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Transcriber's note:
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Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
In the Index Key to Pronunciation, the transcriber has
replaced the following symbols:
for a with diaresis below, to read a: in fa:ll
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for o with diaresis below, to read o: in do:
for unknown form of c, to read ċ in ċan
[Illustration: G. Washington with handwritten signature]
The Youth's Library
THE STORY OF THE THIRTEEN COLONIES
BY
H. A. GUERBER
New York
D. McNetton & Company
150 Fifth Avenue
Copyright, 1898, by
H. A. Guerber.
STORY OF THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.
M. B. C. I
PREFACE.
This book is intended as an historical reader, an elementary
text-book in the history of our country, or as an introduction or
supplement to any of the excellent text-books on the history of the
United States now in use.
The aim has been not only to interest children in the great men of
their own country, but to stimulate them to the cultivation of the
lofty virtues of which they read, and to instil within their hearts
a deep love for their native land.
All the main facts in our early history have been given as
simply and vividly as possible, and the lessons of patriotism,
truthfulness, courage, patience, honesty, and industry taught by the
lives of our principal heroes are carefully enforced. Great pains
have also been taken to relate all the well-known anecdotes and
quote the famous speeches which are so frequently alluded to in our
current literature.
Although this book ends with the Revolutionary War, the story of
our country is continued on the same lines in a companion volume
entitled "The Story of the Great Republic;" yet each book is
independent of the other and can be used separately.
So simply worded as to be easily intelligible to average children of
ten or twelve years of age, the text is further arranged in short
paragraphs, to facilitate its use as a reader in large classes.
The pronunciation of difficult proper names is indicated in the
text, and, more fully, in the carefully prepared index. The system
of diacritical marks used is explained on the first page of the
index.
HINTS FOR TEACHERS.
The best results in reading can often be obtained by the teacher's
reading a chapter first, while the pupils closely follow the text
in their own books. When called upon to re-read the same passages,
it will be noticed that they almost unconsciously imitate every
inflection they have heard. Thus they soon learn to read with due
regard to expression, and therefore take a livelier interest in the
subject-matter.
Aside from its use as a reader, this text can also serve to supply
themes for daily language work, certain parts of the lesson being
chosen for verbal and others for written reproduction. My experience
has been that after reading the chapters over once or twice most
children remember both facts and names. If they cannot do it at
first, they may easily be trained to do it by the judicious stimulus
of a little praise, and the hope of winning their teacher's approval.
To fix important facts in the memory, and to serve as reviews of
previous readings, I have found that a set of question cards is
almost invaluable. These can be quickly distributed among the
children, who are called upon to answer them verbally or in writing,
as best serves the teacher's purpose at the time.
Pupils consider historical matches even more exciting than spelling
matches. To vary recitations, matches can be conducted in various
ways. For instance, all the question cards bearing upon the parts
of the book already perused can be divided between the two "sides."
The pupils furnish oral or written answers, the side answering
most questions correctly reaping the honors. The match can also be
carried on by the teacher's supplying names or dates, and requiring
pupils on alternate sides to state clearly what they know in
connection with them. At other times, ordinary quiz methods can be
used, or the teacher can relate some fact or anecdote, calling upon
different pupils to supply the purposely omitted names or dates.
Children are also often deeply interested in verbal pictures. For
example, the teacher, without mentioning name, time, or place,
can describe Franklin flying his kite, Ethan Allen surprising the
garrison at Ticonderoga, Columbus at La Rabida, etc. The description
ended, each pupil can write down the names of the characters
described, and mention time, place, and any other fact the teacher
calls for. Such historical riddles seem more like play than work to
the average child, and before long all take great pride in making
verbal pictures of their own, to be guessed by their schoolmates, or
handed to the teacher instead of an ordinary composition. Such work
not only appeals to childish imagination, but cultivates memory and
attention while firmly fixing important facts in youthful minds.
To encourage a taste for poetry and rouse a love for the beautiful
by fine descriptions of the noted characters or great events with
which the pupils have just become familiar, it is often well to read
aloud some of our most famous songs or poems.
It is universally conceded that history and geography should go hand
in hand; so suitable maps have been supplied, upon which children
should be encouraged to locate each spot as soon as it is mentioned.
The teacher should also procure a blank map for each pupil (such
as the Eclectic Map Blanks, American Book Company), so that, after
finding any place named on the ordinary map, the pupil can locate it
exactly on an outline map. Many children are greatly interested in
marking the names themselves as soon as their attention is drawn to
them, and take great pride in seeing their maps grow. This method
is often more helpful than any other in making children see how
civilization has spread and what changes have gradually taken place
in our country.
To fix upon their minds the fact that colonies were planted by
different European nations, it is often advisable to purchase at
a stationer's tiny adhesive stars of various colors. Each color
serves to represent a nation, and stars are pasted upon the
spots where colonies once stood. In cases where colonies proved
unsuccessful, a black star can be pasted over the colored one, but
in such a way that enough of the original star remains to show to
which nation the colony once belonged. Where colonies changed hands
several times, stars of appropriate colors can be pasted overlapping
one another. This work fascinates children, and as the stars are
adhesive, it can be done in class with very little trouble. A little
tact on the teacher's part will make each pupil strive to have the
neatest and most accurate map.
