•' 0*" '^o ' '^^^.♦^ .*, •p^ .* 5°. '^-^ • ^o .^"^ ..<»"«^.'^^ ,^^ '^^ v*^^ • <1 ,* ^^'^v^V *. ^*'' »*aV/5;'- <^^ a* ♦'«ai3ih'.''** '^^i V--"?'\4 ^ "^^C ■■■■■III CAMELS BRINGING GOODS OF THE ANCIENT EAST TO PHCENICIA Other caravans came from the far south with the gold and the perfumes of Arabia and the pearls and the spices of India. Still others brought horses and slaves from the countries bordering on the Black Sea. But the Phoenicians are especially famous as the OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 33 first real sailors of the world. The ' ^ cedars of Lebanon " from the mountains just back of their coast furnished the best of wood for building ships. With vessels propelled by oars and sails they explored every coast of the Mediterranean Sea and pushed boldly out into Commercial Museum, Philadelphia A PHiEiNiCiAN oHIP It was in ships like this one that men first traded upon the sea. This ship was 109 feet long, 20 feet wide, and drew 5 feet of water. the open Atlantic. They established trading stations and colonies in many places. Their ships returned to Sidon and Tyre, the rich cities of their own country, laden with the copper of Cyprus, the iron, the lead, and the silver of Spain, and the tin of Britain. Some- times they brought ivory and slaves from the west coast of Africa or yellow amber from the distant Baltic lands. 34 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA In exchange for all these things the Phoenician sailors gave the goods of Egypt and of the Tigris- Euphrates valley and the fine wares and splendid purple cloth of their own country. In this way the early peoples of Europe first came to know something of the civihzation of the East. They learned many things from the Phoenicians that helped them toward better ways of living. The earliest commerce was carried on by means of barter; that is, people traded goods with each other. The Phoenicians, for example, when they visited the islands or the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, would display the weapons or the rich purple cloth of Tyre and Sidon. If the natives desired these things they would bring the grain, the hides, or the metals of their own country to exchange for them. This was a very inconvenient way of doing business and soon the need of money as a common medium of exchange was felt. At first, rings or bars of gold, silver, or bronze were used for this purpose. Their value was estimated from their weight. This made it necessary for the merchant to carry a pair of scales with him. Later, coins were made by the government in each country. These were found to be much more con- venient. After money began to be used, banks were established. The Babylonians were famous bankers and the rest of the world learned the business from them. Early Social Life. — The rich and the poor were found among the earliest civilized peoples, just as we find them everywhere today. The kings, the rich nobles, and the priests owned nearly all the land. OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 35 In the towns there were wealthy merchants, well-to- do shopkeepers and skilled workmen. But the mass of the people in all the early Eastern lands were very poor. They rented small farms or worked for wages in the fields or in the shops. Everywhere there were slaves in those early times. Some of the slaves were captives taken in war, others had been stolen from their homes by slave traders. The Phoe- nicians were famous dealers in slaves. The free laborers and the slaves alike lived lives of unending toil and poverty. Both worked under overseers who often beat them. It was an Egyptian proverb that ''Man has a back and obeys only when it is beaten." The rich people lived in roomy and comfortable houses. In Egypt the rich man's home was surrounded by gardens in which there were pools of water and many flowers, fig trees, and date palms. The wealthy Babylonian built his house upon a mound of earth raised high above the plain. In both countries the poor found shelter from the sun's heat by day and from the chill of night in little huts or hovels built of reeds and thatch or of mud bricks dried in the sun. Those who could afford it dressed in fine linen and THE HOME OF A RICH EGYPTIAN 36 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA rich purple cloth, but the most of the people wore only a single cotton gar- ment. Yet both classes were happy and light hearted. They were fond of dancing, singing, and playing on instru- ments like our guitar and harp. They invented the games of checkers and chess. Hunting and fishing were popu- lar sports. In Babylonia and Assyria hunting the lion, the wild bull, and the boar was a favorite royal pastime. The First Governments. — We have seen that early men began to live in groups called clans and that after a time several clans united to form a tribe. By and by, several tribes were joined together to form a state. This early state is called a city-state because its people lived in a city and on the land in its vifinitv. Tliese earlv states were small AN EGYPTIAN NOBLEMAN n />* ^V.^»^.. »v*-^ From cast in University Museum, PhUa. AN ASSYRIAN LION HUNT OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 37 and were ruled by kings. When their history begins Egypt and Babylonia were made up of many small states. In the course of time the strongest king gained the rule of the whole country. Then he often tried to conquer the neighboring countries and build up a great empire. This made it necessary for the tribes and httle city-states in those countries to unite in order to be better able to defend themselves. In these ways strong states or nations were formed. The Assyrians, who Uved in the Tigris valley north of Babylonia, were the greatest conquerors of early times. They had the first large armies armed with iron weapons. Under their great king, Sargon, and his successors, they conquered far and wide. Their kings grew rich upon the spoils of plundered cities. Their terrible armies left a trail of ruin and desolation behind them everywhere they went. After a time Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made himself the master of the whole Tigris-Euphrates valley and enjoyed a brief career of splendor and power. Last of all came the Persians, who lived east of Babylonia. Under their king, Cyrus the Great, they overran all western Asia. It was natural that all these conquering races should carry the ways of Hving and the knowledge of their home lands wher- ever they went. Public officers, travelers, and traders were constantly passing to and fro between all parts of these vast empires. All this helped to spread civili- zation throughout the Eastern World. The early king was a priest, the judge of his people, and their leader in battle. All power belonged to him. The people were taught that he was a god to 38 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA whom they owed unquestioning obedience. If he were a good man, he was a real father to his people. Too often, however, he was a wicked tyrant, who thought only of his own pleasure and power. He lived in the midst of a great host of officers who enforced his laws and collected the taxes of grain, live stock, wine, honey, and the like upon which the king and his court lived. The Earliest Laws. — In the earliest times the laws were simply the customs of the people. At first they were unwritten, but there came a time in every country as its civilization grew, when its customs were written into a code of laws. The oldest written code of law in the world was the work of a Babylonian king named Hammurabi, who lived more than four thousand years ago. Many of his laws were wise and just. Some of them seem severe to us. One of them reads: ^'If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye. If one break a man's bone, they shall break his bone. If a man knock out a tooth of a man of his own rank they shall knock out his tooth/' The Invention of the Art of Writing. — The art of writing was the greatest invention of ancient times. No other single thing that early men did has helped more to make our life what it is today. In the earliest writing in the world objects were represented by pictures of them. For instance, a circle stood for the sun, and a crescent for the moon. In the course of time the picture became a sign or symbol. The picture of the sun, for example, suggested day. At last there grew up a phonetic alphabet; that is, an OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 39 alphabet in which some of the symbols had become letters, each letter representing a single sound. The Egyptians possessed an alphabet at a very early period, though they used picture and sign writing at the same time. The Phoenicians had an alphabet of twenty- two letters. Through theu" commerce, they did K^ n/ A A much to spread the M^ A, >^ A /^ knowledge of it to other lands. The peoples of Europe first learned the alphabet from them. The table on this page will help you to see how these peoples have somewhat changed the Phoenician alphabet and handed it on to us. We owe the invention of our writing materials also to the Egyptians. They made paper of a reed, called papyrus, wViipli D-rPW in tVlP Nilp Showing how a few of the letters devel- WniCn grew lll ine IMIC. oped into their present form. By thickening water with a vegetable gum and then adding soot to it, they made ink. A pointed reed served for a pen. The Babylonians wrote with the tip of a reed or with a sharp-pointed metal instrument upon a soft piece of clay which they then baked into a very hard brick. Great numbers of these ancient brick books exist today. ^ ^ "> ^ B lul TiX •^^E .// ■f I •ei. ^ . (r~~ 7 ;1K t , I -s -1 ■§ ^ 2 S i -^ -S M W £ W K^ HOW THE ALPHABET GREW 40 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA The Literature and Science of Egypt and Baby- lonia. — The kings of Egypt and Babylonia took great pains to have records made of their deeds. The priests wrote prayers and hymns to their gods. In these ways htera- ture began. In time the Egyptians and the Babylo- nians came to write about many things. They had poems, proverbs, histories, and even cook- books. They told many fairy stories. The story of Cin- derella is one that Egyptian children knew as well as you do. Many tales were written Made of clay, showing the lesson in one corner, g^bout thc Wauder- with blank spaces for copying it. ings and adventures of their heroes. The kings of Babylonia and Assyria collected and preserved great libraries of the clay books of their countries. We owe our calendar to the people of Egypt and Babylonia. At first men reckoned time by ''moons." More than six thousand years ago the Egyptians divided the year into twelve months of thirty days each. Then they added five festival days at the end of the year. The first day of the Nile flood was New Year's In University Museum, Phila. A BABYLONIAN SCHOOLBOOK OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 41 day with them. From the Babylonians we get the week, with its ^^day of rest for the soul" as they called the seventh day. They also divided the day into hours, minutes, and seconds, as we know them, and invented the sundial to keep the time by day and the water clock to tell the hours at night. These people also gave us arithmetic and made a start in geometry. The Babylonians invented the THE PALACE OF AN ASSYRIAN KING These palaces were built of sun-dried brick. decimal system of notation, although they knew and used other ways of writing numbers. They were likewise the first people to make a regular system of weights and measures. The Egyptians knew some- thing of the use of medicines, and the signs employed by apothecaries today to designate grains and drams were first used in Egypt. The cloudless skies and the still, warm nights of these Eastern countries naturally led their peoples to study the heavens. Indeed they were the first astronomers. They discovered the regular movements of the planets, foretold eclipses, and gave names to the stars. 42 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA The Palaces and Temples of the Ancient World. — All the early civilized peoples whose work we have been studying were great builders. But their build- ings were more noted for their vast size than for their grace or beauty. In Assyria each king tried to build a larger and finer palace than the king before him had possessed. These palaces stood upon huge artificial mounds of earth. They were built of brick and decorated with great winged stone figures of lions or bulls with the heads of human beings. In Egypt the finest buildings were not palaces for the kings, but temples for the gods and tombs for the dead. Both the Babylonians and the Egyptians A WINGED BULL The Assyrians adorned the walls of their palaces with gigantic figures like this. A BABYLONIAN TEMPLE The temple is the tower with the terraces on its sides. OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 43 believed in many gods. The sun was the greatest god of the Egyptians and their most splendid temples were built for his worship. They also worshipped the other powers of nature. The ruin of the temple HH: '^^^Hm |K HH ^mf^^^M I^hB t ^Hjf-*** y'r "^H '^^"TS^ P^ r^^K/-. SHb \ 1 ||£^^H ?^^HH '**'-^^4^^J s P^'" " ": ■• THE RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF KARNAK IN EGYPT These columns are 67 feet high and 33 feet in circumference. 44 BEGINNINGS IN EUBOPE AND AMERICA at Karnak in Egypt, with its long rows of gigantic columns, is one of the grandest sights in the world. Upon the walls of the great hall of this temple sculptors carved in stone scenes from the wars of the conquering Egyptian kings. Early Religious Beliefs. — The Egyptians beheved that after death the soul of man, which they thought In the UniversUy Mttseum, PMladelpMa A FUNERAL BOAT UPON THE NILE This is one of the models that the Egyptians used to place in their tombs. lived forever, might want to re-enter his body to rest there. So it seemed necessary to them to preserve the bodies of their dead. They did this by embalming the dead person and building a tomb for him. These embalmed bodies are called mummies. So well were they preserved that great numbers of them have been dug up in our own day. It was because the kings wanted larger and finer tombs than other men that they forced their subjects to build the great BUILDING THE PYRAMIDS A painting by Richter, showing Pharaoh carried by his bearers to watch the progress of the Work. 46 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA pyramids for their last resting places. The largest and best known of the pyramids was built by Khufu, the Cheops of the Greeks, one of the early kings of Egypt. It covers thirteen acres and is about four hundred and fifty feet high. We are told that it took one hundred thousand men twenty years to build it. Like other early people, the Egyptians and Baby- lonians worshipped their ancestors. They had all sorts of strange beliefs about evil spirits, ghosts, and witches. Many of these ideas have lived almost to our own time. Some of the things these peoples did would seem very wrong to us. But many of our best thoughts about what is right are as old as ancient Egypt. The Egyptians believed that when the soul of man was judged by their god it ought to be able to say ^^I have never committed fraud; I have never been an idler; I have never altered the grain measure; I am pure; I have given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked." Our Special Debt to the Hebrews. — The Hebrews, or Israelites as they are often called, did far more than all the other ancient peoples to teach us the truth about God and about right and wrong. They beheved in but one God, who made the world and governs it. They taught us that God loves righteousness and hates iniquity. God gave them, through Moses his servant who had led them out of bondage in Egypt, the Ten Commandments, the noblest laws of right living that have come down to us from ancient times. They are the following : 1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 47 2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. 3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 5. Honor thy father and thy mother. 6. Thou shalt not kill. 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 8. Thou shalt not steal. 9. Thou shalt not bear false wit- ness. 10. Thou shalt not covet. David, the Hebrew shepherd boy, who became one of the famous heroes / and kings of his people, was one of ^opr. ,f 11, . . TT • Underwood & Underwood the world s great poets. He smgs DAvm of his trust in God in these words: MfXad AngSrone'S ^'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall '^^^iptrs''^'" ^'■'^'''* not want. ^'He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. ''He restore th my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.'' On another occasion, David utters this beautiful prayer: "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer." Too often the Israelites fell into the sinful ways of the other peoples about them. Then there arose great prophets among them to call them back to the true God and to right living. Amos, a simple herds- 48 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA man, cries out to his people ^'Seek good and not evil, that ye may live/^ Isaiah, their greatest prophet, appeals to them in these words: ^'Wash you, make you clean, cease to do evil, learn to do good; relieve the oppressed; be just to the fatherless; plead for the widow/' The moral and religious teachings of the Hebrews are found in the Old Testament of our Bible, the most precious gift of the early Eastern World to us. ' We owe much to the first civilized peoples. They made the beginnings of the industries and the sciences, of the literature and the religion that we have today. The knowledge of these things which they won was carried by conquest and commerce from the e.ast to the west. After the peoples of Europe had developed this knowledge, and made some very important addi- tions to it, they handed it on to America. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. Find upon the map the rivers and countries named in this chapter, 2. How do our ways of plowing, harvesting, and threshing differ from those of ancient Egypt? 3. What did the Egyptians and Babylonians make that we still make and use? What crafts or trades have we that were unknown to them? 4. Make a list of the articles of commerce named in the 27th chap- ter of Ezekiel in the Bible. 5. What is a law? 6. Do we have laws that are simply the customs of the people? 7. Try to write a message by means of pictures. 8. How did the building material used in Egypt differ from that of the Tigris-Euphrates valley? 9. Have you ever seen anything made by the early people described in this chapter? Egyptian and Assyrian relics may be found in any good museum. OUR DEBT TO THE EARLIEST PEOPLES 49 BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Robinson and Breasted: Outlines of European History, Part I, pp. 17-109. Webster: Ancient History, pp. 28-113. Myres : The Dawn of History. Breasted : History of the Ancient Egyptians. Sayce: Babylonians and Assyrians. Kent: History of the Hebreiv People. Rawlinson : The Story of Phcenicia,. CHAPTER IV THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US The Home of the Greeks. — The Greeks were the first European people to become civihzed. Their home land in the southeastern corner of Europe is ^ Ar ^ A AT S ^ THE GREEK WORLD The dark parts of this map indicate the lands where the Greek people lived. a little country, about half as large as New York or Pennsylvania. Greece is full of mountains which divide the land into many valleys, separated from each other by high, rocky ridges which it is not easy to cross. In each of these valleys there grew up a little state. Athens and Sparta were the most famous of these states, but there were many others in Greece. Because of the difficulty of going from one valley to (50) THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 51 another the Greek states were never united to form a nation hke the United States of America. If you look at the map you will see that Greece is almost surrounded by water. The coast has many deep gulfs and bays. It is said that no place in the whole country is more than forty miles from the sea. With such a country it was natural that the Greeks should be a race of sailors. Notice that the sea east of Greece is full of islands. Such a sea is always beckoning people to cross it. On a clear day, the Greek sailors could cross to Asia without once losing sight of land. It was equally easy for the Phoeni- cian traders to come to Greece with the rich wares of the East. In both of these ways the Greeks early came in contact with the civilized peoples of Asia, from whom they learned many things. Greece is not a fertile country. Much of its land is bare rock. It can boast of no rich harvests or green pastures, yet it grows a little wheat and barley and has many grape vines and olive trees. In the mountains there are forests of oak and pine. Greece has a dehghtful climate. The air is cool and clear, and the people can live out of doors most of the time. It is a wonderfully beautiful country, and the land in which they lived did much to make the ancient Greeks a happy and joyous people. A BIT OF GREEK LANDSCAPE 52 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Very early in their history, the need of more room for their people, the desire to trade, and the natural love of adventure of every brave and hardy race led the Greeks to explore and settle in other lands. One of these explorers tells us how he and his companions went forth upon the sea until they found a good land. He says of it, ^'Therein are soft water-meadows by the shore of the gray salt sea, and there the vines know no decay, and the land is level to plough. Also there is a fair haven where men may run the ship on the beach, and at the head of the harbor is a well of bright water issuing from a cave, and round it are poplars growing." Such stories told by returning explorers tempted many of the Greeks to seek new homes beyond the sea. In the course of time all the shores of the Mediterranean were dotted with their trading stations and settlements. The Greek merchants brought copper, silver, and gold from the countries north of the iEgean Sea, fish and timber from the coasts of the Black Sea, grain from Africa, and metals, wines, and oils from the far distant islands and shores of the western Mediterranean. Greek colonists settled in all of these regions. Some of the early Greek trading stations and colonies like Syracuse in Sicily grew to be rich and populous cities. There were so many Greek colonists in southern Italy that the country was called Great Greece. The ancient Greeks thought that Greece included all the lands where the Greeks lived. How the Greeks Lived. — When we first hear of the Greeks they were herdsmen and farmers. Their THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 53 cattle, the grain, vegetables, and fruits which they raised, and the fish that they caught in the neighbor- ing sea always furnished their supply of food. Most of the farms were small and the houses very simple. The early kings or chief men had more land and finer homes. Homer, one of the earliest Greek poets, has given us a charming picture of such a royal household and its surroundings. ^^He had fifty hand- maids in the house, and some grind the yellow grain on the millstone, and others ^^^^^mm^mmM. From reproductions in University Museum, PMla. EARLY GREEK METAL WORK A gold cup and a dagger. Notice the hunting scene pictured on the blade of the dagger. weave webs and turn the yarn as they sit, and the soft olive oil drops off that linen, so closely is it woven. And without the courtyard hard by the door is a great garden. There grow tall trees blossoming, pear trees and apple trees with bright fruit, and sweet figs and olives in their bloom. There too, he has a fruitful vineyard, and all manner of garden beds planted trimly, and therein are two fountains of water. '^ At first the Greeks made at home nearly everything they needed in the house or for the field. As we have already seen, however, the Phoenician traders 54 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA early taught them to know and to desire the fine goods from the older civilized countries to the east. Later they learned how to manufacture these things for themselves, to coin money, and to carry on com- merce in their own ships. Some of the Greek cities were famous for their splendid bronze work, others for fine iron work and beautiful vases. In the course of time many Greeks grew wealthy through manu- facturing and commerce. The Greeks were a brave, wide-awake, and inde- pendent race who loved freedom above all things. From their earliest days they never were willing to give blind obedience to their rulers as the people of Egypt and Babylonia did. Although at first they had kings and chief men over them in their govern- ments, in most of their states the people gradually won the right to govern themselves. In this way they developed a government much like our own in which the people rule. Such a government is called a democracy. To the Greeks belongs the glory of being the founders of government by the people in Europe. The Spartans. — Athens and Sparta, the two leading states of Greece, were very unlike. The Spartans were the finest soldiers of their time. They spent their whole lives in training and on the battlefield. They believed that every Spartan must have a sound body to begin with. So they taught their boys to be healthy and brave. When they were seven years old they were taken from their parents and trained in groups. They wore but a single garment, went barefoot both summer and winter, ate the plainest THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 55 kind of food, and were given the hardest kind of gymnastic training. ''They learned to read because that was necessary, but all the rest of their educa- tion was meant to teach them to obey with cheerful- ness, to endure toil, and to win battles.'' All the other Greeks respected the Spartans, and when Greece was in danger took them as their leaders against the foe. The Spartan girls were given very much the same kind of gymnastic training as the boys. They were taught to despise cowards and to admire brave men. The courage and the noble spirit of the women inspired the men to glorious deeds for their country. A Spartan mother, learning that her five sons had perished in battle, said, ''This is not what I wish to know; does victory belong to Sparta?" "Yes." "Then let us render thanks to the gods." The Spartans did many things that we cannot admire, and have no desire to imitate. At the same time they taught us some lessons that we need to learn: to live simply and plainly; to control our- selves; to love and serve our country; to try to have healthy, strong, and vigorous bodies. The Athenians. — The Spartans, however, never were anything but soldiers. The Athenians, on the other hand, trained the mind as well as the body. They could fight as bravely as the Spartans when the need arose; but they did not give their whole lives to military training and to war. They were farmers and shepherds or fishermen and sailors. Those who lived in the city were mechanics or merchants. The Spartan used few words in speaking, while the 56 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Athenian loved to talk and to tell stories. Many of the great poets and wonderful artists of Greece were Athenians. The Athenian boy was early taught to behave properly and to obey. He went to a school where he learned to read and write, to cipher, to recite poetry, and to sing. He, too, was given gymnastic training to make him sound and beautiful in body. When he was eighteen years old he was given the arms which he was to bear in time of war. On this occasion, before all the people, he took the following oath: ^^I swear never to dis- honor these sacred arms, not to quit my post, to obey the magistrates and the laws, to honor the rehgion of my country.'' The Athenian lived simply in a small house with bare white walls and little furniture. But the little that he had was beautiful. He was temperate in all things. Solon, one of the wisest of the Athenians, gave his people the proverb, ^'Nothing in excess." The Athenians thought it the duty of every citizen to take part in the government of his country. One of their greatest men said, ^^We regard a man who University Museum, Phila. A GREEK SCHOOL (From a Greek painting on a vase.) What are the boys studying? At the side sits the slave who has brought the boys to school and is waiting to escort them home. THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 57 takes no interest in public affairs, not as a harmless, but as a useless character." The Greeks were a very rehgious people. They believed in many gods. They thought of these gods as much like themselves, only stronger and more beautiful. They believed the gods spoke to them in signs and dreams, and sometimes by the mouth of a person whom they inspired. They built splendid temples to the gods and often held joyous festivals and great athletic games in their honor. With all their splendid qualities the Greeks were not without serious faults. In all the Greek states many of the people were slaves who toiled while others enjoyed the fruits of their labor. The men, except possibly in Sparta, looked down upon the women who were treated as household drudges and had very few rights. How the Greeks Saved Freedom for the World. — There came a day, when the Greeks needed all their courage and all the strength and skill that their athletic and mihtary training had given them. You remember that the earliest civilized nations, one after another, had tried to conquer all their neighbors. The Per- sians were the last of these conquering peoples. They overran all western Asia. Egypt, with its wealth, was theirs too. Their empire was the greatest that the world had yet seen. They now A STATUE OF VENUS One of the god- desses worshipped by the Greeks. 58 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA threatened Greece. It was a moment of utter peril to the Greek states. Never was there a contest which seemed more unequal. Persia was a world-wide empire, with boundless wealth and millions of men. The Greek states were small and poor, and had never learned to work together. But the Persians were the sub- jects of a tyrannical king, whose officers drove them into battle with whips. The Greeks, on the other hand, were free men, fighting for their country and for their homes. The war began in Asia Minor on the east coast of the iEgean Sea. There were many Greeks living in that country, and when the Persians GREEK SOLDIERS tried to rob them of their freedom It was such soldiers as n i ^ • -i • these who saved freedom thev Called upou thcir kiusmeu m by defeating the Persians. *^ Greece for aid. The Spartans refused to help them, but the Athenians sent twenty ships to their assistance. At first the Greeks were victorious, but in the end the Persians conquered all the Greek cities in Asia Minor and added them to their empire. Darius, the Persian king, now determined to punish the Athenians for helping the Greeks in Asia Minor and at the same time to conquer all of Greece. He began by sending messengers to the Greek states to demand ^' earth and water" as signs that they sub- mitted to him. The Athenians and Spartans threw the Persian messengers into pits and wells and told them to help themselves. This only made the Persian THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 59 king the more angry. The Greeks must now fight to the bitter end. The Persian fleet landed a large army at Marathon, twenty-five miles from Athens. The men of Athens, under their great leader, Miltiades, were drawn up to oppose them. The Persians fought with bows and arrows, the Greeks with spears and short swords. On the day of battle Miltiades led his men with a rush through the storm of arrows until they came to close quarters with the Persians. Then thousands of the Persians were slain. The survivors were driven back to their ships and soon returned to Asia. Their splendid victory at Marathon filled the Athenians with confidence. Many of them thought that now their country was safe. But Themistocles, their wisest man, knew better. He felt sure that the Persians would come again in larger numbers. He persuaded the Athenians to build a great fleet. Athens and Sparta also tried to unite all the Greek states against the Persians. In this they were only partly successful. After ten years the Persians did come again. This time Xerxes, the son and successor of Darius, led a great host of men across the Hellespont, around the iEgean Sea, and into Greece from the north. Many of the Greek states joined the Persians. It seemed as if all Greece would lose its freedom. But the Spartans, the Athenians, and some of their allies were steadfast. Leonidas, the Spartan king, with three hundred of his own men and some from other states, was sent to hold Thermopylae, a narrow pass between the mountains and the sea through which 60 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA the Persians must enter central Greece. Here one of the most heroic fights in the world took place. For two days the Per- sian host tried in vain to break the Spartan line. Then a Greek traitor showed the Persians a path over the mountains by which they gained the rear of the Greek posi- tion. Leonidas and his men could have escaped, but they chose to stay and fight until every one of them was killed. In later times their burial place was marked by these words: '^Stranger, tell in Sparta that we lie here in obedience to her laws.'' THE From a where Leonidas and his Spartans made their heroic fight. The sea is at the right of the picture. PASS OF THERMOPYL^ modern photograph of the spot From a model in the CommcTcial Museum, PMladelpMa A GREEK WARSHIP A trireme, about 150 feet long, rowed with three banks of oara. THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 61 The Persians now advanced to Athens and burned the city. The Athenians had fled to a place of safety. The fighting men of Athens were on their ships, and under their great leader, Themistocles, they won an overwhelming victory at the famous naval battle of Salamis. This battle, which decided the fate of Greece, was fought in the bay of Salamis, near Athens. On the shore a golden throne had been set up for Xerxes, that he might better see the fight. *'A king sat on the rocky brow Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis: And ships by thousands lay below, And men in nations, — all were his, He counted them at break of day, And when the sun set, where were they?" A great Greek poet, who fought as a sailor on board an Athenian ship, tells us that when the Greek ships charged the Persian fleet, there was heard a mighty shout: "O sons of Hellenes, forward, free your country; Free, too, your wives, your children, and the shrines Built to your fathers' gods, and holy tombs Your ancestors now rest in. The fight Is for our all." The battle of Salamis lasted all day. When night fell the Persian fleet was shattered. Xerxes quickly withdrew to Asia. The next year the Spartans and the Athenians destroyed the Persian army, which he left behind him in Greece. The danger of Persian conquest was over. Soon a new and greater Athens was built upon the site of the burned city. 62 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA The Persian war decided that the free Greeks were not to be the slaves of a despotic empire in Asia. But it decided far more than this. The Greeks were the first free, self-governing people in the world. They were to hand on the torch of freedom to Europe. In the course of time it was to pass from Europe to America. When the Greeks saved their own freedom From a painting hy Cormon GREEKS REJOICING AFTER THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS they saved freedom for the world. More than this, by their matchless courage in the presence of almost overwhelming odds in the long struggle with the mighty Persian empire they gave us a splendid and inspiring example of how to face the most fearful danger with stout hearts. The Beautiful Things which the Greeks Made. — The Greeks loved beautiful things. They were a people of fine taste, who knew what was beautiful and whose work has done much to teach us to know it. The most beautiful things that the Greeks ever THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 63 made were their own bodies. Their constant gymnastic train- ing and practice for their athletic games made them splendid examples of physical manhood. The victors in their great athletic contests were their heroes, and statues of them were set up in their native cities. We have seen that the Greeks thought of their gods as like themselves, only finer and handsomer. Their greatest artists carved the figures of these gods in marble. It is no wonder that the Greek statues are the most beauti- A GREEK ATHLETE STATUE OF THE GREEK GOD HERMES Thia statue is by Praxiteles, one of the greatest of Greek sculptors. It is one of the finest statues in the world. ful in the world, since the artists had all around them such beautiful people as models. Sculpture was the finest of the Greek arts. Cn The most beautiful object in every Greek city was a splendid temple which its people had built in honor of their gods. The gran- deur of the Greek temple was mainly due to the simple yet stately col- umns which helped to 64 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA support its roof. We still copy the architecture of the Greeks. In our cities there are many buildings in which columns like those of the Greek temples are used in one way or another. They con- stantly remind us of one of the gifts of the Greeks to us. The good taste of the Greeks is just as well shown in the small articles which In University Museum, Phila. A GREEK VASE Thousands of these beautiful Greek vases have been found. they made. Fine vases, like this one, were common in their homes. The pictures, painted with great skill upon these Greek vases, tell us much about the manners and customs of the people who made them. Even the gravestones of the Greeks were beautiful. In University Museum, Philadelphia A GREEK TOMBSTONE THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 65 On the opposite page is a picture of one. There were many gravestones quite as fine as this one in the cemeteries of Athens. Their victory over the Persians gave the Athenians wonderful confidence in themselves. Because of this confidence and of the freedom from interference by their enemies following their victory, there developed what is known as the golden age of Greek civilization. The greatest Greek artists and writers belong to this period. Peri- cles was the foremost Athenian at this time. He ruled the people by persuading them that what he wanted them to do was the wisest thing that they could do. We call the time when he was a leader in Athens the ^^Age of Pericles.'' Pericles was a great orator. In a speech to his fellow citizens he gives us this picture of Athens : ^^ Because of the greatness of our city, the fruits of the whole earth flow in upon us. We are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness. Wealth we employ, not for talk and show, but when there is a real use for it. I would have you fix your eyes upon the greatness of Athens, until you become filled with the love of her." It was the dream of Pericles to make Athens the most beautiful city in the world. In the midst of the city stood a high, rocky hill, called the Acropolis. Upon this hill Pericles built the Parthenon, a temple PERICLES 66 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA to Athena, the goddess best beloved by the Athenians because they thought she was the special guardian of their city. The Parthenon was the most beautiful building in all the ancient world. About it were other temples, second only to it in splendor. Phidias, the greatest sculptor who ever lived, THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS The most beautiful temples and theaters of the Greeks crowned this hill or adorned its sides. The Parthenon is the great temple on the top of the Acropolis. helped Pericles in the work of adorning the Acropolis. Upon the wall of the Parthenon he carved in marble a wonderful series of pictures representing a pro- cession of the Athenians carrying gifts to the goddess Athena. Within the Parthenon there stood a statue of Athena, thirty-eight feet in height, made of gold THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 67 and ivory. This statue was the masterpiece of Phidias. The Writings of the Greeks. — The Hterature of Greece is as priceless as its art. It contains many of the most beautiful stories and poems in all the world. It is the most precious of the many good gifts of the Greeks to us. The early Greeks told wonderful stories about their gods. We have seen that the Greeks believed THE STATUE OF ATHENA IN THE PARTHENON, ATHENS in many gods. They thought that twelve of these deities, six gods and six goddesses, lived upon the snow-capped top of Mount Olympus, a great mountain in the northern part of their country. Among the members of this Olympian Council, as it was called, were Zeus, the father of gods and men; Apollo, the god of light and music; Hermes, who presided over invention and commerce; Hera, the queen of Zeus; Athena, the goddess of wisdom and the domestic arts* and Demeter, who watched over seedtime and 68 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA harvest. Besides the great gods who dwelt upon Mount Olympus the Greeks believed that there were many lesser divinities and strange beings like the beautiful nymphs who danced in the woods and the ugly satyrs who had human bodies with the hoofs and horns of goats. They also believed that every AT THE IIUAIE OF A W I^ALTHY ATHENIAN The tutor at the left is lecturing to his pupils. stream and mountain had a spirit which could think and feel very much as they did themselves. The Greeks told many interesting stories and wrote many beautiful poems about all these fanciful beings. Equally fascinating are the stories which the Greeks loved to tell about the wonderful exploits of their early heroes. Among the most famous of these heroes were Theseus who cleared the land of wicked giants and slew the dreadful Minotaur; THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 69 Hercules, the strongest of all men, who performed twelve gigantic labors; Jason and his companions, who sailed in the stout ship "Argo" to bring home the '^golden fleece" and braved many terrible perils before they accomplished their purpose; Achilles and the other Greek chieftains who besieged and at last destroyed the famous city of Troy; and Odysseus or Ulysses who wandered for twenty years in strange lands where he met many thrilling adventures. You may read all these famous stories and many others like them in such fascinating books as Kingsley's ^' Greek Heroes," Hawthorne's "Wonder Book" and "Tanglewood Tales," and Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey," two of the greatest poems of all time. The Greeks were fond of poetry set to music. Here is a martial song that they often sang before going into battle: ''But valor is 'mongst men the chief renown, And most becoming for a youth to bear. A pubhc good that man is to his town, And all his people, who will firmly dare, "Amid the foremost of the warlike band, With feet apart, base flight forgetting all; Exposing life, with constant mind to stand, And to his comrades courage give to fall. "Good is such man in war; he turns to flight The fiercest phalanx of the rushing foe, And by his single, unassisted might, The tide of battle bids no further go." Sappho was the greatest poetess of the Greeks. She wrote many beautiful things like this picture of the rose: 70 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA "Did Jove a queen of flowers decree, The rose the queen of flowers should be. Of flowers the eye; of plants the gem; The meadow's blush; earth's diadem." The Greeks gave us the theater. Here is a picture of a great open-air theater in Greece. The plays acted upon its stage were written by some of the greatest poets of the world. The theater did for the Greeks much that the newspapers, lectures, and ser- mons do for us. They went to it to learn. Here are some of the ideas that their great play writers taught them: " 'Tis only in God's garden men may reap True joy and blessing." "Chance never helps the men who do not work." "The noblest hfe is that of righteousness; The best, one free from sickness; sweetest far To have each day the fill of all we wish." "There are three virtues to observe, my son: Honor the gods, the parents that begot you. The laws of Hellas. Follow these. And you will win the fairest crown of honor." The Greeks excelled in prose as well as in poetry. We owe them much in history, science, and philosophy. By philosophy they meant a search after knowledge TnnnroTnillltt A GREEK THEATER In the picture the theater is restored as it looked when the Greeks used it. THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 71 and wisdom. The best men among the Greeks were philosophers. They taught their people ''not to slander their neighbors; to suffer harm rather than take a dishonest gain; to seek peace; to honor age; to obey the laws.'' One of the Greek philosophers wrote these golden words: "Let never sleep thy drowsy eyelids greet, Till thou hast pondered each act of the day: 'Wherein have I transgressed? What have I done? What duty shunned?' — beginning from the first, Unto the last. Then grieve and fear for what Was basely done, but in the good rejoice." Socrates was the noblest Greek teacher. Many people made fun of him because of his bald head and homely face. He used to go about the streets of Athens, talking with those he met and trying to lead them by his questions to think as he thought. He taught that it is true wisdom to know what is good and to do what is right. Socrates made many enemies be- cause what he taught was contrary to some of the religious beliefs of the Athenians. When he was an old man he was accused of corrupting socrates the youth of Athens and was tried for his Ufe. Before the court which tried him he said, ''Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you." The court declared him guilty, and after he was condemned to .die he said, "Be of good cheer about death, and know 72 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA this of a truth, — that no evil can happen to a good man either in this Ufe or after death." Socrates and the later philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, were the greatest men of ancient Greece. How the Greeks became the Teachers of the World. — The many small states in Greece were never able to unite to form a nation. Instead, they wasted their strength in fighting each other. The time came when their freedom was threatened by Philip, king of Macedon. Demos- thenes, the most eloquent orator of Athens, inspired his countrymen to oppose the growing power of Philip. At last the Athenians fought, but in vain. The freedom of Greece was lost. Philip was the master of the country. "demosthenes Philip had planned the conquest of the Persian empire, but he was killed before he could carry out his purpose. His work was continued by his son, Alexander the Great. Alexander was a high-spirited boy, quick tempered, and intensely ambitious. When the news of his father's victories reached him he said to his play- mates, ^^Boys, my father will get ahead of us in everything, and will leave nothing great for you or me to do." But his father left him a task which called for the genius of a great soldier, and Alexander was one of the greatest soldiers in all history. With an army of Macedonians and Greeks he invaded the vast Persian empire. The Persians could do little to withstand THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 73 him. He overran Asia Minor, conquered Phoenicia, and occupied Egypt. Finally, in a great battle in the Tigris valley he defeated and killed the Persian king. Alexander now seized the Persian cities, in which he found immense treasures. He then extended his conquests eastward as far as India. He was now the lord of all western Asia, besides Egypt, Macedon, and Greece. This vast empire included nearly all the civilized world. Alex- ander made Babylon his capital. He soon died there at the early age of thirty- two. Alexander was far more than a great soldier. He was a great colonizer and Alexander the great civilizer. Greek cities sprang up in the track of his armies. Alexandria, in Egypt, named after the conqueror, was the most famous of these places. Greek people went to live in all the lands which he conquered. They carried the Greek language and Greek culture everywhere they went. Alexander's conquests made all the eastern lands hke Greece in life and thought. In the next chapter we shall see how the Greeks went westward to become the teachers of Europe. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. In what ways is life in your home community influenced by the geography of the locahty? 2. Do people ever leave your home neighborhood to seek new homes elsewhere? If so, why do they go? Where do they go? 74 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA THE GIFTS OF THE GREEKS TO US 75 3. Would you prefer to have been a Spartan or an Athenian? Why? 4. What would it have meant for the world if the Persians had con- quered the Greeks? 5. Why do we have athletic games today? 6. Can you find any buildings in your home town which look hke those of ancient Greece? 7. Have you read any of the famous Greek stories mentioned in this chapter? 8. Find upon the map the countries which Alexander conquered. BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Ancient Histories by West, Westermann, Goodspeed, Webster, Bots- ford, and Myers. Seignobos: History of Ancient Civilization, Botsf ord : History of Greece. Holm : History of Greece. Abbott: Pericles. Wheeler: Alexander the Great. Mahaffy: Ancient Life in Greece. Gulick: Life of the Ancient Greeks. Tucker: Life in Ancient Athens. Bulfinch: The Age of Fable. BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Kingsley: The Heroes. Hawthorne : The Wonder Book; Tanglewood Tales. Church: The Story of the Iliad: the Story of the Odyssey; Three Greek Children. Tappan : The Story of the Greek People. Yonge : Young Folks' History of Greece. Haaren and Poland: Famous Men of Greece Hall: Men of Old Greece. Harding : Stories of Greek Gods, Heroes and Men. White : Plutarch for Boys and Girls. CHAPTER V WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS The Land of Italy. — Our story now takes us from Greece to Italy. This country is a long, narrow peninsula, projecting into the Mediterranean Sea. Like Greece, Italy is a mountainous country. The Alps guard its northern border and shut it away from the rest of Europe. The Apennines are like a great backbone in the land. As this backbone of mountains is near the eastern coast the rivers of the peninsula flow toward the west. The good harbors are on the west coast. Italy thus turned its back to Greece and the older civilized countries of the East. Italy possesses a great variety of soil and chmate. Mountains and plains, snow and scorching heat are near together. It is a beautiful land. The Greeks thought it the best country in the ancient world. One of their writers says, ^' Italy contains a great deal of good arable land, without wanting pastures and forests, and abounds in delights and advantages. The plains yield three crops a year. The olive grounds and the vineyards are peerless. Then there are pastures for sheep, goats, horses and cattle. I can- not help admiring the forests full of all kinds of trees, which supply timber for ships and houses. There are many rivers which water the land and make easy the exchange of everything the country produces." (76) WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 77 ANCIEiNT ITALF , SCALE OF MILF8 100 200 300 400 ^ East 12'' from Grernwich 16 78 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA When we first hear of Italy the greater part of the peninsula was occupied by many tribes of Italians. The Greeks held the southern coast. A civilized people called the Etruscans lived north of the Italians. The Italians lived in httle walled towns upon the hilltops and pastured their flocks in the neighboring fields. At that time men had not learned to organize large groups of people into a single state. Each little city was a separate state and these Italian city-states were often at war with each other. The Tiber is a small river near the middle of Italy. Upon the left bank of this river, about fourteen miles from its mouth, there is a group of seven hills. Upon one of these hills the city of Rome began its history. At first its life was much like that of the other Italian cities, but it was far better situated for commerce than any of them, and in time it became the most important city in the ancient world. As the city grew it spread over the adjacent hills. For this reason Rome is often called ^Hhe city of the seven hills." The Roman People. — Life in early Rome was very simple. Most of the people were shepherds and farmers. Wheat and barley were the chief grains. Such vegetables as beans, onions, cabbages, and turnips were grown in their gardens. In their orchards they gathered figs, apples, and plums. Porridge was the chief food of the Romans in early times. Bread was eaten with olive oil, cheese, or honey. In the city there were workers in copper and leather, potters, shoemakers, and carpenters. A small trade was carried on with their neighbors. The earliest Roman lived in a house of a single WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 79 AN EARLY ROMAN HUT room. This house had no windows and but one door. A hole in the center of the roof let out the smoke from the hearth. The floor was of earth mixed with stone and pounded until it was hard and smooth. A couch, a table, and some stools were the only furni- ture. In time this house was enlarged by adding rooms on the sides and in the rear. The dress of the early Roman was as simple as his house. His chief garment was a short-sleeved woolen shirt or tunic, reaching to his knees. When he appeared in public he threw around him a blanket of white wool, called a toga. The home was the most important feature of the old Roman life. The father had power to do anything he pleased with the members of his family. He could even sell his son into slavery or put him to death. Each family had its own gods who were worshipped before the hearth. Besides these, there were many gods who were worshipped by the whole people. At first Rome was ruled by a king. Later it was made a repubhc, governed by two consuls. There was also a council of the oldest and wisest men called the senate. A ROMAN Wearing tunic and toga. 80 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA In the early history of Rome there was a great deal of trouble between the nobles who were called the patricians and the common people or plebeians. The patricians had more rights than the plebeians who were often sadly ill treated by their more powerful neighbors. The patricians thought that they were better than the common people, so they tried to keep all the important offices in their own hands. The plebeians contended that all Romans should have equal rights, and after a long and bitter struggle they forced the patricians to let them have officers called tribunes to protect them from oppression. The plebeians also succeeded in getting the laws of Rome put in writing so that every one could know what they were. After many years the plebeians won the right to help make the laws and to hold any office in the republic. The Romans, Uke all the other tribes of the ItaHans, were a brave and warlike people. They were stern and harsh, but at the same time they were energetic, dignified and truthful. They reverenced their gods and obeyed the laws of their country. Duty and discipline were their watchwords in the family and in the nation. One of the writers of the Romans, speaking of his own people, says: ^'We are a race of hardy breed. We carry our children to the streams and harden them in the bitter, icy water; as boys they spend wakeful nights over the chase, and tire out the whirlwind, but in man- hood, unwearied by toil and trained to poverty, they subdue the soil with their mattocks, or shake towns in war." WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 81 Stories of Early Rome. — The Romans told many interesting stories of the exploits of their early heroes. We do not know that these stories are true, but at least they teach us what kind of men the Romans admired. In one of the many wars with the mountain tribes east of Rome the Roman army was surrounded and in danger of destruction. In this crisis the senate appointed Cincinnatus, the foremost citizen of the time, to chief command. The messengers sent to notify him of his appointment found him at work upon his little farm across the Tiber. They greeted him as he leaned upon his spade. ^'Put on your toga/^ they said, 'Ho hear the message of the senate.'