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LORD BALTIMORE

George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore: Born about 1582 — Died 1632

Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore: Born t6o5 — Died 1675

Spread, spread thy silver wings, 0 Dove!

And seek for rest by land and sea,

And bring the tidings back to me,

For thee and me and those I love.

—   PROCTER'S "Rest."

—

BEFORE continuing the history of the French in America, let us see how much of the country England had settled by the year 1689. While the French were establishing themselves in Canada and the West, what colonies had the English planted in the East and South outside of Virginia, New England, New York, and New Jersey?

There dwelt in London in the days of King James a wise and just Englishman named George Calvert. He had been educated at Oxford, had spent much time in travel, and held important offices in the English government. King James thought so highly of him that he made him a peer of Ireland with the title, Lord Baltimore.

For many years Calvert had been deeply interested in the settlements in the New World. Roman Catholics were not well treated in England in those days, and as Lord Baltimore was a Catholic he resolved to establish in the New World a colony of his own, where those of his faith would be welcome.

In 1621 he obtained from the king a grant of land in Newfoundland. Lord Baltimore named it Avalon, and here he started a colony and built a fine house for himself. But he found the climate much colder than he had expected.

There was fog winter and summer, and the soil was so poor that very little would grow. Furthermore, he was constantly in danger of being attacked by the French. He wrote to a friend in England: "I came to build and settle and sow, but am fallen to fighting with Frenchmen."

Lord Baltimore had been at one time a member of the Virginia Company and had heard a great deal about the balmy winds and clear skies of Virginia. He now resolved to visit these southern shores, and with a few friends he sailed across the Atlantic, landed at Jamestown, and later explored Chesapeake Bay.

He had hoped for a hearty welcome from the Virginians, but in this he was disappointed. They knew that Lord Baltimore wished to found a colony near their own, and they would not tolerate the idea. Their distinguished visitor, however, was so delighted with the beautiful scenery and agreeable climate that he did not allow the inhospitality of the Jamestown settlers to chill his enthusiasm. He sailed for home and procured from the new king, Charles I, a grant including the land now contained in the states of Maryland and Delaware, which both the Dutch and the Swedes had hoped to occupy.

The king asked in payment for these twelve thousand square miles of land one fifth of all the gold and silver that should be mined. He also required that two Indian arrows be sent each spring to his palace at Windsor, as a pledge of loyalty.

Before the charter was signed Lord Baltimore died, but the idea of a Catholic colony was not abandoned. Calvert's eldest son, Cecil, succeeded to the title, and became the second Lord Baltimore. He was as generous and noble as his father, and was eager to carry out his father's plan. Soon arrangements were completed, but, as business interests in England prevented Cecil Calvert from going to America himself, he appointed his brother governor of the new province, which in the charter had been called Mary's Land, in honor of the queen, Henrietta Maria.

In the winter of 1634 two little vessels, the Ark and the Dove, carrying between two and three hundred colonists, sailed from Cowes, and after a stormy voyage arrived in February at Point Comfort, Virginia. They then sailed up Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River and landed on a small island, where they raised a cross, and kneeling around it gave thanks for their safe journey.

After making some explorations the colonists settled near the junction of the Potomac and St. Mary's rivers, where they purchased from the friendly Indians a half-deserted village, which they paid for in cloth, hoes, and hatchets. The natives treated the newcomers as kindly as they had at first treated the Virginia colonists. They taught the white strangers how to hunt in the dense forest and to plant corn. The squaws taught the wives of the settlers how to make bread of corn meal.

The Indians had called their village Yoacomico, but the English renamed it St. Mary's. Although the settlement was intended chiefly for Catholics, all Christian denominations were welcome. Many Quakers driven out of Virginia took refuge in Maryland. There were two priests in the colony who at once became interested in converting the Indians, and as the purchase of the Indian settlement had included its wigwams, one of these was used for a church.

King Charles allowed Lord Baltimore great freedom in the management of the colony. All the laws  were made by him, or by the men whom he appointed, and his son was to inherit his power.

The Maryland colonists had been fortunate enough to arrive in the spring, and, as they procured land which had already been cleared, they were at once able to plant cornfields and gardens.

In the autumn the Dove was loaded with corn and sent to Boston, where the cargo was traded for dried fish and other supplies. From Virginia the Marylanders could get domestic cattle, as well as food, and the colony at St. Mary's, therefore, did not suffer the hardship that the Jamestown and Plymouth settlers had endured. It was prosperous from the very start.

But there came a time when the happiness of Maryland was disturbed. Captain William Claiborne of Virginia had obtained permission from the king to explore this southern country and to engage in fur trade with the natives. He had formed a settlement on Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay, in the very heart of Maryland. Lord Baltimore claimed that under his grant Claiborne had no right to Kent Island or to any part of Maryland, and quarrels arose which led to bloodshed.

Claiborne has been called "the evil genius of Maryland." He had no charter giving him the land, only a license to establish a trading post and to make discoveries. But in spite of this he continued for years to give the Maryland colonists trouble, and at one time the governor was obliged to flee to Virginia for safety. In 1658 the English government decided that the Calverts and not Claiborne were entitled to Maryland, and peace was restored.

For more than one hundred years a Calvert was at the head of the Maryland colony, but the question of whether Protestants or Catholics should rule came up again and again, and was not finally settled until 1714, when the fourth Lord Baltimore turned Protestant.

Notwithstanding its trouble with Claiborne and its religious disagreements, Maryland continued to grow in numbers and wealth. In less than thirty years after its foundation the three hundred settler§ that had at first lived in Indian wigwams had increased to ten thousand. It adopted many of the habits of its neighbor, Virginia. Both colonies contained wealthy planters, who lived in large brick houses and were famous for their hospitality.

"Planters' tables you must know

Are free to all that come and go."

As there were so many rivers, creeks, and inlets along Chesapeake Bay, the planters depended upon boats to go from place to place, and the building of roads was neglected. But, if there were no highways, there were numerous bridle paths running in every direction through the forest, and every man, woman, and child could ride. Both Virginia and Maryland were slow in establishing schools. Both were slaveholders, and their chief industry was tobacco raising. The use of tobacco as money in the payment of bills seems strange to us. But long years after the period we are studying the Maryland statehouse was purchased for forty thousand dollars' worth of tobacco.

Cecil Calvert died in 1675, deeply mourned by his devoted colonists, who praised him for "his unwearied care to preserve them in the enjoyment of their lives, liberties, and fortunes." At the time of his death there were nearly twenty thousand colonists in Maryland. In 1729 a new town was founded and named in his honor Baltimore. This has grown into a beautiful city, and is now one of the most important seaports on the Atlantic coast. 

We have thus seen that Maryland was founded by a proprietor, and not by one of the companies such as had laid the beginnings of Virginia and Massachusetts. The kings who gave grants of land to American settlers knew very little about this new country, and often territory given in one grant would overlap the land that had been named in another charter.

In the early history of America there were many quarrels over boundary lines, and there was much dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania as to where the line between them should be drawn. The question was finally settled in 1767 by two English surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon.

This boundary afterward became famous; for, when the Northern states gave up slavery, it happened that "Mason and Dixon's line" divided the slave states of the Union from those that believed all slaves should be freed.{jd_file file==Lord Baltimore}

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ROBERT DE LA SALLE

Born 1643—Died 1687

We that had loved him so,

followed him,

honored him,

Lived in his mild and magnificent eye,

Learned his great language,

caught his clear accent,

Made him our pattern to live and to die.

—   BROWNING'S "The Lost Leader."

—

IN 1641 three ships sailed across the Atlantic from France and anchored in the St. Lawrence River. They had brought men to establish a settlement at Montreal, at the foot of the stately hill Cartier had discovered. Montreal was destined to grow into a beautiful city, and to hold an important place in Canadian commerce, but for years it was only a small community, struggling for existence.

The people in Quebec and Montreal were devout Catholics, and with the exception of fur trading, their chief thought seemed to be to convert the Indians to the Catholic faith. Jesuit priests came over from France to teach the Indians. These missionaries endured great hardships in their wanderings from tribe to tribe. They suffered from cold, hunger, and exposure, but they never lost courage or cheerfulness. They pushed farther and farther west, and established many missions in the wilderness.

The Iroquois were a source of constant trouble to the French. One of the Jesuit missionaries, Father Joques, was captured by the savages and cruelly tortured. The Indians took the priest with them on one of their visits to the fur- trading station at Fort Orange, and the Dutch governor helped Jogues to escape and return to France. The priest thrilled his countrymen with the tales of his torture; but with true heroism he returned to Canada and to his work. He was finally captured again by the Indians and put to death for a sorcerer.

By the year 1670 the French had explored as far west as Wisconsin. Three years later a fur trader named Joliet, and a priest, Father Marquette, set out with five companions from a mission on the Strait of Mackinac to find a great river that the Indians called the Father of Waters. The Frenchmen hoped that it might lead to China.

They went in canoes across Lake Michigan to Green Bay; then they followed the Fox River until they reached the Wisconsin, and gliding down this stream they came out on the broad Mississippi. "This," said Father Marquette, "is such joy as we cannot express."

The Frenchmen floated with the current down the Mississippi past the mouths of the Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio rivers. They made frequent landings and met many Indians, who, as a rule, were friendly and treated the travelers well.

At the mouth of the Arkansas River the explorers turned back, having made up their minds that the Father of Waters did not lead to the Pacific Ocean. Without knowing it, they had passed the spot where De Soto, the first explorer of the Mississippi, had found his grave more than a century before.

Joliet and Marquette reached Green Bay in safety. In four months they had covered in canoes more than two thousand miles.

In the year 1666 La Salle came from France to seek his fortune in America. He was the son of an old and rich family and had been carefully educated and surrounded with luxury. He settled at Montreal and began to study the Indian language. Soon he started out to find a pathway to China.

Slowly making his way toward the southwest, he explored Lake Ontario, discovered the Ohio River, and sailed down its waters as far as Louisville. Later he traveled northward as far as Lake Michigan and crossed to Illinois.

After a time La Salle returned to France and obtained permission from King Louis XIV to push explorations in America, to colonize the lands he might discover, and the young explorer had little difficulty in interesting his friends and relatives in his proposed ventures in New France, as the French possessions in America were called. He raised a considerable sum of money for the enterprise, and returned to Montreal accompanied by a young friend, Henri de Tonty.

By this time La Salle had entirely given up hope of finding a sea route to China through the continent of America. Henceforth he devoted all his efforts to opening up the interior of the country. His bold idea was to build a chain of forts from Niagara to the mouth of the Mississippi River.

These were to grow into settlements of French and Indians, who would carry on a trade in furs, timber, and other products of the new country. Thus would a province many times the size of France be added to the French possessions. Truly this was a great plan.

It was not long before Count Frontenac was appointed governor of Canada. He was a warm friend of La Salle, and the explorer obtained from him a grant of land which included Fort Frontenac, now Kingston, on Lake Ontario.

