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' 
 
 CHILDREN'S STORIES 
 
 AMERICAN PROGRESS 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Children's Stories in American History. 
 
 One vol., i2mo, with 12 full-f age illustrations, $1.50 
 
p^^^^^ 
 
 THE CLEARING — RUII.PING THE HOUSE. 
 
Children's Stories 
 
 OF 
 
 American Progress 
 
 Henrietta Christian Wright 
 
 AUTHOS OF M CHIUHtE*'»8TOWE«IMAMEBICAll IURDBY" 
 
 Illustrated hy J. Steeple Davis 
 
 Vic - ' r , 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1886 
 
^1S 
 
 3 
 
 ti% 
 
 Copyright, 1886, by 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 TROWS 
 
 PRINTING AND DOOKB1NOINO COMPANY, 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
//£ 
 
 /i 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT, . • 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Barbary Pirates, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Purchase of Louisiana, . 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE TO THE ^ 
 
 Pacific Ocean, 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 . i°4 
 The First Steamboat, . 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 . 121 
 The Battle of Tippecanoe, . 
 
 \ 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The War of 1812, 130 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Purchase of Florida, 145 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 The Story of Slavery, . . . . . .159 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 The Story of the Railroad, 179 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Indian Troubles in Florida, 199 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The Story of the Telegraph, 209 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Annexation of Texas, 229 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 The Mexican War, 248 
 
CONTENTS. vii 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Settlement of the Northwest Boundary, . . 268 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 The Discovery of Gold, 279 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 The Rebellion, 299 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 The South after the War, 328 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 The Clearing — Building the House, . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Area, Settlement, and Territorial Divisions — 1800, 1 
 Decatur and the Barbary Pirates, . . . .42 
 
 Pioneers in the West, 86 
 
 The First Steamboat, 104 
 
 Abigail and Rebecca Bates Repulsing the British, 130 
 
 Fugitive Slaves, 160 
 
 An Early Railroad, 180 
 
 The Telegraph, 210 
 
 At Palo Alto, 248 
 
 Washing for Gold, 280 
 
 A Truce between Pickets, 300 
 
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CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 When the United States first became a nation, 
 they included only that portion of the country 
 lying along the Atlantic coast between Maine 
 and Florida, and almost entirely east of the 
 Ohio. These States, called sometimes the "old 
 thirteen," made up the United States of America. 
 
 All the great West beyond was quite unknown 
 to most of the people, and the few travellers 
 who had seen its vast prairies and great rivers, 
 and lofty mountain chains, were regarded with 
 almost as much respect and admiration as had 
 been given to the early voyagers across the At- 
 lantic. 
 
 For in the early days of the country a jour- 
 ney across the Alleghany Mountains was con- 
 sidered far more perilous than a voyage across 
 the ocean, and the unknown dangers that lay in 
 
2 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 the vast, unexplored regions beyond, seemed to 
 the traveller much more to be dreaded than the 
 uncertainties of a sea-voyage. But long before 
 the Revolution, the West was visited by hunt- 
 ers and trappers who went in search of game. 
 These bold men living in the western parts of 
 the colonies and trading continually with the 
 Indians, soon became familiar with the idea of 
 a great hunting-ground beyond the mountains 
 where they might find abundance of game, and 
 live the wild and roving lives which their hardy 
 natures delighted in. They listened eagerly to 
 the Indians' stories about this land with its 
 beautiful forests and magnificent rivers, and they 
 were not discouraged by the knowledge that the 
 way to it lay through an unknown wilderness, 
 where they would be in constant peril from sav- 
 age beasts and treacherous red men. So fearless 
 of danger were they, that they generally went 
 alone on their expeditions, or at most in parties 
 of twos and threes, and carrying with them 
 only their ammunition and a few articles with 
 which they might wish to trade with the In- 
 dians, they would start on their journey through 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 3 
 
 the forest, following an Indian trail or a buffalo- 
 path, or sometimes dropping down the Monon- 
 gahela in a birch-bark canoe to the Ohio, this 
 last way being so long and difficult that it 
 needed, according to the Indians, " two pad- 
 dles, two warriors, and three moons" to accom- 
 plish it. 
 
 But to the hunter no danger was too great 
 or way too difficult to keep him from trying to 
 find those famous hunting-grounds, where the 
 deer and other game were so plentiful that the 
 Indians could only signify their numbers by 
 pointing to the stars in the sky or the leaves 
 of the forest. 
 
 Sometimes the Indians were friendly to the 
 whites who thus reached their distant homes, 
 and sometimes they were not, but as a general 
 thing the hunter who built his lonely hut far in 
 the depths of the forest or upon the borders of 
 some solitary stream, had to be constantly upon 
 the watch for the red-skinned foe who would 
 come lurking around the little lodge with the 
 hope of pouncing upon the white man unawares 
 and scalping him or taking him prisoner. But 
 
4 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 these hunters were as wily and watchful as their 
 dark neighbors. Their life upon the frontier had 
 made them as excellent woodsmen as were the 
 Indians themselves ; they knew all the craft of 
 the red man, and could follow a trail through 
 the pathless woods, find out the hiding-place of 
 a lurking enemy, track the panther and bear to 
 their secret dens, and aim with a skill so unerr- 
 ing, that the Indian soon learned he was well- 
 matched in his white neighbor, and began to re- 
 spect him accordingly. 
 
 For there is nothing that the Indians admire 
 so much as skill and courage. Many a time the 
 life of a hunter was spared by the admiring red 
 men who would not condemn to death one who 
 was their equal in bravery, and to show no fear 
 of death was a sure way to their favor. 
 
 Often, if the prisoner were young or in the 
 prime of life, he would be adopted by the tribe, 
 sometimes being treated with all the respect 
 that they gave to their chiefs. 
 
 The ceremony that was performed when a 
 white man was adopted into a tribe was very 
 curious. First, all the hair was pulled out by 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 5 
 
 the roots excepting a small lock called the 
 scalp-lock, which was left growing, so that if 
 the man were taken prisoner he could have his 
 scalp taken off the more easily ; this lock was 
 always dressed with feathers and quills in true 
 Indian fashion ; then the captive was taken to 
 the river and thoroughly washed and scrubbed 
 so that the white blood might be washed out of 
 him, and finally, his face was painted and he was 
 led to the council-house, where the chief deliver- 
 ed a long speech in which he spoke of the honor 
 he had received by becoming an Indian, and 
 mentioned the duties he would be expected to 
 perform. 
 
 The prisoner was then looked upon as a 
 member of the tribe, and treated in every way 
 as if he were an Indian, except that at first he 
 was watched very closely, in order that he might 
 not escape. 
 
 Sometimes the adopted captive was quite 
 willing to remain with the tribe and spend the 
 rest of his life with them, but often he would 
 rather go back to his own people, or to his own 
 free life in the woods, and then his whole soul 
 
6 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 would be set on trying to find means to escape. 
 This was always very difficult, as even if he did 
 succeed in getting away from the Indian village 
 or camp, he would have to spend days and nights 
 in rapid travel, hiding his trail so that it could 
 not be discovered by his followers, and often 
 going for days without food, since the sound of 
 his gun or the smoke from his fire would surely 
 have brought the enemy upon him. And if he 
 were once retaken there was no hope for him. 
 He was only taken back to die under the most 
 horrible tortures ; as soon as he was brought 
 again into camp the whole tribe would gather 
 around him, and first fastening him to a stake, 
 would dance and yell in the most hideous man- 
 ner, striking him with cords and switches until he 
 was quite exhausted, when he would be placed 
 under guard until the next day ; then in the 
 morning he was again brought out and placed 
 between two long- rows of Indians armed with 
 sticks, rods, whips and knives ; this was called 
 running the gauntlet ; the prisoner would start 
 from the end of the line and run down between 
 the rows of Indians, who would strike and wound 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 7 
 
 him, trying if possible to kill him as he ran, and 
 even if he got through this trial alive, it was 
 only to suffer the most horrible death that his 
 captors could invent. 
 
 All these cruelties made the white men very 
 wary of their dark foes, for they knew that cap- 
 tivity meant, as a general thing, death by torture. 
 
 Yet, in spite of all the dangers and hardships, 
 traveller after traveller crossed the mountains, 
 spending months and years in the new country, 
 whose delightful climate, brilliant skies, fertile 
 soil, grand forests and majestic rivers, seemed 
 to well repay them for any risk they ran from 
 hostile Indians. Sometimes a hunter or trader 
 was allowed to build his little home quite near 
 an Indian village and carry on his business un- 
 disturbed, for the Indian was always glad to get 
 the articles which his white neighbor offered him 
 in trade. 
 
 For a knife, or a string of beads, the trader 
 would receive in return very valuable and costly 
 furs, which would bring large sums in the colon- 
 ies or England, and by this means the Indians 
 learned the use of hatchets, axes, steel-traps and 
 
8 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 rifles, and could soon handle them as skilfully 
 as the whites. 
 
 Thus it was that the West first became known 
 to the people in the eastern part of the country, 
 and gradually all the paths across the moun- 
 tains were learned, and the colonists grew famil- 
 iar with the descriptions of the country beyond, 
 and many of them began to look westward, and 
 wonder how it would seem to live in that new 
 land where homes could be had for the making, 
 and where fish and game were so abundant that 
 no one could ever be in need. For in those days 
 the colonists who lived back from the sea-shore, 
 and away from the cities that were fast growing 
 up, disliked the idea of having neighbors too 
 near them, and many a time an old hunter would 
 leave the place where he had lived many years, 
 and go and seek a new home if he heard that 
 strangers were coming to settle near him. 
 
 About the time that the West began to be 
 somewhat known, there was living on the banks 
 of the Yadkin River, in North Carolina, a boy 
 about sixteen years of age, whose name was 
 Daniel Boone. He was a very silent and thought- 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 ful lad, with gentle manners and a brave, kind 
 heart, and although always willing to perform 
 his share of the duties that were so necessary in 
 frontier life, he was never so happy as when 
 alone in the woods, studying the habits of the 
 wild animals that made their homes there, learn- 
 ing their cries, and becoming familiar with their 
 haunts. 
 
 From his earliest years he was used to going 
 off on his lonely expeditions, and so brave and 
 cautious was he that he seemed in no more dan- 
 ger than he would have been at home with his 
 friends. 
 
 Dressed in a suit of homespun, which had 
 been woven by his mother, he would start on his 
 lonely tramps, sometimes unaccompanied even 
 by a dog, and wander through the forest in new 
 directions, until the whole place around became 
 perfectly familiar to him, and he knew its differ- 
 ent features as well as he knew the faces of his 
 friends. And indeed, the vast forest, with its 
 numerous inhabitants, seemed to him as friendly 
 a place as could be found anywhere, and he loved 
 its mighty trees and mossy spaces and shady 
 
10 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 paths, and the wild, sweet voices of the winds 
 that swept through the tree-tops, and the plaint- 
 ive songs of the forest-birds that flew through 
 the air around his head or nestled in the sun- 
 flecked branches above. 
 
 Very early he learned to imitate the call of 
 the different beasts and birds, thus luring them 
 out of their secret haunts, until they came within 
 range of his unerring gun. He could gobble 
 like a turkey and draw a whole flock of these 
 birds near him ; he would bleat like a fawn, until 
 he saw the soft eyes of the anxious doe looking 
 at him through the leaves ; he would screech and 
 bring the owls flying around him, and often, far 
 away, the wolves would howl back in answer to 
 his cry. He was also a perfect woodsman, and 
 could follow a trail with the unerring instinct of 
 an Indian ; a bent twig, a dent in the moss, the 
 dew brushed from a glossy leaf, being the signs 
 by which he traced the deer, the panther, and 
 the bear, or the more subtle red man. 
 
 Besides being so skilful with his rifle, he could 
 throw a tomahawk with the readiness of an In- 
 dian, and could run and jump and wrestle as well 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. II 
 
 as the Indian lads whom he sometimes saw at 
 their games. 
 
 Life on the frontier was a very active and ex- 
 citing thing, and a boy had need of a trained 
 eye, a strong arm and a fleet foot, as well as a 
 brave heart, if he was not to be left behind his 
 companions in their daily pursuits. And then 
 the happiness and comfort of the family depend- 
 ed upon the ability of the fathers and brothers 
 to supply food and clothing, for in those little 
 homes, so far away from cities and towns, every- 
 thing that was necessary had to be provided by 
 the people themselves. 
 
 Their houses were made of rough logs, the 
 corn was ground between two stones, the fish 
 were caught in the stream that ran by the door, 
 and the meat was procured in the forest ; the 
 women spun cloth out of flax and wool, and the 
 men tanned deer and other skins and made of 
 them leather hunting-shirts, and shoes for the 
 children. Perhaps there would be a little log- 
 hut built for a school-house, and here the boys 
 and girls would be taught for a few weeks in the 
 year by some adventurous traveller who had 
 
12 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 left the coast for awhile to study the life of the 
 frontiersmen. 
 
 In such a school-house as this Daniel Boone 
 learned all that he knew of books. But his life 
 in the woods had taught him courage, perse- 
 verance, keen habits of observation, and calm- 
 ness in the midst of danger, and so he really 
 grew to manhood with a better education than 
 many boys have who spend years and years at 
 school. 
 
 There, in his quiet home in North Carolina, 
 where few sounds from the outside world crept 
 in, it was natural that the affairs of men should 
 seem less interesting to him than the keen pleas- 
 ures of a life spent in the woods, and the news 
 from the east which came to him from time to 
 time, of the growth of the cities, and the build- 
 ing of ships, and the increase of trade, seemed 
 hardly worth listening to compared with the news 
 from the West, that lay beyond the great moun- 
 tains toward which his eyes continually turned. 
 
 And as story after story was brought by hunt- 
 ers and traders and friendly Indians, Boone re- 
 solved that he too would make a journey into 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 1 3 
 
 the West, and see what good fortune was waiting- 
 there for him. 
 
 But still the years passed away, and he re- 
 mained in his pleasant home on the banks of the 
 Yadkin, and he had married and had a home and 
 children of his own before the time really came 
 for him to undertake his trip across the moun- 
 tains, and even then it might have been put off 
 for some time longer, had not new settlers be- 
 gun to come into North Carolina and build their 
 log-houses near the streams and forests, that 
 he had for so many years looked upon as be- 
 longing almost entirely to himself. 
 
 The presence of these strangers made him 
 dissatisfied and unhappy, for although he was of 
 a kind and affectionate disposition, he was very 
 fond of solitude, and preferred living quite away 
 from any neighbors ; for to him the forest, with 
 its many sights and sounds, never seemed lone- 
 ly, and the clear streams by which he wandered 
 and the lovely wild flowers that grew on their 
 borders, and the lofty mountains in the distance, 
 all seemed like the faces of dear friends whom 
 he had known all his life. So he was not sorry 
 
14 . BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 when a chance came for him to leave the little 
 home where he had spent so many happy years, 
 but which now seemed spoiled by the arrival of 
 these unwelcome new-comers. 
 
 The country beyond the Alleghanies had 
 grown so familiar to him from the many sto- 
 ries he had heard of it, that the thought of going 
 there was almost like going amongst friends, and 
 he had no doubt that he should be perfectly 
 happy and content there. 
 
 So it was decided that he and six other men 
 should leave North Carolina, and cross the 
 mountains, and enter the region that is now 
 known as Kentucky, in search of new homes. 
 One of the party, John Finley, had already visit- 
 ed the country, and had spent hour after hour 
 in telling Boone and his companions of its beauty 
 and fertility, to say nothing of the game, which 
 was so abundant that the Indians from the north 
 and the south were continually roaming through 
 its forests, looking upon them as a common 
 hunting-ground ; for this region did not seem to 
 be inhabited by any special tribe, but was rather 
 a meeting-place for friend and foe alike. 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 1 5 
 
 So all things were made ready, strong cloth- 
 ing supplied, and powder and bullets provided, 
 and, one beautiful morning in May the little 
 party left their homes, taking with them as their 
 last remembrance, the pretty picture of the sun- 
 lit river-banks, and the forest fresh in its glory of 
 new leaves. They were a month crossing the 
 mountains, stopping now and then for a day or 
 two in some lonely river-valley, where the herds 
 of buffalo, feeding in the cane-brake or browsing 
 in the meadows, looked at them wonderingly, 
 for their route was one quite unknown to Indi- 
 ans or white men, and these animals had prob- 
 ably never seen a human being before or heard 
 the sound of a gun, for they were very tame and 
 showed no signs of fear when the travellers came 
 near them. 
 
 They crossed the chain now known as the 
 Cumberland Mountains, and early in June came 
 in sight of Kentucky, a Shawanese word signify- 
 ing " at the head of the river." 
 
 Their first view of the country well repaid them 
 for all their trouble, for, as they looked from the 
 mountain height over the wide region spread 
 
l6 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 out before them, they felt that it was far more 
 beautiful than they had ever imagined, and did 
 not doubt that here they would be able to make 
 comfortable homes for their families, and live 
 useful and happy lives. 
 
 They built a little hut on the banks of a small 
 stream, and here they lived seven months, pass- 
 ing the summer and autumn months in fishing, 
 hunting, and roving through the forest. 
 
 A beautiful meadow spread out on all sides 
 around their cabin, and during the warm months 
 it bloomed continually with wild flowers, while 
 the forest beyond also was rich with blossoms 
 and fruits. All around were salt-springs, to which 
 the animals came to obtain the salt, and while 
 Boone and his companions were safe in their hut, 
 before which a blazing camp-fire was alwavs 
 burning, they knew that from the forest near, 
 the bears and panthers and deer were prowling 
 around in the darkness, their cries sometimes 
 joined by the wolves farther away, and the 
 screech-owls up in the shadows of the trees. 
 
 It was a life full of danger, but they loved it, 
 and had no thought of fear. With comfortable 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 1 7 
 
 clothing, abundant food, and plenty of ammuni- 
 tion, they lived there happily enough, gaining in 
 their tramps much valuable information about 
 the country and deciding upon the best places 
 for settlement. 
 
 All the summer and autumn passed without 
 their seeingf a sion of an Indian. But one morn- 
 ingf in December, while Boone and one of his 
 friends were following a buffalo-path through a 
 cane-brake, they were suddenly surprised and 
 captured by a large body of Indians. They 
 were many miles from their little camp, and 
 escape was impossible, and so for seven days 
 they had to follow their captors in their journey 
 toward the west. 
 
 During this time Boone attracted a great 
 deal of admiration from the Indians, because of 
 his strong handsome figure, and the skill with 
 which he aimed at the buffalo and deer, for 
 they knew nothing of the use of the rifle, depend- 
 ing entirely upon their arrows for the supply of 
 food. 
 
 Boone allowed them to think that he felt 
 very friendly toward them, let them examine his 
 
1 8 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 picturesque dress, which was made of beautifully 
 dressed deer-skin, very fine and soft, with the 
 seams ornamented with fringes, and handle his 
 hunting-knife, powder-horn, bullet-pouch and 
 rifle, knowing well the Indians' fondness for the 
 curious, and their awe of anything they could 
 not understand. 
 
 But he and his companions well knew that, 
 friendly as the Indians appeared, they were only 
 leading them to captivity or death, and they de- 
 termined to seize the first chance for escape. 
 But it was not until the seventh night after their 
 capture that the longed-for opportunity came. 
 The Indians had had a great feast, and were all 
 sleeping soundly, when at midnight the two 
 white men crept silently from the camp, their 
 moccasined feet not even breaking a twig or 
 rustling a leaf, and disappearing quickly in the 
 forest, started back for their little home in the 
 meadows. 
 
 They reached it after a long and wearisome 
 tramp, but found it quite deserted ; for in their 
 absence their companions had either been killed 
 or captured by the Indians, or perished in the 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 19 
 
 wilderness. Boone and his companion searched 
 everywhere for a trace of them, but no clew was 
 ever found, and to this day their fate is a mys- 
 tery. 
 
 But the two who were left were not dis- 
 couraged ; they found another place still more 
 hidden and secure, and stayed there contentedly 
 for some weeks, until they were surprised one 
 day by the visit of two friends from Carolina, one 
 of them a brother of Boone, who had set out 
 in search of their distant friends ; they brought 
 with them powder and shot, thus making it pos- 
 sible for the adventurers to remain in the wilder- 
 ness some time longer. 
 
 At that time the trouble with the Indians 
 was so great that the people in the east began 
 to think of sending soldiers to the west, and 
 driving the Indians quite away from their lands. 
 
 All along the frontier of ^Virginia the Indi- 
 ans, under the great chief, Logan, whose family 
 had been cruelly killed by the whites, rose in a 
 body arid began to resist the approach of white 
 settlers. 
 
 Logan was one of the most celebrated of 
 
20 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 the Indian chiefs, and he had always been on 
 such good terms with the settlers that he was 
 spoken of by the tribe as " Logan, the friend of 
 the white men." 
 
 His home was near what is now known as 
 the city of Wheeling, and living so close to the 
 frontier had given him a chance to study his 
 white neighbors, and to learn that, like his own 
 people, there were bad as well as good among 
 them. Logan's influence was very powerful 
 with the other tribes, and the settlers were very 
 glad to think that in any trouble that might 
 arise they could count this great chief as their 
 friend. But one day, when he was absent from 
 his home, some treacherous whites came lurk- 
 ing around and seizing the opportunity, murder- 
 ed his entire family, and when Logan returned, 
 in place of the happy home he had left, he found 
 only a desolate house and the dead bodies of 
 his children. At this cruel wrong all his friend- 
 ship for the settlers turned to deadly hatred, 
 and seizing his tomahawk, he vowed never to 
 rest until he had avenged his murdered children. 
 
 All along the frontier the Indians prepared 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 21 
 
 for war ; the tomahawk was sent from tribe to 
 tribe, and the Shawanese, Delawares, Mingos 
 and Wyandots, joined together in their deter- 
 mination to punish the whites for their cruelty 
 and bad faith. 
 
 And then began the most terrible time that 
 the settlers had ever known. Settlement after 
 settlement was attacked, house after house 
 burned, and family after family utterly destroyed. 
 In places where several families were living near 
 together, there was some chance of escape, but 
 in those little homes, built far away in the edges 
 of a deep forest, or by the side of some quiet 
 stream, there was no hope. Band after band of 
 painted Indians would come around, shrieking 
 out their terrible war-cries and brandishing their 
 tomahawks, and the place was never left until 
 the little cabin was burned to the ground, the 
 family tomahawked, the harvest trampled down, 
 and the cattle driven off to provide food for the 
 savage enemy. 
 
 Sometimes the white children, if healthy and 
 strong, were carried off and adopted by the 
 tribes, and if this happened, the chances were 
 
22 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 that the little captives would never look again 
 upon the friendly face of a white man, for they 
 were often carried to the far west and made to 
 grow up as Indians, the girls marrying some 
 Indian chief, and the boys learning those cruel 
 and savage practices that the red man delights 
 in. 
 
 The news of these Indian outrages soon 
 reached the eastern parts of Virginia, and it was 
 felt that something must be done at once for the 
 relief of the settlers. Soldiers were sent out, 
 and the whites tried to persuade Logan to leave 
 the Indian conspiracy and give up his plan of 
 vengeance. To this proposal the great chief 
 replied in a speech that touchingly reminded the 
 settlers of his former fidelity and trust. He 
 stood up in the council-meeting, surrounded by 
 his braves and the white men who had been 
 sent to make peace, and answered them thus : 
 " I ask any white man to say if ever he entered 
 Logan's cabin hungry and I gave him not meat; 
 if ever he came cold and naked and I gave him 
 not clothing ; during the last Indian war Logan 
 remained in his camp and tried to make peace. 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 23 
 
 I had even thought to live with you, but a white 
 man last spring, in cool blood, cut off all the 
 relatives of Logan, sparing not even the women 
 and children. There runs not a drop of my blood 
 in the veins of any human creature. This called 
 for revenge. I have killed many : I have glutted 
 my vengeance. For the sake of my country I 
 rejoice at the thought of peace. Yet do not 
 think I fear ; Logan never felt fear. He would 
 not turn his head to save his life. Who is there 
 to mourn for Logan ? " The whites felt hum- 
 bled and ashamed as they listened to this noble 
 reply, and it was greatly owing to the nobility 
 of this chief, who had been so cruelly wronged, 
 that the war was made less terrible than it 
 might have been otherwise. 
 
 But before it was over with, there were cruel- 
 ties practised by the white soldiers that were 
 as brutal as any ever committed by savage In- 
 dians. 
 
 Hundreds of soldiers marched up and down 
 through the fertile valleys where the Indians 
 had made their homes, ravaging the country as 
 if they had been wild beasts instead of men ; the 
 
24 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 villages were left in ashes ; the little clusters of 
 wigwams on the banks of the Scioto only served 
 as beacon-lights to warn the unhappy natives 
 that the white men were on their trail ; the fields 
 of corn, with their bright leaves and glossy tas- 
 sels glistening in the sunshine, and with their 
 soil thick with the footprints of the children who 
 had played there, were all cut down by the 
 swords of the men who thought only of driving 
 the Indians away from their lands, and leaving 
 their homes desolate. 
 
 And when the soldier had finished his work, 
 there remained only miles of smoking heaps of 
 charred wood, acres and acres of ruined crops, 
 blackened trunks and scorched leaves of once 
 beautiful forest-oaks, and scattered withered, 
 wild flowers, stained with the blood of the chil- 
 dren who had loved to gather them. 
 
 Daniel Boone had been chosen by the Gov- 
 ernor of Virginia, as a man familiar with Indian 
 warfare, to protect the frontiers, and as it was 
 his custom at all times to treat the Indians as if 
 they were human beings, and as he already had 
 their confidence and respect, and was, besides, 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 2$ 
 
 well skilled in all their practices, his mission was 
 an easy one compared with what it would have 
 been had he been a different man. But when 
 the Indians found that the whites meant to carry 
 the war into their own country, and that they 
 could be just as savage and cruel as they them- 
 selves, they began to be disheartened, and offered 
 to make peace. 
 
 The great Chief Comstock arranged for a 
 council to be held, and in a speech of great power 
 pictured the former happy life of the Indian be- 
 fore the white man had come to drive him from 
 his lands, and said that they had been driven to 
 the war by the unjust and merciless conduct of 
 the settlers. The governor said he would con- 
 sent to peace if the Indians would give up all the 
 lands south of the Ohio, and to this Comstock 
 and the other chiefs agreed, and thus Ken- 
 tucky came to be considered a part of Virginia. 
 
 After the war was over Daniel Boone returned 
 home, still cherishing the idea of moving his 
 family to the beautiful region of Kentucky. But 
 he remained only a short time, soon going back 
 to the new country and beginning a fort on the 
 
26 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 Kentucky River which he intended to make a 
 permanent place of settlement. The place was 
 called Boonesborough and here, after a while, 
 came the family of Daniel Boone, and several 
 other families that had decided to try their fort- 
 unes in the new country. 
 
 At first there was little trouble with the Indi- 
 ans, but as just at this time the Revolution broke 
 out, the English officers in the valley of the Ohio 
 furnished the Indians with arms and ammunition, 
 and encouraged them in every way to annoy the 
 Kentucky settlers, who of course sympathized 
 with the colonists. And so it happened that the 
 people at Boonesborough were never free from 
 the fear that at any time they might be attacked 
 by murderous red men who were only too glad 
 to eive the aid which Great Britain asked of 
 them in her struggle with the colonies. 
 
 But the fort was strong and well defended, 
 and Boone was a brave and watchful command- 
 er, as the Indians well knew, and come as silent- 
 ly as they might through the forest, it was im- 
 possible to surprise the fort, for the keen eyes of 
 Boone knew every Indian sign, as well as the 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 2*] 
 
 paths through the wilderness, and the brave pio- 
 neer could not be taken off his guard. But while 
 Boone and thirty of the other men were away 
 from the fort for a few weeks, obtaining salt from 
 the springs that lay nearly a hundred miles north 
 of Boonesborough, the Indians started for the 
 little settlement, thinking it would be a good 
 chance to surprise and capture it. 
 
 Boone and his companions were in high 
 spirits, and had sent three men back to the fort 
 to carry the good tidings that they were all well 
 and very successful in obtaining the salt they 
 had so much needed. 
 
 The Indians had been unusually quiet, and 
 during the whole time they had been there they 
 had not seen a sign of their enemy. But Boone 
 well knew that this might only mean that they 
 were getting ready for a more desperate attack 
 than usual, and consequently he was more than 
 ever on his guard, and determined to get back 
 to Boonesborough as soon as possible, for al- 
 though he had seen no signs of Indians at the 
 springs, he did not doubt that they were well 
 aware of his presence there. 
 
28 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 One morning, when he was out very early in 
 search of game for the little camp, he wandered 
 farther away than usual, and just as he was 
 thinking of turning back, his quick ears caught 
 the sound of footsteps, and looking ahead he saw 
 a large band of Indians directly in front of him ; 
 he tried to escape, but although he was as fleet 
 as a deer he found it impossible, and was capt- 
 ured by the swift Indian runners who started 
 in pursuit of him. 
 
 He was then told that if he would surrender 
 his little party to the warriors, their lives would 
 be spared, and although it grieved him to do 
 this, he could think of nothing better, as he knew 
 if he refused they would be all put to death by 
 horrible torture, whereas if he consented, the In- 
 dians would keep their promise and spare their 
 lives, and then there might come a chance of 
 escape. 
 
 The Indians would not have given this 
 promise to any white man but Boone, but 
 they had always found him brave and hon- 
 orable, and knew that many times he had 
 been their friend, and had always tried to pre- 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 2Q 
 
 vent the whites from taking away their lands 
 unjustly. 
 
 The men who were waiting Boone's return at 
 the springs were surprised to see him come ac- 
 companied by this band of warriors, and would 
 have rushed to his rescue had he not at some 
 distance away made signs to them not to attempt 
 battle. When he told them he had surrendered 
 to the Indians, they agreed that it was the wisest 
 thing he could do, and so allowed themselves to 
 be taken captive. 
 
 It turned out that this was the very best thing 
 that could have happened for the people at 
 Boonesborough, for the Indians were so delight- 
 ed with their capture of Boone and his compan- 
 ions that they gave up the idea of going on to 
 the fort, and turned back to their own camp on 
 the Indian River, and so Boonesborough was 
 saved for the present. 
 
 From the Indians' camp the captives were 
 taken to the British commander at Detroit, who 
 received all of them as prisoners, excepting 
 Boone, whom the Indians would not part with. 
 He was taken back to the camp at Chillicothe, 
 
30 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 and adopted into the family of Blackfish, one of 
 the greatest of the Shawanese chiefs. The war- 
 riors were delighted to receive into the tribe a 
 man so celebrated as Boone, for he was known 
 everywhere west of the Alleghanies as a man 
 honorable in purpose, fearless in danger, and, 
 above all, as skilful in hunting as any warrior in 
 the land. 
 
 Blackfish treated his adopted son very kindly, 
 and after Boone had gone through the usual 
 ceremony of having his hair pulled out, and his 
 face painted, he was allowed to do pretty much 
 as he pleased, except that when he started out 
 on a hunting expedition, he was only given so 
 many balls for his rifle as would enable him to 
 bring home the necessary supply of game, as 
 the Indians feared if he were well supplied with 
 ammunition he would try to escape. 
 
 Boone might have been very happy here 
 if he had had no troublesome thoughts to an- 
 noy him, for Chillicothe was beautifully situ- 
 ated on the banks of a lovely stream, whose 
 clear waters were filled with rainbow-tinted 
 trout, while all around stretched a magnificent 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 3 1 
 
 forest, abounding - in choicest game. He easily- 
 gained the good will of the Indians by taking 
 part in all their sports and games of skill, always 
 taking care to let them surpass him, and thus 
 avoid their jealousy, and as he pretended he 
 was very contented and happy, they soon ceased 
 to watch him so closely, and gave him much 
 more liberty. He had made them believe that 
 he could not understand the Shawanese speech, 
 and was thus able to listen to all their plans of 
 war, and soon found out that they were as much 
 determined as ever on an attack upon Boones- 
 borough. 
 
 This made him decide to take the first chance 
 of escape, and at the risk of his own life, try 
 and warn the settlers of their danger. And so 
 one morning, when he went out very early to 
 take his usual hunt, he started at once for the 
 fort, over a hundred and fifty miles away, pro- 
 vided only with a few pieces of dried meat and 
 a little ammunition, which he had saved up by 
 cutting his rifle-balls in two. He knew that the 
 Indians would be after him in a short time, and 
 looked back anxiously as the rising sun shone 
 
32 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 through the tree-tops, and the loud notes of the 
 forest-birds proclaimed the full day ; but his stout 
 heart did not fail, and knowing - as much of wood- 
 craft as his pursuers and being as wily and watch- 
 ful as they, he pressed on day after day through 
 underbrush and swamps, and over swollen 
 streams, until he came to the Ohio, which he 
 crossed in an old canoe he found drifting among 
 the bushes, and so reached the Kentucky shore, 
 when, for the first time during his journey, he 
 built a fire and shot some birds for food. 
 And so he reached Boonesborough in safety, 
 though the keenest and swiftest Indian runners 
 were upon his trail, and warned the fort of its 
 danger. He found that his wife and children 
 had gone back to North Carolina, thinking 
 that he had been killed by the Indians, but he 
 had no time to grieve over this, as the fort needed 
 instant defense. After his preparations were 
 ready, he selected a band of the bravest men 
 and started out to meet the savages, who, he 
 supposed, were on their way to the settlement. 
 He succeeded in driving one war-party back 
 in a panic, and then returned to the fort, having 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 33 
 
 learned that a large party of Indians was on its 
 way to Boonesborough, commanded by a French 
 officer. 
 
 The fort was threatened by an army of ten 
 to one, but Boone resolved not to surrender, but 
 fight it out, knowing well that if they were capt- 
 ured, the general, who was acting for the British 
 commander at Detroit, could not hinder the 
 Indians from subjecting them to the most horri- 
 ble tortures. 
 
 But the general offered to make terms and 
 go away in peace, if the settlers would send a 
 party outside the fort to meet him and some of 
 the chiefs, and to this Boone consented, taking 
 care, however, to select the strongest and bravest 
 of his men, and cautioning them to keep a strict 
 watch for the red- skins. 
 
 Peace was offered on condition that the 
 settlers would acknowledge that the King of 
 England was the lawful sovereign of all the 
 American colonies, and that they would not take 
 up arms against him, and furthermore, that they 
 would immediately leave Kentucky and go back 
 again to the east. 
 
34 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 Boone had so few men in the garrison that 
 he was obliged to accept these terms, knowing 
 that if he refused, the British would send army- 
 after army from Detroit to join with the Indians 
 against the little band ; and so the conference 
 came to an end. 
 
 But Blackfish had no mind to let his enemies 
 off so easily, and resolved to get them into his 
 power if possible. Accordingly he made a very 
 powerful speech, declaring how glad he was that 
 the affair had ended so peaceably, and express- 
 ing his admiration for Boone and his party, and 
 then said that it was the custom at such times 
 for the two armies to shake hands in token of 
 friendship, and proposed that two Indians should 
 shake hands with one white man at the same 
 time. 
 
 Boone immediately saw through the trick, 
 and when the savages came up and clasped the 
 hands of the whites, they found them ready for 
 them. Boone and his companions were so 
 strong, and the men inside the fort sent their 
 balls with such unerring aim, that the plan of 
 Blackfish to capture the whites came to nothing, 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 35 
 
 and they all succeeded in getting- back into the 
 fort. 
 
 And then began one of the fiercest battles 
 that ever waged in Kentucky. For nine days 
 the fort was attacked by the army outside, and 
 the Indians, led by the superior wisdom of a 
 white officer, felt sure of success ; but the garri- 
 son held out bravely, killing and wounding so 
 many of the enemy that finally they were glad 
 to retreat. 
 
 This was one of the most important events 
 in the early history of Kentucky, for, after this, 
 the Indians never again attacked Boonesbor- 
 ough, believing it was impossible for them to 
 take it ; whereas, if they had taken it, it would 
 have caused such alarm and dismay among the 
 other settlers, that it is probable the settlement 
 of Kentucky would have been delayed many 
 years. 
 
 As it was, one band of pioneers after another 
 crossed the mountains and found homes among- 
 its fertile meadows and beautiful valleys, though 
 the Indians still kept the war-path and the 
 English did all they could to harass and dis- 
 
36 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 tress them. But the Kentuckians remained 
 true to the colonies, and when the Revolution 
 left America free, and independent of England, 
 the Indians were very glad to make peace, 
 knowing well that although England was very- 
 willing to give them guns and ammunition to 
 carry on war against the colonies, she would 
 leave them to take care of themselves when 
 once her power was broken. 
 
 So the principal tribes made treaties of 
 peace with the whites, who dreaded the Indians 
 far less when their English allies no longer sup- 
 plied them with ammunition and rifles. 
 
 Immediately after the Revolution, settlers 
 began to enter Kentucky by hundreds, and 
 thriving towns and villages grew up all over. 
 There was still some trouble with the Indians, 
 who would come in parties of two and three and 
 surprise unprotected and remote little settle- 
 ments, and sometimes roving bands, who still 
 looked upon Kentucky as their rightful hunting- 
 grounds, would make wild raids through the 
 country, stealing horses and massacring the 
 whites. 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 2>7 
 
 But in many cases these outrages were the 
 result of the treatment which they themselves 
 had received from the settlers, for some of the 
 whites were as savage and revengeful as ever 
 the red men could be. 
 
 But as the years passed, times grew better, 
 and peace settled down upon the land that had 
 known so many fierce and bloody battles. The 
 Indians slowly retreated farther west, and the 
 settlers had time to cultivate the fertile valleys 
 and draw wealth from the rivers and forests, 
 and after a time Kentucky grew to be such an 
 important colony that it was decided it would 
 be best to separate it from Virginia, and make it 
 a State by itself, for the capital of Virginia was 
 too far away for the Kentuckians to travel thither 
 without great loss of time. 
 
 So they asked to be made a separate State 
 with the privilege of making their own laws ; 
 this was granted by Virginia, and in 1792 Ken- 
 tucky was admitted into the Union, being the 
 fifteenth State of the Union, Vermont having 
 been admitted the year before. 
 
 Daniel Boone did not remain in the new 
 
38 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 State very long. Some trouble arose about his 
 claims to the land he occupied, and he moved 
 farther away to the north ; but not being satisfied 
 here, he started on a longer journey still, and 
 crossed the Mississippi into what is now known 
 as the State of Missouri, hoping to find in this 
 remote region a home as beautiful as the one 
 he had lost. 
 
 Here he lived until his death, passing his 
 time in hunting and trapping, respected and 
 loved by white man and Indian alike, and ever 
 ready to lend his aid to the new settlers who 
 came gradually into the country, attracted by 
 the report of its beauty and richness. 
 
 He died at the age of eighty-six, having 
 lived a pure and noble life, and one rich in good 
 deeds to his fellow-men. 
 
 Twenty-five years afterward, the State of 
 Kentucky removed his remains to Frankfort, 
 where they were interred with great honors, in 
 memory of his love and devotion to the beauti- 
 ful State which, largely through his help, rose 
 to be one of the most important parts of the 
 Union. 
 
BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 39 
 
 During the settlement of Kentucky, other 
 parts of the country west of the Alleghanies 
 also became slowly inhabited with pioneers 
 from the east. 
 
 Their story during the first years of western 
 life was very much like that of the early history 
 of Kentucky. There were fierce struggles with 
 the Indians for the possession of the land, and 
 many troubles with the British during the Rev- 
 olution, but finally war and bloodshed almost 
 entirely ceased, and the beautiful river-valleys 
 once more knew peace and happiness as in the 
 old days before the white man had ever come to 
 bring trouble and dissatisfaction. 
 
