The Indians were really one people in physical appearance, manners, customs, religion, and in the observances of their social and political systems, but were divided into numerous tribes, each of which had a dialect distinct from that of the others. The tribes were for the most part bitterly hostile to, and constantly engaged in war with each other. They are generally divided into eight nations, speaking eight radically distinct languages. These were:

I. The Algonquins, who inhabited the territory now comprised in the six New England States, the eastern part of New York and Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina as far south as Cape Fear, a large part of Kentucky and Tennessee, and nearly all of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. This nation was subdivided into the following tribes: the Knistenaux, Ottawas, Chippewas, Sacs and Foxes, Menomonees, Miamis, Piankeshaws, Potawatomies, Kickapoos, Illinois, Shawnees, Powhatans, Corees, Nanticokes, Lenni-Lenapes or Delawares, Mohegans, Narragansets, Pequots, and Abenakis.

II. The Iroquois, who occupied almost all of that part of Canada south of the Ottawa, and between Lakes Ontarto, Erie, and Huron, the greater part of New York, and the country lying along the south shore of Lake Erie, now included in the States of Ohio and Pennsylvania. This territory, it will be seen, was completely surrounded by the domains of their powerful and bitter enemies, the Algonquins. The nation was subdivided into the following tribes: the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks. These five were afterwards called by the English the Five Nations. In 1722, they admitted the Tuscaroras into their confederation, and were afterwards called the Six Nations. The nation called itself collectively the Konoskioni, or "Cabin-builders." The Algonquins termed them Mingoes, the French, Iroquois, and the English, Mohawks, or Mingoes.

III. The Catawbas, who dwelt along the banks of the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers, near the line which at present separates the States of North and South Carolina.

IV. The Cherokees, whose lands were bounded on the east by the Broad River of the Carolinas, including all of Northern Georgia.

V. The Uchees, who dwelt south of the Cherokees, along the Savannah, the Oconee, and the headwaters of the Ogeechee and Chattahoochee. They spoke a harsh and singular language, and are believed to have been the remnant of a once powerful nation.

VI. The Mobilian Nation, who inhabited all of Georgia and South

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, disbeyond 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

covered the West Indies; and thus proved Queen of Spain, dis