Four years later, in 1677, La Salle began his famous exploration of the Mississippi Valley. He and his companions proceeded as far as Niagara, where they stopped for the winter and built a small vessel. On her prow was carved a great monster, a griffin, taken from Count Frontenac's coat-of-arms, and the vessel was called the Griffin. It was the first ship ever launched on the Great Lakes.

In the summer the explorers sailed through Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan. The simple Indians along the banks of these inland waters were speechless with astonishment when they beheld this ship with its white sails. Never before had they seen a boat larger than a canoe.

From Lake Michigan, La Salle sent the Griffin, loaded with furs, back to Niagara, and instructed his men to return with a supply of provisions. With the remainder of his company the explorer worked his way through the forests to the Illinois River. Not far from the present town of Peoria, the men built a fort, and because of their hardships and suffering, they called it Crevecceur, meaning Heartbreak. The Griffin did not return, and it was never known whether she had been wrecked, or was deserted by the crew in order that they might barter the furs for their own profit.

The loss of the Griffin was indeed a severe blow, but La Salle was a man of determination, and he began to plan a way out of the difficulty. Intrusting the little band of men to the care of Tonty, the explorer set out on foot in 168o for Fort Frontenac.

In spite of cold and snow, the thick tangle of the forest, and insufficient food, he pushed bravely forward, with an Indian hunter and four Frenchmen as companions. Often they tramped for miles through blinding storms, their clothing frozen stiff; at other times, in crossing marshes, they would wade waist- deep through mud and water. La Salle was obliged to leave his worn-out companions on the way, and was nearly exhausted when a familiar sight greeted his eyes; before him loomed the gray walls of Fort Frontenac. He had walked a distance of one thousand miles.

But continued misfortune pursued this brave man. For a long time many had been jealous of him, and he found bitter enemies on all sides who tried in every way to crush him. Once he was poisoned and barely escaped death. He now found that his agents had plundered him, and that creditors had seized his property. Before he could start back with provisions and men for the relief of Tonty and his party, La Salle heard further disastrous news.

From two exploring traders he learned that soon after his departure from the Illinois, nearly all the men had deserted Tonty and destroyed the fort. These mutineers, it was said, were now on the coast of Lake Ontario watching for La Salle in order to kill him. La Salle immediately chose nine trusted men, and hastened to meet the deserters. Soon his canoes overtook those of the faithless Frenchmen, who were captured and punished.

 La Salle's chief thought was now of Tonty. Was he alive? And had the handful of men who remained true been able to survive the dangers of the wilderness? In August of 1680 La Salle once more set out for the Illinois, taking with him twenty-five men. The long journey was made in safety, but, alas, the camp was in ruins, and the explorer found that the Iroquois Indians had swept over the Illinois country, spreading terror and destruction in their path.

In every direction, far and near, did La Salle search for some clue to the missing men, but none could he find. He made friends with the Miami Indians and other neighboring tribes, and then started once more for Montreal. He was still determined to raise enough men and supplies to carry out his plan for establishing settlements. Imagine his joy when, on reaching Mackinac on Lake Michigan, he found his lost comrade! Tonty had escaped from the Indians, and was making a brave struggle to reach Fort Frontenac.

The two friends traveled together to Niagara, where discouraging news again greeted La Salle. A ship from France, carrying several thousand dollars for his use, had been wrecked and the money lost.

No amount of ill luck, however, could turn this heroic man from the course he had determined upon, and it is not long until we find him starting on another expedition. Accompanied by Tonty and a party of French and Indians, he proceeded by way of Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan, thence through the Chicago and Illinois rivers to the Mississippi.

As the canoes sped over this broad river, the Frenchmen viewed with delight the level prairie lands and miles of forest. Herds of buffalo and deer came down to drink at the water's edge, and only the cries of birds and wild animals broke the stillness.

On the 9th of April, 1682, they arrived at the mouth of the Father of Waters, and looked out over the great Gulf of Mexico, "tossing its restless billows, lonely, without a sail, without a sign of life." A short distance above the mouth of the river the party landed. With impressive ceremonies, La Salle planted the banner of France, and in the name of the king took possession of the whole valley of the Mississippi, naming the region Louisiana, or Louis's land. This included all the territory lying between the Alleghany and Rocky mountains.

The next step was to establish a fortified post at the mouth of the river, to guard the Mississippi valley against the Spanish and English. As a beginning toward this and the colony he hoped soon to establish, La Salle directed the cutting away of the forest, and the building of cabins and a storehouse for furs. On the top of a cliff a palisade was erected, and the fort named St. Louis. "La Salle looked down from his rock on a scene of wild human life. Lodges of bark and rushes, or cabins of logs were clustered on the open plain or along the edges of the bordering forests. Squaws labored, warriors lounged in the sun, naked children whooped and gamboled on the grass. Beyond the river, the banks were studded with the lodges of the Illinois Indians."

When Fort St. Louis was finished La Salle made his way back to Montreal, and from there sailed to France to lay his plans before the king. Although he was as brave as a lion in the wilderness, the explorer had a shy, reserved nature. He preferred to lodge in a poor street, and to meet few people.

He had many misgivings about asking the king for help to plant a colony in Louisiana, but his request had come at the right moment. For a long time the king had been angered because the Spaniards had forbidden French vessels to trade at Spanish ports in America, or to enter the Gulf of Mexico.

French sailors who had dared to enter the gulf had been seized and imprisoned. Now war had been declared between France and Spain, and here was La Salle ready to help break the power of Spain in America. King Louis, therefore, willingly placed at La Salle's command a French squadron of four vessels.

With a light heart La Salle set sail for the Gulf of Mexico. As we know, he had reached the mouth of the Mississippi by coming from the north, but he had never seen it from the gulf. He had not doubted, however, that he should be able to find it; but all his efforts were vain. He passed the spot for which he was so anxiously looking, and landed on the coast of Texas, probably at Matagorda Bay, four hundred miles west of the mouth of the river.

Truly this explorer has been well called "a man of iron," for he immediately set to work to build a fort and make his little band of colonists comfortable; then he started out to find the lost river. Now followed two long years of bitter disappointment and disaster. One of the vessels, loaded with supplies, was wrecked through the treachery of the crew; the others sailed back to France and left La Salle and his colonists alone.

Week after week, month after month, he tried to find the Mississippi, which he might ascend it, reach Montreal, and procure help. In 1687, when near a branch of the Trinity River, some of his men, desperate from continued hardship, resolved to take his life. They hid themselves in the tall grass and waited for an opportunity to shoot their leader. Thus died the great La Salle in the land for which he had dared and suffered so much.

A few of La Salle's companions succeeded in reaching Fort St. Louis on the Illinois, and bitterly did the noble Tonty grieve when he learned of the death of his friend. These Frenchmen at last found their way back to Montreal, but nothing was ever heard of the few colonists left at the fort in Texas.

"Where La Salle had plowed, others were to sow the seed." His great plan was carried out, and settlements were established from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. By 1689 the French were in possession of the broad valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, and were watching for an opportunity to seize the land in the Hudson valley. They feared that the English would reach the Great Lakes and become rivals in the rich fur trade of the northwest. But standing like watch dogs guarding New York state were the Five Nations, ready always to fight their old enemies and to help their friends, the English.{jd_file file==De La Salle}

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SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN AND OTHER FRENCH DISCOVERERS

Champlain: Born 1567—Died 1635

Once more on the deck I stand

Of my own swift gliding craft.

Set sail! Farewell to the land!

The gale follows fair abaft.

We shoot through the sparkling foam,

Like an ocean bird set free; —

Like the ocean bird, our home

We'll find far out on the sea!

—   SARGENT'S "A Life on the Ocean Wave."

If we turn our attention to France, we find that she had not been idle while other nations were sending men and ships across the Atlantic to make discoveries and to found new colonies. The French monarchs were quite as eager as those of other nations to increase their wealth and power.

Spain and Portugal, because of discoveries of Columbus and others, claimed the entire new territory. To prevent quarrels, the Pope, in 1494, divided as he thought best the " lands discovered or to be discovered. "He drew an imaginary line three hundred and seventy leagues (about one thousand miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands; all lands west of this line were to belong to Spain, all east of it to Portugal. Measured by this line, Brazil was the only part of the New World that Portugal could claim. All the rest belonged to Spain. But of course at that time no one knew the size, shape, or extent of the undiscovered country.

The governments of England and Holland paid no attention to the claims of Spain and Portugal, or to the division of land by the Pope. The French king, Francis I, treated the Spanish and Portuguese claims just as lightly. "I should like you to show me," said he to the kings of these two countries, "that part of Father Adam's will which divides America between you and leaves out the French." And he began to take steps whereby France might get her share.

At about the time that Cortez and Pizarro were conquering the Indians of Mexico and Peru, and stealing their treasures, France sent a vessel to our shores. It was under the command of Verrazano, an Italian.

Verrazano skirted the American coast in 1524 in the vicinity of what is now North Carolina. He then cruised along the Atlantic seaboard to Newfoundland, and was probably the only white man before Henry Hudson to sail into New York Bay.

Soon after Verrazano's return, France became engaged in war with Spain, and for the time lost all interest in the new country.

Ten years passed before the French government sent out another exploring expedition. In 1534, and again in 1535, under the command of the jovial, lighthearted Jacques Cartier, French vessels crossed the Atlantic. Reaching Newfoundland, Cartier sailed westward across a gulf to which he gave the name St. Lawrence, because the day happened to be the feast-day of that saint. 

Later he passed up the St. Lawrence River, where the French found a beautiful, fertile country, inhabited by friendly Indians; At Gaspe, Cartier planted a cross thirty feet high with the inscription, Vive le Rol- de France, — Long live the King of France. The Indians were alarmed at this unusual

sight, but Cartier explained that it was merely "set up to be as a light and leader" to guide his ship into port when he should come again.

Cartier felt well repaid for his voyages. He had taken possession of the country for the French, and he thought the St. Lawrence might prove to be the pathway to China. He learned from the natives that there was a large Indian town called Hochelaga on the banks of the St. Lawrence, and he resolved to see it. The savages, however, distrusted these strange white men, and did not approve of their plan.

So three Indians disguised themselves as devils, and tried to frighten the Frenchmen by appearing before them with blackened faces and long horns. Cartier only laughed at this ridiculous sight, and spreading his sails proceeded to Hochelaga. He found the town beautifully situated on a high hill on an island in the St. Lawrence River, and Cartier gave it the name of Montreal, or Mount Royal.

The Indians at Hochelaga were delighted with the visit of the white men, who distributed knives, rings, and metal trinkets to the wondering natives. Perhaps these strange palefaces might be able to cure the sick! The chief of the tribe, a helpless old man, was accordingly carried on a mat before Cartier to be healed. The Frenchman was touched by this simple faith, and gladly did all he was able to do. He laid his hands upon the old warrior and offered up a prayer for his recovery.