 Tennessee came into the Union in 1796, and 
 Ohio in 1802, so that, with the opening of a new 
 century, the United States consisted of seven- 
 teen States, all rapidly increasing in wealth and 
 prosperity, and the country beyond the moun- 
 tains, that had once been regarded as only a wild 
 hunting-ground for the Indians, had come to be 
 looked upon as a land of promise where the 
 discouraged settler from the east might take 
 heart, and amid the pleasant valleys of the Ken- 
 
40 BEGINNING OF WESTERN SETTLEMENT. 
 
 tucky and Ohio, begin life anew, sure that their 
 fair meadows and wide forests would yield him 
 rich rewards for all his labor, and feeling that, 
 through the gate of the mountains he had passed 
 into a region of peace and comfort, where the 
 future looked only bright and full of hope. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BARBARY PIRATES. 
 
 In the northern part of Africa, lying along 
 the Mediterranean coast, are the Barbary States, 
 which, in the early part of this century, were 
 feared by all the nations of the world on account 
 of their bold pirates who roved around the seas 
 capturing foreign vessels and making slaves of 
 their crews. 
 
 These States were inhabited by Berbers, 
 Moors, Arabs and Turks, all of them good 
 Mohammedans, and all deeming it only right 
 that they should rob and persecute any Chris- 
 tians who might fall into their hands ; and for 
 this many opportunities offered, for then, as now, 
 the Mediterranean was the great water-way 
 along which passed very nearly all the vessels 
 trading between Europe and the East. 
 
 Morocco, Algiers, and Tripoli were the prin- 
 
42 THE BARBARY PIRATES. 
 
 cipal States, and not only did they allow this 
 piracy, but they also demanded tribute, and 
 every year the different nations sent certain 
 sums to the governors of these countries to buy 
 their promise not to interfere with their trade. 
 
 But after the tribute had been paid, little heed 
 was given to the promise, for the pirates always 
 kept the seas as usual, and year after year 
 Neapolitan, Venetian, French and English sea- 
 men were captured by these lawless robbers, and 
 either confined in dismal dungeons, or made to 
 serve as slaves with other unfortunate captives. 
 
 It very rarely happened that any prisoner 
 escaped, for all the harbors were closely guarded, 
 and constantly filled with Algerine and Tripoli- 
 tan vessels on the alert for runaway slaves, and 
 if the poor captive thought to cross the moun- 
 tains and escape by land, he well knew that he 
 would have to traverse miles and miles of un- 
 known country, and perhaps at last fall a prey 
 to wandering Arabs or the ferocious beasts of 
 the desert. 
 
 And so the only thing to do was to wait 
 patiently until the news of his capture reached 
 
DECATUR AND THK BARBARY PIRATES. 
 
THE BARBARY PIRATES. 43 
 
 hiTfe^away friends, and they sent money to 
 buy his release. 
 
 If they were very poor and could not do this, 
 his chances of freedom were very small, and it 
 was quite likely he would spend the rest of his 
 
 life as a slave. 
 
 The more powerful governments generally 
 tried to redeem their own citizens, but even this 
 was sometimes impossible without sending men- 
 of-war, and demanding them at the cannon's 
 
 mouth. 
 
 The Barbary States possess a delightful cli- 
 mate and fertile soil, and their rich valleys pro- 
 duced all the tropical fruits in abundance. 
 
 A little way back from the cities of the coast 
 were the country-seats of the wealthy class, sit- 
 uated in view of the mountains, and surrounded 
 by beautiful groves and tasteful gardens. 
 
 Here, amid fields of wheat and barley, and 
 groves of date, olive, fig, lemon and other trees, 
 could be seen the patient figure of the slave, 
 working early and late in all times and seasons, 
 and looking seaward with sad eyes, while he 
 thought of his own home among the Italian 
 
44 THE BARBARY PIRATES. 
 
 orange-groves, or, if he were from the north, 
 reminded by the crimson petals of the peach and 
 the white bloom of the cherry-trees how the 
 spring looked among his native hills that he 
 might never see again. 
 
 For the Tripolitans and Algerines treated the 
 slaves so cruelly, feeding them so poorly and 
 punishing them so severely for any offence, that 
 unless a man had a very strong constitution he 
 could not long endure such hardships. 
 
 One of their modes of punishment was the 
 bastinado, which consisted in having the soles 
 of the bare feet struck by a strong paddle, which 
 was wielded with all the force that the slave- 
 driver could command. Sometimes it happened 
 that the slave-driver was himself a slave, and 
 then he was generally kind to the poor fellows 
 who had to endure this punishment, and would 
 let them cover their feet with mats of straw, only 
 taking care to make a great deal of noise while 
 pounding the mats, and advising the culprit to 
 cry loudly, so that the chief slave-driver would 
 think he was being severely punished. But at 
 other times this treatment was so severe that 
 
THE BARBARY PIRATES. 45 
 
 the blood was forced through the upper part of 
 the feet, and it often happened that a man would 
 be lamed for life after it. 
 
 Occasionally, if a prisoner were a man of any 
 importance, he would be treated with some re- 
 spect, confined in a comfortable room and not 
 made to work, and once or twice, perhaps, in- 
 vited to the house of some person in authority 
 and treated as an honored guest. 
 
 Such invitations were generally given at the 
 times of the great yearly feasts, when the whole 
 city was given up to pleasure, and the Moham- 
 medan was obliged by his creed to show hospi- 
 tality and charity to his enemies. 
 
 At the great festival of Bairam which lasted 
 from three to six days, it was the custom to in- 
 vite such guests, who always realized their own 
 good fortune all the more when they saw them- 
 selves attended by their more unfortunate fellow- 
 prisoners who had been reduced to the condition 
 of slaves. 
 
 The festival of Bairam, which was always pre- 
 ceded by a fast of thirty days, was one of great 
 magnificence. 
 
46 THE BARBARY PIRATES. 
 
 The houses were always beautifully decorat- 
 ed, the entire population of natives wore their rich- 
 est and costliest robes, and the nobles vied with 
 one another in the sumptuousness of their feasts. 
 The palace was thrown open to visitors whom 
 the Bashaw received in the magnificent audience- 
 chamber, which was hung with rich tapestries, 
 and furnished with divans and ottomans covered 
 with beautifully embroidered scarlet cloth, and 
 ornamented with fringes and tassels of gold and 
 silver. 
 
 Costly rugs were strewn over the marble 
 floor, and placed under the throne, where the 
 Bashaw sat surrounded by his family and his 
 chief officers, all wearing their richest apparel, 
 which was, in many cases, ornamented with gold 
 and silver embroideries, and sparkling with 
 jewels of immense value. 
 
 The visitors were ushered into the audience- 
 room by the officers of the court, who passed 
 them on to the officers of the divan, who in turn 
 presented them to the Bashaw. 
 
 They were then seated to the right of the 
 throne, and served with coffee and wine, which 
 
THE BARBARY PIRATES. 47 
 
 were brought to them by Neapolitan slaves who 
 knelt before the guests and offered the refresh- 
 ments upon salvers of gold and silver. 
 
 Before leave was taken, the visitors were 
 sprinkled with attar of roses, and they said fare- 
 well amid the clouds of incense which arose 
 from the censers swung by the attending 
 slaves. 
 
 Then one house after another was visited, 
 each host offering wines, coffee, tea and choice 
 fruits and confectionery, and treating his guests 
 in every way as if they were on the friendliest 
 terms. 
 
 It was very hard after such treatment to re- 
 turn to the cheerless prison-chambers, where 
 they knew many dreary hours must yet be pass- 
 ed, and the Mohammedan feast-days were al- 
 ways welcomed with joy by the poor captives 
 whom the hard fortunes of war had doomed to 
 such a weary life. 
 
 The United States, like other Christian na- 
 tions, suffered in many ways from the pirates of 
 the Barbary States. 
 
 Their seamen were made slaves, their offi- 
 
4 8 THE BARBARY PIRATES. 
 
 cers were imprisoned, and their trade was al- 
 most ruined by these robbers, who had no re- 
 gard for the life or property of infidels, as they 
 called all Christians. 
 
 In vain tribute was paid and threats made, 
 and promises demanded ; still the stars and stripes 
 floating- from the mast of a ship only meant to 
 the lawless pirates a chance of gaining money 
 and slaves. The harbors of Algiers and Tripoli 
 were alive with vessels whose only business was 
 piracy, and it was a very common thing for the 
 congregation in an American church to hear the 
 minister read aloud from the pulpit the names 
 of their friends who had been captured by the 
 pirates, and the prices necessary for their ran- 
 
 som. 
 
 And as things grew worse and worse, the 
 United States felt that it would be a disgrace to 
 let them continue so any longer, and it was re- 
 solved to make a bold stroke and put an end to 
 the insults that were continually being offered 
 to the American flae-. 
 
 The navy of the United States was at that 
 time very small, consisting only of six vessels ; 
 
THE BARBARY PIRATES. 49 
 
 but four of these were sent to the Mediterranean 
 to suppress the Barbary pirates. 
 
 This was in the year 1801; the United States 
 were still a young - nation and their flag was 
 almost unknown in foreign seas. But that did 
 not frighten the brave heart of the commander 
 of the little fleet, who resolved to make the 
 haughty Algerines and Tripolitans feel the 
 weight of his country's displeasure. 
 
 The fleet reached the Mediterranean safely 
 and spent some months in cruising up and down, 
 capturing some Tripolitan corsairs, and giving a 
 safe passage through the Straits of Gibraltar 
 to trading vessels. 
 
 As the Bashaw of Tripoli had declared war 
 against the United States, the Americans were 
 ordered to seize as prizes all vessels and goods 
 belonging to him and his subjects, and as this 
 order was carried into effect whenever possible, 
 the haughty Tripolitans learned what it was to 
 be captured on the sea and deprived of their 
 liberty. They were not, however, destined to re- 
 ceive the cruel treatment they had given, for in 
 every case the Americans treated their prisoners 
 
50 THE BARBARY PIRATES. 
 
 with kindness, thus showing that while a nation 
 might be brave and strong in the defence of its 
 rights, it could still be merciful and generous to 
 its enemies. 
 
 But this example had very little effect upon 
 the pirates, who still continued their inhuman 
 treatment of all Christians that fell into their 
 power, thinking that as long as they said their 
 prayers several times a day, and performed the 
 other duties of a good Mohammedan, they had 
 a perfect right to treat their prisoners as they 
 pleased. 
 
 It is true that the captives would sometimes 
 anger the pirates by making fun of their religion. 
 The Mohammedan is commanded to pray five 
 times a day with his face toward Mecca, and as 
 no duties were ever allowed to interfere with these 
 devotions, and as the ship frequently changed 
 its course, they were sometimes obliged to take 
 several new positions while making one prayer, 
 being so particular about facing in the right 
 direction that one pirate was generally appointed 
 to consult the compass, in order to be perfectly 
 sure that they were looking toward Mecca. 
 
THE BARBARY PIRATES. 5 1 
 
 These things always seemed very funny to the 
 Christian sailors, and they did not hesitate to 
 show their contempt for such a religion, and as 
 the Mohammedan holds his belief most sacred, 
 the Tripolitans never omitted a chance to show 
 the unfortunate captives that their insults had 
 been duly noticed. 
 
 The American fleet met with one very dis- 
 couraging accident while cruising in the Medi- 
 terranean. The frigate Philadelphia, com- 
 manded by Captain Bainbridge, while chasing a 
 Tripolitan corsair, struck on a ledge of rocks ; 
 every effort was made to get her off, but all was 
 in vain, and the Tripolitans in the harbor, seeing 
 her condition, began firing upon her. 
 
 Captain Bainbridge soon saw that it would 
 be useless to return the fire, and therefore or- 
 dered the flasf hauled down as a siom of surrender. 
 
 The Tripolitans came swarming around, and, 
 taking possession of the frigate, began plunder- 
 ing the sailors of everything they possessed. 
 Swords, epaulets, watches, trinkets, money and 
 clothing were all taken from them ; they were 
 then taken ashore and imprisoned, the officers 
 
52 THE BARBARA PIRATES. 
 
 being treated somewhat kindly, but the com- 
 mon seamen subjected to the poorest food and 
 hardest labor. They spent many months in 
 this wearisome captivity, but at last better days 
 dawned. 
 
 It was a great mortification to the other offi- 
 cers of the ileet to see the Philadelphia lying on 
 the rocks, a Tripolitan prize, and after a while a 
 bold plan was made for her destruction. 
 
 Lieutenant Decatur, commanding the Intrep- 
 id, a little Tripolitan vessel that he had capt- 
 ured a short time before, entered the harbor of 
 Tripoli at night, and sailed close to the Phila- 
 delphia before the Tripolitans discovered that 
 their visitors were Americans. 
 
 Decatur and his officers sprang on deck oi' 
 the frigate, and the Mohammedans were so over- 
 come by surprise and fear that they did not at- 
 tempt to hinder the seamen from following- the 
 bold leaders. 
 
 In ten minutes the Philadelphia was in the 
 hands of the Americans, and Decatur, knowing- 
 that it would be impossible to move her, ordered 
 her fired in a number of places at the same time. 
 
THE BARBARY PIRATES. S3 
 
 The flames rose high in the air, telling the story 
 of the recapture to Captain Bainbridge and his 
 officers, and filling the Bashaw with wrath and 
 dismay. 
 
 Decatur and his men got quickly away with- 
 out having lost a single man. After this the 
 harbor was regularly bombarded by the Amer- 
 ican commander, and after some delay the 
 Bashaw came to terms. It was agreed that 
 there should be an exchange of prisoners, man 
 for man, as far as they would go, and that a 
 treaty of peace should be made which should be 
 honorable to the United States, and protect their 
 shipping in the Mediterranean. 
 
 Thus the Barbary States received a check 
 which kept their pirates in wholesome dread of 
 the vengeance that might follow them if they 
 kept up their dishonorable practices, and during 
 the years that followed, they were gradually 
 made to understand that the flags of other 
 nations must be respected, and that the Medi- 
 terranean was as much a highway for the vessels 
 of other countries as for their own. 
 
 The action of the United States against the 
 
54 THE BARBARY riRATES. 
 
 Barbary pirates showed the world that the new 
 Republic meant that her flag should be respect- 
 ed and that she would defend it at all cost. 
 
 It was the first time that the stars and 
 stripes had carried war into foreign waters, and 
 the success of the brave little fleet that entered 
 so fearlessly into the combat, gained the admira- 
 tion of the world, and struck a death-blow to the 
 bold sea-robbers who had so long held sway 
 over the blue waters of the Mediterranean. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 \ THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 When La Salle set up the lilies of France at 
 the mouth of the Mississippi River, and took 
 possession of the whole country through which 
 the great river flowed, in the name of Louis 
 XIV., he knew better than anyone else the mag- 
 nificence of his gift, and in his dreams of the fut- 
 ure, saw Louisiana a rich and powerful country 
 adding wealth and glory to the French crown. 
 
 His plan for connecting the St. Lawrence, 
 by a great chain of forts to the Mississippi, 
 which he thought rose somewhere near China, 
 and thus commanding the trade of the East, 
 shows that he well appreciated the value of that 
 vast region which, in less than a hundred years, 
 was to take such an important place in the his- 
 tory of America. 
 
 But after the death of La Salle his great 
 
56 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 plans were for the most part given up, and it 
 was over ten years before France again sent out 
 an expedition to explore her new possessions. 
 
 In the meantime, however, many Canadian 
 hunters, and several priests, had journeyed 
 down from Canada in their birch-bark canoes, 
 and had settled among the tribes who lived on 
 the borders of the river, and in this way the In- 
 dians of the Mississippi Valley grew familiar 
 with the French language and religion, and in 
 many cases formed strong and lasting friendships 
 with the whites, and allowed them to travel up 
 and down the river unmolested. And so all 
 through the valley, from Lake Michigan to the 
 Gulf of Mexico, could be found white men speak- 
 ing the language of France, and priests minis- 
 tering in little chapels built in the great for- 
 ests, arid graced with the wild flowers that the 
 natives loved to bring as their peace-offerings. 
 
 Sometimes a little pulpit was made and hung 
 to the trunk of a great oak, and there the priest 
 would stand, while the Indians crouched by hun- 
 dreds in the grass at his feet, and listened to the 
 stories he told of a God so different from their 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. S7 
 
 own, and of a Heaven so unlike their happy 
 hunting-grounds. 
 
 And the children lying at their mothers' feet 
 would look from the calm face of the good 
 priest, to the scowling countenances of the In- 
 dian prophets and jugglers, who did not want 
 their people to learn this new wisdom, and won- 
 der which was better, to grow up and be strong 
 and savage warriors like their fathers and 
 brothers, or to become kind and gentle like the 
 pale-faced priest, whose eyes were as soft as a 
 fawn's, and whose low voice told them of a beau- 
 tiful land where the summer stayed always, and 
 the birds never ceased from singing. 
 
 The priests gained great influence over the 
 Indians by their pure and simple lives, and by 
 their readiness and ability to help them in sick- 
 ness, and even after the death of a priest the 
 mothers would often bring their babies to the 
 little altar in the woods where they had been 
 baptized, and, with many wild ceremonies, half- 
 Christian and half-heathen, call down blessings 
 from Heaven upon themselves and their families. 
 
 And in this way it happened, that when, 
 
53 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 ten years after the death of La Salle, the 
 French flag again appeared at the mouth of 
 the Mississippi, and French priests stepped on 
 the shores, they seemed to the natives like old 
 friends, for the visits of La Salle and Marquette 
 had not been forgotten, and the men of the 
 tribes had been almost as familiar, when children, 
 with the voices of the good priests, as with the 
 roar of the great river rushing through the 
 forests. 
 
 But to the French visitors who slowly ap- 
 proached the mouth of the great river, every- 
 thing was new and strange. 
 
 As they leaned over the ship's sides and 
 looked landward, they saw only acres and acres 
 of tall reeds, rising five or six feet above the 
 waters, and waving mournfully to and fro in the 
 wind, while above them multitudes of strange 
 birds flapped their wings and screamed out 
 harsh, jarring notes. Below, the waters were 
 thick with alligators, and far away was heard 
 the deep roar of the river as it tossed to and fro 
 the Qreat 1oq-s and rafts that were driftinsr down 
 to the sea from the forests farther up. 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 59 
 
 It was all very wild and gloomy, and as the 
 night came down and the vessel pushed its way 
 through the reeds and logs, and the sailors 
 heard the hideous and unnatural cries that swept 
 around the shore, they quite forgot the pleasant 
 tales they had heard of Louisiana, and thought 
 they must have come to some land of desola- 
 tion and despair. 
 
 But with the morning more cheerful thoughts 
 came, and as they sailed up the river they saw 
 that all the stories they had heard of this won- 
 derful country were no doubt true, and that 
 when the spring came the land would be as 
 beautiful as they had ever imagined. 
 
 On the tenth day they arrived at an Indian 
 village, where they found a letter that had been 
 left there years before for La Salle. It was 
 from the Chevalier Tonti, who, on hearing that 
 La Salle had left France with a fleet bound for 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, started from 
 Canada and came down the river to meet 
 him. 
 
 But after waiting in vain for his friend, he 
 went back again to the Canadian lakes, leaving 
 
Go THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 a letter with the natives to tell La Salle of his 
 visit. 
 
 But the letter was never delivered, for the 
 brave leader for whom it was intended met his 
 death while wandering hopelessly through the 
 wilderness of Texas, and during all the years 
 that followed, the Indians kept the " speaking- 
 bark " reverently, and, when these new advent- 
 urers came from France, gave it into their 
 hands, and told them wonderful stories of Tonti, 
 the iron-ha7idcd, as he was called, because of 
 his having lost one of his hands, which had been 
 supplied by another made of iron. 
 
 It was pleasant to the visitors to hear these 
 accounts of their countrymen and their friendly 
 relations with the Indians, and they thought it 
 gave fair promise for the future; for they well 
 knew how difficult it would be to found a colony 
 in this new country if the natives proved hostile. 
 
 The principal tribe of Louisiana was the 
 Natchez. These people were of a light mahog- 
 any complexion, having regular and noble feat- 
 ures, and fine, intelligent eyes. The men were 
 all tall and well proportioned, the smallest 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 6 1 
 
 Natchez ever seen by the French being five feet 
 in height, and this was considered such a defect 
 by the tribe that the man was looked upon as a 
 dwarf, and kept himself hidden. 
 
 The Natchez claimed that they had originally 
 come from some place near the sun, and that 
 through many years their tribe had journeyed 
 eastward, following the rising sun, until it rested 
 among the beautiful hills and plains of Louisiana. 
 
 They believed that in former times their tribe 
 had been very foolish and ignorant, living almost 
 like brutes ; but while they were in this condition 
 there appeared among them, one day, a man and 
 a woman who had descended from the sun. They 
 were clothed in garments of light, and their 
 appearance was so dazzling that no human eye 
 could look upon them. 
 
 The man told the Indians that he had seen 
 from the sun their miserable condition, and had 
 come down to the earth to teach them how to 
 live. 
 
 The Natchez looked with wonder and awe 
 upon these unearthly beings, but their faces, 
 though majestic, were so full of love and kind- 
 
62 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 ness, that the ignorant savages felt that it would 
 be a great blessing to the tribe to have such 
 teachers, and besought them to dwell among 
 them and teach them how to live well and beau- 
 tifully, like the dwellers in the realms of the sun. 
 
 The glorious visitors consented, on condition 
 that the Indians would obey them in everything 
 they commanded, and as the savages readily 
 promised this, the man and woman took up their 
 abode amongst them, and began teaching them 
 the arts of peace. Certain laws were laid down, 
 the principal ones being that they were never to 
 kill anyone except in self-defence, that they were 
 never to lie, and never to steal, and that they 
 must be generous to their friends, charitable to 
 their enemies, and give help to the poor and 
 sick. 
 
 These laws the Natchez promised faithfully 
 to obey, and so well did they keep their promise 
 that the tribe soon rose to honor and distinction. 
 
 After the visitor from the sun had given his 
 laws, he ordered two temples to be built at either 
 end of the Natchez country, and here was placed 
 the sacred fire which he called down from the 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 63 
 
 sun, and ordered to be continually kept up with 
 walnut-wood stripped of its bark, for, if the sacred 
 fire ever ceased, great calamities would befall the 
 nation. 
 
 Eight priests were appointed for each temple, 
 and if by any mishap the fire chanced to go out 
 in one temple, it was to be replaced by hurrying 
 to the other and borrowing some of its burning 
 coals ; but the borrowed fire was not to be given 
 without a fierce battle between the guardians of 
 the two temples, so that the blood shed before 
 the flaming altar would propitiate the evil spirits 
 who were always trying to overcome the good. 
 Whoever let the sacred fire go out was to be 
 punished with death ; and if the holy flame dis- 
 appeared from both temples, then the nation 
 might know that grief and desolation were on 
 their way to them. 
 
 The descendants of these heavenly visitors 
 were called Suns, and were made chiefs, the 
 king being called the Great Sun, and the others 
 Little Suns, and their persons were held sacred 
 because of their divine origin ; and when any Sun 
 died, numbers of the common people were sacri- 
 
64 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 ficed as a tribute to the royal blood of the de- 
 ceased. 
 
 The Natchez believed in a Great Spirit, the 
 creator of the world, and in an Evil Spirit, who 
 had at one time been very powerful, but now 
 was chained in a dark cell. They also believed 
 that there had once been a great flood, which 
 had destroyed all the inhabitants of the earth, 
 except a few who took refuge in a high moun- 
 tain ; and they thought that the first man had 
 
 i 
 
 been moulded out of the same kind of clay that 
 they used in making crockery, and that the 
 Great Spirit had breathed life into him, and that 
 everything in nature had been brought forth by 
 the mere will of the Creator. 
 
 The Great Sun was supported by the pres- 
 ents which he received from the tribe during the 
 religious festivals, which occurred several times 
 a year, beginning with March, the moon of the 
 deer, when the new year began, and the people 
 rehearsed the great events of their history, which 
 had been handed down from one generation to 
 another by a certain class of young men, who 
 were called the keepers of the voices of the past. 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 6$ 
 
 These deeds of history were carefully treas- 
 ured, and were often recited before the oldest 
 men of the tribe, in order that they might cor- 
 rect any wrong statement, and thus prevent 
 mistakes. 
 
 The tribe divided the year into thirteen 
 moons, and at every new moon a festival was 
 held, taking its character from the time of year. 
 Besides the moon of the deer, there was the 
 moon of strawberries, the moon of old corn, the 
 moon of water-melons, the moon of peaches, of 
 blackberries, of new corn, of turkeys, of bears, 
 of geese, of chestnuts, and the thirteenth, the 
 moon of walnuts. 
 
 At each of these festivals the Great Sun 
 received his tribute, which was always freely 
 and gladly given by his subjects. 
 
 In September, the moon of new corn, the 
 festival was only second in importance to that 
 of March. Preparations for it were begun early 
 in the season, when a tract of new land was 
 cleared by fire, and the corn was planted by the 
 warriors of the tribe, led by the war-chief. Any- 
 one else who attempted to take part in the culti- 
 
66 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 vation of this field of corn, was punished with 
 death. 
 
 When the corn was ripe, the warriors chose 
 a well-shaded spot, where they built a large, 
 round tower, which was filled with the new corn. 
 Around this place were built little huts of branches 
 and moss, and here the people came on the day 
 appointed, and awaited the arrival of the Great 
 Sun, who was carried to the tower in the chair 
 of state, which was beautifully decorated with 
 embroidered deer-skins and garlands of leaves 
 and flowers, and borne by the most distinguished 
 warriors of the tribe. Then, after a ceremoni- 
 ous reception, the king was carried around the 
 tower, which he saluted with three howls, which 
 were responded to by nine long yells from the 
 people. After this, the new fire was kindled by 
 rubbing two sticks together, and the corn was 
 roasted and eaten by the people, the feast being 
 followed by singing, which in turn was put to 
 an end by the war-chief, who struck his toma- 
 hawk in a red post that always stood in the 
 midst of the circle, and began relating his deeds 
 of daring among other tribes. All the warriors 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 67 
 
 followed with their speeches, after which the 
 young braves struck the post and said what 
 they meant to do when they became men. 
 
 When night came, hundreds of torches made 
 of dry reeds lighted up the scene, and then 
 dancing began which lasted till daylight. And 
 so the festival was continued, day after day, until 
 the corn was eaten up and the feast ended by a 
 return to the usual duties of life. 
 
 The Natchez owed their great strength and 
 stature to their early education, which was al- 
 ways of a kind to strengthen the limbs and mus- 
 cles ; from the age of three the boys were ac- 
 customed to bathing in the river, winter and 
 summer, and to performing all those exercises 
 which develop and harden the frame. At twelve 
 years they were put under an old man, who 
 taught them all things thought necessary for 
 them to know, and gave prizes to the strongest 
 and most skilful. 
 
 The girls were taught to make crockery, 
 pots, bottles, basins, dishes and plates, and or- 
 nament them with strange designs ; they also 
 made nets to catch birds and fish, and could 
 
68 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 dress, and dye skins in various colors, and make 
 bed-coverings of the bark of the mulberry-tree, 
 and of the feathers of the wild-fowl that were so 
 abundant. Both men and women were fond of 
 fanciful dressing, and wore rings of bone, and 
 collars decorated with alligators' teeth and the 
 claws of wild beasts ; and when the whites came 
 among them and brought little bells and other 
 small ornaments, the Indians were delighted, 
 and strung them around their necks and waists, 
 taking great pleasure in their musical tinkling. 
 
 When the French appeared in Louisiana, 
 they were surprised to see so much order and 
 harmony among these wild savages, and were 
 much impressed by their grave and courteous 
 manners, and saw that their respect for their 
 laws and their veneration for truth and justice 
 among themselves, would stand the whites in 
 good service. 
 
 At first things went on pleasantly enough ; 
 the French took pains to be friendly with the 
 Indians, and the Indians had a great respect for 
 the pale-faces who could bring such destruction 
 in battle by means of their magic weapons of 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 69 
 
 war, and for many years there was no serious 
 trouble. But in 1716 the little French colony 
 in Louisiana learned that a party of Canadians, 
 while travelling on the Mississippi, had been 
 murdered by the Natchez. 
 
 The Governor of Louisiana immediately or- 
 dered soldiers to be sent right into the heart 
 of the Natchez settlements ; they encamped on 
 an island some distance from their enemies, and 
 sent a messenger to ask the chiefs to a friendly 
 conference, and as the Indians did not know that 
 the French had heard of their treachery, they 
 came to the meeting, and were in consequence 
 easily taken prisoners. The Great Sun and two 
 of his brothers were then held captive until they 
 revealed the names of the murderers, and deliv- 
 ered them up to justice. 
 
 The French then built a fort in the midst of 
 the Natchez villages, and their boldness in do- 
 ing this, and the resolution they showed in 
 bringing the guilty Indians to punishment, im- 
 pressed the natives with such a sense of the 
 white man's power that they agreed to a treaty 
 of peace. 
 
JO THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 This event is important in the history of 
 Louisiana, as it gave a blow to the secret plans 
 of the Natchez to drive the whites away from 
 their country, and also gave the French more 
 confidence in themselves, while showing at 
 the same time to the world outside that the 
 French occupation of Louisiana was something 
 more than a name. A short time after this the 
 new country became famous all over the civilized 
 world as a place where every man who would, 
 might make a princely fortune, and become the 
 owner of vast tracts of the most valuable land 
 on the face of the earth. * 
 
 This idea was started by a Scotchman named 
 John Law, who put himself at the head of a 
 company called the Mississippi Company, which 
 had for its object the making of immense fort- 
 unes from the "colony of Louisiana. All over 
 France books and papers were distributed, giv- 
 ing the most glowing and fanciful descriptions 
 of Louisiana. 
 
 The wealth of Mexico and Peru was counted 
 as nothing to the riches of this new country, 
 which, for beauty and fertility, could only be com- 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. Jl 
 
 pared with the Garden of Eden, or the Happy- 
 Islands of the old Greeks. 
 
 Wonderful stories were told of its beautiful 
 mountains, clothed in eternal verdure, its happy 
 valleys, warm with the southern sun, and its fer- 
 tile soil, which brought forth spontaneously all 
 the fruits of the earth, each month furnishing in 
 turn its rich harvest of berries, pears, peaches, 
 grapes, oranges, and tropical fruits. 
 
 Here also could be found the finest domestic 
 animals, as well as rare and beautiful birds, re- 
 markable for their sweet singing and brilliant 
 plumage. The robin and lark sang in the blos- 
 soms of the trees, ducks, pheasants and wood- 
 cock offered tempting morsels for the table, and 
 gorgeous peacocks and dazzling white swans 
 made their homes in the meadows and on the 
 river-banks. 
 
 The streams were full of choicest fish, so 
 abundant that millions of men could be fed on 
 them, and the forests were stocked with game, 
 so that the poorest of the colonists could enjoy 
 the delicacies that in Europe were only to be 
 found at the tables of the noble and wealthy. 
 
72 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 And then the atmosphere possessed such 
 wonderful qualities, that men grew old so slowly 
 that one might hope to live much longer there 
 than anywhere else. It was said that there were 
 Indians there who still looked young although 
 they were hundreds of years old, and best of 
 all, these natives were of such kind and gener- 
 ous disposition that they willingly became the 
 slaves of the whites, and performed all their 
 labor freely and gladly. 
 
 And, greatest thing of all, the new colony 
 possessed inexhaustible mines of gold and sil- 
 ver ; indeed the whole surface of the country was 
 strewn with lumps of gold, and the waters of the 
 Mississippi were full of the same precious metal, 
 while silver was so common it was used to pave 
 the roads. 
 
 The fields were covered with flowers which 
 had the singular virtue of turning the night-dews 
 that fell into them into diamonds, and over all 
 this scene of beauty swept only the softest 
 winds, while the skies above were always blue, 
 and the sun shone month after month in un- 
 clouded splendor. 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 73 
 
 These extravagant stories spread from pal- 
 ace to hut, arid all over France rose a wild 
 desire to possess some of the wealth of this 
 marvellous region. 
 
 Kings and nobles, and common people and 
 peasants, all looked upon John Law as the man 
 who held the key to a kingdom of inexhaustible 
 riches, and everywhere there was no thought 
 of anything but the chance of going to Lou- 
 isiana, or at least of purchasing some of its 
 valuable land. So powerful did Law become 
 that he received even the princes of the realm 
 with haughtiness and condescension, while the 
 greatest ladies in France were eager to court 
 his favor, and it seemed to all that the word, 
 Mississippi, was the open sesame that would 
 lead them into vast treasure-houses of gold 
 and silver. 
 
 Hundreds of emigrants left France for the 
 new colony, and if this belief in its wealth had 
 been kept up very long, Louisiana would speedi- 
 ly have become populated with Europeans. 
 
 But a change came. It was found that Law 
 was only a deceiver, and that the colony on the 
 
74 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Mississippi was exactly like other colonies that 
 had been planted in the New World — a place 
 where one might have wealth and ease only by 
 earning them with honest labor. 
 
 All the stories about the beauty of Louisi- 
 ana were at once contradicted. It was said to 
 be a place of bogs and marshes, with a climate 
 that brought disease and death. That the fruits 
 and berries were all poisonous, and that the for- 
 ests were peopled with monstrous beasts. That 
 the rivers were full of reptiles which made the 
 water unfit to drink, and the Mississippi every 
 year rolled down such immense logs, and rose 
 to such height, that it flooded all the country 
 around and the people had to live in the trees 
 like monkeys. That even the birds were gro- 
 tesque in appearance and did not sing, the only 
 sounds that could be heard being the howling of 
 wolves, the screeching of owls, and the croaking 
 of frogs so big that they could swallow children. 
 
 And besides, it was said that Europeans in that 
 country grew smaller year after year, until finally 
 they became a race of pigmies, while the horses 
 grew less in size until they were as small as 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 75 
 
 sheep, the cattle became as small as rabbits, and 
 the fowls were reduced to the size of sparrows. 
 
 And the Indians who had been represented 
 as kind and generous, were in reality cannibals 
 who were constantly at war with the colonists. 
 
 But the Mississippi Company had taken 
 money from the people, and promised in return 
 to colonize Louisiana so that their money might 
 be returned to them with profit ; and when emi- 
 grants suddenly showed a wish to return to 
 France, and no one was any longer willing to 
 leave a quiet home for the dangers and priva- 
 tions of a life in the colony, then the Company 
 sent agents all over France and compelled 
 people to emigrate. 
 
 Tramps, beggars, gypsies, wandering musi- 
 cians, strolling-players, and homeless wanderers 
 of every class were kidnapped by these agents 
 and smuggled on board vessels bound for Louis- 
 iana, and in some cases, even the most respecta- 
 ble people were carried away from their homes 
 and driven along the great public roads that led 
 to the sea-ports, suffering from hunger and 
 thirst and weariness in the day-time, and at 
 
J6 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 night sleeping in barns or fields, until the whole 
 country was in a state of alarm, and the name 
 Mississippi became so hated and dreaded, that 
 the mothers for years and years afterwards 
 frightened their naughty children by threatening 
 to send them to the Mississippi. 
 
 Law had to leave France in order to save 
 his life from the hatred of the people he had 
 ruined, and when the Mississippi Company 
 came to an end, it left some of the wealthiest 
 families of France reduced to poverty, and life 
 in Louisiana a thing to be thought of with dread. 
 
 The Company, though, had really been of 
 benefit to the colony, as large numbers of emi- 
 grants had gone thither, and the settlement and 
 ownership of Louisiana by the French was thus 
 carried on much more swiftly. 
 
 New Orleans was founded in 1718 in the 
 midst of a dense forest. The ground was 
 swampy and marshy and filled with pools of 
 staenant water, but the site was selected because 
 it was considered to be the best place for the 
 foundation of a large commercial city, and time 
 has proven the truth of this belief. 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 77 
 
 The town was begun by fifty men who had 
 been chosen by the governor. Each man struck 
 his axe at the same moment into an immense 
 tree, and as the fifty trees fell to the ground, they 
 marked the beginning of one of the most im- 
 portant cities of the Union. 
 
 An old squaw who was standing near, chant- 
 ed a wild song while the men were at work, in 
 which she said that the time of her death had 
 come, since the white men had taken possession 
 of the spot where she had dwelt a hundred sum- 
 mers and winters, and that the Great Spirit had 
 told her that in the years to come the dwellings 
 of the pale-faces would stand as thick as trees 
 between the river and the lake, while her own 
 people would be doomed to perish from the land, 
 and their memory would be like the mist that 
 shrouded the face of the great father of waters 
 in the cold mornings of winter. 
 
 Although she was the only Indian who stood 
 there watching the trees fall one by one around 
 her, yet her dark prophecy of woe was felt by 
 all the tribe. 
 
 Many and fierce were the conflicts between 
 
78 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 the Indians and the whites in those early days 
 of Louisiana, but the savages always felt despair 
 in their hearts, for they knew they were no 
 match against the oreater wisdom of the whites. 
 And another cause of discouragement was the 
 loss of the sacred fire. The guardians of the 
 temples had let the holy flame die out, and for 
 fear of punishment, had kindled it with a profane 
 spark, and thus, when it happened afterward 
 that the other temple fire went out and the priest 
 came in haste to procure the borrowed coals, 
 the sacred fire which he asked for could not be 
 given him ; and when this became known among 
 the nation, they felt that they had lost their 
 most precious treasure, and would hereafter suf- 
 fer all kinds of misery and woe as a punishment 
 for the carelessness of the temple guardians. 
 
 And this gloomy foreboding came to pass, for 
 as time went on, the Natchez became fewer and 
 fewer, their brave warriors were killed in battle, 
 and multitudes of the common people were sold 
 as slaves, until at last they, with the other tribes 
 of Louisiana, gave up the contest in despair, and 
 looked on with hopeless hearts while village 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 79 
 
 after village, and town after town, arose peopled 
 with whites, and merry pale-faced children played 
 among the forests and groves of orange and 
 magnolia trees, through which their own dark- 
 eyed little ones had formerly wandered as free 
 as the air, and as happy as the flowers at their 
 feet. 
 
 New Orleans was made the capital in a few 
 years, and as all the colonists had long since 
 given up the idea of gathering up gold and silver 
 from the rivers and meadows, they turned their 
 attention to the cultivation of the land. 
 
 Great plantations were laid out, and as the 
 peasants who had come from France found it 
 almost impossible to work in the fields during 
 the warm season, it was decided to introduce 
 slavery into the colony. 
 
 And so vessels were sent from France to 
 Africa to bring slaves to Louisiana, and as the 
 negroes were kidnapped from their homes and 
 brought very fair prices when sold to the plant- 
 ers, the slave trade became very profitable. 
 
 The blacks performed almost all the field 
 work, and as they could easily labor even in the 
 
80 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 greatest heat, the plantations soon became very 
 valuable. 
 
 Rice, cotton, indigo, corn, and tobacco were 
 the chief productions of the cultivated portions 
 of the country, while furs, skins, and boards were 
 procured in abundance from the forests, and 
 found a ready sale in the old world. 
 
 In 1 75 1 some sugar-canes were sent from 
 the West Indies, as a present to the priests in 
 New Orleans. A few negroes, who understood 
 the raising of these plants, were also sent, but 
 although the greatest pains were taken, the 
 attempt was unsuccessful, and for many years 
 after that it was thought impossible to raise 
 sugar in Louisiana. 
 
 But in the midst of prosperity troubles arose 
 in the colony, the Indians became more and 
 more hostile, and the English had begun to 
 make themselves troublesome. 
 
 A great many soldiers had to be sent from 
 France to keep order and defend the colonies 
 from their foes, and as the expenses of this 
 army were very great, and agriculture and 
 trade began to suffer, it soon happened that 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Louisiana became very expensive to the French 
 crown. 
 
