said, the soil
was either rock or swamp: the rock was as hard as iron; the swamp
was so deep that you could not touch bottom with a ten-foot pole.
77. The king of England gives Lord Baltimore part of Virginia, and
names it Maryland; what Lord Baltimore paid for it.--King Charles
the First of England was a good friend to Lord Baltimore; and when
the settlement in Newfoundland was given up, he made him a present
of an immense three-cornered piece of land in America. This piece
was cut out of Virginia, north of the Potomac[1] River.
The king's wife, who was called Queen Mary, was a French Catholic.
In her honor, Charles named the country he had given Lord Baltimore,
Mary Land, or Maryland. He could not have chosen a better name,
because Maryland was to be a shelter for many English people who
believed in the same religion that the queen did.
[Illustration: TWO INDIAN ARROWS.]
All that Lord Baltimore was to pay for Maryland, with its twelve
thousand square miles of land and water, was two Indian arrows. These
he agreed to send every spring to the royal palace of Windsor[2]
Castle, near London.
[Illustration: PART OF WINDSOR CASTLE.]
The arrows would be worth nothing whatever to the king; but they were
sent as a kind of yearly rent. They showed that, though Lord Baltimore
had the use of Maryland, and could do pretty much as he pleased with
it, still the king did not give up all control of it. In Virginia
and in New England the king had granted all land to companies of
persons, and he had been particular to tell them just what they must
or must not do; but he gave Maryland to one man only. More than this,
he promised to let Lord Baltimore have his own way in everything,
so long as he made no laws in Maryland which should be contrary to
the laws of England. So Lord Baltimore had greater privileges than
any other holder of land in America at that time.
[Footnote 1: Potomac (Po-to'mak): see map, paragraph 140.]
[Footnote 2: Windsor (Win'zor).]
78. Lord Baltimore dies; his son sends emigrants to Maryland; the
landing; the Indians; St. Mary's.--Lord Baltimore died before he
could get ready to come to America. His eldest son then became Lord
Baltimore. He sent over a number of emigrants; part of them were
Catholics, and part were Protestants: all of them were to have equal
rights in Maryland. In the spring of 1634, these people landed on
a little island near the mouth of the Potomac River. There they cut
down a tree, and made a large cross of it; then, kneeling round that
cross, they all joined in prayer to God for their safe journey.
[Illustration: THE LANDING IN MARYLAND.]
A little later, they landed on the shore of the river. There they
met Indians. Under a huge mulberry-tree they bargained with the
Indians for a place to build a town, and paid for the land in hatchets,
knives, and beads.
The Indians were greatly astonished at the size of the ship in which
the white men came. They thought that it was made like their canoes,
out of the trunk of a tree hollowed out, and they wondered where the
English could have found a tree big enough to make it.
The emigrants named their settlement St. Mary's, because they had
landed on a day kept sacred to the Virgin Mary.[3] The Indians gave
up one of their largest wigwams to Father White, one of the priests
who had come over, and he made a church of it. It was the first English
Catholic Church which was opened in America.
[Illustration: Map of Maryland and Virginia.]
The Indians and the settlers lived and worked together side by side.
The red men showed the emigrants how to hunt in the forest, and the
Indian women taught the white women how to make hominy, and to bake
johnny-cake before the open fire.
[Footnote 3: March 25th: Annunciation or Lady Day.]
79. Maryland the home of religious liberty.--Maryland was different
from the other English colonies in America, because there, and there
only, every Christian, whether Catholic or Protestant, had the right
to worship God in his own way. In that humble little village of St.
Mary's, made up of thirty or forty log huts and wigwams in the woods,
"religious liberty had its only home in the wide world."
But more than this, Lord Baltimore generously invited people who had
been driven out of the other settlements on account of their religion
to come and live in Maryland. He gave a hearty welcome to all, whether
they thought as he did or not. Thus he showed that he was a noble
man by nature as well as a nobleman by name.
80. Maryland falls into trouble; the city of Baltimore built.--But
this happy state of things did not last long. Some of the people of
Virginia were very angry because the king had given Lord Baltimore
part of what they thought was their land. They quarrelled with the
new settlers and made them a great deal of trouble.