History and geography, when studied in their turn, will seem far
more attractive to children if these methods have been pursued;
for many persons and places already familiar will then be joyfully
greeted as old friends.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. Our Country Long Ago 13
II. The Barbarous Indians 17
III. The Mounds 20
IV. Where the Northmen went 24
V. The Northmen in America 27
VI. Queer Ideas 31
VII. Prince Henry the Navigator 33
VIII. Youth of Columbus 36
IX. Columbus and the Queen 39
X. "Land! Land!" 44
XI. Columbus and the Savages 48
XII. Home Again 51
XIII. Columbus illtreated 54
XIV. Death of Columbus 57
XV. How America got its Name 60
XVI. The Fountain of Youth 62
XVII. "The Father of Waters" 66
XVIII. The French in Canada 70
XIX. French and Spanish Quarrels 73
XX. The Sky City 77
XXI. Around the World 80
XXII. Nothing but Smoke 83
XXIII. Smith's Adventures 87
XXIV. The Jamestown Men 91
XXV. Smith wounded 94
XXVI. The Visit of Pocahontas to England 97
XXVII. Hudson and the Indians 102
XXVIII. The Mayflower 105
XXIX. Plymouth Rock 109
XXX. The First American Thanksgiving 113
XXXI. The Snake Skin and the Bullets 118
XXXII. The Beginning of Boston 122
XXXIII. Stories of Two Ministers 126
XXXIV. Williams and the Indians 129
XXXV. The Quakers 134
XXXVI. The King-Killers 136
XXXVII. King Philip's War 138
XXXVIII. The Beginning of New York 142
XXXIX. Penn and the Indians 147
XL. The Catholics in Maryland 152
XLI. The Old Dominion 155
XLII. Bacon's Rebellion 157
XLIII. A Journey Inland 160
XLIV. The Carolina Pirates 162
XLV. Charter Oak 166
XLVI. Salem Witches 170
XLVII. Down the Mississippi 174
XLVIII. La Salle's Adventures 180
XLIX. Indians on the Warpath 183
L. Two Wars with the French 187
LI. Washington's Boyhood 191
LII. Washington's Journey 195
LIII. Washington's First Battle 198
LIV. Stories of Franklin 199
LV. Braddock's Defeat 206
LVI. Wolfe at Quebec 210
LVII. How England treated her Colonies 214
LVIII. The Stamp Tax 218
LIX. The Anger of the Colonies 220
LX. The Boston Tea Party 224
LXI. The Minutemen 228
LXII. The Battle of Lexington 233
LXIII. Bunker Hill 237
LXIV. The Boston Boys 242
LXV. The British leave Boston 245
LXVI. Declaration of Independence 248
LXVII. A Lady's Way of Helping 253
LXVIII. Christmas Eve 258
LXIX. The Fight at Bennington 262
LXX. Burgoyne's Surrender 267
LXXI. The Winter at Valley Forge 271
LXXII. The Quaker Woman 275
LXXIII. Putnam's Adventures 279
LXXIV. Indian Cruelty 283
LXXV. Boone in Kentucky 288
LXXVI. Famous Sea Fights 293
LXXVII. The "Swamp Fox" 297
LXXVIII. The Poor Soldiers 302
LXXIX. The Spy 304
LXXX. A Traitor's Death 309
LXXXI. Two Unselfish Women 312
LXXXII. The Surrender of Cornwallis 315
LXXXIII. The British Flag hauled down 319
LXXXIV. Washington's Farewell 323
MAPS.
The Thirteen Colonies before the Revolution 12
North America before the French and Indian War 189
Part of the Northern States 230
Results of the War for Independence 322
[Illustration: THE THIRTEEN COLONIES BEFORE THE REVOLUTION]
[Illustration: decoration]
STORY OF THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.
I. OUR COUNTRY LONG AGO.
Learned men, who read the story of the earth in the mountains,
valleys, rivers, lakes, and seas which cover its surface, tell us
that America, although known as the New World, is really older than
Europe. The sun has shone upon this continent and the rain has
watered it for more centuries than we can count. If you study your
maps carefully, you will notice lofty mountains, great lakes, and
long rivers in many parts of the country; and you will see that it
is beautiful and fertile almost everywhere, except in the far north,
where snow covers the ground most of the year.
The same wise men who found out that the country is so old, dug down
into the soil, examined the things they found there, questioned the
Indians, and, little by little, discovered that our continent has
been inhabited by many different kinds of animals and men. They
found huge bones of animals which died thousands of years ago, and
placed these in museums, where you can now see them. They also found
the bones of some of the ancient men and women, with some of their
weapons, tools, kitchen pots, and bits of their garments.
By studying these things very carefully, and by listening to the
stories of the natives, they learned a great deal about the country
which, from Greenland and A-las´ka in the north, to Cape Horn in the
south, was once inhabited by tribes of Indians. None of these had
white skins like the inhabitants of Europe, black skins like the
negroes in Africa, or yellow skins like the Chinamen in Asia. But as
they were more like the people in Asia than like those in Africa or
Europe, some men now think they may once have belonged to the same
family.
