CHILDREN'S STORIES
IN
AMERICAN HISTORY
[Illustration: A MAMMOTH HUNT]
CHILDREN'S STORIES
IN
AMERICAN HISTORY
BY
HENRIETTA CHRISTIAN WRIGHT
_Illustrated by J. Steeple Davis_
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1885
COPYRIGHT, 1885, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
TROW'S
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
NEW YORK.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
ANCIENT AMERICA, 1
CHAPTER II.
THE MOUND-BUILDERS, 5
CHAPTER III.
THE RED MEN, 14
CHAPTER IV.
THE NORTHMEN, 27
CHAPTER V.
COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, 38
CHAPTER VI.
THE CABOTS, 61
CHAPTER VII.
AMERICUS VESPUCIUS, 65
CHAPTER VIII.
PONCE DE LEON, 71
CHAPTER IX.
VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA, THE DISCOVERER OF THE
PACIFIC OCEAN, 76
CHAPTER X.
CABECA DE VACA, 85
CHAPTER XI.
HERNANDO CORTEZ AND THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO, 103
CHAPTER XII.
PIZARRO AND THE CONQUEST OF PERU, 114
CHAPTER XIII.
FERDINAND DE SOTO, THE DISCOVERER OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 172
CHAPTER XIV.
VERRAZANO, 199
CHAPTER XV.
JACQUES CARTIER, 210
CHAPTER XVI.
THE HUGUENOTS, 228
CHAPTER XVII.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, 254
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS, THE INDIAN PRINCESS, 259
CHAPTER XIX.
THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE, AND DISCOVERY OF LAKE
CHAMPLAIN, 269
CHAPTER XX.
HENRY HUDSON AND THE KNICKERBOCKERS, 292
CHAPTER XXI.
THE PILGRIMS AND THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND, 300
CHAPTER XXII.
LA SALLE, 316
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE STORY OF ACADIA, 331
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE STORY OF PONTIAC, 337
CHAPTER XXV.
THE REVOLUTION, 348
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
A MAMMOTH HUNT, _Frontispiece._
FACING PAGE
THE TEACHING OF AN INDIAN CHILD, 14
YOUNG COLUMBUS, 38
VESPUCIUS LANDING TO CHASTISE THE CANNIBALS, 65
BALBOA IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN SEA, 79
THE MESSENGERS OF MONTEZUMA, 103
DE SOTO, 172
JACQUES CARTIER FINDS NEWFOUNDLAND INHOSPITABLE, 210
SMITH SAVED BY POCAHONTAS, 259
THE HALF-MOON IN THE HUDSON, 292
THE DRIVING OUT OF THE ACADIANS, 331
THE STORY OF PONTIAC'S PLOT, 337
CHAPTER I.
ANCIENT AMERICA.
Many ages ago in North America there was no spring or summer or autumn,
but only winter all the time; there were no forests or fields or
flowers, but only ice and snow, which stretched from the Arctic Ocean to
Maryland. Sometimes the climate would grow a little warmer, and then the
great glaciers would shrink toward the north, and then again it would
grow cold, while the ice crept southward; but finally it became warmer
and warmer until all the southern part of the country was quite free
from the ice and snow, which could then only be seen, as it is now, in
the Polar regions.
Ages and ages after this, grass and trees began to appear, and at last
great forests covered the land, and over the fields and through the
woods gigantic animals roved--strange and terrible-looking beasts,
larger than any animal now living, and very fierce and strong. Among
these were the mammoth and mastodon, which were so strong and ferocious
that it would take hundreds of men to hunt and kill them. These great
animals would go trampling through the forests, breaking down the trees
and crushing the grass and flowers under their feet, or rush over the
fields in pursuit of their prey, making such dreadful, threatening
noises that all the other animals would flee before them, just as now
the more timid animals flee from the lion or rhinoceros. Sometimes they
would rush or be driven by men into swamps and marshes, where their
great weight would sink them down so deep into the mud that they could
not lift themselves out again, and then, they would die of starvation or
be killed by the arrows of the men who were hunting them.
Besides these mammoths and mastodons there were other animals living in
North America at that time, very different from those that are found
here now.
These were the rhinoceros, as large as the elephant of to-day, five
different kinds of camels, thirty different kinds of horses, some of
which had three toes, and some four, on each foot; and then there were a
great many smaller animals which we no longer find here. Monkeys swung
in the branches of the trees, just as they do now in other parts of the
world, and great, strange birds went flying through the air and built
their nests in the trees which, ages ago, crumbled away to dust.
But at last all these curious animals vanished from the forests of North
America--all, that is, except the reindeer, which is still found in the
far north--and the only reason we have for knowing that they really
lived here is that their bones have been found in the soil.
Among mountains far from the sea are often found the shells of
sea-animals, and the imprints of fishes in the rocks, and so we know
those animals must once have lived there, and in the same way when the
bones of the mammoth and mastodon, and camel and rhinoceros, are found,
we also know that they must have lived here too, although it was so long
ago that nobody knows very much about it.
Among these bones have been found human bones also, and tools, and
arrow-heads of flint; so it is supposed that there was a race of people
living in North America at the same time. But who these people were, or
where they came from, or whither they went, we shall probably never
know, for they have vanished as utterly from the New World as have the
fairies and nymphs and giants from the Old World, and will always remain
a mystery.