Then worse things happened. Men went to Maryland and undertook to
drive out the Catholics. In some cases they acted in a very shameful
manner toward Lord Baltimore and his friends; among other things,
they put Father White in irons and sent him back to England as a
prisoner. Lord Baltimore had spent a great deal of money in building
up the settlement, but his right to the land was taken away from him
for a time, and all who dared to defend him were badly treated.
St. Mary's never grew to be much of a place, but not quite a hundred
years after the English landed there a new and beautiful city was
begun (1729) in Maryland. It was named Baltimore, in honor of that
Lord Baltimore who sent out the first emigrants. When the
Revolutionary War broke out, the citizens of Baltimore showed that
they were not a bit behind the other colonies of America in their
spirit of independence.
81. Summary.--King Charles the First of England gave Lord Baltimore,
an English Catholic, a part of Virginia and named it Maryland, in
honor of his wife, Queen Mary. A company of emigrants came out to
Maryland in 1634. It was the first settlement in America in which
all Christian people had entire liberty to worship God in whatever
way they thought right. That liberty they owed to Lord Baltimore.
Who was Lord Baltimore, and what did he try to do in Newfoundland?
How were Catholics then treated in England? What did the king of
England give Lord Baltimore in America? What did the king name the
country? What was Lord Baltimore to pay for Maryland? What did the
king promise Lord Baltimore? What did Lord Baltimore's son do? When
and where did the emigrants land? What did they call the place? What
is said about the Indians? Of what was Maryland the home? Why did
some of the people of Virginia trouble them? What is said of the city
of Baltimore? What is said of the Revolution?
ROGER WILLIAMS
(1600-1684).
82. Roger Williams comes to Boston; he preaches in Salem and in
Plymouth; his friendship for the Indians.--Shortly after Governor
John Winthrop and his company settled Boston,[1] a young minister
named Roger Williams came over from England to join them.
[Illustration: THE CHURCH IN WHICH ROGER WILLIAMS PREACHED IN SALEM.
IT IS STILL STANDING.]
Mr. Williams soon became a great friend to the Indians and while he
preached at Salem,[2] near Boston, and at Plymouth, he came to know
many of them. He took pains to learn their language, and he spent
a great deal of time talking with the chief Massasoit[3] and his men,
in their dirty, smoky wigwams. He made the savages feel that, as he
said, his whole heart's desire was to do them good. For this reason
they were always glad to see him and ready to help him. A time came,
as we shall presently see, when they were able to do quite as much
for him as he could for them.
[Footnote 1: See paragraph 73.]
[Footnote 2: Salem (Sa'lem).]
[Footnote 3: See paragraph 68.]
83. Who owned the greater part of America? what the king of England
thought; what Roger Williams thought and said.--The company that had
settled Boston held the land by permission of the king of England.
He considered that most of the land in America belonged to him,
because John Cabot[4] had discovered it.
But Roger Williams said that the king had no right to the land unless
he bought it of the Indians, who were living here when the English
came.
Now the people of Massachusetts were always quite willing to pay the
Indians a fair price for whatever land they wanted; but many of them
were afraid to have Mr. Williams preach and write as he did. They
believed that if they allowed him to go on speaking out so boldly
against the king that the English monarch would get so angry that
he would take away Massachusetts from them and give it to a new
company. In that case, those who had settled here would lose
everything. For this reason the people of Boston tried to make the
young minister agree to keep silent on this subject.
[Footnote 4: See paragraph 22.]
84. A constable is sent to arrest Roger Williams; he escapes to the
woods, and goes to Mount Hope.--But Mr. Williams was not one of the
kind to keep silent. Then the chief men of Boston sent a constable
down to Salem with orders to seize him and send him back to England.
When he heard that the constable was after him, Mr. Williams slipped
quietly out of his house and escaped to the woods.
There was a heavy depth of snow on the ground, but the young man made
up his mind that he would go to his old friend Massasoit, and ask
him to help him in his trouble.
[Illustration: Map showing Roger Williams's route from Salem to
Mount Hope.]
Massasoit lived near Mount Hope, in what is now Rhode Island, about
eighty miles southwest from Salem. There were no roads through the
woods, and it was a long, dreary journey to make on foot, but Mr.