 One trouble followed another, and at last, 
 after a long war with the English in Canada, 
 France gave to England all her possessions east 
 of the Mississippi, and to Spain, whose help she 
 had asked, all her territory west of the Missis- 
 sippi, and thus Louisiana came to be a part of the 
 Spanish crown. This treaty was signed in 1762. 
 
 The inhabitants of the colony, whites and 
 Indians alike, disliked the idea of being governed 
 by Spain, but all their prayers were of no avail, 
 and they were forced to accept a Spanish gov- 
 ernor and to consider themselves a part of Spain. 
 
 A little while after this Louisiana received 
 large numbers of the Acadians, whom the Eng- 
 lish had driven from Nova Scotia. 
 
 Ever since they had left their own homes in 
 the north, the Acadians had been longing to 
 seek refuge in some province of France, where 
 they might live in the midst of their own people, 
 and hear their own language, and be governed 
 according to their own law and religion. And 
 although the English had at first scattered the 
 
82 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 poor outcasts among their own colonies, the 
 Acadians, by refusing to look upon their new 
 neighbors as friends, and by their undying hat- 
 red of their conquerors, at last became such a 
 burden that the English were glad to let them 
 go where they wished. 
 
 And thus it happened that the first thing of 
 importance that occurred after Louisiana be- 
 came a part of Spain, was the arrival of these 
 new-comers, whose hearts were still loyal to the 
 lilies of France, and who joined with the Louis- 
 ianians in their hatred of their new masters. 
 
 Added to this dislike, the Spanish governor 
 proved haughty and overbearing, caring little 
 for the wishes of his French subjects. Trouble 
 at once began, which increased year after year, 
 until the Louisianians, joined by the Acadians 
 and blacks, revolted against the power of Spain. 
 
 But Spain considered it her interest to keep 
 possession of Louisiana, and as a lesson to the 
 colony, and in order to show her power to 
 Mexico, which was also a Spanish colony, the 
 leaders of the revolution were sentenced to 
 death, and the power of the French was broken. 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 83 
 
 Their dislike of Spain, however, increased as 
 time went on, and notwithstanding the presence 
 of the Spaniards the colony remained French. 
 
 The richer class still retained the manners 
 and customs of their beloved fatherland, and in 
 the towns, and on the plantations along the river, 
 could be seen the easy and graceful manners and 
 the elegant costumes of the French court. For 
 although the dwellings were very humble com- 
 pared with the beautiful mansions of Paris, the 
 Louisianians still surrounded themselves with 
 all the luxury they could obtain, and in a home 
 of the most modest pretensions might be seen 
 the gold-embroidered coat, the lace and frills, 
 and silver-handled sword, the brocaded gown, 
 powdered head, and flowered skirts of the 
 court. 
 
 Although Spain put down the rebellion so 
 quickly, discontent still remained, and there was 
 constant trouble with the Spanish authorities. 
 
 Indeed, during the forty years that Louisiana 
 was held by Spain, its inhabitants never failed 
 to show by word and deed their loyalty to 
 France. 
 
84 THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Finally, in 1800, Spain gave Louisiana back 
 to France. But France was in no condition then 
 to take advantage of such a priceless gift. She 
 was very much in debt, and was at war with 
 nearly every country of Europe. 
 
 The United States had in the meantime 
 taken their place among the nations of the world, 
 and the western territories had found it very bad 
 for their trade to have the Mississippi in the 
 possession of a foreign nation which might at any 
 time declare war and close the river to Ameri- 
 can vessels. 
 
 The United States then thought of buy- 
 ing the island on which New Orleans stands, 
 and the right of passage to the Gulf, but before 
 this offer was made France proposed to sell the 
 whole region of Louisiana to the new Republic. 
 The United States did not hesitate very long, 
 and in 1803 paid France fifteen millions of dol- 
 lars, and received in return all that vast territory 
 lying between the Gulf of Mexico on the south 
 and the British possessions on the north, and 
 extending from the Mississippi to the Rocky 
 Mountains. 
 
THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 85 
 
 The purchase of Louisiana was one of the 
 most important things in the early history of 
 the United States. 
 
 It doubled the territory of the country, and 
 with its vast resources, promised to increase its 
 wealth a hundred-fold. The culture of the sugar- 
 cane had been successfully begun a few years 
 before, and this, together with the immense 
 cotton plantations, became a source of enor- 
 mous riches. 
 
 The city of New Orleans is to-day the 
 greatest cotton market in the world, and its 
 sugar trade is only second to that of Havana. 
 
 The city still retains its French character, 
 although it has been for nearly a hundred years 
 a part of an English-speaking country; and in 
 looking over its numberless streets, and beauti- 
 ful dwellings, and busy population, one can see 
 that the prophecy of the Indian sibyl at the time 
 of its foundation has come true ; for the dwell- 
 ings of the white man indeed stand as thick as 
 the trees of the forest, while the red man has 
 vanished from the scene forever, and even his 
 memory is fading away. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE TO THE 
 PACIFIC OCEAN. 
 
 The purchase of Louisiana had given to the 
 United States a vast region almost unknown to 
 the white man. 
 
 From the earliest settlement of America, the 
 French in Canada had been familiar with the 
 tribes living on either side of the Mississippi, and 
 it was said they had even journeyed up the Mis- 
 souri and become acquainted with the Indians 
 of that part of the country ; but to the people of 
 the United States all the great territory west of 
 the Mississippi was as strange as the lands 
 around the North Pole are to-day. 
 
 But so great was the interest awakened by 
 the purchase of the new lands, that the Govern- 
 ment decided to send out an exploring party to 
 
PIONEERS IN THE 
 
EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 87 
 
 gain information about Louisiana and report its 
 value. 
 
 This expedition was ordered to follow the 
 Missouri up to its sources, and crossing the 
 Rocky Mountains, descend to the sea by the 
 streams, thus rinding out the great water-ways 
 across the continent. It was also to study the 
 habits of the strange tribes of Indians, and the 
 nature of the country, its climate, soil, vegetable 
 and mineral wealth, its mountains, volcanoes, 
 lakes, and rivers, and the animals that roamed 
 in its forests. 
 
 The expedition was led by two officers by 
 the name of Lewis and Clarke, and loaded with 
 presents for the Indians, left St. Louis, which 
 was then a small village, in May, 1804. 
 
 It was the pleasantest part of the year to un- 
 dertake such a journey, and for many days the 
 party sailed peacefully up the river, enjoying the 
 beautiful country through which they were pass- 
 ing. 
 
 In some places groves of cottonwood, syc- 
 amore, hickory and walnut trees came down to 
 the water's edge, their trunks twined thick with 
 
88 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 
 
 grape-vines, and their leaves drooping low over 
 the rushes that lined the banks. 
 
 Again could be seen clouds of peach-blossoms 
 hanging above meadows beautiful with violets, 
 cowslips and wild roses, while the prairies were 
 red for miles with the ripe strawberries. The 
 weather, too, was favorable to travelling, and as 
 the sails were often sufficient to move the boat, 
 the men could journey for hours at a time with- 
 out even the exertion of rowing. 
 
 The first thing that was unpleasant happened 
 when they received news that the Indians would 
 not believe that the country had been bought by 
 the United States, and had burned the letter that 
 had been sent to them telling them of this fact. 
 
 But when the exploring party appeared 
 among them, the natives showed a disposition 
 to be friendly, and Captain Lewis remained with 
 them several days. Among the tribes in this 
 part of the country were the Osage Indians, who 
 had a very curious belief as to their origin. 
 They told the white men that ages and ages be- 
 fore, a great snail that had been lying along the 
 river bank, had been washed down to the mouth 
 
EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 89 
 
 of the Missouri and ripened by the sun into a 
 man. Then the Great Spirit gave him a bow 
 and arrow, and taught him how to kill deer, and 
 cook its flesh and make clothing of its skin. 
 
 But when the new-made man started back 
 to his home up the river, he was met by an old 
 beaver who threatened to drive him away. As 
 the snail-man was not so strong as his enemy, he 
 would have had to leave the country forever had 
 not the beaver's daughter fallen in love with 
 him. The old beaver consented to their mar- 
 riage, and they settled upon the banks of the 
 Osage; but out of respect to their origin their 
 descendants held the beaver as a sacred animal, 
 and never hunted it. 
 
 After this stop the party went on its way, but 
 not quite so swiftly or pleasantly ; for the river 
 was now in some places filled with drift-wood 
 and sand-bars, and sometimes the oars had to 
 be used all day. 
 
 The country was still beautiful — the low- 
 lands were covered with rich grass, vines, flow- 
 ers and berries, with groves of cherry, willow, 
 and hazel; plums and apples were abundant ; in 
 
90 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 
 
 the trees were strange birds, with voices like 
 nightingales ; through the forests roamed herds 
 of elk and deer. 
 
 They travelled leisurely along, and after 
 passing the Platte selected a shady and comfort- 
 able position for camping, and sent messengers 
 to the Pawnee and Sioux, and other tribes, in- 
 viting them to a friendly meeting. 
 
 The chiefs and their warriors readily re- 
 sponded to the invitation, and there on the river- 
 banks, with the great forest around them and 
 the meadow-flowers at their feet, in the midst 
 of beautiful and harmonious surroundings, the 
 Indians gave their first promises of friendship 
 to the United States ; and with their pipes of 
 peace pointed toward the white captains, ac- 
 knowledged the President of the Republic as 
 their Great Father, and vowed to protect their 
 white brothers who were travelling among 
 them. 
 
 It was the first treaty made with the Indians 
 of the plains — and if the whites had kept the 
 faith that w r as then given, the long years of 
 trouble that followed would have been avoided ; 
 
EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 9 1 
 
 but, whatever came afterward, both sides were at 
 that time sincere, and so peace was kept and 
 real friendship promised. 
 
 The Indians were delighted with the pres- 
 ents that were distributed among them, which 
 consisted of flags, tomahawks, knives, beads, 
 looking-glasses, richly laced coats, and medals 
 imprinted with the likeness of the President ; 
 and they in turn presented the travellers with 
 choice robes and highly dressed skins. 
 
 After the council was over, and the chiefs 
 dismissed, the party proceeded on its way — - 
 meeting now with immense herds of buffaloes, 
 and noticing that the country still seemed rich 
 and beautiful, though the summer was gone and 
 the early autumn had begun to touch the leaves 
 with frost and cover the river with morning and 
 evening mists. The days were cool and the 
 swallows had disappeared, while great flocks of 
 white gulls, with wings tipped with black, circled 
 above. 
 
 Plums, grapes, and berries were ripe and 
 abundant, and game and fish were easily ob- 
 tained ; so that the travellers fared well, al- 
 
92 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 
 
 though the nights grew frostier and the sky was 
 frequently darkened with the southward-flying 
 birds. 
 
 As they approached the north, the nights 
 grew brilliant and beautiful with the tinted rays 
 of the aurora and the golden splendor of the 
 autumn moon. Herds of antelope were seen 
 journeying toward their winter quarters in the 
 Black Hills, and everything gave notice of the 
 approach of the cold season. 
 
 Late in the autumn the party arrived at the 
 country of the Mandan Indians, within the pres- 
 ent Territory of Dakota, and here it was decided 
 to spend the winter. 
 
 The Mandans received them hospitably, pre- 
 sented them with handsome robes, and helped 
 them build their cabins. By the time these 
 .were finished the cold had come in earnest, the 
 last swans had gone south, and the morning 
 frost lingered on the trees till noonday ; then the 
 snow came and the river froze, and the trav- 
 ellers settled down to a quiet life in the Indian 
 village. 
 
 They made short expeditions up and down 
 
EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 93 
 
 the frozen river, travelled on snow-shoes through 
 the surrounding forests, and went on hunting- 
 parties with their dark-skinned entertainers ; 
 while in the evenings they all sat around the 
 blazing fires and listened to the curious tales 
 which the Indians told of hunting and fishing, 
 and of the deeds of the chiefs and warriors, and 
 their strange beliefs about life and the world of 
 spirits. 
 
 The Mandans believed that the whole tribe 
 once lived underground near a wide, dark lake. 
 Above, on the earth, grew a grape-vine, which 
 sent its roots deep down into the ground and 
 gave the people below their first glimpse of the 
 light. Some of the tribe, more adventurous 
 than the rest, climbed the grape-vine to the 
 world above, and returned bringing clusters of 
 purple grapes. This wonderful deed so excited 
 the admiration of the dwellers by the lake that 
 they all determined to climb the vine, and seek 
 new homes above-ground. And this would 
 have been accomplished had not the vine broken 
 under the weight of one very fat old lady, who 
 tumbled backward taking half the people with 
 
94 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 
 
 her. The remainder reached the light safely, 
 and lived very contentedly above-ground ; but 
 when they died they expected to return again 
 to the lake, and dwell there forever. This and 
 many another stranger tale the Mandans told 
 with perfect sincerity, and the white men who 
 listened felt that they were indeed a curious 
 people, and as different from them as the inhabi- 
 tants of another world. 
 
 And so the winter passed in the little camp 
 away up in the north, where the lakes lay frozen 
 for months and the trees around their borders 
 were white with snows. But the warm weather 
 came at last ; the snow melted, and some tiny 
 plants began to show themselves above-ground ; 
 and the Indians gathered roots and herbs, and 
 showed the whites how to use them for differ- 
 ent purposes, such as the bite of a mad dog or a 
 rattlesnake, or various other kinds of sickness. 
 
 Overhead they saw the swans flying north- 
 ward, and flies, and bugs, and gnats began to 
 appear. The ice broke up in the river and came 
 down in great quantities, carrying with it buffa- 
 loes and other animals which the hunters se- 
 
EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 95 
 
 cured. And in a little while the travellers built 
 some new canoes, and started again on their 
 journey. 
 
 They passed the great bend in the Missouri 
 and went on toward the mountains, which they 
 were eager to reach, their way still lying amid 
 pleasant scenes, for the spring was as beautiful 
 here as farther south. The fruit-trees bloomed, 
 and the willows put forth their golden leaves, and 
 the cotton-wood hung full of purple blossoms. 
 The robins came, accompanied by the curlews 
 and larks, while far above the flocks of pelicans 
 passed swiftly through the air on their journey 
 to the far north. 
 
 The country was alive with animals return- 
 ing from their winter haunts — the squirrel, wea- 
 sel, fox, marten, and hare appeared in immense 
 numbers, as also the deer, antelope, white bear, 
 and wolf. 
 
 A little later the wild rose began to bloom, 
 and the thrush to sing ; and amid such familiar 
 sights and sounds the party went on its way 
 through the new country. 
 
 They passed the Yellowstone, and proceed- 
 
96 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 
 
 ed without mishap until they neared the Great 
 Falls. 
 
 Here they left the river, and began their 
 overland journey to its sources. The paths 
 were easy of travel, and the country as interest- 
 ing as ever ; sometimes a loud noise would be 
 borne to them on the wind, and echo and re- 
 echo among the hills. The Indians said that 
 this was caused bv the bursting of silver-mines 
 in the mountains ; but although the travellers 
 noted carefully the appearance of the soil and 
 the bed of the river, they did not catch a glimpse 
 of the wealth that lay hidden away there, and 
 the mountains kept their secret for many a long 
 year to come. 
 
 The river grew narrower and more crooked 
 as they went on, and up from its sides great 
 granite-cliffs began to rise, like sentinels guard- 
 ing the entrance to its source. The road be- 
 came rugged and hard to climb, and progress 
 was slow. Far away, the mountains towered, 
 grand and beautiful, with their summits covered 
 with snow ; and everywhere clear mountain- 
 brooks rushed swiftly by, their waters as pure 
 
EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 97 
 
 and cold as the ice-bound springs from which 
 they started. 
 
 Farther on, the road was often covered with 
 snow, although it was the last of June, and in 
 the valleys below the flowers were blooming. 
 The mountains were covered with pine, cedar, 
 and balsam trees, and their spicy odors filled the 
 air and brought health and strength to the trav- 
 ellers. At last they came to a wall of black 
 granite, which rose high above and extended 
 for miles and miles, leading to a passage 
 which the travellers called the Gate of the 
 Mountains, and passing through this they 
 went on until they discovered the source of the 
 Missouri. 
 
 Part of their object was accomplished, for 
 they had found the beginning of the river whose 
 starting-point had always been such a mystery, 
 and which had long been supposed to lead to 
 the Pacific. 
 
 But, although the waters of the Missouri did 
 not actually go to the sea, it was still possible 
 to reach it by continuing westward, and so Cap- 
 tain Clarke and his company again started on 
 
98 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 
 
 their journey, and reaching the head-waters of 
 the Columbia, after a toilsome passage of the 
 mountains, again took to their canoes and pro- 
 ceeded down the river toward the ocean. 
 
 Canoeing was not always easy, as the river 
 contained numerous rapids, narrows, and falls ; 
 but as the adventurers were generally warned 
 of these by the Indians, they went on without 
 accident. 
 
 The natives along the shores made frequent 
 visits to the party of white men, and from them 
 dried fish was procured, and also fine game. 
 
 From one chief Captain Clarke received a 
 sketch of the Columbia, and of some of the tribes 
 along its banks. It was drawn with a piece 
 of coal on a robe, and was afterward copied 
 by one of the men in order to preserve its 
 character. 
 
 The journey down the Columbia occupied 
 many weeks, and it was not until late in the 
 autumn that the mouth of the river was reached ; 
 but one rainy morning, when the fog was so 
 thick that it hid all the surrounding country, 
 and the hills and mountains showed only dim, 
 
EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 99 
 
 uncertain outlines, the travellers stopped at a 
 little Indian village to purchase some food and 
 beaver-skins. The village was built on a little 
 island in the middle of the river, which imme- 
 diately below widened into a bay which was 
 full of low islands below high-water mark. 
 From one bank rose high mountains, and back 
 from the other low hills stretched irregularly 
 along. 
 
 The white men made their bargains and pro- 
 ceeded leisurely along, when suddenly the fog 
 lifted, and there, right before their eyes, they saw 
 the waters of the Pacific. A little farther on the 
 roar of the breakers came to their ears, and they 
 felt that their long journey was accomplished. 
 
 It was on the 7th of November, 1805, when 
 the ocean was reached, the party having trav- 
 elled over four thousand miles since leaving St. 
 Louis. 
 
 As it was too late in the season to think of 
 returning across the mountains, a good place 
 was chosen for winter quarters and the party 
 went into camp. 
 
 Indian visitors frequently came to trade with 
 
IOO EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 
 
 them, and the whites noticed that the natives 
 were extravagantly fond of blue beads, counting 
 them of more value than anything else. In one 
 case the Americans, wishing to buy an otter-skin, 
 offered the chief a watch, a handkerchief, a silver 
 dollar, and a bunch of red beads ; but he refused 
 each in turn, although the watch seemed very 
 curious to him. He wanted only the blue beads, 
 which he considered priceless. 
 
 The winter was mild, and except for the fre- 
 quent rains, agreeable, with so little cold that 
 until January the meat had to be preserved by 
 smoking. Some birds stayed all through the 
 winter months, and in February the robins re- 
 turned and insects began flying about. 
 
 Captain Lewis and his men spent these 
 months in studying carefully all the conditions 
 of the new country, and the habits of the na- 
 tives. 
 
 They found that the Indians of the Colum- 
 bia River region lived chiefly by means of fish- 
 ing. From May till November the rivers and 
 streams were alive with fishermen, who when the 
 autumn came, buried the fish and began gather- 
 
EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. IOI 
 
 ing roots and herbs till the snow came. Then 
 the fish were dug up, and going up to the moun- 
 tains they passed the winter in hunting, the game 
 and fish providing them with food till the warm 
 weather came. 
 
 There were many different tribes living along 
 the river, and their manner of life was carefully 
 studied, as also their disposition toward stran- 
 gers. For the most part the natives seemed 
 willing enough to be friendly with the whites, 
 and often assisted them in their explorations of 
 the country. 
 
 The trees, flowers, shrubs, and berries were 
 all described in the journal kept by the leaders, 
 as were also the beasts, birds, fishes, and insects, 
 it being found that in some respects the trees, 
 and flowers, and smaller animals resembled those 
 of the East, and in many cases were of the same 
 kind. As soon as it became possible to travel 
 the party set out on its homeward journey, which 
 it took several months to accomplish. They 
 reached St. Louis in safety, and were received 
 with the greatest enthusiasm by the inhabitants 
 of that little village. 
 
102 EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 
 
 The news of their return and the reports of 
 their wonderful journey soon spread all over 
 the country. In every town and village of the 
 Union nothing was talked of but the wonders 
 of the great West — its immense rivers, gigantic 
 mountain-ranges, beautiful prairies, and fertile 
 plains and valleys. 
 
 Not until then did the people begin to realize 
 how important had been the purchase of Lou- 
 isiana, and what a source of wealth and power 
 the new country might become. 
 
 The Mississippi was no longer looked upon 
 as the western frontier, but everyone looked be- 
 yond it to the rivers that had so lately guided the 
 canoe of the white man to the snowy peaks of the 
 Rocky Mountains, and had led him at length to 
 the shores of that western ocean which Spanish 
 adventurer and French explorer had in vain tried 
 to reach through the impenetrable forests and 
 inhospitable plains that hindered their progress 
 and made them turn back discouraged, little 
 dreaming that the Pacific would at last be 
 reached by the youngest of the nations, and that 
 the first banner to float over the new country 
 
EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARKE. 103 
 
 would be neither the gorgeous standard of 
 Spain nor the fleur-de-lis of France, but the then 
 unknown flag, whose little cluster of stars in its 
 field of blue shone as purely as the mountain- 
 snows that gleamed against the summer skies 
 under which it was first unfurled. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 
 
 In the early ages of the world, when the sea was 
 yet to man a thing of awe and terror, whose 
 uttermost limits were supposed to be peopled 
 with demons and the spirits of darkness, the 
 boldest sailors never ventured beyond a day's 
 journey from the shore. 
 
 Skirting slowly along the coasts, their little 
 open boats would move from place to place, and 
 city to city, carrying rare and valuable merchan- 
 dise from the East to the Mediterranean towns, 
 or creep cautiously along the Spanish and 
 French shores up to Britain in search of tin 
 and other metals, while all the time the sailors 
 would be carefully examining the earth and sky, 
 looking anxiously for good harbors as the night 
 came on, and dreading nothing so much as the 
 light of the first star, which often only came to 
 
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 
 
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 105 
 
 them as a solemn messenger, warning them that 
 the day was past and they were still far from 
 port. 
 
 For hundreds of years this method of sea- 
 voyaging was kept up, and even much later on, 
 when the fierce and courageous Norse vikings 
 had begun to sail the northern seas in their 
 staunch vessels, the ocean still seemed an awful 
 and mysterious place, where sudden dangers 
 might easily overtake, and unseen perils encom- 
 pass, the adventurous mariner. 
 
 And as the viking ships plunged through 
 the stormy waves of the northern ocean, some- 
 times lost in fogs, and often in danger of being 
 crushed between great icebergs, or dashed to 
 pieces against inhospitable shores, whose out- 
 lines shone dimly through the shrouding sea- 
 mists, the brave sailors on board felt that, fond 
 as they were of the sea, it was still full of 
 threatening evils, and as much to be feared as 
 loved. 
 
 After the invention of the compass, ocean 
 voyaging became less dangerous, the Atlantic 
 and Pacific came to be familiar highways, and 
 
106 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 
 
 regular travel was established between the Old 
 World and the New. But although travelling 
 by sea was safer and more comfortable than it 
 had ever been before, it still seemed to many 
 that great improvements might yet be made. 
 
 And while Lewis and Clarke were moving 
 up the waters of the Missouri in their Indian 
 canoes, and the products of the Mississippi Val- 
 ley were being carried down to New Orleans in 
 flat-boats, and the vessels plying across, the At- 
 lantic took weeks and months to make a single 
 voyage, there was living in Europe an American 
 inventor whose head was full of a great plan by 
 which these slow ways of travelling might be 
 done away with, and vessels be carried across 
 the ocean, and up and down the great rivers of 
 the United States, at a much faster rate than 
 had ever been reached before. 
 
 This man, whose name was Robert Fulton, 
 had from his earliest childhood shown the 
 greatest talent for invention. 
 
 He was born in Lancaster, Pa., in the year 
 1765, and lived for seventeen years in that 
 healthy and beautiful region, seizing every op- 
 
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 107 
 
 portunity for studying drawing and mechanics, 
 and often astonishing his friends by some clever 
 little invention. 
 
 He made wonderful toys and original fire- 
 works ; he invented an air-gun, and was always 
 welcome at the gunsmith's, where his ornamen- 
 tal designs for decorating guns, and his sketches 
 for new weapons of this kind, were often made 
 use of; and his drawings and caricatures were a 
 never-ceasing source of amusement to his friends. 
 
 When the Revolution broke out, and the 
 boys of the town divided themselves into "To- 
 ries" and "Patriots," the young artist's sketches 
 of the Tory boys were always greeted with 
 shouts of enthusiasm by the Patriot class. So 
 bitter was the feeling between the two parties 
 that the boys used to meet regularly at sunset 
 near the barracks, where some British prisoners 
 were confined, and engage in a regular fight 
 over a rope that was stretched across the street. 
 After a few of these combats young Fulton 
 drew a sketch representing the Patriot boys 
 jumping over the rope and giving the Tories a 
 desperate thrashing, and this picture so inspired 
 
I08 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 
 
 the young revolutionists that the next evening 
 they followed out the hint it contained, and leap- 
 ing over the rope, attacked the Tories so fiercely 
 that the town authorities had to be called upon 
 to stop the fight and forbid any future recur- 
 rence of it. 
 
 But although Robert Fulton was as fond of 
 sport as other boys of his age, he was also 
 very earnest and thoughtful, and even his 
 amusements suggested grave thoughts to him. 
 From his love of fishing he invented a little fish- 
 ing-boat, with paddle-wheels to propel it, in- 
 stead of the heavy and awkward pole that was 
 in general use ; and in his expeditions into the 
 country the flight of the birds through the air, 
 and the motion of the fish through the water, 
 often led him to wonder whether man, too, might 
 not be able at some future time to travel from 
 place to place more rapidly than he could do at 
 present. 
 
 But although this thought was always pres- 
 ent with him, his early manhood was devoted to 
 other things. At seventeen he went to Phila- 
 delphia, and supported himself there for several 
 
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. IO9 
 
 years by painting - portraits and landscapes, and 
 making drawings of machinery. 
 
 After this he went to Europe, where he re- 
 mained many years, studying, planning, and in- 
 venting. Bridges, railways, canals, aqueducts, 
 and machines of all kinds engaged his attention, 
 and he was employed at different times by the 
 English Government, which was very glad to 
 make use of his many talents. 
 
 He also was busy with plans for building 
 great canals in the United States, thus connect- 
 ing the East and West together, and providing 
 means of transportation for the products of the 
 different States. 
 
 But all the time that he was o-ivinQf his atten- 
 tion to so many different subjects he was still 
 cherishing his great idea for a more rapid way 
 of travelling by water. During all these years 
 there hung on his wall a sketch of a steamboat, 
 and in spite of delay and disappointment, he 
 repeated with a cheerful heart his favorite motto, 
 That the liberty of the seas would be the happi- 
 ness of the earth. 
 
 One of the greatest of Fulton's inventions 
 
I IO THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 
 
 was the torpedo, which was used for blowing up 
 vessels of war. The English Government pro- 
 vided a brig for an experiment with the torpedo, 
 and hundreds of people lined the shore, on the 
 day chosen, to watch the result. The experi- 
 ment was a complete success, the explosion of 
 the torpedo lifting the brig high in the air, 
 breaking her in two and shattering her to pieces 
 as easily as if she had been an egg-shell. 
 
 But it was thought by the great inventor that 
 the torpedo could be used to much greater ad- 
 vantage if it could be sent from a boat underneath 
 the water. He therefore turned his attention to 
 the invention of a diving boat for carrying tor- 
 pedoes. After some time he built a vessel 
 which he thought would be suitable for such 
 purposes, and in the spring of 1801 decided to 
 make an experiment on the French coast at 
 Brest ; but it was not until the following August 
 that he considered his invention a perfect suc- 
 cess, since many trials were made before all the 
 difficulties of such an undertaking were over- 
 come. The boat was called the Nautilus, and 
 was so constructed that her sails and rigging 
 
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. I I I 
 
 could easily be hauled down, and the vessel thus 
 allowed to plunge down into the water. Near 
 the bow was a window of thick glass, which 
 gave sufficient light to tell the time by, and in a 
 copper globe was forced a large quantity of pure 
 air, so that the crew could remain for hours un- 
 der water with perfect safety. 
 
 With such a vessel as this, a country would 
 have all the ships of war in the world at her 
 mercy. 
 
 The Nautilus could approach a vessel, launch 
 a torpedo at her, and then dive below the water 
 completely out of sight, and only reappear again 
 when many leagues away. 
 
 This wonderful invention filled Europe with 
 astonishment. Twenty years before the world 
 had beheld with amazement the first balloon 
 rise in the air, and now it seemed that man's 
 ingenuity had found a means of rivalling the 
 powers of the monsters of the deep as well as 
 those of the birds of the air. Men began to talk 
 of what was waiting for the race in the future, 
 and with these wonderful inventions in mind it 
 no longer seemed impossible to believe that the 
 
112 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 
 
 time might come when people would fly through 
 the air and walk upon the sea. 
 
 But although such boats as the Nautilus 
 might be considered very useful in war, Fulton 
 thought a great deal more about making a ves- 
 sel that would be useful in time of peace. 
 
 Already many inventors of different nations 
 had attempted to build boats that could be 
 moved by steam, but so far all had been unsuc- 
 cessful. 
 
 Fulton set himself about finding where the 
 faults lay, and after many trials and failures at 
 last made a model which he thought would an- 
 swer. From this model he built a boat, while 
 still in France, and proposed making an experi- 
 ment with her on the Seine. But just as the 
 preparations were about complete, word was 
 brought to him that the boat had broken in 
 pieces and gone to the bottom. Fulton found 
 that the machinery had been too heavy for 
 the frame of the boat, and not in the least 
 discouraged by the accident began building a 
 larger vessel. The same engines were used, 
 and the boat, when completed, was sixty-six feet 
 
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 113 
 
 long and eight feet wide. The trial trip was 
 made in the presence of the members of the 
 French National Institute, and large numbers of 
 Parisians, and was entirely satisfactory. 
 
 Fulton was now so confident that steam 
 could be used for propelling boats, that he im- 
 mediately sent to England and ordered parts of 
 a steam-engine to be made and sent to America, 
 intending that his next steamboat should be 
 built in that country. 
 
 He reached the United States in 1806, and 
 at once set about his work of building a larger 
 vessel than he had yet attempted. 
 
 All during - the time that the new boat was 
 building, Fulton and his friends were subjected 
 to the ridicule and sneers of those who had no 
 faith in the project. ' 
 
 As it was very expensive to undertake such 
 a work, there was an attempt made to borrow 
 money, giving the lender an interest in the ves- 
 sel ; but every effort of this kind met with utter 
 failure. Men would have as soon thought of 
 lending money to build a flying machine to go 
 to the moon. One of the chief objections to 
 
114 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 
 
 the scheme was that it would take so much wood 
 to keep up the fires that the boat would break 
 under the weight of the engines and fuel. 
 
 But Fulton paid no heed to these objections, 
 and kept on with his work. The boat was fin- 
 ished in 1807, furnished with the engines from 
 England, and in the same year made her first 
 trip on the Hudson. On the day of launching, 
 the shores of the Hudson were lined with spec- 
 tators, nearly all of whom had been drawn 
 thither by the desire to ridicule the boat and its 
 builder. 
 
 But the new vessel, which had been named 
 the Clermont, soon proved that Fulton well 
 knew how wisely he was building. She glided 
 out from the wharf with the ease of a swan, and 
 as each revolution of the wheels showed the suc- 
 cess of the undertaking, loud shouts went up 
 from the excited lookers-on, and the name of 
 Fulton was cheered to the skies. 
 
 A short time after this the Clermont made 
 her first trip to Albany, creating the most in- 
 tense excitement all along the shores of the 
 Hudson ; many of the people of that region had 
 
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 115 
 
 never even heard of a steam-engine, and when 
 they saw this strange-looking - object moving up 
 the river in the face of wind and tide, their curi- 
 osity and surprise knew no bounds. Never be- 
 fore, since the white sails of the Half-Moon had 
 appeared beneath its wooded hills, had the Hud- 
 son witnessed so strange a sight as this. 
 
 The simple villagers looked out of their win- 
 dows in dismay at this strange monster that was 
 breaking the quiet of the night with such un- 
 earthly sounds, and breathing out flames and 
 smoke as he approached. 
 
 The fishermen, in their little shallops, and 
 the crews of the small vessels drifting down 
 stream, or lying at anchor, were terror-stricken, 
 and fled to the shore or took refuge in their 
 cabins, only venturing to look out again when 
 the dreadful noises had died away, and the aw- 
 ful object had vanished in the darkness, leaving 
 only a long train of light behind to show that 
 the whole thing had not been a dream. 
 
 When the Clermont passed Poughkeepsie a 
 group of villagers standing on a high bluff oppo- 
 site were just as terrified, although it was day. 
 
Il6 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 
 
 They watched the strange visitant approaching 
 without being able to imagine its nature in the 
 least. Some declared it was a sea-monster, 
 while others said they believed it to be a sign 
 of the approaching judgment. When it came 
 nearer, and they saw it was some sort of a ves- 
 sel, their astonishment was still greater ; for in- 
 stead of gracefully tapering masts and swelling 
 sails, they saw only straight black pipes rising 
 high above the deck, and naked paddle-wheels 
 turning and splashing, while dense clouds of 
 smoke filled all the air and dimmed the vision 
 of the wondering crowd. 
 
 The Clermont reached Albany safely, run- 
 ning at the rate of five miles an hour, and prov- 
 ing beyond a doubt, that navigation by steam 
 was as safe and practicable as sailing or rowing, 
 while the advantage gained by being able to 
 move against wind and tide was so great that 
 it could not be calculated. 
 
 In 1812 two steamboats were built by Fulton 
 to be used as ferry-boats for crossing the Hud- 
 son River, taking twenty minutes for the trip, 
 and at the same time floating docks were built 
 
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. WJ 
 
 at the wharves, so that the boats could come to 
 shore without a shock. 
 
 After this the building of steamboats went 
 on rapidly, and in a few years the sound of the 
 steam-whistle, and the clouds of smoke and 
 sparks from the huge black pipes, became al- 
 most as familiar to the dwellers of the Ohio and 
 Mississippi valleys as had been the Indian canoes 
 or the ugly and ungraceful flatboat. 
 
 Ocean travel by steam was only delayed a 
 few years. In 1819 the steamship Savannah 
 made a voyage across the Atlantic to Liverpool, 
 going from there on to St. Petersburg, stopping 
 in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The Swed- 
 ish kinsr offered one hundred thousand dollars 
 for the vessel, but as the amount was to be 
 paid in hemp and iron the offer was refused. 
 
 At every port thousands of spectators came 
 thronging down to the shore to see this wonder- 
 ful messenger from across the seas, whose white 
 sails now gleamed along the rugged northern 
 coasts, and then again were folded like the 
 wings of a tired bird, while she still glided se- 
 renely on her way secure against wind and tide. 
 
Il8 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 
 
 The voyage of the Savannah led the way to 
 the organization of numerous steamship compa- 
 nies, and as time went on, passenger vessels 
 and ships of war were alike thought incomplete 
 unless furnished with steam power. At first the 
 paddle-wheels were so made that they could be 
 taken off and stored away while the ship went 
 on under sail ; but the years brought gradual 
 improvements, until the ocean steamer became 
 the almost perfect vessel that it is now. 
 
 As Fulton had foreseen, the invention of the 
 steamboat was one of the most important things 
 in the history of civilization. Without it the 
 great rivers of the world would still only be used 
 by sailing vessels, dependent on currents and 
 winds, and ocean travel still be the tedious and 
 dangerous thing it was when months were spent 
 in sailing across the Atlantic, in a ship wholly 
 at the mercy of the weather, and liable at any 
 time to be driven upon a strange coast, or to 
 drift hopelessly among icebergs, and blinding 
 fo^rs to sure destruction. 
 
 Fulton died in 1815, and was buried in Trin- 
 ity Church-yard, New York, and although it is 
 
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. IIQ 
 
 said he left his family penniless, he yet had the 
 satisfaction of knowing that his life had been 
 spent in noble service for his fellow-men, and 
 that his dreams and ambitions had become ac- 
 complished and perfected, and a source of last- 
 ing good to the world. 
 
 Between his age and that of the early Phoe- 
 nician voyagers, the changes had been great and 
 eternal. No longer did the stars shine through 
 the dim twilight, as mysterious signs of danger, 
 but, on the contrary, the sailor had learned to 
 read his path in their golden light, and in times 
 of distress to fix his only hope on their change- 
 less courses. 
 
 No longfer did the shore seem the safest 
 place when the night settled down over the 
 waters, but instead, the great beacon-lights 
 flaming from headland and cliff had come to be 
 solemn warnings that his frail craft was safest 
 out on the broad deep, and that the darkness 
 that shrouded him was often the best protection 
 against the unseen foes that might be travers- 
 ing the seas in search of him. 
 
 Those early days of terror had departed for- 
 
120 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 
 
 ever, leaving in their stead the knowledge that 
 the great oceans had been turned into vast 
 highways, where ships sped after one another 
 like the endless flight of birds, and man had 
 learned that his greatest safety lay in that mu- 
 tual help of man to man which had brought the 
 seas in subjection to him, and had given him 
 control over its wayward winds and restless 
 waves. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 
 
 While the Atlantic coast of the United States 
 was being built up with wealthy cities and thriv- 
 ing villages, and the western frontier was ex- 
 tending far beyond the Mississippi, the Indians 
 of the Ohio Valley were still roving in lawless 
 tribes through the fertile regions of Kentucky 
 and Indiana, as savage as ever in their hatred 
 of the whites, and only kept in check by their 
 fear of a powerful Government. 
 
 The white settlers along the Ohio and its 
 branches lived in constant terror of these bands 
 of treacherous redskins, who did not seem to 
 understand what faith or gratitude meant, and 
 signed treaties and accepted kindness at the 
 same time that they were revolving schemes of 
 destruction and murder. 
 
 In many cases these outrages were the re- 
 
122 THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 
 
 suit of the bad treatment of the settlers, who 
 generally looked upon the Indian as a deadly 
 foe incapable of understanding either justice or 
 mercy, and as year after year passed, and the 
 savage saw his lands gradually taken posses- 
 sion of by the whites, and his favorite hunting- 
 grounds turned into farms, he became more and 
 more resentful toward the Government which 
 allowed such things, and showed his hatred in 
 any cruel way that became possible. The whole 
 history of the settlement of the West is the his- 
 tory of wrongs done to the Indians, and their 
 savage and bloody retaliations. 
 
 In every case where dispute arose as to the 
 rights of property, the Indian saw the difference 
 settled in favor of the white man, and was made 
 to feel that justice was a thing he must not look 
 for. 
 
 The Government of the United States gave 
 away immense tracts of Indian lands to white 
 settlers, forcing the original owners to take in- 
 stead worthless presents of beads, blankets, 
 fire-arms, and whiskey, and tribe after tribe 
 was obliged to leave its pleasant dwelling-place 
 
THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 1 23 
 
 among the familiar mountains and valleys, and 
 seek a home far to the west, where the white 
 man had not yet cared to penetrate. 
 
 Such a course could only result in constant 
 trouble ; the settlers were never safe from the 
 attacks of the Indians, and the Indians were 
 never sure that they would not be driven at any 
 moment away from the places they had loved 
 from childhood. 
 
 The old men of the tribes prophesied gloom- 
 ily of the time to come when the red man would 
 have vanished utterly from the hunting-grounds 
 of his forefathers, and the young warriors could 
 only listen with despair in their hearts, or turn 
 their eyes sadly toward the West, in the hope 
 that beyond its boundless prairies and towering 
 mountain-chains might still be found a place 
 where they might abide in peace and keep their 
 homes free from the white man's touch. 
 