^ ''Is not all well?" asked Cincinnatus, as he sent his wife to the house for his gown. Then, wiping the sweat and dust from his brow, he listened to the message. At once he took command. In sixteen days he had saved the army, defeated the enemy, and returned to Rome, his troops laden with booty. Then Cincinnatus quietly went back to his Httle farm. On another occasion, a powerful Etruscan king led a mighty host from the north against Rome. The only hope for the city was to destroy the bridge across the Tiber. The brave warrior, Horatius, with two companions, held the enemy in check at the farther bridge and until the Romans cut down the bridge behind him. Then he plunged into the Tiber and swam safely back to his friends. This stirring story, with several others, is finely told in Macaulay's ''Lays of Ancient Rome.'' The Roman Army. — The Romans believed that 6 82 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA they were descended from Mars, the god of war. At any rate they had the spirit of the war god. The Roman citizens were trained soldiers. On the parade ground, beside the Tiber, they marched and drilled in the use of their weapons. At first their army was called the legion. The other Italian peoples who were subject to Rome were required to send soldiers to serve in the Roman army. These troops were called allies. As the Romans increased in number and extended their conquests far and wide there came to be many legions in the Roman army. A Roman army marched rapidly. Every time it went into camp it fortified its position by digging a deep ditch around it and setting stakes in the bank of earth thrown up inside the ditch. Each soldier was armed with a short spear and a sword. In battle the Roman hurled his spear at the enemy and immediately rushed upon him with the sword. At first Rome was a small country. For a long time her territory was no larger than one of our counties. But Rome was almost constantly at war with her neighbors. In the course of time she over- ran the Etruscan territory, conquered the various Italian peoples, and won the Greek lands in the south of Italy. These conquests took several hundred years. Rome was now mistress of the peninsula of Italy. A ROMAN SOLDIER With his arms and armor. WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 83 Rome and Carthage. — Carthage was Rome's next enemy. This city was situated upon the coast of Africa, directly opposite the mouth of the Tiber. At first a Phoenician trading station, Carthage had grown to be the greatest commercial city in the world. It ruled the greater part of the northern coast of Africa and the rich islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. It was the greatest naval power of the time and its fleets controlled the western Mediterranean Sea. With this hated rival Rome fought three great wars. In the first one she built ships, and in spite of many disasters at last defeated the Carthaginians upon the sea and took the large islands west of Italy from them. In this first war with the Romans the Car- thaginians had found a great leader in Hamilcar, and after the war with Rome was over, he led them in the conquest of Spain. Before Hamilcar went to Spain he took his httle son, Hannibal, then nine years of age, into the temple in Carthage, and there before the altar of his country's gods made him swear eternal hatred to Rome. In the midst of the wars in Spain Hannibal grew up to be a splendid soldier, one of the greatest that the world has ever seen. ^'Toil could neither exhaust his body nor subdue his mind, and he could endure hunger and cold alike. He ate and drank no more than nature demanded. Working day and night, he thought of sleep only when there was nothing else to do; then wrapping himself in his military cloak, he would lie on the ground among the watches and the outposts of the army. Though he dressed as a 84 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA plain officer, his arms and his horses were splendid." Hannibal was the most dangerous enemy that the Romans ever met. When he was old enough to become the leader of the Carthaginian army, Hannibal determined to conquer Rome. Leading his troops across the Pyrenees and over the Alps he invaded Italy from the north. In a series of famous battles he defeated the Romans and overran their country. But he was never able to capture the city of Rome. The Romans were never braver and more steadfast in their purpose than when their losses were the heaviest and their dangers the great- est. No sacrifice was too great for them to make in behalf of their country. After sixteen years of almost constant fighting they forced Hannibal to withdraw from Italy to Africa. Then they followed him into his own country, defeated him there, and forced the Carthaginians to give up Spain which was now made a Roman province. Half a century later the Romans, alarmed at the growing wealth and prosperity of Carthage and covet- ing her rich commerce, determined to destroy their hated rival. The Carthaginians were willing to do almost anything to avoid another war. First they gave the Romans three hundred children as hostages. ''The mothers, who gave them up, clung to the little ones with frantic cries and seized hold of the ships and of the officers who were taking them away.'' HANNIBAL Rome's greatest enemy. WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 85 Now said the Roman consuls, ''If you sincerely desire peace, why do you need arms? Surrender them." The Carthaginians protested but in their great desire for peace they finally gave up their weapons and armor. Then the Romans told them of their determi- nation to destroy Carthage. The Carthaginians were furious and resolved to A ROMAN ARMY ON THE MARCH defend their city to the last drop of their blood. They worked night and day to make new weapons. They even used the temples for workshops and the women cut off their hair and made it into bowstrings. For three years the men of Carthage gallantly repulsed every assault of the Romans. But the time came when they could resist no longer. The Romans forced their way into the city and killed all the people. Then they utterly destroyed Carthage and sowed salt upon the place where it stood in order that nothing 86 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA might grow there. Rome was now mistress of the shores of the western Mediterranean. Roman Conquests. — Before the final downfall of Carthage, Rome had turned her attention to the eastern lands with their rich cities and their highly civilized Greek people. In a series of great wars she conquered the various nations into which the empire of Alexander the Great had been broken up after his death. Macedon, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt were all finally brought under the sway of Rome. But the Romans were not yet satisfied. Their greatest soldier, Julius Caesar, conquered Gaul, the land we now call France. The Roman conquests were continued until all Europe west and south of the Rhine and the Danube, western Asia, and northern Africa became the territories of the Roman people. Rome ruled the known world. Well might her greatest poet write: **But thou, O Roman, remember to govern the tribes of thy Empire, These be thine arts to impose the conditions of peace on the conquered. Sparing the captives in war, and crushing the haughty in battle." What the Romans Learned from the Greeks. — When the Romans conquered the countries about the eastern Mediterranean Sea they came in contact with peoples who were more highly civilized than they were themselves. They carried the plunder of rich Greek cities to Rome. In time trade sprang up between the east and the west. Roman soldiers who lived in the east came to know the manners and behefs of the Greek world and to adopt some of them. WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 87 Thousands of Greeks who had been carried to Rome as slaves, or who had come there to make their for- tunes, brought the customs and the ideas of their home land with them. In all these ways the Romans learned many things from the Greeks. The Romans now began to imitate the Greek ways of living. Greek games and amusements were intro- duced into Rome. Greek ath- letes were employed to amuse the people. Theaters like those of the Greeks began to be built. The very plays acted upon the stage were borrowed from the Greeks. These plays were at- tended by great throngs of people. In the early days Roman edu- cation was confined to the home. The Roman virtues and the duties of every-day hfe were ^a^rchmS^T "^'" ^ '''°" ""^ taught to the boys by their fathers and to the girls by their mothers. Now the Romans began to adopt the schools of the Greeks. Educated Greek slaves became the teachers of the Roman children. It became the custom for every well-educated Roman child to learn the Greek language. This made it possible for the Romans to read the splendid literature of the Greeks. Many a young Roman finished his education by taking a journey through the Greek lands. The Romans had very little literature of their own until after the Greek schoolmasters began to come to their country. Then books began to be written ^ %j^ " " wm w '^^Otim i ^^M-- A Vjt ^^ g ^3 1 B A ROMAN BOY STUDY- ING HIS LESSON Notice that the Roman book 88 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA in Latin, the language of the Romans. At first these Latin books were Httle more than translations of Greek works. But in time there came to be a great Latin literature, which is studied in our high schools and colleges at the present day. Among the spoils which the Romans took from the THE PANTHEON A beautiful temple in Rome dedicated to all the gods of the Romans. conquered Greek cities were many beautiful pictures and statues. These were carried to Rome by the shipload. In this way the Romans began to appreciate beautiful things. Their own art grew out of their efforts to copy or imitate the Greek works which they possessed. They were even more attracted by the beauty of the Greek temples. Presently stately WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 89 public buildings patterned after the Greek temples began to be built in Rome. We shall see how the Romans helped to hand on to us all the good things that they borrowed from the Greeks. How Rome Became an Empire. — The people and the property in the countries which the Romans conquered were at the mercy of the victorious soldiers. Some of the people were sold into slavery and most of the mov- able property was carried off to Rome. The Roman wars of Exterior. ENTRANCe Cross-section. conquest continued for centuries, and in the course of time the Romans grew rich upon the spoils of plundered cities. When the Romans became wealthy they were no longer satisfied with the simple life of their earlier days. They began to build fine houses, to adorn them with oriental rugs, Greek statues, and costly furnishings, and to surround them with beau- tiful gardens. They and their wives began to wear Floor plan. A FINE ROMAN HOUSE 90 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA fine linen and silk instead of the plain woolen dress of the early Romans. New kinds of food were intro- duced. People began to recline on couches at dinner, after the eastern fashion. Troops of slaves did the work made necessary by these changes in the Roman mode of life. In fact, all the luxuries of the conquered countries were brought to Rome. All these things cost a great deal of money. So the Romans continued to plunder their provinces and to make the people of the provinces pay very heavy taxes. A class of rich tax-gatherers and bankers grew up at Rome. Money became the god of the Romans and they were willing to do anything to get it. In the earlier days each Roman had thought first of his duty to his country. Now every man was striving to get everything that he could for himself. Only a few of the Romans shared in the wealth stolen from the conquered lands. The mass of the people were poorer than ever. Once all Italy had been a land of small farms. Now rich men seized or bought the land. Great plantations, worked by slaves who were captured in the wars, took the place LIFE IN A ROMAN HOME This picture is from a restoration of a fine Roman house at Pompeii. ROMAIV EMPIRE AT ITS GREATEST EXTENT Under Trajan 98-117 A.D. SCALE OF MILES 100 200 300 400 500 Longitude West 0'^ Longitude East 10" from Greenwich 20 WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 91 of the small farms. There were slaves everywhere and the Romans were harsh masters. Sometimes the slaves rebelled against them, but these insurrec- tions were always put down with great cruelty. Mean- while the poorer Romans drifted into the city. Rome thus came to have a vast population of poor citizens who found it very hard to get the plainest kind of a living. Sometimes grain was sold to them at half price, or even given to them, by the government. Naturally people would not work when they could get food for nothing, and soon a large part of the population of Rome was living in vicious idleness at the public expense. The old Roman ideas of right and wrong no longer existed. Rome was corrupted by greed and power. The honest, hard-working Roman of the earlier days had become lazy and immoral. The loyalty and patriotism of the early republic were gone. The votes of the citizens were freely bought and sold. Rome, in conquering the world, had ruined her own people. There were still good men in Rome who saw these evils clearly. But most of them shrank from a struggle with the powerful rich men who controlled the govern- ment. The work of reform was begun by a noble young Roman named Tiberius Gracchus. His fii'st purpose was to restore the land to the people. In urging that this should be done he said, ^^The wild beasts of Italy have their dens, but the brave men who spill their blood for her are without homes or settled habitations. The private soldiers fight and die to advance the luxury of the great, and they are 92 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA called masters of the world without having a sod to call their own." Though successful for a short time, Tiberius Gracchus was soon killed by the selfish Romans. Later his brilliant younger brother, Gains, took up the work of reform, only to meet the same fate. After the failure of the Gracchi, ambitious generals began to fight for power over the Roman world. .,.__^ Nearly a hundred years of civil strife followed. A master was needed to stop these wars and give the country peace. At last this master was found in Julius Caesar, the greatest of the Romans. Caesar had great plans for reform, but was killed by the envious and jealous Romans before he could carry them out. More civil war fol- lowed his death and finally Augustus Caesar rose to supreme power. Rome was henceforth to be ruled by one man with a great army to support him. The repubUc had become an empire. - - , ^^ The establishment of the empire was a great blessing to the distracted people of the Roman world. Peace and order were once more established. The provinces were no longer robbed by selfish rich men at Rome, but were justly ruled by governors responsible to the emperor. Their frontiers were defended and their trade encouraged. Under the empire Roman civili- zation reached its highest development. The Roman emperors ruled the world for nearly five hundred years. JULIUS CE.SAR The greatest of the Romans. WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 93 The Age of Augustus, as the long reign of the first emperor is called, is the most brilliant period in Homan history. It was the boast of Augustus that he found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble. With the return of peace and order, hterature and art took on new life. Livy, the most famous Latin his- torian, pictured the noble men and the stirring scenes in the early history of Rome. Vergil and Horace, the greatest of Latin poets, wrote at this time, of Augustus. THE ROMAN FORUM The Forum was a public square in the heart of ancient Rome. In it the early Romans held their political meetings. Later the public build- mgs of the government stood about it. The Forum was the center of the Roman world. Jesus was born during the Age 94 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA What the Romans did for the World. — The Roman Empire included nearly all the known world of its time. The first good gift that the Romans gave the world was peace. Before the countries composing the empire was conquered by the Romans, the various 1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^1 ^P^ ifll *'■■;: ■vSAii«*iK^ THE APPIAN WAY This is one of the splendid roads which ran from Rome to all parts of the empire. It is still in use. tribes and peoples who lived in them had been almost constantly at war with each other. Under the rule of the Romans these countries enjoyed peace and order for several centuries. In many parts of the empire this long period of quiet gave an opportunity for civilized ways of living to develop. The Romans gave the people in their empire a WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 95 better government than they had ever had before. The emperor and his officers ruled the empire and its provinces, but the people in the cities and towns were permitted to manage their local affairs in their own way. Our plan of letting the people in each city govern themselves is a Roman idea. The law of the Romans has had a great influence in making the laws of the various European countries and of America what they are now. The Romans united the world which they governed. They built magnificent paved roads leading from Rome to all parts of the empire. These roads were so sohdly constructed that many of them still remain to mark the lands where Rome has ruled. Over them people from all parts of the empire traveled to and fro. Along them flowed the commerce of the world. They helped to tie the empire together and to make it one in manners, customs, and ways of living. The best things in the civilizations of all the ancient countries were gathered together and called Roman. The Romans gave the world a common language. At first Latin was spoken only in Rome and its immediate vicinity. After the Romans had conquered Italy it spread to the entire peninsula. Later the soldiers, colonists, and merchants of the time carried the speech of the Romans to all the countries of southern and western Europe, where it was eagerly taken up by the natives. The Roman Empire fell, as we shall see, but Latin still lives as the foundation of the languages of Italy, France, and Spain. More- over there are so many Latin words in our own English 96 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA language that we can scarcely speak a sentence with- out using some of them. All of this time the Romans had to defend their empire against dangerous enemies. Beyond the Rhine and the Danube were warUke tribes of bar- barians who were always threatening to invade the " THE COLISEUM This was a great amphitheater in which both men and wild beasts fought for the amusement of the Roman people. It is said to have seated more than 80,000 spectators. rich lands of the Roman provinces. For hundreds of years Roman armies defended the frontier against these dangerous foes, and thus gave the people of southern and western Europe an opportunity to develop their civilization. The Romans did much to introduce and develop civilized ways of living in Europe. Their colonists cleared and improved the land, and built houses, roads, and bridges. Everywhere in the provinces WHAT WE OWE TO THE ROMANS 97 splendid cities grew up to become centers of Roman life and influence. The Romans were famous builders. Their cities all over the empire contained amphitheaters and circuses for shows and games, arches and columns in memory THE RUINS OF A ROMAN AQUEDUCT The water supply of Rome was brought from the mountains through pipes supported on these arches. of Roman victories, great aqueducts which brought abundant supplies of pure water, and splendid court houses and other public buildings. The builders of modern Europe and America are indebted for much of their knowledge to the architects of ancient Rome. All that the Greeks and the earher civilized peoples of the East had learned they taught to the Romans. 98 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA The Romans saved this knowledge from destruction by barbarous tribes and handed it on to the peoples of western Europe. In the course of time these Europeans brought it to America. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. Find all the geographical differences between Italy and Greece. 2. Read the story of Horatius as it is told in Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome." 3. Have we classes of people today who are in any way hke the patricians and plebeians of ancient Rome? 4. Draw a map showing aU the countries in the Roman Empire. 5. What quaHties of the Romans do you admire? Did they possess any which you dislike? 6. Do roads help to bind our country together as they did the prov- inces of the Roman Empire? 7. Make a list of all the things that we have inherited from the Romans. BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Ancient Histories by West, Westerman, Goodspeed, Webster, Bots- ford, and Myers. Seignobos: History of Ancient Civilization. Botsf ord : History of Rome. Shuckburgh : History of Rome. Abbott: Short History of Rome. Preston and Dodge: The Private Life of the Romans. Inge: Social Life in Rome under the Ccesars. Church: Roman Life in the Days of Cicero. BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Tappan : The Story of the Roman People. Haaren and Poland: Famous Men of Rome. Yonge: Young Folks' History of Rome. Guerber: The Story of the Romans. Macaulay: Lays of Ancierit Rome. Harding: The City of the Seven Hills. Church: Stories from Vergil. Clarke: The Story of Coesar. Gould: The Children's Plutarch. Church; The Lords of the World. CHAPTER VI THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION The Life and Teachings of Jesus. — In the days of the first Roman emperor, Jesus was born in Palestine. At that time, Palestine was a province of Rome, and the Jews were cruelly treated by the Roman governors. The Jews yearned for their political freedom, and looked for a deliverer. When Jesus arose as a teacher and leader of his people, his lofty principles and moral courage and personal magnetism led his disciples and followers to believe that he was the one for whom the Jews were looking to deliver them from the yoke of the Romans. Upon one occasion, they made a processional entry into Jerusalem, the capital of the nation, with their master at its head, and proclaimed him ^^Kingof the Jews." This proclamation was considered treason by (99) A STREET SCENE IN JERUSALEM 100 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA the Romans, and in consequence thereof, Jesus was seized and punished with crucifixion — the Roman mode of dealing with pohtical offenders. The teachings of Jesus seemed very strange to the men of the Roman world. The Greeks and the Romans beheved that there were many gods, whom they tried to please by offering sacrifices to them. Jesus taught that there is but one God, and that the way to please him is by loving all men and trying to help them. He taught that love is the greatest thing in the world. Jesus gave the world its finest rule of conduct when he said, ^^ Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Jesus was the first teacher of real democracy in the world. We have seen that many of the Greek cities had democratic governments, but only a small body of citizens had a part in them. In every Greek city there were many slaves and other residents who had no voice in the government. Jesus never made a difference between men. He taught that all are equal in the sight of God. As men have more and more come to believe this, they have striven to win equal rights and equal privileges for all. Real democracy means that all men shall enjoy equal rights and equal opportunities. The religions of Greece and Rome did little to teach men to be good or to do right. Jesus taught that all men everywhere ought to be good. In his own pure and unselfish life he gave the world its highest ideal of character. His teachings have never been fully adopted even in Christian countries. The best of men fall far short of following closely in his BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 101 footsteps. But in spite of all this, his life and his words have been the greatest influence in developing the civiUzation that we now enjoy. The Beginnings of the Church. — When Jesus was crucified he had only a little band of followers or disciples. The first converts to the Chris- tian religion were made in Jerusalem and in the other cities of Palestine. At first it was thought that the new faith was intended only for the Jews. Then Saint Peter, the leader of the apostles, taught that the message of the Christ was for all peoples. Peter is beUeved to have been the founder of the church at Rome. Among the early converts to the Christian faith was a Jewish tentmaker, Saul of Tarsus. After he became a Christian he was called Paul. This great man did more than any one else to make Christianity a religion for all men. For thirty years he traveled far and wide in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, telling the story of Jesus with burning eloquence. Before his death he had gathered together in many of the cities of the eastern Roman Empire little groups of PAUL PR EACH I XG AT ATHENS 102 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA men and women who were trying to live the Christian Ufe. Paul wrote letters to many of the churches which he had founded, explaining the teachings of Jesus as he understood them. Four different accounts of the life and work of Jesus were also written. These narratives and letters, with a few other early Christian writings, make up the New Testament of the Bible. At first the Christian churches were little groups of believers, who met to worship together. The Chris- tians of each community thought of themselves as brothers and gave freely of their property to support the widows, the poor, and the sick in their midst. Very soon it seemed best that certain officers should be appointed in each church to attend to the necessary business. Those who took care of the property and looked after the wants of the poor were called deacons. The leaders in each church, who taught the other mem- bers and celebrated the religious ceremonies, were called elders or priests. Besides these officers there was in each city a head of the church called the bishop. At first all these church officers continued to earn their own living just as the rest of the church members did. As their duties increased they gradually came to be separated from the other members and supported by them. The officers now came to be called the clergy. The Romans Persecute the Christians. — From its beginning the faith of the Christians was tried by persecution. Jesus, its great founder, was crucified. Stephen, the first martyr, was stoned to death. BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 103 Nearly all the twelve apostles paid for their faith with their lives. Paul, the '^Apostle to the Gentiles/' was attacked again and again, and at last his life was taken. When the Christian religion began to spread over the Roman world it was hated by the pagan people everywhere. There were some reasons for this feeling. The Romans believed in a great many deities. For example, one of their gods presided over war and another over commerce. They had one goddess who watched the flocks and another who caused the grain to ripen. The Romans were willing to add the God of the Christians to those that they already worshipped, but they were not willing to throw away their own gods. This, however, was the very thing that the Christians demanded. They declared that the gods of Rome were false gods and that they must not be worshipped. Consequently they refused to do any- thing that would honor or even recognize the gods of Rome. They also refused to worship the Roman emperor as a god as the law required. They would not attend the religious feasts or entertainments of the time, nor go to the fights of the gladiators, nor even send their children to the schools. Because the Christians thus refused to join in the social and religious life of the people about them they were called ^^ haters of mankind." It is not strange that such people were misunderstood. The Roman people feared the Christians almost as much as they disliked them. All sorts of false stories were told about the awful things they did in their secret meetings. If any great disaster happened 104 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA the Christians were thought to have caused it. One of the early Christian writers says, ^'If the Tiber rises, if the Nile does not rise, if the heavens give no rain, if there is an earthquake, famine, or pestilence, straightway the cry is ^The Christians to the lions/'' For a time at first the followers of Christ had attracted little attention from the Roman govern- Vrrni a vo-inilng hy Gerome "THE CHRISTIANS TO THE LIONS" A group of Christians have been condemned to be torn to death by wild beasts in the Coliseum. Such spectacles delighted the Roman people. ment. The emperors did not care what the Christians believed. But when they learned that the Christians scorned the gods of the nation, would not serve in the army, and were holding secret meetings contrary to the law, they decided to suppress them by force. At intervals for nearly three hundred years the Christians were persecuted throughout the empire. During this time there were thousands of victims. Some were tortured in every way that the cruelty BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 105 of their persecutors could invent. Many were be- headed, or burned, or crucified. Great numbers were thrown to the wild beasts in the amphitheater. In facing this awful persecution the early Christians gave us the noblest example of heroic courage, fortitude in suffering, and unfaltering devotion to a great cause in all the history of the world. When Blandina, a young girl, was tortured from morning until night to force her to give up her faith, she continued stead- fast in saying, ^'I am a Christian; among us no evil is done." When the aged bishop. Poly carp, was commanded to curse Christ, he answered, ''Six and eighty years have I served Him, and He has done me nothing but good, and how could I curse Him. my Lord and my Saviour!" Instead of crushing out the religion of Christ, persecution onl}^ strengthened it and caused it to spread. The Christians who suffered were called martyrs, which means witnesses. The martyrs were steadily convincing people of the truth of a faith whose followers willingly and even joyously gave their lives for it. It was true, as one of the early Christians said, that ''The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church." The Triumph of the Church. — The persecution of the Christians was most severe in the third century. Yet it was just at that time that the followers of Christ were increasing more rapidly than ever before. The inspiring influence of the martyrs was not the only reason for this growth. At a time when men were losing faith in the old gods of Greece and Rome the Christians were filled with zeal and energy. 106 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Multitudes of people turned eagerly to a religion that taught them to be loving and helpful to each other in this life and gave them a sure hope of a better life in another world. The existence of the Roman Empire itself helped the missionaries of the new faith to do their work. Its splendid roads gave ready access to every part of the known world. The fact that the Latin language was known and used everywhere made it easy to preach the gospel to all people. By building up its empire Rome had prepared the way for the rapid growth of the Christian religion. The story is told that as the emperor, Constantine, was going into battle he thought he saw a cross of light in the sky with these words upon it: ''In this sign thou shalt conquer." Constantine won the battle, and soon afterward, early in the fourth century, he issued an order saying, ''We grant to the Christians and to all others free choice to follow the mode of worship they may wish." From this time the perse- cution of the Christians ceased. After it met with the favor of the emperor, Chris- tianity spread more rapidly than ever. Great numbers of people soon accepted it. Belief in the gods of Greece and Rome steadily passed away. Before the end of the fourth century another emperor pro- hibited the old pagan worship under pain of death. All the pagan temples were now torn down or changed into Christian churches. This triumph of the Christian church was a long step toward better living in the world. The orphans, the poor, and the sick are far better cared for in BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 107 Christian countries than in pagan lands. After Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire the slaves were better treated, many of them were freed, and the brutal games of the gladiators were finally stopped. While Christianity was winning its way in the Roman Empire the organization of the church was developing. In the course of time the bishops in the great cities Uke Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople, Antioch, and Jerusalem came to be looked upon as the leaders in the church. After the emperors made Christianity the religion of the empire these bishops became officers of the state. They were no longer poor and persecuted, but rich and powerful. It is believed that Peter, the leader of the apostles, was the first bishop of Rome and that his successors have inherited his authority as the head of the church. In time the bishop of Rome came to be called the pope; and after the Roman Empire fell, he became the most influential person in Europe. Rome had so long been the capital of the world that it was natural for people to receive commands from it. Moreover, the missionaries sent out by the bishop of Rome had done so much to spread the Christian faith in western Europe that the people of that region looked up to him with affection and loyalty. How the Monasteries Began.— In the days when Christianity was first winning its way in the world there were many men who thought that one could not become a perfect Christian while living among other people. Instead of fighting against the wicked- ness in the world about them these men fled from 108 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA their homes into the desert or the wilderness. Here each of them Hved all alone, because he thought that such a life was the surest way to win salvation. The men who lived in this way were called hermits. The hermits soon found out that they could not get on for any great length of time without associating with other people. So they came together in little groups or communities. At first each hermit dwelt in his own hut. Presently the members of the com- munity began to live under one roof. The house which this group of men built for themselves was called a monastery. The men who lived in the monastery were monks. When a group of women lived in this way their dwelling place was a convent and the inmates were called nuns. The monks promised obedience to an elder brother in the monastery who was called the abbot. They also promised not to marry and not to own property of any kind. In time there were monasteries every- where in the Christian world. As we shall see, they played a great part in civilizing the barbarians who overthrew the Roman Empire. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. How do the people in countries that are not Christian number the years? 2. Try to find out how the Greeks and the Romans counted time. 3. Is our government a real democracy? 4. How are the poor cared for today? 5. What is meant by the statement, "The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church?" 6. In what ways is the Christian religion better than the religions of Greece and Rome? 7. Find upon the map all the cities mentioned in this chapter. BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 109 BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Emerton : Introduction to the Middle Ages, Chapter IX. Fisher: The Beginnings of Christianity. Farrar: The Life of Christ. Rhees: The Life of Jesus of Nazareth. BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Tappan: The Old, Old Story. Stewart: The Shepherd of Us All. Lang: The Book of Saints and Heroes. CHAPTER VII THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE The Early Germans. — North of the Alps, and beyond the Rhine and the Danube, lay a vast region covered with dense forests and endless marshes. Besides the From a pamting hy Tliumann AN EARLY GERMAN VICTOR The leader of a German tribe and his followers are returning from a battle with the Romans, bringing prisoners and spoils with them. Germany of today it included the present Holland, Denmark, and part of Austria. High mountain ranges kept the people of this section of Europe from easily coming in contact with the early civilization upon the shores of the Mediterranean. Hence, they were very (110) BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE 111 much slower than the Greeks or the ItaUans in adopt- ing civihzed ways of living. The Romans called the people who lived in the country beyond the Rhine and the Danube the Ger- mans. Tacitus, a great Latin historian, who wrote a famous book about the Germans, tells us that they were all large men wdth long yellow hair and fierce blue eyes. He says that they loved war and thought it tame and stupid to acquire by the sweat of toil what they might win by their blood. The Romans had good reason to know that the Germans were fierce fighters, for , ,, \, A VILLAGE OF THE EARLY GERMANS though they often tried to conquer them they never succeeded in doing it. When we first hear of the Germans they were still barbarians. They lived in rude huts near which the women and old men cultivated small patches of land. When not engaged in war the men hunted in the forests or fished in the streams. The greater part of their food consisted of milk, cheese, and meat from their cattle. The warriors were fond of feasting, drinking, and gambling. In many respects the early Germans lived much as the American Indians did when the white man first became acquainted with them. Unlike the early Greeks and Romans, the Germans did not like to live in cities. They built their homes in the country or in small villages. A group of neigh- 112 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA WODEN The chief god of the Germans. They thought that he was the ruler of heaven and earth. boring villages formed a tribe. Some of the German tribes had kings, others elected their strongest and bravest warrior to lead them in battle. Important matters were decided at a meeting of all the fighting men of the tribe. The Germans worshipped the powers of nature: the sun, the moon, fire, and the seasons. They thought these forces were gods and goddesses and they had a name for each one of them. Woden, for example, was the father of all the gods and the creator of the world. Thor was the fierce god of war who made the thunder with his mighty hammer. The names of some of the days in our week remind us of these old German deities. Wednesday, for instance, is Woden's day and Thursday means Thor's day. The Germans had no temples, but each man prayed to the gods in his own home, and the priests held public worship in sacred groves. Though they were not yet civilized, the early Germans had many admir- able quahties. They reverenced women, told the truth, and were earnest, brave, and strong. They had an intense love of freedom, and resisted with all their might every effort to take it from them. THOR Thor was believed to be the son of Woden. He fought the ice-giants with his hammer; so he was the enemy of winter. BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE 113 The Germans, like the Greeks, told many stories about the exploits of their early heroes. The most famous of these German hero tales was finally written down in a great poem called the Song of the Nibelungs. This poem is about the life and death of Siegfried who slew a terrible dragon with his magic sword and won a great treasure. But this treasure brought a curse upon every one who owned it. Siegfried was slain by .d\i _,^''v^^||HB^H 1 1 1 ^^9HK"% M H^ B fwS^^^ X^ mm i 'J 1 m") i M 1 f^^wmrt'^'^^^ M %p 15 ^^ m ^ 1 wt-^^ ^■1 f ^«oP 1 ml ' 4 ^Br #^g w^ ;^HB f^ ^ ^B 1 H "^ ^^s U yP k^i w ^^D I 1 1 From a painting by Blanc THE BAPTISM OF CLOVIS BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE 123 people held sacred to Woden and building a Christian chapel from its timbers. This story is beautifully told by Henry Van Dyke in ''The First Christmas Tree." Through the efforts of Saint Boniface, and of other Christian missionaries who continued his work, the last German barbari- ans were won for the church. Our Debt to the German Peo- ples. — We have seen that the men who Uved before the dawn of his- tory, the Egyp- tians and the Babylonians, the Hebrews, the Greeks, the Ro- mans, and the founder of Chris- tianity, all did much to make the world what it is today. The early Germans, who were the ancestors of most of the modern European nations, made an important addi- tion to what all these had done. They had a large part in giving us our present civilization. The first great gift of the German peoples to our modern world was their own sturdy manliness. When From an old print ST. BONIFACE CUTTING DOWN THE SACRED OAK 124 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA they came into the Roman Empire, its people were worn out with many wars and with wicked ways of living. The Germans filled western Europe with fresh blood and youthful vigor. From their union with the Roman inhabitants came the peoples who have done the larger share of the work of the world ever since the fall of Rome. The English, Scotch, Dutch, Germans, Scandinavians, French, Spanish, and Italians, who have become Americans, are, wholly or in part, of Germanic origin. Thus the early German peoples were our own ancestors. The early Germans gave the world new ideas and new institutions as well as new blood. Our townships and counties, our laws and our lawmaking bodies at our state capitals and at Washington, have grown from the ways in which the early Germans managed their affairs. They were a proud, free, and liberty loving people. This spirit they have handed on to us. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. What European countries of today were included in the Roman Empire? 2. What is meant by "the love of freedom"? Do we have it? 3. What virtues did the early Germans think most praiseworthy? 4. Great numbers of foreigners come into our country every year. How does their coming differ from the coming of the German people into the Roman Empire? 5. Look up the meaning of ''vandalism." Where do we get this word? 6. What people before the Franks had saved Europe from Asiatic invaders? 7. W^hat German tribes are mentioned in this chapter? Associate each of them with some country in modern Europe. 8. Make a list of all the peoples, so far mentioned in this book, who helped to give us our civilization. BEGINNINGS OF MODERN EUROPE 125 BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Emerton: An Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages. Church: The Beginning of the Middle Ages. Henderson : A Short History of Germany. Seignobos : History of Mediccval and Modern Civilization, Chapters I-V. Adams: Civilization during the Middle Ages, Chapters IV, V, VII. BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Haaren and Poland: Famous Men of the Middle Ages. Button : Little Stories of Germany. Van Dyke: The First Christmas Tree. Oilman: "In the German Woods Long Ago" in Magna Charta Stories. Tappan : European Hero Stories. CHAPTER VIII THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH The Island of Britain. — Great Britain and Ireland are islands in the Atlantic Ocean close to the western coast of Europe. All Americans who are of English, Scotch, Irish, or Welsh descent may look upon these islands as their old home. These races from the British Islands have done more to make our country than all the people who have come to America from the continent of Europe. We speak the Enghsh language. Our ways of governing ourselves and our habits and ideas are much hke those of the Enghsh race. For these reasons we shall give especial atten- tion to the story of the making of England. The island of Great Britain, which includes England, Scotland, and Wales, is nearly twice the size of Pennsylvania or a little larger than the state of Kansas. It is so near the continent of Europe that on a clear day the white cliffs of Dover may be seen from the coast of France. It has always been easy for the people of Britain and of the neighboring continent to pass back and forth across this narrow sea, yet this same bit of water has often guarded the people of the island against their enemies on the mainland. Nature has done much to help the inhabitants of Great Britain to make a hving. The soil in the valleys is fertile. Great crops of grain and vegetables are (126) BRITISH ISLES SCALE OF MILES Over 3000 tt. 1500-3000 ft. Copyright 1913 by the Juliu C.Wrasiun Co 8 IjOiigilude Green wieli THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 127 grown, but most of the country is too cool to bring the finer fruits to perfection. Nowhere else in the world can better horses, cattle, and sheep be found. The surrounding seas abound in fish. Tin, copper, and iron are plentiful in the hills and the whole country is rich in coal. There are many fine harbors on the coast, and numerous rivers made it easy for the early traders to carry their goods far into the interior. The British Islands are as far north as Labrador, but the south- west winds, which blow from the Atlantic Ocean nearly all the year, give them a mild climate. These warm wet winds from the ocean, breaking against the moun- tains of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, give those countries too much mist and rain, but bring enough moisture to England to make its vegetation grow luxuri- antly. The warm moist cUmate of the British Islands clothes them in a vivid green. It gives them noble forest trees, beautiful flowers, and some of the most charm- ing landscapes in the world. Truly did Shakespeare, the greatest of English poets, call his native land — "This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war; This happy breed of men, this httle world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands." Cov^- Undirauod d- Underuood ENGLISH LANDSCAPE 128 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA The Angles and the Saxons. — The island of Britain was conquered by the Romans in the first century. For more than three hundred years it was a Roman province. During this time the Romans cleared and drained much of the land, built roads, worked the mines, and introduced Roman ways of living. But the native Britons never adopted the Roman ways so completely as did the people of Gaul and Spain. When Rome could no longer defend her empire against the swarm of barbarians from the north, she abandoned Britain to its fate. The barbarous German tribes across the North Sea soon began to visit the island with fire and sword. The Brit- ons defended them- selves as best they could, but in the end their country, like the other provinces of the Roman Empire, was overrun by the Germans. Two of the German tribes, the Angles and the Saxons, were the most important of those that settled in Britain. England simply means Angle-land and the English people are frequently called the Anglo-Saxons. From this you see that the earliest fatherland of the English race was in the northwestern corner of Ger- many. In the rude and simple life which they lived in their little villages or in the open country, in their grim joy in hard fighting, and in their religious ideas. -'^-^K^§e^^^^^.#^-^^ SAXON SHIPS NEARING THE COAST OF ENGLAND THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 129 the Angles and Saxons were like the rest of the German peoples who overthrew the Roman Empire and helped to make the nations of modern Europe. Fortunately, these earliest ancestors of the English have told us what kind of men they were. As he is dying of wounds received in battle, one of their kings says, ''I have this folk ruled this fifty winters. Lives there no folk-king of kings about me — not any one of them— dare in the war-strife welcome my onset. I have held my own fairly, sought not to snare men; oath never sware I falsely against right. So for all this may I be glad at heart now, sick though I sit here wounded with death-wounds!" The English were a sturdy folk, full of vigor and of the joy of hfe. They cared more for a good name than for life itself. ''Well shall a man do when in the strife he minds but of winning longsome renown, nor for his hfe cares!" sings one of their heroes. If life is short, they thought man has all the more cause to work bravely. ''Each man of us shall abide the end of his life work; let him that may work, work his doomed deeds ere death come!" The Conquest of Britain.