Cartier at length sailed back to France. Owing to religious wars it was nearly thirty years before that country did anything further in the way of discovery or exploration in America. In the meantime there was much suffering at home. The Huguenots, as the French Protestants were called, were being cruelly persecuted for daring to hold religious views which differed from those of their king.

Accordingly Coligny, the celebrated leader of the Huguenots, decided to send' enough Protestants to America to found a colony. The expedition was in charge of Jean Ribault and sailed from France in 1562, a few years before Sir Francis Drake left England on his first voyage to America.

The Huguenots landed on the coast of South Carolina, and began to build cabins and found a settlement, while Ribault went back to France for more colonists. But, alas, Ribault did not return, and the starving settlers in despair decided to build a ship in which to sail for home. With such crude tools as they possessed, they constructed a strange little craft, using for sails sheets and pieces of clothing. In this frail structure they pluckily put out to sea, and after barely escaping shipwreck were picked up by an English vessel.

Ribault's delay was caused by war at home, and it was two years before Coligny could send out another colony. This time the Frenchmen landed on St. John's River in Florida. Later they were joined by other Huguenots, and the happy colonists thought that at last they had found peace. The king of Spain, however, heard of the little Protestant settlement, and determined to destroy it. He did not mean to allow any French or English to settle in this country, so he ordered a ship load of soldiers to attack the French colony. Men, women, and children, about seven hundred in all, were mercilessly killed.

It was not until Samuel de Champlain followed Cartier's footsteps to Canada that a permanent French settlement was made in America. Champlain was the son of a ship captain, and had been carefully educated as a navigator. He has been called "one of the most remarkable Frenchmen of his time,— a beautiful character, devout and high-minded, brave and tender." He had served in the French navy, and was a favorite of his monarch, Henry IV.

Champlain's daring and roving disposition led him to visit the Spanish settlements in the West Indies. He explored a part of Mexico, and, returning by way of Panama, was the first man to suggest building a ship canal across that isthmus. He carefully explored our northeastern coast and gave to many places the names they still bear. In 1603 he explored both banks of the St. Lawrence River, and pressed eagerly forward to find the Indian town of Hochelaga described by Cartier. But Hochelaga was now a ruin, the little cabins destroyed, the corn-fields waste ground. The explorers soon returned to France.

In 1604 Champlain again set sail with a number of colonists for Acadia, as the whole Canadian region was then called. He cruised along the coast of Nova Scotia and landed at a place which he named Port Royal. Sailing around the Bay of Fundy, the explorers entered the mouth of a river which they called St. John's, and finally settled on the island of St. Croix.

Trees were cut down to build houses and barracks, and these were surrounded with a palisade for defense. The pleasant autumn was followed by a long, hard winter, when food, fuel, and fresh water were difficult to obtain on the island. Scurvy broke out, and by spring only forty-four of the seventy-nine colonists were left alive. Had it not been for Champlain's courage and energy, this first little French settlement in Canada would not have survived. Soon another ship, with more settlers, came from France, and the colony was moved to Port Royal, where it was permanently established.

In 1608, the year after the first English colonists came to Virginia, Champlain laid the foundation of Quebec, the first trading post on the St. Lawrence. A few small houses were built around an open square, and outside of these a wooden wall and ditch.

In the center of the square Champlain set up a pole with a dove'cote on the top, to show the Indians that his intentions were peaceful. Gardens and small farms were laid out, the Indians were encouraged to bring their furs, and soon the French settlement of Quebec began to grow.

After a while Champlain brought his young wife, a beautiful, devout woman, to the cold little settlement in Acadia. Her name still lives in one of the islands of the St. Lawrence, Helen's Island. She gave herself to the work of converting the Indian women and children, and for five years labored among them with unselfish devotion. "France," says the historian Parkman, "aimed to subdue the natives not by the sword but by the cross. She invaded but to convert, to civilize, and embrace them among her children."

When Champlain first came to Canada he found two powerful bands of Indians, the Hurons and the Algonquins, joined in war against the fierce Iroquois. The Hurons were deeply impressed by the guns and armor of the Frenchmen. They begged Champlain, whom they called "the man with the iron breast," to help them in their struggle with the enemy.

The explorer thought that it would be to his advantage to make friends with these Indians, so he promised to give them his support, and to join in an attack which they had planned. On his way to meet the Iroquois, Champlain came out on the beautiful lake that separates northern Vermont and New York. To this sheet of water the Frenchman gave his name, and later he discovered Lakes Huron and Ontario.

The warring tribes came together near the site of Ticonderoga, at the head of Lake Champlain, in 1609. The Iroquois expected to meet only men of their own color, who would fight with the bow and arrow and tomahawk. Imagine their astonishment at the sight of the palefaces, and the noise of the Frenchmen's muskets! Champlain himself killed two Indian chiefs and mortally wounded another, and it was not long before the Iroquois fled in terror, while the joyful war whoops of the Hurons and Algonquins rang through the forest.

Dearly in after years did the Frenchmen pay for this victory, for it brought them the lasting hatred of the Iroquois Indians. These Indians played a very important part in our history, as we shall learn a little later. They were known as "The Five Nations " because they were divided into five tribes :the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas. They lived in New York state and were on very friendly terms with the English and Dutch, with whom they formed an alliance against the French. It was through their aid in after years that the English were able to prevent the French from getting control of New York.

Champlain was governor of Canada until his death. He built fortifications on Richelieu Island, founded the town known as Three Rivers, and established a college for Indians at Quebec, where they were taught the French language. As fur trading was the principal attraction which drew the Dutch to New York, so it was for a long time the chief interest of the French in Canada. Twenty-two thousand beaver skins were sent in one year from the St. Lawrence to France. The French had also large fisheries at Newfoundland.

When Champlain had reached his sixty-eighth year, he saw in the tiny, but thriving, village of Quebec the fruits of his hard labor. The long struggle to establish a colony in Canada had been successful. He died on Christmas Day, 1635, in the community that he had founded, and his brilliant record still lives. Well had he earned his title, "Father of Canada."

We have now seen that, in the early part of the seventeenth century, the nations of Europe were beginning to covet the American continent. Someone has said: "Here lay the shaggy continent from Florida to the Pole, stretched in savage slumber along the sea. On the bank of the James River was a nest of woebegone Englishmen, a handful of fur traders at the mouth of the Hudson, and a few shivering Frenchmen among the snowdrifts of Acadia."{jd_file file==French Discoveries}

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ROGER WILLIAMS

Born 1599—Died 1683

. . . Indian-haunted Narragansett saw

The way-worn travelers round their camp fire draw,

Or heard the plashing of their weary oars.

And every place whereon they rested grew

Happier for pure and gracious womanhood,

And men whose names for stainless honor stood,

Founders of States and rulers wise and true.

—   WHITTIER'S "Banished from Massachusetts."

—

Six years after Governor Winthrop laid the foundation of Boston, the present state of Rhode Island had its beginning in the little settlement of Providence. In the history of America the name of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, will always be honored.

Williams was born in London of poor parents, and early showed such cleverness that a famous English lawyer paid for the boy's education. After his college days were over, he became a clergyman in the Church of England, and when Winthrop and his friends had been in Boston a year Roger Williams came to America.

The Puritans gave him a hearty welcome, for they found him an eloquent preacher, an excellent scholar, a generous friend and neighbor. He became pastor of the church at Plymouth and later he preached at Salem.

At both places Williams endeared himself to the Indians. He learned their language in order that he might the better help them. "God was pleased," said he, "to give me a patient spirit to lodge with them in their filthy, smoky holes to gain their tongue."

So well did he succeed in winning the respect and affection of the natives that even Canonicus, who had wished to fight Governor Bradford and Miles Standish, said of Williams: "I love him as my own son." The time came when the Indians' friendship saved the minister's life.

The laws of the Puritans were very severe. A woman who scolded was compelled to stand in a public place with a split stick on the end of her tongue. Men who did wrong were publicly whipped, or were punished for slight offenses by being placed in the stocks or pillory.

At other times offenders were forced to stand on a stool in church during service, with the name of the wrong they had committed written on paper or embroidered on a bit of cloth and pinned to their clothing. Often these punishments were for failure to attend church or to aid in its support.

Great was the surprise of the Puritans when young Roger Williams stoutly declared that these practices were wrong. "Every man," said he, "should be free to choose for himself whether or not he wishes to attend church or to give money to it; and every man should be entitled to vote at the town meeting whether he is a church member or not." And the young pastor was bold enough to say further that the Puritans were not justified in taking land from the Indians without paying them for it. "The king of England does not own this land," declared Williams, "and therefore he has no right to give it away."

These new ideas seriously disturbed the Puritan leaders. They began to fear that, if Roger Williams continued to argue in this manner, people might in time share his belief. Not only were they afraid of having trouble with their own colonists, but they dreaded the king's anger. "If the king hears that the New England settlers believe he had no right to give us the land," said they, "he will take it from us."

So the Puritans decided that it was dangerous to allow Roger Williams to remain in Massachusetts, and that their only safety lay in sending him back to England. They told him, however, that he might stay until spring, provided he would stop preaching.

It happened that in both Salem and Plymouth this bright young pastor had made many friends who were much disappointed at not being allowed to hear him in the pulpit.

They therefore went the more often to see him at his house. When the Puritans found that he still influenced the people, they decided to send him home at once. A sloop was dispatched from Boston to Salem with orders to arrest Williams and put him on a ship bound for England.

By some happy chance Roger Williams learned of the plan before the boat reached Salem. He was a man of great courage and strength of will, and he did not at all relish the thought of being sent back to the mother country. He therefore determined to risk his life in a further attempt to preach his liberal views.

Accordingly, he bade a hasty farewell to his wife and baby, and fled one stormy winter night into the wilderness. For fourteen weeks he traveled through the trackless woods of New England, "sorely tost in a bitter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean." He carried a hatchet, a compass, and a flint and steel with which to light a fire. When darkness came he built a shelter of pine boughs. The cry of the wolves was the only sound he heard through the long hour of the night, and for food he had only the dried corn he carried with him, and the acorns picked up in the woods.

At last, when nearly exhausted, he found his way to the wigwam of Massasoit, at the head of Narragansett Bay. The Indians, remembering the minister's great kindness to them, gave him a hearty welcome, and gladly extended such poor shelter as they had.

In the spring the chief presented his young white friend with a tract of land in what is now the state of Rhode Island, which he might send for his friends in the Puritan colonies, and establish a settlement for himself. Aside from this land, Williams and his companions would not use a single acre for which they did not pay.

One day while he was paddling his canoe down the Seekonk River an Indian shouted, "What cheer, friend?" Williams steered his little boat for the rock on which the Indian stood and had a friendly talk with him about that section of the country. The red man pointed out a spot where a spring of clear cold water gushed from the ground; and here the Englishmen afterward decided to begin their settlement.

