FkrHERLRND &'Gj^F\V£F^ A'Pf^htt LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. • ' Shelf. C^3l.. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. OUR FATHERLAND, 15 Y - ELVIRA CARVER, ALITIIOU OF "HOW TO TEACTl (J KO(;i{ AIMI Y." AND MARA L. PRATT, AUrilOU Ol- '-AMKIMCAX IllSTOlJY STO!! 1 KS."— " VOL N< J FOLKS' MHUARY OF AMKKICAX IirSTOltY." - KTC ,^^«vOFco :^^^; VOL. I. CGPy RIGHT ^^■ "NGTX r.OSTON : EDUCATIONAL P U P. L I S fl N G ( (J M P A N Y 1890. COPYRIGHT, 1890. By educational PUBLISHING COMPANY 50 Brom FIELD Street, Boston. •I I NDRX. PART 1. Pages_ The Discovery of America . . 1-52 The World in the Fifteenth Century 7 The Hide and Seek Islands. — F. A. Ilnmphreii 9 Birth and Boyhood of Columbus. — /^r»/H/>/ find a Shorter Route to India.— Humphrey 17 The Voyage and Discovery.— //M/Hi>/oZ-.s' . . • 40 Tlie Indian Character.— K. S. Jiroohs^ 4« The Century of ^Explorations 51 PART !I The Century op" Colonization . The English Settlements . The Old Thirteen {ro('tn/),— ('}iorle.^ T. The French Setthnnents . The Spanish Settlements . /}n>„U PART III The Birth of a Nation The First Blood of the Re volution . The Declaration of Independence . Our Flag 53-63 .53 55 5fi 59 INDEX. PART IV. The Growth of thk Countkv .... l*assage down the Ohio. — I unen K. Pfuihling The Purchase of Louisiana .... The rurchase of ^Florida How Texas was Obtained Monterey (^Poetry). — Charles Fenno JJoffman Buena Vista The Purchase of Alaska . . . . A Baby in Furs Pages. 70 70 79 80 82 85 87 80 1)1 PART V. A Little of the Geography of the XTmtkd Statks TTie Size and Population of the C'onntrj' The Surface of the United States Its Climate Its Agricultxiral Products , . The Cereals Corn o . • . The Maize (/'ot/r//).— jr/H. jr. /'o.-?^//'-// . . . . Wheat . . • " The Bonanza Farm " • . Cotton The Story of the Cotton Industry Travels ot a FlutT of Cotton. — (Hire Thornf MUU-.- . itn-i!i8 *m; 99 101 102 103 104 IOC 108 110 112 116 124 128 Grazing Fisheries 1.33 < )ld Modes of Conveyance 135 The First Railroad 138 American Railroads 146 The Building of the First Railroad Across th«; Continent . . 148 Advantages of Railroads. — M/«r// 153 i)nr Conntvy'sYutiive. — Oiarles Ciirlettiti (^otfi II 157 INTRODUCTION This little book litis l)eeii prepared for the purpose of bringing* within the easy eomprehension of the boys and girls of our i)ublie schools, something of our country's remarkable growth, its developed and undevxdoped resources and its superior advantages. Should it excite in the young a greater admiration and love for their fatherland, the authors' hoi)es will have been realized. The Woi'ld as Kiiowii to the Europeans in ttie Fifteenth Geutuiy /-"^ OUR FATHERLAND, THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. THE WORLD IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. A few hundivd years ago, the people living in Europe knew very little eoneerning the earth exeept that part of it Just a1)out them. They were familiar with those eoasts of Asia and of Afriea which l)order on the Mediterranean Sea, and had learned something of the countries of Southern Asia —Persia and India — on account of tradii>g with those countries, l)ut they had never so nmch as heard of Auierica and were entirely ignorant of its strange people. That the Europeans ever found out so much about the world as they have, is really (pdte wonder- 8 OUR FATHERLAND. ful, 1)0('<'mso ill the old dnys Www \\riv no steamboats riishiHii- over the oceans in all direct ions as there are to-day, nor steam-cars wliiz- ziiiii" about o^•er the land. A few sniali sailini>- ves- sels, manned hy men who knew nothino- of the sea ex- cejit that ])art of it lyini»- close to the continents, crept along the coasts for i)ur- poses of trade and of plun- der. The sailors believed that at a little distance from the shores the ocean was l)eopled with horrible mon- sters, that liiants were some- tmies to be found swimmins: about in its waters, ready with their ureat vnwl hands to seize upon and crush in their iron grasp the little ships that were so bold as to dare venture out upon the sea. and that islands seen at one time often disappeared and could never be found again. OUK FATIIKKLAND. THE HIDE AND SEEK ISLANDS. They used to t.'ilk about an island wliicli tlicy culled Atlantis. Tlicy said this island lay lar to the west, in the Atlantic Ocean. And the truth is, that ocean was so named iVom this island. Atlantis was said to he a most loxcly island, with hiiili mountains, wide riNcrs, and multitudes of sin^ini;- ])ii'ds. Flowers lirew everywhere and the weather was always fail*. Diamonds and other precious <^('ms could l)e i)icke(l up anywhere about the island, and Ne})tune, the sea-god, had a most l)eauti- ful palace right in the centre of it. liest of all, the [)e()ple who lived there were always good and haj)])y. l^ut 1 never heard of anyone who ever really s(r(r this island. Sometimes, ])eo])le, as they stood on the western shores of Kurojx', iJtouijld they saw it. It lay along th(^ horizon (juite ])laiidy, they thought. I)ut it always went away again. And sometimes the sailors thought they saw it too ; l)ut when they turned their boats towards it, lo ! it was gone. And this is the way it played hide-and-seek, and no))ody ever caught it. There was a good man who lived a])out a thou- sand years before Columbus, a man so good that he was called Saint Brandon. He was always doing good 10 OUR FATHERLAND. to people. And when ho heard about Atlanti.s, he wanted to go there and do aood to the ])eople. So he sailed with another aood man — Saint Malo. But of cour.se he did not find Atlantis, though he found another island, whieh was ever after called by hi.s name — the island of Saint Brandon. ANCIENT SHIPS. But the droll thing is that nol)ody could ever after find that island of Saint l>randon again. A great many people have tried to find it. Even as late as 1721 a ship sailed from the Island of Teneriffe in OUR FATHERLAND. 