— The Angles and Saxons loved the sea almost as much as they loved war. In their long ships, each driven by fifty oars, they roved far and wide, plundering as they went. A Roman who lived at the time says: "they are fierce beyond other foes and cunning as they are fierce; the sea is their school of war and the storm their friend; they are sea-wolves that prey on the pillage of the world!" The EngHsh first came to the shores of Britain as bands of pirates. Soon they saw that it was a good land and 130 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA began to make their homes in it. In some respects the coming of the early EngHsh to Britain was very much like the settlement of their descendants a thousand years later upon the coast of America. In both cases the new- comers slew the natives, or drove them before them as they slowly pushed into the interior of the country. The conquest of Britain by the Angles and Saxons took a long time and was attended by great cruelty and suffering. The pagan Saxons tell us that the natives fled before them ^'as from fire." A British monk tells the same story. Some of his people, he says, ^^were caught in the hills and slaughtered; others, worn out with hunger, gave themselves up to life-long slavery. Some fled across the sea; others trusted themselves to the clefts of the mountains, to the forests, and to the rocks along the coast." Not all the Britons perished in this conquest of the island. Those who became the slaves of the invaders remained in the country, and in the course of time w^ere united with their conquerors and thus helped to make the English people. Those who were driven into the mountains of the west and the north became the ancestors of the Welsh and the Highland Scotch. The Irish people are closely akin to these descend- ants of the ancient Britons. The Angles and Saxons did not come to Britain as one nation. Each tribe had its own leader, and several little kingdoms grew up in the country. For a long time these petty kingdoms fought among themselves. Wessex in the south proved to be the strongest of the English states, and after many years Egbert, its king, became the first king of all England. THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 131 The Conversion of the English. — The Christian religion was first introduced into Britain while it was a Roman province. When the Angles and Saxons came to the island they were still pagans. Like the other early Germans, they worshipped the powers of nature. As they killed or drove away its Christian inhabitants Britain became once more a heathen country, which had to be won a second time to the Christian faith. The early English, hke the Romans, sold their prisoners of war into slavery. So many captives were taken in the struggles between the petty kingdoms in England that the slave markets of Europe were filled with English slaves. One day Gregory, a Roman monk, was attracted by the fair faces and golden hair of some of the children who were offered for sale in the market at Rome. '^From what country do these slaves come? " he asked. ^^They are Angles," answered the slave dealer who brought them. ^'Not Angles, but angels," said Gregory, ^^for they have angelic faces." In his zeal, Gregory determined to carry the Chris- tian religion to the distant home of the bright-faced English slaves. Before he was able to accomplish this purpose he was made pope. He did not forget his plan, however, and when he could he organized a missionary party to go to England. Augustine was GREGORY AND THE ENGLISH SLAVES 132 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA made the leader of this first Christian mission to the Enghsh people. Augustine, with about forty other monks, landed upon the shores of Kent, a little kingdom in the south- east of England. Bertha, the queen of Kent, was a Christian princess from France. Possibly because of her influence the king received Augustine kindly and ^'^-^^ ;'/:v';tIx^iKwi;iiij'.gif:;!;'4^^^ ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, CANTERBURY This quaint little church, sometimes called the "Mother Church of England," is said to be the place where the king of Kent was baptized. permitted him to hve in Canterbury, the capital of the kingdom. After a httle time the king and many of his people accepted the Christian faith and were baptized. Canterbury has remained the capital of the English church until this day. Greatly encouraged by their first success, the mis- sionaries pressed on to win the whole island for the church. On one occasion, when they called upon a king in the north of England to accept the teachings THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 133 of Christ he gathered his wise men about him and asked their advice. One aged chief arose and said, ^'0 king, as a bird flies through this hall on a dark and rainy night, coming in out of the darkness and after a minute in the hght vanishing into the dark storm from which it came, even such is our Hfe. If these strangers can tell us anyi;hing of what is beyond, let us give heed to them." This seemed wise to the king. He became a Christian and Christi- anity soon spread among his people. Before the pagan Angles and Saxons con- quered Britain, Patrick, a native of Scotland, was fired with Chris- tian zeal for the con- version of the Irish people. After years of careful preparation he became the great missionary to Ireland, whose patron saint he has remained to the present time. By and by Christian Ireland sent mis- sionaries to the west coast of Scotland, where a famous monastery was built at lona. From lona many mis- sionaries went to the Highlands of Scotland and to the north of England. In the north of England the Irish and Scottish mis- sionaries from lona met the Roman missionaries from the south who were carrying on the work begun by Augustine. Some differences between them were settled in favor of the Roman church. This meant that all the churches in England would be organized ONE OF THE OLDEST CHURCHES IN ENGLAND It was built about 700. 134 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA in one system under the authority of the pope at Rome. The Christian rehgion played a large part in the work of civilizing the barbarous Angles and Saxons. The church gave the people Sunday as a day of rest. The weak and the suffering could always look to the church for help. The monasteries which the mis- sionaries established became centers of Christian teaching and influence. The monks taught the people to work and to pray. They established the first schools and wrote the earliest English literature. The Coming of the Danes. — Three or four hundred years after the Angles and Saxons settled in England the Danes or Northmen, a new race of sea-rovers, came swarming upon its coasts. Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were the home lands of the Northmen. Sometimes they are called Vikings. In language, in their pagan religion, and in their ways of hving they were very much like the early English who first settled in Britain. Though the Danes came at first to plunder, they were on the lookout for new homes, and soon began to stay in England. For many years England suffered fearfully from the ravages of these bold and hardy sea-robbers. In their long, swift boats they would suddenly fall upon the coast or sweep up the rivers far into the interior of the land. Everywhere they went they slew the people, carried off their property, and left behind them a trail of burning houses and wasted fields. Because of their wealth the monasteries were the special object of these attacks. It is no wonder that the frightened monks added this petition to their usual THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 135 prayers: 'Trom the fury of the Northmen, good Lord deliver us!" Before many years the Danes began to bring their families and make permanent settlements, just as the English had done long before. They quickly spread over the northeastern part of the island. It began to 1 Frmn a model in the Commercial Museum, Philadelphia, Pa. A VIKING SHIP look as though all England would become a Danish land. Only the inspiring leadership and heroic fight- ing of Alfred the Great saved the country from this fate. Alfred the Great and his Work. — Alfred was only twenty-three years old when he became king. Already he was a tried soldier, but the odds against him were great. He tells us in his own words that ''he did not 136 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA think he could alone withstand the multitude and ferocity of the pagans." At first he could do little to check the invasion. But he was patient, and after careful preparation he defeated Gu thrum, the Danish leader, in a desperate battle which lasted from sunrise to sunset. Alfred was wise enough to see that he could not drive the Danes out of England alto- gether, so he made a treaty with them which pro- vided that they should live in the northeastern half of the country. The Danes now accepted Christianity, and in the end they became a part of the English people. In his ''Child's History of England," a charming though not always accurate book, Charles Dickens gives us this delightful picture of the mingling of the Danes and the English. The Danes ''plundered and burned no more, but worked like honest men. They plowed, and sowed, and reaped, and led honest English lives. And I hope the children of those Danes played many a time with Saxon children in the sunny fields; and that Danish young men fell in love with Saxon girls, and married them; and that English travelers, benighted at the doors of Danish cottages, often "went in for shelter until morning; and that Danes and Saxons sat by the red fire, friends, talking of King Alfred the Great." Alfred was a wise ruler as well as a gallant soldier. He began by looking after the defenses of his kingdom. He repaired the walls of the cities and built fortified camps. He organized the army in such a way that while one-half of the men were at home, cultivating their farms, the other half were in the field with him. THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 137 To guard the coasts and beat off the sea-robbers he built ships larger and swifter than those of the North- men. Thus, you see, Alfred was the father of the English navy. The long war with the Danes had left England with- out law and order. Trade and commerce had well-nigh ceased to exist. The monasteries and churches were in ruins and the surviving clergy in ignorance, for the schools were nearly all de- stroyed. Alfred gathered the laws into a written code that men might know what they were. He encour- aged manufacturing and trade and rebuilt the churches and monas- teries. He established schools so that his children and those of his nobles might learn to read and write. He gathered men of learn- ing about him and encouraged them to translate good books from Latin into English and to write others of their own. Alfred's work for education and literature is especially famous. Alfred was the noblest of all the English kings. At the close of his life, he could say truthfully, "So long as I have lived, I have striven to live worthily.'' His name is a household word in England to this day. In 1901, one thousand years after his death, the Enghsh built a monument to ^i^afcia ALFRED THE GREAT This picture is from a statue of Alfred which stands in Winchester, the capital of England in his time. 138 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA his memory at his birthplace, these words: Upon it are inscribed "Alfred found learning dead, And he restored it; Education neglected, And he revived it; The laws powerless. And he gave them force; The land ravaged by a fearful enemy, From which he dehvered it." Life in Early England. — In the England of a thou- sand years ago nearly all the people dwelt in little Harvesting Threshing FARM LIFE IN EARLY ENGLAND villages and made their living by cultivating the sur- rounding fields. Wheat, oats, and barley were the principal grains and cabbage was their chief vegetable. The plowing was done with a crude wooden plow drawn by oxen. The grain was cut with a sickle and threshed with a flail. There were many cattle and sheep in the pastures, and great droves of swine fattened on the acorns and beechnuts in the neighbor- ing forests. Every farmer kept poultry and a hive of bees, for honey was used then as we use sugar. THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 139 The cottages in the early EngHsh villages were little better than huts. They had only one story, and commonly only one room. They were built of poles THE HALL IN AN EARLY ENGLISH MANOR HOUSE woven together and plastered with mud. The floor was of earth and the roof was thatched with straw. A few benches, arough table, and a bed of straw in the corner made up the furniture. 140 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Near the village there was a larger and better house in which the chief man of the community lived. This house usually contained a large hall or living room, along the sides of which were sleeping rooms for the members of the family. Glass w^as rarely used in the windows, the wooden shutters of which kept out the wind and rain. Even in the best of houses there was little furniture except tables and benches. A fire in the middle of the hall gave w^armth and some light. The smoke escaped through a hole in the roof. If the owner could afford them, bright-colored tapes- tries, armor, and weapons hung upon the walls of the hall. The early English village produced nearly everything that its people used. Their food came from the fields and pastures, and their firewood from the nearby forest. The people seldom traveled far from home. Their life was a simple round of toil, broken now and then by some rough games and sports. Occasionally a pedler visited the village with a few goods that the people needed. The wandering min- strel who could play and sing or tell stories was always eagerly welcomed. Sometimes the minstrel was a juggler as well, and would amuse the people by throwing knives into the air and catching them as they fell, or by dancing upon his hands with his legs in the air. EARLY ENGLISH JUGCxLERS THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 141 Very slowly cities grew up in places which were favorably situated for trade because they were on rivers, or harbors, or important roads. In such places some men made their living by buying and selling; others were blacksmiths, carpenters, weavers, or shoemakers. It was at this time that London came to be again, as it had been in Roman times, an impor- tant center of trade. Chester, York, and Lincoln were other famous early English cities. The king was at the head of the government in early England. He was assisted by a council of the wise men of the land. In the course of time this royal council grew to be the Parliament which England has today. The kingdom was divided into shires or coun- ties, in each of which the king was represented by an officer called the sheriff. We get the idea of our coun- ties with their sheriffs from England. The township was the smallest division of the country. Our town- ships, in which we elect our local officers and manage our local affairs, come to us from England. The early English had a few ballads about their wars, and in the monasteries a few books were written by the monks. Most of the people cared little for education or learning. Still they possessed certain great virtues which every people who win real success in the world must have. Though they were rough and ignorant, our early English ancestors were strong and fearless, and they loved truth, justice, and freedom. The Coming of the Normans. — About the time that King Alfred was fighting the Danes in England a party of these same Northmen under Rollo. their 142 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA chieftain, succeeded in getting possession of a strip of country across the English Channel upon the northern coast of France. The land in which they settled is called Normandy to this day. These rude sea rovers were quick to learn the ways of the more civilized people among whom they lived. They soon accepted Chris- tianity and in less than a century they had adopted the laws and the language of France. In a word, the WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR LANDING IN ENGLAND Normans had become Frenchmen without losing the vigor and the love of hard fighting of their Northmen ancestors. A little more than a century after the Northmen settled in Normandy, WilHam, a boy only ten years old, became their duke or ruler. William was a sturdy boy, full of fire and energy. He had many enemies but he overcame them all and grew to be a man of great strength and courage.. No man in his army, it was said, could bend the duke's bow. As wise as he was strong, William was a brave soldier and a great ruler. THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 143 When the Enghsh king, Edward, died in 1066, Duke WiUiam of Normandy wanted to be king of England. He claimed that Edward had promised to make him his heir. But the council of the wise men in England gave the crown to Harold, a great English earl. William was very angry and invaded England with a large Norman army. Harold gathered his fighting men and met the Normans in a great battle at Hastings, in the south of England. The English fought with stubborn courage and all day long the mail-clad Norman horsemen charged in vain against Harold's line of foot soldiers. Toward sunset an arrow pierced the eye of the English king and he fell to rise no more. Soon the English line was broken and the battle closed in an awful scene of slaughter. Most of the English leaders were slain as they fought over the body of their king. As night fell the surviving English fled in confusion. The Duke of Normandy had become William the Conqueror of England. William now marched to London, where he was crowned king. There was still much fighting to be done, but in a few years the Conqueror was the master of all England. The land was given to his Norman followers, who thus became the overlords of the English farmers and villagers. Many Normans now came to live in England. In time they mingled with the English inhabitants and so helped to make the English people of today. The Norman Conquest had a very great influence upon England. It increased the power of the king and gave the land a new Norman nobility. It brought 144 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA the country into closer contact with the continent through trade and traveL Everywhere the Normans built great stone castles in place of the wooden halls of the English. The conquest did much to give us the English lan- guage that we use, by adding to the early English speech a large number of French words. As w^e have seen, the French language was made from the Latin. Conse- quently many of the Latin words in our language came into it as a result of the Norman Conquest of England. AN ENGLISH CASTLE BUILT BY THE NORMANS QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. In what ways does the geography of any country influence the Hves of the people who live in it? 2. How do the Irish differ from the English people? 3. In what ways did the Angles and Saxons change after they became Christians? 4. Name all the peoples who have united to form the English race. 5. Why is King Alfred justly caUed the Great? 6. How was grain threshed with a flail? How is it threshed now? 7. From what languages is the English speech derived? BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Histories of England by Cheyney, Thomas, Larson, Terry, Wrong, Andrews, Gardiner, and Green. THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH 145 BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Tappan: England's Story; In the Days of Alfred the Great; In the Days of William the Conqueror. Blaisdell : Stories from English History. Dickens: A Child's History of England. Guerber: The Story of the English. Warren : Stories from English History. Church : Stories from English History. Kiphng: Puck of Pook's Hill. 10 CHAPTER IX LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES How the Common People Lived. — The time from the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century to the discovery of America in 1492 is often called the Middle Ages. It was during this period of a thousand years that the various German tribes — the Saxons, Franks, and many others — were mingling with each other and with the peoples of the Roman provinces in which they had settled. From this union of peoples the races, languages, and life of modern Europe were developing. Many of our ideas and institutions grew up in Europe in the Middle Ages. The people who lived in the Middle Ages used to say that all men were divided into three classes: the com- mon people, who did the work; the nobles, who did the fighting; and the clergy, who did the praying. A vast majority of the people belonged to the first of these classes. The common people did all the work, but they were looked down upon and even despised by the nobles. During the hundreds of years while the barbarian tribes that overran the Roman provinces in western Europe were slowly learning civilized ways of living, it was natural that there should be much disorder and many wars. Yet all through this time of conf vision f he mass of men were hard at work cultivating the soil (146) LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 147 and caring for the domestic animals in order that they as well as all other men might have a supply of food. Very few of the men who did the plowing and the reaping in the Middle Ages were free. Some of them were slaves, but by far the greater number were serfs, that is, they belonged to the land, and while their masters could not sell them, they could not move away from the land which they farmed. Nearly all the land belonged to the nobles or to the church. During a certain number of days in each week the serfs were From an old drawing SERFS AT WORK compelled to work upon the land of their masters or lords. On the other days they were permitted to culti- vate patches of land for themselves, but even then they were required to give part of what they raised to their lord. For example, there is a record of an English serf named Hugh Miller, who was required to work for his lord three days in each week, and in addition to give him one bushel of wheat and eighteen sheaves of oats, three hens and one cock yearly, and five eggs at Easter. These dues varied greatly in different places. The lot of the common people was a hard one during the Middle Ages. They Hved in miserable hovels, their food and clothing were of the coarsest 148 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA kind, and they had httle that they could call their own. They toiled hard, had very few pleasures, and were surrounded by many dangers. Sometimes, made desperate by their miserable condition, the serfs rebelled against their lords, but as a rule these uprisings were put down with great cruelty. Yet little by little, as the Middle Ages drew to an end, the serfs succeeded in getting their freedom. In most of the countries of western Europe they were free men before the discovery of America. In Germany and Russia serfdom lasted until the nineteenth century. We can form a very good idea of the simple way in which a well-to-do family of the common people lived near the close of the Middle Ages from this list of things which we know belonged to such a family: ''2 feather beds, 15 linen sheets, and 4 striped yellow counterpanes. '*1 hand-mill for grinding meal, a pestle and mortar for pounding grain, 2 grain chests, a kneading trough, and 2 ovens over which coals could be heaped for baking. "2 iron tripods on which to hang kettles over the fires; 2 metal pots and 1 large kettle. ''1 metal bowl, 2 brass water jugs, 4 bottles, a copper box, a tin washtub, a metal warming pan, 2 large chests, a box, a cupboard, 4 tables on trestles, a large table, and bench. "2 axes, 4 lances, a crossbow, a scythe, and some other tools." In the earlier Middle Ages nearly all the common people lived in country villages. A few of the old Roman cities still existed. As time passed, towns began to grow up in places favorably situated for trade. It was necessary in those lawless days to build a wall about the town for defense. As a consequence, its buildings were often crowded closely together inside^ the wall and its streets were narrow and crooked. LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 149 As commerce and manufacturing grew in the later Middle Ages many of the towns came to be rich and busy cities. Both the merchants and the workmen in each industry were banded together in gilds, or unions as we should call them. Many of these gilds built splendid halls in which to hold their meetings. At first the towns were obliged to pay dues to the nobles very much as the people of the country villages were. But as the cities grew rich and strong they either bought their freedom or won it with the sword. The citizens of the free towns now learned how to govern themselves. In this way they were fitting themselves to take part in the government of the nation. Life in the Castles. — The nobles who did the fighting in the Middle Ages were far less numerous than the common people who did the work. Still there were many of them and their strong castles could be found everywhere in western Europe. The nobles owned the greater part of the land upon which the farmers worked. But they owned it in a peculiar way, which we must try to understand. It was believed in the Middle Ages that all the land in a kingdom had once belonged to the king, as Eng- land belonged to WilUam the Conqueror after he had conquered it. The king gave large tracts of land in his kingdom to his great nobles. When the king gave •A STREET IN A MEDIAEVAL TOWN Notice how narrow and crooked it is. The gutter is in the center and there are no sidewalks. 150 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA land to a duke or an earl he also gave him the right to govern the people who Hved upon it. The great noble THE WARTBURG This is a good example of a mediseval castle. Notice the great walls and the court- yards within, with the buildings about them. in turn gave a part of his land to lesser nobles and with it he gave them certain rights to rule the people upon it. Often this process was repeated several times. LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 151 The noble who gave the land was called the overlord; the one who received it was a vassal. In every case the overlord promised to protect his vassal in time of danger, and the vassal in return promised to fight for his overlord and to pay him money on certain occasions. This way of owning land, with the government and society which grew out of it, is called the feudal system. KNIGHTS RETURNING TO A CASTLE AFTER A RAID INTO AN ENEMY'S COUNTRY The Middle Ages were lawless and warlike and the nobles, great and small, lived in castles in order to defend themselves better against their enemies. The castle was usually built upon a cliff, or upon an island, or in some other place not easily approached. The stronghold itself, which was the dwelling place of the noble and his family, stood in an enclosure in which there was also a well or spring, stables for the horses, other necessary buildings, and sometimes a garden. This enclosure was surrounded by a great wall and often there was a moat, or ditch filled with water, 152 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA outside the wall. To enter the castle one crossed the drawbridge, a movable bridge over the moat, and then passed through a great barred gate or door between two strong towers. The owner of the castle spent his time in ruling his subjects and in managing his estate^ in hunting, and in fighting. The deer, the wild boars, and the other game killed in the chase furnished a con- siderable share of the food of the residents of the castle. Vassals were often called upon to fight for their over- lords or for the king, and private wars be- tween nobles were going on nearly all the time. Knighthood or Chiv- alry. — It will help us to understand what life in a castle was like if we see how the boys of the nobility were educated to take their part in it when they became men. Until a boy was seven or eight years old he lived at home with his mother. Here he had his first lessons in rehgion as well as in obedience and good manners. From his earliest childhood he ran, climbed, jumped, rode, and swam, and this constant exercise made him grow strong and vigorous. When the boy was seven or eight years old he was sent to the castle of some neighboring noble, often his father's overlord, to be educated. For several years PAGES SERVING THEIR LORD AND HIS LADY AT TABLE LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 153 he was called a page. It was the duty of the pages to run errands, to serve at the table, and to clean the weapons and the armor of the men. The pages lived much with the ladies of the castle, who taught them lessons of honor and courtesy. Sometimes the page was taught to read and write, to sing, to compose verses, and to play upon the harp. ■ When the page had grown to be a strong boy of fourteen or fifteen he was called a squire. While the squire continued to do some of his former work about the castle it now became his special duty to wait upon his lord. He made the lord's bed, helped him to dress, waited upon him at table, looked after his armor, groomed his horses, and saw that they were well shod. All this time the squire was learning the art of war, to ride, and to handle shield, spear, and sword. In war he went with his lord to the field, and in case of need aided him in the fight. When the squire had grown to be a man and had proved his skill and courage he might become a knight. Sometimes he was made a knight upon the field of battle for some special act of valor. But usually, after a season of fasting and prayer, he spent a night in the church in meditation. In the morning he presented his sword to the priest, who blessed it upon the altar. The squire now took a solemn oath ^Ho defend the church, to attack the wicked, to respect the priesthood, to protect women and the poor, to preserve the country in tranquilhty, and to shed his blood, even to its last drop, in behalf of his brethren." When his sword was returned he knelt before his lord, who laid his own sword upon the shoulder of the kneeling man and said: 154 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA v^:>\ A,--i-' rjMn. A LORP KNIGHTING A SQUIRE LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 155 ''In the name of God, of our Lady, of thy patron Saint, and of St. Michael and St. George, I dub thee Knight; be brave, bold and loyaL" No doubt many a knight fell far short of attaining the ideals of knighthood or chivalry. Yet even during the brutal wars of the Middle Ages knighthood helped to establish a standard of character that remains to the present time. The true knight was brave, loyal, and dignified. The rules of chivalry taught him to be gentle, courteous, and faithful to his plighted word. They also taught him to respect and venerate women of his own class, though too often the knight showed little respect for the rights of either men or women of the common people. Tennyson, one of the greatest of English poets, has given us this splendid picture of the perfect knight in describing the way in which King Arthur conferred the honor of knighthood. "I made them lay their hands in mine and swear To reverence the King as if he were Their conscience, and their conscience as their King, To break the heathen and uphold the Christ, To ride abroad redressing human wrongs. To speak no slander, no, nor hsten to it. To lead sweet Hves in purest chastity. To love one maiden only, cleave to her. And worship her by years of noble deeds, Until they won her." The Church in the Middle Ages. — The church had so much influence over the lives of all the people in the Middle Ages that we must learn what it was and what it did if we would really understand how they lived. In those days the church was very different from any of the various churches that we see around 156 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA us at present. Now there are many religious denomi- nations and each person may freely choose which church he will join, or whether he will belong to any of them or not. In the Middle Ages there was only one church and every one was required to belong to it. To refuse to obey the church or to deny the truth of what it taught was regarded as treason against God, and was often punished with death. In our time all churches in America must rely for their support upon the voluntary contributions of their members. This was not the case in Europe in the Middle Ages. Then the church owned vast tracts of land from which it drew a great income. Some of the serfs worked upon the lands of the church just as others toiled upon the estates of the nobles. The church also laid a regular tax which people were forced to pay just as they must now pay taxes to support the government. In a former chapter we studied the beginning and the early growth of the church. In the Middle Ages all authority over the church belonged to the pope. He could make its laws and was the final judge in cases arising under them. Next to the pope in importance came the archbishops. An archbishop had some authority over the bishops in his province, as the country under his rule was called. Then there was a bishop in nearly every important city. He had supervision over all the parishes in his district or diocese. Each community was a parish with its priest and its parish church. The priest was the religious leader of the people. He conducted the services in the church, LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 157 and baptized, married, and buried the people of his parish. The social life of each community centered about its church. To the hard-working common people Sunday was a holiday on which they all gathered at the church, near which they frequently played games between the serv- ices. Sometimes, in addi- tion to the religious serv- ices, the priest would read letters from the absent or tell the people any news that he had heard during the week. The Monks and their Work. — Besides the priests who had charge of the par- ishes there were great num- bers of monks living in the monasteries which were found everywhere in west- ern Europe. We have seen how life in the monasteries began. During the Middle Ages the number of these institutions grew to be very large. It was natural that in such a warlike age the people who disliked fighting and loved quiet and study should seek the safe and peaceful life of the monasteries. In them too, the weak, the disappointed, and the unhappy often sought refuge. The monasteries did much to keep civilization alive during the Middle Ages. A BISHOP ON HIS THRONE 158 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA The monks did much to help the German bar- barians to learn civilized ways of living. They were the earliest missionaries of the Christian faith to the pagans. Wherever they settled and monasteries grew A GREAT MONASTERY IN THE MIDDLE AGES Within the enclosure is a splendid church, a dining room and sleeping rooms for the monks, a gue§t house, and various workshops and oflBces. LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 15d up they became teachers of industry as well as of religion. They cleared the land, drained the bogs, built roads and bridges, and by their example taught the people the best ways of farming known in their time. In many of the monasteries there were monks who worked at the various trades, and so kept the knowledge of the manual arts and crafts which the Romans possessed from being lost in the Middle Ages. I From painting by John W, Alexander in (be lAbrary of Congress THE WRITING ROOM OF A MONASTERY In the same way many of the books and some of the art of Greece and Rome were preserved during the centuries of confusion and turmoil which followed the fall of the Roman Empire. Every monastery had a writing room in which the monks copied and illustrated such books as they possessed. For a long time nearly all the schools in western Europe were in the monas- teries. At their doors the poor, the sick, and the hungry never asked help in vain. The weary traveler always found hospitable entertainment under their 160 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA roofs. In a word, the monks taught the world many a needed lesson in labor, learning, self-denial, and charity. At first men entered the monasteries in order to escape from the temptations in the world, to live quiet and peaceful lives, and to save their own souls. But in the later Middle Ages new orders of monks arose whose members, called friars, which means brothers, went about in the world preaching to the people and helping the poor and the sick. St. Francis of Assisi, in Italy, the first of the friars, was one of the gentlest and noblest characters in the Middle Ages. He had a good home, but he gave away all his property and devoted his whole life to caring for the sick, repairing the churches, and preaching the goodness of God. Francis loved all things. He even called the birds his brothers and sisters, and some- times he preached to them. Longfellow tells us what he said: ^"O brother birds," St. Francis said, "Ye come to me and ask for bread, But not with bread alone today Shall ye be fed and sent away. "Oh, doubly are ye bound to praise The Great Creator in your lays; He giveth you your plumes of down Your crimson hoods, your cloaks of brown. "He giveth you your wings to fly And breathe a purer air on high, And careth for you everywhere. Who for yourselves so Httle care." The church was the greatest civilizing influence in the Middle Ages. It taught the people the Christian LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 161 THE CATHEDRAL AT rjIEOIS IX FRAXCE _ This was one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world. It during the great war which began in 1914. was ruined 162 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA faith and led them in the Christian hfe. It kept ahve and handed on to us the most of our knowledge of the education, the literature, and the art of the Greeks and the Romans. It founded many of the great colleges and universities which we find in Europe today. In nearly every city in Europe in which there lived a bishop of the church in the Middle Ages there stands today a beautiful church called a cathedral. These vast cathedrals, with their splendid windows filled with beautiful stained glass and their wealth of statues and paintings, tell of the love and devotion which the people who built them gave to the church. The cathedrals of the Middle Ages are among the noblest Works of art in all the world. The Crusades. — In the Middle Ages it was a pious act to visit some sacred spot. It was believed that a place was made holy by its association with some important event in the history of the Christian reli- gion. The land of Palestine in which Jesus lived and taught, and the city of Jerusalem where he was cruci- fied, were the holiest places in the world; and a journey to them was thought to be a peculiarly pious under- taking. The love of adventure and a desire to see the world joined with religious zeal and enthusiasm to send great numbers of people on pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Many of these pilgrims tramped across Europe to Constantinople and thence through Asia Minor to Palestine. Others sought some port on the Mediter- ranean Sea, from which they took ships to their desti- nation. For a long time the Mohammedan Saracens, LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 163 who ruled Palestine, treated the Christian pilgrims kindly. But in the eleventh century the Holy Land fell into the hands of the barbarous Turks. Soon dreadful stories of the outrages suffered by the pil- grims at the hands of the Turks began to be told in western Europe. The Turks even threatened Constantinople and the eastern emperor called upon the pope for help. At a great council in France Pope Urban, with fiery CRUSADERS ON THE MARCH eloquence, appealed to the nobles and knights to enhst in a war for the deliverance of the Holy Land. " Christ Himself," he said, ''will be your leader when you fight for Jerusalem. Let not love of any earthly possession detain you. You dwell in a land narrow and infertile. Your numbers overflow and hence you devour one another in wars. Let these home discords cease. Start upon the way to the Holy Sepulcher; wrest the land from the accursed race, and subdue it to yourselves!" 164 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA This burning appeal met with an instant response. Crying, ^'It is the will of God!" the knights fastened crosses of red cloth upon their breasts as signs that they were pledged to fight for the deliverance of the Holy Land from the hands of the infidels. In this way. began the first of several great military expeditions r^ carried on at intervals for nearly two hundred years, for the purpose of rescuing the holy places of Palestine from the Mohammedans. These expeditions are called the Crusades. The soldiers of the first crusade made their way by various routes to Constan- tinople, where they united to form a great army. When this army entered Asia Minor the real fighting began. The Turks were defeated in battle after battle, the famous city of Antioch was taken after a long siege, and at last the crusaders stormed Jeru- salem, killed or drove away the Mohammedans, and estabhshed a Christian kingdom in the Holy Land. From time to time this Christian kingdom of Jerusalem, founded by the leaders of the first crusade, was sorely beset by the neighboring Turks and Saracens. At these times great armies of new crusaders from western Europe poured into Asia to fight the infidels as the Mohammedans were called. There were eight CRUSADERS STORMING A CITY LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 165 of these crusades in alL The later ones were caused quite as much by the love of adventure and the hope of winning wealth and lands in the East as by zeal for the defense of the Holy Land. As the thirteenth century drew to an end the crusades ceased. The Influence of the Crusades. — The contact of the West with the East during two centuries of crusad- ing had a very great influence upon the life of the THE CITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE people in western Europe. The crusaders saw many strange sights and learned many new things. They were astonished to find that the Greeks at Constan- tinople and the Saracens or Arabs in Asia far surpassed the people of the West in civilization. At Constantinople the crusaders, who knew only the rural villages or castles of the West, saw a splendid city with flourishing manufactures and a widespread commerce. From the Arabs they learned to cultivate such plants as rice, sugar cane, hemp, and asparagus; 166 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA such fruits as the orange, the lemon, and the apricot. In the making of weapons, rugs, vases, and lamps of copper and silver, and fine glassware and pottery the Arabs easily surpassed the rest of the world. Sugar, perfumes, and paper were brought to Europe from Mohammedan countries. The European peoples are also indebted to the Arabs for our present system of notation in arith- metic, for algebra, and for many lessons in chemis- try and in medi- cine. To see these things in the East was to desire them. Conse- quently, the cru- sades caused trade to spring up be- tween >the East and the West. The seaport towns of Italy soon became rich through the new commerce. Regular routes of inland trade led to the northern European cities, which from this time grew rapidly. Soon the people of the West began to manu- facture many things that they had never made before. Many social and political changes in Europe can be traced to the crusades. Some of the nobles who became crusaders never returned. This helped to break down the feudal system. As the cities grew richer they bought the right to govern themselves Model in Commercial Musezim, Pliila. A SHIP OF THE TOIE OF THE CRUSADES It was about 62 feet long and depended entirely on sails instead of oars. IJFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 167 from their overlords. Most important of all, the men who went on the crusades gained new knowledge and new ideas. They had '^ walked in new ways, and seen new things, and listened to new thoughts." Never again could the people of western Europe be as narrow and ignorant as they had been in the early Middle Ages. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. Why do you suppose the nobles "looked down upon and even despised" the people who worked? Does any one feel that way toward people who work now? 2. Write a short account of the way in which a family of the com- mon people lived in the Middle Ages. 3. Is there any place in your vicinity which would have been a good site for a castle in the Middle Ages? Why? 4. How did the education of a page differ from the education of a boy now? 5. Compare our ideas about Sabbath-keeping with those of the people in the Middle Ages. 6. What did the crusaders learn in the East? 7. What do we ever learn by travel? BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Seignobos: History of Mediaeval and Modern Civilization. Munro: A Histonj of the Middle Ages, Chapters XIII, XIV. Robinson: History of Western Europe, Chapters IX-XIX. Harding: Mediceval and Modern History, Chapters VIII, IX. BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Tappan : When Knights were Bold. Harding: The Story of the Middle Ages. Retold from ''St. Nicholas": Stories of the Middle Ages. Lanier: Boy^s King Arthur. Haaren and Poland: Famous Men of the Middle Ages. Mabie: Heroes Every Child Should Know. CHAPTER X THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION English Farming in the Middle Ages. — It is a little more than five hundred years from the conquest of England by William of Normandy to the time of the beginning of the first English colony in America. During all these centuries the ways of making a living, the form of government, the love of freedom, the language, and the literature which the earliest English settlers brought to America were slowly but steadily developing in the mother country. The story of their growth is a part of our history. All through this long period of time the great mass of Englishmen still lived in small villages in the country, as they had lived ever since the Saxon times before the Norman Conquest. Each rural community was called a manor. The land in each manor belonged to its chief man or lord. A few of the farmers were free men, who paid the lord rent for the land which they tilled. Most of them, however, were serfs who worked a part of each week for the lord of the manor, upon the land which he kept for his own use, and spent the remainder of the time in cultivating the land which their masters let them have for them- selves. The serfs were not free to move to another part of the country but must spend their fives upon the land of their lord. Some of the vifiagers who (168) GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 169 had very little land of their own worked for their neighbors. The plan of a typical manor printed upon this page will help you to understand what a country commu- nity was like in England in the Middle Ages. The demesne, or domain as it is sometimes called, was the land which the lord of the manor kept for himself and which was cultivated by the labor of his serfs. The manor house or residence of the lord with its orchards and gardens stood within the demesne. The cultivated land of the manor outside the demesne was usually divided into three fields. Every year wheat or rye was sown in one of these fields, oats, barley, or peas in another, and the third field was left unsown because it was found that constant cropping wore out the land too rapidly. Crops were planted in a regular rotation so that each field had one year of rest in every three. PLAN OF A MANOR IN THE MIDDLE AGES irau i^*sw: AN OLD ENGLISH MANOR HOUSE 170 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Each of the great fields was cut up into long narrow strips, marked off from one another by lines of unplowed land called balks. Each farmer had a strip of land here and a strip there, scattered about through all the fields. Sometimes he also had a small enclosed field near his house in the village. Each man usually possessed in this way somewhere from ten to thirty acres of land. The farmers often helped each other by working together, for few of them could afford to own all the oxen, plows, and carts required for the work on their land. In each country village there was a church and a parish priest. Often there was a blacksmith, who kept the tools of the farmer in order. Where there was a stream to provide water power there was apt to be a mill, and a miller who ground grain for the neighborhood. Occasionally a weaver or other crafts- man plied his trade in the village. But nearly all the people lived by cultivating the land. The people in each village produced nearly everything that they needed, seldom traveled far from home, and knew very little about the outside world. Such was the life of most Englishmen for hundreds of years in the Middle Ages. Important Changes in English Country Life. — As we approach the time when America was discovered we find some important changes taking place in English country life. These changes were hastened by a dreadful pestilence called the Black Death which swept over England in the fourteenth century. In many villages more than half the people died. This sudden loss of so many people made it difficult GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 171 ■r-ss* ^ r^- jrrn -^ : "^ jrrr and often impossible to get enough men to work the land. The laborers demanded, and often secured, much higher wages than they had ever received before this time. Many of the serfs ran away from their masters because they could now improve their condition by working for wages. The lords now began to accept a rent in money for the land which the serfs worked for themselves in the place of the work which they had formerly given. In these ways serf- dom finally died out in England. By the time Amer- ica was discovered there had come to be three distinct classes of country people in England : the landlords who owned the land, the farmers who rented it of them, and the laborers who worked for wages for the farmers. How Goods Were Made and Sold in the Middle Ages. — In the later Middle Ages there were about two hundred walled towns in England. London, which was the largest, had about 25,000 inhab- itants; but most of the towns were much smaller. In these towns lived the merchants who bought and sold goods and the artisans or craftsmen who A FINE EXAMPLE OF A MEDIAEVAL TOWN HOUSE AT LINCOLN, ENGLAND 172 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA made the articles for which there was a ready market. Manufacturing was carried on in those days very differently from the way in which it is at present. In all the world there was then nothing like our modern factories. Goods were made by hand in little shops in which at most only a few men worked. It will help us to understand the English life of those days if we see how a boy learned his trade. When a boy who was to learn a trade was twelve or four- teen years old he was apprenticed to some master work- man, a weaver, per- haps, or a tanner. This means that a contract or agreement was made between the parents of the boy and the master, in which the latter agreed to provide the boy with food, clothing, and lodging, and to teach him all that he himself knew about his craft or trade. The apprentice boy was bound to behave himself properly, to obey his master, and to work for him during the time of apprenticeship, which was usually seven years. During the years of his apprenticeship the boy lived in the house of his master and worked with him in his little shop. When these years had passed, the boy, now grown to manhood, was called a journey- man, and could work for wages for any master of A MASTER CARPENTER AND HIS APPRENTICE AT WORK GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 173 his trade. If he were a thrifty workman and saved his money he might hope to become a master with a shop of his own. All the men of the same craft or trade were members of a gild, or union, which had its regular rules, its officers, and its meetings. The A FAIR IN THE MIDDLE AGES purpose of these gilds was to promote the welfare of their members. In addition to the trading done by the merchants in the shops and stores of the towns there was much bu^dng and selling at markets and fairs. Once or twice a week the people of the neighboring country brought the produce of their farms to the town market for sale, just as they still do in many places in England and America. The fairs were held every year, and sometimes every six months, in open fields near cer- 174 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA tain towns. On these occasions long rows of wooden booths were built, in which goods were offered for sale. At these fairs the merchants from distant English towns, and even from foreign cities, gathered to buy the goods of the part of England where the fair was held, and to sell the articles which they had produced or imported. A fair usually lasted from six to twelve days, and was frequently visited by great crowds of people. In the Middle Ages the English were not the great comm-ercial people that they have since become. For a long time wool was the chief export of the country. Sheepskins, hides, leather, salted fish, tin, and lead also found a foreign market. So great was the profit in the wool trade in comparison with the meager returns from cultivating the land that for many years before the discovery of America the English farms were gradually being turned into sheep pastures. The wines, dried fruits, and various manufactured articles of the European countries were brought to England to exchange for her products. For a long time foreign merchants carried on the most of this trade. But toward the close of the Middle Ages more and more English merchants began to visit foreign countries for the purpose of commerce. The Beginning of Trial by Jury. — For a long time after the Norman Conquest England was governed by the king with the assistance of the king's council, which was composed of a few of the chief officers of the realm. Besides the king and his private council there was a great national council, made up of all GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 175 the feudal noblemen to whom the king had granted land, and of the archbishops, bishops, and abbots of the church in England. Before the discovery of America, however, several new ways of doing things in the government had grown up in England. These new practices are important to us because we have most of them in our own country today. In early England a person who was accused of committing a crime might clear himself of the charge by swear- ing that he was not guilty and then bring- ing a certain jiumber of his neighbors to swear that they be- lieved him. Another early form of trial was called the ordeal. The ordeal usually consisted in carrying a piece of hot iron in the hand or plunging the arm into boiling water. It was believed that God would protect the innocent man from harm. If the person who was tried by the ordeal was badly burned it was thought to be a proof of his guilt. After the Norman Conquest trial by battle was introduced into England. In this form of trial the accused man and his accuser fought each other with sword or clubs, in the belief that God would give the victory to the one who was right. None of these forms of trial seem very sensible to us. Nowadays, when a man is accused of committing TRIAL BY BATTLE It was believed that God would give victory to the one whose cause was just. 176 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA a crime he is brought before a body of men called the grand jury. This jury hears the witnesses against him, and if its members think he ought to be tried they send him before another jury of twelve men called the petit or trial jury. The petit jury listens to the witnesses on both sides of the case, and then decides whether the accused man is guilty or not guilty. Our jury system grew up in England in the fol- lowing way. In the twelfth century King Henry II used to send his judges traveling through the counties of England to try cases and settle disputes. \\Tien these judges came to a district, a body of men, not less than sixteen in number, were appointed to report to them the criminals in that district who ought to be tried. This was the origin of the grand jury. About the same time it was provided that any one who objected to the trial by battle could have his case decided by twelve men, chosen from the vicinity, who knew all the facts in the matter. A little later witnesses were called to tell the twelve men any facts that they themselves might not know. Finally the time came when the jury of twelve men decided wholly upon what the witnesses told them as our petit juries do now. Our jury system was brought to this country by the earliest English settlers. The Great Charter. — King John, the son of Henry II, in whose reign the jury began to be used, was the meanest of the English kings. He was false to his friends, insolent and cruel to his people, and shame- less and wicked in all his ways. He laid heavy taxes upon the people, falsely accused them in order to make GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 17 them pay him large fmes, and plundered them in every other way that he could invent. At last the time came when the nobles of England could no longer endure the tyranny of King John. They led an army against him, and as all the people took sides with the nobles John was forced to yield. At Hunny- mede beside the Thames, in the year 1215, the king signed the Great Charter, cr Magna Charta as it is commonly called. In this famous document the Idng promised that ''no free man shall be imprisoned unless by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land." He also declared that ''to none will we sell, to none will we deny or delay, right or justice." It was further agreed that in the future no taxes should be laid except by the consent of the common council of the nation. These great principles of liberty are still cherished in all English-speaking countries. The Origin of Parliament.