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I.

ABORIGINAL PERIOD.

The North American Indians. The American continent, long before its discovery by the Europeans, was inhabited by the race of red-men known as Indians, who, organized into various families and tribes, bearing various names, and displaying somewhat different characteristics and habits, extended from what is now known as Labrador, in the extreme North-east, southward to the Gulf of Mexico, all about the Great Lakes, far into the interior, and along the Pacific coast; throughout, in fact, pretty much the entire country. The chief families of these Indians were the Esquimaux, the Algonquins, the Iroquois, the Creeks, and the Dakotas; each of these families being divided into an almost infinite number of tribes, of which some of the more prominent and familiar names are Ottawas, Narragansetts, Mohegans, Powhatans, Hurons, Mohawks, and Seminoles. The origin of the North American Indians is wrapped in mystery, though their traditions point to the North-west as the quarter whence the current of their emigration proceeded; which fact, with other circumstances, suggests an Asiatic origin.

The Mound Builders. The Indians were not, however the aboriginal inhabitants of North America. There is evidence that they were preceded by another and superior race, which, for want of a better name, and with reference to the monuments left by it, is commonly called the Mound

Builders. The region of the Great Lakes, the valley of the Mississippi, and the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico, abound with a variety of earth-works, of great age and impressive appearance, all ascribed to this race now long extinct. These works consist of walls, enclosures, embankments, mounds of every conceivable shape, ditches, reservoirs, and altar-like erections in geometrical forms; their antiquity being thought to range from 1500 to 2000 years. Besides such of these works as were intended for purposes of worship, there are others which were places of burial, and others still whose original design was as manifestly defence. Some of the more remarkable of these works are found in Ohio, near Newark and Chilicothe ; others in Wisconsin and Iowa. They demonstrate the existence in this country, before the Indian occupation, of a numerous, intelligent, powerful, and to some extent civilized race; but whence it came and whither it disappeared, are, for the present at least, matters of pure conjecture.

II.

PERIOD OF DISCOVERY.

860-1534.

860. The Norwegians and Iceland. Columbus was not the pioneer in the enterprise of American discovery. About this year Iceland, which, though politically a part of the Eastern hemisphere, belongs geographically to the Western, was discovered by the Norwegians. According to tradition Iceland had been discovered

862. Russian

empire founded by Ruric the Norman.

even before this by Irish adventurers. It was not permanently settled, however, until 874, when 871-900. Alfred two Norwegians founded Reykjavik. the Great, King of England. Half a century later Iceland became a

Republic.

983. Greenland was the first portion of what is really the American continent to be reached by Europeans. Its eastern coast was seen by the Norwegians almost simultaneously with the discovery of Iceland, but in this and following years the land was entered and explored by Norwegians, and within two centuries became the 1066. Battle of abode of a considerable population. The Hastings. William the Conqueprobabilities are that Greenland was ror, of Normanfar less desolate and much more habi- dy, ascends the table then than now.

1000-1200.

English throne.

Crusades.

The Northmen and New England. There are traditions to the effect that 1079-1142. Abeduring the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries lard. the Northmen explored the New Eng- 1096-1272. The land coast. But the extent of their dis- 1160-1227. Gencoveries, and the precise localities which ghis Khan. they visited, cannot be determined with 1297-1299. Scotland in arms any certainty. against England, led by Wallace and Bruce.

1492. First Voyage of Columbus. On the 3d of August, Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, an educated of the Swiss Canmariner and an experienced navigator, tons.

1307. Founding

convinced of the existence of a western 1265-1321. Dante.

1324-1384.

hemisphere, and duly empowered by
their Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella, Wickliffe.
King and Queen of Spain, set sail from 1328-1400.
Chaucer.
Palos on a voyage of discovery, being of
unknown age, but probably between fifty of Arc.

1410-1431. Joan

1370-1441. John Van Eyck, to

whom is attribut

ed the invention

of oil-painting.

and sixty. The expedition consisted of 120 men, all told, divided between three ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina. They touched at the Canary 1450. Invention Islands, and had thence a prosperous of printing. passage across the unknown sea. After meeting with a variety of experiences, a light in the offing was first seen by Columbus himself on the evening of October 11, and the next day land was hailed by one of the sailors. It proved to be an island (one of the Bahamas), to which, on landing, Columbus gave the name of San Salvador. After discovering several other islands in the vicinity, one of which he called Hispaniola, or Little Spain (now Hayti), Columbus set sail (January, 1493) for home, leaving about one-fourth of his men as a colony in Hispaniola. In years following he made several other voyages to the New World.

1497. John Cabot. In May, John Cabot of uncertain nativity, first known as a Venetian, but afterwards resident in England, having obtained a charter from Henry VII., set sail from Bristol, with his son Sebastian, in a single ship, for the New World. Late in June he reached what is now known as Labrador, and is supposed to have sailed thence southward along the coast for nearly 1000 miles. He made a landing, planted the flags of England and Venice on the soil, and returned to England in August.

1497. Amerigo Vespucci. In this same year probably Amerigo Vespucci, otherwise known as Americus Vespucius, a native of Florence, joined an expedition from Spain to the New World, which penetrated to the mainland, coasted along the northern part of South America, and returned the following year to Spain (1499-1500 are preferred by some as the dates of this voyage). Vespucci

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