opportunity of exhibiting their capacity for government in striking
contrast to that of the civil rulers whom the mother country supplied.
Bordering on the province of Guatemala was a tract of forest and
mountain, inhabited by an Indian nation of exceptional fierceness.
Thrice the Spaniards had attempted the subjugation of this people,
and thrice they were driven back. They hesitated to renew an invasion
which had brought only defeat and loss, and the brave savages continued
to enjoy a precarious independence. [Sidenote: 1537 A.D.] Las Casas
made offer to the Governor that he would place this territory under
the King of Spain, on condition that it should not be given over to
any Spaniard, and that, indeed, no Spaniard, excepting the Governor
himself, should for the space of five years be suffered to enter it.
The offer was accepted, and the brave monk, confident in the power of
truth and kindness, made himself ready to fulfil his contract.
Having devoted several days to prayer and fasting, Las Casas and his
companions proceeded to draw up a statement of the great doctrines of
the Christian religion. They told of the creation of the world, of
the fall of man, of his expulsion from the pleasant garden in which
he had been placed. Then they told of his restoration, of the death
and resurrection of Christ, and of judgment to come. They closed with
emphatic denunciation of idols and of human sacrifices. The work was
in verse, and in the language of the people for whom it was destined.
The fathers next obtained the co-operation of four native merchants
who were accustomed for commercial reasons to visit the country of the
warlike savages. These friendly traders were taught first to repeat the
verses and then to sing them to the accompaniment of Indian instruments.
The merchants were received by the chief into his own house; and
they requited his hospitality and gained his favour by offering to
him certain gifts of scissors, knives, looking-glasses, and similar
matters with which the thoughtful fathers had provided them. When
they had finished a day of trading, they borrowed musical instruments
and proceeded to sing their message to the crowds by whom they were
surrounded. They commanded the immediate and rapt attention of the
savages, who hailed them as the ambassadors of new gods. Every day
of the next seven the song was repeated by desire of the chief, and
every repetition seemed to deepen the effect produced. Then the
merchants told of the good fathers by whom they were sent--of their
dress, of their manner of life, of their love for the Indians, of
their indifference to that gold which other Spaniards worshipped. An
embassy was despatched to entreat a visit from some of the fathers.
The request was immediately granted; but knowing the fickleness of the
savage mind, the prudent monks would not as yet risk the loss of more
than one of their number. Father Luis went back with the ambassador.
A church was instantly built: the chief in a short time avowed his
conversion to the new faith, and was loyally followed by his people.
The change was enduring, and the arrangements made by Las Casas for the
protection of the Indians being enforced by the King, were in large
measure effective. [Sidenote: 1630 A.D.] A century afterwards the town
of Rabinal, which the monks founded, was described by a Spaniard who
visited it as in a most flourishing condition, with a population of
eight hundred Indian families, who were in the enjoyment of “all that
heart can wish for pleasure and life of man.”
A century after the conquest, the Jesuits had made their way into the
vast interior region of Paraguay. They came as religious teachers, but
they were empowered to trade with the natives, that they might, by
their commercial gains, defray the cost of their missionary operations.
In both provinces of their enterprise they found themselves frustrated
by the excesses of their countrymen. The savages traded reluctantly
with men so unscrupulous as the commercial Spaniards; they refused
to accept a new faith on the suggestion of men so avaricious and
so dissolute as the ecclesiastical Spaniards. The Jesuits, whose
sagacity and skill in the management of affairs were then unequalled,
obtained from the King the exclusion of all strangers from the land of
Paraguay; they in return for this privilege becoming bound to pay to
his majesty a yearly tax of one dollar for every baptized Indian who
lived under their dominion. Thus protected, the missionaries proceeded
to instruct the savages and form them into communities. Their lives
were irreproachably pure; the sincerity of their kindness was assured
by their manifest self-denial; the wisdom of the measures which they
introduced was quickly approved by the increasing welfare of the
population. In a very few years the Jesuits had gained the confidence
of the Indians, over whom they henceforth exercised control absolute
and unlimited.
They drew together into little settlements a number, fifty or thereby,
of wandering families, to whom they imparted the art of agriculture.
The children were taught to read, to write, to sing. In each settlement
a judge, chosen by the inhabitants, maintained public order and
administered justice. The savages received willingly the faith which
the good fathers commended to their adoption. They were lenient to the
superstitions of their subjects, and the reception of the new faith was
hastened by its readiness to exist in harmonious combination with many
of the observances of the old. In time the sway of the Jesuits extended
over a population of one million five hundred thousand persons, all
of whom had received Christian baptism; and they could place sixty
thousand excellent soldiers in the field.
The fathers regulated all the concerns of their subjects. All
possessions were held in common. Every morning, after hearing mass,
the people went out to labour according to the instructions of
the fathers. The gathered crops were stored for the general good,
and were distributed according to the necessities of each family.
No intoxicants were permitted. A strict discipline was enforced
by stripes administered in the public market-place, and received
without murmuring by the submissive natives. When strangers made their
unwelcome way into the country, the missionaries stood between their
converts and the apprehended pollution. The stranger was hospitably
entertained and politely escorted from one station to another till he
reached the frontier, no opportunity of intercourse with the natives
having been afforded.
[Sidenote: 1640 to 1770 A.D.] The government of the Jesuits was in
a high degree beneficial to the Paraguans. The soil was cultivated
sufficiently to yield an ample maintenance for all. Education was
widely extended; churches were numerous and richly adorned; the
people were peaceable, contented, cheerful. In every condition which
makes human life desirable, the Jesuit settlements, during a period
of considerably over a century, stand out in striking and beautiful
contrast to all the other colonial possessions of Spain.
But while the Jesuits of Paraguay were thus nobly occupied in raising
the fallen condition of the savages over whom they ruled, their
brethren in Europe had incurred the hatred of mankind by the wicked
and dangerous intrigues in which they delighted to engage. [Sidenote:
1767 A.D.] The Church of Rome herself cast them out. They were expelled
from Spain. The Order was dissolved by the Pope. The fall of this
unscrupulous organization was in most countries a relief from constant
irritation and danger; in Paraguay it was disastrous. [Sidenote: 1773
A.D.] The country accepted new and incapable rulers, and was parcelled
out into new provinces. It speedily fell from the eminence to which the
fathers had raised it, and sunk into the anarchy and misery by which
its neighbours were characterized.
CHAPTER VII.
BRAZIL.
King John of Portugal, to whom Columbus first made offer of his project
of discovery, was grievously chagrined when the success of the great
navigator revealed the magnificence of the rejected opportunity. Till
then, Portugal had occupied the foremost place as an explorer of
unknown regions. She had already achieved the discovery of all the
western coasts of Africa, and was now about to open a new route to
the East by the Cape of Good Hope. Suddenly her fame was eclipsed.
While she occupied herself with small and barren discoveries, Spain
had found, almost without the trouble of seeking, a new world of vast
extent and boundless wealth.