11 search of it. For the people of the Canary Ishmds faneied they saw it, sometimes, about a Imndred miles to the west. And it is said that even to this day, they sometimes think they see its mountain-tops ahove the Atlantic waves. And this is the second Ilide-and-Seek Island. But I thiidv the most charmina' of all the stories about the Hide-and-Seek islands is that about Bimini. It was said that on this island there was a Fountain of Youth. It was said that if one were old, with gray hair and wrinkles, and faltering step, half l)lind and deaf, as the old often are — if such an one were dipped in the Avaters of this fountain he would be young once more, with bright eyes, and rosy cheeks, and dancing- feet. Ah ! that was something worth looking for. You must rememl)er that at that time no one knew the real shape of the earth ; they had no idea that it was round, but supi)Osed it to be a flat plane, with the ocean hino- around its edires. AVliat stranofe things might l)e found on the other side of the ocean they did not know. Can't you see just how the little children, in those early days, would go down to the shores, and look off across the blue waters, wondering, wondering in their childish way, just as their fathers wondered in their way, what lands and what people there might l)e so far out across the ocean, beyond that land of hazy 12 OUPv FATHERLAND. light where the .sky seems to dip down and meet the waters? They had heard sueh strange, strange stories of giants and fierce monsters living out there in those waters ! And still no one could tell how much of all these stories was false and how nuich was true. No one could believe that there really was land out there so far away ; and if there were i)eoi)le there, men and women and little children, how ever did they get there, was the question that seemed to puzzle all. It was all a great wonder to them — as great a wonder as is the deep blue sky to us. But here and there some sailor would come forward and say, ''I l)elieve there is land far out beyond that l)elt of hazy light."' Such men, however, wxre laughed at, you may l^e sure, and their plans sneered at as something too stupid to be listened to by sensible 2)eople. OUR FATHERLAND. 13 BIRTH AND BOYHOOD OF COLUMBUS. About tlie year 14o5, a little ))oy was ])oiti in the city of Genoa, in Italy. Genoa is a lovely city, a city of palaces. Behind it are hii>li, moged moun- tains, and in front of it, lying at its feet, is the l)lue, tideless ^Mediterranean Sea. Its streets are narrow and steep. In 14P>5, when this little ])oy was l)()rn, Genoa was not only a lovely city, l)ut a very rich one. It had a great many shii)s, which sailed to all parts of the world ; that is, to all parts of the world that the Genoese knew anything about. For America was then unknown to the people of Euroi)e. They did not know that across the Atlantic lay this l)ig continent of ours. They knew something a])()ut Asia and the East Indies. They traded with the East Indies. But they brought all their silks, and their spices, and other precious things by way of the Gulf of Persia and various rivers, to the Mediterranean Sea. They did not know there was an easier way to get there, — by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, at the south- ern point of Africa. They did not dare to sail very far south. They noticed that it grew warmer as they sailed south, and they thought if they kept on that, by and l)y, they 14 OUR FATHERLAND. would come to where the waters of the ocean would boil ! But as T said, Genoa was then a very rich and lovely city, and there this little hoy was born. His name was Christofo Colombo. That is his Italian name ; but we know him as Christopher Columljus, the great discoverer of America. Yes, the great Columl)us was once a wee ])al)y just as we all have been, and, I have no dou])t, cried just as all l)alnes do, and ate and slept, and cooed, and kicked, till, hy and by, he grew into a lug l)oy of six. Though the parents of Columbus were poor, they managed to give him a good education. He was taught to read and write, and he wrote such a good hand, Las Casas tells us, that he might have earned his ])read ])y Avriting. Las Casas was a historian who knew all a])()ul that, for he owned some of Columbus' manuscripts. He was also taught arithmetic, drawing and designing, and, in course of time, grammar and Latin. But the study he seemed to enjoy most was geography, and he had a great desire to go to sea. So his wise father concluded that if his little son wished to follow a maritime life, — that is, to go to sea, for the purpose of trade or of discovery, he must be properly fitted for it, and he sent him to the famous University of Pa via, in Lombardy. OUR FATHERLAND. 15 We do not know exactly how old Columbus was when he came l)ack from Pavia to his father's house in Genoa. But he must still have been very young, as, according to his own account, he was only fourteen when he entered upon his maritime life. [Jzach Sfuare is 160 miies] [Latitude and Longitude marktd in border.'] MAP OF ITALY. We can easily imagine that this wide-awake, earnest boy spent a good deal of time at the busy wharves in Genoa, watching the coming and going of the richly-ladened, queer vessels of those days, and talking 16 OUR PATEIRnLANl). witli the sailcn-s about the unknown and distant coun- tries he so nuK'li wished to see. For wharves are very faseinatiuii" places to most boys, and certainly must have been to one so fond oi' iieoi»Tanhv as Columbus was. In 1470 C\)lumbus went to Lisl)on, the capital of Portugal. lie was then thirty-iive, but his hair was already white with care and troul)le. He was a tall and diu- nitied man, courteous to every one, and especially gentle and kind in his own household. He is said to have had a (juick temper, but he early h>arned to con- trol that ([uick tem}Hn". He married and settled in Lisl)on. The father of his wife had been a distinut the sovereigns issued a second order to have shi})s seized, and masters and crews forced to serve. Then arose a great hue and cry in Palos. The most dreadful stories were told about those unknown seas and lands whither they Avere to sail. The people 23 24 OUR FATHERLAND. of Palos W(Mit tVoin lM)iisi' to house nnd lalkccl iihoiit it just as })(H)|)li' now talkahout things. " ()," said \\w NvouuMi, "it" our husl)an(ls and sons go thoy will never come hack. 