Carolina not mentioned in the above statements, a part of Kentucky and Tennessee, and all of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. Their territory was next in extent to that of the Algonquins, and extended along the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. The nation was divided into three great confederations—the Creeks or Muscogees, the Choctaws, and the Chickasaws-and was subdivided into a number of smaller tribes, the principal of which were the Seminoles and Yemassees, who were members of the Creek Confederation.

VII. The Natchez, who dwelt in a small territory east of the Mississippi, and along the banks of the Pearl River. They were surrounded on all sides by the tribes of the Mobilian language, yet remained until their extinction a separate nation, speaking a distinct language peculiar to themselves, and worshipping the sun as their god. They are believed to have been the most civilized of all the savage tribes of North America.

VIII. The Dacotahs or Sioux, whose territory was bounded on the north by Lake Winnipeg, on the south by the Arkansas River, on the east by the Mississippi, and on the west by the Rocky Mountains. The nation was divided into the following branches: the Winnebagoes, living between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi; the Assiniboins, living in the extreme north; the Southern Sioux, living between the Arkansas and the Platte; and the Minatarees, Mandans, and Crows, who lived west of the Assiniboins.

The great plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific coast were held by the powerful tribes of the Pawnees, Comanches, Apachees, Utahs, Black Feet, Snakes, Nezperces, Flatheads, and California Indians.

These were the inhabitants and possessors of the country at the time of its first settlement.

In the year 1492, Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, in Italy, sailing under the orders of the King and Queen of Spain, discovered the West Indies; and thus proved beyond all doubt the existence of a new world. There is a Scandinavian tradition that a Norwegian named Leif, in the year 1002, on his voyage from Iceland to Greenland, was driven southward by storms, to a country which was unknown to Europeans, and which he called Vinland, because of the wild grapes with which he found it covered. It is also said that his discovery was followed by several Scandinavian settlements, none of which proved permanent. It is supposed by some writers

that the country alluded to as Vinland, in this tradition, was the State of Rhode Island; but as the legend rests upon no solid foundation, the credit of having been the first to discover the New World must be accorded to Columbus.

On the 24th of June, 1497, John Cabot, a Venitian, commanding a ship belonging to Henry VII. of England, discovered land, along which he sailed to the southward for over 1000 miles, making frequent landings, and taking possession of the country in the name of the English King. The next year his son, Sebastian Cabot, left Bristol, England, with two ships, to seek a northwest passage to China. He was stopped by the ice, however, and turned about and sailed southward down the American coast as far as the capes of Virginia-the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. In 1513, Ponce de Leon, acting under the authority of the King of Spain, discovered Florida, and took possession of the country near the present site of the town. of St. Augustine. A short while after, he returned and attempted to establish a colony. He was attacked and killed, and his followers driven away by the natives. In the latter part of the year 1523, John Verazzani, a native of Florence, was sent by Francis I., of France, to explore the New World. He was fifty days in crossing the ocean, being vexed by terrible storms all the way, and made land off the mouth of the Cape Fear River, near the present city of Wilmington, North Carolina. He sailed southward for 150 miles, in search of a convenient harbor, but, failing to find one, passed up the coast as far north as Nova Scotia. He visited New York and Newport harbors, as they are now called, both of which are accurately described in the account of his voyage. In 1539, Hernando de Soto landed with several hundred men, in Tampa Bay, Florida, and marched across the continent, defeating the natives on his way, and discovered the Mississippi River, near the site of the present city of Helena, Arkansas. He passed through the region now comprising the States of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and penetrated 200 miles west of the great river. Two years after his landing in Florida, he wandered back to the Mississippi, where he died, and was buried at midnight in the stream. His followers, disheartened by his death, descended the river in boats to its mouth, and, crossing the Gulf, sought refuge in the Spanish settlements in Mexico, where they told marvellous stories of the country they had seen.

For several years there was no further effort made to colonize the New World. In 1562, a band of French Calvinists, or Huguenots,

acting upon the advice of Admiral Coligni, endeavored to found a colony here, for the purpose of establishing a refuge for French Protestants, who should be driven out of their own country by the persecutions of the Roman Catholics. A charter was granted by Charles IX. of France, and an expedition sent out, under Jean Ribault, which made a settlement at Port Royal, in a country which was called Carolina, in honor of the French King. This settlement was soon abandoned, however, and another established on the banks of the St. John's River, in Florida. In 1565, Spain renewed her efforts to colonize Florida. An expedition was sent out in that year, which destroyed the French settlement on the St. John's River, and massacred the inhabitants. Having removed their rivals, the Spaniards then proceeded to found the town of St. Augustine, which is the oldest and first permanent European settlement in the present territory of the Union.

The English paid little or no attention to the discoveries of the Cabots for nearly a century. Then, alarmed by the efforts which France and Spain were making to secure a footing in the New World, England began the task of colonizing her distant lands upon a larger scale than had been attempted by either of her rivals, and was not slow to assert the claim which the discoveries of the Cabots had given her, and which, indeed, she had never relinquished.

The first colony was sent out in 1585, in the reign of Elizabeth, under Sir Walter Raleigh, and was established on Roanoke Island, in the present State of North Carolina, a site which Raleigh had discovered during the previous year, and where he had been hospitably entertained by the natives. The whole country was called Virginia, in honor of the Virgin Queen of England. The colony did not prosper, however, and in a few years it was utterly gone. In 1606, James I. divided the English possessions in America into two parts— North Virginia, extending from the mouth of the Hudson River to Newfoundland, and South Virginia, extending from the Potomac to Cape Fear. Two companies were formed in England for colonizing these regions, the London Company, which received from the king the grant of South Virginia, and the Plymouth Company, to which the king gave North Virginia. These companies agreed to colonize their respective grants with due promptness, and to regard the territory lying between the Potomac and the Hudson as neutral ground, upon which both companies were free to make settlements at pleasure. The London Company went to work at once, and sent over an expe