 The leading tribe of the Ohio valley were 
 the Shawnees, whose brave and warlike chief, 
 Tecumseh, was celebrated all along the West- 
 ern frontier. Many a bloody victory had he 
 gained over the offending whites, and his wig- 
 
124 THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 
 
 warn was hung thick with trophies of battle and 
 the chase. Besides being - mighty in war, and a 
 skilful ruler over his tribe, he was of a serious 
 disposition, and earnest in his endeavor to be of 
 use to his unfortunate countrymen. Like King 
 Philip and Pontiac, he dreamed of a time when 
 his land should a^ain be free from the hated 
 presence of the white man, and he looked for- 
 ward to the day when the Indians should unite 
 and form a brave and powerful nation, too great 
 to be ever subdued by any invading foe. 
 
 To him the gloomy prophesies of the old 
 men seemed weak and cowardly, and the treaties 
 which the other tribes were constantly making 
 with the whites roused his indignation and dis- 
 gust. He held that all the Indian lands were 
 common property among the various tribes, and 
 that no chief could sign away land without the 
 consent of all the tribes who used the rivers for 
 fishing, and the forests and prairies for hunting. 
 
 But the United States Government paid lit- 
 tle heed to this doctrine, and tired of wars and 
 massacres, and anxious to protect the settlers, 
 signed, in 1809, a treaty at Fort Wayne with 
 
THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 12$ 
 
 several chiefs, who gave up their titles to three 
 millions of acres of land, lying along the Ohio 
 and its tributaries. 
 
 Tecumseh refused to acknowledge this treaty, 
 and threatened death to all who signed it, and 
 calling a council of his warriors, declared his 
 intention of driving the whites out of the 
 country. 
 
 His brother, Elkswatawa, who was called the 
 Prophet, and claimed to have received revela- 
 tions from the spirit-world, joined his counsels 
 to those of Tecumseh, and very soon the Shaw- 
 nees were eager for the fight, and ready to fol- 
 low their brave leader to victory or death. The 
 messengers of war were sent from tribe to tribe, 
 but so cautiously that the whites had no suspi- 
 cion of the intended rising, and never dreamed 
 that the Indian that they had seen in the morn- 
 ing peacefully traversing the forest or dropping 
 down the quiet river in his slowly moving canoe, 
 would at nightfall be standing around the camp- 
 fire of some distant tribe, with his lifted hands 
 red with blood, and his busy tongue charming 
 his listeners with the eloquent pleadings that 
 
126 THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 
 
 Tecumseh knew so well how to put into the 
 mouths of his emissaries. 
 
 Tecumseh himself travelled as far south as 
 Tennessee, urging the nations to rise and join in 
 one more great struggle with the whites, prom- 
 ising them that their lands would again be their 
 own, and their hunting-grounds once more free 
 to the red man as in the days of old. 
 
 Elkswatawa, too, inspired the tribes with his 
 own wild enthusiasm, claiming that he had re- 
 ceived promises of success from the world of 
 spirits, and holding out honors and rewards to 
 those who would join the Shawnees. 
 
 The Indians might doubt the revelations of 
 Elkswatawa, and laugh at his dreams and vis- 
 ions but they could not doubt the faith and 
 power of Tecumseh, who had led them to many 
 a fierce victory, and whose name always carried 
 terror to the hearts of the hardy frontiersmen. 
 And so the tribes laid aside their petty jealousies 
 and agreed to unite in a common cause. 
 
 News of the great conspiracy reached the 
 Government, and Governor Harrison, in com- 
 mand of the West, tried in vain to make peace. 
 
THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 1 27 
 
 But Tecumseh would listen to nothing - except- 
 ing a promise to have back the lands that had 
 been given away by the chiefs at Fort Wayne. 
 
 But Governor Harrison refused this, and 
 sending for soldiers, prepared for war. The 
 Indians immediately began to prowl through the 
 Wabash Valley, and the settlers found that all 
 their old troubles had come back. Lonely farm- 
 houses were attacked at night and the inmates 
 murdered ; prosperous little villages were plun- 
 dered and burned ; women and children were 
 carried off to torture and captivity, and the work 
 of years of careful saving and hard labor de- 
 stroyed in an hour. 
 
 Harrison marched into the valley and pro- 
 ceeded toward the town of the Prophet, near the 
 mouth of the Tippecanoe. Here he was met 
 by messengers from Elkswatawa, who asked 
 for a conference, to be held on the following 
 day. The governor granted this request, and 
 the army encamped for the night on a piece of 
 high ground overlooking the surrounding coun- 
 try. A small creek bounded the encampment 
 on one side, and all around were spread out the 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE WAR OF l8l2. 
 
 Hardly had this little war-cloud passed away 
 from the West, when the Government had to 
 turn its attention to its affairs with England. 
 
 For some time Great Britain had been at 
 war with France, and the vessels belonging to 
 the United States had carried on most of the 
 trade with Europe. The work was dangerous, 
 for both England and France thus claimed the 
 right to seize American ships as prizes. 
 
 In addition to this, England declared her in- 
 tention of searching all American vessels, and 
 claiming any English seamen that might be 
 found thereon. • 
 
 This right the United States denied ; but 
 England replied by saying that any person born 
 in British dominion never ceased to be a sub- 
 
AUKJAH. ANIi REBECCA BATK.S REPULSING Tilt: BRITISH. 
 
THE WAR OF l8l2. I31 
 
 ject of Great Britain, and that, in fact, once an 
 Englishman meant an Englishman forever. 
 
 And thus, quite disregarding the wishes of 
 America, her officers boarded American vessels, 
 looked over their crews, and seized any individ- 
 uals whom they were pleased to fancy English, 
 and forced them into service in the English 
 navy. 
 
 These insults to the American flagf roused 
 such feeling in the United States that the Presi- 
 dent ordered all English vessels to leave Amer- 
 ican waters, and this was soon followed by an- 
 other order forbidding American vessels from 
 leaving port, as it was considered that in the 
 event of war their presence would be needed to 
 defend the coast. 
 
 But it was soon found that the latter com- 
 mand interfered very seriously with American 
 commerce, and it was removed, although all in- 
 tercourse with France and England was strictly 
 forbidden. This state of things made American 
 travel on the ocean most difficult, and almost 
 discouraged foreign trade, for no vessel could 
 leave a port of the United States, bound for 
 
132 THE WAR OF l8l2. 
 
 any European port, and engaged only on the 
 most peaceful errand, without danger of being 
 hailed by French or English men-of-war, and 
 compelled to fight for its right of way over 
 the seas. 
 
 Not content with this, England even went 
 so far as to favor the seizing of American ships 
 as prizes in American waters, and once when a 
 United States frigate hailed a British sloop-of- 
 war off the coast of Virginia, the British com- 
 mander replied by a cannon-shot. 
 
 The American commander at once sent a 
 broadside into the sloop, silencing her guns and 
 killing and wounding many of her crew, and the 
 British officer was then willing enough to return 
 a civil salute to the first peaceful greeting of the 
 Americans ; but the circumstance produced great 
 excitement through the country, and as England 
 still refused to abandon her offensive course, 
 war was declared between the two countries, 
 June 19, 1812. 
 
 Much of the success of the Revolution was 
 due to the feeling of union that existed between 
 the Colonies. They all felt that what was the 
 
THE WAR OF l8l2. 1 33 
 
 wrong of one was the wrong of another, and 
 joined hands heartily and helpfully against the 
 common foe. 
 
 But the war of 1812 was from the beginning 
 very unpopular with many of the States, and 
 much opposition was raised against it. Some 
 declared that the French had been as aggres- 
 sive as the English, and others said that the 
 war was undertaken solely to protect the inter- 
 ests of the merchant class, while the farmers and 
 mechanics and manufacturers would only suffer 
 from it. 
 
 But this opposition had little effect upon the 
 Government, and when the struggle actually 
 began, the old feeling of patriotism blazed forth 
 as brightly as ever, and men and money were 
 generously provided, and small attention paid 
 to the grumblers. 
 
 At first there seemed small chance of Amer- 
 ican success. The whole of the West was given 
 up to a combined force of English and their 
 Indian allies, under Tecumseh, without a gun 
 being fired, General Hull, the commanding of- 
 ficer, ordering the white flag raised just as the 
 
134 THE WAR OF 1 8 12. 
 
 attack was to be made, although the gunners 
 stood with lighted matches waiting the signal 
 to lire, and the troops with tears in their eyes 
 beeped him not to abandon the defence. 
 
 Hull surrendered the whole of Michigan, 
 with its garrisons and military stores, without 
 even demanding the honors of war for his own 
 men, and thus the West, at the very beginning 
 of the struggle, passed into the hands of the 
 enemy. 
 
 Later on the British obtained command of 
 the Niagara and Lake Ontario, and were thus 
 enabled to command the Canadian frontier, and 
 prevent the Americans from entering British 
 territory. 
 
 These losses would have disheartened the 
 Americans had it not been for their brilliant 
 naval victories. The Colonists had proved dur- 
 ing the Revolution their ability to storm forts, 
 surprise garrisons, overcome the enemy by 
 strategy, and defeat him in pitched battles ; but 
 it was reserved for the American navy in the 
 war of 1812 to show to the world that England, 
 whose flag had hitherto ruled the seas, had at 
 
THE WAR OF l8l2. 135 
 
 last met a foe as wily, brave, and persistent as 
 she was herself. 
 
 The first memorable naval victory was that 
 of the American frigate Constitution, command 
 ed by Captain Hull, over the English ship of 
 war the Guerriere. The Guerriere began the 
 engagement, but Captain Hull refused to fire a 
 gun in return until he had brought his vessel in 
 the position he wanted. He then opened such 
 a destructive fire that in a short time the hull, 
 masts, and rigging of the Guerriere were shat- 
 tered to pieces, and her deck swept clean. 
 
 An officer was sent alongside to demand the 
 surrender of the vessel ; but the spirit of the 
 English commander could hardly be brought to 
 consider a defeat possible. He refused to ac- 
 knowledge his loss until the American threat- 
 ened to return to the Constitution and sink the 
 Guerriere with a broadside. This brought him 
 to terms, and he and his remaining men sur- 
 rendered as prisoners of war. 
 
 England could not believe that American 
 seamen could gain such victories over her ex- 
 perienced navy, and her men fought with the 
 
136 THE WAR OF l8l2. 
 
 utmost bravery to sustain their world-wide 
 fame. 
 
 At the next engagement of note, which took 
 place off the coast of North Carolina, the British 
 defended their ship so well that when the suc- 
 cessful Americans boarded her, her colors were 
 still flying, there being no one left to haul them 
 down, as the man at the helm was the only one 
 who had escaped unharmed. 
 
 Success followed success. During the first 
 year of the war three hundred prizes were cap- 
 tured by American vessels, and England began 
 to be alarmed, and had the army been as vic- 
 torious as the navy, the war would soon have 
 come to an end. 
 
 But in spite of the efforts of the Americans, 
 the English still held the West, and it was not 
 until Perry's brilliant naval victory on Lake 
 Erie, September 10, 18 13, when the entire Brit- 
 ish squadron surrendered to him, that affairs on 
 the Canadian border began to look more en- 
 couraging. 
 
 In this engagement, the flag-ship was en- 
 gaged at the same time with two of the heaviest 
 
THE WAR OF l8l2. 137 
 
 vessels of the enemy, Perry remaining on board 
 until he had only eight men left. After helping 
 to fire the last gun, he jumped into a boat, car- 
 rying his flag with him, and started for the Ni- 
 agara. The British turned their guns upon 
 him, but although he was within pistol-shot he 
 passed through safely. Fifteen minutes after 
 he mounted the deck of the Niagara he claimed 
 the victory. Perry was at this time only twenty- 
 seven years of age, and serving in his first na- 
 val battle, while the English commander had 
 seen years of service under the celebrated Ad- 
 miral Nelson. 
 
 This victory, together with the battle gained 
 by Harrison over a force of British and Indians 
 on the Canadian frontier, really decided the war. 
 One of Harrison's colonels inflicted a mortal 
 wound on Tecumseh, and with his death the 
 Indian allies fled in confusion, and were never 
 afterward of very great service to the English, 
 who had largely depended upon their aid in 
 carrying on the war in the West, trusting to them 
 to perform those terrible deeds of murder and 
 revenge which, as a civilized nation, they were 
 
138 THE WAR OF l8l2. 
 
 ashamed of indulging- in themselves, the British 
 general offering a reward for every scalp that 
 the Indians brought him, and encouraging the 
 savages in the most brutal acts against the 
 Americans. 
 
 In addition to the troubles in the West, and 
 the battles on the lakes and ocean, the people 
 all alone the Atlantic coast were likewise called 
 upon to endure the fortunes of war. 
 
 Admiral Cockburn, of the British navy, 
 cruised up and down the coast, making sudden 
 descents upon unprotected communities, burn- 
 ing bridges, farm-houses, and villages, and com- 
 mitting other outrages unworthy the name of 
 an English officer. He destroyed crops, burned 
 forests, robbed the Americans of their slaves and 
 money, murdered the sick in their beds, and 
 even plundered the churches of their commu- 
 nion services. 
 
 Following this, General Ross marched to 
 Washington, burned the capitol, which was yet 
 unfinished, destroyed the President's mansion 
 and public libraries, and sparing nothing but the 
 Patent Office, and that only because it contained 
 
THE WAR OF l8l2. 139 
 
 inventions which were of as much use to the 
 rest of the world as to America. 
 
 The Secretary of the Navy had ordered 
 the navy-yard to be burned on the approach of 
 the British, and the loss of guns, ships, build- 
 ing's, arms, and marine stores was enormous. 
 But in spite of these outrages the British re- 
 gained their ships without trouble, and pro- 
 ceeded on their work of destruction along the 
 coast. 
 
 Along the New England coast the inhabi- 
 tants did not submit so tamely. Several times 
 when the British attempted to land they were 
 beaten back by the militia, and in every case 
 they were so harassed and worried by the in- 
 habitants that they could not repeat the ravages 
 they had committed in the Soyth. 
 
 But in spite of the brave defense of the New 
 Englanders, their trade and manufactures suf- 
 fered severely. The fisheries were almost de- 
 stroyed, and the salt-works at Cape Cod only 
 escaped upon payment of a heavy ransom. The 
 British kept up a blockade of the entire coast, 
 which resulted in so great an injury to the for- 
 
140 THE WAR OF 1 8 12. 
 
 eigm commerce that the lights in the beacon- 
 houses alone shore were allowed to die out, as 
 they only served to guide the enemy in his mid- 
 night marauding. 
 
 But although it seemed more than once that 
 , the English would eventually gain the day, the 
 Americans never gave up hope. The British 
 brought to the conflict men tried in the field 
 and used to the trying emergencies of naval 
 war, while their ships and commanders had 
 names already famous in the world ; the Amer- 
 icans, on the other hand, had to depend upon 
 raw recruits, and their navy was poor and insig- 
 nificant ; but the militia did not flinch before the 
 British veterans — the navy was furnished with 
 vessels built from trees that had often been 
 standing in the forest but a few days before an 
 engagement, and their commanders proved by 
 many a glorious victory that England could no 
 longer hold her rulership over the seas. Even 
 in the midst of the gloomiest surroundings the 
 Americans did not lose faith ; the " Star-span- 
 gled Banner" was written by Francis Key, an 
 American captive on board an English vessel, 
 
THE WAR OF I5I2. HI 
 
 even while the sound of English guns firing into 
 the harbor of Baltimore was ringing in his ears ; 
 and in New England, women and children, 
 forced to flee from the approach of British sol- 
 diers, returned afterward to their ruined homes 
 only with fresh determination to resist the in- 
 vader at every point, and maintain the cause of 
 their country even unto death. 
 
 The war went on during the year 1814, 
 the Americans being sometimes successful, and 
 sometimes the English. But the possession of 
 the West and the command of the Canadian 
 frontier, the unexpected success of the navy, 
 and the desertion of the Indian allies, all told to 
 the advantage of the Americans, and toward the 
 close of the year the British Government began 
 to talk seriously of making peace. 
 
 The United States were very willing to end 
 the war, for no matter how many victories they 
 might win, their commerce was being destroyed 
 and their trade ruined. 
 
 Commissioners were sent from England and 
 the United States to Belgium, to decide upon 
 conditions of peace, and on December 24, 18 14, 
 
142 THE WAR OF l8l2. 
 
 a treaty was agreed upon and signed in the 
 city of Ghent. 
 
 But although the chief cause of the war was 
 the disrespect which England had shown the 
 American flag, and her absurd claim to search 
 American vessels for English seamen, not a 
 word of this was mentioned in the treaty, and, 
 as far as the articles of peace were concerned, 
 British men-of-war might still have continued 
 to run down United States war vessels and im- 
 prison their crews. 
 
 But the United States were no longer afraid 
 of this, and both countries were eager for peace 
 on any terms, and the treaty was signed with 
 the understanding that the causes that led to 
 the war had disappeared forever. 
 
 The news of the treaty of Ghent was re- 
 ceived with great rejoicing both in England and 
 America. In the United States bells were rung 
 and cannon fired, and the next day after it be- 
 came known that peace was declared, the docks 
 were full of busy workmen, and the sound of 
 the saw and hammer was ringing through the 
 air, while the long-unused shipping in the New 
 
THE WAR OF l8l2. 143 
 
 England ports was decorated with flags and 
 streamers, and the lamps in the light-houses 
 were once more prepared for use. 
 
 But news travelled slowly in those days, 
 when the railroad and telegraph were yet un- 
 known, and even after the treaty of Ghent there 
 was a great battle fought in the South, where 
 the tidings of peace had not yet been received. 
 
 A force of twelve thousand British under- 
 took the capture of New Orleans, which was 
 defended by General Jackson. 
 
 Jackson threw up intrenchments of earth 
 and cotton bales, but the cotton catching fire 
 from the cannon-balls, had to be removed, so 
 that the Americans had for their defence only a 
 bank of earth five feet high and a shallow ditch. 
 The English veterans came on in splendid or- 
 der, their solid columns never wavering under 
 the artillery fire which was poured into their 
 ranks ; but when they came within shot of the 
 Kentucky and Tennessee riflemen — the finest 
 marksmen in the world — their lines were broken. 
 The officers tried to rally them, but without suc- 
 cess, and the battle of New Orleans ended with 
 
144 THE WAR OF l8l2. 
 
 a loss of over two thousand for the British, 
 while the Americans had only seven killed and 
 six wounded. 
 
 But the war was over, and the British de- 
 feat was lost sight of in the general rejoicing. 
 
 The struggle had cost thirty thousand lives 
 and a million of dollars ; but it had shown to 
 the world that America was able to battle suc- 
 cessfully with the greatest maritime power of 
 modern times, and that she was prepared to 
 enforce that respect for her flag which she con- 
 sidered her due. Besides this, the question of 
 American independence was finally settled, and 
 England gave up forever any hope she might 
 have had that foreign power or domestic quar- 
 rel would ever bring back her lost colonies to 
 her crown. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 
 
 From the time that De Leon had first wandered 
 through the forests of Florida in search of the 
 fountain of eternal youth, the Spanish crown had 
 looked upon this beautiful country as a lawful 
 possession, claiming that the right of discovery 
 and settlement belonged to Spain alone. 
 
 With this thought in mind, the Huguenots 
 on the St. John's were massacred by a Spanish 
 officer, and although this crime met with fear- 
 ful vengeance at the hands of De Gourgues, 
 the Spaniards, only a few years afterward, had 
 so recovered from this blow that Spanish mis- 
 sions were established all along the Florida 
 coast, and Spanish priests were traversing the 
 forests in the vain attempt to convert the Indi- 
 ans to Christianity. 
 
 But the natives of Florida held the Spaniards 
 
146 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 
 
 in hatred and distrust, and but few converts 
 were made. 
 
 St. Augustine, however, continued to grow, 
 and although when it was found that Florida 
 did not yield the riches that might be found in 
 New Mexico and on the Spanish Main, few col- 
 onists came, yet in twenty years the town boast- 
 ed several hundred inhabitants, a hall of justice, 
 a church, and a monastery. 
 
 But this progress was stopped by the arrival 
 of the English commander Sir Francis Drake, 
 who had been on a freebooting expedition 
 against the Spanish settlements in the West In- 
 dies. Drake sailed into the harbor of St. Au- 
 gustine, and landing at the nearest point plant- 
 ed a cannon and sent a ball flying through the 
 royal standard of Spain that waved over the 
 fort. 
 
 The Spaniards, supposing that the whole 
 English force was about to attack them, left the 
 fort in the night, and the next day Drake pil- 
 laged and burned the town, capturing treasure 
 to the amount of ten thousand dollars. He 
 then sailed away again, and the Spanish gov- 
 
THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 147 
 
 ernor returned to St. Augustine and began re- 
 building the city. But although more mission- 
 aries were sent from Spain, and many efforts 
 were made to help the new colony in her strug- 
 gle for life, nearly a hundred years passed be- 
 fore St. Augustine had grown to be a town of 
 three hundred people. For another hundred 
 years the Spanish settlements in Florida were 
 harassed by the Indians at home and the Eng- 
 lish settlers from farther up the coast, and the 
 English freebooters, who were liable at any 
 time to descend upon the Spaniards with fire 
 and sword. 
 
 The Spaniards retaliated by entering Eng- 
 lish settlements, burning and pillaging, and in- 
 citing the Indians against their foes, and as 
 there was constant trouble between Spain and 
 England, their colonies in America thought they 
 could only be patriotic by keeping the quarrel 
 up as long as possible. 
 
 At length regular war was declared between 
 the English settlers in Georgia and the Spanish 
 in Florida, and a large English force was de- 
 spatched to attack St. Augustine by sea and 
 
148 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 
 
 land. And although this expedition was unsuc- 
 cessful, yet, when a year later the Spanish fleet 
 appeared off the Georgia coast, the English 
 were able by threats and intrigues to so dis- 
 courage the commander that he made no at- 
 tack, and the entire force retired to Cuba and 
 St. Augustine. After this St. Augustine was 
 captured by the English colonists, and finally, in 
 1763, by a treaty made at Paris between Spain 
 and England, Florida was ceded to Great Brit- 
 ain, and became an English colony. 
 
 At this time the city of St. Augustine con- 
 tained about three thousand inhabitants. It was 
 about three-quarters of a mile in length and a 
 quarter of a mile in width, and was surrounded 
 with fortifications. The houses were built of 
 stone, and their entrances shaded by piazzas 
 resting upon rows of graceful pillars. Before 
 the entrances were arbors covered with vines 
 which bore quantities of luscious grapes, and 
 the gardens were stocked with fruit-trees, figs, 
 guavas, plantains, pomegranates, lemons, limes, 
 citrons, and oranges, as well as the hardier fruits 
 of the North, growing in the greatest abundance. 
 
THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 149 
 
 There were four churches, and the gover- 
 nor's residence was a very fine and imposing 
 building. 
 
 At the north end of the town was the castle, 
 over which the flag of Spain had floated for one 
 hundred and ninety years ; it was built of quar- 
 ried stone, and afforded a strong position for a 
 besieged garrison. 
 
 In the cool season all the houses were 
 warmed by stone urns filled with hot coals, 
 chimneys and fireplaces being unknown. 
 
 The climate was mild and the city healthful, 
 being kept free from disease by the pure sea- 
 breezes which swept in from the bay, while the 
 surrounding country, with its vineyards, or- 
 chards, and groves, and its fields of sugar-cane, 
 cotton, rice, and indigo, formed a source of 
 wealth and commerce which made the situation 
 of the city upon such a safe and convenient 
 harbor a matter of great gain. 
 
 The Spanish inhabitants of St. Augustine 
 were indignant when they received the news of 
 the treaty of Paris. They considered that their 
 rights had been slighted by the Spanish crown, 
 
150 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 
 
 and refused to look upon the English as any- 
 thing but enemies. Preparations were at once 
 made for a general departure to Havana and the 
 West Indies and Mexico. 
 
 So bitter was the feeling against the English 
 that the governor of the city destroyed his beau- 
 tiful garden before going away, and had it not 
 been for the ceaseless efforts of the command- 
 ing - officer not a house or building would have 
 been left standing in St. Augustine. It is said 
 that only five Spaniards remained in the city 
 after its occupation by the English. 
 
 The government of Great Britain at once 
 made generous offers to emigrants who would 
 go to Florida, and the new colony soon became 
 very prosperous. 
 
 During the American Revolution there was 
 constant trouble between the loyalists of Flor- 
 ida and the patriots of the southern colonies, 
 and as there was war in Europe at the same 
 time between France and Spain on one side, 
 and England on the other, it was for many 
 years undecided what would finally become of 
 the British colonies in America. 
 
THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 151 
 
 But the treaty of Paris, in 1783, by which 
 the independence of the United States was 
 acknowledged, also brought the troubles in 
 Europe to an end. By this treaty Great Brit- 
 ain restored Florida to Spain, receiving in re- 
 turn the Bahama Islands, which have since 
 become so important to the English crown. 
 
 During the English occupation Florida had 
 grown wealthy and prosperous, and the Eng- 
 lish inhabitants were very unwilling to give up 
 the pleasant homes which they had striven so 
 hard to gain. But their wishes were not con- 
 sidered, and as the new Spanish governor only 
 allowed them a few weeks for their departure, 
 there was no time for regret. 
 
 Just as their government had driven the 
 Acadians from their lands, and forced them to 
 seek homes among strangers, so now the Eng- 
 lish in Florida were obliged to leave their com- 
 fortable homes, in the midst of their sugar plan- 
 tations and groves of oranges, lemons, figs, and 
 pineapples, and look for new dwelling-places. 
 Some of them went to the Bahamas, and some 
 sought new homes among the Americans in 
 
152 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 
 
 Georgia, who were willing to forget old differ- 
 ences, and stretch out helping hands to the 
 homeless outcasts. And with this act of injus- 
 tice Spanish rule was again inaugurated in Flor- 
 ida. 
 
 But the following years proved that a Span- 
 ish colony on the Atlantic coast was a very bad 
 thing for all parties concerned. From the be- 
 ginning of slavery runaway negroes had looked 
 upon the Everglades of Florida as a place of 
 refuge, where they would be secure from their 
 masters' blood-hounds, and sure of a welcome 
 from the sympathizing Indians. 
 
 Marriages had taken place between the two 
 races, and the Seminoles of Florida and the ne- 
 groes of Georgia and the Carolinas were bound 
 together by the closest ties. 
 
 Every year larger numbers of slaves tried to 
 escape from bondage, and enjoy the wild, free life 
 of the Florida forests, and with each new loss 
 the plantation-owners vowed that they would 
 stand it no longer. 
 
 From time to time large parties of whites 
 were organized to hunt runaway slaves, and 
 
THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 1 53 
 
 every Indian outrage was looked upon as a 
 fresh reason for scouring Florida from ocean to 
 Gulf in search of fugitive negroes. 
 
 The Indians, keeping in mind the treatment 
 that they themselves had received from the 
 whites, were loyal to the poor runaways, refus- 
 ing to give intelligence of their whereabouts, 
 and always helping to defend their hiding-places 
 with their lives. 
 
 The swamps and morasses of Florida fur- 
 nished the safest retreat that the slave was ever 
 able to find. 
 
 The blood-hound lost the scent when the 
 pursuit led across water, and no white man 
 knew the clue by which the flying negro was 
 able to thread the impenetrable jungle, and find 
 his dwelling in the dark thickets of the Ever- 
 glades. 
 
 Sometimes for weeks the slave would lie 
 hidden in the tangled underbrush of some little 
 island, depending for food upon the brave ef- 
 forts of the kindly Indians, who would creep 
 through the forest in the darkness, while the 
 pursuers lay watching a little way off, quite un- 
 
154 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 
 
 conscious that their prey was so near them ; and 
 often what the white man mistook for the moss- 
 hung, waving branches of the cypress, would be 
 the shadow of the avenging warrior with his 
 arrow aimed at the heart of the hated man- 
 hunter. 
 
 And then too, the Indians never lost a 
 chance to retaliate for the wrongs they had re- 
 ceived from the whites, and thus the settlers 
 were never free from the hostility of their Span- 
 ish and Indian neighbors. 
 
 When war again broke out between the 
 United States and Great Britain, Florida was 
 the scene of a fierce border warfare, carried on 
 by the Indians, who were furnished with arms, 
 and in some instances led, by English officers. 
 In this war Spain professed to be neutral, but it 
 was well known that the Spaniards of Florida 
 were in sympathy with the English, and allowed 
 forts to be built and garrisoned by English sol- 
 diers, assisted by Indians and runaway slaves. 
 
 The United States considered that Spain 
 was responsible for the bad faith of her colony 
 in allowing English forts to be built on Spanish 
 
THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 1 55 
 
 soil, and they did not hesitate to carry the war 
 into Florida. 
 
 But even after the treaty of Ghent the 
 Americans still thought they had good cause for 
 complaint against Spain, as Florida remained a 
 refuge for the runaway slaves, and the Indians 
 continued to commit outrages against the whites. 
 
 American troops were sent again and again 
 against the Seminoles, who would not break 
 friendship with the negroes, and massacres and 
 pillaging became more and more frequent. 
 
 South Carolina and Georgia, which suffered 
 more than the other States from the loss of 
 slaves, urged the Government to subdue the 
 Seminoles, and make them return the runaway 
 negroes ; and as the plantation-owners kept 
 complaining bitterly against losing their prop- 
 erty, and claimed that America would not 
 really be a free country unless they were al- 
 lowed to keep their slaves, the United States 
 at last entered upon open war with Spain, by 
 invading Florida and besieging all forts and vil- 
 lages where Seminoles and negroes were col- 
 lected. 
 
156 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 
 
 The chief American officer in this invasion 
 was General Jackson, who would have liked 
 nothing; better than to take Florida at the point 
 of the sword and hand it over to the United 
 States, for as time passed, and the trouble only- 
 increased, it came to be generally believed that 
 the only way to settle the difficulty would be to 
 add Florida to the American Union. 
 
 Jackson marched through the peninsula 
 with fire and sword, doing many things that 
 were not approved of by the United States 
 Government, and carrying terror and dismay 
 into the hearts of the enemy. He hauled down 
 the Spanish flags and raised the stars and stripes 
 above the forts, captured and hanged two of 
 the principal Seminole chiefs, court-martialled 
 and shot some English subjects, and declared 
 that if his Government would only give him 
 permission, he would rob Spain of Florida in 
 sixty days. 
 
 The United States were in a fair way of be- 
 coming involved in a war not only with Spain, 
 but with England also, and it became evident 
 that a peace must be determined upon. 
 
THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. I 57 
 
 Spain was not unwilling to get rid of a col- 
 ony that had always been a source of trouble 
 and expense, and, after some months of nego- 
 tiation, it was agreed in February, 1819, that 
 Florida should be ceded to the United States 
 for the sum of five million dollars. 
 
 By this treaty the southwestern boundary of 
 the United States was clearly defined. Before 
 this there had been a misunderstanding as to 
 what territory should be included within the 
 limits of Louisiana, but it was agreed by the 
 purchase of Florida that the United States 
 should be bounded on the south and west by 
 the Sabine and Red Rivers, and the head-waters 
 of the Arkansas and Platte, including on the 
 Pacific Coast what is now known as Oregon 
 and Washington. 
 
 Thus in less than forty years the American 
 Republic had extended her possessions to the 
 Gulf and the Pacific, and exceeded in territory 
 some of the mightiest nations of Europe ; while 
 France and Spain, that had once considered the 
 New World as belonging entirely to themselves, 
 now saw its fairest portion in the hands of the 
 
158 THE PURCHASE OF FLORIDA. 
 
 race that had come to it, not for conquest or 
 gold or glory, but for the sake of the freedom 
 that was denied at home, and that brought with 
 it that spirit of liberty and justice which alone 
 can enable a nation to build wisely and nobly. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 
 
 In the year 1619, in the month of August, a 
 Dutch trading vessel entered the James River 
 and sailed up the stream to Jamestown. On 
 either side the river stretched fair meadows and 
 green trees, and the whole land was beautiful 
 with summer, but to the eyes that looked wear- 
 ily out from the port-holes of the ship, the place 
 only seemed dreary and desolate, a land of exile 
 and death. 
 
 The vessel had been sailing the Atlantic for 
 months, carrying on board a band of prison- 
 ers kidnapped on the coast of Africa ; and as 
 she came to in the harbor of Jamestown, and 
 the dark captives were ordered up on deck, 
 their looks showed their weary confinement, 
 and their eyes were dull with despair. But the 
 captain cared little for their looks or feelings ; 
 
l6o THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 
 
 he had bought them for gold, and was only- 
 desirous of getting his money back and as 
 much more as possible. 
 
 So the Africans were landed and offered for 
 sale. They had been stolen from their homes, 
 carried like dumb beasts across the Atlantic, 
 and were now to pass into life-long bondage, 
 all because the white man chose to use his 
 greater intelligence to oppress instead of be- 
 friend them. 
 
 The Virginia planters had hitherto depend- 
 ed for servants upon English and German emi- 
 grants, who sold themselves for a certain length 
 of time — for so many months or years — receiv- 
 ing in return a specified sum of money. 
 
 But it seemed a much easier plan to buy 
 these poor negroes once for all, and the little 
 band of twenty was soon disposed of, passing 
 into the hands of the highest bidders. 
 
 Fifty years before the discovery of America, 
 African slavery had been introduced into Eu- 
 rope by Spanish and Portuguese navigators. 
 So that at the time of the landing of the first 
 slaves at Jamestown, Africa had been for nearly 
 
FUGITIVE SLAVES. 
 
THE STORY OF SLAVERY. l6l 
 
 two hundred years the great hunting-ground 
 where the white races tracked down and merci- 
 lessly captured the ignorant and despised ne- 
 groes. 
 
 Dreadful tales of outrage and cruelty were 
 told from time to time in Europe in connection 
 with these degrading slave-hunts, but except 
 among a few people, little heed was given to 
 them. 
 
 The slave-trade flourished, kings and queens 
 and statesmen giving it their support, and when 
 it was found that the English colonies in Amer- 
 ica would pay good prices for these poor creat- 
 ures, great companies were formed to carry on 
 the business of slave-stealing and slave-sell- 
 ing, and strict laws were passed for the pro- 
 tection of the men engaged in this inhuman 
 traffic. 
 
 The Royal African Company of Great Brit- 
 ain was one of the most powerful agents for 
 supplying America with slaves, the British Gov- 
 ernment protecting the company with all its 
 great power, and the queen herself owning one- 
 fourth of the stock. 
 
1 62 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 
 
 For more than a century slaves were brought 
 by hundreds to the Southern colonies, the num- 
 ber at last amounting to more than three hun- 
 dred thousand. And when the colonists be- 
 came alarmed at such an increase of negro 
 population, and wished to impose a tax on the 
 importation of slaves, the British Government 
 refused to allow it, and threatened to remove 
 the colonial governors if they did not uphold 
 slavery. 
 
 And so, under the protection of a great na- 
 tion that called itself Christian and humane, 
 the slave-trade increased from year to year, and 
 the Royal African Company grew rich with the 
 profits that came to it from selling human be- 
 ings into a bondage more cruel than any the 
 world had ever yet seen. 
 
 Ship after ship crossed the Atlantic, carry- 
 ing cargoes of the miserable Africans who had 
 been stolen from their homes, and all through 
 the South the work was done entirely by these 
 negroes, who for their long days of toil reaped 
 no reward other than the food and clothing 
 which the master gave, only because without 
 
THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 163 
 
 them his black bondsmen would have been use- 
 less to him. 
 
 For any need of the slave, outside his daily- 
 allowance of bread, the master had no ear to 
 hear, and the cruelties of the African slave-hunt 
 were too often repeated on the plantations of 
 the Southern colonists. 
 
 In Africa white men often witnessed scenes 
 of the utmost brutality without raising a hand 
 against it. The whole interior of the continent 
 was given up to slave-hunting, the stronger 
 and more intelligent tribes, becoming slave- 
 hunters, and warring upon weaker tribes for 
 the sole purpose of making captives and selling 
 them to the bands living along the coast, who, 
 in turn, disposed of them to the British and 
 other governments, or sometimes to private in- 
 dividuals who carried on the slave-trade se- 
 cretly. 
 
 These constant wars kept the whole country 
 in a state of bloodshed, and sometimes entire 
 tribes were destroyed in fighting for their homes. 
 No matter how peaceable a tribe might be, it 
 was driven to be constantly prepared for war, 
 
164 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 
 
 and on the watch for the foe, who might come 
 upon them at any moment to bear their wives 
 and children off to captivity and death. 
 
 For the poor captives were so cruelly treated 
 as they were carried off to the sea-shore that 
 many of them died on the way, and the roads 
 between the different slave-stations along which 
 the great caravans of slaves passed were always 
 easily distinguishable by the bones of the unfort- 
 unate victims lying in heaps by the wayside. 
 
 No man was safe half a mile from his home, 
 for the man-stealers lay ever in wait to catch 
 the unwary negro, and bear him across the 
 ocean. 
 
 In the great hunts that were held regularly, 
 whole families and tribes were captured, and 
 marched down in gangs to the sea, where they 
 were driven on board the vessels with small re- 
 gard to their relationship, fathers, mothers and 
 children being separated from one another, and 
 sent to places so far apart that they never saw 
 one another again. For from Maine to Mexico 
 the slave could find a market, and through the 
 length and breadth of the English colonies in 
 
THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 165 
 
 America might be seen the picture of the de- 
 spised African wearily bending to a toil made 
 unendurable by the overseer's lash, and the 
 thought that any day or hour might separate 
 him forever from those he held dearest on 
 earth. 
 
 But although slavery was allowed all over 
 the colonies, it never was carried on to any 
 great extent in New England or the Middle 
 States. This was chiefly owing to the fact that 
 slave-labor was more valuable on the Southern 
 plantations than anywhere else. 
 
 The North owed its wealth to its manufact- 
 ures, fishing-trade, and commerce, all of which 
 needed intelligent and skilled workmen ; but on 
 the great plantations in the South, where rice, 
 tobacco, cotton, and sugar were raised in such 
 quantities as to command the trade of the world, 
 slave-labor could be better used than any other. 
 
 The climate of the South, especially of Lou- 
 isiana and the Gulf States, was such that it was 
 almost an impossibility for the white man to 
 work in the fields, and therefore, if the soil was 
 to be cultivated, it must be done by the ne- 
 
1 66 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 
 
 groes, who were better able to stand the 
 scorching suns and withering heats and un- 
 wholesome miasmas of a tropical region. 
 
 For this reason the Q-rowth of the South de- 
 pended largely upon the number and intelli- 
 gence of the slaves, and a man's wealth was 
 reckoned as much by the negroes he owned as 
 by his rice-helds or cotton-plantations. 
 
 Great attention was paid to the raising of 
 strong, healthy negroes, as these always brought 
 a better price in market ; and as the years 
 passed, it was found that America produced so 
 many slaves of her own, and public opinion 
 grew so strong against importing negroes, that 
 the foreign slave-trade ceased except where it 
 was carried on by smuggling. But slaves were 
 still bought and sold in America, going from 
 plantation to plantation, village to village, and 
 State to State, never a day passing that did not 
 see, somewhere, families broken up and friends 
 separated forever. 
 
 The new generations of slaves that grew up 
 on the plantations knew of no other life, and in 
 many cases were merry and contented, fearing 
 
THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 167 
 
 nothing- but the overseer's lash and the auction- 
 block ; and as it often happened that the master 
 treated his negroes kindly, and allowed the 
 members of a family to remain together, the 
 lively song and happy laugh might be heard in 
 the fields from morning till night, and the plan- 
 tations seem abodes of peace and happiness. 
 