[Illustration: A Savage Indian.]
Still, the men living on our continent were so unlike others that
they are called red men, and form a race by themselves. Those who
lived in the part of the country which is now called the United
States had copper-colored skins, high cheek bones, straight, coarse
black hair, small black eyes, and very wide mouths. Although they
all looked somewhat alike, they were very different in their ways of
living. The Indians living east of the Rocky Mountains were a little
more civilized than those living west of those mountains and in the
far northern parts of the continent.
[Illustration: A Wigwam.]
The western and northern Indians are generally called savage
Indians, for they lived by hunting and fishing, had no houses like
ours, and were always roaming around in search of game. They were
sheltered from the sun and rain by tents called wigwams. These rude
dwellings were made by driving poles in the ground, in a circle as
big as the wigwam was to be. When all the poles had been set up, the
tops were drawn close together and firmly tied. Over these slanting
poles the Indians spread the skins of the animals they had killed,
or else they wove leaves and branches between the poles to form a
thick screen. The space between two of the poles was left open to
serve as a door, and over this was hung a bear or buffalo skin to
keep out the sun, rain, or cold.
The space inside the wigwam was generally very small; but all the
family crowded in, and when it was cold or wet, a fire was lighted
in the middle of the floor. The smoke then escaped through a hole
purposely left in the top of the wigwam, or through the open door.
The savage Indians had learned to make baskets, which they
plastered with clay inside and out, and dried in the sun until they
could hold water. When they wanted to boil their meat or to warm
water, the women, called squaws, heated stones in the fire, and then
dropped them into the water, which was thus brought to a boil.
These Indians rowed about in canoes made of basket work, of birch
bark, or even of hollow tree trunks. As they had only stone axes,
they could not easily cut down trees, so they brought them to the
ground by kindling a fire all around them. When the tree had fallen
they built another fire farther up the trunk. A log of the right
length having thus been secured, they hollowed it out by starting
small fires on top of the trunk, and scraping away the charred wood,
until the log formed a rude canoe.
The Indians made their birch-bark canoes by sewing long strips of
bark together with plant fibers or the sinews of the animals they
had killed. The basket-work canoes were covered with skins to make
them water-tight.
[Illustration: Making a Canoe.]
II. THE BARBAROUS INDIANS.
The Indians east of the Rocky Mountains knew a little more than the
savage Indians, so they are called the barbarous Indians. Besides
hunting and fishing, they dug up roots with stone hoes, or with
shells, and planted corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes, tomatoes,
tobacco, and sunflowers. Of course they did not have neat fields and
gardens, such as you see now; but they scratched a hole wherever the
ground seemed good enough, dropped a few seeds into it, and covering
them over, left them to grow without further care.
[Illustration: Indian Pottery.]
The barbarous Indians were not content, like the savage Indians
in the West, to fling a skin around them to keep off the cold,
merely fastening it with a big thorn to hold it together. So they
made winter garments by sewing skins together with sinews or plant
fibers. In summer they had lighter clothes, rudely woven out of
cotton or plant fibers. They, too, wove baskets, made beautiful
birch-bark canoes, and after fashioning pots and pans out of clay,
hardened them in the fire, so that they could use them in cooking.
These Indians had tools and weapons made of finely polished stone or
bone, and they liked to live in villages. Instead of wigwams, many
of them built houses of wood, or basket work and clay, roofed over
with strips of bark. Sometimes the roof was a very thick layer of
long grass, laid on rude rafters, and held down by poles to form a
kind of thatch.
[Illustration: A Long House.]
The houses thus built were generally very long and rather narrow,
with a door at either end, and a passageway running through the
center. On either side of this hall there were little rooms, each
occupied by a family. At intervals along the passage the ground
was hollowed out, and a clay or earthen fireplace was built, where
four families cooked their meals. Above the fireplace there was a
hole in the roof to serve as chimney. The rooms near the doors were
generally used as storerooms for food and fuel. When several of
these long houses were built together, they were often surrounded by
a wooden wall, or palisade, to keep out the wild beasts and to serve
as protection in time of war.
The Indians who once lived in New York and in the valley of the St.
Law´rence lived in long houses, but the Mis-sou´ri Indians had
round houses, built of the same materials. In the round houses the
fireplace was in the middle, and families lived in rooms shaped like
cuts of a pie. Many of these round houses were built close together,
and then surrounded by a palisade made of tree trunks. These were
driven into the ground so close together that they formed a very
strong fence.
Although Indians did not have family names, such as we have now,
each great family, or clan, had a special sign whereby it was known,
such as a bear, a turtle, or a beaver. This sign was often marked
upon their bodies in bright colors, and they carved and scratched it
on all their belongings. From this sign the family was known as the
bear, the turtle, or the beaver clan. Each clan selected a ruler,
called sachem, or sagamore, whose orders all obeyed, and they also
chose a chief to lead them in time of war.