'I'hey will he swallowed u}) hy the learl'ul wa\es, or hy creatures AN OLD 8UU* or TllK EAULY DISCOVKUKKS. nu)re cruel than the wav(\s." So, yon may se(\ there was a i:reat outcry ahout tlu» ^•oyai:•e in Palos. One naN iuator, how(>M'r, ^vho li\ed in Talos, Alonzo Pinzon, a man of courai:(\ said lu* was r(\adv to ii'o, and to risk hoih himstdf and his money, lie OUR FATIIKKLAND. 2.^) Ihoiriilit (!()linn])us would coinc out jiII riiilil, mikI would lind IIk^ couuliy lie wus lioinii- 1o seek. So he. {ind liis broilicr iuruislicd one xcsscl and pari oT the rest. The H((nf((, Mftrio, llic lariicsl vessel, and the only one decked, was the llaii-shij), and (\)luinl)us himself was its ('aj)tain. (\)luinl)us w^as Hf'ty-si\ years oi' au'e when lie set sail fVoni Palos with the Piiifa, the Nina, and the H(nU(( Maria. They sailed August, 141)2, and the mothers, the wives and children ol'the men went down to the wharves to hid them " i/ood-hy " Nvith many tears, for they ncA'er exjx'cted to see them retni'ii. On and on the three shi[)s sailed, until they came within the inlluence of what are called "Tiade Winds." The soft air and the heaidiful skies made them thiids of their heloN'cd Andalusia. They hejian to see patches of weeds, such as i:row in rivers, u^^i-eeii, too, as if it had not heen lonii' since they wei-e washed down into the ocean. A ])i-etty white tro))ical hird eam(5 to ii'reet them. 'I'he crew watched eaiici'ly for land. Ferdinaiid and Isabella had ])romised to the man who lii'st dis- covered it, a ])ension of thirty crowns. On the isth Alonzo Pin/on thought he saw land at the noith, hut it proved to he foi:' on the horizon. The sailors hciian to urow^ uneasy. 'I'he favor- uble wind that had burner them so far toward the 26 OUR FATHERLAND. west, they began to fear would not allow them to re- turn again. On the 20th, however, a contrary breeze sprung up, and they felt l^etter. That day birds flew about the vessel, such as live only in groves and LOOKING FOR LAND. orchards. They came singing in the morning tmd went away at night. Next there came a calm, and the ocean was covered with weeds as far as the eye could reach. OUR FATHERLAND. 27 The men were frightened again. They thought they were coming upon sunken land, where the' vessels would get aground, and would never be got oft' again, and they would have to stay there and die. The calm was l)roken l)y a great swell of the ocean, and then they felt ])etter again. At last, how- ever, they ])egan to talk seriously of a nuitiny against Columl)us. "He was a madman," they said. Some of them even i)ro[)osed to throw him into the sea and then return to Si)ain, and tell the king and queen that he had tumbled overboard Avhile gazing at the stars ! Colum])us knew what was going on, l)ut he si)oke soothingly to the men, and i)roniised a dou1)let of velvet in addition to the thirty crowns to whoever should first see land. Octol)er seventh, Columbus changed his course. Up to that time he had sailed directly west. But he had noticed ftocks of birds coniini!: from and ij^ointr back to the southwest. He determined to follow in the track of those birds. On the evenino- of October eleventh he went up on toj) of the cabin to watch for land. There had l)een mau}^ signs of land that day — a I) ranch of thorn with l)erries on it, a piece of a tree, a carved staft\ How eager, how anxious, how full of hope was Columbus ! At ten o'clock he saw a light. It moved from side to side and up and down. He LA^Dl^^; of coLinrBU OUR FATHERLAND. '29 railed to two of his men to come up Jind look. They, too, saw the liiiht. At two oV-loek in the morn- iiiii", a iiun from the Pinta gave the welcome signal of land, and they took in sail and lay to, waiting for daylio-ht. You may be sure that, at the first dawn of day, Columbus, and his officers and crew were on deck for a look at the new-found land. And a beautiful land it was, a green and level island, covered Avitli trees like an orchard or park. The date of its discov- ery was October 12, 1492. There were people on the island, a dusky people unlike any the Spaniards had ever seen. As soon as Columbus landed he knelt, kissed the ground, and gave thanks to God for his success. The rest knelt around him. Then he arose to his feet, drew his sword, and took possession of the island in the name of the S})anish sovereigns. He named this island San Salvador. The natives watched these proceedings with curi- osity. Early in the morning they had seen with fear these monsters — for such they called the vessels — hovering on their huge white wings a1)()ut their island. They crowded down to the shore to get a nearer view. But, when they saw the 1)()ats filled with strange beings drawing near, they tied in terror to the woods. 30 OUR FATHERLAND. When they found, however, that these strange beings did not follow them, but went quietly about their own business, they took courage, and came out from their hiding-places ; and in a few days, so conli- TUE NATITES 8WTM OUT AND BRING GIFTS. dent did they become, they even paddled out in their little birch canoes, or more often still, they swam out laden with presents for the strange men in the great white ships. OUR FATHERLAND. 