 But in most places this was far different. 
 The older slaves remembered dimly the stories 
 of their youth and of the days when their race 
 was free and independent, owning authority to 
 no man. And they recalled the descriptions 
 they had so often listened to of the greatness of 
 some ancestor who had been torn from his 
 principality in Africa, where he was king over 
 tribes, and lands, and cattle, and brought to 
 America and sold like a dog or horse from man 
 to man, until his spirit had broken and he had 
 died of homesickness and longing. 
 
 And then, too, there were yet darker stories 
 of life in America. Of cruel beatings, of brand- 
 ings with hot irons, of helpless women and 
 children lashed together and driven foot-sore 
 over miles of country, while the whip flew over 
 
1 68 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 
 
 their naked flesh if they lagged behind ; and 
 other acts so brutal, so cowardly, so unworthy 
 a civilized land, that they cannot be even men- 
 tioned. 
 
 The slaves were beaten like dogs, sold like 
 cattle, and treated in all respects like brutes by 
 the very class that boasted itself as the chivalry 
 of America. 
 
 And all this time America was growing rich 
 and great, and the Declaration of Independence 
 had asserted that all men were created free and 
 equal. And when a few great men wished to 
 claim from this, freedom for the slave, it was re- 
 plied that slaves were not men, and in some 
 States, in reckoning the population, three slaves 
 were counted as one white man. 
 
 Three of America's greatest men, Washing- 
 ton, Franklin, and Jefferson, denounced slavery, 
 and held it to be the blackest of crimes, and as 
 time went on the people of the North grew to 
 dislike it more and more, and gradually it came 
 to be abolished in the Middle States and New 
 England, and societies were formed and peti- 
 tions offered for its suppression. 
 
THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 169 
 
 And thus the slave came to look upon the 
 North as a land of freedom, and all through 
 the Northern States there grew up a gener- 
 ation hating slavery, and the disgrace that it 
 brought upon their country. 
 
 But among the Southern States slavery was 
 still looked upon as the source of all their wealth, 
 and the slave-owners fiercely resented any op- 
 position to it. 
 
 They kept the negroes in the greatest igno- 
 rance, making it a crime for any one to teach 
 them to read and write ; they hired preachers 
 who quoted Scripture' to prove that slavery was 
 of divine origin, and they boasted that the slaves 
 were much better off and far happier than they 
 would be free. They even said that the negro 
 was incapable of feeling, and judging what was 
 right or wrong, and that if freedom were offered 
 him he would not understand what it meant ; 
 but as at the same time the plantation-owners 
 dreaded nothing so much as a negro insurrec- 
 tion, and kept blood-hounds always trained to 
 scent runaway slaves, their talk amounted to 
 very little, and it was evident that they feared 
 
170 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 
 
 the vengeance of the oppressed race and the 
 loss of their property only too much. 
 
 But the Africans are a race unrevengeful and 
 slow to anger, and for centuries they endured 
 wrongs that would have driven any other people 
 to the deadliest revenge. A master who treated 
 them in any way kindly was sure of their affec- 
 tion and gratitude, and such was their tender- 
 ness and loyalty toward those owners who had 
 shown them kindness, that if misfortune came, 
 the slave was often found among the master's 
 firmest friends. 
 
 Ignorant and degraded by life-long cruelties 
 the master's word was their only law, and they 
 gave him faithful and often loving service for the 
 poor food and scanty clothing that were their 
 only reward. 
 
 But among this oppressed nation there were 
 some men more serious and thoughtful than the 
 rest, and they studied over the wrongs of their 
 people, and measured the master's words by 
 the acts that followed, and saw much that 
 might have puzzled wiser heads than theirs. 
 They, too, listened to the eloquent preacher who 
 
THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 171 
 
 tried so hard to convince them that slavery was 
 ordained by God, and that the negro on the 
 Southern plantation was far happier than the 
 poor white man toiling for his daily bread up 
 among the New England hills. 
 
 But when the meeting was over, and preach- 
 er and people were met at the door by a pro- 
 cession of sad-faced men and women, bare- 
 headed, half-clothed, without shoes and stock- 
 ings, chained together by an ox-chain, and 
 followed by a man with pistols in his belt, and a 
 whip in his hand, then it seemed that the words 
 they had been listening to were false instead of 
 true, and that it was never meant that men and 
 women should be driven in chains like wild 
 beasts. 
 
 In every city and village of the South such 
 scenes were common, and often others far worse 
 shocked the eye of the humane spectator. 
 Carts passed along the highways filled with half- 
 naked children, while women and girls followed 
 behind with the blood streaming from the lashes 
 they had received when weariness made them 
 drop down by the way-side. And in the great 
 
172 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 
 
 slave depots, where large and regular sales 
 were held, the thumb-screws, gags, chains, and 
 whips, which covered the walls, all told what 
 means were used to keep the helpless victim in 
 subjection. 
 
 But in spite of these inhuman cruelties, the 
 slave seldom attempted revenge. And that the 
 master was constantly dreading this, and gave 
 it as his excuse for keeping the negro in igno- 
 rance, shows that his conscience was far from 
 easy, and that he well knew that his treatment 
 of the slave was unworthy of one who possessed 
 any feelings of humanity. 
 
 All during the days of slavery the planta- 
 tion owners were in constant dread of an upris- 
 ing amonsf the blacks, knowing well if it ever 
 came that the wrongs that called for vengeance 
 were many and deep. And they particularly 
 dreaded the presence of the few colored men 
 who had learned to read and write, and were 
 capable of gaining their own opinions from the 
 words of the Bible, and the Declaration of In- 
 dependence, and the books and newspapers 
 that might fall into their hands. 
 
THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 1 73 
 
 And they could do nothing to make the 
 slave believe that slavery was the best thing for 
 him. In spite of kindness or unkindness, pres- 
 ents or blows, kicks, cuffs, whippings, and fre- 
 quent murders, the negroes still returned to 
 their songs of the good days that were coming, 
 and chanted the old refrains, which were a mix- 
 ture of Bible-songs of deliverance and their 
 own half-heathen melodies, and looked forward 
 to the days when a free country would mean 
 freedom for the black man as well as for the 
 white. 
 
 And as the number of slaves increased, and 
 each generation gained in intelligence, the love 
 of freedom grew stronger. After slavery had 
 ceased in the North, runaway slaves became 
 more and more an object of interest to the 
 slave-holding States and the free States alike. 
 
 The South bitterly denounced the North for 
 receiving and harboring fugitive negroes, but so 
 great was the sympathy felt for these unfortu- 
 nates in the free States, that many men and 
 women devoted their fortunes and lives to help 
 them escape to New England and Canada. In 
 
174 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Pennsylvania the Quakers were long known as 
 the staunchest friends of the slaves, and many 
 a poor negro flying from his master's blood- 
 hounds was helped on his way by these same 
 kindly folk who were scattered through Mary- 
 land and Virginia, and gladly lent their aid in 
 sending him on to friends in Pennsylvania. 
 
 Sometimes it happened that an escaped 
 slave would be able, after years of labor, to 
 save enough to buy his wife and children from 
 their master, and then the reunited family would 
 live happily together in the North. And once in 
 a while a kind master would liberate a favorite 
 slave, or leave him his freedom in his will, and 
 then as the slaves were often intelligent and 
 very useful on the plantations, the freedman 
 would earn good wages and be able to buy his 
 family's freedom before starting for the North. 
 
 But not every runaway slave was able to 
 reach the land of his desire. Many and many 
 a one was tracked by blood-hounds to his hid- 
 ing-place in some marsh or swamp, and brought 
 forth to die a horrible death, or have his body 
 mutilated with the most fearful tortures. 
 
THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 175 
 
 But this did not keep back others when 
 their opportunity came, and so many slaves 
 kept escaping to the Everglades of Florida, and 
 the swamps of Virginia, and the hills of New 
 England, that the plantation owners continually 
 suffered heavy losses, and began to hate the 
 North for helping the runaway slaves, and to 
 devise means of making slavery a greater power 
 than ever. 
 
 But the people of the North had long since 
 risen to the height of declaring that a man was 
 a man, black or white, and that to degrade him 
 to the level of a beast was uncivilized and un- 
 christian. 
 
 And as the West grew up, and new States 
 and Territories were made, the question of slav- 
 ery was always the most important one dis- 
 cussed. 
 
 The purchase of Louisiana and Florida had 
 given an enormous increase of power to the 
 slave States, and as the population of the South 
 increased, the Northern States saw that if slav- 
 ery was allowed to extend much farther, all 
 the affairs of the Government would fall into 
 
176 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 
 
 the hands of the slave-owners, and the laws 
 of the land be made by them with small regard 
 to what the people of the North might wish. 
 
 And so with the admission of nearly every 
 new State fierce struggles took place as to 
 whether slavery should be allowed in its bor- 
 ders. 
 
 This feeling between the North and the 
 South was at its height when the territory of 
 Missouri applied for admission into the Union. 
 This territory was a part of the Louisiana pur- 
 chase, and the Southern States had no inten- 
 tion of allowing it to enter the Union as a free 
 State. 
 
 But the Northern States, on the contrary, 
 felt that they had too long submitted to the 
 South in its demand for the increase of slavery, 
 and they decided that the time had come when 
 this important question should be settled. 
 
 Never before had there been such excite- 
 ment produced by the application of a State for 
 admission into the Union. 
 
 All over the North public meetings were 
 held, and petitions were sent to Congress, and 
 
THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 177 
 
 all the great Northern statesmen united to put 
 an end to any further extension of slavery. 
 
 Many slave-owners in the South had often 
 said that they did not approve of slavery, and 
 regretted that their forefathers had ever found- 
 ed such an institution ; and they were now re- 
 minded by the people of the North that the 
 time had come when they might show their dis- 
 like to the system by helping to prevent its 
 further growth. 
 
 But it was soon found that those who pro- 
 fessed to dislike it were as eager as the others 
 to have Missouri a slave State, and the South 
 threatened the most fearful consequences — 
 bloodshed and war, and the breaking up of 
 the Union — if Missouri was admitted as a free 
 State. 
 
 But the North stood firm, and professed its 
 willingness to endure all consequences that 
 might follow, and as the South was equally 
 firm, it was found that the only way that the 
 question could be settled would be by each side 
 yielding a little to the other, for the North 
 found it was not strong enough to force the 
 
178 THE STORY OF SLAVERY. 
 
 South, and the South discovered that although 
 its influence had hitherto been so powerful that 
 it had done as it pleased in every question 
 with regard to slavery, yet now it had reached 
 its limit, and the North would no longer submit 
 tamely to any laws the slave-holders might 
 choose to enact. 
 
 A compromise was therefore effected be- 
 tween the two parties ; and although Missouri 
 was admitted as a slave State, it was solemnly 
 agreed that slavery should never be allowed in 
 any other State west of the Mississippi or north 
 of the southern boundary of Missouri. 
 
 This act was called the Missouri Compro- 
 mise, and by it both sides claimed a victory. 
 
 Missouri was indeed a slave State, but, on 
 the other hand, slavery had received the dead- 
 liest blow that had ever yet been dealt it. 
 
 The bill passed in 1820, and Missouri came 
 into the Union the next year. 
 
 But the question of slavery was not to be 
 settled for many a long year to come. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 
 
 When the ancient tribes of Asia used to move 
 from place to place in search of pasture and 
 wells of water for their flocks, their travelling 
 was done for the most part on foot, only the 
 women and children, as a general thing, being 
 allowed to ride on the backs of the camels or 
 horses; and in those days a journey was a thing 
 of great importance, and the preparations for it 
 often extended through many months. 
 
 The time of the year, the condition of the 
 cattle, the presence of robber bands ready to 
 plunder the moving tribe, all had to be consid- 
 ered ; and when at last all was ready, and the 
 caravan fairly on its way, its movements were 
 as leisurely and calm as if the journey was to 
 take a whole lifetime and there was no need for 
 anyone to hurry. 
 
1 80 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 
 
 Later on, when the different peoples of the 
 earth had Qathered themselves into villages and 
 cities and nations, and had learned to regard 
 one another with feelings of friendship or en- 
 mity, as "the case might be, the necessity for 
 easy and safe modes of travelling became very 
 great. 
 
 Trade was established between friendly na- 
 tions, and war was constantly being waged be- 
 tween nations hostile to each other, and from 
 both these reasons travelling grew into an art, 
 and was considered as much a part of civilized 
 life as anything else could be. 
 
 In the valleys and plains of Asia, where 
 trade was carried on chiefly by means of the 
 great rivers and canals, the cities held easy 
 communication with one another and with the 
 cities of the coast, and the purple cloth of Tyre 
 found its way into kings' houses afar off, and 
 the giant cedars of Lebanon floated down the 
 widening tides to form pillars and thrones in 
 the royal palaces of alien people. 
 
 But as empires grew, and the earth became 
 rilled with inhabitants, and the knowledge of 
 

 
 ! 
 
 
 AN EARLY RAILROAD 
 
THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. l8l 
 
 distant countries became more common, when 
 man had outgrown the simple needs of the 
 early races, and had learned to clothe himself 
 in costly garments and surround himself with 
 beauty and luxury of every kind, then the whole 
 earth seemed to him only large enough to sup- 
 ply his wants. 
 
 He must have silken robes from China, 
 costly perfumes from Arabia, pearls from the 
 sea, gold and diamonds from India, luxurious 
 rugs from Persia, ivory from Africa, and fair- 
 haired slaves from the barbarous tribes of the 
 West. 
 
 Every great empire built expensive roads, 
 which met those of other empires, and rivers 
 were bridged, valleys filled, hills levelled, moun- 
 tains tunnelled, and deserts crossed, to bring 
 to kings and nobles the luxuries they found it 
 impossible to do without. 
 
 Various ways of travelling found favor with 
 the different merchants and traders who made 
 up the great caravans that constantly moved 
 from country to country ; but, excepting the jour- 
 neys by water, all travel was performed on foot 
 
1 82 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 
 
 or on the back of some animal, and for thou- 
 sands of years this was the only way in which 
 man journeyed from place to place. 
 
 If he wished to imagine any faster mode of 
 travel, he would speak of the early days of his 
 race, when kind genii or the friendly wings of 
 the roc would bear man swiftly through the 
 clouds to his desired haven; but, excepting 
 these fables and the half-believed stories of the 
 winged beings of old, mankind had no idea 
 of any other means of travel than had been his 
 from the earliest ages. 
 
 Camels, elephants, and horses still con- 
 tinued to carry travellers across mountains and 
 deserts, and vessels with gilded prows and 
 silken sails still carried kings on their journeys 
 on the water, long after the world had far ad- 
 vanced in learning and art of every kind. 
 
 The great empires of antiquity gave place to 
 greater ones, barbarous tribes became civilized 
 and were incorporated into mighty kingdoms, 
 the ocean was crossed, America discovered and 
 settled, and the United States formed into a 
 nation, while the world still kept to the sim- 
 
THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 1 83 
 
 plest modes of travelling, and seemed to think 
 that anything better was impossible, and was 
 quite ready to laugh at any visionary inventor 
 who undertook to show that people might be 
 carried from place to place faster than a horse 
 could run. 
 
 But the discovery that steam might be used 
 as a means of moving machinery changed the 
 ideas of man entirely, and made all kinds of 
 unheard-of things seem at once possible. The 
 steamboat was invented, and completely revolu- 
 tionized ocean and river travel, and less than 
 twenty years later an event occurred in Eng- 
 land of even greater importance. This was the 
 formal opening of the Manchester and Liverpool 
 railroad, which took place September 15, 1830. 
 
 The inventor of the locomotive, a Northum- 
 brian coal-digger by the name of George 
 Stephenson, had very early in life given signs 
 of his great inventive genius. Through years 
 of poverty and hardship, and disappointment of 
 every kind, he slowly made a name for himself 
 as one who would be likely to claim great honor 
 for some wonderful invention. But this faith in 
 
1 84 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 
 
 his powers was not shared by those who would 
 have been able to help him with money and in- 
 fluence, and for years he had to struggle amid 
 the disheartening surroundings of poverty and 
 obscurity. 
 
 But at last, with his heart full of hope and 
 his brain full of a great plan, he appeared be- 
 fore the House of Commons, and proposed to 
 build a railroad from Manchester to Liverpool. 
 
 The members of Parliament were wise in their 
 own way, and considered themselves well quali- 
 fied to judge of the merit of Stephenson's plans ; 
 but, like many other wise men before and since, 
 they thought that the world was doing well 
 enough without troubling themselves with new 
 inventions. Old ways seemed to them best, as 
 they certainly were easiest, and they listened to 
 the young engineer with little interest and no 
 faith whatever. 
 
 They thought it very presumptuous in Ste- 
 phenson to put his wisdom before that of the 
 law-makers of the British nation, and, after a 
 few questions which he could not answer (for, 
 unlike them, he knew a great deal more than he 
 
THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 1 85 
 
 was able to express in words), they dismissed 
 him as an idle dreamer, and took great comfort 
 in the thought that the road from Manchester 
 to Liverpool would still be traversed by the 
 respectable stage-coach of their great-grand- 
 fathers, and that they would never more be 
 bothered by visionary inventors with plans for 
 whisking people from place to place at a rate 
 that was undignified as well as perilous. 
 
 But Stephenson was not to be discouraged 
 by any number of wise members of Parliament. 
 
 When they had asked him how he would 
 tunnel through rock, build embankments, and 
 cross miles of bottomless swamp, he had an- 
 swered : " I can't tell you how I'll do it, but I 
 can tell you I will do it." And his faith in him- 
 self never faltered, though his inability to ex- 
 plain his plans lost him the most powerful in- 
 fluence he could have had. 
 
 But the merchants of Liverpool saw at once 
 what great gain such a road as Stephenson's 
 would be to their trade, and that the success 
 of even a small road would lead to the build- 
 ing of railroads all over the world, and thus im- 
 
1 86 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 
 
 mensely increase commerce and their chance of 
 wealth. 
 
 They listened with the utmost respect to 
 this quiet man whose plans seemed to have so 
 much of the marvellous in them, and in the end 
 subscribed money for building the road. 
 
 In December, 1826, the first spade was 
 stuck into the ground, and from that time work 
 went steadily on. Stephenson had none of 
 the appliances of modern engineers for blasting 
 rocks, boring tunnels, constructing bridges, and 
 sinking piles into marshy ground ; but he per- 
 severed, and found a way to overcome all diffi- 
 culties, and in four years the road was completed. 
 
 Although a trial trip was made in August, 
 the public opening of the road did not take 
 place until September. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington, who was then 
 Prime Minister, and several of the nobility, with 
 about nine hundred other guests, were invited to 
 take part in the ceremony, and so intense was 
 the excitement in Manchester and Liverpool and 
 the towns along the route that fears of a riot 
 were entertained. For the laboring classes of 
 
THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 1 87 
 
 England hated new ideas almost as much as the 
 learned members of Parliament, and this strange 
 and unlawful use of steam seemed to them only 
 the beginning of the worst evils that could befall 
 their class. 
 
 In the manufacturing districts the poor were 
 already suffering from want of work and the 
 scantiest wages, and they supposed that every 
 new invention which enabled work to be per- 
 formed by machinery, instead of by men's hands, 
 could only lead to greater distress and more 
 cruel injustice. 
 
 And so from the beo-inning- the railroad had 
 to fight its way among enemies of all kinds ; 
 among the rich, who cared little for benefiting 
 the race so long as they themselves were com- 
 fortable, and among the poor, who, misunder- 
 standing its purpose, would gladly have torn the 
 rails from their places and smashed the "engines 
 -into fragments, if the fear of the law had not 
 restrained them. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington was extremely un- 
 popular with the laboring classes, owing to his 
 unwillingness to listen to any suggestions of 
 
THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 
 
 reform, and it was feared that his presence 
 among the guests would incite the mob to open 
 violence. But the directors of the road kept 
 these fears to themselves, and nothing but holi- 
 day gayety appeared in their faces. 
 
 The success of the undertaking was already 
 assured, and now they were to have their day 
 of triumph, and prove to the world that their 
 faith in Stephenson was to bring them rich re- 
 wards. 
 
 Early in the morning Liverpool was filled 
 with strangers from all parts of England, Ire- 
 land, and Scotland, who had been pouring in 
 all the week to witness the grand ceremony. 
 All the inns were overflowing with guests, and 
 carriages stood in the streets all night for want 
 of room in the stable-yards. From outside the 
 town the elegant equipages of the nobility and 
 higher classes came in, filled with beautifully 
 dressed ladies, and by ten o'clock the streets 
 were thronged. 
 
 The railroad company had provided eight 
 locomotives and thirty-three carriages for the 
 accommodation of their guests, and as the train 
 
THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 1 89 
 
 moved out from the depot, filled with elegantly- 
 dressed people and decorated with silk flags of 
 various colors, and with the military bands play- 
 ing the national airs, the effect was most inspir- 
 ing. 
 
 The salute of the cannon, and the cheers of 
 the immense multitudes on the banks on either 
 side of the station, told the whole city that the 
 train had started, and as the procession moved 
 out with a speed that had never before been 
 reached, the spectators were lost in admi- 
 ration over the novel sight. All along the 
 route the fields were filled with carriages and 
 vehicles of every description, containing thou- 
 sands of interested lookers-on, whose wonder 
 was echoed by the foot-passengers who lined 
 the woods for miles. 
 
 To the guests on the train the sensation of 
 being carried through the air at such a rate was 
 both novel and pleasant, and they said that it 
 seemed as if they were flying. The fact that 
 the road had been, as far as possible, laid on 
 a level afforded another new experience. It 
 seemed so strange to pass through hills and 
 
IQO THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 
 
 cross ravines, and to fly swiftly over streams, 
 and to gaze down like the birds of the air upon 
 the wide fields, fertile valleys, shining expanses 
 of marsh and meadow, and glittering rivers 
 upon which the vessels were resting quietly so 
 that their crews might have a chance to IqoIv up 
 and view the gorgeous pageant that was pass- 
 ing through the air hiHh above the mast-heads. 
 
 As the train approached Manchester the ex- 
 citement increased. The way was lined for six 
 miles with thousands of people ; house-tops, car- 
 riages, booths, bridges, and trees, all throng- 
 ing with the eager multitude. The laboring 
 classes had not neglected to show their disap- 
 proval of the road, and all along the route pla- 
 cards bearing mottoes of a threatening char- 
 acter were displayed. Weavers brought their 
 looms close to the road-side, appealing by their 
 wretched, half-starved figures to the humanity 
 of the crowd, while through the cheering were 
 distinctly heard the hisses and hootings of the 
 mechanics, who only saw in the grand parade 
 coming trouble and sorrow for their order. 
 
 Manchester was reached at three o'clock, 
 
THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. IQI 
 
 some delay having- been caused by an accident 
 to one of the members of the party, and after 
 an elegant collation the company returned to 
 Liverpool. And in this splendid fashion the 
 system of travelling by rail was inaugurated in 
 England. 
 
 In America the first attempts were made on 
 a much smaller scale. The credit of the first 
 American railway is given generally to the little 
 road that was built in 1826 at Ouincy, Mass. ; 
 but as this was only a road of three miles length, 
 and the cars were drawn by horses, it can 
 scarcely be called a railway at all. 
 
 One of the first American railroads of any 
 importance was opened at Charleston, S. C, 
 in January, 1S31. The locomotive, which was 
 named the Best Friend, was a very curious 
 affair. The formal opening of the road was 
 made a time of rejoicing, and the stockholders 
 and their friends enjoyed the first trip quite as 
 much as had their English brethren, although 
 the day was cold and cloudy and the carriages 
 anything but comfortable. 
 
 But soon after this an accident happened to 
 
192 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 
 
 the Best Friend which threw a cloud over 
 joys of railroad travelling. 
 
 The fireman was a negro, and was much 
 annoyed by the hissing of the steam as it es- 
 caped from the safety-valve, and in the absence 
 of the engineer he resolved to remove the nui- 
 sance. He therefore fastened down the valve 
 so that the steam could no longer escape, and 
 then, to make things doubly sure, sat down on 
 it himself. 
 
 The results which followed gave such a 
 shock to the public faith in railroad travelling 
 that the next locomotive that was put in use 
 was separated from the passenger-carriages by 
 a "barrier-car," filled with bales of cotton, and 
 the passengers were assured that no one would 
 be allowed to touch the safety-valve but the 
 enoineer himself. 
 
 o 
 
 But accidents and discouragements could 
 not prevent the building of railroads when once 
 the idea had been firmly fixed in men's heads, 
 and the new system found favor everywhere, 
 and railroads sprung up in all directions. 
 
 At first the speed reached was not nearly 
 
THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 193 
 
 great as in England, a trial trip between 
 the Baltimore & Ohio and a horse, on August 
 28, 1830, resulting in favor of the horse, which 
 came in as winner of the race ; but, notwith- 
 standing this victory, the locomotive gained 
 ground steadily, and won its way with all 
 classes, and in August, 1831, a trip was made 
 from Albany to Schenectady in less than an 
 hour, showing that it only needed time to bring 
 this wonderful machine to move at an almost 
 marvellous rate of speed. This trip over the 
 Mohawk Valley road was made the occasion 
 of considerable display. The engineer wore a 
 dress-coat, and some of the most distinguished 
 persons of the day were invited. The carriages 
 consisted of the bodies of stage-coaches placed 
 upon trucks, and the conductor, after having 
 collected the tickets by passing from platform 
 to platform outside the cars, mounted on a lit- 
 tle seat on the tender, and blew some musi- 
 cal notes on a tin horn to signify that all was 
 ready. 
 
 The locomotive started ; but the coaches 
 were joined together by slack chains, and jerk 
 13 
 
194 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 
 
 after jerk startled the expectant passengers, in 
 many cases sending them flying from their seats. 
 And even when quiet was restored, it did not 
 last long ; for, as the fuel consisted of dry pitch- 
 pine, and the locomotive was not furnished 
 with anything to catch the sparks, a quantity 
 of smoke, sparks, and cinders kept constantly 
 pouring out, and, streaming back over the train, 
 causing such discomfort to the outside passen- 
 gers that they had to raise their umbrellas. 
 This only added to the confusion, for in a short 
 time the umbrellas caught fire and had to be 
 thrown overboard, while the unlucky owners 
 had to dance frantically around on the tops of 
 the coaches and whip one another with hand- 
 kerchiefs, hats, and canes to put out the fire. 
 
 At the first station some fence-rails were 
 braced between the coaches, preventing the 
 uncomfortable jerking, and with this improve- 
 ment the train moved quietly on without further 
 mishap, and, notwithstanding lost hats and um- 
 brellas, the passengers considered the trip a 
 great success. 
 
 After the year 1S31 railway travel was re- 
 
THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 195 
 
 garded by all as an assured success, and the 
 old stage-coaches were only looked upon as 
 substitutes until the new system should be com- 
 plete. A few old-fashioned people still retained 
 their love for the old way, and travelled from 
 place to place in their handsome, if lumbering, 
 private coaches, and looked upon the locomo- 
 tive as a thing to be as much despised as 
 feared. 
 
 But the public service felt the change at 
 once, and people saw that the day had gone by 
 when a New York merchant, in order to reach 
 Philadelphia, would have no choice between a 
 journey by sea and the tedious stage-route 
 which it took two days to accomplish. 
 
 Some of the oldest railroads in the United 
 States were completed by 1835, and by 1841 
 railroads had grown to be commonplace affairs. 
 In that year the Boston & Worcester road was 
 finished, by which the former city was brought 
 into direct communication with Albany, an event 
 as important in those days as the opening of 
 the Pacific road some years later. The road 
 had been seven years in building, and its pub- 
 
196 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 
 
 lie opening was regarded as marking a new era 
 in railroad engineering. The stockholders sat 
 down to a banquet in Boston on the evening of 
 December 30, 1841, at which bread was served 
 made from flour that had been threshed in 
 Rochester two days before. The invited guests 
 solemnly ate the bread, and agreed that the 
 marvellous had come to pass. 
 
 But when the Western States had grown to 
 such importance that rapid communication be- 
 tween the East and the West had become a 
 necessity, the public saw that a railroad reach- 
 ing from the Atlantic to the Pacific would be 
 the only thing that would solve the problem. 
 At first the objections seemed so great that it 
 was feared such a plan could not be carried 
 out ; but as time went on it was seen that civil 
 engineering had advanced to such a science that 
 it could accomplish almost anything. 
 
 Great rivers, lofty mountains, dangerous 
 chasms and ravines, and deep, rocky canons 
 were all overcome by skilful engineering, and 
 finally, in 1869, the Pacific Railroad was opened 
 to the world, and New York and San Francisco 
 
THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 197 
 
 were brought within a week's distance of each 
 other. 
 
 The completion of this road marked one of 
 the most important eras in the history of the 
 United States. Previous to this, much of the 
 trade from the West had had to find its way 
 around Cape Horn, and the loss of time was 
 incalculable, while the grains and other products 
 from the great central plains were delayed al- 
 most as much, owing to the poor facilities for 
 transportation. 
 
 But the Pacific Railroad changed all this, 
 and has been a source of immense wealth to the 
 whole country. The West has grown wealthy 
 and populous since its completion, and the East 
 has profited by it in no less degree. 
 
 The two oceans no longer seem far apart 
 when flowers cut on the Pacific slopes have not 
 yet faded on reaching New York, and the two 
 great cities of the coast, the one looking toward 
 the eastern sea and the other toward the sun- 
 setting, though thousands of miles apart, are 
 yet bound together by common interests, and 
 their friendship forever assured, by those con- 
 
198 THE STORY OF THE RAILROAD. 
 
 necting links which in so short a time have 
 joined the whole world together in bonds of 
 peaceful union. 
 
 Up in the far north the reindeer still draws 
 his master's rude sledge over the fields of ice, 
 and the Bedouin still urges his patient camel 
 over the burning sands of African deserts, but 
 in every other region of the world the railroad 
 has found its way, crossing Russian steppes 
 and Indian plains, and leading the civilization 
 of the West back again to its home in the East, 
 and heralding there the dawn of a new day 
 which will shine more and more perfect as men 
 realize how all the nations of the earth are one, 
 and are bound together by ties so close that 
 the hurt of one must be the hurt of all and the 
 good of one the good of all. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 
 
 The purchase of Florida by the United States 
 did not by any means bring the Indian troubles 
 to a close. 
 
 There still remained the question whether 
 the white man had a right to drive the Indian 
 away from his lands whenever the white man 
 saw fit ; and although the Government gener- 
 ally decided that Indian lands should become 
 the property of any whites who chose to claim 
 them, the Indians themselves refused to agree 
 to this, and many a bloody battle was fought 
 in consequence. 
 
 The Seminoles still remained a powerful 
 tribe for many years after their country had be- 
 come a part of the Union, and they resented 
 fiercely any attempt to drive them away from 
 Florida. 
 
200 INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 
 
 Besides the desire of white colonists to occu- 
 py the Seminole lands, there was another rea- 
 son why it seemed best to persuade the Indians 
 to move westward. Escaped slaves still found 
 their way to the Everglades of Florida, and 
 marriages between negroes and Indians kept up 
 the feeling of friendship between the two races, 
 who, by years of ill-treatment, had learned to 
 look upon the white man as a common enemy. 
 
 South Carolina and Georgia were, as of old, 
 the great losers in this, and made constant ob- 
 jection to the presence of the Indians in Florida, 
 which could not really be considered slave terri- 
 tory, while communities of free slaves were living 
 within its borders protected by the loyalty and 
 bravery of the unconquered Seminoles. 
 
 So powerful was Southern influence where 
 the question of slavery was brought up, that 
 at last, after some years of indecision, the Gov- 
 ernment consented to purchase all the lands of 
 the Seminoles, and compel them to move to 
 the territory west of the Mississippi where the 
 Creeks had gone, and share their new homes 
 with them. 
 
INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 201 
 
 Eighty years before this the Seminoles had 
 revolted from the Creeks and had since been an 
 independent tribe, and when they heard that 
 their homes were to be taken from them and 
 that they were expected to live in friendly fash- 
 ion with their old enemies and perhaps come un- 
 der their rule, their indignation knew no bounds. 
 
 The most bitter and undying hatred sprang 
 up in their hearts toward the people who wished 
 to compel them to these measures, and war was 
 at once resolved upon. 
 
 In all dealings with the Indians the United 
 States acted the part of a powerful Government 
 willing to take advantage of the ignorant and 
 helpless. 
 
 Right and wrong were seldom considered 
 when Indian lands were in question, and if any 
 part of the country seemed peculiarly adapted 
 to growth and improvement, it was immediately 
 coveted by the whites, and the tribes compelled 
 to seek refuge elsewhere, the money that was 
 given them in return often falling far short of the 
 real value of the land. And this was true of the 
 Seminole, as well as other tribes. 
 
202 INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 
 
 The Government offered the tribe $15,000 
 for their lands in Florida, and agreed to pay 
 them certain sums of money yearly, but this 
 could not be called buying the land, as the 
 Seminoles positively refused to sell, and de- 
 clared again and again their great unwilling- 
 ness to remove. 
 
 But they were hated by the whites because 
 of their relationship with the negroes, and it was 
 believed with reason that South Carolina and 
 Georgia would continue losing their best slaves 
 while the Seminoles remained such close neigh- 
 bors, and so no attention was paid to the fact 
 that the Indians did not wish to leave their 
 homes, and every effort was made to compel 
 them to go. 
 
 One of the leading Seminole chiefs at this 
 time was Osceola. His wife was the daughter 
 of an escaped slave, and had been born in the 
 Everglades. The children born of the marriages 
 between the Indians and negroes were called 
 maroons, and were claimed as property by the 
 slaveholders, who never lost an opportunity of 
 bringing them into bondage, and once when 
 
INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 203 
 
 Osceola and his wife were visiting one of the 
 United States forts, the young maroon was 
 seized as a slave by her mother's old master 
 and carried off into captivity. Osceola had 
 been placed in irons while this was being done, 
 but as soon as his wife was safe out of the way 
 he was given his freedom. His first act on 
 reaching his tribe was to swear undying ven- 
 geance against the whites. 
 
 And when the Seminoles met in council to 
 talk over the treaty that had been proposed by 
 the United States Government, Osceola drove 
 his knife into the table and declared that he 
 would execute a treaty with that alone. One of 
 the most terrible of Indian wars at once followed. 
 
 Osceola threatened instant death to any 
 Indian who should consent to move west, and 
 one chief more peaceably inclined than the rest 
 was killed by the tribe. 
 
 The white settlers of Florida now felt the 
 full fury of the outraged and indignant Indians 
 and negroes, who moved over the State in 
 bands, showing no mercy to their enemies and 
 asking none for themselves. 
 
204 INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 
 
 Troops were at once sent against them, but 
 for a time it seemed that the wily foe would out- 
 wit all the generalship of the United States 
 Army. 
 
 A body of men numbering about one hun- 
 dred and forty, commanded by Major Dade, was 
 met by the Indians, and all but two shot down, 
 even the wounded being butchered by the ne- 
 groes as they lay in the grass. 
 
 The settlers in the interior of the State be- 
 came so alarmed over the raids of the Indians, 
 that whole towns and villages were forsaken, 
 the people flying for refuge to the forts and 
 towns along the coast. 
 
 Whole families were butchered, and the 
 messengers of the Government, carrying orders 
 from one military station to another, were often 
 murdered by the vigilant enemy, and their bodies 
 hung up on the trees as a warning to their 
 successors. 
 
 The swamps furnished the securest hiding- 
 places for the savages, and it was almost im- 
 possible to track them to their retreats. 
 
 Band after band would emerge from these 
 
INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 205 
 
 dark recesses, go on their way of murder and 
 destruction, and then return to have their places 
 taken by others equally bloodthirsty and watch- 
 ful. A moss-covered log, a bending cypress, 
 even a hummock of tall grass would prove a safe 
 shelter for the Indian or negro, while the pur- 
 suing white man would only serve as a target 
 for the unerring arrow or ball. 
 
 The Indians held true to their old modes of 
 warfare, and it was almost impossible to meet 
 them in the open field. Sudden attacks on 
 scattered farm-houses, stealthy journeys through 
 the moss-hung forests, and unexpected descents 
 in overwhelming numbers upon wagon-trains 
 and detached bands of military, were their 
 surest means of victory, and after a success 
 more glowing than usual, a swift retreat to dense 
 swamps and inaccessible islands, while the de- 
 feated enemy could only peer vainly through 
 the foliage, seeing nothing of the triumphant 
 warriors. 
 
 In order to prevent these sudden retreats of 
 the savages into their hiding-places, the Govern- 
 ment ordered blood-hounds to be brought from 
 
206 INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 
 
 Cuba, and when these arrived, with their Spanish 
 masters, it seemed that the trouble would speed- 
 ily come to an end. But it was found that the 
 blood-hounds had been trained only to follow 
 negroes, and refused to track the Indians, and 
 all the money that had been spent in bringing 
 them from Cuba was thrown away. 
 
 Added to this came the sickness which at- 
 tacked the soldiers in the warm months, and 
 rendered them so unfit for duty that many of the 
 military posts had to be abandoned. 
 
 But a still more determined effort was made 
 by the Government, and in the winter of 1837 
 eight thousand troops entered upon a campaign 
 and succeeded with great effort in driving the 
 Indians from the Everglades and forcing them 
 to sue for peace. 
 
 A short time afterward seven hundred In- 
 dians and maroons were sent off to Tampa to 
 be shipped West. 
 
 Osceola, a few months before, had gone to 
 one of the forts under a flag of truce. He had 
 been seized immediately and sent to Fort Moul- 
 trie, and after a weary imprisonment died of grief. 
 
INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 207 
 
 But the war did not end for all that, and the 
 remaining Indians and maroons had become so 
 wary that it was almost impossible to follow 
 them in the swamps and woods. 
 
 But the troops became more and more skil- 
 ful in Indian warfare, and gradually small parties 
 of the savages were captured and sent West, 
 with such maroons as were not claimed by 
 slave-holders, and so, very slowly, the Indian 
 power was broken up. 
 
 Finally, in the year 1841, General Worth's 
 troops ascended the rivers in small parties, and 
 penetrated to the swamps and islands, and de- 
 stroyed the hiding-places of the Indians, and with 
 them the crops that they depended upon for their 
 winter food, and this struck the last blow to the 
 power of the Seminoles. One by one the bands 
 gave themselves up as prisoners, and party after 
 party was sent on to the West, until almost the 
 last Seminole had disappeared from Florida. 
 
 The war ended, having lasted six years, and 
 having cost the country forty millions of dollars, 
 twice as much as had been paid for Florida and 
 Louisiana together. 
 
208 INDIAN TROUBLES IN FLORIDA. 
 
 But some escaped slaves had been dragged 
 back into bondage, and a few unfortunate ma- 
 roons had been forced to exchange freedom for 
 servitude ; the Seminoles had also been driven 
 away, and so the war was looked upon as a 
 brilliant success. 
 
 No thought was given to the original owners 
 of the land, whose claims dated back to a time 
 when America was yet a wilderness, and the 
 white man had not learned to claim all its wealth 
 for his own. 
 
 But like many another tribe, the Seminoles 
 had learned that their rights must disappear 
 before the wishes of their white brothers, and 
 sadly they turned their faces toward the West, 
 that last refuge for their race, and with hearts 
 full of bitterness and sorrow, accepted the fate 
 that willed that might, and not right, should 
 rule. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 Long ago, when people believed a great many 
 things that they think themselves too wise to 
 believe now, when elves and fairies, witches and 
 spirits, will-o'-the-wisps, brownies, and good- 
 fellows of all kinds lived on the earth, and did 
 many a good turn to poor humans, it was not 
 thought impossible for the air to be filled at all 
 hours of the day and night with these obliging 
 messengers, who were always flying hither and 
 thither on their errands of love and duty. 
 