— During the reigns of John's son, Henry III, and of Henry's son, Edward I, another important step was taken in the making of the government of England. Previous to this time KING JOHN SIGNING THE GREAT CHARTER 178 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA only the nobles and the leaders of the church had belonged to the great council of the kingdom. Now it seemed right that the landowners in the country and the rich merchants in the growing towns, who were paying a large part of the taxes, should also have a voice in the government. As it was impossible for all of these people to attend the great council, THE BRITISH HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT This i3 the building in which the laws of Great Britain are made at the present time. they were asked to elect a few men to act for them. Men thus chosen to act for the people are called repre- sentatives. At first the representatives of the English common people met in the same room with the nobles and the clergy. About this time the great council began to be called a Parliament. In the course of time the representatives of the people in the Parliament, or lawmaking body, met separately and were called the House of Commons. The nobles and the clergy who continued to meet GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 179 together were called the House of Lords. In this way the Parliament of England came to consist of two houses as it does at the present time. We have followed the example of England in this respect, and have two houses in Congress, which is our law- making body at Washington, and in the legislatures, which make the laws in each of our states. During the Middle Ages the power of the king in England was hmited by the great feudal nobles of his kingdom. It was these lords who forced King John to sign the Magna Charta. Just before America was discovered there was a great war in England between two parties of the nobility. This war, which was fought to decide who should be the king of the country, is called the War of the Roses, because a red rose was the badge of one party and a white rose of the other. The War of the Roses lasted thirty years and before it was ended the greater part of the nobles of England were slain in battle or driven from the country. Henry Tudor, who was crowned king as Henry VII, on the last battlefield of the war, had more power than any earlier king of England had possessed because there were so few nobles left to oppose his will. After his time the struggle to preserve English Hberty from the tyranny of the king was carried on, not only by the nobility, but by the people. The English Interfere in Ireland. — For a long time England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland were separate countries without any connection with each other. But the English kings were not satisfied until they had brought all the other countries in the British 180 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Islands under their authority. So in the course of time the king of England came to rule over the united kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, In the earlier part of the Middle Ages the civiliza- tion of Ireland was superior to that of England. In art, in music, and in metal work the Irish were unsur- passed. The most beautiful books in all Europe were made in the writing rooms of the Irish monasteries. But Ireland had failed to become a united nation. There were many tribes in the island, each ruled by a petty chieftain, and these tribes were almost always at war with each other. This lawless condi- tion led to the first English interference in the country. When Dermot, the king of one of the Irish tribes, was defeated in battle and driven from his own country, he asked IGng Henry II of England to help him recover his kingdom. Henry II told him that he could have any English knights whom he could persuade to fight for him. Dermot found it easy to induce several of the warhke English knights to accompany him to Ireland, and with their help he soon won back his lands. One of these English knights married the Irish king's daughter, and when the king died, ruled in his stead. From the first the English rule in Ireland was violent and cruel, and the Irish were continually fighting the newcomers. Soon Henry II went to Ireland with an army and both the English and the Irish chieftains acknowledged his authority. Henry II restored order in Ireland, but he could not stay long in the country, and when he left, the old lawlessness and violence broke out again. The EngHsh held GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 181 only a small part of the country in the vicinity of Dubhn. For a long time the rest of the island was ruled by its own petty kings. Irish affairs ran on in this way for hundreds of years. In the sixteenth century the English made further attempts to rule Ireland, but these only led to rebeUion in the island and to misery for its people. It was not until the seventeenth century that Ire- land was finally conquered by Cromwell, one of the greatest of English soldiers. This conquest was attended with great slaughter, which the Irish people have never forgotten. The Union of England, Wales, and Scotland.— Wales was conquered by King Edward I. Protected by the mountainous character of their country the Welsh had never really submitted to the English rule before this time, though they had sometimes been compelled to pay tribute to the English kings. Edward I invaded Wales, won several victories, and at last forced all the Welsh to promise obedience to him. He then built several strong castles in Wales in order to hold the country in subjection. CAERNARVON CASTLE. WALES This is one of the castles built by Edward I to hold the Welsh in subjection. 182 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA To please the Welsh people King Edward told them that he would give them a prince Who had been born in their country, and who had never spoken a word of English. He then presented to them his baby son, who had recently been born in one of the Welsh castles. Ever since that day the oldest son of the English king has been called the Prince of Wales. Wales has long been in reality a part of England, though many of its people still cling to the Welsh language. WTiile Edward I was the king of England the king of Scotland died, leaving no children. Several of his relatives claimed the throne and the Scots asked the English king to decide which one of the claimants was their rightful king. Edward said that before he would do this the Scots must acknowledge him as their overlord. They agreed, and Edward decided in favor of John Balliol, though many thought that Robert Bruce had quite as good a claim. Soon John Balliol refused to obey the English king, who promptly led his army into Scotland, captured its king, and declared himself the king of the country. When Edward returned to England he carried with him a stone upon which the kings of Scotland had always sat when the}^ were crowned. This stone was called the Stone of Scone. Edward put it in the seat of the chair in Westminster Abbey, upon which the English king always sits when he is crowned, and there it may be seen to this day The Scots soon found a gallant leader in William Wallace, who began to drive the English garrisons from his country. The English promptly sent a great GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 183 army into Scotland. When the EngHsh leaders offered to make peace if Wallace would submit, he replied, ''We have not come to make peace, but to free our country." In the battle which followed, Wallace won a complete vic- tory. The next year the English came in greater force, and this time the great Scot- tish leader was defeated. Later he was captured by the English and put to death. William Wallace is looked on today as one of the great national heroes of Scotland. The Scots soon found another great leader in Robert Bruce, a grandson of the Bruce who had claimed the throne when Edward I decided in favor of John Balliol. Robert Bruce was often de- feated by the English, and THE CORONATION CHAIR IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY, LONDON This is the chair upon which the Il«rl TTinnv VinirLrAQrIfli English king sits when he is crowned. 11 a U many ll a 1 1 U I e a a L n under its seat is the stone of Scone, which Edward I carried away from Scotland. escapes, but he fought on and on. Edward I died while on his way to Scotland, and when his son, Edward II, invaded that country with a great army he was over- whelmingly defeated by Robert Bruce in the famous battle of Bannockburn. Shortly after this the English acknowledged the independence of Scotland. For nearly three hundred years after the days of Robert Bruce, England and Scotland were distinct 184 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA nations. About the time that the English began to settle America, King James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne. In England he is known as James I. His accession united England and Scotland under the same king, and the union thus formed has never been broken. The English Language. — For a long time after the Norman Conquest three languages were widely used in England. Latin was heard in all the serv- ices of the church and in the work of the schools. It was also the language in which nearly -all books were written. The laws were for a long time in Latin, but were later written in French. After the Norman Conquest French was spoken by the king and his court, and by the Norman nobles who settled in England. It was also the speech commonly heard in Parliament. We might call it the language of poUte society. There were many French songs and French romances. The great mass of the people, however, still clung to the old Anglo-Saxon or English speech, but this was so different from the English that we speak that we should find it very difficult to under- stand it. As the years passed, the English language as we know it slowly developed. The greater part of its words, particularly of those most frequently used in daily speech, are from the Anglo-Saxon, but many of them have changed in form and in spelling. Many new words were introduced into English from the French spoken by the Norman nobles. Sometimes these new French words displaced the older Anglo- Saxon ones. More frequently the Anglo-Saxon word GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 185 was kept, and the borrowed French word added to the language. It is due to this practice of using French words with the same meaning as Anglo-Saxon words that our English of today has so many pairs of words, or synonyms, with very nearly the same meaning; such as folk and people, give and present, or food and nourishment. In the making of the English language sometimes a word was borrowed directly from the Latin and another from the French, with the result that we have three words which mean very much the same thing. For example, ask is Anglo-Saxon, inquire is French, and interrogate is Latin. The force and beauty of our English speech is due, in large part, to its rich- ness in these words which have very nearly the same meaning. The Earliest English Literature. — Most of the books written in England during the Middle Ages were written in Latin by the monks. Many of these books were about the history of the country. The first real literature in the English language consists of ballads sung by wandering minstrels. These ballads, which were sung long before they were written, are stories about the bold outlaw, Robin Hood, and other heroes whom the people loved. The minstrel who could sing them was ever a welcome guest. In the latter part of the fourteenth century the Bible was translated into EngHsh by John Wycliffe, a famous clergyman, who was a teacher at the Uni- versity of Oxford. About the same time the "Canter- bury Tales," the first great poem in the English language, was written. In this poem Chaucer, the 186 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA earliest of the great English poets, tells the story of a band of merry pilgrims who travel together from the Tabard Inn, near London, to Canterbury. In this company of pilgrims we have a picture of all the classes of people in England in Chaucer's time: the knight, the squire, the monk, the nun, the parish priest, the merchant, the weaver, the plowman, and CHAUCER'S CANTERBURY PILGRIMS many others. As they ride along together the}^ tell the stories which compose the greater part of the ''Canterbury Tales." QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. How does farming in America today differ from farming in Eng- land in the Middle Ages? 2. How does a boy learn a trade now? 3. May a thrifty mechanic of today look forward to owning a shop and employing other workmen? 4. Is there a pubhc market in your town? 5. Visit the court in your county and notice what the judge and the jury do, 6. Do all persons who pay taxes today have a voice in the government? 7. Make a list of pairs of words having the same meaning. BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Histories of England by Thomas, Larson, Cheyney, Terry, Andrews, Wrong, Gardiner, and Green. Cheyney: Industrial History of England. GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH NATION 187 BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Blaisdell: Stories from English History. Gu^rber : The Story of the English. Church : Stories from English History. Tappan : England's Story. Dickens : Child's History of England. Yonge : Young Folks' History of England. CHAPTER XI THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA Europe at the Time America was Discovered. — Christopher Columbus first saw land on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. This is the year from which we date the discovery of America. But Columbus saw only a few islands and a bit of the coast of the mainland. He never knew that he had found two vast continents in which were mighty rivers, great plains, and lofty mountains. For nearly two hundred years after Columbus' time brave and patient European explorers and settlers were slowly finding out these facts. This was the real discovery of America by Europe. It is our purpose in this chapter to try to understand what Europe was hke when its people first began to be interested in America. We have frequently spoken of the time from the fall of the Roman Empire to the discovery of America as the Middle Ages. The time since 1492 is called the Period of Modern History. It is not meant by this that there was any sudden change in 1492, but only that about that time the ways of thinking and living which we have now began to take the place of those which had prevailed during the Middle Ages. In the first place, the map of Europe in the sixteenth century began to look very much as it does now. In the early centuries of the Christian era all southern (188) EUROPE U THE IGth CENTURY SCALF OF iVllLES 100 200 300 -too Possessions of the House of Hapsbur^: Spanish line [ Austrian line European Empire ol Charles V about 1520 10 Longitude West from Greenwich Longitude East from Greenwicli 10 .Syracuse ^'\rJv fiHOOeS^ \ > y^ -tV ^l j'V (7-„ ('enicHT-"^ < — '"^ Copyright Ifti 8 by the John C.W by the John C.Winston Co, THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 189 and western Europe was included in the Roman Empire. When that empire was overrun by the Ger- man tribes, western Europe was divided among them. During the long period of the Middle Ages the nations of modern Europe had been slowly developing -as a result of the gradual union of the Germanic peoples with the Roman inhabitants among whom they lived. This was the time when, under the feudal system, the nobles governed the people who lived upon their lands. But by 1492 England, France, and Spain had gro^\ai to be strong nations whose kings were obeyed by all their subjects. We have already seen how this change came about in England, and how the War of the Roses gave the king of that country more power than he had ever possessed before. France. — In the Middle Ages it frequently happened that the kings of France had less power than some of the great nobles in their realm. But as time passed, several things helped to increase the royal power in that country. Many nobles who went on the crusades never returned, and the king recovered the lands which they had held of him. In other instances rebellious French nobles were conquered by the king and their power taken away from them. In these ways the royal power grew in France until there was no check upon the will of the king. In the sixteenth century Francis the First could say with truth, ''I am the king, I intend to be obeyed." Spain. — Early in the eighth century Spain was over- run by the Arabs and Moors from Africa. These invaders were Mohammedans and nearly all the people of the Spanish peninsula accepted that rehgious faith. 190 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA The Arabs in Spain developed a high degree of civiHza- tion. They built splendid cities ; their agriculture and commerce were prosperous; and at one time their schools were the most famous in Europe. The Arabs never fully succeeded in their efforts to conquer some of the strongholds in the mountains of northern Spain. The Spanish Christians clung to iBIf"'^"' THE ALHAMBRA A famous Moorish palace in Spain. these mountainous regions, and after a time they began to win back their country from its Mohammedan invaders. As they did this, several small kingdoms were formed. Castile and Aragon were the most important of these states, and just at the close of the Middle Ages they were united by the marriage of Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon. The very year that America was discovered Ferdinand and Isabella captured Granada, the last great Moorish THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 191 city in the land. With its fall, Arab rule in Spain disappeared forever. The king of Spain, like the French king, possessed unhmited power. The Spanish people had no part in their own government. The army enforced the will of the king. The laws were made at his pleasure. The judges whom he appointed did his bidding. The taxes paid by the rich cities in the Netherlands, which belonged to Spain in the six- teenth century, and the royal in- come from the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru after the Spanish conquests in America made him very rich. In the century following the discovery of America the king of Spain was the most powerful monarch in the world. Germany and Italy. — Germany and Italy had failed to become strong and united nations like England, France, and Spain. Germany was still broken up into a large number of states, in each of which there was a LOGGIA DEI LANZI, FLORENCE This beautiful porch adorned with works of art stands near the center of Florence, which was one of the famous cities of Italy when America was discovered. 192 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA prince who managed affairs very much as he pleased. Austria was the largest and most powerful of the German states in the sixteenth century. In Italy there were several states and free cities, but there was no union between them. The rich cities of Venice, Genoa, and Flor- ence were the most famous in Italy. AH' the free Italian cities were extremely jealous of each other and were often at war with one another. Manufacturing and Commerce just before the Discovery of America. — Manu- facturing and commerce grew very rapidly in Europe during the closing centuries of the Middle Ages. During the crusades the peoples of western Europe became better acquainted with the wealth of the East, and soon a rich trade sprang up between the seaports of Italy and the cities of Egypt, western Asia, and the Black Sea region. At first Genoa led the other Italian cities in com- merce. Great merchant vessels laden with the oils A STREET IN THE OLD MARKET IN FLORENCE THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 193 and wines of Italy and France, the figs of Spain, the metals and leather of Germany, the linens, the woolens, the gold and silver ornaments, and the other manu- factured goods of the cities of Italy and France sailed from her harbor for Constantinople and other eastern From model in Commercial Museum, Philadelphia VENETIAN WARSHIP It was 192 feet long, swift and seaworthy. ports. They brought back the grain and hides of southern Russia, the fine woolens of Asia, and the silks and spices of the Far East. About a hundred years before the discovery of America the leadership in commerce passed from Genoa to Venice, and for a long time the latter place was the richest city in Europe. Venice had long been noted 194 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA for its manufactures. It made the finest linen in Italy; its silks, laces, and leather goods were unsurpassed ; and its glassware, then as now, was famous for its delicacy and its beauty. But the glory of Venice was its com- merce. It possessed three thousand merchant vessels and a fleet of three hundred warships to protect them. Every year three great fleets of trading ships sailed away from Venice. To protect these fleets from the pirates, who were very numerous in those days, each of them was accompanied by several war galleys, rowed by oarsmen. One of these fleets visited the Black Sea region to traffic for the goods in which it abounded; another sailed to Egypt to meet vessels coming down the Nile and the caravans from Arabia and the Far East ; the third fleet, touching at the ports to trade, coasted along Sicily, northern Africa, Spain, western France, and finally made its way to England and the Netherlands. Besides the exchange of wares in this way, the goods of Italy and the East were carried by traders over the Alps and down the rivers and along the roads of Germany and France, and to the various cities in those countries. During the later Middle Ages the Netherlands, which included the Belgium and Holland of today, was the richest manufacturing region in all Europe. Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp were its chief cities, but there were scores of other rich and prosperous towns. In these cities all sorts of woolen cloth, linens, silks, velvets, and laces, as well as hardware, fine pottery, and many other articles, were made in great quantities. In the markets and fairs of the Netherlands one might see traders from every country in Europe. THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 195 196 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA The cities of Germany, likewise, came to be busy hives of manufacturing industry, and a prosperous commerce grew up between them in the later Middle Ages. In order to protect their merchants from pirates and robbers, as well as from the unjust taxes of the petty princes of the land, many of whom were little better than robbers, nearly one hundred of the German cities formed a great league known as the Hanseatic League. This famous league kept many soldiers and sometimes waged war on great nations like Denmark or Sweden. It also maintained great trading stations at places as widely scattered as Bergen in Norway, Bruges in the Netherlands, London in England, and Novgorod in Russia. Such was the industrial condition of Europe at the time of the discover}^ of America. Its cities were filled with busy workmen and thriving merchants. Caravans of traders on the land, and a multitude of ships at sea, carried its products from one country to another. Men w^ho were growing rich through manu- facturing and commerce were supplanting the mail- clad knights. The city had taken the place of the castle as the center of European life. Great Inventions and New Ideas. — The beginning of Modern History was marked by the general intro- duction and use of certain inventions which were destined to bring about great changes in the life of all civihzed peoples. Gunpowder was the first of these famous discoveries. It is probable that the Chinese knew how to make gunpowder long before it was known in Europe, but they used it only to make the fire- works for which they are still noted. THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 197 It is not known by whom gunpowder was first used in Europe. The city of Florence in Italy had cannon as early as the fourteenth century, but gunpowder came into general use very slowly. The first guns were crude afTairs which made a great deal of noise but did very little damage. But as people learned to make better powder and to improve the guns in which they used it, gunpowder had an influence which few other inventions have surpassed. The common soldier with a musket in his hand became more than a match for the mail-clad knight. The walls of the old stone castles or of the towns could easily be battered down with cannon. The use of armor, spears, bows and arrows, and the de- fensive value of cas- tles and town walls all disappeared as a result of the general introduction of gunpowder in war. It helped to make all men equal in strength. From an old print AN EARLY MUSKET When firing this clumsy gun the soldier rested it upon the support which he carries in his right hand. From an old drawing AN EARLY CANNON 198 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA The mariners' compass began to be used in Europe during the later Middle Ages. At first it consisted of a magnetized needle placed upon a straw or cork floating in water. When some one thought of putting the needle on a pivot, and of protecting it with a box, the compass that we have was invented. By helping sailors to find their bearings at any hour of the day or night, and in all kinds of weather, the compass did much to make long sea voyages possible. The lens was another im- portant discovery in the later part of the Middle Ages. Spectacles were first used toward the close of the thir- teenth century. Although the telescope, the microscope, and the camera were not invented until much later, all of these useful instruments were made possible by the invention of the lens. But the most wonderful and important of all the inventions which mark the dawn of modern history was the art of printing. Before the fifteenth century no one in all Europe had ever known any way of getting a new copy of a book except by writing it out by hand. Early in the fifteenth century some people in the Netherlands had engraved pictures or pages of books upon wooden blocks, passed ink over these blocks and then printed by applying leaves of paper to them. - - FTom an old print AN EARLY PRINTING PRESS It was from such simple begin- nings that the great printing presses of our own time have developed. THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 199 This was a slow and expensive process. Finally Guten- berg made metallic type, which could be set up, used for printing, and then distributed. Such type could be used again and again. Their invention was the real invention of printing. The people of Europe learned from the Arabs how to make paper. Before its introduction books had been written upon parchment made of sheep skins. But paper made of linen rags was much cheaper and more convenient, and the general use of it made it possible for the printers to do their work. The importance of the invention of printing can hardly be overestimated. Books were printed in great numbers and scattered among the people. This made it possible for a great many more people than ever before to secure an education. In the Middle Ages only a very few people could read. Nowadays in most civilized countries the number of people who cannot read is very small. It was believed in the Middle Ages that the earth is the center of the universe, and that the planets, the sun, and the stars all revolve around it. Just about the time that the people in Europe were beginning to hear of America, Copernicus, a great astronomer, attacked their old ideas about the universe and taught that the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun. Many of the learned men of the time thought that his idea was foolish and wicked, but it was proved to be true and became the basis of our science of astronomy. The Revival of Learning. — We have seen how the Greeks and the Romans had great men of letters, who 200 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA wrote some of the most famous books in the world. During the long centuries of the Middle Ages these books, though not entirely forgotten, were sadly neg- lected. As we draw near the dawn of Modern History we find men once more taking dehght in reading and studying the ancient masterpieces. This renewed interest in the literature of Greece and Rome is called the Revival of Learning. It was natural that the Revival of Learning should begin in the great cities of Italy for the Ital- ians were the descendants of the old Romans and their language was very much like the Latin speech. The Italians could see the ruins of ancient Roman buildings all about them. Somehow they seemed nearer the ancient civilization than any other people in Europe. Dante, one of the greatest poets who ever lived, was born at Florence in 1265. Dante loved and imitated Vergil, the most famous of the Latin poets, but he wrote his own noble poem, ^^The Divine Comedy," in Italian. From this time, more and more, the great poets of Europe began to write in their own languages instead of the Latin, in which nearly everything had been written in the Middle Ages. Petrarch, the successor of Dante, almost worshipped the great Latin writers of ancient Rome, and gave much of his life to collecting their works. Petrarch and the Italian scholars who followed him hunted through the libraries of the monasteries for the neg- DANTE The great poet. THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 201 lected manuscripts of the old classic writers, and succeeded in rescuing many a long-forgotten book from destruction. They made careful copies of these old books, and presently the invention of printing made it possible for great numbers of people to read them. At first very few of the scholars in Italy could read the Greek books which they found, but teachers of Greek came from Constantinople and soon the literary treasures of ancient Greece were as accessible as those of Rome. As the news of this revival of the ancient learning and literature spread over Europe scholars from the other countries began to cross the Alps to study in Italy. When they returned to Germany, France, and England, they carried the new learning to many eager young men whom they taught in their own lands. This great revival of learning was going on just at the time that America was discovered. The Revival of Learning had a very great influence upon the schools of Europe. Boys were taught the languages and literatures of Greece and Rome because at that time there was so little literature in their own languages that was really worth studying. In this way Greek and Latin came to be regarded as the most important branches of study in schools, and they held this place until very recently. Even now we give a great deal of time to the study of Latin in our high schools, although the reasons which gave it a large place in the schools of four hundred years ago no longer exist. The Revival of Learning stirred up the people of Europe to write books of their own, and in time they 202 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA came to have a literature in their own languages that excelled the literatures of Greece and Rome. Erasmus, the greatest scholar of his time in Europe, wrote many interesting books. His English friend. Sir Thomas More, wrote ^ ^Utopia,'' in which he told the story of an imaginary country where the people were all happy because they all treated each other with kindness and justice. In the latter part of the sixteenth century, while Queen Elizabeth ruled in England, a wonderful literature grew up in that country. Many famous English authors lived and wrote at this time, but the greatest of them all was Shakespeare. Some Great Artists and Famous Pictures. — Just as there was a new interest in Greek and Latin books, so there was a return of the art of the ancient world. The Greeks were the greatest artists of ancient times. The Romans imitated the Greeks, and wherever they ruled there were pictures and statues. For several centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire very little attention was paid to art in western Europe. In the later Middle Ages the people began once more to take an interest in paint- ing and sculpture. At first their pictures and statues were very imperfect. But as they grew better acquainted with the masterpieces of the Greeks and ••MONA LISA" Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 203 THE CHURCH OF ST. PETER AT ROME The large building at the right of the church is the Vatican palace, the home of the pope. Romans they became more skillful. In the sixteenth century in Italy, and a little later in Germany, Spain, and the Nether- lands, we find the greatest painters of the world. There were many famous ar- tists in Italy at this time, but the names of Leo- nardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michael Angelo stand at the head of the list. Leonardo da Vinci gave us one of the best ^ known pictures in the world, the ''Mona Lisa,'' now in the gallery of the Louvre, in Paris. Raphael is best remembered as a painter of madonnas. The^'Sistine Madonna,'' which may be seen in the gallery in Dresden but which is f amiUar through the many repro- ductions of it, is his master- piece. Michael Angelo was a great architect, a great sculp- tor, and a great painter. As an architect he helped build the Church of St. Peter at Rome; as a sculptor he is well represented by his beautiful statue of David; From a -painting by Holbein ERASMUS 204 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA and as a painter he covered with glorious pictures the walls and ceiling of the Sistine chapel in the Vatican, the pope's palace which stands beside the great Church of St. Peter. Albrecht Durer and Hans Holbein were the greatest German artists of this time. Durer is most famous for his wonderful woodcuts and engravings, though he was also a very great painter. Holbein was one of the best portrait painters of all time. On the page preceding is one of his best known pictures. A PORTRAIT OF VELASQUEZ PAINTED BY HIMSELF Velasquez and Murillo, the two leading Spanish painters, lived a century later than the great age of art in Italy. Velasquez is well represented by many beautiful portraits w^hich he painted. Murillo's ''Holy Family" and other pictures of a similar char- acter still have a host of admirers. About the time of Velasquez and Murillo the Netherlands had three supremely great painters in Rubens, Rembrandt, and Van Dyke. ''The Descent from the Cross," in the Cathe- dral at Antwerp, is the greatest picture that Rubens From a -painting by Van Dyle BABY STUART THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 205 ever painted. Rembrandt is well known by his splen- did picture, ''The Night- Watch." Van Dyke was one of the finest portrait painters of the world. At the bottom of the opposite page is one of his pictures. The Reformation. — The time of change from the Middle Ages to the Modern Period in history, when so many great inventors, discoverers, scholars, and artists were at work in Europe, is often called the Renaissance, which means rebirth. The people of Europe were outgrowing the childishness and ignorance of the Middle Ages, and coming to think and to hve more as men had thought and hved in the best days of Greece and Rome, and as they do today. In this time, when everything was being reborn, great changes took place in the religious beliefs and practices. These changes in religion are called the Reformation. Through the Middle Ages the Catholic Church, with the pope at its head, had been the only church in western Europe. Nearly everyone belonged to it. But at the time of the discovery of America there were many people in the church who were dissatisfied with it. Some of them no longer beheved all that it taught; others questioned its authority to govern them as it did; while many objected to the worldli- ness of some of its leaders and desired a purer religious life. In fact, all good men in the church felt the need of a reform in the fives of its members, but they did not agree as to the best way of making it. Those who wanted to change the form of govern- ment of the church and to reject a part of its teach- ings, as well as to reform the lives of the people, were led by Martin Luther and John Calvin. Luther was 206 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA the son of poor peasants in Germany. In spite of poverty he managed to secure a good education and to become a teacher in one of the universities. Calvin was a Frenchman, but because of the persecution in his native land he lived most of his life in Geneva in Switzerland. Those who followed Luther and Calvin in breaking away from the Catholic Church and in forming new churches are called Protestants. In time, many people in northern Europe became Protestants. The Lutherans, as the followers of Luther were called, were mostly in Germany. The greater part of the Protestants of France, the Netherlands, England, and Scotland were Calvinists. The Presbyterian Church was organized by the followers of Calvin. The Calvinists had strict ideas about morals, and these ideas, which were later brought to America by the Puritans, have had a great influence upon our people. The Lutherans and the Calvinists were almost as much opposed to each other as they were to the Catholic Church. One result of the strife between them was to check the growth of Protestantism. Another result of the failure of the Protestants to agree among themselves was the development of the many differing Protestant denominations that we find at the present time. Many good men in the Catholic Church earnestly desired to reform the manners and morals of the people, but were opposed to making any change in the teachings of the church or to lessening in any way the authority of the pope. Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish soldier, was the most famous reformer within the church. Loyola devoted his life to the service of the THE EUROPE WHICH FOUND AMERICA 207 church, and organized those who joined him in that service into a reHgious society, the Jesuits. By their preaching, by teaching the children in the schools which they founded, and by their missionary labors in all parts of the world, the Jesuits did much to check the spread of the Protestant movement. The Reforma- tion promoted real piety and purer living alike in those countries that became Protestant and in those that remained true to the Catholic faith. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. How do our ways of thinking and living differ from those of the people of the Middle Ages? 2. Find upon the map all the places mentioned in this chapter. 3. Find out what great inventions were made during the nineteenth century. 4. Do you know of any important inventions made during the last twenty-five years? 5. Dante and Shakespeare are two of the world's greatest poets. Find out what each of them wrote. 6. Find copies of as many pictures as you can that were painted by the great artists of the Renaissance. 7. Have we any great poets or painters now? BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Robinson: History of Western Europe, Chapters XXII-XXVII. Seignobos: History of Mediceval and Modern Civilization, Chapters XV-XXI. Symonds: A Short History of the Renaissance. Hoyt: Great World Painters. Graves: A History of Education during the Middle Ages. BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Dutton: Little Stories of France. Forman: Stories of Useful Inventions. Bonner: Child's History of France; Child's History of Spain. Home and Scobey: Stories of Great Artists. Conway: Children's Book of Art. CHAPTER XII THE EAST AND THE WEST The Wealth of the East. — There were civilized people in India and China at a very early period. It is probable that the civilization of China is almost as old as that of Egypt. But before the dawn of modern history the western peoples about whom we have been studying knew very little about these nations of the Far East, and the people of India and China were equally ignorant of Europe. Toward the close of the Middle Ages there grew up in Europe a great interest in eastern Asia, and a great desire to know more about it. In the end, this interest and this desire led to the discovery of America. This new European interest in the Far East arose because of the rich trade which was springing up with that part of the world. In the Middle Ages the people of Europe produced the bare necessities of life in their own countries, but for its luxuries they were dependent upon Asia. Their spices, perfumes, precious stones, costly woods, and finest wares of nearly every kind came from the East. In those days the food of the people was coarse, lacking in variety, and often very badly cooked. Such spices as pepper, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmegs were eagerly sought after, because they helped to make the food of the time more palatable. (208) THE EAST AND THE WEST 209 ) For a long time only the rich could afford these spices, but as the trade in them grew they came into more general use. Spices are the products of tropical plants and trees, which grow only in a few parts of the world. In the Middle Ages the world's supply of pepper came from vines which grew in the forests along a ^ stretch of the coast of southern India, some two hundred miles in length. Ginger was found in many parts of the East; especially in Arabia, India, and China. Cinnamon bark came from the interior of Ceylon, but also grew on the Indian coast. Cloves, nutmegs, and other spices were the native products of the Spice Islands, a group of small islands in the midst of the East Indies. From these same eastern islands came most of the drugs, perfumes, and dyes used in Europe. Camphor, for instance, is obtained from the wood of the camphor tree, which grows in eastern Asia and in the neighboring islands. Indigo, with which a deep blue color is produced, was grown and prepared for use as a dye in India. Another valuable dye was made from Brazil wood, which was found in southeastern Asia. Brazil in South America gets its name from the fact that it produces a similar dye-wood. The sugar cane is a native of Asia and from that continent a little sugar found its way to the markets of Europe. But in those days sugar cost too much to be an article of daily use. Honey was the common sweetening of the Middle Ages. The people who could afford them loved jewels and precious stones in the Middle Ages even more than 14 210 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA they do today. For these coveted articles of luxury they looked to the East. Diamonds came from Golconda, in central India. Rubies, sapphires, and emeralds were found in many places in the Far East. The most beautiful pearls came from the Persian Gulf and from the strait between India and Ceylon. The native princes of India loved all these jewels and had great collections of them in their treasuries. Sometimes, when these princes were conquered by their enemies, their jewels were sold to traders, and wonderful stories are told of the number, size, and beauty of the precious stones that came to Europe from these sources. The artisans of the growing cities of western Europe were indebted to the East for much of the raw material which they were making into fine wares in their shops. From eastern lands came the cotton and the silk which were woven in the looms of Europe, as well as the dye- stuffs which gave them the brilliant colors so much admired in those times. Cabinetmakers used fragrant eastern woods, like sandal-wood, in the making of their costliest goods. The finest manufactured articles were of eastern workmanship. No glass maker in Europe could equal the finest glassware of western Asia. The metal work of the East was equally famous. The best weavers of the West were still surpassed by the eastern workmen in the production of fine cottons, silks, and linens. China was the home of the finest porcelain, which to this day is often called China- ware. The carpets and the rugs of Asia are still the most beautiful in the world. THE EAST AND THE WEST 211 212 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA This wealth of the Orient had a great deal to do with the growth of civilization in Europe in the later Middle Ages. Pilgrims and crusaders brought a knowledge of the luxuries of the East to the peoples of the West. When the people of Europe learned of the spices, jewels, and silks of Asia they began to desire them. Their efforts to satisfy this growing desire resulted in the development of a rich commerce with the East. The Routes of Trade. — The merchants of Genoa, Venice, and the other commercial cities of southern Europe bought the silks, spices, and other costly goods of Asia in the ports of the eastern Mediterranean and of the Black Sea. Beyond these ports there were three great lines of trade along which the products of the Far East were brought to the West. A careful study of the map will help us to understand how this trade was carried on. Chinese, Japanese, and Malay traders gathered the goods of the east coast of Asia and of the islands in the East Indies, and brought them to the city of Malacca on the strait which bears the same name. Here they were sold to merchants from India and Arabia, who took them to Calicut and other ports on the west coast of India. From these ports other traders made the long voyage across the Arabian Sea to the entrance to the Red Sea. Landed at Red Sea ports, the goods were carried across the country to the Nile, down which river boats brought them to Cairo and Alexandria. A second great trade route ran from the cities on the west coast of India to the Persian Gulf. Trading THE EAST AND THE WEST 213 vessels discharged their cargoes at the head of this gulf, from which point trains of camels carried the goods up the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and thence across the desert to the Mediter- ranean ports on the coast of Syria. This route had been used from the earliest times, and for a long while A CARAVAN OF CAMELS The rich goods of the Orient were carried across the deserts of western Asia upon the backs of camels. was the most important road joining the East and the West. The third route lay far to the north of the other two. Starting in northern China it ran across the deserts of central Asia to the neighborhood of the Caspian Sea. Here the road branched. One fork of it ran around the northern end of the Caspian Sea and finally reached the ports on the northern coast of the Black Sea. The other passed south of the Caspian and ended at the great port of Trebizond. 