Class. b Book copy ^ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT THE CHILD'S HISTORY i UNITED STATES FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE PRESENT DAY Giving in Simple Language a Connected Story of the Discoveryt Settlem ent and Growth of the Country, with Graphic Pen Pictures of Men and Events which have made a Great Republic of Forty^'five States with its New Possessions in the East and West Indies. BY CHARLES MORRIS, LL.D. Author of "The Greater RepubUc," "The Child's Story of the Nineteenth Century," etc Embellished with Four Colored Plates, Full Page Half= tone Engravings and Numerous Portraits and Other Illustrations. .5 53727 I-i6r«iry of Congress Two Copies Received SEP 29 1900 Ct'M'^f'^^ entry FIRST COPY. 2tit Cop) Miverei) t» ORDER OtVtSlUN QCT 8 6 i t )m,l CA/c^ Hi Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1900, by g W. E. SCUXJa S in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. ^ «> AUI' BlUHTe KEMEKVEU. W « T A Talk with the Young Reader About the History of Our Country F any of the readers of this book should have the chance to take a railroad ride over the vast region of the United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, they would see a wonderful display of cities and towns, of factories and farms, and a great multitude of men and women actively at work. They would behold, spread out on every side, one of the busiest and hap- piest lands the sun shines upon. Here and there, amid the miles on miles of farms, they might see a forest, here and there a wild beast, here and there a red-faced Indian, one of the old people of the land ; but these would be almost lost in the rich and prosperous scene. If our young traveller knew nothing of history he might fancy that it had been always this way, or that it had taken thousands of years for all those cities to be built and these great fields to be cleared and cultivated. Yet if he had been viii PREFACE here only three hundred years ago he would have seen a very different sight. He could not then have gone over the coun- try by railroad, for such a thing had never been thought of. He could not have gone by high road, for there was not a road of any kind in the whole length and breadth of the land. Nowhere in this vast country would he have seen a city or towai ; nowhere a ploughed field, a farm-house. Three Hundred ^^^ ^ y^^^^ . nowhere a horse, cow, or sheep ; Years Ago j^Q.^.^ere a man with a white or a black face. Instead of great cities he would have seen only clusters of rude huts ; instead of fertile farms, only vast reaches of forest ; instead of tame cattle, only wild and dangerous beasts ; mstead of white and black men, only red-skinned savages. Just think of it ! All that we see around us is the work of less than three hundred years ! No doubt many of you have read in fairy tales of wonderful things done by the Genu of the East, of palaces built in a night, of cities moved miles away from' their sites. But here is a thing as wonderful and at the same time true, a marvel wrought by men instead of magical beings. These great forests have fallen, these great fields have been cleared and planted, these great cities have risen, these myriads of white men have taken the place of the red men of the wild woods, and all within a period not longer than three times the life of the oldest men now living. Is not this as wonderful as the most marvellous fairy tale? And is it not better to read the true tale of how this was done than stones of the work of fairies and magicians? Let us forget the Genii of the East ; men are the Genii of the West, and the magic of their work is as great as that we read of in the fables of the "Arabian Nights." The story of this great work is called the " Histoiy of the United States." This story you have before you in the book you now hold. You do not need to sit and dream how the PREFACE ix wonderful work of building our noble nation was done, for you can read it all here in language simple enough for the youngest of you to understand. Here you are told how white men came over the seas and found beyond the waves a land none of them had ever seen before. You are told how they settled on these shores, cut down the trees and built villages and towns, fought with the red men and drove them ^""'''"f ^"'" , 11, Noble Nation back, and made themselves homes in the midst of fertile fields. You are told how others came, how they spread wider and wider over the land, how log-houses grew into mansions, and villages into cities, and how at length they fought for and gained their liberty. Read on and you will learn of more wonderful things still. The history of the past hundred years is a story of magic for our land. In it you will learn of how the steamboat was first made and in time came to be seen on all our rivers and lakes ; of how the locomotive was invented and railroads were built, until they are now long enough in our country to go eight times round the earth ; of the marvels of the telegraph and telephone — the talking wire ; of the machines that rumble and roar in a thousand factories and work away like living things, and of a multitude of marvels which I cannot begin to speak of here. And you will learn how men kept on coming, and wars were fought, and new land was gained, and bridges were built, and canals were dug, and our people increased and spread until we got to be one of the greatest nations on the earth, and our cities e^rew until ^'"'"^" *"■■ , ^1 , , . . ° Boys and Girls one of them was the largest m the world ex- cept the vast city of London. All this and more you may learn from the pages of this book. It is written for the boys and girls of our land, but many of their fathers and mothers may find it pleasant and useful to read. X PREFACE There are hundreds who do not have time to read large histories, which try to tell all that has taken place. For those this little history will Ijc of great service, in showing them how, from a few half-starved settlers on a wild coast, this great nation has grown up. But I need say no more. The book has its own story to tell. I only lay this introduction before you as a handy stepping-stone into the history itself. By its aid you may cross the brook and wander on through the broad land which lies before you. r''«t> • A\ODEL OP " U.S.AIan op War •BuiLt- fOR- t;(hiBiT ■ at- Wof^LdsFaiR TABLE OF CONTENTS rAGK. PREFACE 5 CHAPTER I Columbus, the Great Sailor Bold Sailors of the Northern Countries — The Northmen— Columbus the Little Boy — Columbus and the Egg — He Crosses the Atlantic, Braves the Sea and Discovers New Land 17 CHAPTER n Three Great Discoverers John and Sebastian Cabot — Balboa Discovers the Pacific — The Fountain of Youth and Ponce de Leon — The Naming of America 29 CHAPTER III Three Heroes of Enterprise The Story of John Smith and First English Settlement — Miles Standish and the Pilgrims — Roger Williams, the Hero Preacher 37 CHAPTER IV How the Dutch and Quakers Came to America Captain Hudson and His Ship, the Half Mooti — The Trip up the Hudson — Adventures with the Indians — William Penn and the Quakers — How They Settled on the Delaware River 48 CHAPTER V Cavalier Colonies of the South The Cavaliers and Lords of England — They Settle in Virginia — The Catholics Come to Maryland — Strange Form of Government in Carolina — Paupers Settle Georgia — An Old Spanish Town in Florida 57 xi ^jj TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER VI The Red Men, How They Lived and were Treated They Were the First Americans-Their Strange Customs and Manuers-How They Followed a Trail-How They Fought-Indian Massacres .... 60 CHAPTER VII Loyal Governors and Loyal Captains How the Governor was Treated in Connccticut-The Charter Oak-Au Exciting Time in Virginia CHAPTER VIII Old Times in the Colonies When a Tallow Candle Gave the Light-Old-Time Houses-The Story ot the Famous Hunter, and How he Escaped from the Indians 84 CHAPTER IX A Hero of the Colonies Two Boys who Crossed the Mountains-Their Adventures with the Indiaus -George Washington, the Surveyor-Messenger to the French-An Old- ^^ Time Hero • CHAPTER X The French and Indian War The Arcadians-Their Home in Nova S-^-j'^^^^^^^f""!?,-'?;" ^',"f'I of Evangeline-Why the Indians Helped the French-The Story of a ^^^ Cruel War CHAPTER XI The Cause of the Revolution How the Trouble Began-The Americans ^^-^^:^'^^Z 'dJcTs- Articles-The Famous Boston Tea Party-Battle of Lexmgton-Decla ration of Independence CHAPTER XII Fighting for Freedom Washington the Commander-in-Chief-BunkerHill-TheWonderful^C^^^^^^ mas-The Americans Succeed-They Met Defeat- Betty Stark a Widow ■ '—Help from France TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii CHAPTER XIII Paul Jones, the Naval Hero of the Revolution Old-Time Warships — A Daring Deed — A Great Sea Fight — The British Captain Surrenders 127 CHAPTER XIV flarion, the Swamp Fox How the War Went in the South— The Patriots Hard to Find— The British Officers Eat Sweet Potatoes — ^Jack Davis' Adventure — General Greene and his Famous Retreat — Cornwallis Surrenders — The War at an End . 135 CHAPTER XV The Voyage of our Ship of State How the People Rule — Illustrated by a Story — Our First Trial and Failure — Making a New Form of Government — A Nation of Thirteen States — The President — The Congress — The Judges 1415 CHAPTER XVI The End of a Noble Life Washington the First President — Beloved by Everyone — Benjamin Frank- lin's Last Hours — Money They Used to Use — How the Quarrel was Settled — Washington Dies 150 CHAPTER XVII The Steamboat and the Cotton Gin The Power of Steam — Is a Boat Like a Duck — Who Thought of the First Steamboat — The Cotton Gin and How it Saves Labor — Where the Cot- ton Grows ! 156 CHAPTER XVIII How the English and Americans Fought Again How We Came to Quarrel with England — Protecting the American Sailor — Interesting Land Battles — Adventures at Sea — Peace is Made Again . . 