 A spark of light in the valley, the gleam of 
 a torch in the mountains, the faint cry of a bird 
 in the woods, a cold breath of air blown across 
 the face in the darkness, a strange and subtle 
 perfume lingering around a place where no 
 flowers had ever bloomed, were all signs that 
 
 these little people were about their work, and 
 14 
 
2IO THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 that tired humanity might go to rest quite sure 
 that the world would be well taken care of while 
 it slept. 
 
 In those days all the earth seemed full of 
 unseen spirits, and every thing in nature had a 
 voice to speak its mission to the world. The 
 trees and flowers, the brooks and fountains, the 
 winds and the buds, were all gifted with strange 
 powers, and could work good or ill as they so 
 desired, and man was very thankful for their 
 good offices, and very careful not to offend 
 them lest they should use their power for harm. 
 
 But as the world grew older the belief in all 
 these supernatural beings gradually died out, 
 and only a few old people or children could be 
 found who kept their faith in the merry little 
 folk of old. 
 
 Perhaps there would still linger among the 
 simple inhabitants of a secluded village a little 
 superstition about lucky and unlucky days, 
 witches' charms, fairy rings, and elfin lights in 
 the meadows ; but for the rest of mankind all the 
 belief in such things had changed to only a 
 childish memory. 
 
THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 211 
 
 And yet, when the world thought itself 
 wisest, when all the secrets of nature seemed 
 spread out before man like an open book, when 
 he had learned all about the laws of the winds 
 and tides, and the courses of the stars, and the 
 meanings that lay beneath the tint of every leaf 
 and flower, and when the interior of the earth, 
 which he had once supposed peopled with 
 demons and spirits of darkness, was laid bare 
 before his eyes, and its rich treasures yielded 
 themselves up to his hands, even then his 
 knowledge was really so limited that he was 
 ignorant of the one mystery that is in all nature 
 the oreatest. 
 
 For although his belief in the spirits of the 
 air had long since vanished, there were yet 
 mysterious and unseen forces filling the earth 
 and heavens, and gifted with powers so strange 
 and wonderful that the wildest dreams of man 
 could never have imagined them. 
 
 The heart of the oak and the leaf of the 
 rose, the mighty boulder of granite and the 
 smallest diamond, the waters, the mountains, 
 the clouds, and everything in the universe were 
 
212 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 all guarding a secret so great in its powers auu 
 so mighty in its influence, that when man should 
 learn it, it would change the whole world for 
 him, and make him the possessor of a servant 
 far excelling in ability any fairies, elves, or genii, 
 who had ever lived. 
 
 A few hints of this great mystery had come 
 to man from time to time, but in a way so ob- 
 scure that the puzzle seemed only the greater. 
 Perhaps it was because of the faint revealings 
 of these unseen forces that the race first came 
 to believe in the power of mysterious agencies 
 in nature, working out their will for the good or 
 ill of mankind ; but however that may be, it is 
 certain that the secret was whispered faintly 
 many years ago, and that from the earliest 
 times man had tried earnestly to discover this 
 most elusive wonder of nature. 
 
 The old Greeks thought for a long time that 
 this strange power was found only in amber, and 
 so named it electron, which is the Greek word 
 for that substance, and from this name came 
 the modern term, electricity. But the name 
 means nothing, and explains none of the won- 
 
THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 213 
 
 aerful qualities which this invisible force pos- 
 sesses, and is only kept because there must be 
 a name, and this is as appropriate as any other 
 would be. 
 
 More than two thousand years ago it was 
 observed that when a piece of amber was rubbed 
 with silk it acquired the power of attracting 
 light bodies to it, and as time went on it came 
 to be known that other bodies, such as sulphur, 
 sealing-wax, and glass, have the same property 
 as amber, and it is now believed that every sub- 
 stance has the same power to a greater or less 
 degree, or, in other words, everything in nature 
 is supposed to contain a certain amount of 
 electricity. 
 
 But although this power is so universal, we 
 can tell its presence in a substance only by 
 the effect it produces. Of its nature we know 
 nothing ; we only know that it exists because 
 we are able to force it out of its hiding-places, 
 and we have learned in some degree to what 
 uses we may put it, but all the rest is a great 
 mystery. 
 
 It has been found that electricity possesses 
 
214 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 the power of passing from one body to another, 
 and from this knowledge has come some of its 
 chief benefits to mankind. But not all bodies 
 receive electricity with the same degree of ease. 
 Those substances which receive it easily are 
 called conductors, such as metals, flame, acids, 
 smoke, and many others ; substances which do 
 not receive electricity easily are called non- 
 conductors, such as glass, silk, wax, feathers, 
 amber, lime, mica, the diamond, all transparent 
 precious stones, and many others, and both con- 
 ductors and non-conductors are necessary to 
 make electricity of any use to man. 
 
 By careful study it has been discovered that 
 this mighty force is capable of performing a great 
 many wonderful things. 
 
 Rub two different substances together and 
 the electricity which is produced will often show 
 itself in a little spark. This fact has led to the 
 discovery that electricity can produce light, and 
 that the tiny spark which a child may develop 
 by walking over a carpet, the lightnings which 
 flash from horizon to zenith in the thunder- 
 storms of summer, and the burning spears of 
 
THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 21 5 
 
 the aurora, are all the results of that hidden 
 power whose workings are so mysterious and 
 so full of awe. 
 
 Electricity can also produce heat so great 
 that the hardest substances will melt under its 
 power, and an electric current sent into a vessel 
 of water will speedily separate the oxygen and 
 hydrogen of which the water is composed, and 
 drive them far apart. 
 
 But the property that makes it most useful 
 to mankind is more wonderful than any of these. 
 From the earliest times there has been known 
 to exist a very curious mineral, called loadstone. 
 This substance, which is composed of iron and 
 oxygen, possesses the singular power of attract- 
 ing to it any particles of iron which may be 
 placed near its surface. 
 
 This mineral, which was found in great 
 abundance in the ancient city of Magnesia, in 
 Asia, received the name of magnet, from that 
 city, and it is very often called by that name. 
 
 One of the most remarkable qualities which 
 the loadstone possesses, is its power of giving 
 its property of attracting iron, to a needle or 
 
2l6 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 steel bar which is rubbed against it, the needle 
 also being able, after having been rubbed several 
 times against the loadstone, to attract pieces of 
 iron ; it is then said to be magnetized. 
 
 A piece of steel which has acquired this 
 power is called a magnetic needle, and has the 
 peculiar habit of always pointing north and 
 south when suspended freely in the air. 
 
 From this circumstance the magnetic needle 
 became an invaluable aid to seamen, and made 
 ocean voyaging a much easier thing than it had 
 ever been before its use was introduced. 
 
 For a long time the chief use of the mag- 
 netic needle seemed to be to guide man in his 
 travels by land and sea, but as time passed 
 the world began to wonder if this useful little 
 object would not some time be put to another 
 service equally great. 
 
 Philosophers had for ages pondered over 
 magnetism and electricity, and wondered if these 
 two strange and powerful forces might not be 
 in some way related. 
 
 Many wise men gave their lives to the 
 study of this perplexing problem, but its solu- 
 
THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 217 
 
 tion always evaded them, and they could only 
 follow vainly the hints and suggestions which 
 came to them from time to time, but which al- 
 ways proved as fruitless and elusive as the pur- 
 suit of the will-o'-the-wisp. 
 
 But in 1820 the great Danish philosopher, 
 Oersted, made a discovery which has led to the 
 most wonderful invention in the history of the 
 world. 
 
 By long and careful experiments, which ex- 
 tended through years of study, Oersted came 
 to the secret that had eluded all the philoso- 
 phers before him, and found the strange rela- 
 tionship that exists between electricity and mag- 
 netism, and proved that a magnet will act upon 
 electricity, and electricity upon a magnet, to 
 such a degree that the magnetic needle will 
 turn from its usual direction and swing around 
 to the east or west. 
 
 This wonderful discovery added immensely 
 to the sum of the world's knowledge, and was 
 destined to lead to the most important results. 
 
 Previous to this it had been observed that 
 in very high latitudes, and under certain other 
 
2l8 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 conditions, the magnetic needle did not remain 
 fixed; but to Oersted belongs the credit of dis- 
 covering the connection between this phenom- 
 enon and electricity. 
 
 Oersted's discovery at once set the whole 
 world thinking. He had found that a wire, 
 through which a current of electricity was pass- 
 ing, could control the action of the magnetic 
 needle, and men of science were eager to make 
 this knowledge of use to the world. 
 
 Long before this, philosophers had tried to 
 think of some plan by which messages could be 
 sent from one place to another by using the 
 power which electricity possesses of being sent 
 to any distance through a wire or metal bar, 
 but all experiments had so far failed. 
 
 As early as 1649 a Jesuit priest published a 
 curious book, in which he tried to show that 
 two magnetic needles, situated at great dis- 
 tances apart, might be made to transmit mes- 
 sages, and from his time down many different 
 philosophers attempted various inventions for 
 the same purpose. But it was not until after 
 Oersted's discovery that sending messages by 
 
THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 219 
 
 electricity, or telegraphy, was made a thorough 
 success. 
 
 In 1837 Professor Morse, an American in- 
 ventor, gave to the world an invention which 
 far excelled all previous ones in importance. 
 He had perfected a machine by which it was 
 possible to combine the use of electricity with 
 the magnetic needle, and transmit messages be- 
 tween places, no matter how far apart. 
 
 Although Professor Morse profited by the 
 experience and wisdom of many before him, 
 and very little of his invention is strictly orig- 
 inal with him, yet to him belongs the credit of 
 completing a machine so perfect that from the 
 time he gave his ideas to the world telegraphy 
 became a practical and assured success. 
 
 His method consists in sending a current 
 of electricity through a wire to a point near 
 which is suspended a magnetic needle. As the 
 electricity passes the needle, it is turned from 
 its true position, and swings east or west, and 
 does not again point north until the current of 
 electricity has ceased. It is therefore possible 
 for a person standing at one end of the wire to 
 
220 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 control the action of the needle near the other 
 end, no matter how far distant, by merely shut- 
 ting off or putting on the current, and as every 
 motion of the needle could be made to stand for 
 a certain sign, or every second of time between 
 the passing or stopping of the current could 
 stand for a certain letter, or even the sound made 
 to mean certain words, why, sending messages 
 by electricity became an easy matter. Like all 
 other great inventions the result seemed simple 
 enough when once accomplished, and the Morse 
 system of telegraphy seemed at once to solve the 
 problem that had vexed other inventors so long. 
 
 As electricity travels almost with the swift- 
 ness of thought, scientific men at once saw how 
 its use in telegraphy would confer the greatest 
 gift that science had ever given to the world. 
 
 But every great invention has to fight its 
 way into favor with the multitude, and tele- 
 graphy was no exception. Professor Morse 
 had to plead so hard for his invention, and de- 
 fend it from such absurd charges, that one 
 would have supposed he wished to introduce 
 some dreadful evil into the world. 
 
THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 221 
 
 Some laughed at his idea, some thought it 
 irreverent to pry thus into the secrets of nature, 
 others feared it as likely to work harm to the 
 world, and not a few thought the great inven- 
 tor fit only for the lunatic asylum. 
 
 But the same courage and patience that 
 had upheld him while perfecting his great 
 system, now came to his aid, and after many 
 years of waiting he finally gained the con- 
 sent of the Government to furnish money for 
 building telegraph lines in order to test the 
 invention. 
 
 The first line built in the United States was 
 put in operation in June, 1844, between Wash- 
 ington City and Baltimore, and fully established 
 the success of the Morse system. By 1848, 
 there were lines running as far west as Buffalo, 
 and as far north as Montreal, and although elec- 
 tric telegraphing had been vaguely known to the 
 scientific world since 1786, yet so complete and 
 perfect was the new system, and so thoroughly 
 a success, that now, for the first time, it seemed 
 possible to think of it as taking a place among 
 the great inventions of the world. 
 
222 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 Never before, in the history of civilization, 
 had anything so important happened as the per- 
 fection of the magnetic telegraph. 
 
 Man had made use of strange messengers 
 to carry his thoughts from place to place, but 
 electricity was the strangest of all. 
 
 The bark of a tree, the reeds of the Nile, the 
 skin of an animal, graven stones, waxen tab- 
 lets, and the white wings of birds had all served 
 their time as instruments of man's wish to send 
 messages of greeting, or peace, or war, from 
 place to place, and it had even been believed 
 that the air could carry strange secrets, and that 
 man's inmost thought could be read by magi- 
 cians, and astrologers predict his fate from the 
 stars ; but all inventions and all marvels paled 
 before this, in which dwelt a power so great, 
 and yet so mysterious, that man could only 
 grasp but a small hint of it, and seemed des- 
 tined to stand forever shut out from its real 
 character and meaning. Again a part of his 
 lost faith returned and in the presence of this 
 subtle force which fills the universe, he was 
 once more forced to believe in unseen agencies 
 
THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 223 
 
 abounding in earth and air, and capable of per- 
 forming wonderful deeds. 
 
 It is true he had learned to look with some- 
 what clearer eyes, and his thought was far more 
 intelligent than in the old days, while the power 
 to bring these forces to his own will, in even a 
 slight degree, had made his attitude toward 
 nature more dignified and self-appreciative ; but 
 the great mystery still remained as much a mys- 
 tery as ever. Nature still held her secret close, 
 and man could only put out his hand to take the 
 small measure that was vouchsafed to him, and 
 rest content with that. 
 
 And yet, small as is his knowledge of this 
 wonderful power, he has given to it uses that 
 are almost infinite. It carries man's thought 
 from continent to continent, speeds down miles 
 of railroad to avert threatening danger, and its 
 signals flash from mountain height to coast, to 
 herald the approaching storm ; it illumines the 
 streets of great cities, its brilliance almost turn- 
 ing the night into day ; the worker in metals 
 finds it a ready helper in executing his designs, 
 and the chemist unravels some of the deepest 
 
224 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 secrets of nature by the same subtle agency; 
 while many other purposes as varied and great 
 all prove its use to the world. 
 
 A few years after Morse's system came into 
 use telegraphic lines had spread in all directions 
 over both continents. 
 
 From the Arctic Ocean southward to the 
 heights of the Andes, and from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific, America was traversed by thousands of 
 miles of telegraph lines. And in the Old World 
 the new thought made just as rapid progress — 
 Europe, Africa, and Asia were at once joined by 
 a network of these delicate wires that have fol- 
 lowed the thought of man in infinite directions. 
 Under the waters of the English Channel, the 
 North Sea, the Black, the Mediterranean, and 
 the Red, from peak to peak of the Alps, over 
 the pleasant valleys of Italy and France, and 
 across the mountains and deserts of Asia, the 
 electric telegraph pushed its way, step by step, 
 with an energy that scorned all difficulties. 
 Engineers traversed dense Asiatic forests, and 
 brought the most uncivilized races of the world 
 to a knowledge of the progress of man. Can- 
 
THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 225 
 
 ton and St. Petersburg-, India and the Nile, 
 were joined together by this mysterious bond, 
 and the white peaks of the Himalayas and the 
 snow-fields of Russia seemed separated only by 
 a moment's space from the African deserts and 
 the red rose-gardens of Persia and Arabia. 
 
 And yet, when all this was done, man was 
 not yet satisfied. There still remained the great 
 ocean between the Old World and the New, and 
 while it yet took days of buffeting with winds 
 and waves to bring the two continents into com- 
 munication, the telegraph seemed to only have 
 fulfilled half its mission. 
 
 England had already shown that lines could 
 be used under water, and now the great ques- 
 tion arose as to how to use this knowledge for 
 the laying of wires underneath the ocean. To 
 the early experimenters in electricity this would 
 have seemed impossible, for although there are 
 certain fish that possess the power of producing 
 electricity in such quantity sometimes that they 
 can transmit a shock sufficient to cause death to 
 the animal that touches them, yet it was well 
 
 known that it was most difficult for man to send 
 15 
 
226 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 a current over any wire that was buried beneath 
 the water. 
 
 But human ingenuity went to work, and after 
 many failures, this difficulty was also overcome, 
 and it was found possible to cover the wires so 
 that the electric current would not be disturbed 
 by the water. Then the ocean was sounded from 
 shore to shore, and it was found that between 
 the coasts of Ireland and Newfoundland the 
 bottom of the sea consisted of a plateau so per- 
 fectly adapted to the uses of the telegraph that 
 nothing better could have been imagined. This 
 vast plain was so shallow that the wires could 
 easily be laid at the bottom, and yet so deep 
 that they would be forever beyond the reach of 
 ships, icebergs, anchors, wrecks, and sea-drifts 
 of any kind. No ocean currents disturbed the 
 calm of this deep-sea region, and the tiny shells 
 which strewed the bed were as perfect as when 
 first deposited. Here the wires might fall, and 
 rest secure from all mishap. 
 
 And so the heavy cable-wire was prepared, 
 and ships sent out to meet in mid-ocean and 
 join the great wires together. The vessels met 
 
THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 227 
 
 at the appointed place, and after splicing the 
 cable, separated, one sailing for the coast of 
 Ireland and the other for Newfoundland. Both 
 reached harbor safely, and on the morning of 
 August 7, 1857, Mr. Cyrus W. Field, of New- 
 York, through whose untiring efforts the plan 
 had been carried out, announced to the world 
 that the Atlantic Cable was successfully -laid, 
 and that the signals through the wires were 
 perfect. Great rejoicings followed ; all over the 
 land bells were rung, cannon fired, and flags 
 displayed, and although this first attempt did 
 not afterward prove successful, yet the fact was 
 established that it was possible to lay telegraph 
 wires under the Atlantic, and in the year 1867 
 the present cable was finished. 
 
 And so the greatest marvel of any age was 
 accomplished, and Europe and America could 
 speak to each other with the speed of thought, 
 and the ends of the earth were joined together 
 with the bands of the lightning. 
 
 Not yet fifty years have passed since Morse 
 gave his system to the world, but the results 
 have proved more important than all the changes 
 
228 THE STORY OF THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 that have taken place since the earliest dawn of 
 history. No one can tell to what the use of 
 electricity as a messenger of thought may lead, 
 but it is certain that there must remain for it 
 still wide fields of action, and the coming ages 
 may witness such an increase of knowledge of 
 its laws, and so many wide uses of them, that 
 the telegraph, which is the marvel of the age, 
 will seem no more wondrous than the magic 
 charms and elfin deeds of old seem to the peo- 
 ple of to-day. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 
 
 Nearly a hundred years before La Salle had 
 wandered hopelessly amid the forests of Texas 
 in his vain effort to discover the mouth of the 
 Mississippi, Spanish priests had travelled north- 
 ward from Mexico, and had established a mis- 
 sion amonor the Indians near what is now the 
 city of Santa Fe. 
 
 The Indians seemed kindly and well dis- 
 posed, and for nearly a century the two races 
 dwelt together peaceably, while the mission 
 grew, and the tribes in distant regions became 
 familiar with the idea of these white priests who 
 taught their dark neighbors the arts of peace, 
 and endeavored to lift them above the hard and 
 brutal life of the savage. 
 
 But as time passed, the Indians grew restive 
 under these restraints, and at last rose in a body, 
 
230 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 
 
 and after killing a large number of Spaniards, 
 compelled the remainder to retreat to the bor- 
 ders of Mexico. 
 
 The Spanish Government, however, had no 
 intention of giving up the rich province of New- 
 Mexico so easily, and a large force of troops 
 was sent thither to recover the country. For 
 fifteen years the struggle lasted, and resulted in 
 the conquest of New Mexico by Spain, and the 
 establishment of peace over all the country. 
 
 This was in the year 1695, a few years after 
 the death of La Salle. 
 
 The attempts of the French to make settle- 
 ments in Texas greatly aroused the anger and 
 opposition of Spain, who considered that she 
 alone had the right to build up the new country. 
 
 France claimed Texas as a part of Louisi- 
 ana, which she said belonged to her by right of 
 discovery ; but on the other hand, Spain had 
 long before issued an order forbidding all for- 
 eigners from entering the waters of the Gulf of 
 Mexico, claiming the whole region lying on its 
 borders as hers, by right of the discoveries of 
 De Leon, Narvaez, and De Soto. 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 23 1 
 
 And so, when the news of the French expe- 
 dition into Texas was carried by the Indians to 
 the priests at the missions, and so travelled on 
 into Mexico, the viceroy of that country imme- 
 diately called a council of war, at which it was 
 decided that it was the duty of every loyal 
 Spaniard to join a crusade against the invaders, 
 and drive them out of the country. 
 
 But sickness and death had already been 
 among the unfortunate French, and the Spanish 
 commander only succeeded in taking two pris- 
 oners, the rest of the company having died 
 while wandering through the wilderness, or 
 been scattered among different tribes as prison- 
 ers. 
 
 However, the expedition from Mexico was 
 considered of such importance that the King of 
 Spain immediately ordered missions to be es- 
 tablished all over Texas, thinking rightly that if 
 he allowed the French to gain any foothold in 
 that country, his possessions in New Mexico 
 would be greatly endangered. 
 
 The Indians of Texas were wandering and 
 quarrelsome tribes, who from time immemorial, 
 
232 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 
 
 had plundered and stolen from the Aztecs, and 
 when Mexico was conquered by Spain these 
 roving savages still continued their evil practices, 
 keeping themselves supplied with horses, arms, 
 silver plate, and other articles by their thefts 
 upon the European colonies at El Paso, Mon- 
 terey, and elsewhere, and not content with 
 stealing for themselves, furnishing the Indians 
 along the coast with horses and fire-arms ob- 
 tained from the same sources. 
 
 They were divided into tribes which were 
 constantly at war with one another, and differed 
 greatly in disposition and habits. 
 
 The principal tribe were the Cenis, who 
 were distinguished for their hospitality and 
 gentleness. This tribe lived along the banks of 
 the Trinity, in large and populous villages. 
 Their houses were shaped like bee-hives, and 
 were sometimes forty feet high. They raised 
 corn and grain, and used horses, money, silver 
 spoons, spurs, and clothing which they had ob- 
 tained from the Spaniards. 
 
 Like the Aztecs, they worshipped the sun, 
 and believed in a Creator ; and in common 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 233 
 
 with other North American Indians, had their 
 rain-makers, game-finders, and witches. 
 
 At first the effort to establish missions 
 among them was not successful ; the seasons 
 were bad, crops failed, cattle died, and the In- 
 dians were hostile ; and before long all the posts 
 excepting El Paso, which was on the route to 
 the silver mines of New Mexico, and one on the 
 Rio Grande, were abandoned. 
 
 But the colonization of Louisiana by the 
 French roused the Spaniards to new exertions, 
 and in the year 171 5, permanent missions were 
 established in Texas. 
 
 Thus Spain quietly took possession of all 
 that vast country extending from the Sabine 
 to the Rio Grande, and containing within its 
 boundaries natural resources for almost un- 
 limited wealth. 
 
 The little missions were at first but humble 
 affairs. Cabins were built of rough hewn logs, 
 interlaced and thatched with branches, and the 
 unpretending chapel and hospital were of the 
 same rude material. But the climate was mild, 
 the soil fertile, and the wants of the good Fran- 
 
234 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 
 
 ciscan priests few and simple, and so the mis- 
 sions grew and flourished, and became centres 
 of civilization in that wild, rough country, where 
 hitherto the beauty of peaceful and happy liv- 
 ing had been unknown. 
 
 The Indians, for the most part, were good- 
 natured and willing to be taught ; they cheer- 
 fully waited upon the priests, and willingly per- 
 formed small duties for the soldiers ; for all the 
 larger missions had garrisons of soldiers ; being 
 called from this circumstance, presidios. Each 
 presidio or military post had a mission attached 
 to it, and these stations soon grew to be places 
 of considerable importance. 
 
 The buildings of the presidio consisted of the 
 church, dwellings for officers, priests, and sol- 
 diers, hospital, storehouses, and prisons, all 
 erected around a great square called the plaza 
 de armas. The converted Indians lived in huts 
 at a little distance from the whites, and were 
 obliged to perform daily penance for any wrong- 
 doing. 
 
 The Franciscan fathers at the presidios 
 strictly observed the rules of their order. They 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 235 
 
 wore coarse woollen robes tied with cords, from 
 which hung a knotted scourge, and went with 
 their feet entirely bare. Having taken the 
 vows of self-denial and poverty, they worked 
 without hope of reward, and performed their 
 labors so conscientiously that they gained great 
 influence over the Indians. But it was very 
 hard work to make the savages understand 
 that their whole mode of life was wrong in 
 the eyes of the priests. 
 
 The Franciscans did not, like the Jesuits, enter 
 into the life of the tribes they tried to convert, 
 but, on the contrary, they presented religion in 
 such a gloomy and forbidding light that, if it had 
 not been for the protection and shelter they 
 offered the Indians, they would have had but 
 few converts. 
 
 Up in the lake region, where the Indians 
 first came under the influence of the French 
 missionaries, who were of cheerful and loving 
 disposition, it rarely happened that a native, af- 
 ter having been converted, gave up his faith and 
 returned to his savage practices, for he found 
 as good companionship in the priests as he 
 
236 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 
 
 could desire. They hunted and fished with 
 him, joined him in his feasts, and praised his 
 skill in the chase and at the games ; but the 
 Spanish Franciscans looked upon these sports 
 with abhorrence, and tried, in every way, to 
 induce the Indians to give them up. 
 
 The fathers offered the natives food and 
 raiment and shelter, and in return for these they 
 expected them to change their tastes and habits 
 entirely. 
 
 They had to learn the value of property, to 
 build homes and seek means for supporting 
 their families, not trusting, as of old, to their luck 
 in fishing or hunting ; they had to give up their 
 wandering lives and settle down in communities 
 around the mission, and instead of the war- 
 whoop and battle-cry, they were expected to 
 care only for the Latin prayers and chants of 
 the priests. 
 
 Besides this, the Indians had to be taught 
 that, the Great Spirit, whom they all revered, 
 did not delight in murder and bloodshed, but 
 that, on the contrary, the Christian was ex- 
 pected to forgive his enemy instead of scalping 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 237 
 
 him, and to help a brother in distress instead of 
 taking from him the little he might have. 
 
 From early morning until evening the ser- 
 vices of the Church were regularly performed 
 in the little wooden chapels of the missions, and 
 Sundays and festivals were as strictly observed 
 as in the stately cathedrals of Mexico and Spain. 
 
 The mystic rites of the Church never failed 
 to inspire the simple natives with awe; they 
 willingly devoted their time and strength to as- 
 sist the priests in carrying on the religious cere- 
 monies, and were never so happy as when al- 
 lowed to take part in decorating the chapels for 
 the different festivals, or joining in the singing 
 and chanting. This part of the Christian relig- 
 ion seemed to them beautiful and desirable, 
 but the gloomier side repelled them. They dis- 
 liked the endless prayers and numerous pen- 
 ances, and it was no infrequent thing for a party 
 of young braves to steal off from the mission at 
 night, and join their friends in a wild hunt or 
 bloodthirsty war-party. 
 
 Such offences were always met with stern 
 disapproval by the friars, who, unlike the French 
 
238 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 
 
 priests, did not try to win the wrong-doers back 
 by persuasion, but, on the contrary, held over 
 their heads awful threats of the anger of heaven 
 against such offenders. But, notwithstanding 
 these drawbacks, the influence of the fathers 
 gradually made itself felt throughout Texas, 
 even the more distant tribes coming more or 
 less under the civilizing power of Christianity. 
 
 And so around the little missions settle- 
 ments of Christian Indians grew slowly up. 
 The young were carefully trained in the doc- 
 trines of the Roman Church, and as converts 
 were never allowed to marry among the un- 
 converted, in a few years there was a race of 
 domestic Indians living around the missions, 
 peaceable in habit, and depending upon the 
 cultivation of the ground for their support. 
 
 Sometimes these converts were sent out 
 among their still savage brothers to induce 
 them to lead civilized lives, and so great was 
 their zeal for making converts, that it often hap- 
 pened they brought the unwilling savages in by 
 force, and compelled them to be baptized ; and 
 even this singular way of winning converts 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 239 
 
 wrought good effects ; for however distasteful 
 the confinement of the missions might seem to 
 the chiefs and warriors, they invariably grew 
 very fond of the pious friars who had left the 
 comforts of civilization and accepted lives of 
 deprivation and danger, for the sake of their 
 savage and untaught brethren. 
 
 It is pleasant to think of these peaceful little 
 settlements in the midst of the Texan forests, 
 where the good priests and grateful Indians 
 lived in loving companionship for so many 
 years. 
 
 And not only were the missions of benefit to 
 the natives, but the weary traveller over plain 
 and mountain could always turn his steps toward 
 the presidio, sure of welcome and repose, and 
 to the adventurous settler who had reared his 
 lonely cabin far away in the mighty forest, 
 there was no sight or sound so cheering as the 
 cross rising from the gable of the little chapel, 
 or the music of the Angelus stealing through 
 the dusky woods, and filling the twilight hour 
 with thoughts of love and peace. 
 
 After the establishment of the presidios the 
 
240 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 
 
 Indians naturally fell into two classes. T, 1 
 who remained unconverted were called Indian 
 bravos, and those who knew how to make the 
 sign of the cross were styled converted Indians, 
 for the friars soon learned that these ignorant 
 savages could only be taught by things that ap- 
 pealed to their imagination, and that the spirit 
 of Christianity was something they could not 
 understand. 
 
 The rite of baptism, the administration of 
 the sacraments, the reverential attitude, the sign 
 of the cross, the sound of the church-bell, and 
 even the robes of the priest, had for them a 
 mysterious and powerful fascination ; but in 
 most cases the friars had to be content with 
 the performance of these outward signs, for it 
 seemed almost impossible to teach the Indian 
 that love and gentleness were more a part of 
 Christian doctrine than decorating the font at 
 Easter, or bowing at the mention of the Trinity. 
 
 The belief in the power of things visible was 
 inborn among the Indians, and once, when a 
 party of Spaniards had gone on an expedition 
 against the French on the Mississippi, the Mis- 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 24 1 
 
 1 chief who encountered them spared only 
 tne priest in the general butchery that followed, 
 and afterward gravely appeared at the French 
 fort decked out in the ornaments of the chapel, 
 wearing the paten as a breastplate and thinking 
 he had acquired great honor thereby, although 
 he was covered with war-paint and his head 
 was crowned with feathers and a pair of horns. 
 
 During the American Revolution, Texas re- 
 mained quiet, being too far from the scene of 
 action to take any important part, and as yet 
 too little known to attract any attention. 
 
 But after the purchase of Louisiana by the 
 United States, the great territory lying west of 
 it began to attract some notice. 
 
 American settlers began to venture into the 
 Texan forests, and trade was slowly established 
 between Mexico and the Western frontier by 
 way of the Spanish mission-posts in Texas. 
 
 Gradually the population increased and the 
 
 presidios grew into flourishing towns. The 
 
 natural resources began to be appreciated, and 
 
 large settlements of Americans were in a few 
 
 years scattered all over the country. 
 16 
 
242 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 
 
 In the meantime, as the years went on, 
 Mexico grew more and more restive under the 
 rule of Spain, and after a long struggle with the 
 Spanish crown declared her independence in 
 1821. 
 
 Soon after this, application was made to the 
 new republic for permission to found American 
 colonies in Texas, and this was the beginning 
 of a powerful American influence in that coun- 
 try, which soon counted large numbers of peo- 
 ple from the United States among her popula- 
 tion. 
 
 These pioneers had a hard time of it at first, 
 for the Indians were hostile, the Mexicans none 
 too friendly, and the work of forming new set- 
 tlements difficult and often discouraging. The 
 comforts of life were almost unknown during 
 the first years, the emigrants being content with 
 seeing order and beauty slowly growing up 
 around their new homes. Men, women, and 
 children alike wore clothing made of buckskin, 
 and shoes were a luxury unknown except in the 
 coldest weather. Once in a while a strolling 
 pedler would find his way into the settlements, 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 243 
 
 and from him would be obtained needles, thread, 
 and occasionally a piece of calico, for which 
 fabulous prices were paid. 
 
 The history of Texas at this time is like that 
 of the early settlement of the Mississippi Valley. 
 Hardships were bravely borne, and the trouble 
 with the Indians and the dangers of frontier 
 life only united the pioneers more closely to- 
 gether, and developed that spirit of indepen- 
 dence which characterized all the early settlers. 
 
 The Government of Mexico had abolished 
 slavery, and took some pains to establish 
 schools. But these latter were Mexican in 
 character, and did not meet the ideas of the 
 American settlers. 
 
 The pupils were taught reading, writing, 
 arithmetic, and the dogmas of the Roman 
 Church. The school was held in a large room 
 furnished with a few wooden benches, and hav- 
 ing - the floor covered with cow-hides. The 
 pupils all repeated their lessons at the top of 
 their voices, while the master stalked around, 
 ferule in hand, dressed in leather breeches and 
 jerkin, with a bright handkerchief twisted 
 
244 T IIE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 
 
 around his head and his shaggy hair standing 
 erect. 
 
 At such schools as these, the greater part of 
 the Texans learned all they knew from books, 
 but the Americans had private schools of their 
 own, or sent their children to the United States 
 to be educated. 
 
 But as time went on the Mexican Govern- 
 ment grew jealous of the American power in 
 Texas, and feared that the United States would 
 lay some claim to the country in view of the 
 great number of their citizens settled there. 
 Besides this, the slave-owners of Texas carried 
 on a profitable trade in negroes, introducing 
 them into the colony under the name of servants 
 since slavery was forbidden. 
 
 Owing to these and other causes, in 1830 
 the Mexican Government issued an order for- 
 bidding any people from the United States to 
 settle in Texas, and any further trade in slaves. 
 
 The Texans were greatly perplexed by this 
 order, but settlers still continued to come, and 
 the trouble increased. The Americans called 
 themselves citizens of Texas by adoption, and 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 245 
 
 sympathized with the State in her disagreement 
 with Mexico. 
 
 All the Southern States of the Union 
 watched the contest with eagerness, and openly- 
 declared their sympathy for the Texans, know- 
 ing that in so doing they could best serve their 
 own interests as slave-holders. 
 
 Finally, urged on by the spirit of American 
 independence, by the great influence of the slave- 
 owners, and by the frequent acts of Mexican in- 
 justice, Texas boldly announced her independ- 
 ence, and declared herself free from Mexican rule. 
 
 War immediately followed, the Texans being 
 commanded by the American General Houston 
 and the Mexicans by their President, Santa Anna. 
 After a year's fighting, Santa Anna was taken 
 prisoner at the battle of San Jacinto, and agreed 
 to acknowledge the independence of Texas. 
 
 This struggle was watched with great inter- 
 est by Americans, those of the North and those 
 of the South both feeling that if Texas gained 
 her independence it would only be a short time 
 before she would apply for admission into the 
 Union, and while this was considered very de- 
 
246 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 
 
 sirable by the Southern States, as increasing the 
 power of slavery, it was held equally undesirable 
 by the Northern States for the same reason. 
 
 Texas held the position of an independent 
 republic for nine years, her entire separation 
 from Mexico being acknowledged by the Unit- 
 ed States and several European governments, 
 although Mexico herself never fully admitted 
 that the new State was quite lost to her. 
 
 When the time actually came to discuss the 
 question of allowing the Texan Republic to en- 
 ter the Union, all the old feelings of anger were 
 aroused. 
 
 The Northern States bitterly opposed the 
 admission of so large a slave-holding territory, 
 while the Southern States tried every means in 
 their power to bring the new country in, feeling 
 sure that such an increase of land and slaves 
 would make their own power in the nation great- 
 er and more enduring. There were many fierce 
 debates in Congress, and the question of the ex- 
 tension of slavery, and the probability of a war 
 with Mexico were argued over and over again. 
 
 Finally, when the vote was cast, it was 
 
THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 247 
 
 found that Southern influence had prevailed, 
 and Texas was admitted to the Union as a 
 slave State on December 27, 1845. 
 
 The Texans and the people of the South 
 rejoiced, the North looked gloomy, and Mexico 
 at once determined upon a war with the United 
 States. 
 
 Texas was the twenty-eighth State admit- 
 ted into the Union, and included a territory 
 one-third as large as that embraced in the thir- 
 teen original Colonies. It contained vast natu- 
 ral resources, and its people were already filled 
 with that spirit of liberty and progress which 
 had been the means of raising the United 
 States, in so short a time, to such an impor- 
 tant position among the nations of the earth. 
 
 Such a State could not fail to be of lasting 
 benefit to the Union ; but this could not be 
 seen at first, for no sooner had the new terri- 
 tory been openly acknowledged as a part of the 
 American Republic, than her frontiers were in- 
 vaded by a hostile army, and the United States 
 found that they must fight for their new State 
 at the point of the sword. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 When the empire of Montezuma came to an 
 end, and Spanish soldiers and priests united to 
 stamp out Mexican individuality and make that 
 fair home of the Aztecs only a province of 
 Spain, it seemed to the world that the con- 
 quered country would never again rise to be of 
 any importance among the nations of the earth. 
 Its fertile valleys, teeming with tropical fruits ; 
 its temperate uplands, rich in harvests of grain ; 
 and its snow-capped mountain-ranges, hiding 
 awav inexhaustible treasures of sfold and silver 
 — all seemed but the property of the great king 
 across the seas, whose hardy captains and ad- 
 venturous soldiery had made themselves immor- 
 tal names by thus securing for their sovereign 
 one of the fairest portions of the New World. 
 For three hundred years Mexico remained 
 
AT PALO ALTO. 
 
THE MEXICAN WAR. 249 
 
 a possession of the Spanish crown, and during 
 that time it experienced so many changes, that 
 at the end it seemed like a new country and a 
 new people. The simple faith and government 
 of the Aztecs had long since disappeared, leav- 
 ing in their stead the ceremonial worship of the 
 Roman Church and the innumerable laws and 
 law-officers of the Spanish nation. 
 
 The Aztecs, as a race, had become so mixed 
 with the Spaniards that the two races had 
 merged into one, in which the Spanish lan- 
 guage, religion, and law were the leading feat- 
 ures ; and although the Indian still kept many 
 of his characteristics, Mexico was Spanish 
 throughout its length and breadth, and the 
 ancient glory of the Aztecs had ceased to be 
 anything more than a name. 
 
 The American Revolution had given to the 
 Spanish Colonies in North and South America 
 the example of a successful attempt on the part 
 of a distant province to overthrow the authority 
 of the ruling powers, and the French Revolu- 
 tion, which followed soon after, showed to the 
 world that, no matter how powerful or long- 
 
250 THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 established a government might be, it must be 
 changed if the will of the people so declared. 
 With these two examples in mind, and urged 
 on by the abuses which had crept into the gov- 
 ernment and by the dislike of the reigning 
 Spanish monarch, Mexico declared her inde- 
 pendence of Spain in 182 1, and was recognized 
 as an independent power by the United States 
 and the nations of Europe. 
 
 The new republic included Texas and the 
 country west of the Rio Grande ; and, therefore, 
 when Texas was admitted to the Union, al- 
 though she had maintained her independence 
 for nine years, Mexico still considered her as 
 her own property, and had no intention of giv- 
 ing her up without a struggle. Added to this, 
 Texas claimed that the Rio Grande was her 
 western boundary, while Mexico insisted that 
 her territory extended to the Nueces. There 
 was, therefore, a space of a hundred miles wide 
 between the two rivers which, on the annexa- 
 tion of Texas, both the United States and Mex- 
 ico laid claim to. 
 
 As it was well known that Mexico would 
 
THE MEXICAN WAR. 25 I 
 
 resent the admission of Texas into the Ameri- 
 can Union, General Taylor was sent to the 
 frontier with troops to defend the new terri- 
 tory from the expected invasion of the Mexi- 
 cans. 
 