31 HOW THIS STRANGE PEOPLE RECEIVED THE WHITE MEN. 80 the white man came. He came with his myste- rious shi[)s and his more mysterious implements and arms, with his prancing horses, with his greed for gold and gain, his determination for dominion, his proud and overbearing nature, his manhood-des- troying drink, and his love of barter. Along the narrow trails that skirted the Atlan- tic seal^oard and stretched far away into the back country, or over the gleaming water-ways that bore the frail canoe, there sped with ever-increasing force the startling reports of the coming of the canoes with wings, the men with white faces and invulneral)le bodies, the strange animals — neither dog nor deer — upon which the pale-faced chieftains rode, the black- frocked medicine men, the wooden cross, and the tul)es that shot out lightning. Around the tire-pit in lodge and council house, from tril)e to tri])e the marvellous stories ran, the strange tidings were told and retold, discussed and pondered upon, and the mysterious visitors were reckoned as white spirits sent from the far-distant shores of Che-1)a-hu-nah, the Land of Souls. So, with extravagant demonstrations of welcome, 32 OUR FATHERLAND. with })ieseiits of maize and fish and fruits, and, often, with offei'iniis as sacrifices to })lease their strange, mysterious visitors, the Indians of the North American coast, from Yucatan to Labrador, gave to the first of the navigators a cordisil, hearty and helpful welcome. There does not appear a single exception to this generous Indian hospitality in the whole story of early American discovery. But this record of friendship was soon to be changed, and by the very men who should have preserved it. All too speedily the trustful and superstitious Indians found these white messengers to l)e but mortal men, and very bad ones at that. Received as gods, the white men proved to be devils; welcomed with overflowing hospitality, they repaid it with deceit and theft. In the year 1494, Columbus, cruising among the islands of the ^^"est India group, sent home to Spain twelve ships laden with captive Indians as slaves. In 1494 young Sebastian Ca])ot, with two ship- loads of English convicts, skirted the North American coast from Newfoundland south to New York harbor and Cape Hatteras. The expedition proved a failure, and, lacking in l)otli sailors and provisions, it turned toward England, carrying nothing homeward but the memory of hardships and a number of kidnapped Indians, stolen for slaves. In 1500 a Spaniard, sailing along seven hundred OUK FATHERLAND. 33 miles of the northeasterly American coast, found the people "Avell made, intelliirent and modest," living in Avooden houses and "admiral)ly calculated for la1)oi'." He kidnapped hfty-seven of these hospitable natives for slaves, and the name of that northerly coast is to-day a lasting monument of the white man's treachery — Terra de Labrador, the "land of labor- ers." And thus, in almost every year succeeding the days of these hrst navigators, an as their evil ex- am})le followed. The European adventurers sought with never- flagging zeal the coasts of the Southern United States, of Mexico, Central America and the islands of the Spanish Main, impelled by two desires — the discoA^ery of gold and the capture of Indians for sla\^es. Wherever ah)ng those tro})ic shores an Indian tribe Avas found or an Indian lodge looked out toAvard the sea, came, with l)lood-hound and with lash, Avith gun and spear, the pitiless man-hunters. Within less than twenty years after the lirst landing of Columbus, the islands comprising the AA^est India grou[) Avere almost depopulated of their native in- habitants. Even the most trusting native, Avill, through ill- usage and bad-faith, groAV suspicious and re Avengeful. The southern Indians, Avhom the Spaniards thus fool- ishly dltreated, nuich more gentle than their breth- 34 OUR FATHERLAND. ren of the North, tiivnod at last upon their tormenters. "Where once the Indians were like shee[),*' wrote Bal- boa, " they have now l)eeoine like tieree lions, and have acquired so nnu'h darino-, that where formerly they were accustomed to come out to the paths with pres- ents to the Christians, now they come out and kill them ; and this has been on account of the l)ad thinos which the captains who went into their country have done to tliem." OUK FATHERLAND. 3;') THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAYS OF LIVING. J^ m ^ The iirsi discovcrors l)('li('viii,'reat skill at the head of a foe. Those tribes whieh eanie in eontaet with the pAiroj)eans soon ol)tained firearms, andiron tomahawks instead of those they had rud(dy hewn out of stone. They never attaeked their enemies in large numbers, but, dis[)ersinu- throuah the woods, shot from behind trees or l)ushes, often ereeping stealthily into the very eamp of the enemy. When on a war-i)ath they usu- ally painted their skins in various eolors and devices, and warriors of different tribes Avere known by the fashion of their paint, as more civilized soldiers are by their uniforms. Forest life irave these peoi)le keen sight and hearing, (juick perception, and ;», soft, sure step; and with unerring certainty, they followed the faintest trail of friend or foe for hundreds of miles through the })athless woods. They were taught from infancy to endure i)ain without a murnuir, to sui)press all signs of emotion, and to suffer torture without movinir a o muscle of the face. To show no surprise, to be perfectly calm in joy or sorrow, was to support worthily the dignity of an Indian warrior. These savages, though ignorant, cruel, and treacher- ous, were remarkable for a peculiar dignity and 38 OUR FATHERLAND. courtesy of manner, and were highly poetic in their language and perceptions. They often used pleasing or striking conii)arisons, and names were given from some cons})icuous qualit}^ or some fancied resem- blanc(}, as Hawkeye, Great Serpent, Drooping Lily, Laughing Water. They believed in a Great 8i)irit, who was pleased when they did right, and displeased when they did wrong; and in a "happy hunting ground '" hereafter, where brave warriors ^vould l^e received after death. Such Avere the people inha])iting the continent wdien the Europeans arrived. At first they seemed inclined to be friendly with the whites, and often supplied them with corn ; Imt, again and again, they suffered injustice or abuse from rude, reckless ad- venturers belonging to the settlements, and, as it was not in their nature to forget or forgive an injury, they retaliated. Here one man was killed by them, and there another ; exploring parties were taken prisoners ; women and children were massacred in the colonies ; and at last there was almost constant enmity between the races. The colonists ploughed their fields and planted their grain with muskets l)y their side, while guards were anxiously on the watch for the crafty foe. In spite of all precautions, a bullet might at any moment whistle l)y their heads, or the eye of a savage glare upon them from the nearest thicket. OUR FATHERLAND. 