163 CHAPTER XIX How the Victims of the Alamo were Avenged How General Santa Anna Got into Trouble — Massacre of the Alamo — The Famous Samuel Houston — War with Mexico — The City of Mexico — Santa Anna is Defeated and United States is Victorious 171 xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER XX '■*°= How Slavery Led to War Black and White Slaves — First Slaves Brought to America in 1619 — Why the Slaves were Used in the South — Why the North did not Believe in Slavery — What the Word Abolitionist Means — John Brown and Har- per's Ferrj' 179 CHAPTER XXI How Lincoln Became President The Ruler of the Republic — The President Chosen from the People — Why the People Liked Him — Lincoln's School Days — The North and South DifiFer — Lincoln, the Great War President 185 CHAPTER XXII The Great Civil War What Civil War Is— Where the \A'ar was Fought— Battle of Bull Run— "Stonewall" Jackson — General Ulysses S. Grant and How He Came to Command the Army — His ' ' Unconditional Surrender ' ' Message — , Battle of Gettysburg 191 CHAPTER XXIII War on Sea and Land Fight Between the " Cheesebox " and the Ram — How the Monitor Won the Fight— The Battle "Above the Clouds "—Battle of the Wilderness- Sherman's March to the Sea — Richmond Surrenders and the War Closes 201 CHAPTER XXIV The Waste of War and the Wealth of Peace What is Seen on the Picture of History — A Reign of Peace in America — The Ocean Cable and the Railroad — Alaska and its Treasures — The Burning of Chicago and other Disasters — Edison and His Work — The Triumphs of Electricity ^ 209 CHAPTER XXV The Marvels of Invention .Professor Morse, the Famous Inventor^ — His Struggles and His Success — The First Message — Telephone and Other Inventions of Electricity — New Ideas in Machinery and the Comfort thej- Bring 219 CHAPTER XXVI How the Century Ended for the United States ffhe Nation's Birthplace — Centennial Exhibition and Columbian World's Fair — Our People's Progress— The Indians — Trouble in Cuba — War with Spain — Santiago and its Fleet — Dewey at Manila 227 y CHAPTER I Columbus, the Great Sailor 'F any of my young readers live in Chicago they will remember a wonderful display in that city in 1893. Dozens of great white buildings rose on the shore of the lake, as beautiful as fairy palaces, and filled with the finest of goods of all kinds, which millions of people came to see. Do you know what this meant? It was what is called a World's Fair, and was in honor of a wonderful event that took place four hundred years before. Some of you may think that white men have always lived in this country. I hope you do not all think so, for this is not the case. A little more than four hundred years ago' no white man had ever seen this country, and none knew that there was such a country on the face of the earth. It was in the year 1492, that a daring sailor, named Christopher Columbus, crossed a wide ocean and came to this new and wonderful land. Since then men have come here by the millions, and the mighty republic of the United States has grown up with its hundreds of towns and cities. In one of these, which bears the name of Chicago, the grand Columbian World's Fair was held, in honor of the discovery of America by the great navigator four hundred years before. This is what I have set out to tell you about. I am sure you will all be glad to know how this broad and noble land, once the home of the wild red men, was discovered and made a home for the white people of Europe. 17 1 8 COLUMBUS, THE GREAT SAlLOk The Northmen's Discovery Some of you may ha\c been tokl that America was really discovered more than four hundred years before Columbus was born. So it was. At that time some of the bold sailors of the northern coun- tries of Europe, who made the stormy ocean their home, and loved the roll of the waves, had come to the frozen island of Iceland. And a ship from Iceland had been driven by the winds to a land in the far west which no man had ever seen before. Was this not America? Soon after, in the year looo, one of these North- men, named Leif Ericson, also known as Leif the Lucky, set sail for this new land. There he found wild grapes growing, and from them he named it Vineland. He also called it Wineland .. the Good. After him came others, and there was fighting with the red men, whom they called Skrellings. In the end the Northmen left the country, and before many years all was forgotten about it. Only lately the story has been found again in some old writings. And so time went on for nearly five hundred years more, and nothing was known in Europe about the land beyond the seas. Now^ let us go from the north to the south of Europe. Here there is a kingdom called Italy, which The Home of ^^^^^^ ^^^^,^ -^^^^ ^y^^ Mediterranean Sea almost Columbus in the shape of a Ijoot. On the western shore of this kingdom is a famous old citv named Genoa, in which CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS COLUMBUS, THE GREAT SAILOR 19 many daring sailors have dwelt ; and here, long ago, lived a man named Columbus, a poor man, who made his living by carding wool. This poor wool-carder had four children, one of whom (born about 1436) he named Christopher. Almost everybody who has been at school in (^g^der the world knows the name of this little Italian boy, for he became one of the most famous of men. Many a boy in our times has to help his father in his shop. The great Benjamin Franklin began work by pouring melted tallow into moulds to make candles. In the same way little Columbus had to comb wool for his father, and very likely he got as tired of wool as Franklin did of candles. The city he lived in was full of sailors, and no doubt he talked to many of them about life on the wild waters, and heard so many stories of ^^z% danger and adventure that he took the fancy to go to sea himself At any rate we are told that he became a sailor when only fourteen years old, and made long and daring voyages while he was still young. Some of those were in Portuguese ships down the coast of Africa, of which continent very little was known at that ^ .,^"0* ■' Sailor Boy- time. He went north, too ; some think as far as Iceland. Who knows but what he was told there of what the Northmen had done ? Columbus spent some time in the island of Madeira, far out in the Atlantic ocean, and there the people told him of strange things they had seen. These had come over the seas CARAVELS OF COLUMBUS 20 COLUMBUS, THE GREAT SAILOR before the west winds and floated on their island shores. Among them were pieces of carved wood, and canes so long that they would hold four quarts of wine between their joints. And the dead bodies of two men had also come ashore, \\hose skins were the color of bronze or copper. These stories set Columbus thinking, tic was now a man, and had read many books of travel, and had studied all that was then known of geography. For a time he lived by making maps and charts for ship captains. This was in the A VIKING SHIP city of Lisbon, in Portugal, were he married and settled down and had little boys of his own. At that time some of the most learned people had odd notions about the earth. You may have seen globes as round as an orange, with the countries laid out on them. But the people then had never seen such a globe, and the most of them thought that the earth was as flat as a table, and that any one who sailed too far over the ocean would come to the edge of the earth and fall off. COLUMBUS, THE GREAT SAILOR 21 This seems very absurd, does it not? But you must remember that people then knew very Httle about the earth they hved on, and could not understand how people could keep on a round globe like flies on a ball of glass. But there were some who thought the earth to be round, and Columbus was one of these. At that time silk and spices and other rich goods were brought from China and India, thousands of miles to the east by caravans that traveled overland. Columbus thought that RUDDER, SHIELD AND DRAGON HEAD OF A VIKING SHIP by sailing Avest, over the broad Atlantic, he would come to these far countries, just as a fly may walk around the surface of an orange, and come to the place it started from. The more Columbus thought about this, the more certain he became that he was right. He was so sure of it that he set out to try and make other people think the same way. He wanted ships with which to sail across the unknown seas to the west, but he had no money of his own to buy them with. 22 COLUMBUS, THE GREAT SAILOR Ah 1 what a task poor Columbus now had. For years and years he wandered about among the kings and princes of Europe, but no one would believe his story, and many laughed at him and mocked him. First he tried Genoa, the city where he was born, but the people there told him he was a fool or had lost his senses. COLUMBUS AND THE EGG Then he went to the king of Portugal. This king was a rascal, and tried to cheat him. He got his plans from him, and sent out a vessel in secret, hoping to get Columbus Tries j]^^ honor of the discovery for himself But to Interest i • i j j Others the captam he sent was a coward and was scared by the rolling waves. He soon came back, and told the king that there was nothing to be found but COLUMBUS, THE GREAT SAILOR 23 water and storm. King John, of Portugal, was very sorry afterward that he had tried to rob Columbus of his honor. Columbus was very angry when he heard what the king had done. He left Portugal for Spain, ^^| and tried to get the king and queen of that country to let him have ships and sailors. But they were at war with a people called the Moors, . and had no money to spare for ( anything but v fighting and "^ killing. Columbus stayed there for seven long years. He talked to the ^vise men, but they made sport of him. "If the earth is round, ' ' they said, "and you ^^ sail west, your ships will go down hill, and they will "'"^.^ have to sail up hill to come '^"'^i;-,, back. No ship that was ever ■^ made can do that. And you may come to places where the waters boil with the great heat of the sun ; and frightful monsters may rise out of the sea and swallow your ships and your men." Even the boys in the street got to laughing at him and mockine him as a man who had lost his wits. COLUMBUS SEEKING HELP 24 COLUMBUS, THE GREAT SAILOR After these many years Columbus got tired of trying in Spain. He now set out for I'rance, to see what the king of that country would do. He sent one of his brothers to England to see its king and ask him for aid. He was now so poor that he had to travel along the dusty roads on foot, his little son going with liim. One day he stopped at a convent called La Rabida, to beg Columbus at u j r u- i i . _ ^ some bread lor his son, who was \'ery hungry. The good monks gave bread to the boy, and while he was eating it the prior of the convent came out and talked with Columbus, asking him his business. Colum- bus told him his story. He told it so well that the prior believed in it. He asked him to stay there with his son, and said he would write to Isabella, the queen of Spain, whom he knew \Qx\ well. So Columbus stayed, and the prior wrote a letter to the queen, and in the end the wandering sailor was sent for to come back to the king's court. Oueen Isabella deserves much of the honor of the dis- covery of America. The king would not listen to the wan- dering .sailor, but the queen offered to pledge her jewels to raise the money which he needed for ships and sailors. Columbus had \\on. After years and years of toil and hunger and disappointment, he was to ha\-e Q j^ I ships and sailors and supplies, and to be given a chance to prove whether it was he or the wise men who were the fools. But such ships as they gave him ! Why, )-ou can sec far better ones every day, sailing down your rivers. Two of them did not even have decks, but were like open boats. With this small fleet Columbus set sail from Palos, a little port in Spain, on the 3d of August, 1492, on one of the most wonderful voyages that has ever been known. COLUMBUS, THE GREAT SAILOR 25 Away they went far out into the " Sea of Darkness," as the Atlantic ocean was then called. Mile after mile, league after league, day after day, on and on they went, seeing nothing but the endless waves, while the wind drove them steadily into the unknown west. The sailors never expected to see their wives and children again. They were frightened when they started, and every COLUMBUS IN CHAINS day they grew more scared. They looked with staring eyes for the bleak fogs or the frightful monsters of which they had been told. At one place they came upon great tracts of sea- weed, and thought they were in shallow water and would be wrecked on banks of mud. Then the compass, to which they trusted, ceased to point due north and they were more fright- ened than ever. Soon there was hardly a stout heart in the fleet except that of Columbus. 