 General Taylor established a military depot 
 at Point Isabel, and then, going on twenty miles 
 farther, built Fort Brown on the northern bank 
 of the Rio Grande, directly opposite Matamoras 
 and within cannon-shot of the Mexican artillery. 
 On May 7, 1846, while Taylor was returning 
 to Fort Brown from Point Isabel, whither he 
 had gone to meet an expected attack of the 
 enemy, he was met at Palo Alto by a body of 
 Mexicans, drawn up in battle-array and prepared 
 to dispute his passage. The Mexicans outnum- 
 bered their foe more than three times, but they 
 were driven from their position, and the victo- 
 rious Americans spent the night encamped upon 
 the battlefield. 
 
 They left the plains of Palo Alto early the 
 next morning, and at two o'clock again met the 
 enemy, at Resaca de la Palma, about three miles 
 from Fort Brown. Again the Mexicans were 
 
2 52 THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 obliged to retreat, and Taylor proceeded to 
 Fort Brown, which for seven days had been 
 under a bombardment from the Mexican bat- 
 teries across the river. 
 
 The news of these two victories was re- 
 ceived with the wildest enthusiasm in the 
 United States, and as the battles had taken 
 place on what was claimed as American soil, 
 Congress made a formal declaration of war, 
 saying that it existed by the act of the Re- 
 public of Mexico. 
 
 War was immediately prepared for on a 
 large scale, and it was decided to invade Mexico 
 in several different directions. General Taylor 
 was to proceed to Monterey, General Scott was 
 to capture Vera Cruz, and then march to the 
 Mexican capital, and a force from the North was 
 to invade New Mexico and California. 
 
 Ten days after the battle of Resaca de la 
 Palma, Taylor crossed the Rio Grande, cap- 
 tured Matamoras, and began his march into the 
 interior. The country was hostile and the 
 march tedious, as town after town had to be 
 taken and garrisoned, and the troops were con- 
 
THE MEXICAN WAR. 253 
 
 stantly annoyed by roving bands of guerillas, 
 who harassed them at every point. 
 
 In the gray of the morning, or the heat of 
 noonday, or when at night the tired soldier lay 
 down to take a few hours needed rest, the dark 
 eyes of the Mexican might be seen glancing 
 through the intervening branches, their look of 
 hatred revealing the Indian cunning and pa- 
 tience which would let no chance or time escape 
 the moment for revenge. 
 
 Monterey, situated on the high road from the 
 Rio Grande to the City of Mexico, was pro- 
 tected on the north by the citadel, and in the 
 rear by two strongly fortified hills. It was gar- 
 risoned by ten thousand troops, under command 
 of General Ampudia, and contained a popula- 
 tion of fifteen thousand, numbers of whom might 
 be relied upon in the event of a siege. 
 
 General Taylor's army approached the city 
 on the morning of September 19, 1846, and 
 stood in silent admiration before the beautiful 
 picture which the unclouded day revealed. 
 
 Monterey rose before their eyes with all the 
 beauty of some enchanted place. Against a 
 
2 54 THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 background of wooded heights and white-tow- 
 ered hills, gleamed its citadel and parapets and 
 towers, while its cathedrals and palaces and 
 gorgeous flower-gardens, with the sunlight fall- 
 ing over dome and spire, and glistening leaf, 
 recalled some dream of fairy-land, where golden 
 cities rise at the bidding of the enchanter's 
 wand, and the morning mist dissolves to show 
 scenes of wonder and delight. 
 
 Taylor approached through the grove of San 
 Domingo, but while reconnoitring the city, was 
 greeted with the flash of ilame and the roar of 
 cannon from the citadel. The sie<re besran on 
 the following day, and as part of the force had 
 been stationed so as to cut oi\ retreat from the 
 city, the Mexicans knew that the siege must 
 end for them in victory or capitulation. 
 
 The defence was brave and obstinate, but 
 the Americans advanced slowly, carrying for- 
 tress after fortress until all the fortifications in 
 the rear of the town were in their hands. An 
 assault was then made on the lower part of the 
 city, the troops advancing slowly, digging their 
 way through the stone walls of the houses, in 
 
i in. MEXICAN WAr. 255 
 
 order to escape the shot and stones that were 
 poured down from the roofs. The Mexicans 
 received the assault with the greatest coura 
 when their ranks were broken they fought hand 
 to hand with the invaders, and from <:viy nook 
 and corner gleamed the swords and bayonets of 
 foes in deadly fight. 
 
 But barricade after barricade was swept 
 away, street after street cleared of regulars, 
 and square after square emptied of the brave 
 defenders, until only the dr.-ind l'l;i/.;i, in the 
 centre of the city, remained to the besieged. 
 
 Here the Mexicans spent the last night of 
 the siege, while the stars and stripes floated 
 from every fortress of Monterey, and the Am- 
 erican soldiery slept on their arms after having 
 hunted the concealed Mexicans from their hid- 
 ing places and forced them to surrender. 
 
 In the morning General Ampudia surren- 
 dered, after demanding the honors of war, and 
 preparations were at once made to evacuate the 
 city. The siege had lasted five days, and at its 
 close the city that had looked so beautiful to 
 the invading army presented to the eyes of the 
 
\ 
 
 256 THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 conquerors only a scene of ruin and distress. 
 The castle walls were blackened with smoke, the 
 towers were shattered, the cathedrals pierced 
 with balls and shot, the palaces ruined and 
 desolate, the gardens defaced and trampled 
 down, while the brave inhabitants, who had 
 tried so hard to defend their homes, now tra- 
 versed the streets with sad and gloomy coun- 
 tenances, gathering together the little that re- 
 mained to them, or searching among the dead 
 and dying for the faces of their friends. 
 
 And as the disheartened Mexicans left the 
 city, and moved slowly across the plain on their 
 way to the capital, it seemed to many of the 
 Americans, who watched them from the heights 
 above, that considering the homes that had 
 been made desolate, and the children who had 
 been left fatherless, the victory had been dearly 
 won, although the foe had outnumbered them 
 two to one, and the defences of Monterey had 
 seemed as impregnable as the eagle's eyrie in 
 the clefts of the mountains above. 
 
 The army that was to invade Mexico from 
 the North was none the less successful. Santa 
 
THE MEXICAN WAR. 257 
 
 Fe and New Mexico were captured, and Cali- 
 fornia, which contained a large number of 
 Americans, first declared its independence of 
 Mexico, and then raised the stars and stripes, 
 thus giving the whole Pacific coast into the 
 hands of the United States. 
 
 But there was to be one more terrible battle 
 before the Rio Grande was left in undisputed 
 possession of the Americans. 
 
 A great part of Taylor's army had been sent 
 to join General Scott on the coast, and Santa 
 Anna, commanding the flower of the Mexican 
 army, determined to route the remainder. 
 
 Taylor had taken a position at Buena Vista, 
 a narrow mountain pass, and waited anxiously 
 with his little army for the appearance of the 
 Mexican general and his thousands of troops. 
 
 On February 22d, Santa Anna and his men 
 approached. They came pouring through the 
 gorges and over the hills, outnumbering the 
 Americans three to one, sure of victory and of 
 retrieving the disgrace of Monterey. 
 
 The Americans waited the attack calmly, and 
 
 greeted the white flag which Santa Anna sent 
 *7 
 
258 THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 with a demand for surrender, with shouts of 
 derision. 
 
 The battle began with great fierceness, and 
 waged during the entire day of the 23d. But 
 during the night Santa Anna, discouraged by 
 his great loss of men, drew off his troops and 
 retreated toward the capital. 
 
 This engagement decided the American oc- 
 cupation of the Rio Grande, and shortly after, 
 General Scott began his operations on the coast. 
 
 Vera Cruz was the first city attacked. It 
 was defended on the sea-side by the celebrated 
 castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, which had been 
 erected in the early part of the seventeenth 
 century at a cost of four millions of dollars. It 
 stood about a thousand yards off shore, upon a 
 rocky reef, and commanded all the channels that 
 led inland. But Scott, instead of trying to take 
 his ships past the fortress, landed his troops in 
 surf-boats farther down the coast, and came up 
 to Vera Cruz from the south. He surrounded 
 the city with trenches, and erected batteries, 
 and then sent a message demanding the surren- 
 der of the place. 
 
THE MEXICAN WAR. 259 
 
 This was refused, and fire was at once 
 opened from the land batteries and war vessels 
 in the harbor. The city and castle were raked 
 with shot and shell for four days. The be- 
 sieged returned fire for fire, but with little effect, 
 and as day after day passed, and their fair city 
 was in danger of being utterly destroyed, their 
 courage failed, and not waiting for the assault 
 that was being' planned against them, they sent 
 messengers to General Scott proposing terms 
 of surrender. 
 
 Two days afterward, March 29, 1847, the 
 American flag floated over the battlements of 
 Vera Cruz, and Scott began to make prepara- 
 tions for his march to the capital. 
 
 By this time it seemed to the Mexicans that 
 the Americans were invincible, but with desper- 
 ate courage they resolved to beat them back at 
 every step. 
 
 Scott led this army by the great national 
 road, leading from Vera Cruz to the capital, 
 and for two hundred miles the little force gal- 
 lantly climbed the steep mountain-roads, guard- 
 ed at every pass by the wary enemy, and at- 
 
260 THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 tacked at every point by the regulars of Santa 
 Anna or the guerillas of the mountains. 
 
 At Cerro Gordo, fifty miles from Vera Cruz, 
 the Americans carried by assault a rocky pass 
 that had been considered impregnable by the 
 Mexicans. This was a most decisive victory, 
 as the position commanded the only road that 
 led through the mountain fastnesses into the 
 interior. 
 
 On went the victorious army up the rugged 
 slopes of the Cordilleras, capturing castle after 
 castle, and fortress after fortress. Puebla, a 
 town of eighty thousand people, surrendered 
 without attempting defence, although Scott's 
 army numbered only five thousand, and was in 
 the midst of a hostile country, and far from 
 friends and supplies. 
 
 Twice the United States offered terms of 
 peace, but Mexico stubbornly refused, and after 
 being reinforced by troops from Vera Cruz, the 
 undaunted Americans kept on their way up the 
 mountains. 
 
 The army crossed the crest of the Cordil- 
 leras, and paused to look down upon the valley 
 
THE MEXICAN WAR. 261 
 
 below. Far away extended the green fields, 
 beautiful lakes, and picturesque villages that 
 surrounded the approach to the Mexican cap- 
 ital. Here and there the plain was dotted by 
 low hills, crowned with fortresses, indicating 
 that they guarded the roads to the city. 
 Strongly fortified causeways led across the 
 marshes and over the beds of ancient lakes to 
 the massive city gates, and the giant fortresses 
 of Churubusco and Chapultepec frowned down 
 directly in the path of the invading army. 
 
 At that time the city seemed as beautiful 
 as in the days of its ancient splendor. Its 
 cathedral spires and gleaming towers, its beau- 
 tiful lakes and magnificent groves, the wide 
 fertile plains that surrounded it, and the snow- 
 capped summits of the Cordilleras towering 
 above all, combined to make a scene of rare 
 beauty, and one that must have appealed 
 strongly to the hearts so bent upon its de- 
 struction. 
 
 But although the approaches to the city 
 were considered impregnable, the American ad- 
 vance was irresistible ! One by one the strong 
 
262 THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 fortresses were subdued, and the defences to 
 the causeways destroyed. The castle of Cha- 
 pultepec was carried by assault on September 
 13th, the first to fall being the boys from the 
 military school, and the victorious army swept 
 resistlessly into the suburbs. 
 
 Here Santa Anna commanded the citadel, 
 and swept the approach with a fire so terrible 
 that advance seemed impossible. 
 
 But one column after another slowly made 
 its way forward, until the main gate was finally 
 carried by assault. By this time night had 
 fallen, and the Mexican forces withdrew to the 
 citadel, and held a council of war, in which they 
 decided to leave the city in the darkness, after 
 first freeing the prisons, and arming the prison- 
 ers and inhabitants, so they might inflict as 
 much injury as possible upon the Americans. 
 In the morning, therefore, messengers arrived 
 from the civil authorities of the city asking 
 for terms of surrender. But General Scott re- 
 fused any terms, and marched his army into 
 the city. 
 
 The house-tops were covered with bands of 
 
THE MEXICAN WAR. 263 
 
 convicts, deserters, thieves, and lepers, who be- 
 gan pouring- down fire and stones upon the 
 Americans, until it became necessary to turn 
 the cannon upon some of the houses, sweep 
 them clear of their troublesome inmates, and 
 then give them up to plunder. The troops 
 then filed quietly through the broad streets, 
 and at seven o'clock, September 14, 1847, the 
 Stars and Stripes were floating over the Grand 
 Plaza. Hundreds of Mexicans watched the vic- 
 torious army as it took up its position in the 
 great square, all looking with eagerness upon 
 the soldiers who had toiled two hundred miles 
 up the rocky mountain roads, and forced their 
 way into the city that had not harbored a for- 
 eign foe for over three hundred years. 
 
 From the railings of some of the houses 
 hung various flags — French, German, Spanish, 
 and Portuguese — signifying that the inmates 
 were foreigners, and demanded protection as 
 such ; from others depended the white banners 
 of peace, sometimes in the shape of a woman's 
 lace scarf or dainty pocket-handkerchief, and 
 everywhere anxious eyes peered from win- 
 
264 THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 dows and balconies, as if seeking to know the 
 fate that might be in store for their beauti- 
 ful city. 
 
 But General Scott was not waging war upon 
 women and children, and no sooner had he 
 taken possession of the capital than he pro- 
 ceeded to restore order and quiet among the 
 excited inhabitants. The troops were quar- 
 tered, property respected, hospitals established, 
 and by the morning of the 15th peace once 
 more reigned in the city. 
 
 Arrangements were at once begun for a 
 treaty of peace, which was signed on Febru- 
 ary 2, 1848. By the terms of this treaty the 
 United States secured New Mexico — which 
 Texas claimed as a part of her territory — Ari- 
 zona, and California, placing the boundary be- 
 tween Texas and Mexico at the Rio Grande, 
 and granting to Mexico all the fortified towns 
 which the Americans held on Mexican soil, and 
 the sum of fifteen millions of dollars. 
 
 Thus the United States, by the war with 
 Mexico, gained possession of all the country 
 north of the Rio Grande and Gila River, and 
 
THE MEXICAN WAR. 265 
 
 extended their territory to the Pacific in an 
 almost unbroken line from Florida. 
 
 The question at once arose whether the 
 new territory should hold slaves, the South 
 pleading for the extension of slavery, while the 
 North claimed that, as Mexico had abolished 
 slavery, all territory obtained from her should 
 be free. This question was not settled for 
 some time, and although when California was 
 admitted to the Union she came in as a free 
 State, it still remained open, and was finally 
 disposed of by allowing the new States that 
 might be formed out of the territory to decide 
 the matter for themselves. 
 
 The Spanish inhabitants of New Mexico 
 and California strongly objected to American 
 rule, and more than once rose in rebellion 
 against their new owners. But their wishes 
 met with little respect. 
 
 American soldiers were camped in the lit- 
 tle villages that had grown up around the 
 Spanish missions, and paid small regard to the 
 Mexican feeling of reverence for their old homes. 
 Troops were sometimes stationed in "the very 
 
266 THE MEXICAN WAR. 
 
 chapels, and when the Mexicans and Indians 
 asked for their removal they were met with 
 scorn. 
 
 The Indians from the first showed intense 
 dislike of the new possessors, who expressed 
 no desire to establish friendly relations with 
 them. 
 
 Mexicans and Indians were alike driven 
 from their homes, and forced to make settle- 
 ments in places that were considered not so 
 desirable by the Americans, and in many cases 
 the little farms and villages that once held such 
 happy and peaceful communities were utterly 
 destroyed, while new occupants, under the pro- 
 tection of a powerful government, drove the 
 rightful owners away without offering them any 
 compensation whatever. 
 
 For years after the Mexican war the terri- 
 tories of Arizona and New Mexico were scenes 
 of outrage and wrong committed by the agents 
 of the United States, and although the cam- 
 paign in Mexico gained great military honors 
 for the Union, nothing can ever wipe out the 
 disgrace that followed, when a great and free 
 
THE MEXICAN WAR. 267 
 
 country allowed her new subjects to be robbed 
 and plundered and treated with scorn without 
 ever raising a hand in their defence. 
 
 The oppressed people looked sadly back to 
 the time when they were a part of Mexico, and 
 their little villages were the abodes of peace and 
 plenty, and their cottages covered with vines, 
 and gardens bright with flowers, and lanes bor- 
 dered with figs and apricots, had never yet 
 known the presence of the unwelcome Ameri- 
 can ; and the children sighed in vain for the old 
 days when, clinging to the robes of the kindly 
 priests, they went happily up and down the 
 streets without fear of those strange faces 
 whose coming was destined to change all 
 things for them, and send them forth from their 
 pretty homes to be wanderers in distant places, 
 where no hand would be stretched out helpfully 
 toward them, or any voice bid them welcome. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF THE NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 
 
 To the north of California the Pacific coast is 
 so ruorored and uninviting that not one of the 
 early navigators of Spain could be found daring 
 enough to pierce through its lofty sea-walls and 
 enter its rocky harbors. Curious eyes may 
 have been turned many a time toward the 
 white sea-line and the lofty mountain-peaks, 
 that seemed to rise suddenly up from the 
 waves, but for years and years the vast region 
 in the interior remained a mystery to every 
 seaman whose staunch vessel neared the in- 
 hospitable coast, and the snow-covered moun- 
 tain-tops still continued the only familiar ob- 
 jects within the white man's knowledge. The 
 Indians told many a strange story about this 
 beautiful land, whose magnificent forests, rich 
 valleys, and great rushing rivers seemed to 
 them the fairest in all the world. 
 
SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 269 
 
 They said that ages and ages ago this land 
 had been peopled by giants, who fought for its 
 possession until the race died out, and that the 
 great, silent mountains, whose slopes were en- 
 circled with ever-changing and fantastic clouds, 
 and whose summits were white with eternal 
 snows, were the monuments which these old 
 combatants raised above their dead ; and that 
 after the last great battle of the giants, when 
 there remained not one to carry on the conflict, 
 the Indian had claimed the land as his lawful 
 heritage, and loved it with a love as great as 
 that of the fierce race who had given their lives 
 for it. 
 
 The Indians had many a conflict with the 
 whites before they surrendered to them the 
 fruitful valleys that seemed of right to belong 
 to them alone ; and it is no wonder that they 
 fought for this land and loved it so well, for 
 within its borders may be found everything that 
 can make a country rich and beautiful. 
 
 From the edge of the sea up to the region 
 of snows stand the most magnificent forests that 
 are to be found in the world. Pine, cedar, 
 
270 SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 
 
 fir, tamarack and yew, with their varied and 
 eternal green, stretch away up the mountain 
 slopes, while underneath their great overarching 
 branches grow the vine, maple, mountain-ash, 
 hazel, willow, and the long slender shoots of 
 innumerable kinds of creepers and climbing 
 vines. 
 
 From the giant pines hang down great 
 glossy cones, a yard long, and the yew and 
 juniper blend their scarlet and blue berries to- 
 gether with the most brilliant effect, and gleam 
 through the swinging moss that droops down 
 from the trees, like the plumage of some rare 
 tropical bird. 
 
 Beneath the great trees that rise hundreds 
 of feet above stands the thick growth of fern, 
 through whose waving plumes shine the fierce 
 eyes of the panther and California lion, while the 
 black bear and catamount prowl here and there 
 through the almost impenetrable jungle of un- 
 derbrush seeking for their prey. Countless 
 flocks of swans flash their white wings above 
 the tree-tops, and mass themselves against the 
 brilliant blue sky, looking like soft floating 
 
SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 271 
 
 clouds gleaming with sunshine ; and the many- 
 rivers that come down from the mountains are 
 filled with innumerable kinds of fishes, and their 
 waters covered with the white geese, ducks, 
 and other water-fowl that frequent these soli- 
 tudes. 
 
 Clear, tranquil lakes are scattered all over 
 this region, lying silent in the midst of the 
 black forests, and known for centuries only to 
 the stars that shone down into their depths, and 
 the eyes of the Indian children who loved to 
 look down into the placid waters., and watch the 
 gleaming fish dart hither and thither through 
 the tops of the great trees that had been buried 
 there ages before by some fearful avalanche or 
 mountain-slide. 
 
 Outside these forests, for miles and miles, 
 stretch fields of wild hyacinth blossoms, mak- 
 ing the valleys blue for months; and over these 
 beautiful lowlands once roamed the careless 
 and happy Indians, taking no thought, for the 
 greater part of the year, of anything but the 
 beauty and richness that lay around them. 
 
 When the wet season set in dark and 
 
272 SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 
 
 dreary, and the birds sat with folded wings in 
 the tree-tops, and the hyacinth blooms hung 
 heavy with rain-drops, or when winter came, 
 and the white swans had flown southward, and 
 the deep river canons were filled with snow, and 
 the forests gleamed in their mail of sleet and 
 ice, then the Indian would retreat to his uncom- 
 fortable quarters and shiver hopelessly through 
 the desolate time of frost and blight ; but for the 
 greater part of the year life meant to him only 
 a long holiday, with blue skies, sweet flowers, 
 days of pleasant fishing, and nights of un- 
 troubled sleep under the great brilliant stars. 
 
 Their children, who knew nothing of any 
 land or people save their own, wandered 
 throughout the length and breadth of the coun- 
 try with the freedom of the gentle-eyed fawns. 
 The smooth carpet of pine needles made easy 
 walking- for their bare brown feet, and the rivers 
 brought to them rare treasures from their moun- 
 tain sources, pretty stones, floating bark for 
 their tiny canoes, and bits of shining quartz and 
 metal whose yellow gleam gave them no hint of 
 its priceless value. 
 
SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 273 
 
 All sights and sounds were to them only a 
 part of the general happiness, even the shadow 
 of the eagle darkening the lake, the scream of 
 the panther in the moon-lit jungle, or the growl 
 of the bear in the gloomy forest meaning only a 
 chance for some brave exploit which should be 
 told in the council of the elders, and listened to 
 with admiration and respect. 
 
 Never were there happier lives than those 
 of these Indian children, whose homes were 
 roofed by the great sheltering trees, whose food 
 was the fish and berries that were had for the 
 asking, and whose slumber was the sweetest 
 when taken on the spicy boughs of the pine or 
 balsam. 
 
 But in time the knowledge of this fair land 
 came to the white man, and traveller after 
 traveller visited the beautiful valleys, climbed 
 the mountains, and wandered through the for- 
 ests, and at last, as was their way, the whites 
 claimed all the land for their own, and denied 
 the Indians any rights whatever. 
 
 And because of the discovery of the mouth 
 of the Columbia River by an American seaman, 
 
274 SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 
 
 and the explorations of Lewis and Clarke, the 
 United States claimed all that territory through 
 which the great river flowed as a part of the 
 Union. 
 
 Besides this, the purchase of Florida settled 
 clearly that the lands lying along the Pacific 
 coast to the north of California were included in 
 the Louisiana purchase, and thus it is seen that 
 here was another reason why the Columbia 
 River region should be considered as a part of 
 the United States. 
 
 But for many years, England, whose sub- 
 jects had also explored this region, would not 
 admit this claim, and the northwestern boun- 
 dary line between the United States and British 
 America remained for a lone time unsettled. 
 
 The United States claimed the country as 
 far north as the fifty-fourth parallel, while the 
 British government insisted that the forty-ninth 
 parallel should be the dividing line. 
 
 There was therefore a large tract of country 
 that was claimed at the same time by two differ- 
 ent nations, and this gave rise to innumerable 
 disputes. 
 
SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 275 
 
 Great Britain established fur companies in 
 this region, and practically held possession of it; 
 but as the Americans also had fur companies 
 further south, this only increased the difficulty. 
 
 Hunters and trappers in the employ of 
 American and British companies roamed over 
 the whole country, and as emigrants from the 
 United States began settling along the coast, 
 and in the river valleys, the trouble became 
 greater each year, and it was readily seen that 
 the question of boundary must be decided. 
 
 The country had taken its name from the 
 quantities of wild rice that grew along the coast, 
 called in Spanish, oregano, and for many years 
 the Oregonians, as they called themselves, had 
 the greatest difficulties to contend with in their 
 attempts to settle that wild and uncivilized land. 
 For not only did they have to defend their little 
 homes from the treachery of the Indians, but 
 they had likewise to protect their property from 
 the lawless hands of those who stood ready to 
 grasp any portion of their hardly won wealth, 
 for they well knew that, no matter how great 
 their grievance might be, it was quite impossi- 
 
276 SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 
 
 ble to hope for punishment to follow the guilty, 
 when law and order did not exist. A man might 
 commit the greatest crime against the commun- 
 ity, and then claim the protection of his country 
 to free him, and since both Americans and Eng- 
 lish were always ready to deny each other's 
 right to the soil, the early days of settlement in 
 Oregon were days full of trouble and dispute. 
 
 The American settlers who had journeyed 
 thither, lured by the pleasing accounts of the 
 promise of the land, early declared their inten- 
 tion of remaining a part of the United States. 
 And when the time came in which they saw 
 that the settlement of the difficulty could not be 
 far off, and that probably a war would precede 
 the decision, these hardy Oregonians met to- 
 gether under their outstretching pines, and pro- 
 claimed their allegiance to the United States, 
 and declared that they would forever refuse to 
 be considered a part of England. And in order 
 to make their intentions as plain as possible, 
 they raised an army, coined money out of pure 
 gold, stamped with a sheaf of wheat and . a 
 beaver, to show their industry and plenty, and 
 
SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 277 
 
 sent one of their number three thousand miles 
 across the mountains and plains to beg Con- 
 gress not to yield their fertile valleys up to 
 England. 
 
 But their courage and loyalty would have 
 availed little, and Great Britain and the United 
 States would probably have settled the boun- 
 dary question only after a tedious and unneces- 
 sary war, had not the trouble with Mexico 
 turned the thoughts of Americans in a new 
 direction. 
 
 With the hope of acquiring a vast new terri- 
 tory in the South, the old claim to the North 
 did not seem so important to the United States, 
 and greatly to the disappointment and anger of 
 many Americans, England was allowed to take 
 quiet possession of all the country north of the 
 forty-ninth parallel. 
 
 This left the Oregonians members of the 
 Union, but lost to the United States hundreds 
 of thousands of miles of valuable territory, and 
 was far from giving satisfaction to those Ameri- 
 cans who had considered the claims of Great 
 Britain as unjust. 
 
278 SETTLEMENT OF NORTHWEST BOUNDARY. 
 
 But however unfavorable such a decision 
 might be, a treaty making the forty-ninth par- 
 allel the boundary between the United States 
 and British America, was signed in 1846, and 
 from that time the northern limits of the Union 
 have remained unchanged. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 In those old Spanish romances which filled the 
 hearts of Spanish cavaliers with such a passion- 
 ate love of adventure, the story of California, 
 queen of the Northern Amazons, was read and 
 studied with such absorbing interest that it soon 
 became familiar to every youth. 
 
 And perhaps of all the legends which led to 
 the exploration and ownership of so large a part 
 of America by Spain, none held so important a 
 place as this. 
 
 It was the belief in the existence of such a 
 queen, that led Cabeca de Vaca in his fruitless 
 wanderings through deserts and wildernesses, 
 and his reports of the Indian legends only in- 
 creased the interest of his friends in that won- 
 derful land which no one yet had succeeded in 
 discovering. 
 
280 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 The stories of the Aztecs also all told of a 
 region in the North, ruled by a beautiful 
 woman, and rich with gold and precious stones, 
 the abundance of which made their own almost 
 inexhaustible stores seem poor in comparison. 
 All the Southern tribes confirmed the reports of 
 the Aztecs, and agreed in their belief in Cali- 
 fornia and her fabulous wealth. 
 
 It was supposed that Cabeca de Vaca actu- 
 ally passed within the boundaries of this region 
 on his way to the Gulf of California, and the 
 visit of the Spanish missionary, Marcos de 
 Nizza, to the same region, strengthened the re- 
 port of De Vaca. 
 
 Nizza described a country rich in cities, 
 which resembled those of Cathay and Cipango 
 in grandeur and magnificence, and which were 
 inhabited by a civilized race of Indians — the 
 descendants of a beautiful queen who, in by- 
 gone ages, had made this place her home. 
 
 She had appeared suddenly in the midst of 
 a barbarous people who then dwelt in that 
 region, and making for herself a home in a 
 green place in the mountains near where these 
 
WASHING FOR GOLD. 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 28l 
 
 savages were encamped, soon won for herself 
 their love and devotion. They paid tribute to 
 her of grain and skins, and gold, and when a 
 great famine came which threatened to kill off 
 all the tribe, she opened her store-houses, and 
 gave of her abundance, so that the land was 
 saved from desolation, and the people did not 
 lack food, although the drought continued so 
 long that the ground was burned to ashes, and 
 the rivers dried up, and the cattle perished on 
 the plains. 
 
 The son of this beautiful queen founded a 
 new race, which dwelt in cities and knew many- 
 wonderful arts. Their gold and gems were 
 wrought into exquisite ornaments, and the king 
 was always served with golden dishes, and lived 
 in palaces as gorgeous as those of the Kublai 
 Khan. 
 
 But although the stories of Nizza roused 
 afresh the interest of the Spanish adventurers, 
 and new expeditions were sent out, no such 
 country as he described could be found, and dis- 
 couraged by hostile tribes and barren soil, the 
 travellers always returned disheartened to the 
 
282 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 fertile valleys of Mexico, and solaced themselves 
 by the gold there, which, if less abundant, was 
 at least more certain. 
 
 As the years passed on, the old stories of 
 de Vaca and Nizza came to be regarded as 
 fables, and except for the presence of some 
 strange ruins along the Rio Gila and Colorado, 
 the fame of the beautiful queen would have been 
 quite forgotten. But for hundreds of years the 
 Indians in that part of the country told the story 
 of this queen and her descendants, and although 
 men had long ceased to believe in the reports 
 of the gold and gems, the story of California 
 never quite faded from their minds. 
 
 The conquerors of Mexico and Peru found 
 it much easier to take possession of the wealth 
 of Montezuma and the Incas, than to explore 
 inhospitable regions, and search for treasure 
 that would have to be dug out of the earth, and 
 the deliofhtful climate of Mexico was much 
 more to their taste than the barren sea-coast of 
 California. 
 
 They left this region, therefore, to the few 
 tribes of Indians who wandered over it, and 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 283 
 
 contented themselves by sending out priests to 
 establish missions, and bring the savages to 
 the knowledge of the truth as held by Spanish 
 cavaliers, namely, that so long as gold and pre- 
 cious stones refused to bless the land, the In- 
 dian might keep it for his own. 
 
 But the priests did better work than the 
 Crown had meant, and slowly gathered the 
 miserable savages, who were of the lowest class 
 of Indians, around the little missions and taught 
 them ways of peace and comfort. 
 
 These sharp-eyed priests soon discovered 
 that the old romance of California was not all a 
 dream of some inventive writer, for they found 
 that the river-beds and mountains held precious 
 stores of shining gold. But they believed that 
 the herding of cattle was a surer and healthier 
 means of wealth than digging in the earth 
 after hidden minerals, and so kept the secret 
 safe, and taught the Indians how to care for 
 their herds, and prepare the skins for market, 
 and cultivate the beautiful valleys that lie be- 
 tween the snow-capped mountains. 
 
 They taught them also to live together in 
 
284 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 brotherly love and kindness, and the little mis- 
 sions soon came to be fair places of comfort and 
 peace ; and the good priests blessed their dark- 
 skinned converts, and closed their eyes in quiet 
 content at last, believing that the curse of gold 
 would never come upon their happy land. For 
 more than a hundred years it seemed that their 
 wish would be fulfilled, for California still re- 
 mained peopled only by the Indians, whose 
 knowledge of the wishes and ambitions of the 
 white race was learned entirely from the devoted 
 and self-sacrificing priests. And thus it hap- 
 pened that, while the Indians of Mexico were 
 degenerating by contact with Spanish influence, 
 those of California were being elevated by the 
 same influence unspoiled by the love of gold. 
 
 Sixteen important missions, with more than 
 forty villages dependent upon them, were es- 
 tablished by the Jesuits in Upper and Lower 
 California, and it was not until after the expul- 
 sion of this order by the Spanish Government 
 that Spanish influence became hurtful to the 
 Indians. After that, the prosperity and morals 
 of the mission Indians began to suffer from 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 285 
 
 contact with the whites, and as gradually the 
 missions ceased to exert their former control, 
 the natives became more and more corrupt, and 
 copied the vices of the white man as faithfully 
 as they had tried to copy his virtues, and with 
 much greater success. 
 
 With the establishment of the Republic of 
 Mexico, California passed from under Spanish 
 rule, and as about this time emigration from the 
 United States began to come into the country 
 from the East, the native Californians soon be- 
 came familiar with ideas of freedom and self- 
 government, and even formed a project for free- 
 ing themselves from Mexico, and setting up a 
 separate government. 
 
 The first American colony in California con- 
 sisted chiefly of hunters and trappers from the 
 Rocky Mountains and waters of the Columbia, 
 and as these men were hardy and independent, 
 and always ready for excitement, they had no 
 difficulty in taking the lead with the Californians 
 and making them attempt any measures that 
 they suggested. 
 
 It was the presence of these Americans that 
 
286 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 made the conquest of California by the United 
 States, at the time of the Mexican war, such an 
 easy matter; and as the Californians were con- 
 tinually quarrelling among themselves, and their 
 Mexican rulers managed affairs so badly that 
 things kept going from bad to worse, it perhaps 
 excuses the injustice of the seizure of California 
 by the Americans, a little, to reflect that after 
 all the condition of many of the people could 
 not be made worse, while there was a chance 
 that the incorporation of the State with the 
 American Union miqrht make it better. 
 
 The old missions had been so neglected, 
 that many of the mission Indians had been 
 driven among the wild tribes whom they excited 
 to bitter enmity against their old friends, and on 
 the other hand, the Spanish officers drove off 
 hundreds of the converts from their lands, keep- 
 ing all the cattle which rightfully belonged to 
 them, and performing such acts of injustice 
 generally, that the two races were fast becom- 
 ing deadly foes. 
 
 After the American occupation of Califor- 
 nia, the Indians still suffered from the selfish- 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 287 
 
 ness and tyranny of the whites, who gradually 
 took possession of all the fairest portions of the 
 country, leaving only the mountains and barren 
 parts as places of retreat for the natives, and 
 finally, as was the case in every other part of 
 the New World, the Indian discovered that he 
 had no rights to lands or cattle which the white 
 man might wish to claim, and fell back into his 
 old ways of living, and became once more a 
 foe to the white race, and an enemy to civil- 
 ization. 
 
 As great as the acquisition of the new terri- 
 tory seemed, the United States had really no 
 idea of the wealth of the country they had so 
 unjustly wrenched from the Mexicans. 
 
 It is true, no one had ever forgotten the old 
 fables of the golden mountains, and mines of 
 precious stones, but every one really supposed 
 that the wealth of Northern California lay en- 
 tirely in its healthful climate, and the great 
 facilities for raising cattle. 
 
 The Californians were the hardiest of all the 
 Mexican races, and their success in herding, to- 
 gether with the abundance of good pasture, 
 
288 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 made the country seem a most valuable posses- 
 sion. 
 
 From their earliest years the children of this 
 race were taught the use of the lasso. As soon 
 as a child could stand alone he was given a toy 
 lasso, and taught to throw it around the neck of 
 a kitten ; next he would use it upon the dog, 
 and then upon a goat or calf, and so on until 
 he was able to mount his wild horse and hunt 
 the panther and grizzly bear. 
 
 Thus there grew up in this region the most 
 splendid horsemen in the world. And as the 
 Americans were not slow in learning the use of 
 their weapons, and soon rivalled them in the 
 chase, California, before its cession to the United 
 States, was one of the most famous hunting 
 grounds in America. 
 
 But in the same month in which the treaty 
 of peace between Mexico and the United States 
 was signed, February, 1848, an event occurred 
 which changed all things in California as sud- 
 denly as if a magician had passed his wand over 
 the land, and made its fertile plains and million 
 flocks vanish utterly into the sea. 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 289 
 
 As soon as men knew of this wonder they 
 left their herds to the wolves, and their homes 
 to the Indians, and their vineyards to lie neg- 
 lected forever, and started with one accord 
 toward the hill country, for there, up among 
 the pines on the slopes of the mountains, had 
 been found heaps of those glittering particles 
 which the eyes of the old Spanish cavaliers had 
 sought so lone in vain. The romances had 
 failed to point the way, but the old fables came 
 true for all that, and California was found at 
 last to be a land of fabulous wealth, with its 
 rivers, and hills, and mountains, full of measure- 
 less stores of gold. 
 
 In a short time the towns and villages were 
 almost entirely deserted, only the women and 
 children being left behind, while every man, old 
 enough or young enough, had shouldered pick 
 and shovel and started for the mines. 
 
 Monterey, San Francisco, San Jose, and 
 Santa Cruz, were left almost without a man. 
 Shops were closed, buildings left unfinished, 
 brick-yards, saw-mills, and ranchos deserted. 
 
 Merchants, lawyers, carpenters, blacksmiths, 
 
290 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 cooks, clerks, herdsmen, and Indians — all 
 thronged up the river valleys, and even the 
 army and navy service could not keep men 
 back. Crews deserted their vessels, volunteers 
 in the army and navy left in large bodies for 
 the mines, and a captain could only be sure of 
 enough men to man his ship by keeping the 
 sea between him and San Francisco Harbor, 
 as threats of punishment and disgrace alike 
 failed to impress the men once they had their 
 eyes turned toward the gold regions. 
 
 Tools of any kind brought the most exor- 
 bitant prices. Bowls, trays, dishes, and even 
 warming-pans, were carried off and used for 
 washing gold. All the iron in California was 
 worked up into pick-axes, crow-bars, and spades, 
 these latter selling for ten, and sometimes fifty 
 dollars apiece. 
 
 Food and clothing at once commanded the 
 highest prices, but even then there could 
 scarcely be found any-one willing to spend time 
 so precious in cultivating the ground or pre- 
 paring food, and it seemed, during the first 
 months of the gold fever, that the old story 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 291 
 
 of Midas was repeated, and men must die of 
 hunger although surrounded with inexhaustible 
 wealth. 
 
 The gold that had lain hidden for thousands 
 of years now showed itself everywhere, on river- 
 banks and in river-beds, in dry ravines, on rocky 
 hill-sides, on the slopes of the mountains, and 
 in the valleys of the principal streams. 
 
 The gold-diggings looked like immense 
 gypsy encampments. Tents, wigwams, bark- 
 huts, and bush-arbors served as homes for the 
 eager miners who went about their work clad 
 in the most fantastic garments, a combination 
 of several different national costumes being 
 most frequent. Mexican and South American 
 articles of dress, brought in by steamers from 
 Valparaiso and Chili, were sold for fabulous 
 prices, and the banks of the streams showed 
 the curious picture of men, clothed in the pic- 
 turesque fashion of Spanish America, standing 
 up to their knees in water, or kneeling down 
 on the banks while they sifted out the gold 
 from the particles of sand and gravel. 
 
 Nothing was needed for the work but a pick, 
 
292 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 a pan, and a handkerchief, and with these sim- 
 ple means hundreds of dollars' worth of gold 
 could sometimes be obtained in a single day. 
 
 In those days communication between the 
 East and the West was slow and uncertain, and 
 for several months after the great discovery 
 the Californians and such strangers as chance 
 brought into the territory had all the gold to 
 themselves. 
 