The Indians had never been told about the God we love, so they
worshiped the sun, moon, and stars, the lightning and thunder, the
wind and rain, and said that one great spirit, called Man´i-to, was
always watching over them. They also believed that when they died
they would be carried off to a place where they could hunt and fish
forever, and they called this heaven the happy hunting grounds.
Their religious ceremonies were usually performed by Indians called
medicine men. These pretended to be very wise, and frightened the
others by dancing and yelling wildly, and using strange words and
signs. They said this would please their gods, and drive away the
evil spirits of sickness, storm, or drought. The Indians were so
simple that they believed all this nonsense, and they were so
afraid of evil spirits that they often begged an animal's pardon for
killing it. You see, they thought the spirit of a wolf or bear might
else be so angry as to torment them in their dreams!
[Illustration: A Papoose.]
The men spent their time hunting, fishing, and fighting, but left
all the rest of the work to the women. When they moved from one
place to another, the squaws had to carry all the household goods,
as well as the papooses, or babies. But the men carried only their
bows and arrows, hunting knives, and the hatchets called tomahawks,
which they threw with great force and skill.
III. THE MOUNDS.
Besides the savage Indians of the north and west, and the barbarous
Indians of the east, there were also half-civilized Indians in
the south of our country. They dwelt not only in what is now New
Mex´i-co and Ar-i-zo´na, but were also found in Mexico, Central
America, and South America, as far down the map as Chile (che´lā).
The southern Indians had learned how to build canals, so as to lead
the water far away from the streams into dry and barren lands. When
the ground had thus been watered, or irrigated, it became very
fruitful, and they could grow all the grain and vegetables they
needed.
The southern Indians lived together in huge fortresses, built of
sun-dried bricks, called adobe. These fortresses were large houses
five or six stories high, containing ever so many little rooms, each
occupied by one family. Thus one house often sheltered two or three
thousand people.
[Illustration: Cliff Dwellings.]
Sometimes these Indians built their houses on the ledges of steep
rocks, or canyons. Such houses were called cliff dwellings, and many
remains of these queer homes are still found in the southwestern
part of our country. The Indians who lived there were gentle, and
not fond of fighting, but they built fortresses and cliff dwellings
to defend themselves when attacked by the savage Indians.
You see, the savage Indians did not grow any grain or vegetables,
but they came down from the north to steal the provisions of the
southern Indians. These, therefore, carried all their supplies into
the cliff houses, which they built in such a way that it was almost
impossible for an enemy to get in them.
The inhabitants themselves, however, easily went in and out by means
of ladders, which led from story to story, or from ledge to ledge.
Their houses had no doors down near the floor, but were entered by a
hole in the roof.
In each of these fortresses there was a great cistern, full of
water, and so large a supply of food that the Indians could stand a
long siege. In times of danger they pulled all their ladders away up
out of reach, and when their enemies tried to climb the steep cliffs
or straight walls, they pelted them with stones and arrows, and thus
drove them away.
Wise men tell us that even before our country was occupied by the
savage, barbarous, and half-civilized Indians, whose way of living
has just been described, it had been inhabited by their ancestors
or by an older race of men. We know they existed, because people
have dug up their bones. These have been found principally inside
huge earthen mounds of very queer shapes. The mounds were evidently
built by those early inhabitants, who are hence known as the mound
builders. Trees hundreds of years old now grow upon these mounds,
which are found in most parts of the eastern Mis-sis-sip´pi valley,
especially in O-hi´o.
In one place you can see a big mound representing a snake one
thousand feet long, his body lying in graceful curves along the
ground. This snake's mouth is wide open, and he looks as if trying
to swallow an egg-shaped mound, which is one hundred and sixty-four
feet long, and hence a pretty big mouthful. As this mound is so odd,
it has been inclosed in a park, where it is to be kept just as it
is, to remind people of the mound builders who lived here so long
ago.
[Illustration: mound in shape of snake.]
No one now knows exactly why these queer mounds were made, but
learned men have dug into about two thousand of them, and as they
have generally found bones, stone arrowheads and axes, beads,
mortars, hammers, tools for spinning and weaving, pottery, baskets,
and coarse cloth, they think the mounds must have been intended
principally as burying places. The beads found in them are very like
those which the barbarous Indians called wampum and used as money.
Indians wore these beads in strings around their necks, or wove them
into belts, using beads of different colors to form very pretty
patterns.
[Illustration: Wampum.]
IV. WHERE THE NORTHMEN WENT.
As you have seen in the first chapters of this book, America was
once a very different country from what it is to-day. Now you are
going to learn how it changed, little by little, from the wild land
where Indians roamed about in the huge forests covering the greater
part of the country, into a civilized country.
We are told that in all the wide territory now occupied by the
United States, there were, four hundred and fifty years ago, about
two hundred thousand Indians. These were very few inhabitants for so
big a country, for now there are many cities here which count many
more citizens.
The Indians then little suspected that on the other side of the
great ocean there was another country, occupied by a race of white
men, who knew much more than they did, and who were soon coming to
take possession of their land.