The rock has ever since been called What Cheer Rock; and, because Williams believed that God's good providence had guarded his life during those perilous weeks in the forest, he in gratitude named the new settlement Providence. Such was the beginning of the city of Providence, today the second largest city in New England.

News of this new colony, where so much freedom was allowed, spread rapidly, and many people from the older colonies and from England soon joined it. As it grew, it became a refuge for all people whom the Massachusetts Puritans would not tolerate.

The Boston and Salem colonists would not permit the Quakers to remain among them, but treated them harshly and cruelly, so they took up their abode in Rhode Island. Another sect was led by Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, a clever Boston woman, who did not like the strict customs of the Puritan ministers and dared to say so. The General Court met in Boston to discuss her case, and decided that she was "as bad as Roger Williams, or worse," and she and her family and friends were turned out of the colony. They found a welcome in Rhode Island, where they purchased land from the Indians and founded Newport and Portsmouth.

After a time Williams went to England and procured a liberal charter for his colony. He later visited England twice, and formed friendships with many distinguished men. In America he was loved by his colonists and by the Indians, and his influence over the latter was very great. This influence, and the fact that Roger Williams was too noble to harbor ill feeling, later saved the lives of the Massachusetts Puritans.

While the colonies were still young and weak, the Pequot Indians induced the neighboring tribe of Narragansett to join in plotting a wholesale massacre of all the whites in New England. As soon as Williams heard this news, he set out in his canoe one stormy night for the village of the Narragansett.

The Indians as usual welcomed him heartily, and listened with patience to his able pleading for the lives of the white settlers. At last the old chief refused to allow his tribe to join the Pequot, and the colonists were able to defend themselves against the smaller number. Although the Puritans had turned Williams out of their community, his advice was often sought by Governor Winthrop and his colonists.

To Roger Williams’ splendid strength of character was added robust physical health. When he was seventy-three years old, he rowed a boat from Providence to Newport, a distance of thirty miles, and three years later he organized and drilled a. company of militia, when it was feared that there would be an Indian war. He died at the age of eighty-four in the city that he had founded.

He was the first to establish a colony in America where religious liberty might be enjoyed by all men of all nations and beliefs. The great principle of entire freedom of worship, for which Roger Williams suffered exile, grew steadily, until more than a hundred years later it became a part of the Constitution of the United States. Today this liberty is enjoyed by the people from all lands who make the United States their home.

The year 1636, in which the first settlement in Rhode Island was planted, saw the beginnings of Connecticut. Three years before, the Dutch, who had begun to explore and settle in America, built a fort near the site of the present city of Hartford.

About the same time Pilgrims from Plymouth sailed up the Connecticut River and built a trading-post. Later the Pilgrims built a fort at the mouth of the river to keep the Dutch out of the Connecticut valley, and thus secure the valuable fur trade for themselves. In 1636 a large body of English colonists founded Hartford and Windsor. Two years later the colony of New Haven was founded.

In 1643 four of the New England colonies — Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven —united; but the Puritans would not allow Rhode Island to join them, although she desired to do so. This confederation was known as The United Colonies of New England, and it was the first step toward the United States of America. It was formed for better protection against Indian attacks, and also for protection against possible invasion by the Dutch.{jd_file file==Roger Williams}

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JOHN WINTHROP AND THE PURITANS

Winthrop: Born 1583 — Died 1649

"Praise ye the Lord!" The psalm to-day

Still rises in our ears.

Borne from the hills of Boston Bay

Through five times fifty years,

When Winthrop's fleet from Yarmouth crept

Out to the open main,

And through the widening waters swept,

In April sun and rain.

"Pray to the Lord with fervent lips,

"The leader shouted, "pray;"

And prayer arose from all the ships

As faded Yarmouth Bay.

— BUTTERWORTH'S "The Thanksgiving in Boston Harbor."

WE have now learned that before 1630 the English had two footholds in the New World — one on the shore of Virginia and the other in what we now call the state of Massachusetts.

Let us see what was the next important step in the colonization of America by the English.

Nearly ten years passed after the Pilgrims landed in New England before they were joined by the Puritans. In 1630 the Pilgrim colonists numbered in all but three hundred — a small group to dwell in a wilderness inhabited by savages. They did not regret the step they had taken, or falter in their resolve to make America their home; but aching hearts were often hidden by stern faces, and homesick eyes rested longingly on the dark waters. On the other side lay the mother country, with its well- loved towns, and streams, and farm lands, and there were homesteads and friends.

But the years of their solitude were drawing to a close; for other Englishmen were coming to keep the Pilgrims company, to form new colonies, and to unite with them in a common defense when the natives became hostile.

Who were these new colonists, and what caused them to come to America? They were called Puritans, because they wished to change or purify some of the forms of the English church service and church government. Neither King James, nor Charles I, who succeeded him, would allow any liberty in religion or politics. "I will make them conform to my ways," said King James, "or I will harry them out of the land."

Both monarchs were to find that the Pilgrims and Puritans were willing to be harried out of the land rather than submit to the harsh laws of their royal rulers. The Puritans, therefore, left England, as the Pilgrims had done, because they desired greater religious and political freedom than it was possible for them to have at home.

While the Pilgrims had been practically cut off from the rest of the world, they managed sometimes to send letters home by the Englishmen who had fisheries on the New England coast. From these letters, as well as from the fishermen themselves, the Puritans heard descriptions of America, of its vast acres of rich land ready for the plow, and of the abundant fish and game and fur-bearing animals.

So they, too, at length decided to come to this new country.

The first of the Puritans came over in 1628 under John Endicott. They settled north of Plymouth, and gave to their little colony the Bible name of Salem, meaning "peace." The Indians called this whole region Massachusetts, or the Land of the Blue Hills.

Two years later a company larger by far than any that had yet left England for this country, was headed by John Winthrop. He was a gentleman of wealth, a descendant of a fine old family living near Groton, England, a man of strong mind and high moral character. Always deeply religious, he had studied for the ministry, but to please his father had given it up for the law. He held the office of justice of the peace before he was eighteen years of age.

As the years passed John Winthrop grew tired of the despotism of the king. At last, in 1629, he met with about a dozen companions, and after serious discussion they resolved that "for God's glory and the country's good" they would "pass the seas under God's protection to inhabit and continue in New England."

They had little difficulty in obtaining from the king a charter granting them permission to establish a new colony with the right to make their own laws. Their corporation was called the Massachusetts Bay Company, and their leader, John Winthrop,

This large Puritan migration which set out in 1630 was very different from that of the Pilgrims of ten years before. The little Mayflower had alone borne the Pilgrims across the Atlantic. This same Mayflower was now one of the ships of the Puritan fleet that sailed happily out of Yarmouth Bay; but there were ten others to keep her company. The Arabella was the one in which Winthrop crossed.

From March until June they sailed across the ocean, and then:

"Praise ye the. Lord with fervent lips,

Praise ye the Lord to-day,'

The anthem rose from all the ships

Safe moored in Boston Bay.

The Arabella leads the song, —

The Mayflower sings below,

That first the Pilgrims bore along

The Plymouth reefs of snow."

In the eleven ships were seven hundred men and women. There were horses and cattle, tools of many kinds, powder and shot, grain and seed, clothing and provisions.

Far different, too, from the winter desolation of the coast on which the Pilgrims first set foot, was the site that greeted the Puritans when they arrived in the pleasant summer of 1630. It was the month of June; flowers were holding up their bright faces and filling the air with perfume, strawberries were ripening, and better than all, Endicott and his companions at Salem were waiting to give them welcome.

Winthrop did not remain at Salem, but established his little community at Charlestown. It was soon found, however, that the water there was impure, and many died from its unwholesome effects. Across the river from Charlestown was a piece of land consisting of three hills. This was known as Tri-mountain, a name afterward shortened to Tremont.

 To Trimountain Governor Winthrop moved his colony, and the place was called Boston, after a fine old city in England, which many of the settlers knew and loved. On the highest of the three hills a beacon light was set to pilot ships coming into the

harbor, and from this point beacon fires gave the signal of danger from Indian attacks. It is still called Beacon Hill, and one of Boston's chief thoroughfares is known as Beacon Street.

The Puritans' first winter in New England was almost as severe as had been that of the Pilgrims.

The new settlers were not accustomed to the hardships of life in a strange, cold wilderness, and their provisions ran short. One of the men wrote: "Bread was so very scarce that sometimes I thought the very crumbs of my father's table would be sweet unto me."

There came a day in midwinter when even Governor Winthrop's corn meal was reduced to a quart, and this he shared with a man poorer than himself. Happily, in that very hour, the hungry Puritans were cheered by the sight of an English ship sailing into Boston harbor. More Puritans with an abundant food supply had come to join the colonists.

Although two hundred died during that first bitter winter, Winthrop, calm, courageous, and energetic, never lost heart. He helped with his own hands to do whatever labor was to be performed, and his example of patience and endurance did more than anything else to cheer and save the colony.

Many more emigrants arrived in the spring, the outlook brightened, and from that time the Massachusetts colony steadily grew. During the next ten years more than twenty thousand persons flocked to New England, and settlements were started at Watertown, Roxbury, and other places near Boston.

To each person who subscribed fifty pounds— about two hundred and fifty dollars — toward a colony, was given two hundred acres of land; but the Puritans did not depend entirely upon agriculture. They became shipbuilders, engaged in commerce with the West Indies, and established fisheries at Newfoundland, which were so successful that the codfish became the emblem of wealth in Massachusetts. Today a golden codfish may be seen in the State Capitol at Boston, showing that it is still a symbol of prosperity.

The Puritans believed that they had a perfect right to the land because it had been given them by the king, and they therefore did not hesitate to take from the Indians, without paying for it, all they desired. When one of their number, a clergyman named Roger Williams, dared to insist that the Indians should be paid, the Puritans were very indignant.

When Roger Williams further said that the Puritans had no right to punish those colonists who did not attend church, he was turned out of the colony. In the next chapter we shall learn more about this interesting man. For the present, we see that the Puritans were no more willing to grant freedom to those whose views differed from their own, than the heads of the Episcopal Church in England had been. But the Puritans felt that they had suffered so much for their faith that they had a right to maintain it at any cost.

The custom of holding town meetings, now so general, was first established by the Pilgrims and Puritans. The town meeting was the beginning of government by the people without the aid of kings. Each colony held its own meeting in either the church or schoolhouse and no man was allowed to vote at town meeting unless he was a church member. The colonists selected their own governor, deputy governor, and a council of eighteen men to make the necessary laws. At first the council managed all public affairs, but after a few years there was a General Court or legislature elected to make the laws.

One of the wisest acts of the Puritans, and one which had a far-reaching result, was the early establishment of schools. Many of the colonists were college-bred men, and they desired their children to be educated. They said: "In order that learning may not be buried in the graves of our fathers we will establish free schools?