Williams did not hesitate. He took a hatchet to chop fire-wood, a
flint and steel to strike fire with,--for in those days people had
no matches,--and, last of all, a pocket-compass to aid him in finding
his way through the thick forest.
[Illustration: Striking fire with flint and steel. The sparks were
caught on some old, half-burnt rag, and were then blown to a blaze.]
All day he waded wearily on through the deep snow, only stopping now
and then to rest or to look at his compass and make sure that he was
going in the right direction. At night he would gather wood enough
to make a little fire to warm himself or to melt some snow for drink.
Then he would cut down a few boughs for a bed, or, if he was lucky
enough to find a large, hollow tree, he would creep into that. There
he would fall asleep, while listening to the howling of the wind or
to the fiercer howling of the hungry wolves prowling about the woods.
[Illustration: ROGER WILLIAMS WADING THROUGH THE SNOW.]
At length, after much suffering from cold and want of food, he managed
to reach Massasoit's wigwam. There the big-hearted Indian chief gave
him a warm welcome. He took him into his poor cabin and kept him till
spring--there was no board bill to pay. All the Indians liked the
young minister, and even Canonicus,[5] that savage chief of a
neighboring tribe, who had dared Governor Bradford to fight, said
that he "loved him as his own son."
[Footnote 5: Canonicus: see paragraph 70.]
85. Roger Williams at Seekonk;[6] "What cheer, friend?"--When the
warm days came, in the spring of 1636, Mr. Williams began building
a log hut for himself at Seekonk, on the east bank of the Seekonk
River. But he was told that his cabin stood on ground owned by the
people of Massachusetts; so he, with a few friends who had joined
him, took a canoe and paddled down stream to find a new place to build.
[Illustration: Map of Rhode Island.]
"What cheer, friend? what cheer?" shouted some Indians who were
standing on a rock on the western bank of the river. That was the
Indian way of saying How do you do, and just then Roger Williams was
right glad to hear it. He landed on what is now called "What Cheer
Rock,"[7] and had a talk with the red men. They told him that there
was a fine spring of water round the point of land a little further
down. He went there, and liked the spot so much that he decided to
stop. His friend Canonicus owned the land, and he gladly let him have
what he needed. Roger Williams believed that a kind Providence had
guided him to this pleasant place, and for this reason he named it
PROVIDENCE.
Providence was the first settlement made in America which set its
doors wide open to every one who wished to come and live there. Not
only all Christians, but Jews, and even men who went to no church
whatever, could go there and be at peace. This great and good work
was done by Roger Williams. Providence grew in time to be the chief
city in the state of Rhode Island. When the Revolution began, every
man and boy in the state, from sixteen to sixty, stood ready to fight
for liberty.
[Footnote 6: Seekonk (See'konk).]
[Footnote 7: "What Cheer Rock" is on the east side of the city of
Providence.]
86. Summary.--Roger Williams, a young minister of Salem,
Massachusetts, declared that the Indians, and not the king of England,
owned the land in America. The governor of Massachusetts was afraid
that if Mr. Williams kept on saying these things the king would hear
of it and would take away the land held by the people of Boston and
the other settlements. He therefore sent a constable to arrest the
young minister and put him on board a ship going back to England.
When Mr. Williams knew this, he fled to the Indian chief, Massasoit.
In 1636 Roger Williams began building Providence. Providence was the
first settlement in America which offered a home to all men without
asking them anything whatever about their religious belief.
Who was Roger Williams? What is said about him and the Indians? Who
did Mr. Williams think first owned the land in America? How did many
of the people of Massachusetts feel about Mr. Williams? What did the
chief men of Boston do? What did Mr. Williams do? Describe his journey
to Mount Hope. What did Massasoit do for Mr. Williams? What did Mr.
Williams do at Seekonk? What happened after that? Why did he name
the settlement Providence? What is said of Providence? What about
the Revolution?
KING PHILIP
(Time of the Indian War, 1675-1676).
87. Death of Massasoit; Wamsutta[1] and Philip; Wamsutta's sudden
death.--When the Indian chief Massasoit[2] died, the people of
Plymouth lost one of their best friends. Massasoit left two sons,
one named Wamsutta, who became chief in his father's place, and the
other called Philip. They both lived near Mount Hope, in Rhode
Island.