But the people in Europe, wise as they were, did not know many
things which everybody knows now. That was not their fault, however,
for they had been trying for several centuries to learn all they
could. In the middle of the fifteenth century Europe was already an
old country, where long series of kings and queens had ruled over
the people. There were then in Europe cities more than two thousand
years old, ancient temples and castles, and many of the beautiful
Christian churches which people still admire, because none finer
have ever been built.
The people in Europe had long been great travelers by land and sea,
although it was not so easy to get about then as it is now. Indeed,
on land they could go only in wagons, in litters, on horseback,
or on foot; and on the water they used nothing but rowboats or
sailboats, because no one had yet imagined that one could use steam
or electricity. On the sea, even the boldest sailors did not dare
venture far out of sight of land, for fear they would not be able to
find their way back.
The best seamen in Europe were the Northmen, or vik´ings. Already
in the eighth century they used to sail out of the _viks_, or bays,
in Nor´way, every spring, to go in search of adventures. These
Northmen, Norsemen, or Normans, little by little explored the coast
of the North Sea, and of the Atlantic Ocean, and finally came to
the Strait of Gi-bral´tar. Passing through this opening, they
came to the beautiful Med-i-ter-ra´ne-an Sea, where they cruised
about, even visiting the Greek islands and the renowned city of
Con-stan-ti-no´ple.
As you will see by looking at your maps, this was a very long
journey for men who had nothing but sailboats or rowboats, such
as very few sailors would dare to use nowadays. But the Northmen
were afraid of nothing, and when the wind blew, and the great waves
tossed their little vessels up and down like cockleshells, they held
tight to the rudder and steered on, singing one of their famous
songs.
Sometimes, however, the tempest raged so fiercely that they were
driven far out of their course. Thus, in the middle of the ninth
century, one of these hardy seamen, after tossing about on the
stormy seas several days, landed on an island which he had never
seen before.
[Illustration: A Viking.]
This new place was Ice´land, and he was so pleased with his
discovery that he sailed home and persuaded his family and friends
to go back there with him to settle down. In a few years other
Northmen came to live in Iceland, sailing across the Atlantic from
time to time to visit their old homes and friends. Soon the colony
grew so large that its seamen kept up a lively trade with different
ports in Europe.
One of these Ice-lan´dic seamen, Gunn´biorn, on his way home, was
once overtaken by a violent storm. It drove him far out of his
course, and finally brought him in sight of a new land, covered with
snow, which he called the White Land. When he reached home he told
the Ice´land-ers what he had seen; but no one cared then to go and
see if there really was a land west of Iceland, as he had said.
About a hundred years later another man, Er´ic the Red, was driven
out of Iceland for murder. Remembering what Gunnbiorn had said, he
sailed westward, and went to settle in the new country, which he
called Greenland, so as to attract other settlers. A number of them
soon joined him there, and began to trade with the Es´ki-mos, a race
of Indians who lived in the coldest part of the country, where they
hunted white bears and fished for cod and seals.
V. THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA.
After Eric the Red had settled in Greenland, he sent word to one of
his friends, Biar´ni, to come and visit him. Biarni gladly accepted
the invitation, and although he had none of the instruments which
sailors now use to guide them safely over the seas, he set out
boldly, steering his course by the stars.
Unfortunately for Biarni, a storm soon came up. The stars could no
longer be seen, and his ship was driven far out of its way. When the
skies cleared Biarni saw land before him, and fancied he had reached
Greenland. So he sailed slowly along the coast, looking for Eric's
settlement; but, as he could not find it, he soon turned around and
went back to Iceland.
Of course he told his adventures to his friends, and Leīf the Lucky,
hearing him describe the land he had seen, set out in search of it,
in a large ship manned by a number of men. Sailing westward, Leif
coasted along Lab-ra-dor´ and No´va Sco´tia, came to Cape Cod (map,
page 189), and landed, it is thought, somewhere in Rhode Island, in
the year 1001.
Although Biarni and Leif did not know it, they had been the first
white men to see North America, which, as you will see, did not
receive this name till many years later. Leif the Lucky found
so many wild grapes in this region that he called the country
Vine´land, and loading his ship with timber and grapes, he went
home. But he, with another Northman, soon came back to spend a
winter in the new country, where the climate was much milder than in
Iceland or Greenland.
For some years ships sailed from Norway to Iceland, from Iceland to
Greenland, and from Greenland to North America, where a Northman
finally settled with about one hundred and forty men and women.
Snor´ri, the son of this brave leader, was the first European child
born in America. He lived to grow up, and the great sculptor
Thor´wald-sen, as well as several other noted men, claimed him as
one of their ancestors.
The Northmen, however, had a very hard time in America, for they
were soon attacked by the Indians, whom they called Skrae´lings.
Even the women had to fight to defend themselves against the
savages. But when they found that these attacks did not cease, they
decided to leave the country, and went home in 1012.
[Illustration: A Viking's Ship.]
As far as we know, after that no ships from the North visited
America for several hundred years. But the story of Eric the Red
and of Leif the Lucky was, fortunately, written down in one of
the old Norse tales, or sagas. It is probable that the people went
on talking for some time of the strange country their friends had
visited, but after a while they forgot it entirely. Indeed, were
it not for the old story, no one would now know that they were the
first Europeans who set foot in our country, and you will still hear
some people deny that they ever came here.