In 1647, only nineteen years after the landing of the Puritans, the General Court passed a law requiring that there should be a school in every town having fifty or more householders; and thus was laid the foundation of the present free school system of the United States. These schools of the Puritans, we must not forget, were for boys only. Girls then and for many years afterward were taught at home.

Six years is a very short time in which to establish a, town on the shores of a wilderness and bring it to such a condition that a college may be thought of; and yet this is exactly what Governor Winthrop and the Puritans did at Boston. Only six years after they landed they set aside a fund for the founding of a college. The amount of money was not large, but two years later John Harvard died in Charlestown, leaving his library and half of his estate to aid in carrying out the plan. Such was the beginning of Harvard College.

John Winthrop was more than forty years of age when he came to America. From that time until his death, nineteen years later, he never ceased to work for the good of the Massachusetts colony, and for twelve years he served as its governor. In his busy life he found- time to write many books, one of them a "History of Massachusetts."

He died in Boston, deeply loved by friends in England and America for his devotion to what he believed to be his duty, and for his patience and kindness.

Someone has said of him:

"Among the millions of men descended from those whom he ruled, there is no one who does not owe much of what is best within him to the benevolent and courageous wisdom of John Winthrop."

As we follow the fortunes of the United States through the years that have passed since John Winthrop founded Boston, we shall learn of the prominent and useful part Massachusetts has always taken in the affairs of the nation.{jd_file file==John Winthrop}

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MILES STANDISH AND THE PILGRIMS

Standish: Born about 1584 — Died 1656

The breaking waves dashed high

On a stern and rock-bound coast,

And the woods against a stormy sky

Their giant branches tossed;

And the heavy night hung dark

The hills and waters o'er,

When a band of exiles moored their bark

On the wild New England shore.

Ay, call it holy ground,

The soil where first they trod.

They left unstained what there they found,

—   Freedom to worship God.

—MRS. HEMANS'S "The Landing of the Pilgrims."

CAN you picture a short man with broad shoulders, blue eyes, and reddish hair; with muscles as strong as iron, and face bronzed by exposure to wind and sun? He is dressed in a doublet, close-fitting knee breeches, and high leather boots. His breastplate is of steel, and by his side there hangs a sword, curved at the point and ornamented with Arabic letters.

This man is Miles Standish, a brave, true-hearted English soldier who in 1620 came to America with the Pilgrims, the first English settlers on the "stern and rock-bound" New England coast.

Captain John Smith has often been called the Father of Virginia, because his hardihood, pluck, and common sense saved the life of the first Virginia settlement. In the same way Miles Standish may be regarded as one of the fathers of Massachusetts.

He was fond of fighting and of adventure, and he came to America for no other reason than to help the Pilgrims in their task of making a new home in the forest wilds. He did not share the religious beliefs that drove this little body of emigrants to America. He came as their friend and helper, and his sagacity and bravery in dealing with the Indians once saved their lives, as we shall read later in this chapter.

The Standish family had lived for many years at Duxbury Hall, Lancashire, England, and many of its members had been knighted for brave deeds. Miles fought with the English army in France and Holland, where he proved his worth and was made a captain. He happened to be living in Leyden, Holland, when the Pilgrims fled from England to that country, and Standish and his wife, Rose, became their warm friends.

What was it that led these English men and women to abandon their homes and seek shelter first in Holland and then in America? It was the desire for freedom to worship God in whatever way they chose.

In common with most rulers of his time King James was tyrannical in matters of religion. He would not permit his subjects to use a form of service that differed in any way from that of the Established, or Episcopal, Church, and everyone was made to pay a fine if he did not attend church. There were many who preferred a simpler service, and at last they left the Church and dared to worship in their own way. For this they were called Separatists, because they "separated" from the established form of worship.

The king was so angry with the Separatists that he punished them in every possible manner. He even went so far as to throw some of them into prison, where they languished and died. Others were driven from place to place by his persecutions, so they came finally to be called Pilgrims or Wanderers.

A small band of these people collected at Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, but the tyranny of King James pursued them. Many were seized and put into prison, and all were hunted and persecuted in one way or another. They therefore resolved, in 1608, to forsake their country and take refuge in Holland, where they knew that they would find the religious liberty they desired.

The Dutch treated the Pilgrims kindly. For twelve years, first at Amsterdam and later at Leyden, the little English community lived in peace. But there were reasons why the Pilgrims did not care to remain permanently in Holland. In spite of all they had suffered, they still loved their country, and wished their children to grow to manhood and womanhood using the speech and customs of England. This they could not while they remained in Holland, surrounded by people who spoke the Dutch language and whose manners and habits were Dutch.

So at last this little band of exiles resolved to make another effort to find a suitable home. "Let us cross the ocean," said they," and found a new England in America. There land is plentiful and we may live unmolested. “We shall have freedom to worship as we wish, and opportunity to bring up our children in accordance with our own ideas."

They therefore procured permission from the London Company to settle on the coast of what is now New Jersey. The Pilgrims well knew that a difficult and dangerous undertaking lay before them, and it was thought unwise for the whole Leyden community to go. Among the men and women chosen to make the experiment were Miles and Rose Standish.

When the little Speedwell sailed out of Delft Haven with her brave company, sad and tearful were the partings of families and friends. Even the Dutch on-lookers wept in sympathy. At Southampton, England, the Speedwell was joined by the Mayflower, and both ships set out to cross the ocean; but after they had "gone to sea again about one hundred leagues without the Land's End," the Speedwell began to leak so badly that it was necessary to put back.

The disheartened Pilgrims were obliged to admit that she was totally unfit for the long and perilous voyage. So the Speedwell was abandoned. Some of her passengers remained behind in England, and the rest crowded on board the Mayflower, raising the number of passengers to about one hundred.

In the pleasant month of September in the year 1620, this good ship with her precious cargo again left Southampton. For many long weeks she was tossed by heavy gales and towering waves. Only a few men dared venture on deck; the rest were crowded into the ill-ventilated cabin, far too small for the number it sheltered.

The intention had been to land near the Delaware River, but the captain was carried out of his course, and on the 21st of November found himself among the shoals of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Through Captain John Smith's explorations of the New England coast the Pilgrims had heard of the cold winters in that region. They had, therefore, wished to settle farther south; but all were eager to begin life in the new home and it was decided to remain at Cape Cod. At what point should they land? There must be an abundant supply of fresh water, and soil free from rocks and stones.

For four or five weeks the Mayflower skirted the coast in the neighborhood of Provincetown, while a few of the men in a shallop explored the shore. The little shallop ran upon "dangerous shoals and roaring breakers"; but, with rudder lost and mast and sail gone, it kept to its task until a spot had been selected.

Miles Standish was the man who chose the site for the new settlement. The land had been cleared to some extent by the. Indians, and there was a spring of pure water near. Moreover, while exploring inland, the Pilgrims had discovered several mounds which were found to contain a quantity of corn. This was indeed a welcome sight, and the Englishmen had great need of it before the winter was over. To their credit be it said that some time afterward they found the Indians to whom the corn belonged and paid them for it.

This place was down on Captain Smith's map as Plymouth, and here the people of the Mayflower came ashore on the 21st of December, 1620.

While near Provincetown they had drawn up in the cabin of the Mayflower a solemn compact in which the Pilgrims agreed to enact just and equal laws, which all should obey for the general good of the colony. John Carver was chosen governor.

The water at Plymouth was so shallow that even the shallop could not run up to the bank, and the Pilgrims stepped first on a rock, and then to solid ground. There is still shown at Plymouth a rock which is said to be the one which the Pilgrims used as a stepping-stone.

The little band of wanderers came ashore in a storm of sleet and wind. The snow lay deep upon the winter woods, the ground was frozen, and the Pilgrims suffered intensely while they cut down trees and built a log house. At first they all lived together in one cabin.

Soon food became scarce, and many fell sick from lack of nourishment or from exposure. Throughout that first hard winter Miles Standish showed that he could be gentle and tender as well as brave. At one time there were only six or seven well people in Plymouth, and Standish was one of these.

He helped prepare what little food there was, and carefully nursed the sick. Before the spring sun shone, more than one half of the Pilgrims had been laid beneath the snow, and among them was Rose Standish, the wife of the brave captain.

Though no Indians came to molest them, the Pilgrims lived in constant fear of attack. Graves were smoothed to a level with the ground, and over them in the spring. corn was planted, in order that the natives might not know how many white men had died. The guns of the Pilgrims were their constant companions, and were carried even to the church services, held in the little cabin that served as both church and fort.

At last the dreary winter was over. With the coming of the warm sunshine, the blooming of flowers, and the singing of birds, the Pilgrims took heart. When the Mayflower sailed for home, not one of the number would return. To persevere in the face of all obstacles is the Pilgrims' great lesson to America.

The settlers were astonished one day at having an Indian rush into their settlement and cry, "Welcome, Englishmen!" This was Samoset, who had learned a few words of English from fishermen. Soon Samoset made a second visit, and this time brought an Indian named Squanto, who had been captured and taken to England, where he learned the language and habits of civilized people.

Then Massasoit, chief of the tribe of Wampanoag, appeared with fifty or sixty warriors gaily decorated with paint and feathers. Squanto acted as interpreter, and the palefaces and redskins had a friendly conference. According to the Indian custom, a pipe of peace was smoked; then an agreement was made by which the Indians and the English promised to treat each other as friends.

This treaty of peace was kept for fifty years. The Indians not only did no harm to the white people, but helped them in every way, and Squanto expressed a wish to live with the Pilgrims. He died among them, and his last words were:" Pray that the Indian Squanto may go to the white man's heaven."

About twenty miles from Plymouth there dwelt a tribe of Indians that hated Massasoit. These were the Narragansett, and their chief was Canonicus. "Why should I let these paleface friends of my enemy live in peace?" thought Canonicus.

Accordingly he sent to the Pilgrims a bundle of arrows wrapped in the skin of a rattlesnake. This was a declaration of war. Governor Bradford, who had succeeded Governor Carver, and Miles Standish were not men to be frightened easily; they filled the skin with powder and shot and sent it back.

It happened that Canonicus had heard of the wonderful guns of the white men, and he had no desire to get in their way. When he found, therefore, that the Englishmen were willing to fight, he gave up the idea of attack.

One day Massasoit came with a thrilling piece of news — some Indians of still another tribe were plotting to massacre the white settlers. Captain Standish assembled a company of men well armed with muskets and swords, and marched to meet the savages. We may read about it in Longfellow's poem:

"Meantime the stalwart Miles Standish

was marching steadily northward,

Winding through forest and swamp,

and along the trend of the seashore.

After a three days' march he came to an Indian encampment

Pitched on the edge of a meadow,

between the sea and the forest;

Women at work by the tents,

and the warriors horrid with war-paint

Seated about a fire, and smoking and talking together;

Who, when they saw from afar the sudden approach of the white men,

Saw the flash of the sun on breastplate and saber and musket, Straightway leaped to their feet,

and two from among them advancing

Came to parley with Standish,

and offer him furs as a present;

Friendship was in their looks,

but in their hearts there was hatred."