26 COLUMBUS, THE GREAT SAILOR The time came when the sailors grew half mad with fear. Some of them made a plot to throw Columbus o\'erboard and sail home again. They would tell the people there that he had fallen into the sea and been drowned. It was a terrible thing to do, was it not? But desperate men will ^\o dreadful things. They thought one man had better die than all of them. Only good fortune saved the life of the threat na\ i^alor. One day a glad sailor called his comrades and pointed over the side. A branch of a green bush was floating by with fresh berries on it. It looked as if it had just been broken oft" a bush. Another day one of them picked from the water a stick which had been carved with a knife. Land birds were seen flying o\'er the ships. Hope came back to their hearts. They were sure now that land must be near. October iith came. When niMit fell dozens of men were on the look-out. Each wanted to be the Land ta si ht"^ '^^ ^^ ^^^ land. About ID o'clock that night, Columbus, who was looking out oA'er the waves, saw a light far off It mo\ed up and (.lown like a lantern car- ried in a man's hand. Hope now grew strong. Ever}- eye looked out into the darkness. About two o'clock in the morning came the glad cry of " Land ! Land ! " A gun was fired from the leading \essel. One of its sailors had seen what looked like land in the moonlight. \'ou may be sure no one slept a\\\ more that night. When daylight came the joyful sailors saw before them a low, green shore, on which the sunlight lay in beauty ; men and women stood on it, looking in wonder at the ships, which they thought must be great white-winged birds. They had never seen such things before. W'e can hardly imagine what we would have done under similar circumstances. COLUMBUS, THE GREAT SAILOR 27 When the boats from the ships came to the shore, and Columbus landed, clad in shining armor, and bearing the great banner of Spain, the simple l^"!" natives fell to the ground on their faces. They thought the gods . had come from heaven to visit them. Some of the red-skinned natives wore ornaments of gold. They were asked by signs where they had got this gold, and pointed south. Soon all were on board again, the ships once more spread their sails, and swiftly they flew southward before the wind. Day by day, as they went on, new islands arose, some small, some large, all green and beautiful. Columbus thought this must be India, which he had set out to find, and he called the people Indians. He never knew that it was a new continent he had discovered. The month of March of the next year came before the little fleet sailed again into the port of Palos. The people hailed it with shouts of joy, for they had mourned their friends as dead. Fast spread the news. When Columbus entered Barce- lona, where the king and queen were, bringing with him new plants birds and animals, strange weapons, golden orna- ments, and some of the red-skinned natives, he was received as if he had been a king. He was seated beside the king; he rode by his side in the street ; he was made a grandee of Spain ; all the honors of the kingdom were showered on him. We here recall the incident of Columbus and the &g'g. A dinner was given in his honor and many great men were there. The attention Columbus received made some people jealous. One of them with a sneer asked **""]' "* r r J and the Egg Columbus if he did not think any one else could have discovered the Indies. In answer Columbus took an &gg from a dish on the table and handing it to the questioner asked him to make it stand on end. 28 COLUMBUS, THE GREAT SAiLOR^ After trying several times the man gave it up. Columbus, taking the tgg in his hand, tapping it gently on one end against the top of the table so as to break the shell slightly, made it balance. "Any one could do that," said the man. "So any one can discover the Indies after I have shown him the way," said Columbus. It was his day of pride and triumph. Poor Columbus was soon to find out how Spain treated its benefactors. Three times again he sailed to the New World, How Columbus .^j.^^ ^^j-jj^g ^ h,i'~,c Spanish governor sent him was Treated ^ . .... ... at Home back to Spam with chams upon his nmbs. Those chains he kept hanging in his" room till he died, and asked that they should be buried with him. They who had once given him e\er\' honor, now treated him with shameful neglect. He who had ridden beside the king ami dined \\\\.\\ the highest nobles of Spain, became poor, sad and loneU". He died in 1506, fourteen years after his great disco\'er}'. Then Spain, which had treated him so badly, began to honor his memory. But it came too late for poor Columbus, who had been allowed to die almost like a pauper, after he had made Spain the richest country in Europe. CHAPTER II Three Great Discoverers ERY likely some of the readers of this book have asked their fathers or mothers how Spain came to own the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, whose people they treated so badly that the LInited States had to go to war a few years ago and take these islands from Spain. Of course, you all know- ho^v the battleship Maine was blown up in the harbor of the city of Havana, and nearly all its brave sailors went to the bottom and were dro\\med. , That was one reason why we went to war. If you should ask me that question, I would say that these were some of the islands which Columbus found, when he sailed into those sunny seas four cen- turies ago. They were settled by Spaniards, who killed off all their people and have lived on them ever since. There they have raised sugar-cane, and tobacco, and coffee, and also oranges and bananas and all kinds of fine fruits. They might have kept on owning these islands and raising these fruits for many years to come, if they had not been so cruel to the people that they revolted, and with the assistance of the United States Government the islands were taken from Spain. When Columbus told the nobles and people of Spain of his wonderful discovery, and showed them the plants and animals, the gold and other things, he had found on these far-off islands, it made a great excitement in that country. 29 SEBASTIAN CABOT 30 THREE GREAT DISCOVERERS You know how the tiniHng of gold in Alaska has sent thousands of our own people to that eold country after the shining yellow metal. In the same way the gold which Columbus brought back sent thousands of Spaniards across the wide seas to the \\arni and beautiful islands of which the great sailor told them, where they hoped to find gold like stones in our streets. Dozens of ships soon set sail from Spain, carrying thousands of people to the fair lands of the west, from which they hoped to come back laden with riches. The Cabots At the same time two daring sailors from Eng- land. John Cabot and his son Sebastian, crossed the cK~ean farther north, and found land where the Northmen had found it fi\ e hundred years before. In the seas into which the Cabots sailed, great fish were so plentiful that the ships could hardly sail through them, and bears swam out in the water and eauG^ht the fish in their mouths. That was certainly a queer way of fishing. Wlien the Cabots came back and told what they had .seen, )ou may be sure the daring fishermen of liurope did not stay long at home. Soon numbers of their stout little \es- sels were crossinir the ocean, antl most of them came back so full of great codfish that the water almost ran over their decks. Do you not think these fishermen were wiser than the Spaniards, \\ho went everywhere seeking for gold, and find- ing very little of it? Gold is only good to buy food and other things ; but if these can be had without buying they are better still. At any rate, the hardy fishermen thought so. and thev were more lucky in finding fish than the Spaniards were in finding gold. Thus the years passed on, and more and more Spaniards came to the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola (which is now THREE GREAT DISCOVERERS 31 known as Hayti or San Domingo). And some of them soon began to sail farther west in search of new lands. Columbus, in his last voyage reached the coasts of South America and Central America and other Spanish ships followed to those new shores. I might tell you many \von- derful things about these daring men. There was one of them named Bal- boa whose story you will be glad to hear, for it is full of stranu:c events. This man had gone to the island of Hispani- ola to make his fortune, but he found there only bad fortune. He had to work on a farm, and in time he got to l)e so poor and owed so much money that it seemed as if he CABOT ON THE SHORES OF LABRADOK could never get out of debt. In fact he was in sad straits. No doubt the people \\\\o had lent him money often asked him to pay it back aga^in, and Balboa, who got into a worse state every day, at length took an odd way to rid him- self of his troubles. A ship was about to set sail for the How Balboa 32 THREE GREA'I DISCOVERERS west, and the poor debtor managed to get carried aboard it in a barrel. This barrel came from his farm and was sup- posed to contain provisions, and it was not till they were far away from land that it was opened and a living man was found in it instead of salt beef or pork. When the captain saw him he was much Worked His • 1 , tt 1 1 ■ ^ r , , r Passage astonished. He had paid for a barrel of pro- visions, and he found something which he could not well eat. He grew so angry at being cheated that he threatened to leave Balboa on a desert island, but the poor fellow got on his knees and begged so hard for his life that the captain at length forgave him. But he made him work to pay his way, and \'ery likely used the rope's end to stir him up. Of course you have learned from your geographies where the Isthmus of Darien (now called Panama) is, that narrow strip of land that is like a string tying