214 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Along all these routes the goods of the East slowly- found their way to the markets of Europe. They were carried in many different ways, in strange look- ing eastern ships, on river boats, by caravans of camels or trains of pack mules, and sometimes on the backs of men. The traders on these routes were beset by many perils. They were robbed by pirates at sea and attacked by warlike tribes on land. The roads led across the deserts and over high mountains. But in spite of all the dangers and difficulties, a large and flourishing trade existed. The European merchants could always find the spices and perfumes, the jewels and silks and rugs of the far eastern lands in the cities on the Black Sea and along the shores of the eastern Mediterranean. The Story of Marco Polo. — For a long time the people of Europe knew very little about the eastern lands which supplied them with so many luxuries. In the thirteenth century a few explorers and travelers began to visit the Far East and some of them have written very interesting accounts of what they saw. The most famous of these books was the work of Marco Polo, a Venetian, who went with his father and his uncle to Cathay, as China was called, where they lived for many years. Marco Polo's story is a very interesting one. The elder Polos were adventurous merchants, who made their way eastward from the Black Sea until they reached the court of the emperor of China. At that time China, with nearly all of central Asia, was ruled by a people called the Mongols. The emperor, Kublai Elian by name, sent the Polos home with a THE EAST AND THE WEST 215 message to the pope, asking that Christian missionaries be sent to his country. When the elder Polos returned to the East they Marco Polos Journeys First Journey of Elder Polos Marco's Outward and Homeward Journey took with them young Marco, then a lad of seventeen years. The travelers slowly made their way across Asia and after a journey which lasted three years 216 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA they came to the court of Kublai Khan. Here they hved for the next seventeen years. While his father and his uncle were engaged in making a fortune, Marco entered the service of the emperor of Cathay, in which his official duties led him to travel to all parts of eastern Asia. In this way he learned more about Cathay than any European had ever known before. The Polos had long wanted to return to their home in Venice, but the emperor was unwilling to let them go. At last they were chosen to escort a royal bride, who was sent all the way from Peking to Tabriz, the capital of Persia, to become the wife of the ruler of that country. It was decided to make the journey by sea. The party slowly made its way along the coast of China, Farther India, and Hindustan to the Persian Gulf. Upon reaching Persia they found that its ruler, who was to have been the royal bridegroom, had died; so the princess was married to his son. Then the Polos went home to Venice. They had been absent for twenty-four years, and at first no one knew them. Great was the rejoicing in Venice when it became known that the three long- lost citizens had come home. Nor had they returned empty handed. When they ripped open the seams of their coats there fell out such stores of diamonds and emeralds, rubies and sapphires as none of their friends had ever seen or imagined. When Marco Polo returned, Venice was at war with Genoa. Marco was given the command of a Venetian warship, but was taken prisoner in a naval battle and kept in prison in Genoa for a year. During his captivity he told the story of his travels in the THE EAST AND THE WEST 217 East to one of his companions who wrote it as he told it. In a few years this book was widely read throughout Europe. Marco Polo's fascinating account of the wonders and riches of Cathay stirred up an intense interest in that far-away land. The Coming of the Turks. — During the most of the Middle Ages the ports of western Asia, which were visited by ships and traders from Europe, were in the hands of the Greeks of the Eastern Empire or of the Arabs. Now the Greeks and the Arabs were the most highly civilized people of that time and they welcomed and encoiu-aged commerce with the merchants from the West. In the eleventh century the barbarous Turks, a people from central Asia, threatened to destroy the Eastern Empire, but the crusades checked their conquests for a time. About the beginning of the fourteenth century the Ottoman Turks began to conquer the lands in Asia Minor. When they reached the sea they built ships and crossed into Europe, where they overran the Balkan peninsula. The whole of the Eastern Empire was now theirs except its capital at Constanti- nople. In 1453 they stormed that city, killed or sold into slavery most of its people, and made it the capital of a great Turkish empire. The Turks were a warlike and barbarous people. They cared little for commerce, and took away from the European merchants the trading privileges which the Greeks had been so eager to give them. They forced the trading cities on the Black Sea to pay a heavy tribute, and in a series of wars with Venice and Genoa took from those cities their possessions in 218 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA the Greek islands. You will see by looking at the map on page 211 how the Turks at Constantinople ruined the great northern trade route from Asia to Europe. The routes through Syria and Egypt were still open and became of greater importance because the northern route was closed. Alexandria then became the greatest market for spices in the world. But this did not last long. In the opening years of the sixteenth century the Sultan, as the ruler of the Turks is called, invaded and conquered Syria and Egypt and made these countries a part of the Turkish Empire. The old trade routes between Asia and Europe were now all blocked by the Turks. The effect of the rise of the great Turkish Empire in the borderland between Europe and Asia was keenly felt in Europe. The great commercial cities in Italy, Hke Genoa and Venice, were nearly ruined by their wars with the Turks and the loss of their eastern trade. Never had there been greater demand in the markets of Europe for the goods of the Far East. This demand could no longer be suppUed in the old way. Everywhere men were talking of the possibility of finding some new way to the East, and a few bold and adventurous spirits began to search for it. This search was successful in a larger sense than anyone dreamed when it began, for it resulted in the finding of America. How the Portuguese Found a New Way to India. — The Portuguese were the first European people to find the sea route to India around Africa. It took nearly a hundred years of patient exploration to discover this new and safer way to bring the spices THE EAST AND THE WEST 219 and rich wares of the East to the markets of Europe. We must next inquire how it was done. Portugal is a little country, but its location by the sea made its people a race of sailors. They had long traded with England and the Netherlands and they knew the products of Asia, for every year a Venetian fleet brought them to Lisbon. The Portuguese sea captains were also acquainted with the coasts of northwestern Africa. Prince Henry the Navigator, a younger son of the king of Portu- gal, was the greatest leader in the work of exploration by the Portu- guese. In 1418, when he was only twenty-four years old. Prince Henry went to live on a rocky cape in F^^^^^l^^^'^ southern Portugal, where for more prince henry ^, ^ ^ , . 1 • ^- THE NAVIGATOR than forty years he spent his time in studying the art of navigation, in making maps, and in training the captains whom he sent out to explore the southern seas. Prince Henry was rich, and he spent his fortune freely in fitting out the ships in which his captains sailed. Many motives led Prince Henry the Navigator to undertake this work. He wished to fight the Moham- medan Moors in Africa and to spread the Christian faith in new lands. He knew that gold was brought across the desert from the west coast of Africa to the ports on the Mediterranean. If his ships could reach the gold coast this treasure might come straight to Portugal. Even greater than these motives was his curiosity about the unknown African coast. Prince 220 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Henry believed that it was possible to reach the East by sailing around Africa. If his captains could find this ocean route to India he would win a vast empire and untold wealth for Portugal. For some years little progress was made. The dangers and difficulties in the path of the fifteenth century explorer were very great. The ships of the time were small and clumsy. The sailors were ignorant and superstitious. Many of them feared that if they sailed too far from the land they could never get back again. Some of them thought that the heat was so great in the south that no man could live in it. Dry bread and salt beef were the only provisions on shipboard, and on long voyages many of the sailors sickened and died because of this fare. Year after year the gallant captains sent out by Prince Henry pushed farther and farther south along the west coast of Africa. In 1445 one of them reached Cape Verde, which means ^^ Green Cape" and marks the beginning of the fertile shores south of the Desert of Sahara. From this point the African coast trends eastward and the Portuguese were more hopeful than ever that they were on the way to India. Soon the Portuguese captains were bringing home gold and slaves from the coast of Guinea. Prince Henry the Navigator died in 1460, but his work was carried on by the kings of Portugal. The A PORTUGUESE SHIP THE EAST AND THE WEST 221 bold Portuguese captains continued to work their way toward the southern point of Africa. In 1487, Bartholomew Diaz passed this point, which he named the Cape of Storms. When the king of Portugal saw this name in the report of Diaz, he said, ^^Nay, let it rather be called the Cape of Good Hope, since there is now much reason to believe that we have found the long sought ocean route to the Indies. '' Ten years later, in 1497, another Portuguese cap- tain, Vasco da Gama, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, explored the east coast of Africa, sailed boldly across the Indian Ocean to India, and returned to Portugal with a rich cargo. At last the new and safer way to the Far East had been found. Within twenty-five years the Portuguese built up a vast and profitable commerce with that part of the world. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. What articles do we now import from Asia? 2. From what other lands do we get spices? jewels? fine woods? 3. What countries supply the world with sugar at the present time? 4. Draw a map showing the trade routes described in this chapter. 5. Do the Turks still possess any land in Europe? 6. Trace on the map the explorations of Prince Henry the Navigator. 7. Show how the Portuguese at last found a sea route to the Far East. Is this route the one still used by the ships of Europe? 8. Find out if the Portuguese still own land in Africa or Asia. BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Cheyney : The European Background of American History, Chapters 1-4. Fiske: The Discovery of America, I, Chapters 3, 4. Beazley : Prince Henry the Navigator. BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Brooks: The Story of Marco Polo. Knox: The Travels of Marco Polo for Boys and Girls, Towle: Marco Polo — His Travels and Adventures. CHAPTER XIII HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA Christopher Columbus and His Plan. — While the Portuguese were seeking a new route to the Far East by way of the Cape of Good Hope, Christopher Columbus was planning to do the same thing by sailing boldly westward across the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus was an Ital- ian, born at Genoa about the middle of the fifteenth century. When he was only fourteen years old he became a sailor. After a number of adventurous voyages he settled in Portugal, where he mar- ried the daughter of one of the famous sea captains who had served Prince Henry the Navigator. I For a time after his marriage Columbus made maps and charts for a living. He had always been fond of reading, and now he spent much time poring over the papers of his father-in-law, studjdng books on geo- (222) COLUMBUS ON THE DECK OF HIS FLAGSHIP HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 223 graphical exploration, talking of their voyages with the old sailors about him, and dreaming of the vast unexplored sea to the westward. During these years Columbus came to believe that he could reach Asia by sailing west. Perhaps he also hoped to find new lands far out in the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus was not the first man to believe that the earth is round. Ever since the days of Greece and Rome a few of the wisest men had believed and taught this idea, but it had never been commonly accepted. It is the glory of Columbus that he was the first man with enough courage and fortitude to put his faith in this belief to the test. "What if wise men, as far back as Ptolemy Judged that the earth, hke an orange, was round, None of them ever said, come along, follow me. Sail to the West and the East will be found." As soon as Columbus had fully formed his plan for reaching Asia by a western route across the ocean he began to look for help to carry it out. He first appealed to the king of Portugal. Without saying anything to Columbus about it the king sent a ship to the west- ward to see what could be found. The sailors on this ship soon lost heart, and refusing to go farther, returned to Portugal. When Columbus found out what the king had done he left Lisbon and went to Spain. At this time Spain was ruled by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. For seven years Columbus followed them from place to place trying in vain to persuade them to aid him in working out his plan. Time and again the councils to which the Spanish rulers referred the proposal of Columbus reported that 224 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA it was not practical. It is always difficult to get men to accept a new idea. Not many years ago people said that it was impossible to hear a man speak one thou- sand miles away, and yet these same people now talk by telephone from New York to San Francisco. At last, after years of anxious waiting and repeated From a painting by Brozik, in Metropolitan Museum, N. Y. COLUMBUS BEFORE THE SPANISH COUNCIL disappointments in Spain, Columbus started for France in the hope of interesting the king of that country in his scheme. He had not gone far, however, before he was overtaken by a messenger with the good news that Queen Isabella had at last decided to fit out an expedition for him. It was agreed that Columbus should be the governor of all the lands which he should discover, and that he should have a share of the HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 225 profits of all the trade with them. The seaport town of Palos was ordered to provide the ships and men for his voyage. At first it was very difficult to find any men who were willing to go upon what seemed to them such a reckless venture. Finally three small vessels, From a model in the Commercial Museum, Philadelphia THE FLAGSHIP OF COLUMBUS It was 128 feet long and was the largest of the explorer's three ships. the ^'Santa Maria/' ^'The Pinta/' and the ^^Nina/' were made ready and about ninety men were enlisted for the expedition. The First Voyage of Columbus. — In the early morn- ing of the 3rd of August, 1492, the httle fleet of Columbus sailed out of the harbor of Palos and headed for the unknown waters of the West. Columbus 15 226 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA stopped about a month at the Canary Islands to repair one of his ships, and on the 6th of September made the final start on the great voyage which was to result in the finding of America. For thirty-four days after leaving the Canaries Columbus steered boldly westward over an unknown sea. The weather was delightful, but the fears and THE DEPARTURE OF COLUMBUS The great explorer is going on board his ship to start on his first voyage. complaints of his men, who were ignorant and super- stitious, made it an anxious time for their great leader. Joaquin Miller, one of our American poets, has told us in a splendid poem how grandly Columbus cheered on his men. "They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: 'This mad sea shows his teeth tonight. He curls his lip, he Hes 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!' " HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 227 The real greatness of Columbus lies in his iron will, which held him steadfast to his purpose through many years, and in the midst of the greatest dangers. The same poet teaches us the lesson of his life in telling us what he found. ''Then, worn and pale, he kept the deck, And peered through darkness. Ah, that night Of all dark nights! And then a speck — A Ught! A Hght! A light! A hght! 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!'" Land was first sighted early in the morning of the 12th of October, 1492. It was one of the small islands now known as the Bahamas. The same morn- ing Columbus landed, bearing the royal banner of Spain in his hand. With his men he knelt upon the shore and gave thanks to God for his mercy. Columbus then named the island San Salvador and took posses- sion of it in the names of the king and the queen of Spain. Soon a large crowd of the natives gathered about the explorers. Let Columbus tell us in his own words of what followed. He says, ^'In order to win the friendship and affection of that people, and because I was convinced that their conversion to our Holy Faith would be better promoted through love than through force, I presented some of them with red caps and some strings of glass beads which they placed around their necks, and with other trifles of insignifi- cant worth that delighted them and by which we have 228 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA got a wonderful hold on their affections. They after- ward came to the boats of the vessels swimming, bringing us parrots, cotton thread in balls, and spears, and many other things, which they bartered for others we gave them such as glass beads and little bells. Finally they received everything and gave whatever From the painting "by Vanderhjn, Cajritol, Washington THE LANDING OF COLUMBUS The discoverer is taking possession of the new land in the names of the king and the n^ieen of Spain. they had with good will. But I thought them to be a very poor people." Columbus sailed among the islands of the Bahama group until October 28th, when he found the coast of Cuba. He explored slowly eastward along this coast and that of the neighboring island of Hayti, for nearly three months. On Christmas morning his flagship, the ^^ Santa Maria," was wrecked on the coast of Hayti. HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 229 This led him to leave forty of his men to plant the first European colony in America. With the two small vessels remaining he sailed for home, and after a stormy voyage entered the harbor of Palos on March 15, 1493. Columbus now made his way to Barcelona, where From the ■painting by Cordero, Mexico THE RETURN OF COLUMBUS The explorer is showing Ferdinand and Isabella the Indians whom he brought to Spain on the return from his first voyage. Ferdinand and Isabella were at this time. '^From all the neighboring places the people gathered along the highway to see him and the Indians and the other things so novel that he had brought with him.^' The king and queen received him with the highest honors, listened to the story of his wandering, and saw with wonder the strange things and strange people that 230 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA he had brought with him to prove that his story was true. The Finding of Strange Coasts. — In the famous voyage of 1492 Columbus only began the discovery of America. He was the first to say, '^ Come along, follow me.'' When this was once said there were many brave men to follow him. The real finding of America was the work of many men, who during the next two hun- dred years slowly and patiently traced the coast line of the New World and explored the interior of the vast continents that had been found. At first, no one realized that a New World had been discovered. Columbus believed that he had found a westward route to Asia, and that the islands which he had visited were off the eastern coast of that continent. He made three other voyages to what he thought was the coast of Asia or its outlying islands. On his second voyage he explored the coasts of Hayti and Cuba, discovered Jamaica, and began the work of Spanish settlement in the West Indies. The third time he sailed far to the south, touching the coast of South America near the mouth of the Orinoco River and tracing the coast line westward for some distance. On his last voyage he was determined to reach the mainland of Asia, if possible, so he sailed west from Cuba, only to find the coast of Central America, which he explored as far as the Isthmus of Panama. After Columbus led the way, other explorers, encouraged by his example, sought the westward route to Asia. In 1497 John Cabot, an Italian in the service of the king of England, set sail with one small ship and eighteen men and found the mainland of HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 231 232 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA -^;»75'M North America, somewhere upon the eastern coast of Canada. He thought he had reached Cathay or China. It is probable that Cabot made a second voyage to the same region the following year, but very little is known about it. The work of John Cabot is important because it gave the king of England a claim to the eastern coast of North America by right of discovery. In the meantime several Spanish captains were exploring the northern and east- ern coasts of South America. When it was noticed that this strange new land extended much farther south than Asia, the ex- plorers began to call it a ''New World,'' as a con- tinent southeast of Asia and possibly connected with it. Soon they began to look for a strait through which they might find their way to the land of spices, which they felt sure was near at hand. Americus Vespucius, a native of Florence in Italy, made several voyages to these strange lands beyond the Atlantic. He saw much of the coast of South America and it is possible that he helped explore the coast line of the Gulf of Mexico. At any rate, he wrote a very interesting story of his travels, of the countries he had visited and of the wonders that he had seen. This account was widely read, and falling AN EARLY MAP OF AMERICA This map is adapted from a globe made by Finaeus in 1531. It shows how Europeans for a time thought that South America was a new continent joined to Asia by the isthmus of Panama. HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 233 into the hands of a German geographer, it led him to suggest that this new part of the world be called ^'The land of Americus or America.'' For a while this name was applied only to South America, but in time it came to be given to both continents of the western hemisphere. How it was Proved that America is not Asia. — In 1513 Balboa, a Spaniard, who was exploring in the interior of the Isthmus of Pan- ama, saw from a mountain top a great sea spread out before him. After struggling for four days through a tropical jungle Balboa reached the sea- shore. Wading into the water, with the royal banner in his hand, he took possession of the new sea in the name of his master, the king of Spain. As this sea was south of the isthmus which he had just crossed Balboa called it the South Sea. This discovery strengthened the growing belief that South America was really a new continent. It remained for Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailor in the service of the Spanish king, to prove beyond any doubt that the New World was not Asia. By the most wonderful voyage of exploration that the world has ever seen Magellan made it clear that the new continent was separated from Cathay and the East Indies by the greatest ocean upon the globe. In his early life Magellan had visited the East Indies by way of the Cape of Good Hope. After his return to BALBOA TAKING POSSESSION OF THE SOUTH SEA 234 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Portugal it occurred to him that if a passage could be found from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea the rich spice islands of the Far East could be reached by a westward route. He believed that he could find such a passage. He laid his plan before the king of Portugal, but the king would have nothing to do with it. Magellan then left Portugal and offered his services to the king of Spain. Just at this time the Spaniards had a special reason for wishing to find such a route as Magellan suggested. Shortly after the first voyage of Columbus, Spain and Portugal had made a treaty with the approval of the pope, by which it was agreed that all new lands lying east of a meridian three hundred and seventy FERDINAND leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands should belong to Portugal, and all lands west of this meridian to Spain. Thus far Portugal had much the better of this bargain. She was rapidly developing a rich trade with the East Indies, while, as yet, Spain had found little of value in the new lands to the west. But if the Spaniards could reach the East Indies by sailing westward, as Magellan said, then they could claim at least a part of the trade of that region. For this reason the king of Spain listened to the plan of Magellan, and gave him five ships with which to carry it out. With this httle fleet he crossed the Atlantic to South America and began to explore the coast to the southward, ever on the lookout for an opening into the South Sea. Winter compelled HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 235 Magellan to stop for several months upon the coast of Patagonia. During this halt a serious mutiny broke out among his men, but he put it down with a strong hand. With the earliest signs of spring Magellan once more started upon his quest. He soon found the strait which now bears his name, through which for five weeks he cautiously worked his way. Presently it became clear that the long-sought passage had been found. The pro- visions were running short, and the men urged their leader to go back to Spain. Magellan rephed that he would go on and finish his work ''if he had to eat the leather off the ship's yards.'' In this spirit Magellan first sailed northward and then boldly turned to the west to cross the greatest of oceans, which he named Pacific, because he found it so free from storms. The days grew to be weeks, and the weeks lengthened into months, and still the stout-hearted captain held to his course. The food gave out, and the men did eat the leather off the ship's rigging, first soaking it in the ocean and then roasting it over a fire. Just as starvation seemed certain they came to an island upon which they found fruit, vegetables, and game. Twelve days later they reached the islands which were later called the Philippines. Upon one of these islands Magellan was killed by the natives in MONUMENT TO MAGELLAN This monument marks the spot in the Philippine Islands where Magellan was killed. 236 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA April, 1521. But one of his ships, the httle ''Victoria/' found its way to the Spice Islands, thence across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and so home to Spain. This voyage was the first circumnavigation of the globe. Magellan had proved, as the wisest men had long believed, that the earth was round. He had proved too that America was a New World, separated from the Old World and its civilization by two great oceans. The New World. — It was a wonderful New World which had been discovered, a world rich in resources of almost every kind, and in it many of the people of Europe were destined to find better homes than they had ever known in the Old World. If you will study this map of the western hemisphere you will notice that America extends from the frozen north across the wide temperate zone, in which the United States is located, includes the vast tropical regions of the West Indies, Mexico, and Central and South America, has a second rich temperate section in the far south, and ends amid the cold and storms of Cape Horn. South America alone is nearly twice the size of Europe, and North America is larger still. In this New World, and in particular in that part of it where we now find the United States, nature had made every provision for the wants of civilized men. A fertile soil only waited to be cultivated in order to bring forth abundant harvests. Splendid forests of oak and pine, with many other kinds of useful trees, gave promise of shelter and fuel. Deer, buffalo, wild turkey, and other game meant food for the early HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 237 settlers. The beaver, the mink, and the fox offered a rich supply of fur. The lakes and rivers teemed with fish, the waters along the Atlantic coast were alive University Museum, PMladelpMa A GROUP OF SIOUX INDIANS These Indians are dressed to have their pictures taken, but their faces are typical of the red men. 238 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA with cod, mackerel, and herring, and the salmon was found in uncounted numbers on the Pacific coast. The mountains of the East were ribbed with iron and underlaid with coal. In those of the far West there were rich stores of silver and gold. Copper, lead, and salt were found in many places. The smaller American Museum of Natural History, N. Y INDIAN UTENSILS, TOOLS, AND WEAPONS rivers furnished water power to drive the wheels of mills, and the larger rivers were roads along which settlers and traders might reach the interior of the country. In the main, the climate was healthful and well suited to people from Europe. This wealth of natural resources has played a very great part in the making of our history. The Indians. — Columbus called the people whom he HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 239 found on his first voyage Indians, because he thought that he had reached the East Indies. There were Indians in nearly every part of the New World, although nowhere was their number very large. They were often called the Red Men, because of their copper color. They were finely formed people, with high cheek bones and straight black hair. When the white men first saw them the Indians had the arts of the Stone Age, as the people of Europe had had many thousands of years earlier. Some of the red men were savages who wandered from place to place, living upon such game and fish as they could catch. Other tribes, which were a'i little more advanced, culti- vated the soil and raised squashes, beans, and corn. They had no domestic animals except the dog. Their arrows were tipped with flint, and such other weapons and tools as they possessed were made of polished stone. They lived in tents or wigwams covered with bark or skins. The Indians were a fierce and warlike race, and the various tribes often fought with each other. Copyright Underwood & Underwood A FORT OF THE PERUVIANS Notice with what skill these American In- dians fitted great blocks of stone together. 240 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA The Indians in Mexico and Peru were much farther advanced toward civilization than the other tribes in the New World. They lived a settled life, raised great crops of corn and potatoes, and the natives of Peru kept large flocks of llamas and alpacas. The Peruvians, in particular, built large buildings and fine University Museum, Pliila. A CASTLE OF THE ANCIENT MEXICANS This ruin is found in Yucatan. roads. Magnificent ruins of these buildings may be seen in Peru at the present time. Both Mexico and Peru were rich in gold and silver and we shall see that it was this fact which led to their early conquest by the Spaniards. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. What do you most admire in Columbus? Wliy? 2. Why did Columbus find it so difficult to secure aid for his first voyage? . 3. Lowell, Tennyson, and Sidney Lanier have written great poems about Columbus. Find and read them. 4. Would it have made any difference in the history of the New World if it had been named for Columbus? HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 241 5. Trace upon a map the route of Magellan's great voyage. 6. If possible, read the fine description of Magellan's voyage in John Fiske's ''Discovery of America." 7. In what ways are North and South America aUke? In what respects do they differ? 8. What do the Indian relics that you have seen tell you about the life of the Indians? BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Fiske: The Discovery of America. Bourne: Spain in America, Chapters I-IX. Channing: History of the United States, 1, Chapters I, II. Adams: Christopher Columbus. Farrand: The Basis of American History. Brigham: Geographic Influences in American History. BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Brooks: The True Story of Christopher Columbus. Lawler: Columbus and Magellan. Gordy: American Leaders and Heroes, American Explorers. Seelye: The Story of Columbus. Shaw: Discoverers and Explorers. McMurry: Pioneers on Land and Sea. Starr: American Indians. CHAPTER XIV HOW THE SPANIARDS WON A GREAT EMPIRE IN AMERICA The Settlement of the West Indies. — In less than fifty years after the fnst voyage of Columbus the Spaniards had built a vast empire in America. They did this long before any other European nation had made a single settlement in the New World. It will be remembered that Columbus left forty men upon the island of Hayti when he was first there in 1492. The next year, when he returned, he brought with him fifteen hundred men, laborers, artisans, and soldiers, besides missionaries to convert the Indians. These first Spanish settlers brought many things to help them live as they had lived in their old homes: horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry; wheat, barley, and all kinds of garden seeds; and what was to be more important than any of these in the history of the West Indies, the sugar cane. Every year more settlers came and soon there were several Spanish towns in Hayti and Cuba, and a Httle later in Porto Rico and Jamaica. At first, these settlements did not prosper. The chmate was unhealthful, and there was much sickness and death. Then the colonists were thirsty for gold, and spent their time in searching for it instead of in clearing the land and building permanent homes. (242) THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 243 When the Spaniards first came to the West Indies there were many Indians in the islands. The colonists treated these natives with great cruelty, selhng some of them into slavery in Spain, and forcing the others to work upon the plantations and in the mines of Cuba and Hayti. The Indians were a wild free race, unused to the hard work which the Spaniards made them do. In vain they fought for their freedom against the better armed white men. These wars, and the brutal treatment and heavy toil of those who were enslaved, soon threatened to destroy all the Indians on the islands. The best man among the early Spanish settlers in the West Indies was a priest named Las Casas. The heart of this good man was touched by the awful sufferings of the poor Indians. He began by giving up his own slaves. Then he commenced to preach to the people that their souls were in danger as long as they kept the Indians in bondage. But the people would not listen to him, and Las Casas went to Spain to complain to the king. At first he could accomplish nothing, but in the end he succeeded in getting new laws which greatly lessened the hardships of the few Indians who survived. But even Las Casas could not persuade the Spanish government to give the Indians their freedom. The mines must be worked, and somewhere the laborers must be found to work them. Presently negro slaves began to be brought to take the place of the rapidly disappearing Indians. In this way African slavery and the African slave trade were first introduced into the New World. 244 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA While these early Spanish settlements were growing up in the West Indies, bold and restless Spanish cap- tains were exploring the coast of the neighboring mainland. When stories of the wealth of Mexico and Peru began to be told in the settlements on the islands the gold seekers abandoned them and went to conquer the richer lands to the westward. So University Museum, PMla. A TEMPLE-PALACE OF THE ANCIENT MEXICANS Notice the elaborate decoration of the walls. These ruins are found in Yucatan. for many years the Spanish colonies in Cuba and Hayti grew very slowly. How Cortes Conquered Mexico. — The first great step in the winning of a Spanish empire upon the mainland of America w^as the conquest of Mexico. When the captains who had been sent to explore the shores of the Gulf of Mexico came back with stories of a people who Uved in cities in which there were paved streets, great temples, and most tempting of all, an abundance of gold, there was intense excite- ment among the Spaniards in the West Indian colonies. THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 245 From a painting by Peale, in In- dependence Hall, Phila. CORTES The governor of Cuba at once decided to make a settlement in the new rich land in the west. Hernando Cortes, a young soldier who had taken an active part in the conquest of Cuba, was appointed to lead the first expedition into Mexico. A wiser choice it would have been hard to make. Cortes was a born leader of men, bold and brave as a hon, yet shrewd and wise in counsel. Early in 1519 he reached the coast of Mexico with eleven ships and about six hundred men. Cortes soon discovered that Mexico was inhabited by many tribes of fierce and warlike Indi- ans. After establishing the town of Vera Cruz upon the coast, he resolved to march upon the great Indian capital, the City of Mexico, of whose wealth in gold and jewels he had heard the most wonderful stories. Before starting upon this dangerous march Cortes sunk all his ships. There was now no escape for his men. They must win or perish. With his little handful of men Cor- tes began the invasion of an unknown land swarming with powerful and savage foes. Again and again the Spaniards had to fight for their lives. They were far better armed than the Indians, who were terrified at the sound of the cannon which Cortes had with him, A CANNON OF CORTES' TIME 246 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA and almost as badly frightened at the sight of the horses, the hke of which they had never seen before. Cortes soon learned that the Aztecs, as the Indians of the City of Mexico were called, were hated by the other tribes, with whom they were often at war. He made a wise use of this knowledge. When the strongest tribe that he encountered between Vera Cruz and the City of Mexico found out that the Spaniards were marching against the enemies they feared and hated, they joined forces with them, and thus the little army of Cortes was strengthened by several thousand Indian allies. As Cortes and his men drew near the Aztec capital, they were amazed at the sight which they beheld. Opening before them was a beautiful valley hemmed in by lofty mountains. A large lake lay in the middle of this valley, and upon an island in this lake there stood a great city. Three causeways, as the roads raised above the level of the water were called, each four or five miles long and twenty or thirty feet wide, connected this island with the shores of the lake. One of the soldiers of Cortes tells us of the astonish- ment and wonder of the Spaniards. He says, ^^When we beheld so many cities and towns rising up from the water, and other populous places situated on the terra Urma (solid earth), and that causeway, straight as a level which went into Mexico, we remained astonished, and said one to another that it appeared like the enchanted castles which they tell of in the book of Amadis, by reason of the great towers, temples, and edifices, which there were in the water, and all THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 247 of them work of masonry. Some of our soldiers asked if this that they saw was not a thing in a dream.'' The soldiers might well think that they were dream- ing as they marched along the great causeway across the lake and entered a city of sixty thousand people. Though they did not understand it, they really were marching back through many thousand years of the growth of civilization into a life not unlike that of early Egypt or Babylonia. The Aztecs lived in great houses, each large enough to shelter hundreds of people. There were no stores in the city, but the Spaniards found two market places where the people met to trade. In the center of the city there was a great tower and upon montezuma the top of this tower there stood an altar, where captives were killed to please the bloody gods whom the Indians worshipped. Cortes and his men were received with great cere- mony by Montezuma, the war chief of the Aztecs, and lodged in a house large enough to shelter them all. Suspecting that the Indians were getting ready to attack him, Cortes seized Montezuma and kept him a prisoner. The Indians hesitated to begin a war while their great chief was in the hands of the enemy and in this way a whole winter passed. Early in the spring the news came that a Spanish force of twelve hundred men, sent by the governor of Cuba to arrest Cortes for disobedience to his orders, had landed at Vera Cruz. Cortes acted promptly. Leaving a few men in the City of Mexico, he hurried 248 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA to the coast with most of his force, defeated and cap- tured the Spanish leader who had come to arrest him, and told the soldiers such stories of the wonders and the wealth of Mexico that they eagerly enlisted in his service. Cortes now returned to the Mexican capital with .-/f^il^i^v^ THE SPANIARDS STORMING THE CITY OF MEXICO a much larger force than he had before. He was just in time. The men whom he had left in the city were penned in their house by hostile Indians. The Indians let Cortes march into the city again, but he soon found that he had really entered a trap in which his small army was surrounded by thousands of warriors. When the attack began Cortes made his prisoner, Montezuma, go out and command the Indians to THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 249 stop fighting, but the Indians would not listen to their former chief. They threw stones at Montezuma, and injured him so badly that he soon died. Cortes now saw that his only hope was in cutting his way out of the city. He attempted this the very night that Montezuma died. The Spaniards marched quietly through the deserted streets, but when they were on the great causeway across the lake the Indians From an old print THE CITY OF MEXICO This is the city which Cortes and his men built upon the ruins of the Indian town. came swarming about them in canoes and attacked them with great fury. Before the end of that terrible night two-thirds of the Spaniards were slain. With the remnant of his force Cortes at last made his escape, and a few days later he defeated the Indians who pursued him. Cortes was not disheartened by the awful disaster which had overtaken him. He secured new supplies, raised a large force of Indians who were hostile to the Aztecs, and returned to the attack. After a siege lasting seventy-three days, in which there was hard fighting every day, he cap- 250 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA tured the City of Mexico, and upon the ruins of the Indian town the conquerors built a Spanish city. After the fall of the City of Mexico the Spanish conquest of the country went on rapidly. Expedi- tions were sent south to explore and conquer Central America and west to the Gulf of California. Daring explorers penetrated the unknown regions to the north. Before the close of the sixteenth century there was a Spanish settlement at Santa Fe, upon the banks of the Rio Grande in New Mexico. The Conquest of Peru. — While Cortes was conquering Mexico other Spaniards were gaining a foothold on the Isthmus of Panama ^^, and along the northern coast of South America. From the first, the settlers at Panama began to FRANCISCO PIZARRO , , . ^ i i p , , i hear stories of a land far to the southward called Peru, which was rich in silver and gold. These reports led many bold spirits to explore in that direction. Among these daring men Francisco Pizarro was easily first. He was destined to become the greatest of the Spanish conquerors, and to win for Spain the richest of her provinces. In his earlier expeditions upon the western coast of South America Pizarro found little except suffering and hardship. But no danger or difficulty was great enough to break his iron will. On one occasion a ship arrived from Panama with orders to bring back Pizarro and all his men. The men who were suffering from famine and disease THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 251 were eager to go home. But Pizarro drew a line in the sand with the point of his sword, and looking his men in the face, said: ^^ Comrades and friends, on that side are death, hardship, starvation, naked- ness, storms; on this side is comfort. From this side you go to Panama to be poor; from that side to Peru to be rich. Let each choose that which he thinks best.'^ As he spoke, Pizarro stepped across the line to the south, and sixteen of his men followed him. With these gallant men and with many others who later came to join him, Pizarro continued his work. At last he reached the coast of Peru and learned that the stories told of its wealth were true. The Peru- vians were Indians who had made considerable progress toward civilization. They raised great crops of corn and potatoes. They kept llamas as beasts of burden, and alpacas from whose wool they made the finest cloth. They had tools and weapons of bronze, built fine roads and great stone buildings, and had so much gold that they made their common utensils, like cups and bowls, of it. There were several tribes of Indians in Peru, but the Incas were the most important and their great chief was called the Inca. Pizarro captured the Inca, LLAMAS These animals are still used as beasts of burden by the Peruvians. 252 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA very much as Cortes had taken Montezuma^ and attacked and scattered his followers. Without their war chief the Indians did not know what to do, and the Spaniards had little difficulty in getting control of their country. The captive Inca was confined in a room twenty-two feet long and seventeen feet wide. One day he drew a mark upon the wall as high as he could reach and offered to buy his freedom by filling the room as high as this mark with gold. His captors eagerly accepted his offer and soon gold vases and ornaments began to be brought in vast quantities. In this way Pizarro and his men won an enormous treasure. But they were afraid to release the Inca and in the end they treacherously killed him. Soon the Spanish conquerors of Peru fell to fighting among themselves and for years there was a great deal of strife among them. Pizarro, when an old man, was murdered by some of his own followers. Quarrelsome and gold-hungry as these Spaniards were, they were also brave and daring, and they continued their conquests southward into Chile and northward into Colombia and Venezuela. The Indians were brought under their rule, cities were founded, and Spanish institutions were planted in all of South America except Brazil, which was colonized by the Portuguese. By the middle of the sixteenth century the Spaniards had won a great empire which included the West Indies, Mexico, Central America, and the greater part of South America. The First Spaniards on the Coast of the United States. — The success of the Spaniards in winning wealth in Mexico and Peru so excited their fancy THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 253 that they began to dream of rich countries to the north. They were not the men to dream of gold without trying to find it. Even before the days of Cortes, Ponce de Leon had visited the coast of Florida and named the country. The first important expedition toward the north, undertaken by the Spaniards in the hope of winning gold and glory, was led by Narvaez. Landing on the shore of Florida, he advanced into the forests of an unknown land with three hundred men. The sufferings of these explorers were terrible. Famine, sickness, and constant Indian attacks steadily reduced their numbers. Nowhere could they find a trace of the gold they came to seek. At last they made their way back to the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico. Here they built boats and put to sea, but a storm ended what famine and disease had begun. Narvaez perished, and only four of his followers, after years of wandering, reached the Spanish settle- ments in Mexico. The Story of De Soto.— A second expedition to the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico was led by Hernando De Soto, a companion of Pizarro in the conquest of Peru. With six hundred and twenty picked men, who like himself were burning with ambition and the hope of plunder, De Soto landed on the coast of Florida. For three years they wandered through the forests and swamps of our southern states, fighting Indians but never finding the wealth they sought. At last they found a great river, the Mississippi, and crossed it. One of De Soto's men, who wrote an account of 254 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA their wanderings, tells us how they crossed the Mississippi. He says, ''In thirty days space, while the governor remained there, they made four barges, in three of which he commanded twelve horsemen to enter (in each of them four), in a morning, three hours before day — men whom he trusted would land in despite of the Indians, and make sure of the passage, or die; and some footmen, being crossbow-men, h went with them, I ^^^;^ and rowers to set _^ '^ _^^ ; them on the other side. And in the other barge he com- manded John de Guzman to pass with the footmen. And, because the stream was swift, they went a quarter of a league up the river, along the bank, and, crossing over, fell down with the stream, and landed right over against the camps. ''Two stones'-cast before they came to land, the horsemen went out of the barges on horseback to a sandy plot of very hard and clear ground, where all of them landed without any resistance. As soon as those that passed first were on land on the other side, the barges returned to the place where the governor was; and, within two hours after sun-rising, all the people were over. The river was almost half a league broad. If a man stood still on the other side, it could not be discerned whether he were a man or no. -Tha river was of great depth and of a strong current. THE BURIAL OF DE SOTO THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 255 The river was always muddy. There came down the river continually many trees and timber, which the force of the water and stream brought down. There was great store of fish in it, of sundry sorts, and most of it differing from the fresh water fish of Spain." After discovering the Mississippi River, De Soto and his men roamed for months in the region west of it. Finally, giving up hope of finding gold, they returned to the Mississippi. Here De Soto died and was buried in the great river which he had found, where to this day — "Deep buried in the ooze of centuries, Wrapped in the mighty river's winding sheet, That which the world once called De Soto lies So sepulchred, steel cased from head to feet." The survivors now built boats and after terrible suffering reached Mexico. The Explorations of Coronado.^ — The story told by the survivors of Narvaez' ill-fated expedition, and the behef in an old legend that there were seven rich cities somewhere toward the north, led the governor of Mexico to send a monk named Fray Marcos to explore in that direction. Fray Marcos caught a distant glimpse of the pueblos of New Mexico, and believed that he had seen the fabled cities. So the next year, at the very time that De Soto was wandering over the region north of the Gulf of Mexico, Coronado started from Mexico with eleven hundred men to conquer these cities. After he discovered that the pueblos of New Mexico were not the rich cities that he hoped to find, but only Indian villages, 256 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA he went on to the northeast, probably as far as the plains of the present state of Kansas. One of the soldiers with Coronado wrote, ^'I have not seen a better country in all our Spain. It is made up of plains with very fine rivers and streams, which made me sure that it will be very fruitful in all sorts of products. After we began to enter the plains we found cattle (buffalo) in great numbers. We found Indians among the cattle. These Indians live without houses, but have some sets of poles which they carry with them to make something like huts in the places where they stop. They tie these poles together at the top and stick the bottoms in the ground, covering them with cowskins. From what was learned of these Indians, all their human needs are supplied by these cattle, for they are fed and clothed and shod from these. They are a people who go around here and there, wherever seems to them best.'^ The importance of all these exploring expeditions grows out of the fact that upon them the Spaniards based their claim to all the southern and south- western part of what is now the United States. Begin- ning at St. Augustine in Florida, in 1565, they slowly made this claim good by actual settlement. Spanish America. — By 1550 the Spaniards had won an American empire which included the West Indies, Mexico, Central America, and nearly all of South America except Brazil which belonged to Portugal. For nearly three hundred years the king of Spain was the ruler of this vast region. The Ameri- can countries between the United States and Cape THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 257 America)! Museum of Xatziral nWnry, X. Y, LIFE IN AN INDIAN PUEBLO A pueblo is a many-roomed house — the home of a whole community of Indians in our Spanish southwest. When it is built upon the side or top of a cliff it is called a cliff-dwelling. Pueblos are built of stone or sun-dried brick. In this picture the women of a pueblo are busy at their household work. What are they doing? American Museum of Natural History, N. Y. INDIAN TEPEES This series of pictures shows the process of erecting the tepees or wigwams of the Indians whom the Spaniards found on the great plains of the West. The poles were stuck in the ground, fastened together at the top, and then covered with skina. 