Now, it may seem very strange to you that the news of the Norse
discovery of the new land was not made known everywhere; but you
must remember that the people in Europe had no newspapers or
printing presses, and that news traveled very slowly. No one but a
few Northmen, therefore, were aware that land had been found in the
West.
So America was forgotten until, according to an old story, a Welsh
prince named Mad´oc was driven across the Atlantic by a storm, in
the twelfth century. He was so well pleased with the new country he
found that he is said to have left some of his men there, promising
to return soon with more settlers. The story goes on to say that
he sailed from Wales to keep this promise, but no one ever heard
anything more of him, or of the men he left in America.
Some people think that he and his men perished in a storm, and that
the settlers he left behind him were murdered by the Indians. Others
insist that the whole story was made up by the Welsh, so they could
claim the honor of having discovered America. Whether the Welsh ever
came here or not,--and it is hardly likely they ever did,--the fact
remains that our continent, after being discovered by Europeans, was
lost again.
VI. QUEER IDEAS.
People living in Europe, near the sea, were all fond of cruising
about; but as they had no compass at first, they seldom ventured out
of sight of land, for fear of losing their way. After a time they
learned to steer their vessels by means of the stars; but as these
could serve as guides only on clear nights, sailors were glad to use
the compass when it became known in Europe, in the twelfth century.
But although seamen now fearlessly cruised about the European
waters, they did not venture far out into the Atlantic, which
was then known as the "Sea of Darkness." The fact is, they were
afraid to do so, because they had been told they would meet strange
monsters there, such as mermen and mermaids. They also thought their
vessels would be drawn toward the "Loadstone Mountain," a great
magnetic rock which would draw all the nails out of their planks,
and thus make their boats fall to pieces.
[Illustration: Primitive Map]
Of course this was all nonsense, but most of the seamen believed
these tales as firmly as some sailors now believe that Friday is an
unlucky day; and as no one had ever gone far out in the Atlantic,
even learned men could not prove to them that they were mistaken.
Besides, although they had fairly good maps of the countries they
had visited, people knew nothing at all of the rest of the world.
Their maps showed only the northern part of Africa, the western and
southern parts of Europe, and the western part of Asia. All the rest
was a blank.
Common people then believed that the earth was round and flat,
like a pie, with the ocean flowing all around it. So they were
afraid to venture too far out, lest they should fall over the edge
of the world and drop down into space! Wise men, however, already
knew better; for, about three hundred years before Christ, Greek
philosophers had begun to suspect that the earth is round like a
ball, and not flat, as every one until then had supposed.
They and their pupils wrote books giving their reasons for believing
this; but as printing was not invented till seventeen hundred years
later, these works were known only to a few learned men. Most of the
European scholars then lived in Greece or Constantinople, and kept
these precious manuscripts in monasteries or private libraries, or
in palaces and schools.
In the twelfth century a Spanish-A-ra´bi-an philosopher read some
of these Greek manuscripts, and then wrote a book, saying that he
not only believed that the earth is round, but that he thought it
would be possible to sail around it! This statement, so natural and
simple now, seemed so absurd to the people who heard it then that
they began to make all manner of fun of it. They asked how it would
be possible for a ship to sail uphill, even supposing it did not
tumble off the earth when it reached the edge, which they called the
jumping-off place.
They also asked how the trees on the other side of the earth could
grow with their roots up in the air, and inquired whether the rain
and snow flew up instead of falling down. These questions, which
seem so odd now, were very natural, for people did not then know,
what your teachers have explained to you, that the earth is like a
big magnet. It holds fast everything on its surface, and nothing can
fall off, even though it spins around and around, and whirls through
space much faster than the fastest express train can travel.
The Turks, who were not Christians, besieged the city of
Constantinople in 1453, and when they became masters of it, and of
the surrounding country, the learned men all fled, taking with them
many of their precious manuscripts. Deprived of their quiet homes,
and in many cases forced to teach to earn their living, these wise
men settled in various cities, where they imparted to others all
they knew.
As printing had just been invented, books, instead of being worth
a fortune, soon became so much cheaper that almost everybody could
afford to have one or two volumes. The precious manuscripts the wise
men had saved from the Turks were therefore printed, and people soon
began to talk about the strange things they read in them, and longed
to know more.
VII. PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR.
Among the first books printed were the accounts of the travels of
two daring men, Mar´co Po´lo and Sir John Man´de-ville. These men
had visited many of the countries of the East, and the first had
even gone to China, which was then called Ca-thay´. The stories
these travelers told were so interesting and exciting that people
became anxious to visit these strange countries, and especially to
trade there and thus grow rich.
Ever since the days of Al-ex-an´der the Great, if not sooner, a
certain amount of trading had been done with the East. But as all
the silk, sugar, spices, etc., had to be brought by coasting vessels
to the head of the Per´sian Gulf or the Red Sea, and thence overland
by caravans to some port on the Black Sea or the Mediterranean, they
became very costly.
[Illustration: A Caravan.]