together the great con- tinents of North and South America. It was to the town of Darien, on this isthmus, that the ship made its way, and here Balboa made a surprising discovery. Some of the Indian chiefs told him of a mighty ocean which lay on the other side of the isthmus, and that beyond that ocean was the wonderful land of gold which the Spaniards wished to find. What would you have done if you had been in Balboa's place, and wanted gold to pay your debts ? Some of you, I think, would have done what he did. \'ou would have made your way into the thick forest and climbed the rugged moun- tains of the isthmus, until, like Balboa, you got to the top of the highest peak. And, like him, you would have been filled with joy when you saw in the far distance the vast Pacific ocean, its waves glittering in the summer sun. Here was glory; here was fortune. The poor debtor had become a great discoverer. Before his eyes spread a mighty ocean, its waves beating on the shore. He hurried with his THREE GREAT DISCOVERERS 33 men down the mountain sides to this shining sea, and raised on its shores the great banner of Spain. And soon after he set sail on its waters for Peru, the land of gold. But he did not get \-er)^ far, for the stormy weather dro\'e h'im back. Poor Balboa! he was to Jl win fame, but not fortune, and his debts were j^ never to be paid. A jealous Spanish governor //Jk siezed him, con- demned him as a traitor, and m9>. ^^^ ^^^ head cut off in the market place. And l/MffllH' so ended Bal- BALBOA DISCOVERS THE PACIFIC boa's dream of gold and glory. I could tell you of other wonderful adventures in these new lands. There is the story of Cortez, who found the great kingdom of Mexico, and con- quered it with a few hundred Spaniards in armor of steel. And there is the story of Pizarro, who sailed to Peru, Balboa's land of gold, and won it for Spain, and sent home tons of 34 THREE GREAT DISCOVERERS silver and gold. But these stories have nothing to do with the history of the United States, so we must pass them by and go back to the early days of the country in which we dwell. The first Spaniard to set foot on the shores of the United States was an old man named Ponce de Leon, who was governor of Porto Rico. If he had lived Ponce de Leon ^^y^x\\ now he would have been on our soil Adventures whilc there, for that island now belongs to the United States. But no one had dreamed of our great republic four hundred years ago. At that time there was a fable which many believed, which said that somewhere in Asia was a wonderful Foun- tain of Youth. Everybody who drank of or bathed in its waters would grow young again. An old man in a moment would become as fresh and strong as a boy. De Leon- wanted youth more than he did gold, and like all men at that time he thought the land he was in was part of Asia, and might contain the Fountain of Youth. He asked the Indians if they knew of such a magic spring. The red men, who wanted to get rid of the Spaniards, by whom they had been cruelly treated, pointed to tlic northwest. So, in the year 1513, old. Ponce de Leon took ship and sailed away in search of the magic spring. Antl not many days passed before, on Easter Suiuku', he saw before him a land so bright with flmvcrs that he named it "Flowery Easter." It is still called Florida, the Spanish word for "flowery." I am sure none of my young readers believe in such a Fountain of Youth, and that none of you would ha\e hunted for it as old De Leon did. Up and down that flowery land he wandered, seeking its wonderful waters. Me found many sparkling springs, and eagerly drank of and bathed in their cool, liquid waves, but out o{ them all he came with white THREE GREAT DISCOVERERS 35 hair and wrinkled face. In the end he gave uj) the search, and sailed away, a sad old man. Some years afterwards he came back again. But this time the Indians fought with the white men, and De Leon was struck \vith an arrow, and hurt so badly that he soon died. .So he found death instead of youth. Many people go to Morida in our own days in search v\\\ \\ '^. of health, but Ponce de Leon is the only man who ever went there to lind the mag- ical Fountain of Youth. About twenty-five years afterwards another Spaniard came to Florida. It was gold and glory he was after, not youth. This man, Fernando de Soto, had been in Peru with Pizarro, and helped him to conquer f ^' that land of gold. He now hoped to find a rich empire for himself in the north. So with nine ships and six hundred brave young men he sailed away from his native land. They were a gay and hopeful band, while their bright banners floated proudly from the mastheads, and waved in the western winds. Little did they dream of what a terrible fate lay before them. I think you will say that De Soto deserved a bad fate, when I tell you that he brought bloodhounds to hunt the PONCE DE LEON AND THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH 36 THREE GREAT DISCOVERERS poor Indians, and chains to fasten on their hands and feet. That was the way the Spaniards often treated the poor red men. He brought also two hundred horses for his armed men to ride, and a drove of hogs to serx'e them for fresh meat. And in the ships were great iron chests, which he hoped to take back full of gold and other precious things. Tor t\\-o long years De Soto and his band traveled through the country, fighting the Indians, burning their houses and robbing them of their food. But the Indians were brave warriors, and in o\\& terrible battle the Spaniards lost eightv of their horses and many of their men. In \ain De Soto sought for gold and glory. Not an ounce of the yello\\' metal w^as found ; no mighty empire was reached. He did make one great discovery, that of the \ast Mississippi River. But he never got home to tell of it, for he died on its banks, worn out with his battles and marches, and was buried under its waters. His men built boats and floated down the great ri\er to the Gulf of Mexico. Here, AMERIGO VESPUCCI ^^ length, thcy found Spanish settlements. But of that braxe and gallant band half were dead, and the rest were so nearly starved that they were like living skeletons. We must not forget that humble Italian traveler and explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, who in 1499, saw the part of South America where lies the island of Trinidad. Many years after, when maps were made of the part he visited, some one called it America and others seemed to be pleased and used the name too. So what should have been called Columbia has been called America. CHAPTER III Three Heroes of Enterprise WHAT do you think of Captain John Smith, the hero of Virginia? Was he not a man to dream of, a true hero of romance ? Why, I feel half ashamed to say anything about him, for every one of you must know his story. I am sure all those who love jj|Vf' ' romance have read about him. John Smith was not the kind of man SIR WALTER RALEIGH to work at a trade. He ran away from home when a boy, and became a wanderer over the earth. And a hard life he had of it. At one place he was robbed, and at another place was shipwrecked. Once he leaped overboard from a ship and swam ashore. Once again he fought with three Turks and killed all of them without help. Then he was taken prisoner, and sold as a slave to a cruel Turk, who put a ring round his neck and made him work very hard. One day his master came out where he was at work and struck him with his whip. He soon found that John Smith was a bad man to whip. He hit the Turk a hard blow with the flail he was using, and killed him on the spot. Then he ran away, got to Russia, and in time made his way back to England. But England w^as too quiet a place for him. A ship was about to cross the sea to America and he volun- teered to go in it. He had not half enough of adventure yet. Some people think that Captain Smith bragged a little, and 3.^ THREE HEROES CE ENTERPRISE did not do all he said. Well, that nia)' be so. But it is certain that he was a bra\'c and bold man, and just the man to help settle a new country where there were savage red men to deal with. The English were in no hurry in sending out settlers to the New World which Columbus had discovered. While the Spaniards were seeking gold and empires in the south, and the French were catching .fish and exploring the rivers and lakes in the north, all the English did was to rob the Spanish ships and settlements, and to bring them negroes from Africa for slaves But the time came, a hundred years after America was discovered, when some of the English tried to form a settle- ment on the coast of North Carolina. Poor settlers ! When the next ship came out they were all gone. Not The First .^ ^^^}^ ^,f them could be found. Nothing was English 1 /• 1 111 Settlement '^i*^ ^'^^ somc letters tltey had cut mto the bark of a tree. What became of them nobody ever knew. Likely enough they wandered away and were killed by the Indians. Nothing more was done until the year 1607, when the ship in which Captain John Smith had taken passage sailed up a bright and beautiful river in Virginia. It was the month of May, and the banks were covered with flowers. The colonists thought this a very good place to live in, so they landed and began to look around them. The river they called the James, and the place they named Jamestown. But instead of building a town and preparing for the future, as sensible men would have done, they began to seek for gold, and soon they were in no end of trouble. In a short time their food was all eaten. Then some of them took sick and died. Others were killed by the Indians. It looked as if this colony would come to grief as did the former one. i i THREE HEROES OF ENTERPRISE 39 So it would if it had not been for Captain Smitli. He \vas only one man among a hundred, but he was worth more than all the rest of the hundred. He could not keep still, but hustled about, here, there and everywhere. Now he was exploring the country, sailing up the rivers or up the broad Chesapeake Bay. Now he was talking with the Indians, get- ting food from them for the starving colonists. Now he was doing- his best to make the men build houses and dig and POCHAHONTAS SAVING THE LIFE OK JOHN SMITH plant the ground. You can see that John Smith had enough to keep him busy. He had many adventures with the Indians. At one time he was taken prisoner by them and was in terrible danger of being killed. But he showed them his pocket com- pass, and when they saw the needle always pointing north, they thought there must be magic in it. They were still more surprised when he sent one of them with a letter to his friends. They did not understanti how a piece of paper could talk, as his paper seemed to do. 40 THREE HEROES OF ENTERPRISE But .ill this was not enough to save liis life. The great ehief Powliatan looked on him as the leader of these white strangers who had settled in his land. He