17 258 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Horn no longer belong to Spain, but their people are still Spanish in customs, institutions, and language. A very large part of the people in the Latin American countries, as they are often called, are the descendants of the Indians whom the Spaniards found in the lands which they conquered. The English settlers in our own country either killed or drove away the Indians who lived near them. The Spaniards conquered the Indians, taught them some of the simpler features of their own civilization, and forced them to A^urican Museum of Natural lUstory, X. Y. A NAVAJO HOME IN THE SPANISH SOUTHWEST This gives a glimpse of the home of the Indians who came under Spanish influences. It shows the natives working at various occupations. labor on the plantations and in the mines of their masters. As we have seen, most of the Indians in the West Indies soon perished under this harsh treatment and were replaced by negro slaves brought from Africa. Many negroes were also taken to Mexico and to the Spanish colonies in South America. Slavery no longer exists anywhere on the American continent, but in all Latin American countries the mass of the people, who are of Indian or negro or THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 259 mixed descent, are very poor, and nearly all the property belongs to the descendants of the Spanish conquerors or to other foreigners who have settled in those countries more recently. The people of the great Spanish American empire Uved by farming or grazing or by working in the rich mines of Mexico and Peru. Corn and potatoes were natives of Amer- ica, and the common European grains, fruits, and vegetables were early introduced. Sugar cane soon be- came the leading crop in the West Indies. Our common domestic animals were not found in America; but horses and cattle, sheep and swine were brought over by the earliest Spanish set- tlers, and stock raising soon became a profitable busi- ness in Latin America. The gold and silver from her American provinces made Spain for a time the richest and most powerful country in Europe. The Spanish colonists were governed by officials sent from Spain. Unlike the English settlers north of them, they did not learn how to govern themselves by practice. As a consequence of this lack of experi- ence in managing their own political affairs, and of the ignorance of the mass of their people, many of AN OLD SPANISH MISSION AT SAN GABRIEL, CALIFORNIA 260 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA the Latin American countries have not succeeded very well in setting up good governments since they shook off the rule of Spain. The Spanish conquerors and settlers in Latin America did much to introduce the civilization of their home land. They established schools and universities, brought over printing presses from Spain, built churches, and estab- lished many mission stations to teach the Christian faith to the Indians. But they did not succeed in bringing the Indians and mixed races whom they ruled up to their own level in culture. For a long time the people of the United States had Uttle interest in the Spanish lands south of us. But we are learning more about them every year now, and are doing more business with their people. The Panama Canal has brought us into closer touch than ever before with all the Latin American countries. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. What kind of men were the Spanish settlers and conquerors in America? 2. Do you admire Cortes? Why? 3. Was the conquest of Mexico an advantage or a disadvantage to that country? Why? 4. Wallace's "The Fair God" is a fine story of the conquest of Mexico. You would enjoy reading it. lllE PAXA^IA CAXAL The U. S. Battleship "Ohio" is passing through one of the locks. THE SPANISH EMPIRE IN AMERICA 261 5. There are many interesting pictures of the ruins of ancient Peru in the National Geographic Magazine for April, 1913. Try to find it in your school hbrary or in the pubhc library of your town. 6. Trace upon the map the route of De Soto's expedition. Of Coronado's expedition. 7. When and how did the Spanish lose their great empire in America? 8. Why has the Panama Canal brought us into closer touch with the Latin American countries? BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER John Fiske: The Discovery of America, II. Bourne: Spain in America. Channing: History of the United States, 1, Chapter III. BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Tappan: American Hero Stories. Gordy: Stories of American Explorers. Shaw: Discoverers and Explorers. Mitchell: Cortes, Montezwna, and Mexico. McMurry: Pioneers on Land and Sea. King : De Soto and his Men in the Land of Florida. Winterburn: The Spanish in the Southwest. Lummis: Spanish Pioneers. CHAPTER XV OPENING THE WAY FOR ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA England and Spain in the Sixteenth Century. — While Spain was taking possession of a large part of the New World, between 1500 and 1550, England was doing almost nothing in America. It is true that John Cabot visited the coast of North America in 1497, but England was not yet ready j^'m^i'^ 'm^' ^ ^^ follow up his work. Her time J^< mK^ /^"*Jm came in the second half of the sixteenth century, the glorious age of Queen Elizabeth. Under ^^Good Queen Bess," as they called her, the English sailors were as daring in adventure and as eager in their search for gold as the Spaniards had been fifty years before. In the days of Queen Elizabeth Englishmen and Spaniards came to be very bitter enemies. This feeling led them into a great war with each other, a war which is of vital importance in the history of the United States because it determined the destiny of our country. The rivalry between England and Spain which brought on this great struggle grew out of two important causes. The first of these causes (262) QUEEN ELIZABETH The "Good Queen Bess' of the English. OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 263 was religious hatred. The first half of the sixteenth century, the time when Spain was winning her empire in America, was the age of the Protestant Reforma- tion. By the middle of the century most of the people in northern Europe had become Protestants while the people of southern Europe remained true to the Catholic faith. The second half of the century was a time of religious warfare between the two great divisions of the Christian Church. Spain was the main defender of the Catholic cause, while England came to be looked upon as the champion of the Prot- estant side. In the sixteenth century very few people had learned to tolerate religious opinions which differed from their own. In this respect there is little ^^^ spa in *^^ to choose between the two sides. EiTJlbethT^^ °^ ^"^^"^ Catholics were persecuted by Queen Elizabeth in England, while in Spain the persecution of Protestants by her great rival, Philip the Second, was so severe that it crushed out Protestantism in that country. Most of the English sailors and mer- chants were ardent Protestants, and the stories of per- secution in Spain, and especially of the sufferings of the Protestant English sailors caught in that country, stirred in them a hot wrath against Spain and every- thing Spanish. This feeling led them to attack and plunder the Spaniards at every opportunity. These attacks and their dislike of heretics, as they called the Protestants, led the Spaniards to hate the English quite as bitterly as the English hated them, 264 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Just at this time the people of the Netherlands, who had been ruled by the Spanish king for some time, rebelled against his authority. Under their famous leader, William the Silent, the Dutch — as the people of the Netherlands are called — were making a great fight for their freedom. The Dutch were Protestants, and religious persecution by the Catholic Spaniards had been one of the causes of their revolt. The Protestants in England sympathized with the Dutch, and many a gallant young Englishman ran away from home to join the army of William the Silent. Naturally, this made the Spaniards hate the English more bitterly than ever. The second cause of the great contest between England and Spain in the time of Queen Elizabeth and Philip the Second was commercial rivalry. When Elizabeth came to the throne English commerce was beginning to grow rapidly. Englishmen were looking everywhere for opportunities to trade. They were constantly hearing marvelous stories of the treasure to be had in the Spanish colonies in America. They coveted' this wealth and did everything in their power to get a share of it. The Spaniards wanted to keep all the American i trade for themselves, and were especially anxious to keep the heretic Englishmen out of their colonies. But it has always been difficult to keep the English out of any part of the world where trade is to be won, and the Spaniards did not succeed in doing so in this WILLIAM THE SILENT The leader of the Dutch in their famous struggle for freedom. OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 265 instance. The trouble began in this way. An EngHsh sailor, John Hawkins by name, learning that there was a demand for slaves to work on the plantations and in the mines of Spanish America, made several voyages to the West Indies and South America with cargoes of negroes that he had bought or stolen in Africa. He found a ready market for these negroes in the Spanish colonies. The Spanish government objected to this English slave trading, not because of any dislike for slavery, but, as we have just seen, because it wanted to keep the English out of America and retain all the American trade in its own hands. In spite of warnings Hawkins persisted in going to the Spanish colonies, and at last the king of Spain sent a fleet to stop him. This fleet attacked the English slave trader in the harbor of Vera Cruz in Mexico, and there followed one of the fiercest fights in all that warlike age. Hawkins was outnumbered and finally beaten. However, with two of his smallest vessels he managed to cut his way out of the harbor and escape to England. The Exploits of Francis Drake. — With John Hawkins on the disastrous voyage whose story we have just read, was a young relative of his named Francis Drake. This young sailor was destined to play a leading part in the coming conflict with Spain, and to win undying fame as one of the ^greatest English seamen of all time. Francis Drake learned two things on his ill-fated slave-trading adventure with Hawkins, which largely determined his future career. In the first place he came to hate the Spaniard with an abiding hatred, 266 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA He also found out that the Spaniards brought the gold and silver from the Peruvian mines by sea to Panama, thence to be carried across the isthmus and reshipped to Spain. He resolved to have a share of this treasure in repayment of his losses at the hands of Spain. After Drake^s return to England he fitted out an expedition and sailed to the Isthmus of Panama. Here he went into the interior and lay in wait beside the trail along which the Spanish treasure was carried across the isth- mus. Presently he stopped a heavily laden mule train and took an immense booty, bars of silver and gold and jewels, most of which he succeeded in carrying safely to England. It was FRANCIS DRAKE duriug this expedition to Panama that lish saiiS^Jf The dJJs from a tree top on the isthmus Drake of Queen Elizabeth. i. t r ji t^ • n i caught a glimpse oi the Pacific, and formed the bold plan of sailing into that ocean and taking the Spanish treasure ships on their way from Peru to Panama. Late in 1577 Drake set sail from Plymouth, in England, on what proved to be his most famous voyage. Crossing the Atlantic, he made his way much as Magellan had done nearly fifty years earlier, along the eastern coast of South America and through the Strait of Magellan to the Pacific Ocean. Then he turned northward and swept the entire western coast of South America, plundering the Spaniards as he went. One of Drake's men, Francis Pretty by name, OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 267 wrote an account of what happened on this coast. Let him tell a part of his story in the quaint, old- fashioned English in which it was written. On one occasion, ''Going on land for fresh water, we met with a Spaniard and an Indian boy driving eight llamas or sheep of Peru, which are as big as asses, every one of which sheep had on his back two bags of leather, each bag containing fifty pounds weight of fine silver, so that bringing both the sheep and their burden to the ships, we found in all the bags eight hundred weight of silver." ^'To Lima we came the 13th day of February. We found there twelve ships lying fast moored at an anchor. Our general rifled these ships, and found in one of them a chest full of royals of plate [Spanish silver money], and good store of silks and linen cloth, and took the chest into his own ship, and good store of the silks and linen. In which ship he had news of another ship called the Cacafuego, which was gone toward Paita, and that the same ship was laden with treasure; whereupon we staid no longer here, but cutting all the cables of the ships in the haven, we let them drive whither they would, and with all speed we followed the Cacafuego.'' ''John Drake, going up into the top, descried her about three of the clock, and about six of the clock we came to her and boarded her. We found in her great riches, as jewels and precious stones, thirteen chests full of royals of plate, four score pounds weight of gold, and six and twenty of silver. The pilot's boy of this ship said thus unto our general: 'Captain, our ship shall be called no more the Cacafuego (which 268 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA means Spit-fire), but the Cacaplata (which means Spit-treasure), and your ship shall be called the Cacafuego/ which pretty speech made us laugh, both then and long after/' Thus ship after ship was taken until Drake began to think of going home. How to get there was the question. To retrace his way to the Strait of Magellan was to fall into the hands of the Spaniards, who were sure to watch for him in that quarter with an over- whelming force. So Drake sailed to the northward along the western coast of North America in the hope of finding a strait leading through that continent into the Atlantic Ocean. For a long time after the finding of the New World nothing was known about the size or shape of North America. Since Magellan had found a strait through the southern end of South America, why might there not be one through the northern extremity of North America? On the northeastern part of the map of North America you will find Frobisher Bay, Davis Strait, and Hudson Bay. These places are all named for gallant English sailors who sought a northwest passage to Cathay and tell us where they looked for it. After exploring the coast of California and naming the country New Albion, Drake abandoned his search for a passage through. America and sailed for England by way of the East Indies and the Cape of Good Hope, thus completing the second circumnavigation of the globe. This bold captain who had first carried the English flag around the world reached Plymouth in 1580, after an absence of almost three years. Later he took his flagship, the ^'Golden Hind," up the Thames, OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 269 where Queen Elizabeth came to dine with him on shipboard and upon his own quarterdeck made him a knight. As you may imagine, Sir Francis Drake was now a popular hero in England. The EngHsh sailors were ready to follow him anywhere. Again and again he went to the West Indies. On his greatest expedition to Spanish America he led a fleet of twenty-five ships with a force of twenty-five hundred men. On this trip he captured and held for ransom three Spanish cities, and did a vast amount of damage to the Spanish power in America. The First Attempts at English Settlement in America. — While Haw- kins and Drake were fighting and plundering the Spaniards, and Fro- bisher was looking for a northwest passage to Cathay, other EngUshmen were thinking about planting colonies on the coast of North America. With the men who served Queen EUzabeth, to think was to act. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was the first to plan an American settlement. In 1583 he took possession of Newfound- land and began to look for a favorable place for a colony. But his largest ship was lost with nearly all her crew, and on his way back to England, in the QUEEN ELIZABETH KNIGHTING DRAKE UPON THE DECK OF HIS FLAGSHIP 270 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA midst of a furious storm, Gilbert^s own little ship went down with all on board. Gilbert's half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, at once took up his unfinished work. In 1584 he sent Cap- tains Amadas and Barlowe to explore the coast north of Florida. In their report these captains speak of the splendid pines and cedars in the forests, of the great number of hares, wild fowl, and deer which they saw, and of the profusion of the wild grapes growing everywhere. At the same time Raleigh had his friend, Richard Hakluyt, write an essay on the reasons for colonizing in America. He gave this paper to the queen in order to persuade her to invest money in his colonizing project. Hakluyt's essay helps us to understand the motives which led the Englishmen of Queen Elizabeth's time to try to make settlements in America. It has been summed up in the following words : ^^Such colonies will enlarge the occasions and facilities for driving Spanish ships from the New- foundland fisheries and captiu*ing Spanish treasure on its way from Mexico and the Isthmus of Darien. They will be serviceable as stations toward the dis- covery and use of the northwest passage to Cathay; after a while they will furnish a valuable market for the products of English industry, especially woolen and linen cloths; they will increase the royal revenue by customs duties; they will afford new material for the growth of the navy and in various ways they will relieve England of its idlers and vagrants by finding occupation for them abroad." In 1585 Raleigh sent Ralph Lane with a hundred OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 271 men to begin a settlement on Roanoke Island, on the coast of what is now North Carolina. These settlers had much trouble with the Indians, and suffered for lack of food. The next year Sir Francis Drake touched at the island while on one of his voyages, and took Lane and his starving men home to England with him. In 1587 Raleigh sent a second colony to Roanoke Island. After some months their leader, John White, returned to England to bring them supplies. For three years the war with Spain kept him from going back, and when at last he reached Roanoke Island again the settlers could not be found. The failure of Raleigh's efforts to colonize in America was largely due to the war with Spain, which kept him from sir walter ' c ^ ' f 1 RALEIGH properly carmg lor the mfant col- ony until it grew strong enough to sustain itself. The Defeat of the Spanish Armada. — ^For reasons which we have seen, the age of Queen Ehzabeth was a time of bitter hatred between Englishmen and Spaniards. This feeling was growing in intensity with every passing year. England must break the power of Spain upon the sea before she could hope for success in establishing settlements in America. The great conflict between England and Spain during the closing years of the sixteenth century thus becomes of the first importance to us in studying the beginnings of our own history. It is the first chapter in the story of the making of an English-speaking America. For a long time, during the reigns of Queen Ehzabeth 272 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA in England and of Philip the Second in Spain, the two countries were nominally at peace, while in fact Englishmen and Spaniards were fighting and plunder- ing each other at every opportunity. Drake was looting rich Spanish cities in the West Indies; while Englishmen were secretly helping the Dutch in their A SPANISH GALLEON It was in such ships as this that the wealth of the New World was carried to Spain. struggle for independence from Spain, and English sailors were robbing Spanish gold ships and striking blow after blow at Spanish commerce. Spain was the foremost nation in Europe at this time. Its king was busy with many interests, including his war with the rebellious Dutch and a great war with the Turks. But at last the time came when he decided to crush the English heretics and pirates OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 273 once for all. His success would have meant Spanish despotism and religious persecution for England. The English were fighting for their very existence as a free people. It was a fateful moment in the history of the world. The future of England and the destiny of America depended upon the outcome of the war. Philip the Second began to collect ships and troops for the conquest of England. In 1587 Drake dashed into the harbor of Cadiz in Spain, where this prepara- tion was going on, set the Spanish ships on fire, cut their cables, and left them to drift on shore — n mass of blazing ruin. This he called '' singeing the king of Spain's beard." Drake's exploit gave England another year in which to get ready for the coming fight. Well was it for her in this hour of her peril that she had a host of sailor adventurers, led by men like Hawkins and Drake who had been trained for the work before them by twenty years of fighting the Spaniards on their own account. The following imaginary scene, taken from ^^ West- ward Ho!" a great novel by Charles Kingsley, shows us the spirit with which these English sailors faced the coming danger. An old merchant is grumbling about the loss of money invested in cargoes which must lie idle because the Armada, as the Spanish fleet was called, is coming, when one of the English captains. Sir Richard Grenville, turns upon him with these words: ^'What have private interests to do with this day? Let us thank God if He only pleases to leave us the bare fee-simple of this English soil. 274 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA the honor of our wives and daughters, and bodies safe from rack and fagot to wield the swords of free men in defense of a free land, even though every town and homestead in England were wasted with fire, and we left to rebuild over again all which our ancestors have wrought for us in now six hundred years/' In the meantime the Spanish king was making ^. ^ 1 .-*^ ■-.- :4^^T >^^->.'^ -<^ir-^ THE SPANISH ARMADA thorough preparation for the conquest of England. In the early summer of 1588 his Armada sailed from Spain. It consisted of one hundred and thirty ships carrying three thousand cannon and thirty thousand men. It was the Spanish plan to sail up the English Channel and through the Strait of Dover to the coast of Holland, and from there to escort to England an army of thirty-five thousand veteran Spanish troops under the Duke of Parma, the greatest general of that time. It had been arranged that upon the coming of the OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 275 Spaniards, beacon fires should be lighted upon every hilltop in England. Meantime, in the port of Plymouth the English fleet awaited the appearance of the Armada. Here were Drake and Howard, Hawkins and Frobisher, and a score or more of other English captains only less famous than these. The fate of their country was in their hands. One day ^Hhere came a gallant merchant ship full sail to Plymouth Bay" with the news that the Spanish Armada had been sighted far down the channel. Macaulay, in his great poem, ^^The Armada," tells us what happened in England that night: "Night fell upon the dusky beach, and on the purple sea, Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be. \ From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Milford Bay, That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day; For swift to east and swift to west the ghastly war-flame spread, High on St. Michael's Mount it shone; it shone on Beachy Head. Far on the deep the Spaniard saw, along each southern shire, Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkhng points of fire." As the Armada passed Plymouth the English fleet came out of the harbor and attacked it. For six days there was a running fight up the English Channel. The English took a few prizes, '^plucking now and then a feather from the Spanish bird," as Drake said. At last the Spanish admiral brought his fleet, uninjured so far as the English could see, into the port at Calais. Here Drake planned a great stroke against the Armada. That night eight of his oldest vessels were coated with pitch, steered into the harbor among the Spanish ships, and set on fire. The whole Spanish fleet slipped their cables and stood out to sea, and 276 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA the next morning the English attacked them with great fury. All day long the battle raged in the Strait of Dover. As long as their ammunition held out the English drove the Spanish ships before them. Then the wind arose and swept the Armada far out into the North Sea. Hastily collecting more powder, Drake followed the fleeing Spaniards as far north as the coast of Scotland, where he abandoned the chase. The Spaniards had suffered fearfully in battle and as much from two weeks of constant storms. Their only hope was to return to Spain by sailing around Scotland and Ireland. Many died of untended wounds, hunger, thirst, and fever. Many ships were wrecked upon the Scottish and Irish coasts. At last the remnant reached Spain. Only nine thousand men came back alive. The English eagerly followed up their victory, and during the next few years fought the Spaniards wherever they could find them. The best story of these years is told in Tennyson^s poem, ^'The Revenge." Finally, Essex, Howard, and Raleigh destroyed the Spanish fleet off Cadiz and captured that city. Spain never recovered from the effects of this great naval war with England. The defeat of the Great Armada marks the beginning of her decHne as one of the great powers of Europe. The story of the destruction of the power of Spain upon the sea has well been called the opening event in the history of the United States. Before England could plant colonies three thousand miles away across the Atlantic she must be able to protect them from the enmity of Spain. The great sailors of Elizabeth's OPENING THE WAY FOR THE ENGLISH 277 time made this possible when they won for England the command of the sea. Sir Walter Raleigh saw this fact very clearly. In spite of his failures at Roanoke Island he wrote of America in 1602, ^'I shall yet live to see it an English nation." We are now ready to study how these words came true. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. Ask your teacher to explain the meaning of the following words: *' toleration," "persecution," "heretics." 2. Why did the English sympathize with the Dutch in their struggle against Spain? 3. What two reasons made the English and the Spanish enemies in the days of Queen Ehzabeth and King Phihp II? 4. Trace upon a map or globe the route of Drake's voyage around the world. 5. Show on the map of North America what is meant by a "north- west passage to Cathay." 6. Find and read Longfellow's poem, "Sir Humphrey Gilbert." 7. WTiy did Raleigh's attempts to make settlements in America fail? 8. Read Macaulay's poem, "The Armada." 9. Why is the defeat of the Spanish Armada a very important event in the history of America? BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Fiske: Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, I, Chapter I. Froude: History of England, II, Chapters XXIII-XXV. English Sea- men in the Sixteenth Century. Creasy: Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, Chapter X. BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Hale: Stories of Discovery. Warren : Stories from English History. Church : Stories from English History. Frothingham : Sea Fighters from Drake to Farragut. Bacon : The Boy's Drake. Higginson: Young Folks Book of American Explorers. Bolton: Famous Voyages. Barnes: Drake and His Yeomen. CHAPTER XVI HOW THE ENGLISH BEGAN A NEW NATION IN AMERICA The Rivals of Spain. — With the dawn of the seven- teenth century there came a new European interest in America. About that time the French, the Dutch, and the EngHsh became the active rivals of Spain in the work of colonizing the New World. French sailors and fishermen had visited the western shores of the Atlantic early in the six- teenth century and one of their number, Jacques Cartier, had explored the St. Lawrence River. A little later French- men attempted to plant a colony in Florida, but they were driven away or CHAMPLAiN killed by the Spaniards who claimed that country. Civil wars at home during the latter part of the century kept the French from making any permanent settlements in the New World until after 1600. But in 1608 Champlain, the greatest French leader in America, founded Quebec. Cham- plain spent the remaining years of his life in exploring the valley of the St. Lawrence River. In 1609, the year in which the long war between Spain and the Netherlands ended, Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of a Dutch trading company, explored the Hudson and opened the way (278) BEGINNING A NEW NATION 279 for a Dutch colony which was soon planted upon the banks of that river. Meanwhile, in 1607, the English established their first permanent colony at Jamestown in Virginia. , The Founding of Jamestown.— Late m December, 1606, three small ships under the command of Captam --r— ^^^^^T^^^^^T^^^ ON THE HUDSON RIVER HUDSON b teMir, inr. .„.,;^^ nf the "Half Moon." made for t :TTTnqnV'S SHIP THE "HALF ^1UU.^, uin ms:. xx^x.^^.. "-•- dUUbU-N s ^snir, iixx^ "TTnif Moon made for the This photograph is ot an exact reproduction of the Ha.f Moon, Hudson-Fulton celebration in New York. Christopher Newport dropped quietly down the Thames and sailed for America. This little fleet carried one hundred and five pioneers who were to begin in Virginia that English nation of which Raleigh dreamed, iiiese men were sent to America by a number of London merchants who had formed themselves mto a com- pany, and had received permission from King James i 280 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA to plant a settlement anywhere between Cape Fear and the Hudson River. If you turn back to page 270 you will find the motives of the men who formed this London Company. The /^^'r^ :iO 40 50 WINSTON EARLY VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND minds of the actual settlers were full of the fanciful notions about America which nearly everyone believed in those days. You can see what these notions were in this passage from a play which was very popular in London at that time. One of the characters, BEGINNING A NEW NATION 281 speaking of Virginia, says, ''I tell thee, gold is more plentiful than copper is with us; and for as much red copper as I can bring I'll have thrice the weight in gold. Why, man, all their dripping pans are pure gold; all the prisoners are fettered in gold; and for rubies and diamonds they go forth on hoUdays and gather 'em by the seashore to hang on their children's coats and stick in their children's caps." An Enghsh poet of the time called Virginia ''Earth's only Paradise." It was to be anything but a paradise to the pioneers. As they reached Hampton Roads after a stormy voyage they named the point of land at the entrance Point Com- fort. They explored the James River until they found a spot about fifty miles from its mouth which pleased captain john them, and there they landed. May 13, 1607. At once the settlers began to build a fort, which they named Fort James, and soon the settle- ment came to be called Jamestown. Jamestown lies in a low and unhealthful place, and as their first summer there drew on, the settlers suffered from disease and many of them died. ^To make matters worse their leaders quarreled much among themselves. Captain John Smith proved to be the only capable man among the first comers. He explored the country, secured food from the Indians, and by vigorously enforcing the rule that ''he who will not work shall not eat" he kept the infant colony alive during its first two years. In September, 1609, Captain John Smith was 282 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA seriously injured by the explosion of a bag of gun- powder in his boat, and went to England when the ships returned in October. The winter which followed was probably the most dreadful ever passed by the pioneers in America. In six months famine, disease, and Indian attacks reduced the population of James- town from five hundred to sixty. This awful winter was ever afterwards called the "Starving Time." In May, 1610, two small vessels arrived at James- town. Their captains decided to carry the sixty starving wretches whom they found there back to England. But Virginia was not to perish thus. Before the departing colonists reached the mouth of the James River they met the new governor, Lord Dela- ware, with three shiploads of supplies, and all of them returned to Jamestown. The Colony of Virginia. — The coming of Lord Delaware was a turning point in the making of Virginia. There were dark days ahead still, but never again were the settlers to suffer as they had during the first three years. One by one the causes of the failures of those early years were sought out and remedied. Many of the hardships in early Virginia were due to the faults of the people themselves. They were ill fitted for the work that they had to do. Many of the first comers were what the English call '^gen- tlemen," that is, they had never worked and did not know how to work. These men were drawn to Virginia by the love of adventure and the thirst for wealth. They came in quest of pearls and gold, which, of course, they did not find. Many of the men sent BEGINNING A NEW NATION 283 oiat by the London Company later were idle, shiftless fellows who were a burden to the colony. It was only as these men were made to work by their governors, and as they slowly learned in the hard school of experi- ence how to live in the wilderness, that their condition gradually improved. No small part of their sufferings, moreover, was due to the unhealthful place in which they settled. The neighborhood of Jamestown was low, swampy, and unhealthy. Many of the later plantations were more wisely located. At first the colonists at Jamestown owned things in common. If a man fished or hunted or traded with the Indians, the fish, game, or corn which he secured was not his own property, but had to be put into the common stock from which the needs of all were supplied. It did not take the lazy and the shiftless long to find out that this meant that they could Hve upon the toil of others, while naturally the industrious were not encouraged by seeing others Uving upon the fruit of their labor. Sir Thomas Dale, who came out as governor in 1611, began to put an end to this system by giving three acres of land to each of the settlers for his own. This aroused self-interest, and soon each planter came to own his own plantation. In order to deepen the attachment of the settlers to Virginia the London Company sent over young women, who became the wives of the planters. In this way cheerless military camps were changed into English homes. But the thing that did most to promote the growth and prosperity of Virginia was the discovery that its soil was especially adapted to raising the tobacco 284 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA plant. At this time the use of tobacco was rapidly increasing in Europe, and, consequently, this product of the Virginia plan- L i ^JiM tations found a ready market at a good price. This fact in- duced many more people to emigrate to the colony, and many new plantations were ^L'-^ji^^^^^^^'^J^^j^ opened. These plan- ^^^I^I^^Q^jim^^^^ tations were usually ^kA '^^XJm ^^^^^ri\i\^M'^ located along the wide deep rivers which were the highways leading into the interior of the country. Thus the tobacco could be shipped directly from the plantation to England. The rapid growth of to- bacco planting in Virginia created a demand for more laborers to work in the tobacco fields. This de- mand was met by sending convicts and kidnapped per- sons from England, whose services were sold to the planters for life or for a term of years. Such persons were called indentured servants. In 1619 a Dutch man-of-war came up the James and sold twenty THE INTRODUCTION OF SLAVERY INTO VIRGINIA The Virginia planters are buying the negroes brought in the Dutch ship. BEGINNING A NEW NATION 285 negroes to the Virginians. This was the beginning of negro slavery in the EngUsh colonies in America. But negro slavery did not increase rapidly at first, and for many years there were more white servants than negro slaves in Virginia. The same year that the first slaves were brought into Virginia the London Company instructed the governor to call together representatives of the different settlements to make ,,, , ^^ laws for the colony. This meeting was called the House of Burgesses, and was the first law-making body in America. In 1624 the London Company had its charter taken from it, and Virginia became a royal col- ony; that is, hence- •■|«iC# THE EARLY VIRGINIANS ATTACKED BY INDIANS forth the king appointed the governor. The people, however, retained their House of Burgesses. During the first half of the seventeenth century the existence of Virginia was twice threatened by serious Indian attacks. These wars with the red men, however, were only a temporary check to the growth of the colony. In less than forty years after those terrible first months of starvation and fever Virginia had become a thrifty and vigorous commonwealth. It was a land of farms, or plantations. There was hardly a town worthy of the name in all the colony. Jamestown was a mere village. As slaves and white 286 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA servants increased in numbers, many of the planters worked very large farms. The following extract from a letter written in 1648 will help you to imagine what life was like on one of the great plantations of early Virginia : ^^ Worthy Captain Mathews, an old planter of above thirty years standing, hath a fine house, and all things answerable to it; he sows yearly a store of hemp and flax, and causes it to be spun; he keeps weavers, and hath a tan-house, causes leather to be dressed, hath eight shoemakers employed in their trade, hath forty negro servants, brings them up to trades in his house; he yearly sows abundance of wheat, bar- GEORGE CALVERT, lev, etc. j the wheat he sells at four LORD BALTIMORE /.„. ' . i i i i -n . j- The founder of Mary- shllungS the bUShcl ; kllls Store 01 beeves, and sells them to victual the ships when they come thither; hath abundance of kine, a brave dairy, swine great store, and poultry; he married the daughter of Sir Tho. Hinton, and in a word keeps a good house, lives bravely, and is a true lover of Virginia; he is worthy of much honor." The Planting of Maryland. — About twenty-five years after Virginia was planted, its neighbor, Mary- land, began to be settled. George Calvert was the founder of this colony. He seems to have early taken an interest in colonizing America, for he was a member of the London Company that founded Virginia. At one time Calvert was a secretary of King James I, but later he became a Roman Catholic and had to give up his office. The old king, however, was fond of him and BEGINNING A NEW NATION 287 gave him the title of Lord Baltimore. Later he found favor with the new king, Charles I, who had a Catholic wife. At this time the Cathohcs were persecuted in Eng- land, and Lord Baltimore determined to found a colony where they could escape the harsh laws which bore so r¥ ^ 'i^M THE PLANTING OF MARYLAND This picture is from a painting by Mayer, in the State Capitol at Annapolis. heavily upon them. No doubt he also expected that such a colony would prove a profitable business venture. The king gave him some land in Newfoundland, and there he made a little settlement which he called Avalon. But the soil was poor, the winters long and severe, and at last Lord Baltimore gave up his attempt to hve on that bleak coast. After visiting Virginia he returned to England and asked the king for some land near that colony. This the king was willing to 288 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA give him, but before the grant was actually made Lord Baltimore died. His oldest son, Cecilius, became the second Lord Baltimore, and to him Charles I gave the land of Maryland. The first settlers who came to Maryland were led by Leonard Calvert, a brother of the proprietor. Maryland was a proprietary colony. This meant in the first place that all the land in the province belonged to the proprietor. Lord Baltimore was very liberal in giving land to the actual settlers, asking in return only a very small rent. For instance, the earlier settlers had to pay him twenty or thirty pounds of wheat per year for every one hundred acres of land that they held. So long as they paid this rent the land belonged to them. In the second place the proprietor had about the same power in governing the people in Maryland as the king possessed over those in England. He could declare war, make peace, appoint all officers, pardon criminals, and summon the freemen to assist him in making laws. Very early, however, the people gained the right to make laws with the assent of the proprietor. As the proprietor lived in England he was represented in Maryland by a governor whom he appointed. Though Lord Baltimore planted Maryland as a home for his persecuted fellow Catholics, men of other faiths were not excluded. Very many of the earliest settlers were Protestants. That all the people might live together in harmony. Lord Baltimore drew up a Toleration Act which became a law in 1649. This noble law declared "That no person professing to believe in Jesus Christ shall from henceforth be any BEGINNING A NEW NATION 289 ways troubled, molested or discountenanced for or in respect to his or her religion nor in the exercise thereof within this province, nor any way compelled to the belief or exercise of any other religion against his or her consent/' The settlers in Maryland had little trouble with the Indians, and from the first the colony grew rapidly. A FINE OLD COLONIAL HOUSE IN MARYLAND "Whitehall," near Annapolis, capital of Maryland. Farming was almost the only occupation and tobacco was the staple crop. The people lived along the rivers, and almost every plantation had water com- munication with its neighbors. In nearly every respect life in Maryland was similar to that in its great neighbor, Virginia. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. The story of the unsuccessful French colony in Florida is charm- ingly told by our greatest American historian, Francis Parkman, in his "Pioneers of France in the New World," Chapters III-VIII. 2. What places on the map of North America were named in honor of Henry Hudson? 19 290 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 3. Make a list of all the motives which led EngHshmen to plant colonies in America. 4. To what extent were the sufferings of the early settlers in Vir- ginia due to the nature of the country? To what extent were they the fault of the people themselves? 5. Write a short account of some one of the following topics: Tobacco in Virginia; Labor in Virginia; The Beginnings of Government in Virginia; Life on a Virginia Plantation. 6. In what respect did Virginia and Maryland resemble each other? In what ways did they differ? 7. What do you think is the most important fact to remember about early Maryland? BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Thwaites: The Colonies. Cooke : Virginia. Fiske: Old Virginia and Her Neighbors. Tyler: England in America. Eggleston: The Beginning of a Nation. Channing: History of the United States, Volumes I, II. BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Johnson: Boys^ Life of Captain John Smith. McMurry: Pioneers on Land and Sea. Cooke : Stories of the Old Dominion. Chandler: Makers of Virginia History. Bass: Stories of Pioneer Life. Gambrill: Leading Facts of Maryland History. CHAPTER XVII FROM OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND The Puritans. — In Queen Elizabeth's time most of the Enghsh people belonged to the Church of England, SHAKESPEARE READING FROM HIS POEMS BEFORE QUEEN ELIZABETH or, as we should say in this country, the Episcopal Church. This church was established by law, and all the people were forced to support it, and were expected to attend it and follow its mode of worship. But many of the members of the Church of England were dis- (291) 292 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA satisfied with its form of government and with some of its religious practices, such as the wearing of the sur- phce or gown by the minister, making the sign of the cross in baptism, and the use of the ring in the marriage ceremony. Because these people wanted to purify the church from the practices and beliefs which were distasteful to them, they were called Puritans. Bitter opposition by the government of England only made the Puritans cling more tenaciously to their beliefs and purposes. The Puritans held views about manners and mor- als that were quite *-^i^ME^^^^s^^ '■^'^^' '''=^' as objectionable to FINE CLOTHES IN THE TIME OF mnri'v^ nf tVinQP in QUEEN ELIZABETH mauy oi luosc m^ authority as were their religious opinions. At this time the English people were very fond of display, of fine clothes, and of sports and games of all kinds. Sunday afternoon was regarded as a holiday and was often devoted to coarse amusements. The Puritans thought that all these things were wrong. In a word, they stood for simplicity in worship, strict Sabbath keeping, plain living, and good morals. Now the great body of the Puritans were members of OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 293 the Church of England, working within it to change its form of government and its mode of worship. But there were httle bands of Puritans who refused to have anything to do with the Church of England. These bands of people were called Separatists, because they left the church and organized independent societies of their own. A\Tiile James I and Charles I tried to force all the Puritans to worship according to the forms of the Established Church, they persecuted the Separatists without mercy. The Pilgrim Fathers, who were the first settlers in New England, were Sepa- ratists. Persecution in England drove them to America, where they could live the pure and simple life in which they beheved, worship as they thought right, and train their children to follow in their footsteps. The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers. — About a dozen years before they came to New England, most of the Pilgrim Fathers lived in the httle village of Scrooby in the north of England. Here John Robinson was pastor of the village church, William Brewster was postmaster and one of the influential men of the neighborhood, while John Carver, Wilham Bradford, and Edward Winslow were younger men who were to play a great part in beginning an English settlement in America. Persecuted because of their religion the THE BREWSTER HOUSE The home of one of the Pilgrim Fathers near Scrooby in England. 294 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA members of the Scrooby congregation fled to Holland, which was even then a land of religious freedom. The Pilgrim Fathers lived in Holland for several years, but all the time they longed for a home of their own, where they could keep their English habits and speech and where their children could have a better chance in life than was possible in the country in which they had taken refuge. At last they resolved to seek such a place in America. They obtained a loan of money from some merchants in London and a grant of land from the London Company; and finally, after many discouragements, one hundred and two of their number sailed from Plymouth, England, in the '^ May- flower," on September 6, 1620. The voyage of the ^'Mayflower" was full of peril. William Bradford, one of the passengers, says, ''We met with many fierce storms; with which the ship was made very leaky." Some wanted to return, but the Pilgrim Fathers were made of stern stuff, and after repairing the ship as best they could, they proceeded on their way. Their first sight of land was in the neighborhood of Cape Cod. This was farther north than they had intended to settle, but after struggling with the shoals and breakers in a vain effort to go farther south, they were glad to find shelter inside the cape. Feeling the need of a government, on the day they came to harbor they drew up and signed a paper called the Mayflower Compact, in which they promised obedience to such laws as they should make for the general good of the colony. The second day they set ashore several men to explore the country and see OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 295 what the land was like. After nearly a month spent in looking for a suitable place for settlement the Pilgrim Fathers entered Plymouth Bay. When they had examined this harbor and the land near it they thought that it was "a place very good for situation." Here they decided to settle ''on a high ground where ^- ^d yp m wM »' 1 jfp % i-- ^^^ m From a painting by Boughton THE RETURN OF THE "MAYFLOWER" The artist represents the Pilgrims left alone in America watching the "Mayflower" disappear in the distance. there is a good deal of land cleared, and where there is a sweet brook that runs under the hillside." It was late in December, 1620, when the Pilgrim Fathers at last reached Plymouth. They spent the winter in building their houses. iVll this time they suffered severely from exposure to the weather and from the lack of proper food. Before spring came one- half of their number were dead. Even this dreadful experience did not shake the purpose of these iron- hearted men. In the spring Squanto, a friendly Indian, showed the settlers how to plant corn, and they caught 296 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA great quantities of fish. During the summer of 1621 the Pilgrims sent out parties to explore the sur- rounding country. In November of that year thirty- five newcomers from England joined them. With comfortable cabins and plenty of corn they faced their second winter in the New World with stout hearts. The Pilgrim Fathers seem to have been greatly PLYMOUTH IN 1622 pleased with their new home. Edward Winslow, one of their number, writing to a friend in England, thus describes it: 'Tor the temper of the air here, it agreeth well with that in England ; and if there be any difference at all, this is somewhat hotter in summer. The air is very clear; and I never in my life remember a more seasonable year than we have here enjoyed; and if we have once but kine, horses, and sheep, I make no OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 297 question but that men might hve as contented here as in any part of the world." Of course there was great hardship during all the earlier years at Plymouth. At first the colonists were hampered by the bad plan of owning everything in common, which had resulted so disastrously at James- town. They soon gave this up. The settlers bought furs of the Indians, and shipped beaver skins and AN OLD NEW ENGLAND HOUSE The home of Jolm Alden, one of the Pilgrim Fathers, lumber to England. They depended largely upon fishing for their food. They were industrious and thrifty, and before the colony was fifteen years old the debt to the London merchants had been paid, and each settler had a farm of his own. Year by year, as more settlers came from England, other towns were begun near Plymouth. But the colony grew slowly and was never very large. It is the special glory of the Pilgrim Fathers that through scenes of gloom and misery they showed the way to 298 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA those who were willing to brave the dangers of the wilderness in order to win the right to worship God as they pleased. "What sought they thus afar? Bright jewels of the mine? The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? They sought a faith's pure shrine! "Ay, call it holy ground, The soil where first they trod: They have left unstained what there they found — Freedom to worship God." In 1691 the colony of Plymouth was joined to its larger neighbor, Massachusetts Bay. We must 1 J- — LJ'~ ~ -_- ^u^) \^ A PURITAN MINISTER PREACHING OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 299 now turn to the beginnings of this, the largest of the Puritan settlements in America. How the Puritans Came to Massachusetts. — In 1625 King James I died and his son Charles became king of England. During the next three years King Charles quarreled with Parliament because it would not vote for the taxes that he wished. In 1629 the king dis- solved Parliament and it was eleven years before he summoned another. During this time Charles taxed the people without their consent, and, aided by Arch- bishop Laud, did his best to force the Puritans to wor- ship according to the forms of the Church of England. The Puritans were forced to pay taxes which Parlia- ment had not voted and to take part in church services which they thought idolatrous. For these reasons many of them resolved to go to a country in which they could have their own way in politics and religion. For two or three years before 1630 some of the Puritan leaders had been thinking of this migration and preparing the way for it. In 1628 several of them obtained a grant of land in New England. The same year John Endicott led an advance guard of about sixty pioneers who established themselves at Salem. Here they found a few survivors of a little fishing settlement planted on that coast some years before. Early in the summer of 1629 Endicott 's little band at Salem was reinforced by nearly four hundred new settlers, who brought horses, cows, and goats with them. With this company came Francis Higginson, a learned Puritan minister. Not long after his arrival we find him writing to his friends in England urging them to come to America, and giving them some good 300 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA advice about what to bring with them. In this letter he says: '^ Those that come first speed best here, and have the privilege of choosing choice places of habita- tions. Let them bring mares, kine, and sheep as many as they can. Of all trades carpenters are the most needful, therefore bring as many as you can. Be sure to furnish yourselves with things fitting to be had before you come ; as meal for bread, malt for drink, woolen and linen cloth, and leather for shoes, and all manner of carpenter's tools, and a great deal of iron and steel to make nails, and locks for houses and furniture* for ploughs and carts, and glass for windows, and as many other things which were better for you to think of them there than to want them here." He adds, "While I was writing this letter my wife brought me word that the fishers caught sixteen hundred bass at one draught, which if they were in England were worth many a pound." This same year, 1629, the Puritans in England who were interested in the enterprise of a settlement in America secured a charter from the king creating the Company of Massachusetts Bay, and authorizing this * By furniture for plows and carts the Puritan writer means shares for the plows, tires for the cart-wheels, and other materials needed in finishing these implements and vehicles. -- ' Massachusetts Historical Society JOHN WINTHROP One of the greatest of the Puritan leaders. OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 301 company to govern the colony which they were plant- ing. In 1630 John Winthrop, the governor of the company and one of the noblest figures in American history, led a great company of one thousand persons to the Massachusetts Bay colony. When Winthrop and his companions came to America they brought the charter of the company with them. Then they admitted many of the settlers to membership in the company, and in this way the colony came to govern itself. During the next ten years — the years of the tyranny of Charles I and Archbishop Laud — nearly twenty thousand Puritans came to this colony of Massachusetts Bay. The Colony of Massachusetts Bay. — The Puritans of Massachusetts Bay prospered from the start. Within a few years some twenty towns were founded, roads opened, bridges built, and permanent houses erected. Soon the farms yielded plenty of corn, and supported hundreds of cattle. The settlers sent lumber, furs, and salted fish to England in exchange for the manufactured articles which they needed. Throughout the colonial period of our history Massa- chusetts was the largest and most important of the Puritan colonies. We have seen that the Puritans came to America to have their own way in society and church and state. The life of the early Massachusetts towns centered in the church. The meeting house, as the church was called, was usually built upon the highest land in the neighborhood. Here on Sabbath morning the people were called together by drum or horn. The pastor began the service with a prayer often an hour long. 302 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Then he read and explained a chapter from the Bible. After this a psalm was sung. Then came the sermon, which usually lasted for two hours. The service concluded with a prayer and blessing. The farms within convenient distance of the meeting house formed a township. Near the meeting house m rnpr. Tnp::!hlrl JUstorical Society A MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE BUILT IN 1GS4 was the town pasture or '^ common" and the school house. The dwellings clustered about the meeting house and the common. Soon a tavern and a store appeared and thus a village was formed. Once a year the voters of the township held a town meeting where the officers were chosen to preserve peace and order, to manage the school, to look after stray animals, and to attend to any other town business. The town OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 303 meeting also determined the amount of town taxes to be raised for the year. Each town elected men to represent it in the law- making body of the colony. In addition to these representatives the government of the colony was composed of a governor, and deputy governor, and eighteen assistants, all elected by the people. Thus you see the people of the Massachusetts Bay colony governed themselves and were almost independent of England. Roger Williams and the Providence Plantation. — Many of the early settlements in New England outside of Massachusetts were made by people who came from England to Massachusetts, and later left that colony either because they did not like its ways and its people or because the people in it did not like them. The Puritans w^ho settled Massachusetts came in order to have their own way and their own opinions, and did not look kindly on any who differed from them. Roger Williams, a minister at Salem, was the great- est mail who was driven away from Massachusetts because the leaders of that colony disliked his opinions and his teachings. He taught that there should be a general toleration of all religions, that no one should be compelled to worship against his will, and that everyone should have the right to worship God in any way that he thought right. Williams also said that the land belonged to the Indians, that the king of England could not give it to the settlers because it did not belong to him, and that the only rightful way in which the settlers could get the land was by purchase from the Indians. 