39 The mother, rocking her child by the fireside, looked up to find 11 i)ainted wurrior with uplifted tomahawk in the doorway ; and the inhalntants of many a burning village were scalped as they fied at midnight from the fianies. As the colonies prospered, more white men came from the Old World, sometimes l)uying land from the Indians, sometimes taking it as their right ; and, as the red men saw themselves driven from their huntinir- grounds, and their forests cleared hy the axe of the "pale face," their fear ;ind dislike grew into bitter hatred. Councils of Avar were held, leagues were made among the tribes, and the warfare became terrible. But resistance was vain ; and weakened by quarrels and jealousies among themselves, they decreased rapidly in nunil)er. The Pequods, Mohegans, and other tribes famous in tlie early liistory of the colonies soon perished, and, as the settlers advanced Avest- Avard, the natives retreated Ijefore them. 40 OUR FATHERLAND. THE INDIAN CHILD. The Indian l)al)y\s first lesson was one of en- durance. Strapped to a flat i)iece of wood, the little papoose took his first views of life from this painful posture, suspended from a tree or secured to the l)ack of his hard-working mother. But though endurance was a precept early in- stilled, the little red baby was as fondly nursed as the petted darling of many a civilized home is to-day. Its hard cradle-board Avas made comfortable w^ith softly dressed buckskin, or fragrant with abed of sweet grass and ribbons of the bark of bass or linden trees. The finest bead-work that the mother could make, or OUR FATQERLAND. 41 the most prettily plaited reed-splints and grass that she could braid, decorated her baby's bed, and over and over again she sang the little one to sleep Avith her monotonous but rhythmical lullaby. *' Swinging, swinging, Lullaby ; Sleep, little danghter, sleep. 'Tis your mother watching by. Swinging, swinging, she will keep ; Little danghter. Lullaby." Up to two years of age the Indian ])aby was ke})t lashed to the unyielding board, which was alike carriaixe and cradle. Once a day its cords Avere loosed, and it was allowed to })lay and roll ui)on a blanket or the grass. When the mother was ))usy the board, baby and all, was hung u])on the most conven- ient tree or placed in a corner of the lodge. Mr. H. ^Y. Elliott relates that some fifteen or twenty^ years ago, being one day near old Fort Casper on the River Platte, he paused to kneel and drink from a stream he was crossing. "Sud- denly," he says, "my attention was arrested by a suc- cession of (jueer, cooing, snuffling sounds that caused me to peer curiously about in the recesses of the sur- rounding birch and poplar thicket. Here I discovered. 42 OUR FATHERLAND. to the right imd just alcove me, five pappooses slung to the trees, all alone in their glory, amusing them- selves l)y winking and staring at one another, appar- ently as happy as clams at high water. But, unfor- tunately for their serenity, they caught sight of the pale-face, and with one accord, began to howl in dis- mal and terrified accents, so that in less than a minute six or seven squaws came crashing through the under- })rush to the rescue. Ha})py mothers ! It was not as they had feared, a bear, and the tempest was quelled at once." At two years of age, as has been said, the child was released from the imprisonment of its uncomfort- able cradle and, according as it was boy or girl, its real education began. Even at this early age the difterence in treat- ment accorded the sexes was noticeable. For, follow- ing the customs of their race, which regarded the boy as the future warrior and the girl as the future drudge, all the training of the one and all the duties of the other lay in the customary course. When she was four or five years old, the Ind- ian girl was taught to go for wood, etc. When she was abo^it eight years of age she learned how to make up a pack and l)egan to carry a small one on her back. As she grew older she learned to cut wood, to cultivate corn, and other branches of the Indian OUR FATHERLAND. 43 woman's work. This cducatioii in labor, however, seems never to have soured the disposition of the lit- tle red-skinned maid, for she maintained the most aflectionate reirard for her mother and other kindred. < -^r 1 ^ INDIAN GIRL. From the Indian boy's earliest years, his train- ing was such as to tit him for a future warrior. Al- though allowed to run wild and to ])e spared anything that seemed like lal)or or work, he learned to swim, to run, to jump and to wrestle. Some of the southern tribes seem to have had a sort of master of gymnastics to look after the physical development of their youth. 44 OUR FATHERLAND. At un early age, too, the boy was put toareheiy jn-ae- tice, shooting with ])lunted arrows at a target of hay, bunched at the top of a stiek, or at the l)irds tiiat swarmed aljout his forest and })rairie home. -^V^? ' fi^^ <:mi7^ ^^^^''t— «&n THE INDIAN HOME. The boys had their ])all games, both "shinny" and foot-])all, as Avell as a peculiar game of ])ase-ball ; they flew their kites of fish-bladders, spun their tee- totums, played at tag and hide-and-seek, l)lind-man's- buff and hunt-the-slipper. The girls, though brouglit up to work long and hard, while the boys were free to OUR FATHERLAND. 