wanted to get rid of them, and thought that if he killed the man of the magic needle and the talking paper they would certainly be scared and go away. So Captain Smith was tied hand and foot, and laid on the ground with his head on a log. And a powerful Indian stood near by with a great war club in his hand. . . "^'^ '"^ Only a sign from Powhatan was needed, and Adventure - -^ down would come that club on the white man's head, ami it wt)uld be all ox'cr with the brave and bold John Smith. Alas I poor Captain Smith ! There was no pity in Pow- hatan's eyes. The burly Indian twisted his fingers about the club antl liftctl it in the air. One minute more and it might be all over with the man who had killed three Turks in one fight. Put before that minute was over a strange thing took place. A young Indian girl came running wildly into the hut, with her hair flviny^ and her eves wet with tears. And she flung herself on the ground and laid her head on that of the bound prisoner, and begged the chief to give him his life. It was Pocahontas, the pretty young daughter of ]\)w- hatan. She pleaded so pitifully that the chief's heart was touched, and he consented that the capti\e should li\e, and bade them take the bonds from his limbs. Do \-ou not think this a \cry prett}- stor)' ? Some say that it is not true, but I think very likely it is. At an)- rate, it is so pretty that it ought to be true. AfterAvards this inter- cstiniT Indian Princess married one of the \'irginians named ]o\\\\ Rolfe and was taken to London and presented to the Queen. I am sorr\- to ha\e io sa\- that the j)oor woman died there antl never saw her natixe land again. THREE HEROES OF ENTERPRISE 41 Captain Smith got safe bacic to Jamestown. But his troubles were not at an end, for the colonists were as hard to deal with as the Indians. Some of them had found a kind of yellow stuff which they were sure was gold. They loaded a ship with this and sent it to England, thinking that they would all be rich. But the yellow stuff proved to be what is known as a fools' gold," and worth no more than' so much LANDING OF MILES STANDISH sand. Instead of becoming rich, they were laughed at as great fools. After a while Smith was made governor, and he now tried a new plan to make the men work. He told them that if they did not work they should not eat. None of them wanted to starve, and they knew that John Smith meant just what he said, so they began to build houses and to dig the ground and plant crops. But some of them grumbled and some of them .swore, and it was anything but a happy family. 42 THREE HEROES OF ENTERPRISE Captain Smith did not like this swearing, and he took a funny way to stop it. When the men came home at night each one who had sworn had a can of cold water How Smith poured down his sleeve for every time he had Made the Men ^ ^. , . , -^ , ^ Stop Swearing done SO. Did any of my readers ever try that? If they did they would know why the men soon quit grumbling and swearing. All was beginning to go well in the colony when Captain Smith was hurt by some gun- powder that took fire and went off. He was hurt so badly that he had to go back to England. After that all went ill. As soon as their governor was gone the lazy men (juit working. The profane men swore worse than before. They ate up all their food in a hurry, and the Indians would bring them no more. Sickness and hunger came and carried many of them to the grave. Some of them meddled with the Indians and were killed. There were five hundred of them when winter set in; but when spring came only sixty of them were alive. And all this took place because one wise man. Captain John Smith, was hurt and had to go home. The whole colony would have broken up if ships had not come out with more men and plenty of food. Soon after that, the people began to plant the ground and raise rosperi y tobacco, which sold well in Em^land. Many of at Last ' ^ -^ them became rich, and the little settlement at Jamestown in time grew into the great colony of X'irginia. This ends the story of the hero of Jamestown. Now let us say something about the hero of Plymouth. In the year 1620, thirteen years after Smith and his fellows sailed u|) the James River, a shipload of men and women came to a place called Plymouth, on the rocky ct)ast of New- England. It was named Plymouth by Captain Smith, who had been there before. A portion of the rock o\\ which the)' first stepped, is still preserved and surrounded by a fence. THREE HEROES OF ENTERPRISE 43 These people are known as Pilgrims. They had been badly treated at home because they did not believe in the doc- trines of the Church of England, and they had come across the stormy sea to find a place where they could worship God in their own way, without fear of being put in prison. With them came a soldier. He was named Captain Miles Standish. He was a little man, but he carried a big ^ sword, and had a stout heart and a hot temper. While the Pilgrims came to work and to pray, Captain Standish came to fight. He was a different man f r o m Captain Smith, and would not have been able to deal with the lazy folks at James- town. But the Pilgrims were different also. They expected to work and live by their labor, and they had no sooner landed on Ply- mouth Rock than they began to dig and plant, while the sound of the hammer rang merrily all day long, as they built houses and got ready for the cold winter. But for all their labor and carefulness, sickness and hunger came, as they had done at Jamestown, and by the time spring came, half the poor X ilgrims were dead. INDIANS IN WAR PAINT 44 thrfj: heroes of enterprise I'hc Indians soon got to be afraid of Captain Standish. Tiiey were afraid of the Pilgrims, too, for they found that these rehgious men could fight as well as pray. One Indian chief, named Canonicus, sent them a bundle of arrows with a snake's skin tied round it. This was their way of saying Indian Declara- ^i . ,1 ^ ^ 1 i. ^u tvi ■ j , ^ ^ that they were going to hght the Inlgrmis and drive them from the country. But Governor Bradford filled the snake skin with powder and bullets and sent it back. When Canonicus saw this he was badly scared, for he knew well what it meant. He had heard the white men's guns, and thought they had the power of using thunder and lightning. So he made up his mind to let the \vhite strangers alone. But the Pilgrims did not trust the red men. They put cannon on the roof of their log church, and they walked to church on Sunday like so many soldiers on the march, with guns in their hands and Captain Standish at their head. And while they were listening to the sermon t)ne man stood outside on the lookout for danger. At one time some of the Indians made a plot to kill all tlu: luiglish. A fricndlv Indian told Captain Standish about it, and he made u}) his mind to teach them a lesson they would remember. He \vent to the Indian camp *u "1 ?• ^' ^\ith a few men, and walked boldly into the hut the Indians ' J_ where the plotting chiefs were talking over their plans. When they saw him and the men with him, they tried to frighten them. One of them showed the Captain his knife and talked very boldly about it. A big Indian looked with scorn on the little Captain. " Poh, you are only a little fellow, if you are a captain," he said. " I am not a chief, but I am strong and bra\'C." Captain Stantlish was \'ery angry, but he said nothing then. He ^\'aited until the next dav, when he met the chiefs THREE HEROES OF ENTERPRISE 45 again. Then there was a quarrel and a fight, and the Httle captain killed the big Indian with his own knife. More of the Indians were slain, and the others ran for the woods. That put an end to the plot. There is one funny story told about Captain Standish. His wife had died, and he felt so lonely that he wanted an- other ; so he picked out a pretty young woman named Pris- /# the rou«-h more about making love, mm, cilia Mullins. But old soldier knew fighting than about and he sent his young friend, John Alden, to make love for him. John told Pris- cilla's father what he had come for, and the father told Priscilla what John had told him. The % "}-- pretty Priscilla had no fancy for the wrinkled old sol- dier. She looked at her father. Then she looked at John. Then she said : " Why don't you speak for yourself, John ? " John did speak for himself, and Priscilla became his wife. As for the captain, he married another woman, and this time I fancy he "spoke for himself." Miles Standish lived to be 70 years old, and to have a farm of his own and a house on a high hill near Plymouth. This is called Captain's Hill, and on it there is now a stone ROGER WILLIAMS IN FLIGHT 46 THREE HEROES OF ENTERPRISE shaft a hundred feet hij^h, with a statue of l)()ld Captain Stan- dish on its top. \Vc have now our third hero to speak of, Roger Wil- liams. He was not a captain like the others, but a preacher; but he \\'as a brave man, and showetl in his way as much courage as either of the captains. The Pilgrims were quickly followed by other people, who settled at Boston and other places around Massachusetts Bay until there were a great many of them. These Preacher wcrc Called Piu-itans. They came across the seas for the same reason as the Pilgrims, to worship (lod in their own wav. But they were as hard to li\e with as the people at home, for they wanted to force everybody else into their way. Some Quakers who came to Boston were treated \er\- badly because they hail iliftcrent beliefs from the Puritans. And one N'oung minister named Roger Williams, who thought ever)- man should ha\e the right tt) worship as he pleased, and said that the Indians had not been treated justh', had to flee into the woods for .safety. It ^\•as winter time. The trees were bare of leaves and the ground was white with snow. Poor Rt^ger luul to wander through the cold woods, making a fire at night wMth his flint and steel, or sometimes creeping into a hollow tree to sleep. Thus he went on, half frozen and half star\ed, for eighty long miles, to the house of Massasoit, an Indian chief who A\as his friend. The good chief treated him well, for he knew, like all the Indians, what Roger Williams had ^^j,^^ tried to do for them. When spring time came, Massasoit gave his guest a canoe and told him ^v•here to go. So Roger paddled away till he found a good place to stop. This place he called Prinidence. A large city now stands there, and is still called Providence. riiRiii-: iii-:roi-:s of luxriiRrRisE 47 Ro<^er ^\^illianls had sonic friends with him, and others soon came, and after a few years he had quite a colony of his own. It was called Rhode Island. He took care that the Indians should l)c treated well, and that no one should do them any harm, so they grew to love the gootl white man. And he said that exer)- man in his colony should have what religion he liked best, and no owo. should suffer on account of his mode