Pecksuot, the Indian leader, grew very insolent when he saw that the white captain was a man of small stature. He called Standish a boy, and said that his place was at home helping the women, and not fighting Indians. Standish quickly decided that, if there had to be bloodshed, the sooner it was over the better, and it was not long before the savages were so astonished by the power of this "Little Captain" that they decided to keep peace.

When the golden autumn came the Pilgrims had reason to be happy and grateful. A separate log house had been built for each family, the cornfields had prospered, and game was plentiful. They decided to have a feast and to ask Massasoit and his people to come and join them. The Indians brought deer, the Pilgrims shot wild turkey, there was seafood and corn in abundance; and thus began the custom of setting aside a day of Thanksgiving each year.

Other Pilgrims from Holland soon joined the first Plymouth settlement and it grew and prospered. The energetic Captain Standish did his full share of work of every kind, and after a time he went back to England to borrow money to help the colonists.

The log cabins of the Pilgrims were very simple; they had fireplaces and chimneys of rough stone. Oiled paper was used for window-panes, and chests which the emigrants had brought with them from England served as chairs and benches.

After cabins were built the Pilgrims' next care was to erect a church and schoolhouse, and not much time was allowed the children for play by these serious, hard-working fathers and mothers.

Every Sunday morning the people were called to worship by the beating of a drum. A sentinel in a suit of armor stood near the meeting-house to watch for Indians and, if necessary, to give the alarm to the worshipers. As the men filed into the building they left their muskets with the sentinel.

Sometimes the services lasted three or four hours. A constable with a long wand, on one end of which was a hare's foot, was on duty to keep the worshipers awake. It is said that when grown-up persons went to sleep, the constable would touch them gently on the forehead with the hare's foot; but if a child nodded, he was rapped with the other end of the wand, not so gently.

After the Plymouth colony was well established, Miles Standish planted a little settlement nearby, which he named Duxbury in memory of his English home. Here he died after a long and useful life.

In Duxbury there has been erected to his memory a granite monument one hundred feet high, with a statue of the heroic captain looking out over the sea he so daringly crossed to help others find a home of freedom. If you ever visit Plymouth, do not fail to look at the interesting relics of the Pilgrims preserved there. You will find among them the trusty sword of Miles Standish.{jd_file file==Miles Standish}

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POCAHONTAS AND THE INDIANS

Born about 1596 — Died 1617

Who will shield the fearless heart?

Who avert the murderous blade?

From the throng, with sudden start,

See, there springs an Indian maid.

Quick she stands before the knight;

"Loose the chain, unbind the ring;

I am daughter of the King,

And I claim the Indian right!"

Dauntlessly aside she flings

Lifted ax and thirsty knife;

Fondly to his heart she clings,

And her bosom guards his life!

In the woods of Powhatan

Still 'tis told by Indian fires,

How a daughter of their sires

Saved the captive Englishman.

—   THACKERAY'S "Pocahontas."

IN the greater part of what we now call the United States, before the white people came to disturb their habits, the savages lived a roving, primitive life in the forest and along the banks of streams, with only wigwams for shelter. We already know that the Northmen called the savages Skraelings, because they thought them inferior to Europeans, and that five hundred years later Columbus named them Indians, thinking that he had reached the East Indies. Sometimes the white people spoke of them as redskins, for they were reddish brown in color.

The Indians were a tall, straight, fearless race of men, with small black eyes, high cheek bones, and coarse black hair.

They liked to decorate their faces and bodies with bright-colored paints, using certain colors in times of war and others for feasts and festivals. Each warrior allowed one lock of his hair to grow long. This was the "scalp lock," which he was proud to adorn with eagle’s feathers as tokens of his bravery.

The chiefs sometimes wore a headdress of feathers that reached nearly to the ground.

What little clothing they needed for warmth and protection they made from the skins of animals.

On their feet they wore deerskin moccasins which the squaws trimmed with bright-colored embroidery, and with beadwork that was often very beautiful. The beads were tiny pieces of white and purple seashells strung upon strips of bark of the slippery elm tree, or on the sinews of deer. The Indians wore long strings of beads about their waists and necks and arms, and also used them for "wampum" or money. Sometimes many strings were joined together into a belt, and these wampum belts may now be seen in any museum that has a collection of Indian relics.

As the Indians seldom stayed very long in one place, they made their houses so that they could be folded up and carried about on the backs of the hunting dogs. These tents, or wigwams as they were called, were circular or oblong in shape.

They were made of strips of bark or hides of animals firmly sewed together and stretched over poles. At the top of the wigwam was an opening to allow the smoke to escape from the fire which was built in the center. On the cold winter nights the Indian boys and girls liked to sit before the wigwam fire and watch their elders smoke their long pipes, and hear them tell stories of good and evil spirits, and of their own deeds of valor.

There was very little furniture in the wigwams. Blankets made of animals' skins served for bed covering, and the bare floor or the soft green grass answered for beds, chairs, and dining tables. Dry sticks rubbed together until they produced a spark were used as matches to light the fire, and for cooking utensils fashioned from stone or clay. Large seashells made excellent plates and platters.

The Indians' food was chiefly game and fish, but they also had little gardens in which they raised maize, or Indian corn, and sometimes beans and squash. The squaws did all the work in the gardens, their only tool being a stone, or clam-shell hoe. The braves thought it was but right that the squaws should do the gardening, as their own time was needed for killing game and for fighting, which was their chief occupation.

The various tribes were constantly at war with one another. Their weapons were swift-flying, flint- tipped arrows, and stone knives and tomahawks.

To this day the Indian arrowheads are dug up from time to time in our pastures.

When he was not fighting, the Indian spent his days in hunting and fishing, or in building canoes. These were made of birch bark or of skins, and sometimes were hewn from solid logs. The bark and skin canoes were very light in weight, yet strong and swift. They were managed 'with great skill in dangerous currents and rough water.

The Indians delighted in feasts and festivals. For amusements they played ball, ran races, threw quoits, and had many other games not unlike our own. The famous game of Lacrosse was invented by the Indians. In their sports and games, as in warfare, they were often crafty and cruel.

The "talking pages," as the Indians called the books of the palefaces, were meaningless to savages. A rude kind of picture-writing served their simple purposes. An Indian boy had no school to attend, but was taught to use the bow and arrow and tomahawk, and to paddle a canoe. He learned also self- control and to bear pain silently, as the savages had great contempt for anyone who could not endure torture without a sound. The little girls, some of whom were exceedingly pretty, helped in the work of the wigwams and in the care of the corn ground. They learned early how to string beads and to make moccasins.

By instinct an Indian child could find his way through thick woods where a white child would have been hopelessly lost. The savages had no roads, for they had no wagons or horses or oxen. Their only animals were hunting dogs. Their trained eyes were keen and their sense of direction accurate. They knew how to avoid steep hills and troublesome swamps, and many of our roads and railways, as for example, the New York Central Railroad, follow the old Indian trails through the wilderness.

Each tribe or nation held its own land, and had its chief, and some of the tribes were governed by wise laws. The religion of the Indians was simple. In a vague way they believed in "spirits "and thought that every plant and animal as well as every human being possessed one. Sometimes they talked of a Great Spirit that watched over the world. They had many fantastic dances as a part of their religious ceremony. They knew how to make use of healing herbs in sickness; but their "medicine men" often resorted to sorcery.

The English colonists learned many valuable things from the Indians. The red man taught the paleface to girdle the tall trees so that they would die, and thus admit light and sun to make the corn and vegetables grow; and to fertilize the corn by putting a dead fish in each hill where it was planted. From their dark-skinned neighbors the Englishmen learned to make maple sugar, to spear fish through the ice in winter, and to make moccasins and snowshoes. They learned also new methods of warfare.

As we know, Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, a powerful chief among the Indians in the vicinity of Jamestown. We have learned, too, that Captain John Smith said she saved his life at a time when the Indians were preparing to put him to death.

After Smith had been released by his Indian captors and permitted to join his companions, Pocahontas came frequently to the Jamestown settlement, bringing corn to the famished Englishmen. She grew very fond of Smith and his white friends, and they in turn liked to have her visit them. Once she gave warning of an attack the Indians were preparing to make upon them, and so prevented the colonists from being surprised and massacred.  Soon after Captain Smith went back to England.

The new governor, Sir Samuel Argall, was a selfish, dishonorable man, who cared for nothing except getting money for his own pocket. He took all the corn that the colonists could raise, loaded it on ships, and sent it to England, where it was sold at a profit; but not a cent did the poor settlers get.

As Argall did not allow his conscience to trouble him, you can understand how he could plot with a treacherous Indian for the capture of Pocahontas. She was stolen from her fond old father and delivered into the hands of the tricky governor.

Again and again the grief-stricken Powhatan tried, by pleading, threat, or offer of ransom, to get his daughter back, but the English would not give her up.

Pocahontas had by this time grown to be a charming, graceful young woman. She became a great favorite in the English settlement and one of the young colonists, John Rolfe, fell in love with her.

Now King James had said in his charter to the colony that there was to be no religion except that of the Episcopal Church. Pocahontas was called a heathen, and therefore Rolfe could not marry her until she became a Christian. Accordingly, in 1614, in the rough little log church at Jamestown, Pocahontas was christened and given the name Rebecca, after which, in broken English, she took the marriage vows and became the wife of John Rolfe.

Rolfe was the first Englishman who had ventured to wed an Indian girl. Powhatan was much pleased because his daughter had married a white man. He forgave the palefaces and became their friend. For a long time the settlers had nothing more to fear from attacks of his tribe.

As Longfellow says in the "Song of Hiawatha": —

"Buried was the bloody hatchet,

Buried was the dreadful war-club,

Buried were all warlike weapons,

And the war-cry was forgotten.

There was peace among the nations;

Unmolested roved the hunters,

Built the birch canoe for sailing,

Caught the fish in lake and river,

Shot the deer and trapped the beaver;

Unmolested worked the women,

Made their sugar from the maple,

Gathered wild rice in the meadows,

Dressed the skins of deer and beaver."

In 1612, five years after John Smith had established the colony at Jamestown, John Rolfe planted the first tobacco. Before that time the emigrants had cultivated only corn and a few other vegetables. Rolfe's tobacco crop was a great success and sold in England at a handsome profit.

At last a way had been found to earn money, and all the colonists were now eager to raise the tobacco plant and send it to Europe. From that time forward the colony increased rapidly in numbers and Jamestown became prosperous. So anxious were the settlers to put every foot of land under the cultivation of tobacco, that it was finally necessary to pass a law compelling them to plant enough corn for food.

In connection with tobacco-raising there is another thing that history forces us to remember—the introduction of slavery into Virginia. It was difficult to find enough laborers to care for the enormous quantity of tobacco that England was willing to buy. Orphans were taken from asylums in England and even convicts from jails, but Jamestown still had need for more workers.