Sometimes, too, the goods were brought all the way from China or
India, or the heart of Africa, through deserts and over mountains to
the Black, the Mediterranean, or the Red Sea, by caravan, although
it took a long while to travel all those weary miles.
For some time the Turks allowed this trade to go on, but by and by
they began to treat the traders so badly that the traffic almost
stopped. The cities of Ven´ice and Gen´o-a in Italy, whose ships had
constantly sailed to and fro in the Mediterranean and Black seas, to
carry these goods from port to port, were now nearly idle, and the
people who had grown so rich were about to become poor.
As the Turks were too strong to be driven away, the traders longed
to find another road to reach India, Cathay, and Ci-pan´go, or
Japan. A way of reaching these countries by sea was what they most
desired, because it is much easier to carry goods in ships than on
camels.
The Ve-ne´tians and Gen-o-ese´, however, were not the only ones who
wished to find a new road to the East. Many of the European coast
cities fancied that if they could only discover it, they could keep
the trade all to themselves, and thus grow richer and more powerful
than their neighbors.
One of the countries which most coveted the Eastern trade was
Por´tu-gal, where a bright boy was heir to the throne. This lad,
Prince Henry of Portugal, once went with his father to Ceu´ta
in Africa. Although then very young, he listened eagerly to the
wonderful stories told about Guin´ea, on the southern side of the
Sa-ha´ra. He soon began to wonder if it would not be possible to get
there by sailing along the coast instead of crossing the African
desert. This, you must know, was a great undertaking, because people
found nothing to eat or drink there, and suffered much from the
heat. Besides, the wind called the simoom raised such clouds of dust
that whole caravans were sometimes buried in the sand.
By looking at the maps in your geography, you can see that it was
easy to sail from Portugal to Guinea; but at that time people knew
nothing of the west coast of Africa. Prince Henry, in hopes of
solving the problem, began to study very hard. Before long he read
in an old book that a wise man thought it possible to sail all
around Africa, and he longed to find out if this was true.
As soon as he grew up, he therefore hired a number of seamen to try
it, and showed such interest in sea voyages that he is often called
the Navigator. The mariners thus sent out, little by little explored
the coast of Africa, and creeping farther south every journey, they
discovered the Ma-dei´ra and Canary Islands.
But the sight of the smoke above the volcano of Ten-er-ïfe´ so
terrified them that they dared go no farther. It was only some time
later that Por´tu-guese mariners reached the Cape Verde Islands and
Sen-e-gal´. But one of their number had in the meantime learned,
from a Flem´ish seaman, that there was a group of islands westward,
and the Portuguese, going there, planted a colony on the A-zores´,
which still belong to them.
VIII. YOUTH OF COLUMBUS.
While Henry the Navigator was busy with his discoveries, the rest of
the world was not standing still. Although he little suspected it,
a boy born in Genoa, about 1436, was to be a far greater navigator
than he. This boy was Christopher Columbus.
Although Christopher's father was only a poor wool comber, he
managed to send his son to school at Pavia (pah-ve´a). There the
little fellow studied hard. But he had no pretty books such as you
have now, and had to pore over musty parchments. In spite of that,
he took special interest in geography and mathematics. When only
thirteen, Christopher was forced to leave school, because his father
could not afford to keep him there any longer. After combing wool
for a short time, he went to sea with one of his relatives.
A sailor at fourteen, Columbus began to lead a very stirring and
adventurous life. Genoa, his native city, was then often at war with
other places, and battles were fought on the sea as well as on land.
Besides, in going about from place to place, Genoese vessels were
frequently overtaken by pirates; so mariners in those days had to
know how to fight, as well as how to sail their vessels. Columbus,
therefore, had more than one battle with these sea robbers, whose
aim was to secure the goods on board his ship. Once he took part in
a fight off Cape St. Vin´cent. Here, his vessel having caught fire,
he and his crew sprang into the sea to escape the flames. By rare
good fortune, Columbus managed to grasp a floating oar, and with
this slight help he swam to the distant shore.
In the course of his many journeys Columbus visited all the
principal ports of the Mediterranean Sea. Ever eager to learn, he
questioned the seamen and travelers he met, and they gladly told him
the strange things they had seen and heard while visiting foreign
lands.
After a time Columbus came to Lis´bon, hoping to be employed in
making discoveries for the crown; for, as we have seen, the
Portuguese were the boldest seamen of the day. Whether or not
Columbus took part in some of their journeys we do not now know; but
we do know that he soon found himself obliged to earn his scanty
living by drawing maps. As he was a very pious man, he daily went
to say his prayers in a neighboring convent church, where he met a
young lady whom the nuns were educating. Falling in love with her,
Columbus soon made her his wife.
The newly married couple lived with the mother of the bride, the
widow of a seaman and chart maker. She soon gave her son-in-law
her husband's papers and instruments. In looking over the former,
Columbus found that his wife's father had once been in the employ of
Henry the Navigator, and had written an account of his voyages.