Portugal had obtained from the Pope a grant of all lands which she
should discover in the Atlantic, with the additional advantage of
full pardon for the sins of all persons who should die while engaged
in the work of exploration. The sovereigns of Spain were equally
provident in regard to the new territory which they were now in course
of acquiring. They applied to Pope Alexander Sixth, who, as vicar of
Christ, possessed the acknowledged right to dispose at his pleasure of
all territories inhabited by heathens. From this able but eminently
dissolute pontiff they asked for a bull which should confirm them in
possession of all past and future discoveries in Western seas. The
accommodating Pope, willing to please both powers, divided the world
between them. [Sidenote: 1493 A.D.] He stretched an imaginary line,
from pole to pole, one hundred leagues to the westward of the Cape de
Verd Islands: all discoveries on the eastern side of this boundary
were given to Portugal, while those on the west became the property of
Spain. Portugal, dissatisfied with the vast gift, proposed that another
line should be drawn, stretching from east to west, and that she should
be at liberty to possess all lands which she might find between that
line and the South Pole. Spain objected to this huge deduction from her
expected possessions. [Sidenote: 1494 A.D.] Ultimately Spain consented
that the Papal frontier should be removed westward to a distance of two
hundred and seventy leagues from the Cape de Verd Islands; and thus the
dispute was happily terminated.
[Sidenote: 1500 A.D.] Six years after this singular transaction, by
which two small European States parted between them all unexplored
portions of the Earth, a Portuguese navigator--Pedro Alvarez
Cabral--set sail from the Tagus in the prosecution of discovery in the
East. He stood far out into the Atlantic, to avoid the calms which
habitually baffled navigation on the coast of Guinea. His reckoning
was loosely kept, and the ocean currents bore his ships westward into
regions which it was not his intention to seek. After forty-five days
of voyaging he saw before him an unknown and unexpected land. In
searching for the Cape of Good Hope, he had reached the shores of the
great South American Continent, and he hastened to claim for the King
of Portugal the territory he had found, but regarding the extent of
which he had formed as yet no conjecture. Three Spanish captains had
already landed on this part of the continent and asserted the right
of Spain to its ownership. For many years Spain maintained languidly
the right which priority of discovery had given. But Portugal, to whom
an interest in the wealth of the New World was an object of vehement
desire, took effective possession of the land. She sent out soldiers;
she built forts; she subdued the savage natives; she founded colonies;
she established provincial governments. Although Spain did not formally
withdraw her pretensions, she gradually desisted from attempts to
enforce them; and the enormous territory of Brazil became a recognized
appanage of a petty European State whose area was scarcely larger than
the one-hundredth part of that which she had so easily acquired.
For three hundred years Brazil remained in colonial subordination to
Portugal. Her boundaries were in utter confusion, and no man along all
that vast frontier could tell the limits of Portuguese dominion. Her
Indians were fierce, and bore with impatience the inroads which the
strangers made upon their possessions. The French seized the bay of Rio
de Janeiro. The Dutch conquered large territories in the north. But in
course of years these difficulties were overcome. [Sidenote: 1654 A.D.]
The foreigners were expelled. The natives were tamed, partly by arms,
partly by the teaching of zealous Jesuit missionaries. Some progress
was made in opening the vast interior of the country and in fixing its
boundaries. On the coast, population increased and numerous settlements
sprang up. The cultivation of coffee, which has since become the
leading Brazilian industry, was introduced. [Sidenote: 1750 A.D.] Some
simple manufactures were established, and the country began to export
her surplus products to Europe. There was much misgovernment; for the
despotic tendencies of the captains-general who ruled the country were
scarcely mitigated by the authority of the distant Court of Lisbon.
The enmity of Spain never ceased, and from time to time burst forth
in wasteful and bloody frontier wars. Sometimes the people of cities
rose in insurrection against the monopolies by which wicked governors
wronged them. Occasionally there fell out quarrels between different
provinces, and no method of allaying these could be found excepting
war. [Sidenote: 1711 A.D.] Once the city of Rio de Janeiro was sacked
by the French. Brazil had her full share of the miseries which the
foolishness and the evil temper of men have in all ages incurred. These
hindered, but did not altogether frustrate, the development of her
enormous resources.
During the eighteenth century the Brazilian people began to estimate
more justly than they had done before the elements of national
greatness which surrounded them, and to perceive how unreasonable it
was that a country almost as large as Europe should remain in contented
dependence on one of the most inconsiderable of European States. The
English colonies in North America threw off the yoke of the mother
country. The air was full of those ideas of liberty which a year or two
later bore fruit in the French Revolution. A desire for independence
spread among the Brazilians, and expressed itself by an ill-conceived
rising in the province of Minas Geraes. But the movement was easily
suppressed, and the Portuguese Government maintained for a little
longer its sway over this noblest of colonial possessions.
During the earlier years of the French Revolution, Portugal was
permitted to watch in undisturbed tranquillity the wild turmoils by
which the other European nations were afflicted. At length it seemed
to the Emperor Napoleon that the possession of the Portuguese kingdom,
and especially of the Portuguese fleet, was a fitting step in his
audacious progress to universal dominion. [Sidenote: 1807 A.D.] A
French army entered Portugal; a single sentence in the _Moniteur_
informed the world that “the House of Braganza had ceased to reign.”
The French troops suffered so severely on their march, that ere they
reached Lisbon they were incapable of offensive operations. But so
timid was the Government, so thoroughly was the nation subdued by fear
of Napoleon, that it was determined to offer no resistance. The capital
of Portugal, with a population of three hundred thousand, and an army
of fourteen thousand, opened its gates to fifteen hundred ragged and
famishing Frenchmen, who wished to overturn the throne and degrade the
country into a French province.
Before this humiliating submission was accomplished, the Royal Family
had gathered together its most precious effects, and with a long train
of followers,[57] set sail for Brazil. The insane Queen was accompanied
to the place of embarkation by the Prince Regent and the princes and
princesses of the family, all in tears: the multitudes who thronged to
look upon the departure lifted up their voices and wept. Men of heroic
mould would have made themselves ready to hold the capital of the State
or perish in its ruins; but the faint-hearted people of Lisbon were
satisfied to bemoan themselves. When they had gazed their last at the
receding ships, they hastened to receive their conquerors and supply
their needs.
The presence of the Government hastened the industrial progress of
Brazil. The Prince Regent (who in a few years became King) began his
rule by opening the Brazilian ports to the commerce of all friendly
nations.[58] [Sidenote: 1815 A.D.] Seven years later it was formally
decreed that the colonial existence of Brazil should cease. She was now
raised to the dignity of a kingdom united with Portugal under the same
Crown. Her commerce and agriculture increased; she began to regard as
her inferior the country of which she lately had been a dependency.
[Sidenote: 1820 A.D.] The changed relations of the two States were
displeasing to the people of Portugal. The Council by which the
affairs of the kingdom were conducted became unpopular. The demand
for constitutional government extended from Spain into Portugal. The
Portuguese desired to see their King again in Lisbon, and called
loudly for his return. The King consented to the wish of his people
reluctantly; for besides other and graver reasons why he should
not quit Brazil, his majesty greatly feared the discomforts of a
sea-voyage. [Sidenote: 1821 A.D.] His son, the heir to his throne,
became Regent in Brazil.