45 p:o and come as they chose, still enjoyed their dolls in such leisure hours as they had, and though girls and boys rarely played together, hoth ^oxc^ were just as fond of making mud-pies as are the little folks of our day. One word indeed in the Omaha dialect comes from this childish disp:)sition to play in the mud. It is the verb tigaxe, meaning to make dirt lodges, and having, hence, the ])roader signiticanee to play games. When the boy was about seven years old his first fast was imposed — an all day's watch u})()n some higli or exposed point; here, smeared Avith white clay, he ke[)t, like the boyish s'piires of the knightly days, a sort of vigil, tilled with continual calls u})()n his selected manitou to muke him a great man — a war- rior. These fasts iiici-(\'ised in lengtii and intensity uitli tlie lad's years until the age of tifteen or sixteen, when, after a live days' fast, the troubled dreams of hunger would reveal to him some bird, 1)east or rep- tile which was to be esteemed his " medicine " — his mysterious protector through life. 46 OUR FATHERLAND. THE INDIAN CHARACTER. The following stories tell us soinethino; of the character of the Indian before he was debased ])v the white man's vices, weakened ])y his rum, and made hostile by his treachery. In one of the numerous inter-tribal wars of the seventeenth century, the little son of a famous Ojibway chief was surprised and captured by the Foxes, not far from the site of the modern city of Duluth. The news of the disaster reached the father, who knew at once what fate was in store for his boy. .Vt once and alone he followed the trail of the \ict()rious Foxes, and reached their village as the fatal tire was being kindled. AA'ithout hesitation the old chief walked boldly to the i)lace of sacriHce. '* My little son, whom you are abont to ))ui'n with tire,"' he said to the hostile warriors who knew him only too well, "has seen but few winters ; his tender feet have never trodden the war-path. He has never injured you. But the hairs of my head are white with many winters, and over the graves of my relatives I have hung many scali)s, which I have taken from the heads of the Foxes. My death is worth something to you. Let me therefore take the place of my child, that he may OUR FATHERLAND. 47 return to his people." The offered substitution was jiccepted. The boy was carried back to his tribe, and the loving father, without a groan, met his death amid the fao'ots which had been set aliiiht for his son. The Iroquois traditions tell of a Seneca lad, who, while but a little fellow, was taken captive by the Illinois. The boy knew what to expect, but ])raced himself to meet his fiite and prove the value of his Sen- eca blood. '' If he can live through our tortures," said the Illinois chief, "he shall ])ec()me an Illinois." They held him barefoot upon the coals of the council tire, until his feet werc^ a mass of blisters. Then, with tish-bone needles, they pierced the blisters, tilled them with sharp flint stones, and bade the little fellow run the gauntlet for twenty yards, between two rows of warriors armed with thorn-])rier branches. "His agony was intense," says the story, "but up in his heart rose the memory of his tribe." He ran the fearful race and, passing the goal, darted into the "Long House," and paused not until he sank almost fainting upon the place of honor — the wild-cat skin that marked the seat of the chief. " Good ! " cried the Illinois ; " he has the stuff for a warrior in him." Again they bound him to the stake, tortured him with tire, and then, cutting his thongs, put him to the final test by holding him beneath the cold water 48 OUR FATHERLAND. of the drinking spring, again and again, until he was well nigh strangled. And still neither complaint nor moan came from the l)rave-hearted lad. But when the test was complete, the watching warriors gave a shout of approval. '' He will make a warrior," they cried. " Hence- forth he shall be an Illinois." INDIAN MEDICINE MAN. Then they adopted him into their tribe ; they re-named him Ga-geh-djo-na, and raised him up to be a chief. " And as the years passed on," says the story, ' he was nmch esteemed for his feats as a hunter, and his strength and endurance were by-words among the Illinois." OUR FATHERLAND. 49 In one of the pitiless massacres by which the Pequot Indians were reduced to submission by our "heroic ancestors" a certain portion of them in a lofty contempt of death were, says the old record, "killed in the swamp like sullen dogs who would rather, in their self-willedness and madness, sit still and be shot through or cut to i)ieces, than to beg for mercy." A writer of seventy years ago, commenting on this scrap of history, says : " When the Goths laid waste the city of Rome, they found the no]:)les clothed in their robes and seated with stern tranquillity in their curule chairs ; in this manner they suffered death without an attempt at supplication or resistance. Such conduct in them was applauded as no))le and magnanimous ; in the hapless Indian it was reviled as o])stinate and sullen." "The red men knew nothing of trouble," said the Seneca, connnonly called Red Jacket, in one of those masterly speeches that showed him to ])e at once an ora- tor and a philosopher, " until it came from the white man. As soon as they crossed the great waters they wanted our country, and in return have always been ready to teach us how to quarrel about their religion. The things they tell us we do not understand, and the light they give us makes the straight and plain path trod by our fathers dark and dreary." "It is of the old times I am speaking to thee," 50 OUR FATHERLAND. an old Ojibwiiy woman explained to Johann Kohl, the German traveller and explorer, "the very, very old, when there were no white men at all in the country. Then the Indians were much l^etter than at this hour. They were healthier and stronger. They lived long and became very old. They could all fast much longer. Hence they had better dreams. They dreamed of none but good and excellent things, of hero deeds and the chase, of bears and stags and caribous, and other great and grand huntino' animals ; and when he dreamed, the Indian knew exactly where those animals could ])e found. He made no mistake. . . . But now," she added sadly, "their strength is broken and they have lost their memory. Their tribes have melted away, their chiefs have no voice in the council. Their wise men and priests have no longer good dreams, and the old squaws forget their good stories and fables." OUR FATHERLAND. 