The governor of Plymouth heard that Wamsutta was stirring up the
Indians to make war on the whites, and he sent for the Indian chief
to come to him and give an account of himself. Wamsutta went, but
on his way back he suddenly fell sick, and soon after he reached home
he died. His young wife was a woman who was thought a great deal of
by her tribe, and she told them that she felt sure the white people
had poisoned her husband in order to get rid of him. This was not
true, but the Indians believed it.
[Footnote 1: Wamsutta (Wam-sut'ta).]
[Footnote 2: Massasoit: see paragraph 68.]
88. Philip becomes chief; why he hated the white men; how the white
men had got possession of the Indian lands.--Philip now became chief.
He called himself "King Philip." His palace was a wigwam made of bark.
On great occasions he wore a bright red blanket and a kind of crown
made of a broad belt ornamented with shells. King Philip hated the
white people because, in the first place, he believed that they had
murdered his brother; and next, because he saw that they were growing
stronger in numbers every year, while the Indians were becoming
weaker.
[Illustration: THE BELT WHICH KING PHILIP WORE FOR A CROWN.]
When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massasoit, Philip's father,
held all the country from Cape Cod back to the eastern shores of
Narragansett Bay; that is, a strip about thirty miles wide. The white
settlers bought a small piece of this land. After a while they bought
more, and so they kept on until in about fifty years they got nearly
all of what Massasoit's tribe had once owned. The Indians had nothing
left but two little necks of land, which were nearly surrounded by
the waters of Narragansett Bay. Here they felt that they were shut
up almost like prisoners, and that the white men watched everything
that they did.
89. How King Philip felt; signs of the coming war; the "Praying
Indians"; the murder.--King Philip was a very proud man--quite as
proud, in fact, as the king of England. He could not bear to see his
people losing power. He said to himself, if the Indians do not rise
and drive out the white men, then the white men will certainly drive
out the Indians. Most of the Indians now had guns, and could use them
quite as well as the whites could; so Philip thought that it was best
to fight.
The settlers felt that the war was coming. Some of them fancied that
they saw the figure of an Indian bow in the clouds. Others said that
they heard sounds like guns fired off in the air, and horsemen riding
furiously up and down in the sky, as if getting ready for battle.
But though many Indians now hated the white settlers, this was not
true of all. A minister, named John Eliot, had persuaded some of the
red men near Boston to give up their religion, and to try to live
like the white people. These were called "Praying Indians." One of
them who knew King Philip well told the settlers that Philip's
warriors were grinding their hatchets sharp for war. Soon after, this
"Praying Indian" was found murdered. The white people accused three
of Philip's men of having killed him. They were tried, found guilty,
and hanged.
90. Beginning of the war at Swansea;[3] burning of Brookfield.--Then
Philip's warriors began the war in the summer of 1675. Some white
settlers were going home from church in the town of Swansea,
Massachusetts; they had been to pray that there might be no fighting.
As they walked along, talking together, two guns were fired out of
the bushes. One of the white men fell dead in the road, and another
was badly hurt.
[Illustration: Map of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.]
The shots were fired by Indians. This was the way they always fought
when they could. They were not cowards, but they did not come out
boldly, but would fire from behind trees and rocks. Often a white
man would be killed without even seeing who shot him.
At first the fighting was mainly in those villages of Plymouth Colony
which were nearest Narragansett Bay; then it spread to the valley
of the Connecticut River and the neighborhood. Deerfield,
Springfield, Brookfield,[4] Groton,[5] and many other places in
Massachusetts were attacked. The Indians would creep up stealthily
in the night, burn the houses, carry off the women and children
prisoners if they could, kill the rest of the inhabitants, take their
scalps home and hang them up in their wigwams.
[Illustration: AN ATTACKING INDIAN.]
At Brookfield the settlers left their houses, and gathered in one
strong house for defence. The Indians burned all the houses but that
one, and did their best to burn that, too. They dipped rags in
brimstone, such as we make matches of, fastened them to the points
of their arrows, set fire to them, and then shot the blazing arrows
into the shingles of the roof. When the Indians saw that the shingles
had caught, and were beginning to flame up, they danced for joy, and
roared like wild bulls. But the men in the house managed to put out
the fire on the roof. Then the savages got a cart, filled it with
hay, set it on fire, and pushed it up against the house. This time
they thought that they should certainly burn the white people out;
but just then a heavy shower came up, and put out the fire. A little
later, some white soldiers marched into the village, and saved the
people in the house.