304 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA These views were very distasteful to the men of Massachusetts. They feared that Wilhams' talk about the ownership of the land might get them into trouble with the government of England. Very few EARLY COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND people then believed as Roger Williams did about freedom of opinion. Indeed, the idea of freedom in religious matters never was widely accepted in modern civilization until it grew up in America under the wise leadership of such men as Roger Williams, Lord OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 305 Baltimore, and William Penn, the founder of Penn- sylvania. Roger Williams was one of the noblest men in our history, brave, sincere, full of loving kindness. ROGER WILLIAMS ESCAPING INTO THE FOREST In his thought about toleration he was one of the great leaders of the world. Early in 1636 the government of Massachusetts resolved to arrest Roger Williams and put him on board 20 306 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA a ship about to sail for England. But the good man learned of their purpose and fled into the forest in the midst of a New England winter. He says, ''I steered my course from Salem — ^though in winter snow which I feel yet — to the Narragansett Bay and Indians. I was sorely tossed for one fourteen weeks, in a bitter ROGER WILLIAMS LANDING AT PROVIDENCE winter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean." In June, 1636, Roger Williams found a place upon the shore of Narragansett Bay which pleased him, and here, with four companions who had now joined him, he began the first settlement in Rhode Island. In grati- tude to ''God's merciful providence to him in his distress," he named his new home Providence. Soon his wife and children joined him in it, and we may be sure that they all had their full share of the hard work which pioneers always have to do. Williams says that OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 307 his 'Hime was spent day and night; at home and abroad, at the hoe and at the oar, for bread." Soon friends of Roger Wilhams from Massachusetts and people from England began to come to the new colony of Providence. With increasing numbers they felt the need of a government, and established one by agreement among themselves. No one was ever molested in this colony on account of his religious opinions. Anne Hutchinson and Her Friends. — Roger Williams was not the only person whose opinions troubled the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay. Among the settlers at Boston was Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, "sl woman of kind heart, quick wits, and persuasive address." Mrs. Hutchinson held a weekly religious meeting for the women at which she taught her peculiar views and criticised the ministers from whom she differed. It is hard for us to understand what her opinions mean, but many of the Puritans of Boston agreed with John Winthrop that she was teaching dangerous errors, while some said that Anne Hutchinson was ''like Roger Williams, or worse." But Mrs. Hutchinson was a very capable and eloquent woman, and she won a large number of the people, including some of the ministers and the governor. Sir Henry Vane, to her way of thinking. The result was a very bitter and hateful church quarrel. In 1637 John Winthrop was elected governor, and his party banished Anne Hutchin- son and her friends from the colony. Some of Mrs. Hutchinson's friends went beyond the northern boundary of Massachusetts and there founded several new towns. Portsmouth and Dover in this 308 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA region had already been settled by the followers of Mason and Gorges, two Englishmen who had received a grant of the land between the Merrimac and the Kennebec. In 1641 all these northern towns were added to Massachusetts, but in 1679 King Charles II made a separate province of them under a governor appointed by the king. In this way began the colony of New Hampshire. Mrs. Hutchinson and the rest of her followers bought a large island in Narragansett Bay from the Indians, and settled at Portsmouth and Newport. Twenty-five years later these settlements were joined with the colony founded at Providence by Roger Williams, to form the state of Rhode Island. In 1663 Charles II gave the colony of Rhode Island a charter under which its people were free to govern themselves. The Early Puritan Settlements in Connecticut. — The ministers were the natural leaders in the Massa- chusetts towns. On the last day of May, 1636, Thomas Hooker, pastor of the church at Newton, started with one hundred and sixty members of his congregation for the valley of the Connecticut River. Driving their cattle before them, these pilgrims struck out into the almost pathless wilderness. After a journey of two weeks they found the beautiful Connecticut valley before them. Here and there they could see the wigwams of the Indians and the cabins of a few settlers who had preceded them. The few settlers whom Hooker found in the valley of the Connecticut had a sad story to tell. During the preceding summer and autumn little bands of colonists from some of the Massachusetts towns had OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 309 begun settlements at Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor on the Connecticut. This advance guard had passed a horrible winter. By the middle of November the river was blocked by ice, and the vessels which were to have brought their winter supplies by way of Long Island Sound were compelled to return to Boston. Starvation stared them in the face. Some of them made their way down the river to the sound, where they found a vessel on which they made their way back to Boston. Others struggled back through the icy forests to the settlements on Massachusetts Bay. A few held on with a desperate grip and managed to live through the winter on what game they could find, on a little grain bought from the Indians, and on acorns which they dug from under the snow. This handful of brave pioneers were saved by the arrival of Hooker and his party. What led these Connecticut pioneers through a hundred miles of forest, haunted by wild beasts and still more savage men, to a new home in the wilderness? When they asked the Massachusetts government to permit them to go to the Connecticut valley they mentioned the difficulty in finding pasturage for their cattle in Massachusetts, and spoke of the fertility of Connecticut and the danger that the Dutch would possess it. Their desire to move was also partly due to a growing dislike of the government of Massa- chusetts. In that colony only church members could vote. The leaders of the Massachusetts Puritans did not believe that all the people ought to have a voice in the government. Thomas Hooker and the men who planted the new colony on the banks of the 310 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Connecticut wanted a democratic government based on the votes of all the people. In 1639 Connecticut adopted a written constitution establishing a govern- ment "by the people, for the people." The pioneers on the Connecticut lived in the midst of perils. Hardly were they settled in their new homes before they had to fight for their lives. East ^^.^_ , , of them lived a hos- TI^^ ir^^-^l ^^^^ ^^^ warlike tribe of Indians, the Pe- quots. These Indians had murdered several traders, and Massa- chusetts sent John Endicott to punish them. Endicott and his men killed a few Pequots and seized some of their corn. This only enraged the red men, and in their fury they fell upon the Connecticut settlers. Several were killed, and two girls were carried away by the Indians. The Pequots tried to get the Narragansett Indians to help them, but they were thwarted in this effort by the courage and influence of Roger WilHams. In the spring of 1637 Captain John Mason with ninety Connecticut men and some friendly Indians surprised a large village of the Pequots. The wig- wams were set on fire and nearly all the Indians in the village lost their hves. The remnant of the Pequots, not present at this slaughter, were hunted down and PURITANS BARRICADING THEIR DOORS AGAINST A THREATENED ATTACK BY THE INDIANS OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND 311 most of them killed. This terrible vengeance so impressed the red men that for nearly forty years after the destruction of the Pequots the Indians of New England dared not lift their hands against the white men. About the time the first settlers went from Massa- chusetts to the valley of the Connecticut, John Winthrop, a son of the Massachusetts governor, began a colony at the mouth of that river. Winthrop was acting for several Enghsh noblemen who had obtained a grant of land in that locality, and the town which he planted was named Saybrook after two of the pro- prietors. In 1644 Saybrook was sold to the Connec- ticut settlers and became a part of their colony. In 1638 a company of English Puritans, many of them wealthy men from London, under the leadership of Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport, founded a town which they called New Haven. During the next two or three years several other towns were begun in that vicinity. These towns united to form the colony of New Haven. In 1662 the king of England gave Connecticut a charter which annexed New Haven to it. In this way the present state of Connecticut was formed. Between 1628 and 1640 many thousand Puritans came to New England because they were persecuted at home. Most of them first came to Massachusetts, but for some reason or other, as we have seen, many of them left Massachusetts to become founders of the other Puritan colonies in New England. All the Puritan colonies were begun before 1640. The ways of making a Uving, the manners and customs, the mode of 312 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA worship, and the forms of local government in all the New England colonies outside Massachusetts were very much like those of that state. Everywhere in New England the people found the same hardships and dangers, and everywhere they faced the trials of pioneer life with the same stout hearts. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. What ideas about Sabbath keeping and amusements do we owe to the Puritans? 2. What do you admire about the Pilgrim Fathers? 3. What conditions in England caused the Puritans to come to America? 4. What ideas about reUgion and government did the Puritans bring with them to America? 5. For what are we indebted to Roger Williams? 6. How did the colony of Connecticut differ from Massachusetts? 7. Draw a map of New England and locate upon it all the places mentioned in this chapter. 8. How did New England differ from Virginia? In what ways did they resemble each other? BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Thwaites: The Colonies. Fiske : The Beginnings of New England. Tyler: England in America. Eggleston: The Beginners of a Nation. Channing: History of the United States, Volumes I, II. BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Tiffany: Pilgrims and Puritans. Brooks : Stories of the Old Bay State. Hawthorne: Grandfather's Chair. Drake : The Making of New England. CHAPTER XVIII THE SECOND PERIOD OF ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN AMERICA The Revolution in England Checks Colonizing for a Time. — In 1640 King Charles I found that he could no longer rule without a Parliament. The famous Long Parliament which he summoned that year tried to check his tyranny and reform the government of England. The result was that two years later a civil war broke out between the king and his friends on one side and the people who supported Parliament on the other. The Parliamentary party was largely made up of Puritans, and in the end it defeated the king, took him prisoner, and finally put him to death. England was declared a republic, but it was really governed by Oliver Cromwell, the greatest of the Puritan leaders and one of the greatest Englishmen who ever lived. Cromwell died in 1658, and after two years of confusion the kingdom was restored and Charles II, a son of the Charles who had been executed, was put upon the throne. The attempt of the Puritans to estabHsh a republic in England had failed. This home-coming of the young king is called the Restoration. These events had a direct influence upon the settle- ment of America. Between 1640 and 1660 the Puri- tans, who had founded. all the New England colonies (313) 314 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA before 1640, were fighting for their rights in England; and during most of that period they actually ruled the country. As they could now have their own way at home, their motive for going to America no longer existed. Consequently, Puritan emigration almost OLIVER CROMWELL The artist pictures Cromwell in the palace of Whitehall, the home of Charles L entirely stopped after 1640. While some of the friends of the defeated king came to hve in Virginia, not a single new English colony was begun in America between 1640 and 1660. How Charles II Gave Land in America to His Friends. — The reign of King Charles II was the second period of English colonization in America. SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 315 This king was selfish and pleasure loving. Much of his early life had been spent in exile; and he was determined, as he said, '^not to set out on his travels again." He gathered about him friends like himself. For twenty-five years he lived in the midst of this gay, frivolous, and wicked court. Charles rewarded the friends who had helped him to recover the throne and paid some of those to whom he owed money by giving them great tracts of land in America. Thus it happened that every English colony begun in America between 1660 and 1685 was pro- prietary. The Settlers of Carolina.— The first colony established under Charles II was Carolina. In 1663 the king gave the land between Virginia and Florida to the Duke r A lu T xi_ T. 1 r r^i ^^^^G CHARLES II 01 Albemarle, the Earl oi Claren- don, and six other gentlemen. The real object of these men in begging this vast tract of land from the king was the increase of their own wealth and dignity. The authority of the eight proprietors over Carolina was somewhat similar to that of Lord Balti- more over Maryland. As early as 1635 people from Virginia began to settle on the Chowan River near Albemarle Sound. Year by year more settlers, poor whites, Quakers, and others who for one reason or another found life in Virginia uncomfortable, drifted southward into the wilderness. This Albemarle settlement was given a governor by its new proprietors in 1664. More settlers came from 316 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA England and the northern colonies. This was the beginning of the colony of North Carolina. Far to the south on the Carolina coast there is a noble harbor into which there came in 1670 another company of colonists from England. At first these THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA people settled a short distance up a river which flows into this harbor, but ten years later they removed to a better site at its mouth. Here they founded the city of Charleston. This was the beginning of South Carolina. It was not the intention of the proprietors to have two Carolinas. However, such vast forests separated SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 317 the Albemarle and Charleston settlements, that it was soon found more convenient to give each its own government. Quite naturally the names North Caro- lina and South Carolina came into common use. The proprietors were often unwise in their management of THE HOME OF A WEALTHY SOUTH CAROLINA PLANTER "Cool Springs," near Camden, S. C these colonies, and most of the governors that they sent out to represent them in America were bad men. More than once the people of the Carolinas rebelled against them. At last the proprietors sold their claim to the king, and in 1729 the Carolinas were made royal provinces. Large numbers of the oppressed people of other lands came to join the early EngHsh settlers in the 318 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Carolinas. At this time Louis XIV ruled in France. His government was the most despotic, extravagant, and corrupt which that country ever knew. The bitter persecution of the Huguenots, as the French Protestants were called, was not the least of his many acts of tyranny. Although the king forbade these people to leave France, many of them fled from that country, and in spite of great dangers and much suffer- ing made their way to America, where they found homes in South Carolina. To North Carolina there came Swiss and Germans from the valley of the Rhine, Highlanders from Scot- land, and, most important of all, Scotch-Irishmen from the north of Ireland. We shall hear more of these Scotch-Irish when we study the history of Pennsyl- vania, where they settled in large numbers, and whence many of them moved southward into Virginia and the Carolinas. All these people were strong, industrious, and liberty loving, splendid material for the upbuilding of free states. The Contrast between North Carolina and South Carolina. — The two Carohnas were strikingly unlike. The coast region of North Carolina consists of sand barrens and swamps, and there are few good harbors. Most of the early settlers of this colony lived on small farms in the interior. There were a few larger planta- tions and some slaves. Tobacco was the chief crop, but some rice was grown along the Cape Fear River. Tar, turpentine, and timber from the famous yellow pine of this region were the basis of a thriving com- merce. There were no towns of any importance, and no schools until just before the Revolution. In a word, SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 319 .^ i the colonial North Carolinians lived the rude and often lawless life of the frontier. In South Carolina the colonists lived near the coast, and Charleston soon grew to be an important seaport. Nearby were great rice plantations worked by large gangs of slaves who were often harshly treated. The growing of rice was very profitable. A slave could raise more than his own value in a single year. Later the culti- vation of indigo came to be almost equally important. Most of the wealthy planters lived in Charleston at least part of the year, and many of them sent their sons to England to be educated. The Beginning of Georgia.^ — More than fifty years after the Carolinas were settled, another colony was founded still farther to the southward. This came about in the following manner: LL^he Spaniards in Florida were a constant menace to the Carolinians. At this time people in England who could not pay their debts were put in prison. James Oglethorpe, a veteran soldier whose heart was touched by the miserable condition of the debtors in the English jails, planned to give these poor people a chance to begin life again in the New World and at the same time to establish a military outpost near the Spanish frontier. With these purposes in mind he joined with several other A COLONIAL HOME IN CHARLESTON The Pringle House, Charleston, S. C. 320 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA men in securing a grant of land which was called Georgia after the king who gave it. This grant was made in 1732, and the next year Oglethorpe founded Savannah. The debtors proved to be poor pioneers, 100 NSTON THE MIDDLE COLONIES and when this was found out no more of them were sent to Georgia. But other settlers came, some from the colonies farther north and some from Germany. In its hfe and industries the colony of Georgia closely resembled its neighbor, South Carohna. In 1752 it SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 321 became a royal province. Georgia grew very slowly, and at the end of the colonial period it was still one of the weakest of the English settlements in America. The Dutch Colony of New Netherland.— Within five years of the discovery of the Hudson River by Henry Hudson the Dutch had estabhshed trading stations upon the banks of that stream. Dutch traders came to these stations to get the skins of the beaver, the otter, and the mink. A Dutch writer of the time says that in exchange for their peltries the Indians received NEW AMSTERDAM IN 1655 ''beads, with which they decorated their persons; knives, adzes, axes, case-knives, kettles and all sorts of iron ware which they require for housekeeping." In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was given the exclusive right to trade in, to settle, and to govern New Netherland, as the Dutch territory in America was called. Tv^ro years later this company sent the first party of permanent colonists to the banks of the Hudson. Some of these settlers founded New Amster- dam on Manhattan Island, while others went up the river to Fort Nassau near the present site of Albany. New Netherland grew very slowly. There was much trade, but the number of actual settlers was small. At this time the Dutch were too prosperous 21 322 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA and happy in their own country to leave it in large numbers. To quicken the growth of the colony the West India Company offered to give a great tract of land to any of its members who would bring fifty grown-up persons to New Netherland and settle them in homes in the country. The proprietors of these great estates were called patroons. The patroon received a rent from the farmers settled on his land, and besides this he was entitled to a part of the increase of the cattle and to a part of the crop. In a few years there were several patroons living on the banks of the Hudson. New Netherland, unlike the New England colonies near it, did not have self-government. Its people were ruled by a governor and other officers sent out by the West India Company. The most famous of the Dutch governors of New Netherland was the last one, Peter Stuyvesant. Washington Irving calls him ^'a valiant, weather-beaten, mettlesome, obstinate, leathi ern-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited old governor.'' Stuyvesant ruled with an iron hand, but the colony grew and prospered under his sway. His most serious troubles were with intruders from other countries who were trying to get a foothold on the soil of New Netherland. The Dutch claimed that New Netherland included the valleys of the Delaware and the Connecticut as THE \AN RLNbhELAER HOUSE The home of a great Dutch patroon upon the Hudson River. SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 323 well as that of the Hudson. They established trading posts on both of these rivers. In 1638 the Swedes made a settlement within the present state of Delaware. PETER STUYVESANT ON THE STREET IN NEW AMSTERDAM Notice the dress of these Dutch colonists. The Dutch protested that the Swedes were trespassing upon their territory, but as they wanted the friend- ship of Sweden in Europe at this time they did nothing 324 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA more. By 1655 affairs had so changed in Europe that the Dutch thought it time to act. Governor Stuyvesant invaded New Sweden with a large force, and the people of that colony surrendered. They were not molested, but became subject to the government of New Netherland. How New Netherland Became New York. — On the Connecticut the Dutch .vvv^^^^^ v^v ^gpg iggg fortunate. They had a trading post on that river, but the English settlers came so thick and fast that they were unable to maintain it. Later English colonists began to encroach upon the Dutch settlements on Long Island and west of New Haven. The English had always claimed that New Netherland rightfully belonged to them, and at last Charles II made up his mind to seize it. In 1664 Colonel Nicolls, with four ships and five hundred veteran English troops, appeared before New Amsterdam. Governor Stuyvesant wanted to fight to the last ditch but his people would not support him. Many of them were weary of his arbitrary ways, and thought that they would have more liberty under an English government. Ninety-three of the leading PETER STUYVESANT DENOUNCING TERMS OF SURRENDER SECOND PERIOD OP SETTLEMENT 325 \ i .. n / * l'{ V 326 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA citizens signed a remonstrance against resistance. ^' Women and children flocked about the brave old man and added their entreaties." ''Well, let it be so/' he said, ''I had rather be carried to my grave." In a few moments the white flag fluttered over the ram- parts of Fort Amsterdam, and so the rule of Holland in America came peacefully to an end. King Charles II had already given this Dutch province of New Netherland to his brother James, duke of York, and in honor of the new proprietor the name of the colony and of its principal town was changed to New York. In 1685 the duke of York became king as James II, and New York became a royal province. The English conquest of New Netherland brought few changes to the Dutch inhabitants. Perhaps the most important of these changes was in giving them more power to manage their own local affairs. For many years there were more Dutchmen than English- men in the colony, and New York life kept many of its Dutch features throughout the colonial period. Slowly more settlers came, Enghsh, Scotch, French Huguenots, and Germans. Most of the people of early New York made their living by farming and by trading with the Indians. The Origin of New Jersey. — In 1664, not long after the duke of York received the grant of New Nether- land, he sold the part of it which we call New Jersey to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Carteret's settlements were made in the northeastern part of New Jersey, while Berkeley's part was in the west along the Delaware. After a few years Berkeley SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 327 sold his share to some Quakers. New Jersey was then divided into East Jersey and West Jersey, and many Quakers settled at Burlington and Salem. Later both of the Jerseys changed hands, and there was much trouble about the rights of the proprietors. The people disliked the proprietary government very much, and at last, in 1702, the Jerseys were united into one royal colony. There were a few Dutch settlers in New Jersey before 1664. Besides the Quakers already mentioned, people came to this colony from England, and espe- cially from Scotland, where a horrible persecution of the Presbyterians drove many of that sect to America. New Jersey was a prosperous agricultural colony and had a quiet and uneventful history until the Revolution. William Penn and the Quakers. — The last of the proprietary colonies founded in the days of King Charles II was Pennsylvania. This colony was begun through the enterprise and wisdom of the greatest man who ever led a company of English settlers to America, the famous Quaker statesman, Wilham Penn. The Society of Friends, or Quakers, was one of the religious sects that arose in England during the troub- lous times in the middle of the seventeenth century. George Fox was the first great leader of the Quakers. Fox and the early Quakers believed that God speaks directly to the soul of every man. This voice within they called the Inner Light. They believed that they must wait in silence for this voice, and that when they heard it they must act as it directed. Such a faith left no place for priests or ministers, and made religious ceremonies seem unnecessary. 328 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA The Quakers believed that all men are equal. They refused to take off their hats to anyone. They said ^Hhee" and ^Hhou'' to all men and women without any respect to their rank or station in life. The Quakers were very outspoken and preached very plainly, rebuking iniquity wherever they found it. They refused to serve in the army or take judicial oaths, and while obedient to all laws which they thought just, they disobeyed every law which they thought wrong. As there were many bad laws in England in the seventeenth century, the early Quakers were often in trouble. WilHam Penn was the son of an admiral in the English navy. While William was a student in the University of Oxford he was deeply moved by the words of a Quaker preacher. Presently he was sent home for refusing to obey a rule of the college which he thought wrong. Admiral Penn was very angry and sent his son off to France in the hope that a gay life there would make him forget his Quaker fancies. After two years of study and travel abroad William Penn came home and began to study law. He was a handsome young man with polished manners, but was still deeply interested in the Quaker teachings. A Uttle later he made his final decision to become a member of that despised sect. Penn soon became a Quaker preacher. During the next few years he was often put in prison for preaching contrary to the laws of that time which forbade free- dom of speech. Penn always refused to obey such laws. Once he said, ''My prison shall be my grave before I will budge one jot. I owe my conscience to SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 329 no mortal man." William Penn was a wise and prudent man, and in a few years he became one of the fore- most leaders of the Quakers in England. How William Penn Founded Pennsylvania. — For years William Penn had been thinking of a settlement in America in which persecuted English Quakers could live in peace. Charles II owed Admiral Penn six- teen thousand pounds, and when the admiral died his son William inherited this claim along with the rest of his father's es- tate. Knowing that there was little hope that the king would ever pay this debt in' money, William Penn offered to take land in America instead. The king accepted this suggestion, and in 1681 gave Penn the land between New York and Maryland and extending westward five degrees of longitude, from the Delaware River. The king named this great district Pennsylvania in honor of Admiral Penn. William Penn desired to control the Delaware River to its mouth. So he asked the duke of York to give In State Capitol of WILLIAM PENN Proprietor of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania 330 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA him the country now included in the state of Delaware. The duke did this, and for a time the three Lower Counties on the Delaware, as they were called, were a part of Pennsylvania. About twenty years later Delaware was made a separate province, but the Penn family owned both Pennsylvania and Delaware until the Revolution. There were a few Swedish, Dutch, and English settlers in Pennsylvania when it was granted to Penn. In October, 1682, William Penn landed at the old University Mtiseum, Phiia. A WAIMPUM BELT The first Penn Treaty belt. Swedish settlement of Upland, which he renamed Chester. The same year he founded the city of Philadelphia at the junction of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. He treated the Indians justly and made a treaty of friendship with them which was ^^never sworn to and never broken." For two years Penn was very busy in organizing his colony. Then his business interests made it necessary for him to return to England, where most of the remainder of his life was spent. He visited Pennsylvania a second time in 1699. When Penn made it possible for the persecuted English Quakers to make new homes in a free land beyond the sea, many of them came to America. In SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 331 1682 nearly three thousand settlers came to Penn- sylvania, and the following year the number was even larger. A considerable number of English, Welsh, and Irish Quakers continued to come to Penn's colony until about 1700. After that time most of the new- comers to Pennsylvania were of other races and other religious faiths. Pioneers and Pioneer Life in Pennsylvania. — Many of the pioneers of Pennsylvania came from Germany. These German colonists fled from religious persecution, and from a country which had been almost ruined by the waste of war. The Quakers remained in Philadel- phia or on farms in the country along the Delaware River. The Germans, commonly known as the Penn- sylvania Dutch, settled in the fertile limestone valleys just west of the Quaker counties. A httle later the Scotch-Irish came to Pennsylvania in large numbers. The Scotch-Irish were the descend- ants of Scotch people who had settled in the north of Ireland early in the seventeenth century. At first they had prospered in Ireland, but now they were glad to come to America to escape the heavy taxes laid upon their industries by the English government. Most of the Scotch-Irish pushed westward beyond the districts occupied by the Quakers and the Germans. They were fond of the life on the frontier, and furnished many of the pioneers, not only in western Pennsylvania but in the states west and south of that colony. In the main the early Quaker settlers in Pennsyl- vania were well-to-do people who brought considerable property with them to the New World. There was little of the suffering and hardship in Pennsylvania 332 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA which we saw in the earher colonies of Virginia and New England. As a rule the German colonists were poor, but they were industrious and frugal, and soon their farms were the best in the state. The Pennsylvania Germans clung tenaciously to the language and the customs of their fatherland. The Quakers and the PENN'S FIRST RESIDENCE IN AMERICA This house was moved from the city street to Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Germans alike were lovers of peace. The Scotch-Irish frontiersmen on the other hand were a race of fighters, and did most of the Indian fighting which finally drove the red men beyond the borders of Pennsylvania. William Penn gave the settlers in Pennsylvania the right to govern themselves. In the first letter which he wrote to the people in his colony he said, ^'You shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free and, if you will, a sober, industrious people.'' SECOND PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT 333 The ideals of William Penn and of the Quakers have had a great influence upon the life in Pennsylvania even down to the present time. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. Why were no English colonies planted in America between 1640 and 1660? 2. In what ways did Charles II promote American colonization? 3. How do North Carohna and South Carolina differ in their geog- raphy? In what ways did this difference influence their history? 4. Why were the inmates of debtors' prisons in England poor mate- rial out of which to make successful colonists in America? 5. What special geographical advantages has New York City? 6. What is a Quaker? What influence have the Quakers had upon American life? 7. Decide upon the six most important dates in the history of the English colonies in America and then learn these dates. 8. Make a list of all the European countries beside England which sent settlers to the EngMsh colonies in America. BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Thwaites: The Colonies. Fiske : The Dutch and Quaker Colonies. Andrews: Colonial Self -Government. Channing: History of the United States, Volumes I, II. Sharpless : Two Centuries of Pennsylvania History. Pennypacker : Pennsylvania . BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Allen : North Carolina History Stories. McCorkle: Old Time Stories of the Old North State. Means: Palmetto Stories. ^ Harris: Stories of Georgia. * WilHams : Stories from Early Neiv York History. Hodges: William Penn. Stockton : Stories of New Jersey. Walton and Brumbaugh : Stories of Pennsylvania, Burnham : A Short History of Pennsylvania. Thomas: A History of Pennsylvania, CHAPTER XIX LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD EARLY COLONISTS BUILDING A HOUSE Making a Living in the Colonies. — The first settlers in the English colonies in America came to a country in which fertile land could be had almost for the asking. The pioneer with very little money could quickly get a living for himself and his family. He began by clear- ing a patch of land for corn and a garden, and building a rude log home. If he had any neighbors they would help him build his home. At first he lived like the Indian, on the game which he shot in the forest and the fish which he caught in the sea or in a nearby river. Soon he began to gather the crops on his own land. In two or three years, when he had cleared more land and was raising a few hogs and cattle, his living was secure. If he had a large family, so much the better, for the children could help with the work. The greater part of the settlers in the English colonies had been farmers in their mother countries, and it was natural that they should bring with them to the New World the grains, fruits, vegetables, and domestic animals which they had raised in their old homes, (334) LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 335 Wheat, barley, oats, rye, peas, beans, cabbages, onions, and apples were the principal cultivated plants of Great Britain when Englishmen began to settle in America. All these plants were brought to the New World by the early settlers. Maize or Indian corn, the potato, both white and sweet, the pumpkin, squash, and tobacco are native American plants which the pioneers soon learned to cultivate. Our common domestic animals. AN EXAMPLE OF AN OLD-TIME PLOW cattle, horses, swine, sheep, and poultry, all came to us from Europe. The turkey alone is a native of the western continent. Our modern agricultural machinery had not yet been invented in colonial days. Plows, harrows, and carts were then the only farm implements drawn by horses or oxen. The crude and heavy plows had mold- boards of wood. The colonists had rude spades, hoes, and wooden forks. Hay was cut with the scythe and grain with the sickle. The grain was usually threshed with a flail, though in the southern colonies it was sometimes trodden out on a hard threshing floor by 336 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA the feet of oxen or horses. Both of these ways of threshing are older than history. Nearly all the farms in New England and the middle colonies and many of those in the south were small. Each of these farms was worked by its owner with the I A COLONIAL HOUSEWIFE SPINNING help of his boys and of an occasional slave or servant. Corn, wheat, rye, oats, and buckwheat were the chief crops. In those parts of Maryland and Virginia where tobacco was extensively grown and in the rice swamps on the coast of Carolina the plantations were very much larger and were cultivated by the labor of indentured servants and negro slaves. Nearly LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 337 everywhere wool, flax, and hemp were raised for home use. In the early colonial days, when almost every man was a farmer, every farmer was a jack of all trades. He hunted and fished not simply as a sport, but also as a means of procuring a needed supply of food. He trapped the fur-bearing animals because furs were in great demand and found a ready sale for money or for supplies. He was often a lumberman. During many a long winter evening, while the women spun or wove, the men and boys made staves and shingles before the great fireplace in the kitchen. The successful pioneer must be able to turn his hand to almost any kind of work. The colonial home was a hive of industry. In it all the food of the family was prepared and nearly all of its clothing was made from homespun cloth. The set- tler was his own carpenter, blacksmith, and tanner, and sometimes his own shoemaker. Every housewife could spin and weave and could make such necessary articles as soap and candles. In addition to all these household industries, the colonists early began to manufacture goods outside the home for sale in the market or for export to Eng- land. This colonial manufacturing was on a small scale and most of its products were sold in the neigh- borhood where they were made. There were local gristmills, sawmills, and brickyards, and shops in which leather was converted into gloves, boots, and harness. Presently iron ore began to be smelted and made into tools, farming implements, and household utensils. The village cabinetmaker supplied the 22 338 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA neighborhood with furniture, and the local wheel- wright made the needed carts and wagons. The pine forests of the South yielded tar, pitch, and turpentine, and the distilleries of New England made rum from molasses im- ported from the West Indies. As early as 1631 John Winthrop, of Massachusetts, built a ship which he named The Blessing of the Bay. This was the beginning of the shipbuilding industry in New England. The materials for this industry were near at hand. Planks of oak, and tall, straight masts AN OLD COLONIAL SAWMILL Essex Institute A COLONIAL SHIPYARD AT SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS of fir were easily procured in the neighboring forests, while pitch pine for the making of tar and turpentine was everywhere. Ropes were made from home-grown LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 339 hemp. Ship building grew to be the leading manu- facturing industry of the colonies. Some ships were built on the Hudson and the Delaware, but most of them came from the shipyards of New England. The commerce of the colonies began with the Indians. The red men were eager to exchange the rich fur of the beaver for beads, trinkets, and blankets, and with even greater readiness for firearms, gun- powder, and rum. Very early the colonists began to trade with each other along the coast. They sold corn, salt pork, and other supplies at the fishing stations on the northern coast and exchanged the hay, hve stock, shoes, and woolen cloth of New England for the tobacco and wheat of Virginia, the tar and timber of North Carolina, and the rice of South Carolina. Every year many men and boys from the New England settlements fished along the coast or on the Banks of Newfoundland. This industry gave New England her greatest source of wealth and at the same time trained the most daring sailors in the world. Presently these sailors carried on the business of whale fishing with great success. Dried fish were taken to the West Indies where they were exchanged for sugar, molasses, and other tropical products. Sometimes they were carried to Spain and Portugal and traded for the wines and dried fruits of these countries. The furs, timber, whale oil, tobacco, rice, and farm products of the colonies found a ready market in the Old World, where they were paid for with the manu- factured goods of England and Holland and the spices of the Far East. Very early in the history of the colonies the English government required all the 340 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA trade to be carried on in English or colonial ships and mainly through the English ports. In the course of time, the traders of New England came to play a large part in the slave trade with Africa. Rum made in New England from molasses bought in the West Indies was exchanged on the African coast for captive negroes. These poor wretches were then carried to the West Indies and traded for sugar and molasses, or to Virginia where they were sold for tobacco. The northern trader and the southern planter were alike responsible for bringing negro slavery into our country. The Colonists at Home. — The life of the early colonists was one of hard work. The land had to be cleared and cultivated, houses and barns built, and almost every necessity of life made at home. At first nearly every one was poor, but in time labor brought its reward, and those settlers who were industrious and thrifty came to have good homes of their own. Nearly all the people were farmers who owned the farms which they tilled. The hardworking farmers, together with a few busy shopkeepers and skilled mechanics in the towns, made up the great middle class of the population. The planters of Virginia and South Carolina, the patroons on the Hudson, and the rich merchants of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York were somewhat above the great middle class of the colonists in a social sense. They lived in fine houses, were waited upon by many servants and slaves, and enjoyed such luxuries as the times afforded. At the lower end of the social scale were those settlers who were too shiftless and LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 341 THE CHEW HOUSE 'A colonial mansion in Germantown, Phila- delphia. lazy to succeed in life, the indentured servants, and the negro slaves. There were slaves in all the colonies though they were far more nu- merous in the South than in the North. The first home of the colonist in Amer- ica was a rude log cabin. As the settlers were constantly finding their way farther and farther into the interior of the country, there was during the whole co- lonial period of our history, and almost to the present time for that matter, a frontier in the backwoods, where the people lived in log houses very much hke the one in this picture. As the settlements grew older and more prosperous, better houses of wood, A LOG CABIN ON THE FRONTIER g^^^J SOmctimCS of brick or stone, replaced the log cabins of the pioneers. In the course of time orchards, fields of grain, and pastures with their herds of cattle made their appear- 342 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA ance around the homes of the colonists. Some of the great planters in the southern colonies built spacious mansions which were very much like the beautiful homes they had left behind them in England. Near the house of the wealthy Virginia planter there were numerous outbuildings in which the various indus- 'Ill ' ^__^^^^^52!BB^^^^^^ JBIifci, ifiiip'pi'11511 \llunT 3 A COLONIAL KITCHEN Co-pr. TJie Essex Institute tries of the plantation were carried on, and quarters in which its many slaves were sheltered. Home life in colonial days centered about the great fireplace with its blazing logs. On the long winter evenings all the members of the family gathered before it for warmth and Hght. Tallow candles and, later, lamps in which whale oil was burned helped to light up the darkness. Stools, benches, tables, and other articles of furniture were very plain and were usually homemade. Sometimes there would be a few finer pieces brought from the old home in England. By LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 343 and by those colonists who could afford them had china, glassware, silver, fine linen, and furniture from the Old World. The home farm produced nearly everything that the colonists ate or wore. In the summer its cornfield furnished delicious roasting ears of green corn, and all the year porridge, puddings, and bread were made of cornmeal from the ripened grain. Most of the early settlers could catch fish, and after the first years of hardship were over they raised their own pork and beef. As time passed, an orchard like that of the old home in England provided apples and plenty of cider which was a common drink in colonial times. Some- times wild honey was found and in many parts of the country toothsome maple sugar was made. The clothing of most of the people came from wool, flax, and leather grown on their own land and manufactured in their own homes. The daily life of the colonist was one of hard work, and he had few of the opportunities for sport and amusement which we now enjoy. Still, his life was not an unceasing round of toil. The deer, wild turkeys, and other game in the forests furnished some of the finest hunting in the world. Sometimes shooting matches were held, and it was thought a great honor to be the best marksman in the neighborhood. In some of the colonies horse racing, cock fighting, and other old English sports and games were not uncom- mon, but these amusements were frowned upon by the Puritans of New England. Our colonial ancestors were far more neighborly and hospitable than we are today. In time of sickness 344 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA they cheerfully did for each other the work which is now done by professional nurses. People who lived near together helped each other in clearing land, in IN THE GARDEN OF A FINE OLD COLONIAL HOME IN VIRGINIA harvesting and corn husking, and at quiltings and barn raisings. These gatherings of neighbors to work together were called ''bees," and were social events which were enjoyed to the full, especially by the LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 345 young people. In the South travelers were freely entertamed at the homes of the great planters. The weddings were joyous occasions at which there was a great deal of gaiety and rough sport, and even the funerals were occasions for much feasting. The early American settler seldom traveled far from home. The roads were few and very bad, the inns In Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. A TWO-WHEELED CHAISE The chaise was a carriage used by the colonists. were poor, there were few bridges over the rivers, and a long journey was a serious and often a dangerous adventure. When a man was obliged to travel a considerable distance from home, he went on horse- back or by boat on the rivers and along the sea coast. It was a long time after the colonies were founded before stage-coaches ran between even the large towns. In the home neighborhood people walked to church or rode on horseback or in a two-wheeled chaise. How the Colonies Were Governed. — The early 346 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA English colonists brought with them to the New World the ideas about government with which they were familiar in their mother country. In England the laws were made by Parliament and enforced by the king. Parliament consisted of a House of Lords most of whose members inherited their positions and a House of Commons chosen by the people. Then there were courts with judges and juries who tried men accused of crime and settled disputes between man and man. A form of government very much like that of Eng- land was set up in each of the colonies. Every one of them had a law-making body in which the members of one house at least were elected by the people. In most of the colonies a man could not vote for these law-makers unless he owned land. Each colony had a governor who enforced the law. In most of the colonies the governor was appointed by the king of England. In Pennsylvania and Maryland the gover- nor was named by the proprietor, while in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and for a long time in Massachusetts, he was chosen by the people. Many of the colonial governors who were sent from England were needy and greedy men with whom the colonists had a great deal of trouble. Each colony had courts with judges and juries, very much as in England. We are more democratic than our colonial ancestors were, and the governors and law-makers in all our states, and the judges in most of them, are now elected by the people. But in many respects our state govern- ments are like the governments of the colonies, and in some ways they resemble the government of England from which so many of the colonists came. LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 347 In New England, where the farms were small and the settlers lived near together, often in little villages, the people of each community held a town meeting which made the laws or rules for the township and elected local officers to enforce them. In the South, where the plantations were large and the people widely scattered, it was not convenient to hold town meetings. In that section local affairs were looked after by justices of the peace, appointed by the governor of the colony. In the middle colonies part of the local business was done by county officers and part of it by township officers. All of these ways of managing local affairs were known in England before the dis- covery of America, and all of them are found in the United States at the present time. Before the first settlers came to America the people of England had won the right to have their lives and property protected by the government, to have a fair trial by a jury when accused of crime, to move freely about the country, and to follow any occupation they pleased. They had also established their right to take part in the management of their local affairs and to be free from taxes that were not voted by their own representatives. The colonists believed that they brought with them to America all these rights of Englishmen. In the course of time they declared their independence of England in order to maintain these rights which are still among our most cherished possessions. The colonists also brought to the New World many of the brutal punishments that were common in the England of their day. Men were punished with death 348 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA A MAN SITTING IN THE STOCKS t- \.