In 1619 a Dutch ship sailed up the James River with a cargo of twenty negroes who were sold as slaves to the Englishmen. This was the beginning of slavery in the South, and it quickly spread, until, as the years went on, slaves were found in every colony.

Before the opening of this sad chapter in American history, John Rolfe and his wife sailed for England. The English people were so accustomed to kings and princesses that they called Powhatan an Indian king and Pocahontas a princess. It is said that King James was deeply offended because Rolfe had dared to marry a foreign princess. The English, however, were eager to see one of the natives of the New World about which they had heard so much, and they treated Pocahontas with great kindness.

At last King James relented and the Indian "princess" was presented at court. How rejoiced her tribe would have been, could they have seen their favorite thus honored; and how they would have exulted in the sight of the bright-colored robes and sparkling jewels worn by the lords and ladies!

Pocahontas never came back to her dear Virginia, never again spoke her own language with the redskins. As she was preparing to sail for America with her husband and infant son, she was taken ill, and died at Gravesend, England, in 1617.

Rolfe returned with his boy to Jamestown and continued to cultivate tobacco, although the king wrote a book against the "vile weed" and denounced it in Parliament.

The young planter became secretary, and later recorder general, of Virginia. The son, Thomas, grew to a prosperous manhood. He was a useful and influential citizen and some of the best families in Virginia to-day proudly trace their ancestry back to the Indian Pocahontas.{jd_file file==Pocahontas}

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JOHN SMITH

Born 1580— Died 1631

Bless then, our God, the new-yoked plow

And the good beasts that draw,

And the bread we eat in the sweat of our brow

According to thy Law.

After us cometh a multitude —

Prosper the work of our hands,

That we may feed with our land's food

The folk of all our lands.

— KIPLING'S "The Settler."

IT was more than a hundred years before an English settlement took root and flourished in the New World. This was at Jamestown, Virginia, and the year in which it was begun was 1607. Jamestown, therefore, was the first permanent settlement made by Englishmen in the United States. It survived a desperate struggle against starvation and Indian attacks, and the man who more than anyone else helped to keep it alive was John Smith.

The days of England's courtiers and adventurers were drawing to an end, and Smith was one of the last. His life was filled with so many bold exploits and hairbreadth escapes that he makes a picturesque and interesting figure in our early history.

John Smith was born in Lincolnshire, England, and, as he was early attracted by a life of activity and danger, he joined in the war then raging in Holland. It has been said of him that he could not hear of a fight going on anywhere in the world without taking a hand in it; so we are not surprised to find him next in Hungary fighting the Turks.

Once he was taken prisoner and thrown overboard from a ship, but escaped by swimming to land. At another time he was robbed, bound, and thrown into a deep wood to die, but again he managed to escape. When he finally reached England he heard that another attempt was to be made to do in America the work that Sir Walter Raleigh had failed in doing, and Smith at once became interested in the project.

The experiments made by Raleigh and others had proved that planting colonies in America would be a very expensive undertaking. England, however, was not willing to allow Spain to have all this new country; for the idea still prevailed that rich treasures might easily be found in America.

With this fond hope in mind a body of merchants in London in 1605 formed themselves into an organization known as the London Company. They procured from King James a charter giving them the right to establish colonies anywhere in America between Cape Fear and the Potomac River. This royal grant stated that the religion of the settlers must be that of the Church of England and that they were to treat the natives kindly, and "use all means in their power to draw them to the true knowledge and love of God."

In fitting out the first expedition of the London Company, Captain John Smith took an active part, and when in the winter of i6o6 three ships set sail from England, Smith was among the one hundred and five men who turned their faces toward Virginia.

The Atlantic was safely crossed and the colonists reached Virginia early in 1607. They entered Chesapeake Bay and before landing sailed for thirty miles up a broad and beautiful river. This they named the James in honor of their king, and for the same reason the little settlement was called Jamestown.

But England had not yet learned what kind of men were needed for a successful settlement in the wilderness, where trees must be cut down, houses built, and all kinds of rough work done. Instead of carpenters and laborers, the colony consisted largely of men who called themselves "gentlemen," who had been led to come over by the desire for gold.

The colonists lacked many tools that would have been of great service in tilling the soil, but there were plenty of pickaxes for digging precious metals. The settlers were so confident that these were plentiful in Virginia, that they sent a ship load of yellow dirt back to England in the vain hope that it might turn out to be gold.

At first Captain John Smith paid little attention to the management of the settlement, although he was one of the council selected to govern the colony. But as the months passed it became plain that somebody would have to take charge and make new laws, or all the colonists would perish from hunger and the hostility of the savages. As there seemed to be no one else willing or capable, Smith came forward, was chosen governor, and assumed full command.

One of his first acts was to make the wise rule, "He who will not work shall not eat." As all provisions were kept in a common storehouse, where each one had to apply for his food, this rule was easily enforced. It had been the custom for the men to help themselves to whatever remained of the scanty store, but now this was changed. Smith taught the "gentlemen "to use tools, and to cultivate the land; and he made them build log houses and fortifications for protection against assaults of the savages.

With a few of his men he explored the Chickahominy River, and traded beads and trinkets with the Indians for corn to feed the half-starved colonists. He still clung to a belief that the Pacific Ocean was not far away, and that he was likely at any time to find it.

While he was out on one of these trading and exploring trips, Smith fell into the hands of hostile savages who were ready to put him to death. But he had had too much experience in dangerous positions to lose his wits.

He quickly drew from his pocket a compass and showed his captors the trembling needle that always points to the north. This queer little instrument, so different from anything the natives had ever seen, aroused their childlike wonder. Their curiosity got the better of their thirst for blood, and Smith was taken from one Indian village to another and exhibited to the astonished savages.

One day, finding himself not far from Jamestown, John

Smith wrote on a piece of paper an account of his condition, and directed the Indians to carry it to the little settlement.

The savages learned to their great surprise that when the white people had looked at the paper they knew all that had happened. This "talking on paper "appeared to their simple minds as one of the greatest of wonders, and made them think more highly than ever of their captive.

The Indian tribes into whose hands Smith had fallen had a powerful chief called Powhatan. In one of the books that Captain Smith wrote long afterward, he told how his life was saved by Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas, a little Indian maiden about twelve years of age. The savages had at last grown tired of their white prisoner and had decided to kill him. The head of the unhappy Englishman was placed on a block and an Indian stood over him ready to strike the fatal blow. Just at that moment Pocahontas rushed forward, and with tears streaming down her cheeks begged her father to spare the white man's life, and the old chieftain, with whom the little maid was a great favorite, ordered the prisoner to be released.

Smith finally succeeded in reaching Jamestown, which had suffered many hardships during his absence. The little settlement was to undergo much more suffering before it became established beyond fear of failure. This, as we have seen, was in a large measure due to the kind of men the settlers were. Smith says of them in his history that they were "better fitted to spoil a community than to begin or help maintain one."

Even with the aid of food that Captain Smith was able to get from the Indians, and the fish that could be caught, there were not enough provisions to go around. The river water was not fit to drink, and malaria lurked in the surrounding marshes. Fever broke out, many died, and one hard winter the colonists were forced to eat their horses and dogs.

Even by resorting to such extreme measures, there were times when the living were too ill and weak to bury the dead.

Fortunately for the new settlers, more and more people in England were beginning to take an interest in the project of founding a colony in America. At last the settlers were rejoiced to see a ship load of men sailing up the James River. Soon other ships came, and some of them brought women and children. More houses were built, more seeds were planted, and the little colony was firmly established.

In 1609 Captain Smith returned to England, partly because of an accident, and partly because some of the new arrivals were jealous of him, wishing to become governor in his place. So they invented charges against him and thus found an excuse for sending him back.

The charges came to nothing, but Smith never returned to the Jamestown settlement, though he made several voyages to America for the purpose of exploring the coast. He gave the name New England to the shores that he explored, and he carried on a profitable trade with the natives in fish and furs.

His maps of the coast of Chesapeake Bay and of New England were so nearly correct that they were in use for more than one hundred years.

The books written in his later days by this able Englishman are very interesting. His descriptions of America were so enthusiastic that they helped to attract many emigrants to these shores.

After a life crowded with adventure on land and sea, Captain John Smith died in London when not much more than fifty years of age, and his body lies buried in the church of St. Sepulchre.

In the year 1619 there were four thousand colonists in Virginia. The leaders in the colony, desiring to manage their own affairs, appealed to the London Company for permission to elect representatives or "burgesses," to form an assembly to make laws for the colony. The request was readily granted and in 1619, in the choir of the little church at Jamestown, the first law-making body in America met. This assembly was afterward called the House of Burgesses.

We shall learn a little later how this first settlement in America came to be burned to the ground. There is now nothing left of Jamestown but a crumbling wall, but the work that Captain Smith and his companions began did not perish. As we continue to study, we shall learn how from the humble beginning at Jamestown, Virginia grew into a rich and prosperous state, and of how much service the Virginians have been in the history of our country.{jd_file file==JOhn Smith}

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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

Born about 1436 — Died 1506

They sailed. They sailed.

Then spake the mate:

"This mad sea shows his teeth tonight.

He curls his lip, he lies in wait

With lifted teeth as if to bite.

Brave Admiral, say but one good word:

What shall we do when hope is gone?"

The words leapt like a leaping sword:

"Sail on! Sail on! Sail on! And on! "

Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck,

And pierced through darkness.

Oh, that night Of all dark nights.

And then a speck —

A light! A light! A light! A light!

It grew, a starlit flag unfurled.

It grew to be Time's burst of dawn.

He gained a world; he gave that world

Its grandest lesson: On! Sail on!

— JOAQUIN MILLER'S "Columbus”

WE have now come to the time when Columbus was to make his bold venture — that great voyage in 1492 which led to the discovery of our New World. In order to understand how he came to undertake it, we must learn of the condition of affairs in Europe at that time.

Read more...

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LEIF ERICSON

CALLED LEIF THE LUCKY

Born around 970 Died around 1020

Far in the Northern Land,
By the wild Baltic's strand,
I, with my childish hand,
Tamed the gerfalcon;
And, with my skates fast bound,
Skimmed the half-frozen Sound,
That the poor whimpering hound
Trembled to walk on.

But when I older grew,
Joining a corsair's crew,
O'er the dark sea I flew
With the marauders.

Wild was the life we led;
Many the souls that sped,
Many the hearts that bled,
By our stern orders.
— LONGFELLOW'S "The Skeleton in Armor."




More than a thousand years ago, when Leif Ericson was a boy, the compass had not been heard of, and there were no maps or charts of the great seas. Only the bravest and most daring sailors ventured far from land.

Who was Leif Ericson, and why should we learn about him when beginning the study of American history?

If we are told that he was a Northman, which will not help us much until we learn who the Northmen were.