[Footnote 3: Swansea (Swon'ze).]
[Footnote 4: See map in this paragraph.]
[Footnote 5: Groton (Graw'ton).]
91. The fight at Hadley; what Colonel[6] Goffe[7] did.--At Hadley,
the people were in the meeting-house when the terrible Indian
war-whoop[8] rang through the village. The savages drove back those
who dared to go out against them, and it seemed as if the village
must be destroyed. Suddenly a white-haired old man, sword in hand,
appeared among the settlers. No one knew who he was; but he called
to them to follow him, as a captain calls to his men, and they obeyed
him. The astonished Indians turned and ran. When, after all was over,
the whites looked for their brave leader, he had gone; they never
saw him again. Many thought that he was an angel who had been sent
to save them. But the angel was Colonel Goffe, an Englishman, who
was one of the judges who had sentenced King Charles the First to
death during a great war in England. He had escaped to America; and,
luckily for the people of Hadley, he was hiding in the house of a
friend in that village when the Indians attacked it.
[Illustration: INDIAN ATTACK ON A SETTLEMENT. The building on the
right is a block-house, or fort made of hewn logs. These block-houses
were built as places of refuge for the settlers, in case of an attack
on the town by the Indians.]
[Footnote 6: Colonel (kur'nel): the chief officer of a regiment of
soldiers.]
[Footnote 7: Goffe (Gof): and see List of Books at the end of this
book.]
[Footnote 8: War-whoop (war-hoop): a very loud, shrill cry made by
the Indians when engaged in war, or as a shout of alarm.]
92. How a woman drove off an Indian.--In this dreadful war with the
savages there were times when even the women had to fight for their
lives. In one case, a woman had been left in a house with two young
children. She heard a noise at the window, and looking up, saw an
Indian trying to raise the sash. Quick as thought, she clapped the
two little children under two large brass kettles which stood near.
Then, seizing a shovel-full of red-hot coals from the open fire, she
stood ready, and just as the Indian thrust his head into the room,
she dashed the coals right into his face and eyes. With a yell of
agony the Indian let go his hold, dropped to the ground as though
he had been shot, and ran howling to the woods.
[Illustration: WOMAN THROWING COALS.]
93. The great swamp fight; burning the Indian wigwams; what the Chief
Canonchet[9] said.--During the summer and autumn of 1675 the Indians
on the west side of Narragansett Bay[10]took no open part in King
Philip's War. But the next winter the white people found that these
Indians were secretly receiving and sheltering the savages who had
been wounded in fighting for that noted chief. For that reason, the
settlers determined to raise a large force and attack them. The
Indians had gathered in a fort on an island in a swamp. This fort
was a very difficult place to reach. It was built of the trunks of
trees set upright in the ground. It was so strong that the savages
felt quite safe.
Starting very early in the morning, the attacking party waded fifteen
miles through deep snow. Many of them had their hands and feet badly
frozen. One of the chief men in leading the attack was Captain
Benjamin Church of Plymouth; he was a very brave soldier, and knew
all about Indian life and Indian fighting. In the battle, he was
struck by two bullets, and so badly wounded that he could not move
a step further; but he made one of his men hold him up, and he shouted
to his soldiers to go ahead. The fight was a desperate one, but at
length the fort was taken. The attacking party lost more than two
hundred and fifty men in killed and wounded; the Indians lost as many
as a thousand.
After the battle was over, Captain Church begged the men not to burn
the wigwams inside the fort, for there were a great number of old
men and women and little Indian children in the wigwams. But the men
were very mad against the savages, and would not listen to him. They
set the wigwams on fire, and burned many of these poor creatures to
death.
Canonchet, the chief of the tribe, was taken prisoner. The settlers
told him they would spare his life if he would try to make peace.
"No," said he, "we will all fight to the last man rather than become
slaves to the white men." He was then told that he must be shot. "I
like it well," said he. "I wish to die before my heart becomes soft,
or I say anything unworthy of myself."
[Footnote 9: Canonchet (Ka-non'chet).]
[Footnote 10: See map in paragraph 90.]