work has made some repetitions necessary; it has also obliged the omission of many details of secondary importance, which the pupil will learn in his later studies of the subject. There is a sharp line of distinction between a story-book and a history, and yet the latter should scarcely fail to be as entertaining as the former. The narrative of the struggles and triumphs of the makers of America, and of the series of events which have culminated in the present commercial and political prosperity of our country, ought to be to young readers not only an interesting story, but an incentive to good citizenship and intelligent patriotism. To most American children a study of the "lives of great men" will scarcely fail to be a reminder that we also "can make our lives sublime." CONTENTS PAGE Sir Francis Drake and the First English Voyage round the Sir Walter Raleigh and the First English Colonists Pocahontas and the Settlement of Virginia King Philip and the Indians of New England. Father Marquette and the French in North America Nathaniel Bacon and Life in Old Virginia William Penn and the Settlement of Pennsylvania. James Oglethorpe and the Settlement of Georgia Benjamin Franklin and the Progress of the Colonies. PAGE Daniel Boone and the Settlement of Kentucky George Rogers Clark and the Conquest of the Northwest Thomas Jefferson and the Founding of the Government Eli Whitney and the Invention of the Cotton Gin . CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA I. THE WAY TO INDIA This country in which we live was not always the same beautiful land that it is now. It was once a wild region of woods and swamps and savage mountains and lonely prairies. There were no pleasant farms nor busy towns. There were no roads, no schoolhouses, no mills, no churches. The only people who lived here were Indians. No one can tell how long the land might have remained wild and unsettled had it not been for a wise, brave man whose name was Christopher Columbus. Five hundred years ago the people of Europe had never heard of the continent which we call America. The wisest men among them had very little knowledge of the world. They knew a good deal about the countries which border the Mediterranean Sea. They knew something about England and Germany and Norway and even Iceland. A few travelers had visited Egypt and Arabia and Persia. But all the rest of the world was unknown. Trade with India. - For a great many years the merchants of Arabia and Persia had been in the habit of sending rare and costly goods to Europe, silks, pearls, spices, and jewels of gold and precious stones. They said that these things came from a very far country called India. They brought them across the great deserts on the backs of camels. At Constantinople, or at some place in western Asia, they sold them to traders who sent them in ships across the Mediterranean to sell to the rich people in Europe. At one time nearly all the trade of this kind was carried to Venice and Genoa, two cities of Italy. The merchants of those cities became very rich, and the cities themselves became very powerful. |