These Northmen, or Vikings, as they were also called, lived in what are now Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. They were a race of tall, strong men, with light hair and blue eyes. They loved adventure and were fearless in battle, wearing coats made of steel rings or scales, and on their heads helmets of glistening steel with wings at the side.

They put out to sea in open boats no larger than our fishing boats. These were usually built of oak, and the timbers were fastened together with iron bolts and with withes made from the roots of trees. Many of the vessels were ornamented with the head of a dragon at the prow.

The stern was sometimes built to resemble a dragon's tail. Besides sails, they carried many pairs of oars. One of these ships was dug up in Norway not long ago.

The people of this race to which Leif Ericson belonged were the first who were brave and daring enough to take their vessels out on the rough seas where only sky and water could be seen, and where there was nothing to guide the sailors but the sun, moon, and stars.

Often a thick fog would settle for days over the cold northern waters. Until it lifted and the sun shone out, these brave men had no means of knowing in what direction their boats were sailing. Sometimes they took ravens with them on their wild voyages. When the Northmen thought they were near land, they would free the birds, and steered in the direction in which the ravens flew.


These Vikings liked to fight and to conquer, and it was not long before their pirate ships were a terror to England and France. No one could tell when the swift-sailing boats with their fearless masters would descend upon the coast of England, and compel the hardy Britons to fight for their lives; or when they would attack northern France and plunder and burn everything that came in their way.

At last good King Alfred of England — Alfred the Great — and King Charles of France made an agreement with the Vikings."

“We will give you," said these rulers, "certain sections of our country for your own, if you will promise to dwell therein and cease fighting." The Vikings accepted this offer and soon made themselves at home in their adopted countries. In a short time they were using the language, religion, and manners of the people around them, but they kept their own hardy, romantic, and danger-loving character.

But the Northmen were not satisfied to invade only England and France. They longed to see new lands and other peoples.

One stormy day a Viking boat was driven by winds and currents upon the coast of Iceland, and found its way home with great difficulty. The sailors were less interested to talk of the dangers they had escaped than of the strange new country. Soon several boats sailed for Iceland, and many of the Northmen remained on the island and founded a settlement there.

This new colony was so successful that Eric the Red, Leif Ericson's father, sailed in search of more land. This time he discovered and named Greenland.

It is hard to understand why he should have given to those cold, desolate shores such a pleasant sounding name; but it is believed that Greenland's climate then was milder than it is now.

This little colony of Northmen built stone huts and a stone church, the ruins of which are still standing. In the Sagas — the old legends and tales of those cold countries —we may read of the long, dangerous sea-journeys and of the new colonies.
One day in the year 1000 Leif Ericson set out on a voyage of discovery. He headed his boat toward the west, and on it sped until a long stretch of shore came in sight. What could it be? "Some island," thought Leif, "that never has been discovered."


It was the great continent of America, and the Vikings were the first white men to set foot upon our soil.

On the pleasant wooded coast of what was afterward called New England, so different from the steep cliffs and icy fiords which they had left, Leif and his crew of thirty-five men built wooden huts in which to pass the winter. How beautiful did the grass, trees, and autumn flowers appear to these people, accustomed to see little besides ice and snow! Wild grapes hung in great clusters on the vines.

"Surely," said Leif, "this country must be called vinland or wineland. I will name it Vinland the Good."
The land was covered with trees and plants unknown in northern regions and in the streams were plenty of fish. In the spring the Vikings sailed for home, taking with them a cargo of lumber, as this was scarce in Greenland. They had not been on the water many days when a shipwreck was sighted.

Quickly Leif brought his boat alongside the wreck, just in time to rescue fifteen men. After this famous voyage he was called Leif the Lucky.

Leif Ericson spent the rest of his days in Greenland, where he became chief of the colony after his father's death. There is no record in the Sagas that he ever made a second visit to our country.

Leif's brother Thorvald undertook the same voyage a few years later. He found the huts left vacant by the first discoverers, and his little party spent two winters in them. In the second winter Thorvald was killed. He was on an exploring trip along the coast, when an Indian shot an arrow that ended the Northman's life.

As far back as we can trace our country's history the Indians were already in possession of this land. Where they came from and how they found their way to America never has been learned. The Vikings gave to the Indian natives the name Skraelings, which means an inferior people. The Sagas describe the Skraelings as dark in color, with broad cheeks, straight hair, sharp black eyes, and a cruel expression.

After Thorvald's death his companions returned to Greenland. They had been very unhappy in this strange country peopled by savages. Still the love of adventure was strong in Leif Ericson's family, and a third brother, Thorstein, made an attempt to reach Vinland. But terrible storms and large icebergs forced him to turn back.


About the same time there came from Iceland to Greenland a brave man of noble blood, Thorfinn Karlsefni, who fell in love with Thorstein's widow, Gudrid, and married her. Gudrid had been much disappointed when Thorstein failed to reach Vinland. She was as fond of excitement as any of the men of her race, so she urged Karlsefni to make an effort to find the spot where purple grapes grew on green vines, and bright flowers lifted their heads from the grass.

Accordingly, in the year 1007, Thorfinn Karlsefni set sail with three or four ships, between one and two hundred men and women, and some cattle. He had little trouble in finding Vinland, and for three years his colony remained there.

The strange white settlers excited great curiosity among the savages. The Indians gladly exchanged valuable furs and skins of animals for small strips of red cloth with which to deck themselves, for they liked bright colors.

But as the months passed and the curiosity of the Indians was satisfied, they became treacherous and cruel. Thorfinn and his colonists at last grew tired of fighting such crafty foes, and the Vikings sailed away from these shores. "We like better the cold and snow among our own people," said they, "than sun and fruit among these barbarous copper-skins."

The Northmen never again tried to found a colony in America, and the Indians were left in possession of the country.

On exactly what part of the American coast did Leif Ericson and his followers land? That is a question that has been asked for hundreds of years, but will probably never be answered. It was doubtless somewhere on the coast of New England, and it may have been on Massachusetts Bay. For a long time the neighborhood of Narragansett Bay was believed to be the spot. It was thought that an old stone tower still standing at Newport, Rhode Island, was built by these early discoverers; but it has been proved that this was a windmill erected only about two hundred years ago.

One day a skeleton clad in broken and rusty armor was dug up at Fall River, Massachusetts. The poet Longfellow was deeply interested in this. Might not the skeleton be that of a daring Northman, perhaps one of the very men who had built the tower? In any event, it was a good subject for a poem, and he
wrote "The Skeleton in Armor."

If you read this poem, you will learn how one of the bold Vikings fell in love with the daughter of a prince, and how the prince refused to allow his beautiful child to marry a pirate. But one night the fearless sea rover persuaded the young princess to run away with him, and he immediately put to sea with his prize. The enraged father followed in his ship. After a hard- fought battle the prince's vessel was sunk and the lovers continued on their journey.

"Three weeks we westward bore
And when the storm was o'er,
Cloud-like we saw the shore
Stretching to leeward;
There for my lady's bower
Built I the lofty tower,
Which, to this very hour,
Stands looking seaward."

As the Northmen founded no permanent colony in America, their discovery was of less importance than what they later did for the country. Long after Leif Ericson's time, thousands of the Vikings' descendants — Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes — came to help settle the New World. They are still coming and are still helping in many ways to develop Leif's "Vinland the Good."  {jd_file file==Leif Erickson}

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THE colonies were settled at a time when the English people were trying to establish the principles of liberty in their own government.

Many of the colonists were driven to America by acts of tyranny from their home countries and so the settlers in America brought with them the English love of liberty. They were always ready to assert their right to "the liberties of Englishmen."

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THE close of the French war made way for the Revolution. But, before considering the events which led to the separation of the colonies from England, it will be best to ask “How were the colonies governed at the close of the French wars?”

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THE French made use of the years that intervened between the peace of 1748 and the outbreak of hostilities in 1754 to draw a line of posts along the Ohio and near to the Allegheny Mountains.  They intended to confine the English to the country east of the Alleghenies, and to secure to themselves the whole of the great interior valley. This was especially exasperating to Virginia, which claimed the western country.

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Unit Sixteen – Wars with France and Spain

THE English were not the only people who had colonies in North America, the Spaniards, had claimed planted a colony at Saint Augustine, in Florida, in 1565, forty-two years before the first permanent English colony landed at Jamestown. Saint Augustine is thus, the oldest city in the United States.

But the Spaniards were too busy in Mexico and in Central and South America to push their settlements farther to the north, though they were very much wanted to enjoy the fruits of the English colonies, and especially of South Carolina and Georgia.

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When the English people came to settle the colonies they brought English ways with them. In England at that time the lands of rich men were worked by tenants and not the landowners themselves.  These tenants had to pay the landowner rent and had to pay their “Landlord” respect and fight for him in times of war.

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When the people came to North America they expected to find either a way to India, or mines like those discovered farther southward. But when they found that they could not secure either the spices of India or the gold and silver of Peru, they turned their attention to the soil, to see what could be got by farming.

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WHEN people first came to this country there was nothing here for the people to use for living except the wilderness itself, so the colonists had to build such houses as they could, with whatever materials they had.

In Virginia, New England, Philadelphia and elsewhere, simple holes were dug in the ground these were the first homes of many settlers. In some places bark wigwams were made, tee-pees like those of the Indians, and sometimes a dirt floor cabin was built of logs.

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Unit Twelve – The Thirteen English Colonies

You have now read a little bit about the history of each of the original thirteen American colonies.  These include (from North to South):

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This is the course of study for American History 1A - a one semester course for students in grades 7-12. If you follow the sequence below you'll be able to do 2 units  a week and finish in 14 weeks.

Unit One: The New World   

Biography: Christopher Columbus    

Unit Two: The Roanoke Colony

    
Biography: Sir Walter Raleigh  

   
Unit Three: How Jamestown was Settled 

   
Biography: John Smith   

 
Unit Four: The Starving Time  

 
Unit Five: The Great Charter of Virginia  

 
Biography: Nathaniel Bacon

    
Unit Six: The Pilgrims    

Unit Seven: The Puritans 

   
Biography: Roger Williams and the Puritans 

 
Biography: Anne Hutchinson  

   
Unit Eight: The Dutch    

Unit Nine: Settling Maryland and the Carolinas    

Biography: Lord Baltimore    

Unit Ten: The Quakers   

 
Biography: William Penn   

 
Unit Eleven: Georgia   

 
Biography: James Oglethorpe     

Unit Twelve: The Thirteen English Colonies

    
Unit Thirteen: Colonial Life  

 
Unit Fourteen: Farming and Shipping

Unit Fifteen: Servants, Slaves, and Laws 

   
Unit Sixteen: Wars with France and Spain

Unit Seventeen: The Fall of Canada 

   
Unit Eighteen: How the Colonies Were Governed

    
Unit Nineteen: The Spirit of Liberty

  
End of Semester Projects