The Brazilians resented the departure of the King. The Portuguese
meditated a yet deeper humiliation for the State whose recent
acquisition of dignity was still an offence to them. There came an
order from the Cortes that the Prince Regent also should return to
Europe. The Brazilians were now eager that the tie which bound them to
the mother country should be dissolved. The Prince Regent was urged to
disregard the summons to return. After some hesitation he gave effect
to the general wish, and intimated his purpose of remaining in Brazil.
[Sidenote: 1822 A.D.] A few months later he was proclaimed Emperor, and
the union of the two kingdoms ceased. Constitutional government was set
up. But the administration of the Emperor was not sufficiently liberal
to satisfy the wishes of his people. [Sidenote: 1831 A.D.] After nine
years of deepening unpopularity, he resigned the crown in favour of his
son, then a child five years of age, and now (1881), although still in
middle life, the oldest monarch in the world.
Brazil covers almost one-half the South American Continent, and has
therefore an area nearly equal to that of the eight States of Spanish
origin by which she is bounded. She is as large as the British
dominions in North America; she is larger than the United States,
excluding the untrodden wastes of Alaska. One, and that not the
largest, of her twenty provinces is ten times the size of England.
Finally, her area is equal to five-sixths that of Europe.[59] She has
a sea-coast line of four thousand miles. She has a marvellous system
of river communication; the Amazon and its tributaries alone are
navigable for twenty-five thousand miles within Brazilian territory.
Her mineral wealth is so ample that the governor of one of her
provinces was wont, in religious processions, to ride a horse whose
shoes were of gold; and the diamonds of the Royal Family are estimated
at a value of three million sterling. Her soil and climate conspire
to bestow upon her agriculture an opulence which is unsurpassed and
probably unequalled. An acre of cotton yields in Brazil four times as
much as an acre yields in the United States. Wheat gives a return of
thirty to seventy fold; maize, of two hundred to four hundred fold;
rice, of a thousand fold. Brazil supplies nearly one-half the coffee
which the human family consumes. An endless variety of plants thrive in
her genial soil. Sugar and tobacco, as well as cotton, coffee, and tea,
are staple productions. Nothing which the tropics yield is wanting, and
in many portions of the empire the vegetation of the temperate zones
is abundantly productive. The energy of vegetable life is everywhere
excessive. The mangrove seeds send forth shoots before they fall from
the parent tree; the drooping branches of trees strike roots when they
touch the ground, and enter upon independent existence; wood which has
been split for fences hastens to put forth leaves; grasses and other
plants intertwine and form bridges on which the traveller walks in
safety.
But the scanty population of Brazil is wholly insufficient to subdue
the enormous territory on which they have settled and make its vast
capabilities conduce to the welfare of man. The highest estimate
gives to Brazil a population of from eleven to twelve million.[60]
She has thus scarcely four inhabitants to every square mile of her
surface, while England has upwards of four hundred. Vast forests still
darken her soil, and the wild luxuriance of tropical undergrowth
renders them well-nigh impervious to man. There are boundless expanses
of wilderness imperfectly explored, still roamed over by untamed
and often hostile Indians. Persistent but not eminently successful
efforts have been made to induce European and now to induce Chinese
immigration. The population continues, however, to increase at such a
rate that it is larger by nearly two million than it was ten years ago.
But these accessions are trivial when viewed in relation to the work
which has still to be accomplished. It is said that no more than the
one hundred and fiftieth part of the agricultural resources of Brazil
has yet been developed or even revealed. The agricultural products of
the country, in so far as the amount of these can be tested by the
amount exported, do not exhibit any tendency to increase.[61]
Brazil is afflicted not merely by an insufficient population, but
still more by the reluctance of her people to undergo the fatigues
of agricultural labour in the exhausting heat of her sultry plains.
The coloured population choose other occupations, and flock to the
cities. Once they were held by compulsion to field-work. Slavery was
maintained in Brazil after it had been abandoned by all other Christian
States. Not till 1871 was Brazil shamed out of the iniquitous system.
In that year it was enacted that the children of slave women should
be free--subject, however, to an apprenticeship of twenty-one years,
during which they must labour for the owners of their mothers. Since
that law was passed, there has been voluntary emancipation to a
considerable extent; and the slaves in Brazil, who numbered at one time
two and a half million, are now about one million.[62] The freedmen
shun field-work, and the places which they quit are scarcely filled
by immigration or natural increase. Agricultural progress is thus
frustrated--an evil which will probably be felt still more acutely
as the emancipation of the negroes draws towards its completion. No
sufficient remedy for this evil can be hoped for so long as any
remnants of slavery linger on the soil.
The Brazilian Legislature is elected by the people, the qualification
of a voter being an annual income of twenty pounds. Three candidates
for the office of Senator are chosen by each constituency, and the
Emperor determines which of the three shall gain the appointment. The
members of the Lower House are chosen by indirect election. Every
thirty voters choose an elector, and the electors thus chosen appoint
the deputies. The exercise of the right of voting is compulsory;
neglect to vote is punished by the infliction of penalties. Each of
the twenty provinces into which the empire is divided has its own
Legislature, with a President appointed by the general Government. The
powers exercised by the provincial governments are necessarily large.
The constitution confers upon the Emperor a “moderating power,” which
enables him, when he chooses, to frustrate the wishes of his Chambers.
He may dismiss a minister who has large majorities in both Houses; he
may withhold his sanction from measures which have been enacted by the
Legislature. Brazil has no hereditary nobility; but there is a lavish
distribution of distinctions which endure only for the lifetime of the
recipient. It is held that the power of bestowing these coveted honours
invests the Emperor with a measure of authority which is not unattended
with danger to the public liberties.
But the career of the Brazilian Empire has been marked in large measure
by tranquillity and progress, and the masses of the people manifest no
desire for change. They have suffered from foreign war[63] and from
domestic strife; but their sufferings have been trivial when compared
with those of the Spanish States which adjoin them. Thus far their
quiet and unadventurous Government has given them repose, and thus
far they are satisfied. Three-fourths of the Brazilian people are of
mixed race, the leading elements in which are Indian and Negro. They
are profoundly ignorant; for although compulsory education has been
enacted, its progress is yet inconsiderable.[64] What the awakened
intellect of the Brazilian nation may in future years demand is beyond
human forecast. It is not probable that the political combinations
which an ignorant and indolent people have accepted at the hand of
their rulers will continue to satisfy when the national mind casts
aside its apathy. Brazil will be more fortunate than other States
if she attain to a stable political condition otherwise than by the
familiar path of civil contention and bloodshed.
* * * * *
It has been said by Mr. Bright that there is no event in history,
ancient or modern, which for grandeur and for permanence can compare
with the discovery of the American Continent by Christopher Columbus.