of worship. It was a wonderful thing in those days, when there were wars going on in Europe about religion, and everybod)' was punished who did not believe in the religion of the state. Do you not think that Roger Williams was as brave a man as John Smith or Miles Standish, and as much of a hero? He did not kill any one. He was not that kind of a hero. But he did much to make men happy and gootl and to do justice to all men, and I think that is the best kind of a hero. CHAPTER IV How the Dutch and the Quakers Came to America \W^N1)HR how nian\- of ni\' readers ha\-c ever seen the sjreal cit\ of New \'ork. 1 wonder still more how iuan\ of them know thai it is the largest eit\ in the world except London. But we must remembei" that Lonclon is ten times as old, so it can well aftoril to he larger.' \Vh)', if N'ou should i^o back no farther than the time of N'our great-grandfather \ ou would fmd no city of New \'ork. All you would see would be a sort oi large \illage on Man- hattan Island, at the mouth of the Hudson River. And if )-ou went back to the time of \'our grandfather's great grand- father, I fanc\' )ou would see nothing on that island but trees, with Indian wigwams beneath them. Not a single white man i.)V a single liouse wouUl xou see. In the )ear 1609, just two years after Captain .Smith sailed into the James Ri\er, a ciueer-looking Dutch \essel came across the ocean ami began to prowl up and down the coast. It was named the " Half Moon." It came from Holland, the land of the Dutch, but its captain was an Hnglishman named Henry Hudson, who had done so man\- daring things that men called him "the bold Englishman. " \\' hat Captain Hudson would ha\e liked to do was to sail across the Ihiited States and come out into tiu- Pacific Ocean, and so make his way to the rich countries oi Asia. Was not 48 Captain Hudson Arrives THE nUTCir AND TtlE QUAKERS 49 :|i^ that a funny notion ? 'I\) tliink tliat he could sail across -three thousand miles of land and across preat rangfes of mountains ! But you must ncU think that Captain Hudson was crazy. Nobody then knew how wide America was. For all they knew it might not be fifty miles wide. Captain John Smith tried to get across it by sailing up James Ri\er. .\nd Cap- tain Hudson fancied he might find some stream that leil fi'om one ocean to the other. So on he went up and down the coast looking for an opening. .\nd after a while the "Half Moon" sailed into a broad ant beautiful bay, where great trees came down to the edge of the water and red men paddled about in their canoes. Captain Hudson was delighted to see it. "It was," he said, " as pleasant with grass and flowers as he had ever seen, and very .sweet smells." This body of water was what we now call New York Bay. A broad and swift river runs into it, which is now called Hudson Riv'er, after Henry Hudson. The bold captain thought that this was the stream to go up if he wished to reach the Pacific Ocean. So, after talking as well as he could with the Indians in their canoes, and trading beads for corn, he set his sails again and started up the splendid river. Some of the Indians came on board the "Half Moon," and the Dutch PETER STUYVESANT ASKS THE DUTCH NOT TO SURRENDER 50 THE DUTCH AND THE QUAKERS gave thcni brandy, \vhich they had never seen or tasted before. Soon they were dancing and capering about the deck, and one of them fell down so stupid with drink that his friends thought he was dead. That was their first taste of the deadly "fire water'" of the whites, which has killed thousands of the red men since then. Captain Hudson and the Dutch no doul)t thought that this was great fun. People often do much harm without stop- ping to think. P>ut on uji the river went the " Half Moon." At some places they saw fields of green corn on the water's edge. Farther on were groves of lofty trees, and {ox miles great cliffs of rock rose like towers. It was ail ver)' grand and beautiful. " It was a very good land to fall in with," said Ca[)tain Hudson, "and a pleasant land to see." They sailed on and on till they came to mountains, which rose on both sides the river. After passing the mountains, the captain went ashore to visit an old chief, who lived in a round house built of bark. The Indians here had *u" rT- '*' trreat heaps of corn and beans. But what they the Indians tv r j liked best was roast dog. They roasted a dog for Captain Hudson and asked him to eat it, but I do not know whether he did so or not. And they broke their arrows and threw them into the fire, to show that they did not mean to do harm to the white men. After leaving the good old chief the Dutch explorers went on up the river till they reached a place about 150 miles above the sea, where the city of Albany now stands. Here the ri\cr became so narrow and shallow that Captain Hudson saw he could not reach the Pacific b)- that route, so he turned and sailed back to the sea again. A sad fate was that of Captain Hudson, " the bold P^ng- lishman.' The next year he came back to America. But this I rHE DUTCH AND THE QUAKERS 51 time he went far to the north and entered the great body of water which we call Hudson Bay. He thought this would lead to the Pacific,-and he would not turn back, though the food was nearly all gone. At last the crew got desperate, and they put the captain and some others into an open boat on the wide waters, and turned back again. Nothing more was ever heard of Captain Hudson, and he must have died miserably on that cold and lonely bay. But he had told the Dutch people all alx^ut Hudson River, and that the Indians had many fine furs, which they would be glad to trade for beads, and knives, and other cheap things. The Dutch were fond of trading, and liked to make a good bargain, so they soon began to send ships to America. They built a fort and some log huts on Manhattan Island, and a number of them stayed there to trade with the red men. They paid the Indians for i, tta c t the island with some cheap goods worth about twenty-four dollars. I do not think any of you could guess how many millions of dollars that island is worth now. For the great city of New York stands where the log huts of the Dutch traders once stood, and twenty-four dollars would hardly buy as much land as you could cover with your hand. The country around is now all farming land, where grain and fruit are grown, and cattle are raised. But then it was all woodland for hundreds of miles away, and in these woods lived many foxes and beavers and other fur-bearing animals. These the Indians hunted and killed and sold their furs to the Dutch, so that there was soon a good trade for both the red and the white men. The Dutch were glad to get the furs, and the Indians were as glad to get the knives and beads. More and more people came from Holland, and the town grew larger and larger, and strong brick houses took the place of the log huts, and in time there was quite a town. 4 52 THE DUTCH AND THE QUAKERS Men were sent from Holland to U THE RED MEN— HOW THEY WERE TREATED 67 slaves of them, and forced them to work so terribly hard in the mines and the fields that they died by thousands. The French and the English fought with them and drove them away from their old homes, killing many of them. And this has gone on and on ever since, until the red men, who once spread over all this country, are now kept in a very small part of it. Some people say there are as many of them as there ever were. If that is so, they can live on much less land than they once occupied. What do you know about these Indians ? Have you ever seen one of , them ? Your fathers or grand- fathers have, I am sure, for once they were everywhere in this country, and people saw more of them than they liked ; but now we see them only in the Wild West shows or the Indian schools, except we happen to go where they live. Do you not want to know something about these oldest Americans ? I have been busy so far talking about the white men and what they did, and have had no chance to tell you about the people they found on this continent and how they treated them. I think I must make this chapter an Indian one. 5 INDIAN TOTEM POLES 68 THE RED MEN— HOW THEY WERE TREATED Well, then, when the Spanish came to the south, and the French to the north, and the Dutch and the Swedes and the British to the middle country, they found every where a kind of people they had never seen before. Their skin was not white, like that of the people of Europe, nor black like that of the Africans, but of a reddish color, like that of copper, so that they called them red men. They had black eyes and hair, and high cheek-bones, and were not handsome accord- ing" to our ideas ; but they were tall and strong, and many of them \'cry proud and dignified. These people lived in a \-ery wild fashion. They spent much of their time in hunting, fishing and fighting. They raised some Indian corn and beans, and were fond of tobacco, but most of their food was got from wild Customs and animals killed in the woods. They were as Manners of . , ^ . , . ^ , . , , Living \ox\a of fighting as they were of huntmg. They were di\'ided into tribes, some of which were nearly always at war with other tribes. They had no weapons but stone hatchets and bows and arrows, but they were able with these to kill many of their enemies. People say that they were l)adly treated by the whites, but they treated one another worse than the whites e\'er did. The Indians were \ery cruel. The warriors shaved off all their hair except one U)ck, which was called the scalp lock. When one of them was killed in battle this lock was used to pull off his scalp, or the skin of his head. They were very pn)Utl of these scalps, for they showed how many men they had killed. When they took a ])risoner, they would tie him to a tree and build a fire round him and burn him to death. And while he was burning they would torture him all they could. We cannot feel so much pity for the Indians when we think of all this. No doubt the white men have treated them very THE RED MEN— HOW THEY WERE TREATED 69 unjustly, but they have stopped all these terrible cruelties, and that is something to be thankful for. In this country, where once there was constant A\ar and bloodshed, and torturing and burning of prisoners, now there is peace and kindness and happiness. So if evil has been done, good has come of it. At the time I am speaking of, forests covered much of this great continent. They spread everywhere, and the Indians lived under their shade, and had wonderful skill in animals following or enemies through their shady depths. They read the uround much as we read the pages of a book. A broken twig, a bit of torn moss, a footprint which we could not see, \vere full of meaning to them, and tliey would follow a trail for miles through the w(K)ds where we would not have been able to fol- low it a yard. Their eyes were trained to this kind of work, but in time some of the white men became as expert as the Indians, and could follow a trail as well. The red men lived mostly in little huts covered with skins or bark, which they called wigwams. Some t)f the tribes lived in villages, where there were large bark houses. But they did not stay much in their houses, for they liked better to be in the open air. Now they were hunting deer in the woods, now fishing or paddling their bark canoes in the INDIAN VILLAGE ENCLOSED WITH PALISADES 70 THR RED MEN— HOW THEY WERE TREATED Streams, iu)\v smokin^^ their pipes in front of their huts now- dancing' their war dances or getting ready to fight. The men did no work but hunting and fighting. The women had to do all other work, such as cooking, planting and gathering corn, building wigwams, and the like. They did some weaving of cloth, but most of their clothes were made of the skins of wild animals. The warriors tried to make themselves as ugly as they could in war times, painting their faces in a ht^-rid fashion and sticking feathers in their hair. They seemed to think they could scare their enemies by ugly faces. 