 Letters from the naval and military depart- 
 ments were sent to the General Government, but 
 as the mail was carried by ship, it was months 
 before the news of this startling discovery 
 reached the Atlantic States. But when it once 
 became known that gold had been found in 
 California the excitement knew no bounds, and 
 it seemed for a time that the East would be de- 
 populated. 
 
 Merchants, mechanics, professional men and 
 common laborers at once started in immense 
 numbers for the West. All those who could 
 afford it went by sea, but by far the greater 
 number started overland across the continent. 
 
 Four thousand miles of the most difficult 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 293 
 
 travelling lay between them and their goal, but 
 all fears vanished at the prospect of the wealth 
 that awaited them. Mountains and rivers, des- 
 erts and forests, and plains infested with hos- 
 tile Indians, all had to be passed, to say noth- 
 ing of the variety of climate, and the dangers 
 from sickness and want and wild beasts of the 
 most ferocious kinds. 
 
 And yet, in spite of the fact that the roads 
 across the plains were speedily marked by the 
 graves of those who had fallen victims to the 
 hardships of such a journey, emigration to the 
 West did not diminish, but increased more and 
 more as time went on and it became certain 
 that the supply of gold would not fail for many 
 a long year to come. 
 
 Very often families on their way to the mines 
 would join together and form a large caravan, 
 thus increasing their safety and presenting a 
 better defence against the Indians. 
 
 These caravans were furnished with outfits 
 as extensive as if they had been starting for a 
 voyage into some unknown sea. A compass 
 was just as necessary here as on the ocean, and 
 
294 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 some person capable of taking observations to 
 find out the latitude and longitude accompanied 
 every band of emigrants. Pack-horses and sad- 
 dle-horses, bred on the frontier, were provided 
 for the men, while the women and children were 
 carried in large canvas-covered wagons, that 
 wound slowly across the prairies in long lines, 
 and at a distance looked like a flock of white 
 geese stalking down to the water. 
 
 Medicines, blankets, tools of all kinds, sup- 
 plies for every emergency, tents, cooking uten- 
 sils, guns, pistols, knives, and powder and shot, 
 were all a part of this motley outfit, each ar- 
 ticle being equally necessary to the general 
 comfort. 
 
 The party generally travelled by day, en- 
 camping at night by the banks of some stream, 
 where fish could be taken for supper and break- 
 fast, or in some secure place in the mountains 
 where game was plentiful and means of de- 
 fence against the Indians easy. 
 
 On Sunday the caravans not infrequently 
 remained in camp part of the day, while divine 
 service was held by the minister, who was al- 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 295 
 
 ways sure to be found in every large party of 
 emigrants ; the camp at this time looking not 
 unlike the early New England settlements, with 
 the congregation gathered together in the open 
 air, and sentinels posted at safe distances to 
 warn of the approach of any prowling bands of 
 Indians. 
 
 At other times parties of friendly natives, 
 whose favor had been obtained by gifts of knives 
 and beads and other trinkets, would be allowed 
 to come into camp, and listen with awe-struck 
 countenances while the white man talked to the 
 Great Spirit. 
 
 But for the most part the Indians were hos- 
 tile, and this formed one of the greatest ob- 
 stacles in crossing the plains. 
 
 Besides the emigration from the East, a tide 
 of foreign emigration swept over the land as 
 soon as the news of the wonderful discovery 
 found its way to Europe. Germans, Poles, 
 English, Irish, Scotch, Dutch, and French at 
 once took ship for America, and started for the 
 gold mines. Travelling across a strange land, 
 with no knowledge of the language and customs 
 
296 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 of the natives, and with an almost absurd fear 
 of the Indians, these foreigners, under the guid- 
 ance of American leaders, presented a curious 
 spectacle. With no idea of the vastness of the 
 country, when they landed in New York and 
 found that more than the width of Europe lay 
 between them and the gold-fields, their conster- 
 nation was unbounded. And with the strangest 
 opinions of the people, their wonder and ignor- 
 ance were most amusing. 
 
 They believed that Americans and Indians 
 were alike cannibals, ready to prey upon unsus- 
 pecting foreigners, and had the wildest notions 
 about the buffalo and other animals of the plains, 
 while everything was marvellous to them, even 
 to the strange ways of American cooking. 
 
 And thus amid hardship and danger, not un- 
 mingled with odd and amusing experiences, the 
 first brave pioneers of the gold-diggings found 
 their way into the land of their desires. 
 
 As will be seen, the increase of population 
 was soon felt, and cities and towns sprang up as 
 if by magic. Where the search proved success- 
 ful the towns became permanent, but often the 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 297 
 
 first handfuls of gold would be all that would be 
 found, and then the busy population of a thriv- 
 ing village would vanish in a single night, and 
 be found next far away on the banks of some 
 river, or on the slopes of a mountain that the 
 white man had never before known. 
 
 And so the eold- seekers flew hither and 
 thither as the gold appeared or eluded them, 
 and it was not until the whole country had been 
 thoroughly explored and the deposits and mines 
 definitely mapped out, that the population of 
 California lost its Arab character and settled 
 down into steady living and permanent homes. 
 
 Beautiful cities then arose, and fine buildings, 
 and residences that became*famous all over the 
 world. 
 
 San Francisco, whose old name of Yerba 
 Buena, "good herb," was lost, and its still older 
 one resumed, soon became the metropolis of 
 the Pacific, leaving far behind the cities of the 
 South American coast that had been founded 
 in such magnificence by the Spanish conquerors. 
 
 Beautifully situated on a crescent-shaped 
 bay, with the snow-capped mountains in the 
 
298 THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 
 
 distance, it speedily became the most popular 
 resort in the gold regions, and its population in- 
 creased by thousands. 
 
 A few years after the discovery of gold, 
 California had changed as utterly as it is possi- 
 ble for a country to change. Wealth abounded 
 everywhere, and the beautiful mansions and 
 gardens of the Pacific coast became world re- 
 nowned, while, to one who knew of the treas- 
 ures that still lay stored in its mountains, it 
 seemed that the El Dorado of the old romances 
 was found at last, and rivalled in richness the 
 mines of Cathay or the famous Gardens of the 
 Hesperides. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE REBELLION. 
 
 For forty years after the Missouri Compromise, 
 slavery was still the great question between the 
 North and the South. 
 
 The annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, 
 the possession of the Southwestern territories 
 and California, and the admission of almost 
 every new State, all formed subjects for fierce 
 discussions in Congress on slavery. 
 
 The South was so afraid of losing any of its 
 power that it demanded more and more every 
 year, while the North disputed the right of the 
 South to claim so much for itself, and did 
 everything possible to keep down Southern in- 
 fluence. 
 
 And so, during the years that followed 
 the admission of Missouri, so many bitter quar- 
 rels arose between the people of the North and 
 
300 THE REBELLION. 
 
 those of the South that it finally seemed that 
 they no longer belonged to one race and one 
 country, and they grew to look upon one an- 
 other as they would look upon foreigners, 
 almost forgetting that North and South had 
 alike borne the dangers and glory of the Revolu- 
 tion, and that North Carolina and Massachu- 
 setts, New York and Virginia, had more than 
 once joined hands and fought bravely under the 
 stars and stripes, proving to the whole world 
 what great things a young and feeble nation 
 might do when united in the bonds of brother- 
 hood and love. 
 
 There were other reasons than slavery to 
 account for the bad feeling that grew up be- 
 tween the two regions ; the principal one being 
 the different way in which they both looked 
 upon the rights of the Republic. 
 
 The North regarded every State, no matter 
 how powerful, as only a small part of the na- 
 tion, and subject to the laws of the General 
 Government ; while the South, on the contrary, 
 declared that every State had a right to decide 
 for itself in all matters, and that if Congress 
 
A TRUCK BKTWKKN PICKETS. 
 
THE REBELLION. 301 
 
 passed any law that might displease the people 
 of one State, no matter how beneficial the law 
 might be to the nation at large, that State had a 
 perfect right to object and leave the Union and 
 form a separate government, either alone by it- 
 self, or with other States that might sympathize 
 with it. 
 
 This was the doctrine of States' rights, 
 which the South cherished more dearly than 
 anything else in the world, quite forgetting 
 that the early days of the Revolution had shown 
 the colonies that they possessed no strength 
 except in union, and that North and South alike 
 had tried in vain to obtain recognition in Europe 
 until they joined together and formed one na- 
 tion. 
 
 Another cause was the great difference in 
 the habits of the two sections. In the North 
 every laboring man could vote for or against 
 any law which Congress wished to pass, and 
 this gave every man the feeling that he was a 
 part of the nation, and that its interests were 
 his. But in the South the labor was all per- 
 formed by slaves, who were so despised by the 
 
302 THE REBELLION. 
 
 masters that even labor itself came to be looked 
 upon as a degrading thing, and any one who 
 worked with his hands was considered much 
 inferior to the plantation owners, and in fact, 
 the poor white class of the South, ignorant and 
 incapable of earning an honest living, was 
 nearly as degraded as the slaves themselves. 
 
 Thus in the North, where labor had a voice 
 in the Government, it was respected and power- 
 ful ; in the South, where it was looked upon as a 
 sign of inferiority, it was despised and helpless. 
 And if slavery had been allowed to spread all 
 over the United States, instead of the great 
 future that lies before it, our country could only 
 have looked to a shameful decay, for the history 
 of the world has proven that not by the wealth 
 or power of the few does a nation grow to honor 
 and greatness, but by the earnest effort of each 
 man who claims for himself only that which he 
 has earned by his own labor, and who scorns 
 to take advantage of the ignorant and help- 
 less. 
 
 And then, besides these two reasons, there 
 were others that made the North and South 
 
THE REBELLION. 303 
 
 grow apart. The West had been settled al- 
 most entirely by people from the Middle and 
 Eastern States, and thus the feeling - of kin- 
 ship between the East and the West was very 
 strong. All over the Mississippi and Ohio 
 Valleys, among the Rocky Mountains, and 
 along the Pacific coast, could be found settlers 
 whose habits of living and manner of thought 
 could be traced to the North Atlantic and Mid- 
 dle States. 
 
 All the great railroads and canals ran east 
 and west across the country, and thus the com- 
 munication between the East and the West was 
 easier than between the North and the South, 
 and so it happened that the Western settlers 
 and Northern people were much better ac- 
 quainted with one another than those of the 
 North and the South, and their interests were 
 more in common. 
 
 And so, after some years, in the North and 
 the South a generation grew up that misunder- 
 stood each other's feelings and purposes, and 
 suspected each other of motives that were far 
 from honorable. 
 
304 THE REBELLION. 
 
 The South looked upon the North as given 
 over to trade and money-making, and willing 
 to submit to any base usage rather than have 
 its commerce interfered with, claiming that no 
 honor or chivalry existed anywhere except in 
 the South, while the North resented this impu- 
 tation and declared that the South was igno- 
 rant, and barbarous in its treatment of the 
 slaves, and that Southern chivalry meant only, 
 in many cases, inhumanity and selfishness. 
 
 For years and years this state of feeling 
 lasted, but as long as the President of the 
 United States and the chief members of Con- 
 gress sympathized with the South, there was 
 no serious danger of greater trouble ; but when 
 Abraham Lincoln was chosen President in i860, 
 the South felt that it could no longer compel 
 the General Government to give its entire sup- 
 port to slavery, for Lincoln and his party were 
 bitterly opposed to the way in which the North 
 had been obliged to defer to the wishes of 
 Southern slave-holders. 
 
 The great statesmen of the South had de- 
 clared that they would break up the Union if 
 
THE REBELLION. 305 
 
 Mr. Lincoln were elected, and in December, 
 i860, they carried this threat out as far as 
 possible. Several Southern States, led by- 
 South Carolina, set up a government of their 
 own, with Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, as 
 President, and declared themselves no longer a 
 part of the United States. 
 
 The new government styled itself the Con- 
 federate States of America, and went into office 
 a month before the inauguration of Lincoln, in 
 March, 1861. 
 
 Although the South had threatened to leave 
 the Union many times, the North never really 
 believed that such a thing would happen, and 
 so the forming of the new government gave a 
 shock to all lovers of the Union, North and 
 South. Still the Government of the United 
 States only looked on quietly, while the South- 
 ern leaders took possession of forts and arsenals 
 and war-supplies all over the South, and made 
 preparations to defend themselves from any 
 army that might be sent against them. 
 
 The North did nothing except talk of recon- 
 ciliation, until the Southerners proved that they 
 
306 THE REBELLION. 
 
 were in earnest by firing - on Fort Sumter. The 
 fort was defended by the brave and loyal Major 
 Anderson, who refused to surrender, though his 
 garrison consisted only of seventy men, while 
 the men in the Confederate forts and batteries 
 numbered seven thousand. 
 
 For thirty-four hours Fort Sumter was the 
 target for all the Confederate guns, and it was 
 only when the barracks took fire and the powder 
 was almost gone that the gallant defender con- 
 sented to a surrender, on the condition that he 
 should be allowed to leave with the honors of 
 war. 
 
 And so the brave little company, after using 
 their last charge of powder in saluting their flag, 
 marched out with drums beating and colors 
 flying, and the fort was left in possession of the 
 enemy. 
 
 Never before, since the United States had 
 been a nation, had anything happened so full 
 of terrible consequences as the firing on the 
 national flag at Fort Sumter. 
 
 The North sprang up, strong and fierce in 
 its wrath, to avenge this insult to the flag, and 
 
THE REBELLION. 307 
 
 bring the Southern States back to their obedi- 
 ence. Two days after the fall of Fort Sumter 
 three hundred thousand volunteers had offered 
 their services to the National Government; five 
 days afterward, April 19, 1861, a Massachusetts 
 regiment, passing through Baltimore on its way 
 to Washington, was fired into, and several men 
 killed. War had besnin, and as on the anniver- 
 sary of the battle of Lexington, the first blood 
 was shed in that terrible conflict in which broth- 
 er fought against brother, and friend against 
 friend, alike forgetting the common ties that 
 should have bound them so closely together. 
 
 At first both sides were sure of easy victory ; 
 the North only looked upon the rebellion of the 
 Southern States as a big riot, to be quelled by 
 the presence of United States troops, while the 
 South thought that the North would consent to 
 the new arrangement rather than have her trade 
 ruined by war. 
 
 But the battle of Bull Run, fought on July 
 2 1 st, showed to the nation the real character of 
 the struggle. In this battle the Union troops 
 were defeated, and retreated in a panic to 
 
308 THE REBELLION. 
 
 Washington City, and then for the first time 
 the North realized that it had to fight against 
 an enemy well prepared for battle, and that the 
 contest would be long and severe. 
 
 Besides the defeat at Bull Run, the United 
 States had other discouragements during the 
 early days of the war. England and France 
 both sympathized with the South, and vessels 
 for the use of the Confederate navy were built 
 in English ship-yards, showing to the whole 
 world that Great Britain entertained small 
 friendship for the United States ; and thus at 
 the very beginning of the struggle the Union 
 had to contend with foes at home and enemies 
 abroad. 
 
 In the North and the South the war feeling 
 was fierce and decided from the beginning, but 
 in the border States lying between the two sec- 
 tions there were friends both of the Union and 
 the Confederacy. Virginia, west of the Alle- 
 ghany Mountains, sympathized with the North ; 
 Kentucky wished to remain neutral ; and Mis- 
 souri was evenly divided. 
 
 And thus the last two States were claimed 
 
THE REBELLION. 309 
 
 by both North and South, and suffered more 
 from the effects of war than any other part of 
 the country. 
 
 The Union and Confederate armies both 
 considered they had a perfect right to camp on 
 this disputed territory and scour the country 
 for provisions, and the towns and villages and 
 farms were never free from hostile and lawless 
 soldiery, who pillaged houses, ravaged grain 
 fields, stole horses and cattle, and burned barns 
 and woodland, under the impression that they 
 were serving their cause nobly by thus devastat- 
 ing a region that might at any moment be oc- 
 cupied by the enemy. i/ 
 
 From the beginning of the war the Union 
 Army had three objects to accomplish. To get 
 possession of the Mississippi River down to 
 New Orleans, and thus divide the Confederacy 
 into two parts ; to command the Southern ports, 
 and thus prevent Confederate vessels from tak- 
 ing any part in the war ; and to capture Rich- 
 mond, the capital of the South. 
 
 Early in the second year of the war, the first 
 of these projects was undertaken. 
 
3IO THE REBELLION. 
 
 General Grant moved from Cairo with his 
 army, and with the help of the Union fleet, took 
 two very important forts on the Tennessee and 
 Cumberland Rivers, and pressed on to Pitts- 
 burg Landing. 
 
 Here was fought one of the most terrible 
 battles of the war. The action took place on a 
 plateau about two miles from the landing, near 
 a log meeting-house which was known as 
 Shiloh Church, and from this circumstance the 
 eneaeement has been known as the battle of 
 Shiloh. 
 
 In the early dawn, on Sunday, April 6, 1862, 
 the Confederates rushed out of the woods in 
 regular battle-line, and began a fierce attack on 
 the Union troops ; and for twelve long hours the 
 air was filled with smoke and flash of guns, and 
 roar of cannon, shouts of triumph, and groans 
 of dying men. The Union soldiers fought 
 bravely, but the Southern army seemed inspired 
 with the sure hope of victory, and step by step 
 the national troops fell back toward the river. 
 When the very brink was reached, and the dis- 
 heartened troops stood on the edge of the bluff 
 
THE REBELLION. 7,11 
 
 overlooking the Tennessee, General Grant 
 massed his men together and prepared for a last 
 struggle. Between the two armies lay a deep 
 ravine, and as the Confederates dashed down 
 one side and began the ascent of the other, they 
 were met by a fire so terrible, that advance 
 seemed impossible. Again and again the at- 
 tempt was made, and Southern dash and daring 
 might have won at last, had not reinforcements 
 for Grant come on the field. 
 
 The Confederates fell back for the time, hav- 
 ing captured three thousand prisoners and im- 
 mense stores, together with the Union camps 
 and thirty flags. They rejoiced over their ap- 
 parent success and looked for victory the next 
 day. In their great elation they became almost 
 lawless, and as the night came on dark and 
 stormy, bivouacked in small companies here 
 and there, just as the darkness overtook them. 
 
 The next morning the Union army advanced 
 in a cold drizzling rain, and step by step re- 
 gained the ground that had been lost the day 
 before. All along the lines the battle raged 
 fiercely, and as the Southern forces were pressed 
 
312 THE REBELLION. 
 
 farther and farther back into the woods, and 
 driven from tree to tree, they gave up all hope 
 of victory, and were ordered to retreat. 
 
 The victory was with the Union army ; the 
 loss was terrible, both sides losing about ten 
 thousand men. 
 
 The effects of this battle were most impor- 
 tant. Memphis was secured a short time after- 
 ward, and Kentucky and Western Tennessee 
 were entirely under the Union flag. 
 
 In the latter part of the same month, Ad- 
 miral Farragut captured New Orleans, thus 
 leaving Vicksburg, the only important fort on 
 the Mississippi, in possession of the enemy. 
 
 A year and three months after the battle of 
 Shiloh, Vicksburg also surrendered to General 
 Grant, and thus one great object of the North 
 was accomplished. The Mississippi was in pos- 
 session of the United States, down to the Gulf, 
 and the Confederacy was cut into two parts. 
 
 On the sea and coast the struggle was as 
 fierce as in the West, and off the coast of Vir- 
 ginia the Unionists gained a victory even more 
 brilliant and important than that of Farragut. 
 
THE REBELLION. 313 
 
 On March 8, 1862, the Confederate iron- 
 clad Merrimac steamed into Hampton Roads and 
 attacked the Union squadron. The wooden 
 frigates tried in vain to make a stand against 
 
 o o 
 
 this formidable enemy. Their balls fell harm- 
 lessly on her iron and steel covering, and the 
 Merrimac had it all her own way. 
 
 The United States frig-ate Cumberland made 
 a brave defence and finally sank without strik- 
 ing her flag, carrying down all on board. 
 
 The Congress was burned to the water's 
 edge, and the Minnesota was only saved by 
 being- run aground. 
 
 At sunset the Merrimac returned to Nor- 
 folk, and the Confederates retired to rest sure 
 of easy victory on the morrow. And victory 
 now would mean so much. For if the Merrimac 
 kept on her work of destruction, not a Union 
 ship would escape. The whole coast would be 
 in the hands of the enemy, and every harbor on 
 the Atlantic serve as a holding place for South- 
 ern fleets. 
 
 But the Unionists had a hope too, that 
 night, notwithstanding the discouragements of 
 
314 THE REBELLION. 
 
 the day, and they also waited for the dawn, with 
 hearts full of courage, for at nine o'clock a little 
 insignificant vessel steamed into harbor bearing 
 with it some promise of success. It was the 
 Monitor, a new kind of war-vessel, built of iron 
 and almost impregnable against attack. 
 
 The Merrimac returned in the morning and 
 at once began an attack on the Minnesota, but 
 the Monitor promptly appeared on the scene, 
 and the Confederate vessel found herself obliged 
 to act on the defensive. For two hours the two 
 ships poured their heaviest balls into each other, 
 but without the slightest effect. 
 
 Five times the Merrimac tried to run down 
 the Monitor with her iron beak, but each time 
 the little vessel glided out unharmed. At last 
 the Monitor sent a shell crashing through the 
 port-hole of the Merrimac, injuring several of the 
 crew, and after a few more useless shots the 
 Merrimac steamed off in despair. The victory 
 remained with the Union fleet and was of the 
 greatest importance, for if the Merrimac had 
 been successful there is no doubt that the whole 
 Atlantic coast would have fallen an easy prey to 
 
THE REBELLION. 315 
 
 Confederate ships. Foreign nations would have 
 given their support to so brave a cause, and 
 supplies and help would have reached the Con- 
 federacy from European nations that were now 
 too timid to offer help to either side. 
 
 But the retreat of the Merrimac left things 
 as they were, with the Atlantic harbors in pos- 
 session of the Unionists, and the Southern navy 
 only of small consideration in the carrying on of 
 the war, for new monitors were speedily built, 
 and the United States navy was soon in a posi- 
 tion to defend the North from any attack no 
 matter how severe. 
 
 But although the Union forces were victori- 
 ous in the West and on the coast, the advance 
 on Richmond was checked again and again by 
 the bravery and skill of the Southern leaders. 
 And indeed, General Robert Lee, who com- 
 manded the Southern army, not only managed 
 to keep the Unionists away from Richmond, but 
 made one or two moves against Washington 
 City, and by his superior generalship kept the 
 Union army too busy in defending the North to 
 make further advance on the South possible. 
 
316 THE REBELLION. 
 
 There were many terrible battles fought at 
 this time, and the loss in killed and wounded 
 and the sufferings of the troops were most dis- 
 heartening. 
 
 But the North never lost faith in the justice 
 of the cause, and the South could not yet lose 
 faith in its courage and military skill, and so the 
 war went on. 
 
 Early in the year 1863, President Lincoln 
 issued the Emancipation Proclamation giving 
 freedom to the slaves, and this infuriated the 
 South more than ever. 
 
 Throughout the whole war the feeling of the 
 South against the North was one of bitter and 
 unreasonable hatred. And this was shown in 
 every way possible. The Southern prisons 
 were the most wretched places imaginable, and 
 the prisoners were treated with a cruelty re- 
 volting to civilized people. The well were 
 starved, and the sick neglected and left to die of 
 their wounds, while the jailers tried, by every 
 means in their power, to render the fate of the 
 unhappy captives unbearable. 
 
 It is true that the Southern soldier often had 
 
THE REBELLION. 317 
 
 to be satisfied with food as poor as that which 
 was given to the prisoners, but the sufferings 
 of prison life were increased threefold by the 
 inhumanity of the prison keepers, who by years 
 and years of familiarity with the most degrad- 
 ing consequences of slavery ; found it very easy 
 to abuse the whites whom the fortunes of war 
 had made helpless in their hands. 
 
 Far otherwise was it in the prisons of the 
 North where the captured rebels were treated 
 with a kindness that often astonished them, and 
 gave them new views of the men who were 
 risking life and wealth for the sake of the Right, 
 and who instead of hating the brothers they 
 bore arms against, hated only their mistaken 
 sense of duty, and the inhumanity which could 
 wish to fasten the chains of the wretched slave 
 more firmly. 
 
 And so for years the North and the South 
 gave their best to the war, while homes were 
 made desolate, and industries ceased, and fertile 
 lands were ravaged by hands that should have 
 been employed in sowing grain and reaping 
 fruitful harvests. 
 
3l8 THE REBELLION. 
 
 The South suffered far more than the North 
 in this sad conflict, for the great battle-fields of 
 the war lay almost entirely south of the Poto- 
 mac. 
 
 And yet all this might have been different, 
 and the North as well as the South laid deso- 
 late, had not the great battle of Gettysburg, 
 fought in the third year of the war, been a 
 Northern victory. 
 
 General Lee, encouraged by some brilliant 
 victories over the Union troops, determined to 
 carry the war into the North. 
 
 With the flower of the Southern army he 
 crossed the Potomac and advanced into Penn- 
 sylvania, determined to enter Philadelphia, and 
 perhaps New York. 
 
 The Union army was commanded by Gen- 
 eral Meade, whose forces met Lee's advance 
 near Gettysburg on July i, 1863. The battle 
 at once began and turned in favor of the Con- 
 federates, the National troops being forced 
 back and many of them made prisoners in the 
 streets of the village. 
 
 By the afternoon of the next day both 
 
THE REBELLION. 319 
 
 armies were in splendid order for battle. Not 
 a man in the ranks but knew that here would 
 be fought the greatest battle of the war, and as 
 the troops moved into position they felt that in 
 a few hours perhaps the fate of the country- 
 would be decided. 
 
 The Union forces lay upon a ridge, sheltered 
 by rock ledges and stone walls ; the Confeder- 
 ates occupied another ridge at some distance 
 opposite, and between the two armies lay a 
 valley rich with fields of grain and pasture, 
 where groups of cattle were quietly feeding. 
 
 But although the fighting was fierce and 
 terrible, the second day came to a close with 
 the battle still unfinished, though many thou- 
 sand men lay dead on the field ; and at ten o'clock 
 at night when the troops ceased firing they 
 could only look forward to another day of hor- 
 ror and bloodshed. 
 
 The hours of darkness were spent in making 
 arrangements to renew the battle, but when the 
 morning came both generals were loath to began 
 the conflict, for each one felt that this would be 
 the last and decisive day of the fight. 
 
320 THE REBELLION. 
 
 At one o'clock Lee's guns opened fire, and 
 two hours afterward the Confederates swept out 
 of the woods in double battle-line and advanced 
 toward the Union forces. They came on in 
 splendid order and with magnificent bravery, 
 well knowing that advance up that guarded 
 slope meant certain death to almost all. 
 
 Gun after gun sent its terrible charges of 
 shot and shell among them, and rank after 
 rank was mown down, but in spite of broken 
 lines and raking fire they pushed forward and 
 planted their flags on the breastworks. 
 
 But bravery and endurance were of no avail 
 under the fire that poured out from the Union 
 guns. They were besieged on every side, and 
 after fighting hand to hand and inflicting deadly 
 loss on the National lines, they fled from the field. 
 
 Gettysburg was won by the Union, but 
 forty thousand men lay dead on the field, and 
 the rejoicing that went up from the North when 
 it became known that Lee had retreated, was 
 mingled with the tears of thousands whose 
 bravest and best had gone down in those awful 
 charges. 
 
THE REBELLION. 321 
 
 The defeat of Lee decided the fate of the 
 war. Already the fall of Vicksburg had given 
 the Mississippi into the hands of the Union, 
 and all thought of a Northern invasion was 
 from this time given up. 
 
 Henceforth the South tried only to defend 
 itself from the Northern armies, and gave up 
 offensive warfare. 
 
 In the midst of these terrible times a new 
 State was admitted into the Union. Western 
 Virginia had from the first shown entire sym- 
 pathy with the North, and now, with a faith in 
 the triumph of the Right that was both brave 
 and beautiful, the little loyal State claimed her 
 kinship with the Union, glad to bear her por- 
 tion of the struggle. 
 
 The next year, 1864, General Grant, who 
 had been made commander of all the Union 
 forces, decided to destroy the two great armies 
 of the South that were commanded by Lee and 
 Johnston. 
 
 General Sherman was to march into Geor- 
 gia and attack General Johnston, while at the 
 same time Grant would move on Lee's army in 
 
322 THE REBELLION. 
 
 Virginia. The first of these plans was carried 
 out with splendid effect by Sherman. He drove 
 Johnston from place to place until Atlanta was 
 reached, when the Southern general was suc- 
 ceeded in command by General Hood, who in 
 three attacks tried to repulse the Union forces, 
 but without success. For months the campaign 
 continued, the soldiers marching and fighting 
 day and night, while the country was ravaged. 
 
 The South had depended upon the manu- 
 factories of Georgia for its supply of clothing, 
 wagons, harness, powder, balls, and cannon, 
 and while Sherman occupied the State, it was 
 impossible for the supplies to be regular or 
 sure. In order, therefore, to save Georgia, 
 Hood took his army into Tennessee, thinking 
 Sherman would follow. But in this he was mis- 
 taken; Sherman only continued his "march to 
 the sea," reaching the city of Savannah late in 
 December. 
 
 By this movement Sherman had given a 
 deadly blow to the Confederacy, and as Hood's 
 army was almost entirely destroyed in Tennes- 
 see by the Union troops under General Thomas, 
 
THE REBELLION. 323 
 
 there remained only the army under General 
 Lee to sustain the Rebellion. 
 
 Almost at the same time that Sherman be- 
 gan his advance through Georgia, Grant started 
 on his march to Richmond. 
 
 The battle of the Wilderness, one of the 
 most terrible of the war, was fought soon after, 
 Grant losing twenty thousand men and Lee 
 ten thousand. The attack was made while the 
 Union forces were making their way through 
 the wilderness, and for two days, amid the 
 gloom of trees and clouds of smoke, the fight 
 went on, neither side claiming victory and both 
 scorning defeat, until, worn out with exhaustion, 
 the two armies sank behind their entrench- 
 ments, and on the third day gave over the 
 battle. 
 
 It was supposed by the Confederates that 
 Grant would now turn back, but he had started 
 for Richmond, and had no intention of retreating 
 until the Union flag was flying over the Con- 
 federate capital. 
 
 Some terrible battles followed, and the Un- 
 ion loss was fearful ; but the army still went on, 
 
324 THE REBELLION. 
 
 marching from post to post until April, 1865, 
 when the army of the Potomac victoriously n- 
 tered Richmond. The city had been evacuated 
 the day before amid the direst confusion. As 
 soon as it became known that Grant's army was 
 ready to enter the capital, the streets were filled 
 with an excited mass, whose only thought was 
 to get outside the city limits. Men, women, 
 and children hurried through the streets all 
 night, fabulous prices being offered for the hum- 
 blest conveyances. Those who could not find 
 means of riding walked away, followed by ne- 
 groes carrying trunks, bundles, bandboxes, and 
 every imaginable kind of luggage. The wild- 
 est scenes followed. Warehouses were burned, 
 dwellings plundered, and drunken rioters went 
 reeling through the streets. 
 
 When the Union army entered the city the 
 next morning, it presented an appearance equal 
 to a town given over to the ravages of the bit- 
 terest enemy. The beautiful streets, houses, 
 and parks were in many cases quite ruined, 
 while the population that remained looked with 
 terrified eyes upon the victorious army, expect- 
 
THE REBELLION. 325 
 
 ing to find the Yankee soldiers the monsters 
 they had been taught to believe them. 
 
 Order was restored as soon as possible, 
 prison doors were opened, and the loyal hearts 
 in Richmond nee more were gladdened as the 
 old flag floated out on the breeze, while the 
 Army of the Potomac victorious, and cheered by 
 the thought that the war would soon be over, 
 was met by a welcome from the few Unionists 
 in the city that well repaid them for their weary 
 months of toil. 
 
 But although Richmond was taken, the war 
 could not end while Lee still commanded an 
 army. The hopes of the Confederacy had 
 rested for many a long day upon this brave 
 and skilful leader, and it now became Grant's 
 object to force him to surrender. 
 
 But the Confederates held out with all their 
 old courage, and Lee made desperate efforts to 
 reach the mountains of Tennessee or Kentucky. 
 Grant followed him with a determination that 
 knew no rest. By day and night the Southern 
 troops were hurried here and there by the Union- 
 ists, who seemed to spring up from all sides. 
 
326 THE REBELLION. 
 
 Still Lee did not give up, although his army- 
 was in a most wretched condition, and had to 
 march almost constantly, while food was scarce 
 and sometimes impossible to obtain. 
 
 At last General Sheridan, commanding a 
 division of the Union army, planted his troops 
 directly across Lee's path, and a battle seemed 
 inevitable. 
 
 The National troops were flushed with vic- 
 tory and certain of success ; the Confederates 
 were wearied with heavy marches, disheartened 
 by discouragement and suffering, and could only 
 look forward to defeat, but they waited Lee's 
 orders to advance upon the densely-drawn bat- 
 tle-lines of the Army of the Potomac with all 
 their old bravery, and Lee's surrender would 
 have been preceded by one of the bloodiest 
 battles of the war, had not the stout-hearted 
 Southern general seen the uselessness of such a 
 sacrifice of men, and consented to a surrender. 
 
 In the afternoon of Palm Sunday, April 9, 
 1865, the two great generals met in a little par- 
 lor near Appomatox Court House and talked 
 over the terms of surrender. General Grant 
 
THE REBELLION. 327 
 
 only demanded that the Confederates should 
 lay down their arms and promise not to fight 
 against the United States Government. 
 
 To this Lee consented, and the army of Vir- 
 ginia, the pride and hope of the Confederacy, 
 was immediately disbanded. The soldiers re- 
 turned to their homes, taking with them their 
 horses, which General Grant allowed them to 
 keep in case they might need them on their 
 farms ; and with this hint of coming peace the 
 great Rebellion came to an end. 
 
 To the North, Lee's surrender seemed to 
 prove that the Right had prevailed ; to the South, 
 still loyal to the lost cause, it seemed but a sign 
 of injustice and tyranny. But North and South 
 were alike glad that the fearful struggle was over. 
 
 The war had cost the country a million 
 brave and useful lives and hundreds of millions 
 of dollars. But it had saved the Union, and 
 given freedom to the slave. Henceforth, North 
 and South, East and West, could mean nothing 
 but a part of the great Republic, and freedom 
 meant to black and white alike the rights which 
 belong to all humanity. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 
 
 The war was over and the soldiers of both ar- 
 mies returned to their homes and began again 
 to lead the lives of peaceful citizens. 
 
 In the North, mills and factories, and indus- 
 tries of all kinds soon occupied the attention of 
 the men who a few months before had been 
 fighting for their country on the battle-fields of 
 the South, and in the new prosperity which 
 flowed in, the great debt of the war began to 
 look less hopeless. 
 
 But in the South all was different. All 
 throughout its length and breadth the ruined 
 homes, the devastated plantations, the plun- 
 dered cities and the thousands of homeless men 
 and women proved what a terrible curse the 
 war had been. 
 
 Many of the once wealthy plantation owners 
 
THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 329 
 
 were as poor as the humblest slaves, and women 
 and children who had been accustomed to the 
 greatest luxuries before the war were now 
 eager to obtain the coarse food and clothing 
 which their changed circumstances allowed. 
 
 So great was the distress in the South that 
 for a time it almost seemed that even the ne- 
 groes had been little benefited by the war. 
 
 The land was useless without laborers to till 
 it, and laborers could not be had as there was 
 no money to pay them. 
 
 Railroads were destroyed; commerce was 
 dead plantations ; had lain useless for four years. 
 The South had put all its hope, all its wealth, 
 and the lives of its greatest and best men in the 
 war, and had lost everything. There was noth- 
 ing now to do but rebuild the cities, plant anew 
 the fields of cotton and sugar, and raise once 
 more the homes that had fallen into heaps of 
 ruins. 
 
 With a bravery as touching as that shown 
 by four years of hopeless struggle, the South 
 set herself to the work, so difficult at first that 
 it almost seemed like the efforts of a strange 
 
330 THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 
 
 people to build up and occupy a waste, desolate, 
 and foreign land. 
 
 The General Government did all in its 
 power to help the Southern States in their hour 
 of need. 
 
 The Freedmen's Bureau was established by- 
 Congress, having for its object the care and 
 protection of the liberated slaves and destitute 
 whites. By this means the negroes were en- 
 abled to support themselves, and in some cases 
 to buy a little land and till it, the officers of the 
 Government taking care that the titles were cor- 
 rect, and that the seller did not take any advan- 
 tage of the ignorant purchaser. 
 
 The Civil Rights Bill was also passed, giv- 
 ing to the negro the rights of citizenship ; or, in 
 other words, admitting his right to defend his 
 property, to appear in court as a witness, to 
 hold office, and in every way be considered as 
 a citizen of the United States. 
 
 This bill caused very bitter feeling through- 
 out the South, where the negro had so long 
 been considered as no more than a dog or 
 horse ; but it was the only way in which to settle, 
 
THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 33 1 
 
 once for all, that the slave was a man, with all 
 the rights and privileges of other men, and time 
 has shown that it was the wisest thing- that 
 could have been done. 
 
 All the States that had seceded from the 
 Union were left at the end of the war with no 
 voice in the National Government. Congress 
 
 o 
 
 could pass any law without their consent, and 
 the whole South lay at the mercy of the 
 Northern representatives. 
 
 Since the rebellion was crushed, and all 
 hope of the Confederacy over, it was decided 
 that the wisest and justest thing to do would be 
 to acknowledge the Southern States once more 
 as a part of the Union. 
 
 Accordingly a bill was passed allowing the 
 Southern States to come back into the Union, 
 on their agreement to abide by the Constitution, 
 accepting all the changes that had been made in 
 it since the beginning of the war. One by one 
 the States agreed to this, and a few years after 
 the war had ended, Senators from all the South- 
 ern States again took their seats in Congress. 
 
 After this the work of building up the South 
 
332 THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 
 
 went on rapidly. Politics and political quarrels 
 were no longer of chief importance, for the great 
 question of slavery was forever laid aside, and 
 the South well knew that only by the closest 
 industry could it ever again equal the North in 
 wealth and power. 
 
 Sooner than might have been expected, 
 white and black alike fell into the new order of 
 things, and nourishing plantations, busy villages, 
 and cities rich in trade once more appeared in the 
 States that had lately known all the horrors of 
 war. 
 
 Year by year kindlier feeling grew up be- 
 tween the two great parts of the Union that had 
 once faced each other in deadly battle, and 
 slowly all hatred and distrust faded away. 
 North and South joined hands in gathering to- 
 gether the remains of the heroes who had fallen 
 in the struggle, and in the great cemeteries, 
 scattered all over the South, the soldiers of both 
 armies sleep peacefully side by side, their graves 
 tended by loving hands and hearts that have 
 long ceased to question whether he who lies 
 below was friend or foe. 
 
 I- fcB 2-1949 
 
THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 333 
 
 During the years that have followed the 
 war, the negroes have proven that, as a race, 
 they are worthy of the fearful price that won 
 them their freedom. 
 
 Schools have been established for them all 
 over the South, and their industry, intelligence, 
 and gratitude to their teachers are the best 
 proofs that they appreciate the better heritage 
 that has come to them. 
 
 To them, and to all, those dark days of 
 servitude are only a memory. 
 
 The North looks with pride upon a land 
 purified of the greatest curse that can befall a 
 nation, and the South, with clearer vision, has 
 long since acknowledged that the change was 
 good, and that the new order is more worthy of 
 her greatness than the old could ever have been. 
 
 And as year by year over the graves in the 
 national cemeteries bloom the white flowers of 
 peace, so in the hearts all over the Union is 
 growing up that faith in the brotherhood of 
 man which alone can make liberty and equality 
 mean more than a name, and give to a nation 
 true and lasting greatness. 
 

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