This is a large claim, but indisputably a just one. The discovery
of America ushered in an epoch wholly different from any which had
preceded it. Nearly one-third of the area of our world was practically
worthless to the human family--wandered over by savages who supported
their unprofitable lives by the slaughter of animals scarcely more
savage than themselves. Suddenly the lost continent is found, and its
incalculable wealth is added to the sum of human possessions. Europe
supported with difficulty, by her rude processes of agriculture,
even the scanty population which she contained; here were homes and
maintenance sufficient for all. Europe was governed by methods yet more
barbarous than her agriculture; here was an arena worthy of the great
experiment of human freedom on which the best of her people longed to
enter. Europe was committed to many old and injurious institutions--the
legacy of the darkest ages--no one of which could be overthrown save
by wasteful strife; here, free from the embarrassments which time
and error had created, there could be established the institutions
which the wants of new generations called for, and Europe could inform
herself of their quality before she proceeded to their adoption. The
human family was very poor; its lower classes were crushed down by
poverty into wretchedness and vice. At once the common heritage was
enormously increased, and possibilities of well-being not dreamed of
before were opened to all. The brave heart of Columbus beat high as he
looked out from the deck of his little ship upon the shores of a new
world, and felt with solemn thankfulness that God had chosen him to
accomplish a great work. We recognize in this lonely, much-enduring
man, the grandest human benefactor whom the race has ever known.
Behind him lay centuries of oppression and suffering, and ignorance
and debasement. Before him, unseen by the eye of man, there stretched
out, as the result of his triumph, the slow but steadfast evolution of
influences destined to transform the world.
It fell to three European States, whose united area was scarcely larger
than one-fortieth part of the American Continents, to complete the
work which Columbus had begun; to preside over and direct the vast
revolution which his work rendered inevitable. England, Spain, and
Portugal were able to possess themselves of the lands which lie between
the Atlantic and the Pacific; and they assumed the responsibility
of shaping out the future of the nations by which those lands must
ultimately be peopled. They entered upon the momentous task under the
influence of motives which were exclusively selfish. A magnificent
prize had come into their hands; their sole concern was to extract
from it the largest possible advantage to themselves. These enormous
possessions were to remain for ever colonial dependencies; their
inhabitants were to remain for ever in the imperfect condition of
colonists--men who labour partly for their own benefit, but still more
for that of the mother country. The European owners of America were
alike in the selfishness of their aims, in their utter misconception
of the trust which had devolved upon them. But they differed widely
in regard to the methods by which they sought to give effect to their
purposes; and the difference of result has been correspondingly great.
The American colonies of England were founded by the best and wisest
men she possessed--men imbued with a passionate love of liberty, and
resolute in its defence. These men went forth to find homes in the New
World, and to maintain themselves by honest labour. England laid unjust
restrictions upon their commerce, and suppressed their manufactures,
that she herself might profit by the supply of their wants. But so long
as her merchants gathered in the gain of colonial traffic, she suffered
the government of the colonies to be guided by the free spirit of her
own institutions. The colonists conducted their own public affairs, and
gained thus the skill and moderation which the work of self-government
demands. In course of years they renounced allegiance to the mother
country, and founded an independent government, under which no
privileged class exists, and the equality of human rights is asserted
and maintained. To-day the English colonies form one of the greatest
nations on the Earth, with a population of fifty million, educated, in
the enjoyment of every political right, more amply endowed than any
other people have ever been with the elements of material well-being.
In the progress by which the English colonies in America have advanced
to the commanding position which they now occupy, they have given
forth lessons of inestimable value to Europe. At a very early period
in her history there came back from America influences powerful to
overthrow the evils which men had fled there to avoid. The liberty
of conscience over which the early Pilgrims never ceased to exult,
not only drew many to follow them, but emboldened those who remained
for the successful assertion of their rights. The vindication by the
colonists of their political independence quickened all free impulses
in Europe, and prepared the fall of despotic government. Europe watched
the rising greatness of a nation in which all men had part in framing
the laws under which they lived; in which perfect freedom and equality
of opportunity were enjoyed by all; in which religion was becomingly
upheld by the spontaneous liberality of the individual worshippers;
in which standing armies were practically unknown, and the substance
of the people was not wasted on military preparations. Throughout the
long and bitter contest in which Western Europe vanquished despotism,
the example of America confirmed the growing belief that liberty was
essential to the welfare of man, and strengthened every patriot heart
for the efforts and the sacrifices which the noble enterprise demanded.
The history of Spanish America presents, in nearly every respect, a
striking and gloomy contrast to that of the Northern Continent. The
Spanish conquerors were men of unsurpassed capability in battle; but
they were cruel, superstitious, profoundly ignorant. They went to
the New World with the purpose of acquiring by force or by fraud the
gold and precious stones in which the continent was rich, and then of
hastening homeward to live splendidly in Spain. In their greedy search,
they trampled down the native population with a murderous cruelty
which is a reproach to the human name. The natives, on the other hand,
were oppressed by the home Government. Their commerce was fettered;
no influence was permitted to them in the conduct of their own public
affairs; no action was taken to dispel the ignorance which brooded over
the ill-fated continent. They learned to hate the Government which
thus abused its trust; and when they rose in arms for its overthrow,
they disclosed an untamed ferocity which the conquerors themselves
scarcely surpassed. Their half century of independence has been filled
with destructive civil wars, which have hindered and almost forbidden
progress.
In Spanish hands this fair region has failed to contribute, in any
substantial measure, to the welfare of mankind. This portion of the
gift which Columbus brought fell into incapable hands, and has been
rendered almost worthless. It may reasonably be hoped that a better
future is in store for Spanish America; but its past must be regarded
as a gigantic failure. Its people have taught the world nothing. They
have served the world by a history which is rich in warning but void of
example.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES
[23] The great cypress-tree, behind which Cortes hid himself at one
period during the Noche Trista, still retains some measure of vitality.
Beside it stands “The Church of the Sad Night.” A tramway line runs to
the temple at Tacuba, where he is said to have reviewed his troops next
day. Part of the temple was removed to give space for the tramway.
[24] Bernal Diaz.
[25] See page 434.
[26] It has been estimated that the ransom paid by the Inca would be
equal, when the greater value of money at that time is allowed for, to
three or four million sterling at the present day. It yielded a sum
equal for each foot-soldier to £4000, and for each horseman to £8800.
[27] The prisoner was charged with having usurped the crown and
assassinated his brother; with having squandered the revenues of
the country; with idolatry and polygamy; with attempting to incite
insurrection against the Spaniards.
[28] The gallant De Soto, in later years the discoverer of the
Mississippi, was absent from the camp when Atahualpa was put to death.
On his return he reproached his chief for the unhappy transaction, and
maintained that the Inca had been basely slandered. Pizarro, seemingly
penitent, admitted that he had been precipitate.
[29] No Inca inhabited the palace of his predecessor; each built for
himself.
[30] In this, however, the Mexicans were not greatly more savage than
the Spaniards. After the fall of Mexico, Cortes dismissed his Indian
allies with various gifts, among which were many bodies of slain
enemies, carefully salted for preservation.