1 have spoken of the tribes of the Indians. Some of these tribes were quite large, and were made up of a large number o{ men and women wiio li\'ed together The Southern , i ^u i t^ i i. •! „ and spoke the same language, hach tribe was Tribes r cs & divided up into clans, or small family-like groups, and each clan had its sachem, (,)r peace-chief. There were war-chiefs, also, who led them to battle. The sachems and chiefs governed the tribes and made such laws as they had. Every clan had some animal which it called its totem, such as the wolf, bear, or fox. They were proud of their . totems, and the form of the animal was tattooed on their breast ; that is, it was picked into the skin with needles. All the Indians were fond of dancing, and their war dances were as fierce and wild as they could make them. The tribes in the south were not as savage as those in the north. They did more farming, and had large and well- built \illagcs. Some of them had temples and priests, and looketl upon the sun as a god. They kept a fire always burning in the temple, and seemed to think this fire was a part of their sun-god. They had a great chief who ruled over the tribe, and also a head war-chief, a highpriest, and other rulers. J THE RED MEN— HOW THEY WERE TREATED 71 In the far west were Indians who built houses that were almost like towns, for they had hundreds of rooms. A whole tribe could live in one of these great houses, sometimes as many as three thousand people. Other tribes lived in holes in the sides of steep rocks, where their enemies could not easily get at them. These are called Cliff-dwellers. And there were some who lived on top of high, steep hills, which were very hard to climb. These Indians raised large crops of corn and other plants. Do you think, if you had been an Indian, you would have liked to see white peo- ple coming in ships across the waters and settling down in your country as if they owned it? They did not all pay for the land they took, like William Penn and Gen- eral Oglethorpe. The most of them acted as if the coun- try belonged to them, and it is no wonder the old owners of the country did not like it, or that there was fierce fighting between the white and the red men. Do you remember the story of Canonicus and the snake skin, and that of Miles Standish and the chiefs ? There was not much fighting then, but there was some soon after in Connecticut, whither a number of settlers had come from Boston and others from England. Here there was a warlike tribe called the Pequots, who became very angry on seeing the white men in their country. They began to kill the whites whenever they found them alone. Then the whites began to kill the Indians. Soon OLD WAY OF BROILING FISH 72 THE RED MEN— HOW THEY WERE TREATED there was a deadly war. The Pequots had made a fort of trunks of trees, set close together in the ground. They thought they were safe in this fort, but the English made an attack on it, and got into it, and set fire to the Indian wig- wams inside. The fight went on terribly in the smoke and flame until nearly all the Pequots were killed. Only two white men lost their lives. This so scared the Indians that it ^vas forty years before there was another Indian war in New England. I have told you about the good chief Massasoit, who was so kind to Roger Williams. He was a friend to the white men as long as he lived, but after his death his son Philip became one of their greatest enemies. Philip's brother took sick and died after he had been to Plymouth, and the Indians thought that the people there had given him poison. Philip said that they would .x^^^^^ try to kill him next, and he made up his mind the Indians -'• ' to fight them and drive them out of the country. The Indians had guns now, and knew how to use them, and they began to shoot the white people as they went quietly along the roads. Next they began to attack the villages of the whites. They would creep uj) at night, set the houses on fire, and shoot the men as they came out. The war went on for a long time in this way, and there were many terrible fights. At one place the people, when they saw the Indians coming, all ran to a strong building called a block-house. The Indians came whooping and yelling around this, and tried to set it on fire by shooting arrows with blazing rags on their points. Once the roof caught fire, but some of the men ran up and threw water on the flames. Then the Indians got a cart and filled it with hay. Set- ting this on fire, they pushed it up against the house. It THE RED MEN— HOW THEY WERE TREATED 73 looked as if all the white men and women and children would De burned alive. The house caught fire and began to blaze. But just then came a shower of rain that put out the fire, and the people inside were saved once more. Before the Indians could do anything further some white soldiers came and the savages all ran into the woods. There were other wonderful escapes, but many of the settlers were killed, and Philip began to think he would be able to drive them out of the country, as he wished to do. He was called King Philip, though he had no crown except a string of wampum, — or bits of bored shell strung together and twined round his head, — ^"^ ' *'' * and no palace better than a bark hut, while his finest dress was a red blanket. It took very little to make an Indian king. The white men knew more about war than the Indians, and in the end they began to drive them back. One of their forts was taken, and the wigwams in it were set on fire, like those of the Pequots. A great many of the poor red men perished in the flames. The best fighter among the white men was Captain Church. He followed King Philip and his men to one hiding place after another, killing some and taking others prisoners. Among the prisoners were the wife and little son of the Indian king. "It breaks my heart," said Philip, when he heard of this. " Now I am ready to die." He did not live much longer. Captain Church chased him from place to place, till he came to Mount Hope, in Rhode Island, where Massasoit lived when Roger Williams came to him through the woods. Here King Philip was shot, and the war ended. It had lasted more than a year, and a large number had been killed on both sides. It is known in history as King Philip's War. 74 THE RED MEN— HOW THEY WERE TREATED There were wars with the Indians in many other parts of the country. In Virginia the Indians made a plot to kill all the white people. They pretended to be very friendly, and brought them meat and fish to sell. While they were talking quietly the savages drew their tomahawks and began to kill the whites. In that one morning nearly three hundred and fifty were killed, men, women, and little children. Hardly any of the settlers were left alive, except those in Jamestown, who were warned in time. They now attacked the Indians, shooting down all they could find, and killing a great many of them. This was after the death of Powhatan, who had been a friend to the whites. About twenty years later, in 1644, another Indian massacre took place. After " '^" this the Indians were driven far back into the Massacres country, and did not give any more trouble for thirty years. The last war with them broke out in 1675. The Dutch in New York also had their troubles with the Indians. They paid for all the lands they took, but one of their governors was foolish enough to start a war that went on for two years. A worse trouble was that in North Caro- lina, where there was a powerful tribe called the Tuscaroras. These attacked the settlers and murdered numbers of them. But in the end they were dri\-en out of the country. The only colonies in which the Indians kept friendly for a long time were Pennsylvania and Georgia. W'e know the reason of this. William Penn and General Oglethorpe were wise enough to make friends with them at the start, and con- tinued to treat them with justice and friendliness, so that the red men came to love these good men. ■t^j:'f^/^'^?^^<^:^'^-C^^i$;:;f^^ (. M ;■■■...•%;■ %,^-.j'r''7^^: ., .-^^ CHAPTER VII Royal Governors and Loyal Captains. O any of my young readers know what is meant by a Charter? "Yes," I hear some of you say. " No," say others. Well, I must speak to the " No " party ; the party that don't know, and wants to know. ■' A charter is a written or printed document which grants certain rights or privileges to the party to whom it is given. It may come from a King or a Congress, or from any person in power, and be given to any other person who wishes the right to hold a certain property or to do some special thing. Do you understand any better now ? I am sorry I can not put it in plainer words. I think the best way will be to tell you about some charters which belong to American his- tory. You should know that all the people who crossed the ocean to make new settlements on the Atlantic Coast had charters from the king of England. This was the case with the Pilgrims and the Puritans, with Roger Williams, William Penn, Lord Baltimore, and the others I have spoken about. 