51 THE CENTURY OF EXPLORATIONS. Wlion these first ex[)l()i'ers returned to Kui'ope with their wonderful stories of discovery, and of the abun- dance of gold and sih^er believed to be hidden awa}' in the new land, a great excitement spread over the countr}'. Sailors were as eager now to l)e sent across the ocean as tliey liacl once been afraid ; the merchants forgot their sneers, and tried each one to be first to send a vessel to the gold-countrv ; and all the people united in praises of the wise C()lunil)us, who had found the way across the sea, and of the l)rave men who had dared to sail away with him. The Spaniards, eager to hold their possessions of these new lands and new treasures, sent out more expeditions, established col- onies in the AVest Indies, guarded tlie harl>ors, ex- plored the Gulf of Mexico and tlie C'ari})bean Sea, and claimed the whole country as their own. The English, the French, the Portuguese, determined to have a share in tlu^ great new discovery, began also to send out vessels. Voyaging on tlu* Atlantic was not then what it is now, when the routes have l)een so clearly marked out, the courses of the currents understood, and the various islands so exactly located. Then, too, the vessels of those days were small, and not strongly 52 OUR FATHERLAND. built ; supplies were scarce ; sailors knew little of latitude or longitude or the uses of the compass. One after another, the adventurers touched upon the At- lantic shores, — now ui)on the bare rocks of Labrador, now on the icy banks of the northern seas. ]\Iany were the vessels that in these days were lost at sea, and many were the brave sailors who, stranded upon this unknown shore, perished with hunger and cold. From all these causes, colonization of the New AVorld progressed very slowly, and a whole century passed by before any permanent settlement was made. But the way had been opened ; and here and there along the coast stood landmarks which, by and by, should mark the site for homes of European colonists. PART I I. THE CENTURY OF COLONIZATION. English Settlements. Although the close of the sixteenth century found only ()!ie settlement within the limits of whiit is now (he United States — that at St. Augustine in Florida — (luring the seventeenth ccnitury tln^ whole Atlantic sea-board, from Canada to Georgia, was settled, ^lore than this, the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi had several fur-trading posts and a few settlements of colonists. So that we may truly speak of this century as the "century of settlements." The })rincii)al colonies were made up of English people. There was the one at Jamestown, Virginia, settled in 1607, and another at Plymouth, Mass., settled in 1620. The Swedes and the Dutch had come in be- tween these two colonies, and had taken possession of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. The English 53 54 OUR FATHERLAND. king refused t(, allow tliese to take possession of this .soil in the name of their country, and so they eanie under the oeneral control of Enoland. From this time the English held the eoast from C^anada to Flor- ida, and, not many years later, settled a colony as far south as Georgia. The thirteen States, bordering on the Atlantic, be- tween Maine and Florida, including also Pennsylvania, are the thirteen original colonies of -the United States. They are often spoken of now as the " Old Thirteen." In the middle of the eighteenth century, we find these colonies peopled with industrious, intelligent, OUR FATHERLAND. 55 well-meaning men and women, who have come, not to search for gold and silver, but to make for themselves homes. The hard days of colonization are over ; the suffering, the dangers, the l)ittcr struggles are past, and the good peoi)le are rewarded with their pleasant homes, their thriving towns, and their rich harvests. Trade and commerce arc growing, and altogether the colonies are coming to be of no little importance to the mother country. THE OLD THIRTEEN, The curtain rises on a hundred years, — A pageant of the olden time appears, Let the historic muse her aid supply, To note and name each form that passes by. Here come the old original Thirteen ! Sir Walter ushers in the Virgin (^ueen ; Catholic Mary follows her, whose land Smiles on soft Chesapeake from either strand ; Then Georgia, with the sisters Caroline, — One the palmetto wears, and one the pine ; Next, she who ascertained the rights of men, Not by the sword but by the word of Penn, — The friendly language hers, of "thee" and "thou;' Then, she w^hose mother was a thrifty vrouw, — 56 OUR FATHERLAND. Mother herself of friendly chikh-eii now ; And, sitthig at lier feet, tlie sisters twain, — Two smaUer links in the Atlantic chain, They, through those loiii;', dark winters, drear and dire, Watched with our Fabins round the l/ivonac lire ; Comes the free mountain maid, in white and green ; One guards the Charter Oak with lofty mien ; And lo ! in the plain beauty once she wore, The i)ilgrim mother from the Bay State shore ; And last, not least, is Little Rhody seen, With face turned heavenward, steadfast and serene, — She on her anchor, Hope, leans, and will ever lean. — Charles Timothy Brooks. THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS. The Fi'ciich made tlu'ir lirst })cniiaiu'nt settle- ment in Canada, tonndina* Qne])ec in 1()()8, a year after the English occupation of Jamestown. A little more than a century later than this they made a settle- ment at Xew Orleans, near the mouth of the Missis- sippi River. The great Mississippi River was early discov- ered by the Spaniard, De Soto, who found his grave in its Avaters, but it Avas not explored until more than a century later, and then by the French instead of the Spaniards. OUR FATHERLAND. 57 QUEBliC IN 1G08. 