[31] A regulation laid down by the Royal Order of 1601 illustrates the
spirit which pervades Spanish legislation. Leave is given to employ
Indians in the cultivation of coca. But inasmuch as coca is grown in
rainy districts and on humid ground, and the Indians in consequence
become ill, the master of the plantation is forbidden, under penalties,
to allow Indians to begin work until they are provided with a change of
clothes.
[32] This neglect was continued almost to the close. The Duke of
Newcastle, who had charge of the colonies during Sir Robert Walpole’s
administration, neglected his duties so entirely that he ceased even
to read the letters which came to him from America. “It would not be
credited what reams of paper, representations, memorials, petitions
from that quarter of the world lay mouldering and unopened in his
office.”
[33] This intolerable exaction was in course of time reduced to
one-fifth, and finally to one-twentieth.
[34] These were increased to four, and finally to six, as the colonies
became more populous.
[35] This tribute varied in the different provinces. In Mexico it was
about four shillings annually, levied on every male between eighteen
and fifty years of age. It produced latterly about half a million
sterling from all the colonies, and was collected with difficulty,
owing to the extreme poverty of the Indians.
[36] A suggestion of which the good man bitterly repented, when the
enormous evils which sprang from it began to develop themselves.
[37] Cromwell interested himself much in the welfare of this island.
Thirty years after the Pilgrim Fathers had settled in Massachusetts, he
invited them to remove to Jamaica. But the Fathers declined to renew
their pilgrimage; they wisely elected to remain where Providence had
led them, and where their descendants were destined to become a great
nation.
[38] A Bill was, however, passed in 1873 for the abolition of slavery
in Puerto Rico.
[39] This was the population according to the enumeration of 1867. It
has been seriously diminished by the war which began in the following
year; but the amount of loss has not been accurately ascertained.
[40] The expenditure of 1878 was £16,000,000, while the revenue did not
exceed £11,000,000.
[41] The Cuban paper currency amounts to £13,000,000. Great Britain
would be in the same position if she had an inconvertible and
depreciated currency of £450,000,000.
[42] In Venezuela, where writing was almost unknown, it was necessary
to allow votes to be given orally. For weeks before an election the
priests taught their list of candidates as a school exercise to Indians
and other ignorant persons who were under their influence.
[43] An incident in this defeat reminds us of one of the remarkable
conditions of tropical warfare. The routed Conservatives were driven
towards a broad river swarming with alligators. These savage creatures
were probably less terrible than the victorious Liberals. The fugitives
took to the river, where, it is told, they suffered heavy loss from the
alligators.
[44] President Blanco asks from his Congress (May 1876) a law which
shall “declare the Church of Venezuela independent of the Roman
Episcopate, and order that parish priests shall be elected by the
faithful, the bishops by the rectors of parishes, and archbishops by
Congress, returning to the usage of the primitive Church, founded
by Jesus Christ and his Apostles.” Congress replies: “Faithful to
our duties, our convictions, and the holy doctrines of the religion
of Jesus, we do not hesitate to emancipate the Church of Venezuela
from that Episcopate which pretends, as an infallible and omnipotent
power, to absorb the vitality of a free people.” The leading newspaper
of Venezuela discriminates with equal accuracy between the Papacy
and Christianity--between “the genuine religion of Christ and those
adulterations of his law which substitute the reign of vanity, pride,
and contempt for mankind, for the doctrine of gentleness, meekness, and
love.”
[45] Amounting in value to forty million sterling.
[46] The depth of this ignorance is illustrated by the circumstance
that the Mexican post-office carries annually one letter for each five
of the population. The English post-office carries thirty-five letters
for each of the population.
[47] In twenty-two years (from 1855 to 1877) her foreign
commerce--imports and exports together--had doubled, rising from seven
and a half to fifteen million sterling.
[48] Chili was wise enough to offer the command of her fleet during
this struggle to an English hero whom a less wise but scarcely more
ungrateful English Government had wronged and cast out. Lord Cochrane,
who combined in a singular degree prudence with daring, performed so
many marvellous achievements that the terror of his name seemed to
paralyze the enemy. Ultimately, with the inconsiderable force under
his command, he drove the Spanish fleet away, and was supreme on the
Chilian coast.
[49] The debt of Paraguay is £117,000,000.
[50] The Dictator himself perished by the lance of a Brazilian soldier.
[51] Some of his achievements were eminently fitted to bind to his
cause a rude and daring people. Standing once over a gateway, through
which a troop of wild horses were being driven at full speed, he
dropped on to the back of one previously selected. He bore in his hand
a leathern rein, which he fastened securely round the mouth of the
terrified and madly-galloping horse; and in half-an-hour he rode back,
the animal now trembling and subdued.
[52] Rosas made his way to England, where he spent the remaining
twenty-six years of his life.
[53] It has been said, with pardonable exaggeration, that “the
Argentine Republic consists of the province of Buenos Ayres and
thirteen mud-huts.” The thirteen provinces are so poor that for many
years regular monthly remittances have been sent them from Buenos Ayres
to defray the expense of the local governments.
[54] So soon as the rebuilding of the city of Mexico was accomplished,
in 1524, Cortes applied to the Emperor to send him godly men who should
instruct the natives in the truths of religion. He makes it a special
request that sumptuous ecclesiastics, who wasted the substance of
the Church in riotous living, should not be inflicted on him. Twelve
Dominican and twelve Franciscan friars were sent, and Cortes was able
to convene a synod of thirty-one persons to take counsel regarding the
spiritual welfare of his subjects.
[55] Peter reported of his pupils that “they learn quickly, fast
precisely, and pray fervently.”
[56] It is the same with the great mass of the coloured population of
Hayti. While avowedly Catholic, they are in reality faithful to the
superstitions which their forefathers brought from Africa. They worship
the great serpent without poison, and withdraw secretly into the forest
to celebrate religious festivals at which human victims are sacrificed
and eaten.
[57] There were in all fifteen thousand persons; and it was said that
they carried with them one-half the coinage then in circulation in
Portugal.
[58] He also ordered a printing-press to be purchased in England at a
cost of £100. No such apparatus had heretofore existed within Brazilian
territory.
[59] The area of Europe is 3,848,000 square miles; that of Brazil is
3,287,000 square miles, although some estimates place it much higher.
[60] Of these, it is officially estimated that one million are untamed
Indians without any fixed place of abode.
[61] The imports of Brazil are £19,000,000; her exports, £21,000,000.
[62] This is the statement made by Government. The Abolitionists,
however, accuse the Government of acting in bad faith regarding
emancipation, and assert that the number of slaves has not diminished.
[63] The Paraguayan War cost Brazil £50,000,000.
[64] In 1874 the public schools were attended by only one hundred and
forty thousand pupils.
INDEX.
Abraham, Heights of, 79, 344, 345.
Acts of the English Parliament, Burning of, 84.
Adams, Samuel, 90.
Agriculture in Canada, 429.
Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, 73.
Alabama, The, 279;
Settlement of the Dispute, 280, 281.
Alatamaha, The, 55.
Alexander, William, Lord Stirling, 115.
Alexandria, 75, 76, 211, 212.
Almagro, 451, 458, 459, 464.
Alvarado, Pedro de, 447, 450.
America, British, The Six Colonies of, 394.
America, Discovery of, by Columbus, 13;
by the Cabots, 14.
Amsterdam, New, 48.
Anderson, Major, 206.
André, Major, 124.
Annapolis (Port Royal), 401.
Anna, Santa, Mexican Commander, 174.
Antietam, Battle of, 228.
Anti-Slavery Society, Formation of, 167.
Argall, Samuel, 337.
Argentine Confederation, The, 531.
Arkansas, 184.
Arkwright, Richard, 81, 155, 288.
Arlington Heights, 212.
Arnold, Commander of West Point, 123.
Atahualpa, Inca of Peru, 455, 460.
Atlanta, Capture of, 247.
Augustine First, Emperor of Mexico, 516.
Ayacucho, Battle of, 506.
Baptists, Persecution of, 40.
Barbadoes, 506.
Beauregard, General, 212.
Bladensburg, 148.
Blanco, Guzman, 515, 516.
Bland Silver Bill, The, 303.
Blockade of Southern Ports, 212, 231.
Board of Trade, Government of the Colonies by the, 360.
Bolivar, Don Simon, 501, 505, 514.
Booth, Murderer of Pres. Lincoln, 257.
Boston, 29, 38, 45;
Boston Common, 86, 88, 90, 91, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 146, 167, 209.
“Boston Massacre,” The, 89.
Braddock, General, 75, 339, 340.
Brandywine River, 115.
Brébœuf, Jean de, 326, 328, 332.
Brewster, 29, 36.
Brock, General, 369.
Broke, Captain, 146.
Brooklyn, Engagement at, 108.
Brown, The Honourable George, 395, 396.
Brunswick, Duke of, 107.
Buccaneer, Origin of the word, 489.
Buchanan, President, 200.
Buenos Ayres, 528, 529.
Buena-Vista, Battle of, 174.
Bunker Hill, fortified by the Americans, 97;
taken by the English, 99, 100.
Burgoyne, General, 97, 117.
Burke, Edmund, 72, 86, 91.
Burnside, General, 229.
Cabot, John and Sebastian, 14, 311, 440.
Cabral, Pedro Alvarez, 545.
Calhoun, John C., 161.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 98, 99, 100.
Canada, 73;
Invasion of, 78;
ceded to England, 80;
appealed to by the States, 93;
invaded by the Americans, 145;
the Founder of, 318;
Original Extent, 321;
Climate and Animals, 322;
Early Inhabitants, 323;
a British Possession, 346;
Revenue and Exports, 349;
Progress of, 355;
Government, 359, 374;
Population, 359 _n._;
the Quebec Act, 360;
Invasion of by Americans, 362;
Increase of Population, 366, 373;
Pitt’s Bill, 367;
another American Invasion, 368;
Education in Lower, 374;
in Upper, 375;
Union of the Two Provinces, 387;
Effects of Free Trade, 389;
Grand Trunk Railway, 393;
Financial Position, 393;
The Dominion, 397;
its Political Constitution, 398;
Area and Population, 426;
Commerce, 427;
the Lumber Trade, 428;
Agriculture, 429;
Fisheries, 430;
Mercantile Navy, 430;
Taxation, 430;
the Educational System, 433.
Cape Breton, taken by the English, 341, 401.
Cape Cod Bay, 31.
Carabobo, Bolivar’s Victory at, 502.
Carleton, Governor of Canada, 362.
Carolina, North, 54, 81, 96, 121.
Carolina, South, 54, 61, 81, 121, 159, 196.
Cartier, Jacques, 314, 315.
“Carting, The Inconvenient Habit of,” 84.
Carver, John, 32.
Cassamarca, a City of Peru, 460.
Census, The American, of 1860, 190;
of 1870, 275;
of 1880, 303.
Census of Canada, 1831, 378.
Champlain, Samuel de, 317-321.
Chancellorsville, Fighting at, 235.
Charles I. of England, 33.
Charles II. of England, 65.
Charles V. of Spain, 59.
Charleston, 196.
Chesapeake Bay, 127.
_Chesapeake_, The Frigate, 146.
Chili, 523, 524.
Cholula, Massacre at, 444.
Christian Commission, The, 268.
Civil Service Reform, 304.
Clay, Henry, 177, 184.
“Clergy Reserves,” The, 376, 391.
Clinton, General, 97, 123, 127.
Coalition Government, The Canadian, of 1864, 396.
Cochrane, Lord, 523 _n._
Colombia, The Republic of, 514.
Colonial Department of English Government, 360.
Colonies, The Four United, of New England, 37.
Colonization, American, the Result of Oppression in Europe, 21.
Columbia, British, 423, 424.
Columbus, Christopher, 12, 439, 475, 479, 486, 553.
Commerce, American, Restrictions on, 85.
Compass, The Mariner’s, 12.
Concord, The Village of, 94, 95.
Confederacy, The States of the, 197.
Congress, 87, 92, 101, 105, 110, 111, 118, 122, 129, 130, 132, 138.
Connecticut, 37, 54, 96, 168.
Convention of Delegates from the Thirteen Original States, 134.
Cook, James, the Navigator, 78.
Cornwallis, Lord, 115, 127, 128.
Cortes, Hernando, 442-446, 448, 449.
Cromwell, Oliver, 33, 38, 65.
Crown Point, The Capture of, 362.
Cuba, 507-510.
Cusco, the Capital of Peru, 460, 462, 463.
Darien, The Spanish Settlement of, 440.
Davis, Jefferson, 197, 201, 202, 252, 253, 262.
Debt, The War, of the General Government and of the States, 139;
at the Close of the Federal War, 276.
Debtors and the English Law, 55.
Declaration of Independence, 72, 152.
Delaware, Lord, 26.
Delaware River, 52, 53.
Delaware State, 54, 105.
De Leon, Ponce, Expedition of, 15.
Delfthaven, 30.
De Luque, 451, 453.
De Soto, Ferdinand, Expedition of, 15-17.
Dickenson, John, 93.
Dorchester, The Heights of, 102.
Dufferin, Lord, Viceroy of Canada, 434.
Du Quesne, Fort (Pittsburg), taken, 341.
Early, General, 247.
East India Company sends Tea to America, 89;
The Tea thrown into the Sea, 91.
Ebenezer, The Town, 56.
Ecuador, 514.
Education, Progress of, in New England, 36, 82;
in Southern States, 82;
in the Union, 293-298;
in Canada, 351, 374, 375, 433.
Elgin, Lord, Governor-General of Canada, 388, 390.
Eliot, John, Apostle of the Indians, 47.
Elizabeth, Queen of England, 60.
English, Early Settlements of the, 333;
Wars with French Settlers, 338, 340;
Conquests of, 342.