Poring over these papers, and thinking over all he had read and
heard from travelers, Columbus became more and more convinced that
the earth is round, and that by sailing directly westward one would
reach the coast of Asia. This idea, which had already haunted him
for some time, now left him no rest He longed to try, for he was in
hopes of finding a new road to India, which would enable his native
city to carry on the trade which had made it so rich. This trade
had been stopped, when he was about seventeen, by the taking of
Constantinople, as you have already heard.
According to the calculations of Columbus,--for, like all the wise
men of his time, he fancied the earth smaller than it is,--the
lands known to the Europeans extended over about two thirds of the
surface of the globe. As he thought that Asia stretched much farther
east, he now began to think that perhaps the strip of ocean which
separated Cipango from the Canary Islands might not be so very
broad, after all.
To discover whether others shared this belief, Columbus wrote to
Tos-ca-nel´li, a learned Italian, asking him whether he thought it
possible to reach Asia by sailing straight across the Atlantic.
Toscanelli answered that he thought it could be done. He also sent
Columbus a map he had drawn, on which he had placed Cipango (Japan)
nearly on the spot which Cu´ba occupies in your geographies.
When Columbus received this map he determined to make an attempt to
reach Asia by boldly sailing westward. But he was too poor to buy or
hire a vessel himself, and we are told that when he once asked the
Genoese to supply him with one, offering to give them the benefit of
his discoveries, they only made fun of his plans.
Although disappointed, Columbus did not give up his idea, and still
tried to gain all the information he could. He even made a journey
to Iceland; but the people he talked with there had so entirely
forgotten the land that Eric and Biarni had visited in the west,
that they never even mentioned it to him, so far as we now know.
IX. COLUMBUS AND THE QUEEN.
Genoa having refused to help him, Columbus, some time later,
explained his wishes to John II., the new king of Portugal, for
Henry the Navigator was dead. This ruler also took great interest
in such matters, but as he was not very wise himself, he called
together a council of his most learned men to listen to all that
Columbus had to say. These men declared the plan absurd; but the
king did not feel quite sure that they were right.
John did not wish any other country to have the glory of finding
the new road to India; still, he did not want to trust a ship to
Columbus. Advised by one of his bishops, he secretly sent out a
light ship, with orders to sail directly westward. The captain and
crew did not believe one could sail across the Atlantic, and were
sorely afraid of the monsters which they fancied swarmed in the Sea
of Darkness. They therefore took advantage of the very first storm
to come back, reporting that it was impossible to go any farther.
When Columbus heard that the king had been so dishonest as to try to
steal his ideas, he was justly indignant. He left Lisbon in anger,
vowing he would have nothing more to do with such a ruler. Still,
as he was fully determined not to give up his cherished plan to try
himself, he sent his brother Bar-thol´o-mew to England to ask if
Henry VII. would give him a ship.
In the meanwhile Columbus staid in Spain, earning a scanty living
for himself and his little son Diego (de-ā´go); for by this time his
wife had died, leaving him alone with this child. But although so
poor that he often had to beg food, Columbus thought night and day
of the time when he would sail westward to Asia. As he went from
place to place, he tried to interest various people in his plans,
and for a while believed that some Spanish noblemen would help him.
[Illustration:
_V. Brozik, Artist._
Columbus at the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella.]
But they finally told him they could not undertake such an
important expedition, and advised him to apply for aid to the king
and queen at Cor´do-va. Hoping still, Columbus journeyed thither,
and found that the royal couple were too busy trying to drive the
Moors out of Spain to pay much attention to him.
Time went on thus, and while Columbus was anxiously waiting,
Portuguese seamen crept down the coast of Africa until they reached
its southern point. There a tempest raged so fiercely that the
captain called it the Cape of Storms, and, not daring to venture
around it, sailed home. When he told John II. of his discovery, the
king declared that the cape should henceforth be called the Cape of
Good Hope, for there were now good prospects of reaching India by
coasting all around Africa.
In 1487, the very year that the Portuguese thus finished exploring
the western coast of Africa, Columbus was called before the learned
men of the Spanish court at Sal-a-man´ca, to explain what it was he
wanted to do.
But after talking about his plan for three years, these men also
declared it was impossible, because one of the fathers of the church
had said that the earth could not be round. Columbus was in despair,
for he had spent years in trying to convince them, and in following
the court from one city to another.
Greatly discouraged, yet determined not to give up, Columbus decided
to leave Spain and go to France to seek help of the French king. He
therefore set out on foot for the nearest seaport, but on the way
thither stopped at the monastery of La Rábida (rah´be-dah) to ask
for a drink of water and a bit of bread for his hungry boy.
While the child was eagerly eating the food given him, the prior,
or chief of the monastery, passed by. Struck by the noble appearance
of Columbus, he began to question him. Columbus then told Prior
Perez (pā´reth) how much he longed to carry out the plan upon which
he had set his heart.
[Illustration: La Rábida.]
The prior, who was a learned man, listened with great interest to
the tale Columbus told. He also invited the travelers to tarry with
him a few days, and sending for his friends, bade them hear what the
stranger had to say. Among the listeners were the brothers Pinzon
(peen-thōn´), experienced seamen from the neighboring port of Palos
(pah´lōs).