-" for many crimes, while for lesser offenses they were flogged at the whipping post or forced to sit in the stocks or stand in the pillory. We have long since stopped using these cruel and shameful penalties. The English Language in America. — The early settlers in America were so busy at their heavy task of clearing away the forests and making homes in a new land that most of them had little^ time for books or educa- tion. Still, some of them were educated men who brought the learning of the Old World with them and did what they could to keep it alive in the wilderness of America. For a long time the. colonists had only such books as were brought from England, and even these were rare and very expensive. The use of the Eng- lish language was common to nearly all the colonists, though \¥ J}L%^^^i^SL Essex Institute MAN STANDING IN THE PILLORY LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 349 where the Germans settled in large number, as in Pennsylvania, they kept the speech of their father- land. The settlers soon began to add to the language which they had brought from England by making names for things in America which were new to them. The color of one bird suggested blackbird, and the song of another made them call it the mocking bird. From the language of their Indian neighbors they borrowed such words as tobacco, hominy, canoe, and chipmunk. The colonization of America added a large number of new place names to the English language. Very often the pioneers named their settlements after towns in England as, for example, Plymouth, Boston, or Chester. Occasionally they tried to honor the kings of their home land by inventing such names as Jamestown, Carolina, and Georgia. Sometimes the rivers were named after Englishmen, as the Hudson or the Delaware, but oftener they kept their native Indian names, like the Mohawk, the Susquehanna, or the Potomac. In Massachusetts and Connecticut the settlers borrowed Indian names for the colonies. The First American Schools and Colleges. — The Puritans of New England led in the work of opening public schools in America. One of the early laws of Massachusetts ordered that every township, as soon as it had fifty householders, ''shall appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him, to write and read." The same law provided that when a town contained one hundred families it must set up a grammar school, with a master ''able to instruct youths so far as they may be fitted for the 350 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA university. '^ The other New England colonies fol- lowed the example of Massachusetts in establishing public schools. Outside of New England there were no free public schools in the colonies. There were a few excellent private schools in some of the larger towns like New York and Philadelphia, and in many places the English Essex Institute AN OLD NEW ENGLAND SCHOOLHOUSE The schoolhouse is the small building at the right of the picture. In front of it stands the whipping post. and German ministers taught the children of their congregations. Some of the wealthy planters in the South employed tutors to teach their boys and girls in their own homes. But the greater part of the children in the middle and southern colonies had very little opportunity to go to school. Before the settlement at Boston was six years old Massachusetts took steps to establish a college in the colony. This first college in America was named LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 351 Harvard after John Harvard, a Puritan minister who gave it one-half of his estate and all of his library. For a long time Harvard was the only college in the English colonies. Later others were started, and before the colonies declared their independence of England every one of them north of Maryland and Delaware had a college within its borders. The College of William and Mary in Virginia was the only one in the southern colonies. Sometimes the southern WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE This was the first college in Virginia. planter sent his sons to one of the colleges in the north or to one of the great universities in England. The earliest American colleges were established to educate ministers for the church. Boys who wanted to be doctors or lawyers did not attend medical colleges or law schools as they do now, but studied in the offices of neighboring physicians or lawyers. Early American Printing. — The first printing press ever brought to the English colonies in America was set up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1638. Other presses came later, but for a long time they printed 352 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA little except almanacs, religious books like the ^'Bay Psalm Book/' and school books for children like the "New England Primer." There was no American newspaper until the Boston News Letter appeared in 1704. The Pennsylvania Packet j published in Phila- delphia, was the first daily paper in the colonies. Many of the governors whom the king of England sent to his colonies in America did not look with favor upon education or a free press. Governor Berkeley of Virginia, speaking of that colony in 1671, said: "I thank God, there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years." Peter Zenger, a New York editor, was thrown into prison because he dared to criticise the governor of that colony. When Zenger was brought to trial, Andrew Hamilton, a famous Quaker lawyer from Philadelphia, secured his acquittal in a great speech in which he declared: "It is not the cause of a poor printer, nor of New York alone, which the jury is now trying. It is the cause of liberty." The Religion and Morals of the Colonists. — The early colonists were a very religious people. Many of them had come to America because they were not free to worship God in their own way at home. They found it no easier in America to agree among themselves about religion. Their differences of opinion in this matter led to the introduction into the colonies of many sects or religious denominations. The Puritans of New England were Congregationalists. There were Catholics in Maryland, Baptists in Rhode Island and North Carolina, and many Quakers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The Scotch and Scotch- LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 353 Irish were Presbyterians and there were many differing sects among the German settlers in Pennsylvania. Most of the colonists in Virginia and many of them in some of the other colonies belonged to the Church of England, and sooner or later that church was estab- lished by law in all the colonies south of New England except Pennsylvania and Delaware. In most of the PURITANS GOING TO CHURCH They carried guns to defend themselves against Indians. colonies the people did not want the members of other sects to live among them. The Episcopalians in Vir- ginia drove Puritans and Baptists away from the colony. The Puritans in Massachusetts shamefully persecuted the Quakers. Maryland, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, however, were leaders in religious toleration, and in time the people of the other colonies learned that it was best not to quarrel over differences in religion. The presence of so many different religious sects in the colonies helped to bring about this result. 23 354 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA Going to church in colonial times was a very dif- ferent matter from what it is with us. In the South, where the plantations were widely scattered, the churches were often a long distance apart and some of the people had to travel many miles to reach them. Bad weather and poor roads frequently made it almost impossible to go. In New England where there was a meeting house in every town, the Puritan expected every one to be present at the services and punished any who did not come. The Puritan church service would seem very tedious to us. The prayer was an hour long, and frequently the sermon lasted for twice that time. There was no way of heating the meeting house in winter, and attendance during that season must have been a real hardship. In the early colonial days the women sometimes carried heated stones in their muff s to keep their hands from freezing in church, and later they used little charcoal foot-stoves. The colonists brought from the Old World many strange ideas and notions, which we now call super- stitions. They thought, for example, that the right time to sow seed and to harvest crops was determined by the phases of the moon. Any unusual sight in the heavens like a comet was a sign of ill luck. They believed in ghosts and were sure that certain houses were haunted by them. One of the strangest of these superstitions was the belief in witchcraft. A witch was a person, usually an old woman, who was believed to be possessed by an evil spirit. The people thought that witches could fly through the air and that they had the power to bring all sorts of evil upon their enemies. When the butter was slow in coming in the LIFE IN THE NEW WORLD 355 churn, it was because some one had bewitched the cream. The behef in witchcraft had long been com- mon in Europe and great numbers of people had been put to death there as witches. In 1692 there was a panic about witches in Salem, Massachusetts, and before it passed, twenty innocent people were executed. As people have learned more about nature, these old superstitions have gradually disappeared, though it is still possible to find folks who believe in lucky signs or unlucky days and who think that potatoes ought to be planted in the right phase of the moon. The habits and morals as well as the knowledge and the ideas of the early settlers in America were those which then prevailed in the mother countries from which they came. They were ignorant of much that we know, and xnsary of the things which they did would seem very coarse or brutal to us. But they were a fearless, hard-working, and resolute race of men and women, and they built broad and deep the foundation for the civilization which has since developed in our country. We have good reason to be proud of our colonial ancestors. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 1. What grains, vegetables, and fruits do we have that were not grown by the early colonists? 2. What tools and machinery found on our farms now were unknown to our colonial ancestors? 3. What fur-bearing animals are still found in the United States? 4. Point out all the differences that you can between manufacturing in colonial times and at the present day. 5. Do we have social classes hke those described in the section on "The Colonists at Home."? 6. Did you ever see a log cabin? How is it built? 356 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA 7. How does our home life today differ from the home life of our colonial forefathers? 8. What features of our government were brought to this country by the English colonists? 9. Find out the origins of the names of your state, county, town- ship, or city. Are there any places in your vicinity with Indian names? 10. Why are we less superstitious than our colonial ancestors were? BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER Lodge: A Short History of the English Colonies in America. Coman : Industrial History of the United States, Chapters I-IV. Bogart: Economic History of the United States, Part I. Eggleston: The Transit of Civilization. Sparks: Expansion of the American People, Chapters IV-V. Earle: Home Life in Colonial Days; Child Life in Colonial Days. Fisher: Men, Women, and Manners in Colonial Times. Greene: Provincial America. Weeden: Social and Economical History of New England. Bruce : Social Life in Virginia in the Seveiiteenth Century. BOOKS FOR THE CHILDREN Bassett: The Plain Story of American History, Chapter VI. Mace: School History of the United States, 95-117. Hart: Colonial Children; How Our Grandfathers Lived. Tappan : Letters from Colonial Children. Stone and Fickett: Everyday Life in the Colonies. CofRn: Old Times in the Colonies. Jenks: When America was Young. CHAPTER XX OUR HERITAGE AND OUR HISTORY What We Inherited from the Old World.— We have now reached the end of the story of how civihzation grew in the Old World and was brought from Europe to America by the early settlers. It took many thousand years for our ancestors to win their w^ay from their first savage condition to the civilized ways of living of our colonial forefathers. The story of their long upward struggle from barbarism to civilization is a part of our history. Let us look once more at its chief features. We are indebted to men who lived so long ago that we have no written record of their lives for many of the most valuable things that we now possess. Long ages ago primitive men kindled the first fires, built the first houses, tamed the wild animals, and began the cultivation of the food plants. These early men invented the first weapons and tools and were the first workers in wood, stone, leather, and the metals. Their wives and daughters were the earliest potters, weavers, and millers. To that same far-away time, before the dawn of histor}^, belong the formation of languages, the origin of the family, and many rude beginnings in science, art, and religion. The first civilized people lived in the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates and in the lands about the (357) 358 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. In these fertile valleys agriculture was highly developed and such arts as spinning and weaving were brought to perfection. There were cities filled with skilled workers in leather, glass, copper, bronze, and gold. Commerce sprang up, and the sea-going Phoenicians carried the rich wares of the civilized East to all parts of the Mediterranean world. In these eastern lands the first states were formed, the earliest governments were organized, and the oldest laws were written. The Egyptians and the Babylonians, the earliest civilized peoples, gave us the art of writing, the alphabet, our way of reckoning time, many of our common weights and measures, and important lessons in mathematics, and in literature. We are indebted to the Hebrews for most of our religious ideas. The Greeks next caught up the torch of civilization and carried it far in advance of the point reached by the Egyptians and the Babylonians. The Greeks were the first free, self-governing people in the world, and the founders of the earliest democratic states in history. In a long and heroic war with Persia they saved freedom in Europe from the despotism of Asia. The Greeks were lovers of the beautiful. They carved the finest statues and built the most beautiful temples of all time. They gave the world a priceless literature which is the delight of men at the present day. Finally, the conquests of Alexander the Great carried the splendid civlization of the Greeks to all parts of the eastern world. Later the Romans conquered the Greeks and nearly all the known world of their time. Their empire OUR HERITAGE AND OUR HISTORY 359 included southern and western Europe, western Asia, and the northern coast of Africa. They gave this vast region a common language and bound it together with splendid roads all leading to Rome. They gave the people of their empire peace, orderly government, and wise laws. We owe many of our best ideas about law and government to them. The Romans carried the art, the literature, and the wisdom of the Greeks to all the countries of the West. They introduced and developed civilized ways of living among the barbarous peoples of western Europe, and defended these people from the German tribes until these ways were firmly established among them. L^; Jesus was born during the reign of the first Roman emperor. He was the world's greatest teacher and gave us a lofty ideal of a pure and sinless life. He taught that all men are brothers and that they ought to love one another. The teachings of Jesus have done much to promote democracy in the world and to make men more gentle and more humane. The followers of Jesus organized the Christian Church. The church played a leading part in civilizing the bar- barians who overthrew the Roman Empire and has taught the Christian faith and the Christian Hfe even down to the present day. About a thousand years before the discovery of America the German barbarians from beyond the Danube and the Rhine overran the Roman Empire. The gradual fusion of these German tribes with the inhabitants of the empire among whom they settled gave rise to the various peoples of modern Europe, like the French, the Spanish, and the Italians. The Ger- 360 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA manic tribes, the ancestors of most of the peoples who settled America, overthrew the empire of Rome and filled western Europe with fresh blood and youth- ful vigor. They were a proud, free people, and we are indebted to them for our love of liberty, for the idea of representative government, and for other important political ideas and institutions. The Angles and Saxons were German tribes which settled on the island of Britain. With the help of the native Britons, and of the Danes and conquering Normans who came later, they were the makers of England. In the course of time all these people were fused together to form the English race. They all helped to make the English language, to develop the English ways of working and living, and to establish in England such rights as those of trial by jury and of being represented in the law-raaking body or Par- liament. After a while England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland were joined together to form the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. This kingdom was the mother country of most of our colonial ancestors, and it was natural for them to bring to America the ways of living, the ideas, and the political institutions which they knew in their Old World homes. We call the time between the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century and the discovery of America in the fifteenth century the Middle Ages. In the earlier part of this period, because of the incom- ing of the German barbarians, Europe was much less civilized than it had been in the best days of the Roman Empire. All this time the Germans were learning civilized ways from the Romans- among whom OUR HERITAGE AND OUR HISTORY 361 they lived. The church had great influence in this period and did much to keep alive the ancient civiliza- tion and hand it on to the modern world. It was during the Middle Ages that feudalism grew and flourished and that knighthood was in flower. The nobles lived in great stone castles and the common people toiled for them upon the land. In the later Middle Ages great changes took place in Europe. Commerce with the East sprang up, the cities grew rapidly in size and number, and new indus- tries were introduced. These changes were quickened by the crusades, which brought many of the people of western Europe into contact with the more highly civilized Greeks and Arabs in the East. From the time of the crusades feudalism and serfdom began to disappear slowly, and such nations as Spain, France, and England grew strong. These nations were to be leaders and rivals in exploring and colonizing America. As the Middle Ages drew to a close, Europe was throbbing with new life, energy, and enthusiasm. The splendid literature of Greece and Rome which had been long neglected was now studied once more. Great inventions like gunpowder, the mariner's com- pass, and the art of printing were coming into use. New ideas about education, science, and religion were in the air. The greatest ' artists since the days of ancient Athens were at work. We call this wonderful revival of civilization in Europe the Renaissance. Just at its height, America was found. What Our People Have Done in the New World.— The men who brought the civilization of Europe to 362 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA the shores of America were the heirs of all the past. The New World was to profit by all that the Old World had learned since early men took the first steps toward civilized ways of living. The story of the slow and patient advance from the poverty, ignorance, and superstition of primitive life to the civilization of Europe in the time of the Renaissance is a part of our history. The men and women who won this civiliza- tion for the world were our ancestors. But the story of our inheritance from the Old World is far from being all of our history. Our ancestors brought civilization to the shores of America but it has had a marvelous growth in the New World. Since the colonial days our people have pushed through the gateways of the Allegheny Mountains, occupied the great valley of the Mississippi, and followed the long trails to the rich country on the Pacific coast. The thirteen colonies have increased to forty-eight states. The handful of colonists along the Atlantic coast has grown to more than one hundred million American citizens. The toil of many generations of pioneers has cleared our land of forests and clothed it with gardens, orchards, and fields of wheat, corn, and cotton. The cattle and sheep upon a thousand hills are ours. The mountains have given us their coal and iron and copper. Inven- tions almost without number have lightened our labor and enormously increased our wealth. Hundreds of thousands of miles of railroad bind our country together and carry our people and our products from place to place. Our land is filled with fertile farms and with busy and prosperous towns, while scattered here OUR HERITAGE AND OUR HISTORY 363 and there are scores of great cities, the homes of mighty industries and of a rich commerce. Our colonial forefathers declared their independence of England and won it in a long and trying war. They set up free governments in the states and in the nation that have endured for more than a century. By purchase and conquest our people have vastly increased the extent of their territory. By four years of heroic fighting in a great civil war they saved the life of the nation and freed it from human slavery. The half century since this great struggle has seen wonderful progress in national growth. Today North and South are united in the spirit that makes the United States the greatest democratic nation in the world. Nor is this all. Education has been made free to every one in a great system of public schools. Colleges and universities have been built. Newspapers and magazines carry the thought of the world to almost every home. All men are free to worship God as they choose. Provision has been made for the care of the sick, the insane, and for all who cannot care for themselves. All these things have not been done without many mistakes and some wrongdoing. There are still many evils to be corrected and much good work to be accom- plished. But the story of how all these wonderful things have been done is our history. It is one of the most fascinating stories in the world. We have traced the origin and development of civilization in the Old World and have seen how it first came to America. We are now ready to study its growth in the history of our own country. 364 BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA BOOKS FOR THE TEACHER AND THE CHILDREN Elson and MacMuUen: The Story of the Old World. Harding: The Story of Europe. Nida: The Dawn of American History in Europe. Gordy: American Beginnings in Europe. Bourne and Benton: Introductory American History. Mace and Tanner: The Story of Old Europe and Young America. Hall: Our Ancestors in Europe. INDEX Abbot, 108 Achilles (a-kll'ez), 69 Acropolis (a-kr6p'6-lls) , 65-66 iEgean Sea (S-je'an), 52, 58, 59 Africa, 1, 26, 33, 52, 116, 118, 194, 265 coast of, explored by Portuguese, 218-221 Age, Old Stone, 17 New Stone, 18 of Bronze, 18 Alaric (al'a-rik), 115-116 Albany, 321 Albemarle, Duke of, 315 Albemarle settlement, 315-316, 317 Albemarle Sound, 315 Alexander the Great, 72-73, 358 results of his conquests, 73 fate of his empire, 86 Alexandria, 73, 212, 218 Alfred the Great, 135-138, 141 Alphabet, 38-39 Alps, 76, 84, 110, 194 Amadas and Barlowe, 270 America, 1, 48, 62, 98, 156, 168, 188, 201, 208, 236 the discovery of, 222-240 the naming of, 232-233 the exploration of, 233-240, 265- 269 Spanish settlements in, 242-260 first attempts at English settle- ment in, 269-271 English colonies in, 278-355 Americans, 1-7, 124, 126 Amos, 47 Amusements, in the colonies, 343 Angles, 128-131, 134, 360. Anglo-Saxons, 128-129 Animals, domestication of, 11-13 Antioch (an'tl-6k), 164 Antwerp, 194 Apennines, 76 Apollo (a-p61'6), 67 Aqueducts, Roman, 97 Arabia, 28, 32, 118, 194, 209, 212 Arabs, 118, 119, 165-166 in Spain, 189-191 Architecture, in Egypt and Baby- lonia, 42-44 Greek, 63-64 Roman, 97 Aristotle (ar'is-t6t"l), 72 Arithmetic, 41 Armada (ar-ma'da) , Spanish, 271-277 Art, earliest, 23 of the Greeks, 62-67 of the Romans, 88-89 of the Renaissance, 202-205 Asia, 37, 51, 61, 118, 192, 193 wealth of, 208-212 search for a westward route to, 223 230 Asia Mikor, 58, 73, 86, 101, 162, 164 conquered by the Turks, 217 Assyria, 31, 36, 37, 42 Assyrians, 37, 42 Astronomy, 41 Athena (a-the'na), 66, 67 Athenians, 55-57, 58, 59 conquered by Macedon, 72 Athens, 50, 59, 61, 65, 101 Atlantic Ocean, 127, 222, 223, 234, 268 Augustine (6-gus'tIn), missionary to England, 131-132, 133 Austria, 110, 119 Avalon, 287 Aztecs (az'teks), 246, 247, 249 Battle, trial by, 175 Barcelona, 229 Bannockburn, battle of, 183 Baltimore, Lord, see Calvert Balhol (bal'I-til), John, 182, 183 Balboa (bal-bo'a), 233 Bahamas, 227, 228 Babylonians, first good farmers, 29-30 arts and crafts of, 30-31 trade of, 32, 34 early bankers, 34 social life of, 34-36 houses of, 35 writing of, 39 books of, 40 architecture of, 41-42 religious beliefs of, 46 Babylonia, the land, 26-29 farming in, 29-30 (365) 366 INDEX manufacturing in, 30-31 trade in, 32 life in, 34-36 government in, 36-38 literature in, 40-41 science in, 40-41 buildings in, 41-42 religion in, 46 our debt to the, 358 Babylon, 37,73 Bergen, 196 Belgium, 194 Berkeley, Governor, 352 Berkeley, Lord John, 326-327 Bertha, 132 Bible, 23, 48, 102, 121 translated into English, 185 Bishop, in the Middle Ages, 156-157 Black Death, influence upon Eng- land, 170-171 Black Sea, 32, 52, 192, 194, 213, 214 Blandina, 105 Boniface, 122-123 Books, Babylonian, 40 of the Romans, 87 in the monasteries, 159 printed, 199 Boston, 307, 309 Bradford, William, 293, 294 Brazil, 209, 252, 256 Brewster, WilHam, 293 Britain, 33, 126-127, 128, 131 conquered by Angles and Saxons, 129-130 British Islands, 2 geographv of, 126-127 Britons, 128, 130 Bruce, Robert, 182, 183 Bruges (broo'jez), 194, 196 Burgundians, 116, 118 Burlington, 327 Cabot (kab'ut), John, 230-232, 262 "Cacafuego, " 267-268 Cadiz, 273, 276 Caesar (se'zar), Augustus, 92 Age of^ 93 Csesar (se'zar), Julius, 86, 92 Cairo, 212 Calais (kal'is), 275 Calendar, 40-41 Cahcut, 212 CaHfornia, 268 California, Gulf of, 250 Calvert, Cecilius, second Lord Bal- timore, 288 Calvert, George, Lord Baltimore, 286-288, 305 Calvert, Leonard, 288 Calvin, John, 205-206 Calvinists, 206 Canary Islands, 226 Canterbury, 132, 186 "Canterbury Tales," 185-186 Cape Cod, 294 Cape Fear River, 318 Cape Horn, 236, 256-257 Cape Verde, 220 Cape Verde Islands, 234 CaroHna, 315-319, 336 Carteret, Sir George, 326 Carthage, rival of Rome, 83-86 destruction of, 85-86 Vandals at, 116 Cartier, Jacques (zhak kar-tya'), 278 Carver, John, 293 Caspian Sea, 213 Castles, life in the, 149-152 Cathay, see China Cathedrals, 161-162 Central America, 230, 236, 250, 252, 256 Ceylon, 209, 210 Champlain (sham-plan'), 278 Charlemagne (shar'le-man) , 119-120 Charles, son of Charlemagne, 120 Charles I, King, 287, 299, 301, 313 Charles II, King, 308, 313, 314-315, 324, 326, 329 Charles Martel (shiirl mar'tgl'), 119 Charleston, 316, 317, 319 Chaucer (cho'-ser), 185-186 Chester, England, 141 Chester, Pennsylvania, 330 Children, in early times, 21 Chile, 252 China, 27, 208, 209, 210, 213, 232 visited by Marco Polo, 214-217 Chinese, the, 4, 196 Chivalry, see Knighthood Chowan River, 315 Christianity, 119 German tribes converted to, 121- 123 introduced into England, 131-134 accepted by the Danes, 136 in Normandy, 142 Christians, persecuted by the Romans, 102-105 Church, beginnings of the, 101-102 government of the early, 102, 107 triumph of the, 105-107 in the Middle Ages, 155-162 Catholic, 205-207 Presbyterian, 206, 353 civilizing influence of, 359 Church of England, 291-293 Cincinnatus (sin-sl-na'tus), 81 INDEX 367 City-states, 35-37 Civilization, defined, 6-7 Clan, 22, 36 Clarendon, Earl of, 315 Clothing, early, 15 in Egypt and Babylonia, 35-36 of the Romans, 79, 89-90 in the Age of Elizabeth, 292 in the colonies, 337 Clotilda, 122 Clovis, 118, 122 Coliseum, 96 Colleges, the first American, 350- 351 Harvard, 351 William and Mary, 351 Colombia, 252 Colonies, Greek, 52 Spanish, 241-260 English, 278-355 Columbus, Christopher, 188, 238 early Hfe, 222-223 his plan to reach Asia, 223 seeks aid, 223-224 is outfitted by Spain, 224-225 first voyage of, 225-227 discovers land, 227-229 returns to Spain, 229-230 later voyages of, 230-231 Commerce, in Egypt and Babylonia, 31-32 of the Phoenicians, 32-34 Greek, 54 Roman, 95 English, in the Middle Ages, 173- 174 in the fifteenth century, 192-194 of Venice, 194 between the East and the West, 208-214 growth of English, 264-265 of the colonies, 339-340 Commons, House of, 178 Compass, the, 198 Connecticut, 346 settlements in, 308-311 Connecticut River, 308, 322, 324 Constantine, 106 Constantinople (kon-stan'ti-no'p'l) , 116, 117, 118, 162, 163, 164, 165, 193, 201 taken by the Turks, 217 Copernicus (ko-pur'-ni-kus) , 199 Coronado (ko'ro-na'do), explorations of, 255-256 Corsica, 83 Cortes (kor'tez) , Hernando, conquers Mexico, 244-250 Cromwell, 181, 313-314 Crusades, 162-165 influence of the, 165-167 Cuba, 228, 230, 242, 243, 244 Cyprus, 33 Cyrus the Great, 37 Dale, Sir Thomas, 283 Danes, in England, 134-137 Dante (dan'te), 200 Danube, 110, 111, 114, 115 Darien, Isthmus of, see Panama Darius (da-ri'us), 58, 59 Davenport, John, 311 David, 47, 203 Davis Strait, 268 Delaware, Swedes settle in, 323-324 acquired by Penn, 329-330 Delaware, Lord, 282 Delaware River, 322, 326, 329, 330 Demeter (de me'ter) , 67 Democracy, in Greece, 54 of Jesus, 100 Demosthenes (dS-mos'the-nez) , 72 Denmark, 110, 135, 196 Dermot, 180 De Soto, Hernando, the story of, 253-255 Diaz (de'as), Bartholomew, 221 Dover, 307 Dover, Strait of, 274, 276 Drake, Francis, 265-269, 271, 272, 273, 275 DubHn, 181 Durer, Albrecht, 204 Dutch, 124, 264, 272, 278, 330 East Indies, 212, 233, 234, 239 East Jersey, 327 Eaton, The9philus, 311 Education, in Sparta, 54-55 in Athens, 56 at Rome, 87 Alfred's work for, 137 in chivalry, 152-155 of apprentices, 172-173 influence of the revival of learning upon, 201 in Spanish America, 260 in the English colonies, 349-351 Edward. King of England, 143 Edward I, King of England, 181-183 Edward II, King of England, 183 Egbert, 130 Egypt, the land, 26-29 farming in, 29-30 begins manufacturing, 30-31 trade in, 31-32 life in, 34-36 first government in, 35-38 368 INDEX literature m, 40 science in, 40-41 buildings in, 42-44 religion in, 44-46 conquered by Alexander, 73 conquered by Rome, 86 trade with, 192, 194 conquered by the Turks, 218 Egyptians, first good farmers, 29- 30 arts and crafts of, 30-31 trade of, 31-34 social life of, 34-36 houses of, 35 clothing of, 35-36 alphabet of, 38-39 architecture of, 42-44 religious beliefs of, 44-46 our debt to the, 358 Elizabeth, Queen, 202, 262-264, 269, 271 Endicott, John, 299, 310 England, 1, 2, 128, 179, 189, 194, 201, 339, 360 geography of, 126-127 conquered by Angles and Saxons, 129-130 navy of, 137 Hfe in early, 138-141 Norman conquest of, 141-144 the manor in, 168-170 Black Death in, 170-171 commerce of, in the Middle Ages, 173-174 trial by jury in, 174-176 union with Wales and Scotland, 181-184 and Spain, 262-265, 271-277 Revolution in, checks colonization, 313-314 English, 124, 360 the making of the, 126-144 earhest home of the, 128-129 conversion of, 131-134 Norman influence on the, 143-144 life of the, in the Middle Ages, 168-174 interfere in Ireland, 179-181 rivals of the Spaniards, 262-279 English Channel, 274-275 English language, 144 growth of the, 184-185 in America, 348-349 English literature, 134 earliest, 185-186 Erasmus, 202 Essex, 276 Etruscans, 78, 81, 82 Euphrates, 26-29, 213, 357 Europe, 5, 48, 62, 98, 110, 117, 118, 120, 156, 236 beginnings of modern, 110-124, 146 when America was discovered, 188-207 Europeans, why came to America, 3-5 Fairs, 173-174 Family, origin of, 21-22 Roman, 79 Far East, the, 193, 194, 222, 234, 339 wealth of the, 208-212 visited by Marco Polo, 214-217 Farming, origin of, 11-14 in Egypt and Babylonia, 29-30 in early Rome, 78 in later Rome, 90-91 in early England, 138 in the Middle Ages, 147, 159 in England in the Middle Ages, 168-170 of the Indians, 239, 240 in Spanish America, 259 in the English colonies, 334-337 Ferdinand, of Aragon, 190, 223, 229 Feudal system, 149-151 influence of crusades upon the, 166-167 Fire, discovery of, 10-11 Firearms, invention of, 197 Florence, 192, 197, 232 Florida, 253, 256, 278, 319 Food, 10-14, 21 of the early Romans, 78 in the Middle Ages, 208-209 Fort Nassau, 321 Forum (fo'rum), Roman, 93 Fox, George, 327 France, 86, 95, 118, 119, 120, 142, 189, 193, 194, 201, 224 Francis I, King of France, 189 Franks, 114, 116 kingdom of, 118-120 Fray Marcos, 255 French, 120, 124, 278 language, 120-121 Friends, see Quakers Frobisher (frob'ish-er), 275 Frobisher (frob'ish-er). Bay, 268 Gama, da (da ga'ma), Vasco, 221 Gaul, 86, 116, 118, 128 Geneva, 206 Genoa (jen'6-a), 192, 193, 212, 216, 218 Geometry, 41 INDEX 369 Georgia, beginning of, 319-321 Germans, 2, 5. 128, 318, 326 the early, 110-113 overthrow Roman Empire, 113- 116 kingdoms of the early, 116-119 mingle with Romans, 120-123 our debt to the early, 123-124, 359-360 in Pennsylvania, 331-332 Germany, 1, 2, 110, 119, 120, 148, 191-192, 193, 196, 201, 320, 331 Ghent (gent), 194 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 269-270 Gilds, 173 Gods, of Greece, 63, 67-68 of the Germans, 112 Golconda, 210 "Golden Hind," 268-269 Good Hope, Cape of, 221, 222, 233, 236 Gorges, 308 Goths, 114 migration of West, 115-116 kingdom of East, 117-118 in Spain, 116, 118 Government, first, 36-38 in Greece, 54 in early Rome, 80 of the Roman Empire, 94-95 of early England, 141, 174-175 in Spanish America, 259-260 in the English colonies, 345-348 Gracchus, Gaius (ga'yus), 92 Gracchus, Tiberius, 91-92 Granada, 190-191 Great Charter, 176-177 Grenville, Sir Richard, 273-274 Greece, 2 land of, 50-52 manufacturing in, 54 commerce in, 54 government in, 54 religion in, 57 and Persia, 57-62 art in, 62-67 literature in, 67-72 conquered by Macedon, 72 conquered by Rome, 86 Greeks, home of the, 50-52 life of, 52-54 manufactures of, 54 trade of, 54 government of, 54 religion of, 57 fight the Persians, 57-62 art of the, 62-67 literature of the, 67-72 theater of the, 70 teachers of the world, 72-73 in Italy, 78 influence the Romans, 86-89 our debt to the, 358 Gregory, 131 Guinea (gin 'I), 220 Gunpowder, discovery of, 196-197 Gutenberg (goo'ten-berK), 199 Guthrum, 136 Hagen (ha'gen), 113 Hakluyt (hak'loot), Richard, 270 Hamilcar (ha-mil'kar) , 83 Hamilton, Andrew, 352 Hammurabi (ham'moo-ra'bfe), 38 Hampton Roads, 281 Hannibal (han'i-bal), 83-84 Hanseatic League, 196 Harold, 143 Hartford, 309 Hastings, battle of, 143 Hawkins, John, 265, 273, 275 Hayti, 228, 230, 242, 243, 244 Hebrews, 28 our debt to, 46-48, 358 Hellespont, 59 Henry II, King of England, 176 invades Ireland, 180 Henry VII, King of England, 179 Henry, Prince, the Navigator, 219- 221, 222 Hera, 67 Hercules (hur'kti-lez) , 69 Heritage, ours from the past, 357- 361 Hermes, 63, 67 Hero Tales, of the Greeks, 68-69 of the early Germans, 113 Higginson, Francis, quoted, 299-300 Hindustan, 216 Holbein, Hans, 203, 204 Holland, 1, 110, 194, 274, 294, 339 Holy Land, pilgrimages to, 162-163 crusaders in the, 164-165 Home life in the colonies, 340-345 Homer, 53, 69 Hooker, Thomas, 308-309 Horace, 93 Horatius (h6-ra'shl-us) , 81 Houses, early, 14-15 in Egypt and Babylonia, 35 of the early Romans, 78-79 later Roman, 89 of the early English, 139-140 in the colonies, 289, 297, 302, 317, 319, 322, 325, 332, 334, 341-342 Howard, 275, 276 Hudson, Henry, 278-279, 321 Hudson Bay, 268 24 370 INDEX Hudson River, 278-279, 280, 321 Huguenots (hu'ge-nots), 318, 326 Hutchinson, Anne, 307-308 Iliad (il'i-M), 69 Inca, the, 251-252 Incas, 251 India, 27, 32, 73, 208, 209, 210, 212, 216, 218, 221 Indian Ocean, 221, 236 Indians, 8, 111. 238-240 enslaved in West Indies, 243 life of, in the southwest, 255-257 in Latin America, 258 in the English colonies, 285, 310- 311 330 Inventions, 196-199 firearms, 197 the compass, 198 the lens, 198 the art of printing, 198-199 lona, 133 Ireland, 1, 2, 127, 133, 276, 331 the English interfere in, 179-181 Irish, 130 conversion of, 133 Irving, Washington, quoted, 322 Isabella, of Castile, 190, 223, 224, 229 Isaiah (I-za'ya), 48 Itahans, 78, 80, 120, 124 language of the, 120-121 Italy, 1, 2, 52, 95, 101, 191-193 geography of, 76-78 Alaric in, 115-116 German kingdoms in, 117-118, 120 Revival of Learning in, 200-201 Jamaica, 230, 242 James I, King of England, 184, 279, 286, 299 James II, King of England, 326 James River, 281, 282 Jamestown, founded, 279-282, 283, 285 Jason, 69 Jerusalem, 99, 101, 162, 163 Christian kingdom of, 164 Jesuits (jez'u-its), 207 Jesus, 93, 162 life of, 99-100 teachings of, 100-101 influence of, 359 Jews, 99 John, King, 176-177 signs the Great Charter, 177 Jury, the beginning of trial by, 174- 176 Kansas, 256 Karnak (kar'nak), 43-44 Kent, 132 Kingsley, Charles, quoted, 273-274 Knighthood, in the Middle Ages, 152-155 Kublai Khan (koo'bll kan'), 214-215, 216 Lane, Ralph, 270-271 Language, beginning of, 22 Las Casas (las ka'sas), 243 Latin America, 258-260 Latin language, 88, 95-96, 106, 120 Laud, 299, 301 Laws, the earliest, 38 of Hammurabi, 38 of the Romans, 80, 95 Lens, the, 198 Leonardo da Vinci (la'6-nar'do da ven'che), 202-203 Leonidas (le-6n'i-das) , 59-60 Lewis, son of Charlemagne, 120 Lima, 267 Lincoln, 141 Lisbon, 219, 223 Literature, beginnings, 22 of Egypt and Babvlonia, 40 of Greece, 67-72 of Rome, 88, 93 of England, 134, 137, 202 Livy, 93 Lombards, 118 Lombardy, 118, 119 London, 141, 143, 186, 196, 280 London Company, 279-280, 283, 286, 294 Long Island, 324 Lords, House of, 178-179 Lothair, 120 Louis XIV, 318 Loyola (lo-yo'la), 206-207 Luther, Martin, 205-206 Lutherans, 206 Macaulay, quoted, 275 Macedon (mas'e-don), 72, 86 Magellan (ma-jel'an) , Ferdinand, 233- 236 Magellan, Strait of, 235, 266, 268 Magna Charta, see Great Charter Malacca, 212 Manhattan Island, 321 Manor, the, in England, 168-170 Manufacturing, first, 15-21 in Egypt and Babylonia, 30-31 in Greece, 54 in England in the Middle Ages, 171-173 INDEX 371 in the fifteenth century, 194-196 in Asia, 210 in the colonies, 337-339 Marathon (mar'a-thon) , 59 Maryland, 346 the planting of, 286-289, 336 toleration in, 288-289 Mason, Captain John, 310 Mason, proprietor of New Hamp- shire, 308 Massachusetts, 346 the Puritans settle in, 299-301 life in the colony of, 30 1-303 j intolerance in, 303-309 Massachusetts Bay Company, 300- 301 "Mayflower," 5, 294-295 Mayflower Compact, 294 Mediterranean Sea, 26, 32, 33, 34, 52, 76, 83, 110, 116, 162, 358 Men, early, 8-25 Mexico, 236, 240, 244, 252, 255, 256,259 Indians in, 240 the Spanish conquest of, 244-250 Mexico, City of, 245, 246, 247 captured by Cortes, 249-250 Mexico, Gulf of, 232, 244, 253, 255 Michael Angelo (mi'kel-an'je-lo), 47, 203-204 Middle Ages, 146, 188, 200, 208, 360-361 life in the, 146-167 the common people in the, 146-149 towns in the, 148-149 the nobles in the, 149-152 knighthood in the, 152-155 the church in the, 155-162 monasteries in the, 157-162 crusades of the, 162-167 Miltiades (mil-ti'a-dez) , 59 Minotaur (min'o-tor), 68 Missions, Spanish, 259, 260 Mississippi River, 253-255 Modern History, 188, 200 Mohammed (mo-ham'ed), 118-119 Mohammedans (mo-ham 'ed-ans), 118- 119, 162, 164, 189 Monasteries, origin of, 107-108 estabHshed in England, 134 in the Middle Ages, 157-160 Money, first, 34 Mongols, 214 Montezuma, 247, 252 death of, 248-249 Moors, in Spain, 189-191 in Africa, 219 More, Sir Thomas, 202 MuriHo imvL-rlVo; Sp. pron. moo-rel'yo), 204 Narragansett Bay, 306, 308 Narragansett Indians, 306, 310 Narvaez (nar-va'eth) , 253, 255 Nebuchadnezzar (neb'u-kad-nez'ar) , 37 Netherlands, 191, 264, 278 rich manufacturing towns in the, 194 New Amsterdam, 321 New England, colonized, 291-312 commerce of, 339-340 Newfoundland, 269, 270, 287, 339 New Hampshire, origin of, 307-308 New Haven, 311, 324 New Jersey, origin of, 326-327 New Mexico, 250, 255 New Netherland, the Dutch colony of, 321-324 becomes New York, 324-326 Newport, 308 Newport, Christopher, 279 New Sweden, 324 "New World," 230, 232, 233, 236, 242 geography of the, 236 resources of the, 236-238 people of the, 238-240 African slavery introduced into the, 243 Hfe in the, 334-355 our work in, 361-363 New York, 2, 224 origin of, 326 Newspapers, in the colonies, 352 Nibelungs (ne'be-loongz), song of, 113 Nicolls, Colonel, 324 Nile, 26-27, 194, 212, 357 "Nina" (nen'ya), 225 Norman Conquest, of England, 141- 144 Normandy, 142-143 North America, 232, 236, 262, 268, 269 North CaroHna, 271, 316, 317, 318- 319 339 Northmen, 134-135, 141-142 North Sea, 128, 276 Northwest passage to Cathay, 268, 270 Norway, 2, 135 Novgorod, 196 ' Odysseus (6-dis'us), 69 Odyssey (6d'i-si), 69 Oglethorpe, James, 319-320 Olympus, Mount, 67, 68 Ordeals, 175 Orient, see Far East Orinoco River, 230 372 INDEX Pacific Ocean, 235, 266 Painting, Greek, 64 Palestine, 99, 101, 162 Palos, 225, 229 Panama Canal, 260 Panama, Isthmus of, 230, 232, 233, 250, 266 Pantheon (pan-the'6n) , 88 ParHament, of England, 141, 346 origin of, 177-179 opposes the king, 313 Parma, Duke of, 274 Parthenon (par'th§-n6n), 65-67 Patagonia, 235 Patricians (pa-trlsh'anz) , 80 Patrick, missionary to Ireland, 133 Patroons, 322 Paul, 101-102, 103 Peking, 216 Penn, William, 305, 327-333 Pennsylvania, 3, 346, 349 founded bv William Penn, 327- 331 races in, 331 life in, 331-333 Pequots, 310-311 Pericles (per'i-klez) , 65-66 Persecution, of the early Christians, 102-105 in the sixteenth century, 263-264 of the Puritans, 293, 299 in the colonies, 353 Persia, 58 part of Alexander's empire, 72-73 Persian Gulf, 27, 210, 212, 216 Persians, 37 attack the Greeks, 57-62 conquered by Alexander, 72-73 Peru, 240, 244, 252, 259, 266 Indians in, 240 Spanish conquest of, 250-252 Peruvians, 239, 240, 251 Petrarch (pe'trark), 200-201 Phidias (fid'I-as), 66-67 Philadelphia, 2, 330 Philip, of Macedon, 72 Philip II, of Spain, 263-264, 271, 272 Philippines (fil'l-plns), 235 Phoenicians '(f e-nish'anz) , 28, 358 commerce of, 32-34, 35 alphabet of, 39 visit Greece, 51, 53-54 conquered by Alexander, 73 Pilgrim Fathers, 293-299 "Pinta" (pen'ta), 225 Pizarro (pl-zar'ro), Francisco, con- quers Peru, 250-252 Plants, first cultivated, 11-14 Plato, 72 Plebeians (pl^-be'yanz), 80 Plymouth, England, 266, 268, 275, 294 Plymouth, Massachusetts, 295-299 Po, 118 Point Comfort, 281 Polo, Marco, story of, 214-217 Polycarp, 105 Ponce de Leon (pon'tha da la-on'), 253 Pope, the, 107, 156 Porto Rico, 242 Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 307 Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 308 Portugal (por'tu-gal), 219-221, 234, 256 339 Columbus in, 222-223 Portuguese (por'tu-gez), find a new route to India, 218-221 colonize Brazil, 252 Praxiteles (prak-sit'e-lez) , 63 Pretty, Francis, quoted, 266-268 Printing, the art of, 198-199 in the colonies, 351-352 Protestants, 206-207, 263-264 Providence Plantation, 303, 306- 307, 308 Pueblos, 255, 257 Punishments, in the colonies, 347- 348 Puritans, who they were, 291-295 come to Massachusetts, 299-301 some of them leave Massachusetts, 303-312 in the English Revolution, 313- 314 Pyramids, 44-46 Pyrenees, 84, 118 Quakers, 315, 327-331, 353 Quebec, 278 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 270-271, 276, 277 279 Raphael' (raf'a-el), 203 Red Sea, 212 Reformation, Protestant, 205-207, 263 Religion, early, 24 of the Egyptians and Babylonians, 44-46 of the Hebrews, 46-48 of the Greeks, 57 of the Romans, 79 Christian, 100-101 of the colonists, 352-354 Rembrandt (rem'brant), 204-205 Renaissance (ren'e-saNs'), 196-207, 361 Restoration, the, 313 INDEX 373 Revival of Learning, 199-202 Rheims (remz), cathedral at, 161 Rhine, 110, 111, 114, 116, 118, 119, 120 Rhode Island, 346 settled, 306-308 Rhone, 116, 118 Rio Grande, 250 Roanoke Island, 271, 277 Robin Hood, 185 Robinson, John, 293 Rollo, 141-142 Romance languages, 120-121 Roman Empire, 189 extent of, 86 origin of, 89-93 peace in the, 94 government of the, 94-95 roads in the, 94-95 Christianity in, 106-107 fall of, 113-116 eastern, 116, 217-218 revived- by Charlemagne, 119 Romans, early life of the, 78-80 army of the, 81-82 conquer Carthage, 83-86 conquer the known world, 86 learn from the Greeks, 86-89 education of, 87 their work for the world, 94-98 law of the, 95 persecute the Christians, 102-105 and the Germans, 111 our debt to the, 359 Rome, 78, 99 government of early, 80 stories of early, 81 conquers Italy, 82 fights with Carthage, 83-86 conquests of, 86 education in, 87 the republic becomes an empire, 89-93 Alaric in, 115-116 plundered by Vandals, 116 Roses, War of the, 179 Rubens, 204-205 Runnymede, 177 Russia, 1, 148, 193 St. Augustine, 256 St. Francis, of Assisi, 160 St. Lawrence River, 278 St. Peter, 101, 107 Church of, 203 Salem, Massachusetts, 299, 303, 306, 355 Salem, New Jersey, 327 San Francisco, 224 San Salvador, 227 Santa Fe, 250 "Santa Maria" (san'ta ma-re'a), 225, 228 Sappho (saf'6), 69-70 Salamis (sara-mIs) , 61-62 Saracens, 162-163, 165 Sardinia, 83 Sargon (sar'gon), 37 Saul, of Tarsus, see Paul. Savannah, 320 Saxons, 114, 128-131, 134, 360 Say brook, 311 Scandinavians, 124 Schools, in Athens, 56 in the English colonies, 349-350 Schuylkill River, 330 Science, 23 Scone, Stone of, 182, 183 Scotch, 2, 124, 130, 326 Scotch-Irish, 318 in Pennsylvania, 331-332 Scotland, 1, 127, 133, 179, 276, 318, 327 union with England, 182-184 Scrooby, 293 Sculpture, Greek, 63-65 Separatists, 293 Serfs, 147, 148, 156 in England, 168-171 Shakespeare (shak'sper), 127, 202, 291 Ships, 5, 33, 60, 193 of Columbus, 225 built in the colonies, 338-339 Sicily, 52, 83, 115, 194 Sidon, 33 Siegfried (seg'fred), 113 Slaves, 33, 35, 91, 100, 258, 265, 284-285 Slavery, 79 in the West Indies, 243 in America, 258, 265 in Virginia, 284-285 in the colonies, 340 Smith, Captain John, 281-282 Social classes in the colonies, 340-341 Socrates (sok'ra-tez), 71-72 Solon, 56 South America, 209, 230, 232, 234, 236, 250, 252, 256, 265, 266, 268 South Carolina, 316, 317, 318, 319, 339 South Sea, 233, 234 Spain, 33, 83, 84, 95, 128, 194, 339- West Goths in, 116, 118 Arabs in, 189-191 government of, 191 divides new lands with Portugal, 234 374 INDEX and England, 262-265, 271-277 rivals of, 278-279 Spaniards, 120, 124, 240 language of, 120-121 win a great empire in America, 242-260 rivals of the English, 262-277 Spanish America, 256-260 Sparta, 50, 59, 60, 116 Spartans, 54-55, 58, 59 Spice Islands, 209, 236 Spices, 208-209 Squanto, 295 Stephen, 102 Stuyvesant (sti've-sant), Peter, 322- 326 Superstitions, 354-355 Sweden, 2, 135, 196, 323 Swedes, 323, 330 Swiss, 318 Syracuse (sir'a-kus'), 52 Syria, 28, 86, 213, 218 Tabriz, 216 Tacitus (tas'i-tus), 111 Tepees, 257 Theaters, Greek, 70 in Rome, 87 Themistocles (the-mits'to-klez), 59, 61 Theodoric (the-6d'6-rik), 117-118 Thermopylae (ther-mop'i-le), 59-60 Theseus (the'sus), 68 Thor, 112 Tiber, 78, 81, 82, 104 Tigris, 26-29, 213 Tobacco, 283-284, 289, 318 Toleration, in Maryland, 288-289 of Roger Williams, 303, 305 in Pennsylvania, 353 growth of, 353 Tools, earlv, 16-18 Tours, 119 Towns, in the Middle Ages, 148-149 in England, 171-172 Trade, growth of, 31-34 promoted by the crusades, 166 in England in the Middle Ages, 173-174 routes of, 192-196, 212-214 Transportation, 19-20 Travel, in the colonies, 345 Trebizond (treb'i-zondO, 213 T-ribe, 22, 36 Turks, 163, 164, 272 establish Turkish Empire at Con- stantinople, 217 ruin eastern trade routes, 217-218 Tyre, 33 Ulfilas (ul'fi-las), 121 Ulysses, see Odysseus United States, 256, 260, 276-277, 347 resources of, 236-238 Spanish exploration in, 252-256 Spanish claims in, 256 Upland, 330 Urban, Pope, preaches a crusade, 163-164 Utensils, earliest, 18-19 Vandals, 116 Van Dyke, 204-205 Vane, Sir Henry, 307 Vatican, 203^ 204 _ Velasquez (va-las'kath), 204 Venezuela, 252 Venice, 192, 193-194, 212, 216, 218 Vera Cruz (va'ra kroos'), 245, 246, 247, 265 Vergil, 93, 200 Vespucius (ves-pu'shus), Americus, 232-233 "Victoria," 236 Vikings (vT'kings), see Northmen Virginia, 279-286, 314, 336, 339 Starving Time in, 282 settlers in, 282-283 tobacco in, 283-284 slavery in, 284-285 House of Burgesses in, 285 Indian attacks in, 285 life in early, 285-286 Wagner (vag'ner), 113 Wales, 127, 179 united with England, 181-182 Wallace, William, 182-183 Weapons, first, 16-17 Welsh, 130 Wessex, 130 West Indies, 230, 236, 252, 256, 265, 272 ■ settled by the Spaniards, 242-244 sugar in the, 242, 259 trade with the, 339-340 West India Company, 321, 322 West Jersey, 327 Westminster Abbey, 182, 183 Wethersfield, 309 White, John, 271 William, of Normandy, 142-143 William the Silent, 264 Williams, Roger, 303-307, 310 Windsor, 309 Winslow, Edward, 293, 296 Winthrop, John, 300-301, 307, 338 Winthrop, John, Jr., 311 INDEX 375 Witchcraft, 354-355 Woden, 112, 123 Women, work of, 18-19 in Greece, 55, 57 among the early Germans, 112 Writing, 38-39 Wy cliff e (wik'llf), John, 185 Xerxes (zurk'sez), 59, 61 York, 141 York, Duke of, 326, 329-330 Yucatan, 240, 244 Zenger, Peter, 352 Zeus (zus), 67 W 8 2 A<=U. , < • o^ • •• .' 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