Erie, Lake, Naval Fight on, 370.
Exports, American, Restrictions on, 85.
Exports of America, The, 291, 292.
Falmouth, 44.
Family Compact (Canadian), 376, 381.
Farming, American, 284.
Farragut, Admiral, 222.
Federal Army, Disbanding of the, 263.
Feudalism in Canada, 350;
Abolished, 391.
Fisheries of Canada, 430.
Florida, its Discovery, 15;
ceded to England, 80.
Fort Detroit, 145.
Fort Du Quesne, 75.
Fort Necessity, 74.
Fort Pitt, 76.
Fort Sumpter, Bombardment of, 206.
Fox, George, 42.
France, American Possessions of, 15, 73;
her Sympathy with America, 112;
her Treaty with America against England, 120;
her Aid to America, 127;
Surrender of her Possessions, 346.
Francia, Dr., Dictator of Paraguay, 526.
Franklin, Benjamin, 71, 72, 76, 84, 86, 115, 120, 134, 159.
Frederick of Prussia, 107.
Fredericksburg, Disaster at, 229.
Freedmen’s Bureau, 249.
Fremont, General, 225.
French, The, in Canada, 315, 316, 320, 321, 341, 342.
Frobisher, Martin, 312.
Gage, General, 91, 94, 97, 98, 101.
Garfield, President James, 303-308.
Garibaldi, Defender of Monte Video, 529.
Garrison, William Lloyd, 167.
Gates, General, 118.
General Government, Powers of the, 136.
George II., 55.
George III., 87, 94, 129.
Georgia, 54, 61, 81, 92, 96, 121, 159.
Germantown, 115.
Gettysburg, Battle of, 237, 238.
Ghent, Treaty of, 150.
Gibraltar, besieged by Spain, 121.
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 313.
Goree, 121.
Gourlay, Robert, 377.
Granada, 121.
Grant, General, 174, 222, 232, 243, 252, 254;
President, 273, 304.
Greene, General, 127.
Grenville, Lord, 85, 86.
Guatemala, 450.
Gulf Stream, 14.
Haerlem, 109.
Halifax, Foundation of, 402.
Hamilton, Alexander, 132, 133, 139, 159.
Hampden, John, 33.
Harper’s Ferry, 187, 188, 228.
Harvard College, 36.
Hawkins, Sir John, 60.
Hayes, President R. B., 303.
Henry, Patrick, 92, 159.
Henry VII. of England, 311.
Hochelaga, 314.
Homestead Act, The, 230.
Hooker, General, 234, 236.
House of Representatives, Composition of the, 136.
Houston, General, 171.
Howard, General, 249.
Howe, General, 97, 101, 103, 107, 121.
Howe, Lord, 107, 108, 110.
Hudson Bay Company, 411-416.
Hull, General, 145, 369.
Huron Mission, The, 328-331.
Imports of America, their Value before the Revolution, 82;
Restrictions on, 82, 86, 89, 290.
Impressment, Results of, 142.
Independence, Declaration of, 105, 106.
Indians, The Huron, 318, 328, 332;
the Iroquois, 318, 331, 338;
Canadian, present Condition of, 431-433;
Central American, 467;
Mexican, 467-469;
Peruvian, 469-472.
Jackson, General, 151, 167.
Jackson, General Thomas,--“Stonewall Jackson,”--217, 234, 235.
Jamaica, 506.
James II., 65.
Jamestown founded, 23.
Jefferson, Thomas, 159.
Johnson, President, 264;
Impeachment of, 272.
Johnston, General, 233.
Juarez, Benito, 518-520.
Kentucky, 160.
Labrador, Discovery of by the Cabots, 14.
Lafayette, Marquis de, 112, 113, 153.
La Galissonnière, Compte de, 335.
La Salle, Sieur de, 334.
Las Casas, Bartholomew de, “Protector of the Indians,” 476-478.
Laud, Archbishop, 33.
Lawrence, Captain, 146.
Lawrence, The Town, 180.
Lee, General Robert E., 174, 217, 228, 234, 238, 244, 254.
Lee, Richard Henry, 92.
Lexington, Skirmish at, 94.
Lightning, Franklin’s Discovery, 72.
Lima, founded by Pizarro, 462.
Lincoln, President Abraham, 174, 193-195, 200, 201, 204, 225, 241,
250, 256.
Lok, John, 60.
Long Island, 49.
Lopez, Carlos, Dictator of Paraguay, 527.
Louisburg, taken by the English, 341, 401.
Louisiana, 73, 157.
Lovejoy, Mr., 168.
Lumber Trade, 428.
Lundy’s Lane, Battle of, 371.
Luther, Martin, 14.
Mackenzie, William Lyon, 381, 384.
Manassas, Battle at, 213, 228.
Manhattan Island, 48.
Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, 67.
Maryland, 54, 184.
Massachusetts, 37, 39, 45, 47, 54, 88, 91, 130.
_Mayflower_, The, 31, 32, 58.
Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, 520-522.
M’Clellan, General George B., 216, 219, 225, 228, 229, 250.
M’Dowell, General, 213.
Meade, General, 236.
“Mean Whites” of the Southern States, 180.
Mexico, 175, 176, 445, 449, 473, 516, 519, 520-522.
Milton, John, 33, 38.
Miranda, Francis, 500, 501.
Mississippi, Discovery of the, 16.
Monetary Panic of 1873, 275.
_Monitor_, The Turret-Ship, 221.
Monopolies in Canada, 351.
Montcalm, Marquis de, 79, 340, 342, 343.
Monte Video, 529.
Montezuma, King of Mexico, 443, 446.
Montgomery, The City of, 216.
Montreal, Capture of, by the Americans, 362;
Evacuation of, 363;
Attempt by the Americans to seize, 369, 370;
Progress of, 379;
Political Disturbances at, 383;
ceases to be the Seat of Government, 388.
Mount Vernon, 131.
Navy, The Mercantile, of Canada, 430.
Neck, Boston, 97;
Charlestown, 97, 99.
New Brunswick, Progress and Resources of, 404;
Settlement of the Boundary, 405.
New England States, Early Government of, 65;
Commerce of, 81;
Educational System of, 82;
Riots in, 86;
Muster of Men at Boston, 96;
wrested from England, 103;
invaded by a British Army, 117.
Newfoundland, 311, 321;
taken Possession of by England, 406, 407;
Area and Population of, 407;
the Natives of, 408;
Resources of, 408.
New Granada, 514.
New Hampshire, 54.
New Haven, 37.
New Jersey, its Acquisition, 50, 54.
New Orleans, 150, 222.
New Plymouth founded, 31.
New World, The, 312, 313, 333.
New York, 48, 50, 53, 54, 66, 81, 87, 89, 107, 109, 121, 150.
North, Lord, 91.
Nova Scotia (Acadie), a Possession of France, 321, 400;
a Possession of England, 338, 401;
Progress and Resources of, 402, 403.
Oglethorpe, James, 54
Ohio, Valley of the, 73.