58 OUR FATHERLAND. In l()7o Marquette, ii good French missionary, laboring among the Indians of Lake Michigan, with a Canadian trader made his wmv from the lake to the Wisconsin Kiver. Here they launched tlicir little boats and })addled down the Mississi])pi, which th(?y explored for nearly eleven Imndred mih;s, descending almost to the mouth of the Arkansas. Being told that the river ])elow was infested by hostile savages, they returned to Michigan. A few years after this, La Salle, another French trader, and a large l>arty of f(dlowers went by way of the Illinois Kiver into the Mississip})!, which they ex- plored to the Gulf; and setting up the Lilies of France, took possession of the vast region through which the river Hows, in the; name of their king, Louis XIV. Later, La Salle went to France and obtained a commission to plant a colony in Louisiana, which he tried to reach l)y way of the Gulf. He searched long and fruitlessly for the i)assage into the river and was finally cruelly murdered by his disappoint(Ml men ; ])ut ten years later in I7()H the French etfected a settle- ment in this region which they named Mobile and early in this century established .a colony at Xew Orleans. Mh OUK FATHERLAND. 59 SPANISH SETTLEMENTS. In the, country of Mexico, hinli uj) on ;i hcMut iful tablc-l;iii sun and the moon, and, above all, did they worship the terrible uod of war, in whose honoi- they l)urnt the l)odies of the enemies ilwy ca])tured in l)attle. The t(5m])les were attended by [)riests, who were looked u})on with lirc^at reverences by the; jx'ople ; and in the temples lived little lK)ys, who were brouuht up by the priests, to by and by become })riests themselves. On great festal days, the i)riests and the Ixjys, all dressed in their sacred, priestly robes, would form in 60 OUR FATHEKLAND. KUiNS OF PAPANTLA (Mexican TempleO OUR FATHERLAND. 61 processions and march slowly up and down the streets, singing and playing upon their strange instruments of music. The lake about which, and upon the islands of which, this ])eautiful Aztec city was l)uilt, was one of the clear- est, grandest lakes in the whole world ; and very fond were these people of building little floating islands of flowers upon its waters. The palaces of the king and nobles were liuilt of stone, and were very large and elegantly ornamented with shining silver and gold. The Aztecs were a very powerful race. The Aztec King was the terror of all the tribes around. Every- where, from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, were well-l)uilt roads leading from city to city, so that the king might send his messengers, with speed and safety, from one part of his kingdom to another. The Aztecs did not dress themselves in the skins of animals, as did the Indians farther north. They wove cotton into cloth and made garments of it. They had a Avritten language, and wrote the history of their wars and the lives of their kings out carefully, and kept them in the sacred temple. The name of their king was Montezuma. All the people looked with great reverence upon this king, and obeyed his slightest command as a command from the gods. But the riches of this beautiful city, and the power of Montezuma had been heard of by the ^'2 OUR FATHERLAND. Spanish adventurers. Alas for Montezuma and his beautiful city ! The Spaniards, always eager for gold, o'old, oold, sent an army under Hernando Cortes to conquer this king aiid steal away the wealth of his great kingdom. Cortes was a brave soldier, but he was a cruel, unprincipled man. It was in the year 1519 that Cortes landed his troops on the coast of Mexico. Straight inland to the very heart of the Aztec country, into their very capi- tal he marched. Then followed a scene of sad defeat to these good, simple-hearted Aztecs and their brave Montezuma. All the wealth of the country passed into the hands of the Spaniards. All the fertile valleys, the rich plains, the beautiful capital, all the little villages and great farms, the rich mines of silver and gold — all these fell into the power of the King of Spain — a man who cared nothing for the people, but everything for the £:old and silver he could steal from them and the rich gold and silver mines, in which he could force them, under fear of the Spanish sword, to work as slaves. For three hundred years Spain governed Mexico ; then the people rose, indignant id the unjust treatment of Spain, and declared themselves free, The Mexican people to-day are a mixture of Spaniards and Indians. Many there are who still look with pride upon the OUR FATHERLAND. 63 ruins of their old temple,* and say, "I am proud that I am a descendant of the Aztecs ! " Still, if you were to go to Mexico to-day, you would hardly find much in the appearance of the people, or in the character of the country, to remind you of the l^rave old Aztecs who were so cruelly wronged. Everything is Spanish there ; and it is only about seventy years ago that Mexico threw off the Spanish yoke, and declared herself an independent power. The new Mexican Eepnblic, at the time of its birth as a free State, included Avhat we now call Texas, and also that part of the present United States which lies west of the Eio Grande. By and by, further on in our book, we shall learn how the United States has since come into possession of those territories which belonoed then to Mexico. PART III. THE BIRTH OF A NATION. The " thirteen original colonies" were not nil founded l)y English peo})le we know ; still they were very soon e()nil)ined nnder English vn\(\ and niiglit well have been con- sidered the brightest jewel in the English crown. Unfortunately, howe\-er, Eng- hmd was at this time ruled l)y ti A'ery obstinate and stupid king, (leorge III, who, to make a bad matter worse, was himself rided by advisers as obstinate and stupid as he was himself. So instead of hon- oring and caring for the American colonies as he should have done, this king attempted G4 lUilTISIl GHENAIUKK. OUR FATHERLAND. 65 to enslave them jind force them to do those thinog which woukl be of advjintiioc to Enoliind, re