Ontario, Lake, 365.
Ordinance of the Convention of South Carolina, dissolving the Union, 196.
Ottawa, 389.
Pacific Ocean, Discovery of, 441.
Paez, General, 515.
Paine, Thomas, 105.
Pakenham, Sir Edward, 150.
Papineau, Louis Joseph, 383.
Paraguay, 526-528.
Paris, Mr., 44.
Paul Jones, 121.
Paul le Jeune, Father, 326.
Pea Ridge, Battle of, 222.
Peninsula, The, 219.
Pennsylvania, 54, 66, 81, 105, 130.
Penn, William, 51, 52, 66.
Penobscot Bay, 337.
Perrot, Nicholas, 334.
Peru, 455, 524-526.
Petersburg, Siege of, 245.
Philadelphia, 52, 53, 71, 89, 92, 110, 115, 121, 133, 168.
Pilgrim Fathers, their leaving England, 29;
Settlement in Holland, 29;
Removal to New England, 31;
their Hardships after landing, 32;
their Political Constitution, 32;
their Reinforcements from England, 34;
their Peculiarities, 35;
their Virtues, 35.
Pitcairn, Major, 94.
Pittsburg, 76.
Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 78, 82, 87, 88, 91, 92.
Pizarro, Fernando, 462, 464.
Pizarro, Juan, 463.
Pizarro, Gonzalo, 464, 465.
Pizarro, Francisco, the Discoverer of Peru, 441, 451, 464.
Plymouth, 37.
Pocahontas, 24.
Polk, President, 173.
Pope, General, 228.
Port Hudson, Reduction of, 232.
Port Royal, Capture of, 222.
Potomac, 71.
Prescott, Colonel, 98.
President, Election and Powers of, 137.
Princeton, 111.
Protective Tariff, 289.
Providence, The City of, 39.
Puerto Rico, 507.
Putnam, Israel, 96, 98, 99, 108.
Quakers, Persecution of, 40, 41;
Beliefs and Character, 42;
Loyalty of, 105.
Quebec, 78-80;
First Occupants of, 315;
the French Capital, 318;
taken by England, 320;
regained by France, 321;
held by Montcalm, 342;
besieged by Wolfe, 343;
surrendered to the English, 346;
Population of, 349;
Siege of, by the Americans, 363;
Progress of, 379;
Meeting of Delegates at, 396.
Railway, The Atlantic and Pacific, 285.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 22.
Rapidan, Crossing of the, 244.
Rappahannock, The Heights of the, 229.
Reciprocity Treaty, The, 390.
Red River, The Settlement at, 414, 416, 418-420.
Rhode Island, State of, founded, 39, 54.
Richmond, City of, 217, 219, 253.
Riel, Louis, 416, 417, 421.
Rio de Janeiro, 546.
Rivadavia, President-General, 528.
Robinson, 29, 30.
Rosas, General, 529, and _note_.
Ross, General, 148.
Routledge, John, 92.
Russell, Lord John, and Canada, 385, 386.
Sacramento, The, 176.
Salem, 39, 44.
Sanitary Commission, 267.
San Miguel, 453.
Santa Anna, President of Mexico, 517.
Saratoga, The Surrender at, 117.
Savannah, The River, 55;
the Town of, 56, 57;
Capture of, 247.
Scott, General, 174.
Scrooby, The Town of, 28.
Selkirk, Lord, his Colony, 414.
Senate, Composition of the, 136.
Senegal, 121.
Seward, William H., 205, 257.
Shakamaxon, 53.
_Shannon_, The War-Ship, 146.
Shenandoah, Valley of the, 247.
Sheridan, General, 247, 252.
Sherman, General, 246, 252.
Sierra Leone, 60.
Slaves, English, sold in Virginia, 26.
Slave Law, The Fugitive, 178.
Slavery, forbidden in Georgia, but afterwards allowed, 57;
the first great Contest regarding, 165;
the second, 171;
the third, 180;
War in Defence of, 198;
Abolition of, 225, 226, 248, 249.
Slaves, Negro, First landing of, in America, 58;
Importation of, begun by Spain, 59;
carried on by Portugal, 60;
by England, 60;
Provision of the American Constitution regarding, 61;
English Legislation, regarding the Trade in, 62;
Declaration of English Bishops and Crown Lawyers regarding the
holding of, 63;
the sufferings of, 62;
Enactment of Congress regarding the Importation of, 61;
the Rights of, 265;
the Education of, 294.
Smith, John, 23.
Southern States recognized as a belligerent Power by England, 279.
Spain, Dominions of, in the West, 465, 488, 489, 495, 496, 499.
Spain, her Treaty with America against England, 120.
Springfield, Burial-place of President Lincoln, 258.
Stamp Act, The, 72, 86, 87.
Staten Island, 108.
States, The Secession, 197, 208.
St. Domingo, 60, 507.
Stephens, Alexander H, 202.
St. John, Island of, 341.
St. Lawrence, Discovery of the, 314.
Stuart, George H., 268.
Stuyvesant, Petrus, 49.
St. Vincent, Island of, 121.
Subjects, English and American, The Law relating to, 142.
Sumner, Charles, 191.
Taxation, American, 284, and _note_.
Taxation in Canada, 430.
Taxes imposed on the Americans by the English Parliament, 85, 88.
Taylor, General, 174.
Tiascalans, Overthrow of the, 444.
Ticonderoga, Capture of, 362.
Tobacco, 26, 190.
Townshend, Charles, 88.
_Trent_, British Mail-Steamer, boarded by the Americans, 279.
Trenton, 110.
Tripoli, Expedition against, 140.
Union Bill, The Canadian, 387.
United States, The, 54, 81, 133, 137, 152, 182, 273.
Valley Forge, 116.
Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, 440.
Venezuela, the Confederation of, 500;
the State of, 514, 515.
Verazzani, John, 313.
Vicksburg, Reduction of, 232, 233.
Virginia, 54, 65, 74, 81, 96, 127, 160, 184, 212, 251, 337.
_Virginia_, Iron-clad Frigate, 220.
Wall Street, 49.
Walpole, Sir Robert, 54, 85.
Washington, Capital of the Union, capture of, by the British, 149;
threatened by the Confederates, 211, 228.
Washington, George, 68-70, 74, 75, 92, 93, 100, 101, 102, 106, 107,
108, 109, 110, 111, 116, 121, 122, 125, 128, 130, 131, 134, 138,
140, 159.
Watt, James, 155.
Wesley, Charles, 56.
Wesley, John, 56.
West Point, 123.
Whitefield, George, 57.
Whitney, Eli, Inventor of Cotton-Gin, 155.
Wilderness, Federal Disaster in the, 234.
William, Prince of Orange, 30.
Williams, Roger, 38;
his Views on Religious Toleration, 39;
President of Rhode Island, 40.
Winnipeg Valley, 421, 422.
Wolfe, General, 78, 343-346.
Wolseley, Sir Garnet, Expedition to the Red River, 418.
York, Duke of, 66.
Yorktown, 127, 219.