75 76 ROYAL GOVERNORS AND LOYAL CAPTAINS These charters were great documents written on parch- ment, and giving these people the right to settle on and own certain lands, to form certain kinds of government, and to do a \ariety of things which in England no one could do but the king and the parliament. The colonies in New England were given the right to choose their own governors and make their own laws, and nobody, not even the king, could stop them from doing this. The king had given them this right, and no other king could take it away while, they kept their charters. \\"ould you care to be told what took place afterwards? All kings, you should know, are not alike. Some are very mild and easy, and some are \ cry harsh and severe. Some are willing for the people to have liberty, and \. r I ■ some are not. The kings who gave the charters the Colonies ^ . to New England were of the easy kind. But thev were followed by kings of the hard kind, who thought that these people beyond the sea had too much liberty, and ^\■ho wished to take away some of it. Charles II., who gave some of these charters, was one of the easy kings, and did not trouble himself about the people in the cc^lonies. James II., who came after him, was one of the hard kings. He was a good deal of a tyrant, and wanted to make the laws himself, and take the right to do this from the people. After tPynng to rob the people of England of their liberties, he thought he would do the same thing with the people of America. " Those folks across the seas are ha\-ing too good a time," he thought. "They have too many rights and privileges, and I must take some of them away. I will let them know that I am their master."' But they had their charters, which gave them these rights ; so the wicked king thought the first thing for him to Ao was to take their charters away from them. Then their rights ROYAL GOVERNORS AND LOYAL CAPTAINS 77 would be gone, and he could make for them a new set of laws, and force them to do everything he wished. What King James did was to send a nobleman named Sir Edmund Andros to New England to rule as royal gov- ernor. He was the agent of the king, and was to do all that the king ordered. One of the first things he was to do was to rob tlie people ,%, of their charters. You see, even a tyrant -^ A^ king did not like to go against the charters, ^ "^^^i"^ ^*^'' ^ charter was a sacred pledge. ^F' OLD GATES AT ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA Well, the new governor went about ordering the people to give him their charters. One of the places he went to was Hartford, Connecticut, and there he told the officers of the colony that they must deliver up their charter ; the king had said so, and the king's word must be obeyed. If any of you had lived in Connecticut in those days I know how you would have felt. The charter gave the people a great deal of liberty, and they did not wish to part with it. I know that you and I would have felt the same way. But what could they do ? If they did not give it up peacefully, :js royal governors and loyal captains Governor Andros might come again with soldiers and take it from tlicm by force. So the governor and the lawmakers and officials vvere in a great fret about what they should do. They asked Governor Andros to come to the statehouse and talk cner the matter. Some of them fancied they could get him to leave them their charter, though they might have known better. There they sat — the governor in the lofty chair of state, the others seated in a half circle before him. There was a broad table between them, and on this lay the great parchment of the charter. Some of those present did a great deal of talk- ing. They said how good King Charles had given them the charter, and how happy they had been under it, and how loyal they were to good King James, and they begged ?^^ J] ^T Governor Andros not to take it from them. at Marttord But they might as well have talked to the walls. He had his orders from the king and was one of the men who do just ^\•hat they are told. \Miile the talk was going on a strange thing happened. It was night, and the room was lit ujj with a few tallow can- dles. Of course you know that these were the best lights people had at that time ; gas or the electric light had never been heard of And it was before the time of matches. The only way to make a light in those days was by use of the flint and steel, which was a very slow method indeed. Suddcnlv, while one of the Hartford men was talking and the go\'ernor was looking at him in a tired sort of way, all the lights in the room \\ent out, and the room was in deep dark- ness. E\-ervbody jumped up from their chairs and there was no end of bustle and confusion, and likely enough some pretty hard words were said. They had to hunt in the dark for the flint and steel ; and then there came snapping of steel on flint, and falling of sparks on tinder, so that it was some time before the candles were lit again. ROYAL GOVERNORS AND LOYAL CAPTAINS 79 When this was done the governor opened his eyes very wide, for the table was empty, the charter was gone. I fancy he swore a good deal when he saw that. In those days even the highest people were given to swearing. But no matter how much he swore, he could not bring the charter back with hard words. It was gone, and nobody knew where. Everybody looked for it, right and left, in and out, in drawers and closets, but it was nowhere to be found. Very likely the most of them did not want to find it. At any rate, the gov- ernor had to go away without the charter, and years passed before anybody saw it again. Do you not wish to know what became of it? Wc are told that it had been taken by a bold young soldier named Captain Wadsworth. While all the people in the room were looking at the one who was making his speech, the Captain quickly took off his cloak and gave it a quick The fling over the candles, so that in a moment (Charter Oak they were all put out. Then he snatched up the charter from the table and slipped quietly out of the room. While they were busy snapping the flint and steel, he was hurrying down the street towards a great oak tree which was more than a hundred years old. This tree was hollow in its heart, and' there was a hole in its side which opened into the hollow. Into this hole Captain Wadsworth pushed the charter, and it fell into the hollow space. I do not think any of us would have thought of looking there for it. I know nobody did at that time, and there it lay for years, until the tyrant King James was driven from the throne and a new king had taken his place. Then it was joyfully brought out, and the people were ever so glad to see it again. The old tree stood for many years in the main street of the town, and became famous as the Charter Oak. The people loved and were proud of it as long as it stood. But 8o ROYAL GOVERNORS AND LOYAL CAPTAINS many years ago the hoary old oak fell, and now only some of its wood is left. This has been made into chairs and boxes and other objects which are thought of great value. Do you not think that Captain Wadsworth was a bold and daring man, and one who knew just what to do in times of trouble ? If you do not, I fancy you will when I have told you another story about him. This took place after the charter had been taken from the oak and brought to the state-house again. At this time there was a governor in New York named Fletcher, who claimed that the king had given him the right to command the militia, or citizen soldiers, of Connecticut. So he came the Drummers ^^^ Hartford, whcrc Captain Wadsworth was in command, and where the people did not want any stranger to have power over them. He told the captain what he had come for, and that he had a commission to read to the soldiers. The militia were called out and drawn up in line in the public square of the town, and Governor Fletcher came before them, full of his importance. He took out of his pocket the paper which he said gave him the right to command, and began to read it in a very proud and haughty manner. But he had not read ten words \\ lien Captain Wadsworth told the drummers to beat their drums, and before you could draw your breath there was such a rattle and roll of noise that not a word could be heard. "Silence!" cried Fletcher. "Stop those drums!" The drums stopped, and he began to read again. "Drum I" ordered Wadsworth in a loud tone, and such a noise began that a giant's voice would have been drowned. "Silence!" again shouted Fletcher. He was very red in the face by this time. "Drum, I say !" roared the captain. BACON DEMANDING HIS COMMISSION OF GOVERNOR BERKELEY. 82 ROYAL GOVERNORS AND LOYAL CAPTAINS Then he turned to the governor and said, laying his hand on his sword, " I command these men, Governor Fletcher, and if you interrupt me again I will make the sun shine through you in a minute." And he looked as if he meant what he said. All the governor's pomp and consequence were gone, and his face turned from red to pale. He hastily thrust the paper back intt) his pocket, and was not long in leaving Hartford for Ne\\- \'ork. No doubf he thought that Connecticut was not a good place for royal governors. Suppose I now tell you the story of another royal gov- ernor and another bold captain. This was down in Virginia, but it was long after Captain Smith was dead and after Vir- ginia had become a large and prosperous colony. The king sent there a goxernor named Berkeley, who acted as if he was master and all the people were his slaves. They did not like to be treated this way ; but aeon s Berkeley had soldiers under his command, and Rebellion J they Mere forced to obey. While this was go- ing on the Indians began to murder the settlers. The gov- ernor ought to have stopped them, but he was afraid to call out the people, and he let the murders go on. . There was a young man named Nathaniel Bacon \\ho asked Governor Berkeley to let him raise some men to fight the Indians. The governor refused. But this did not stop brave young Bacon, for he called out a force of men and drove off the murdering savages. Governor Berkeley was very angry at this. He said that Bacon was a traitor and ought to be treated like one, and that the men with him were rebels. Bacon at once marched with his men against Jamestown, and the haughty go\'ernor ran away as fast as he could. But while Bacon and his men were fighting the Indians again. Governor Berkeley came back and talked more than ROYAL GOVERNORS AND LOYAL CAPTAINS 83 ever about rebels and traitors. This made Bacon and the people with him very angry. To be treated in this way while they were saving the people from the Indian knife and toma- hawk' was too bad. They marched against Jamestown again. This time the governor did not run away, but prepared to defend the place with soldiers and cannon. But they did not fire their guns. Bacon had captured some of the wives of the principal men, and he put them in front of his line as he advanced. The governor did not dare bid his soldiers to fire on these women, so he left the town again in a hurry, and if was taken by the Indian fighters. Bacon made up his mind that Governor Berkeley should not come back to Jamestown again. He had the town set on fire and burned to the ground. Some of the men with him set fire to their own houses, so , " ** ' Jamestown that they should not give shelter to the governor and his men. That was the end of Jamestown. It was never rebuilt. Only ashes remained of the first English town in America. To-day there is only an old church tower to show where it stood. We cannot tell what might have happened if brave young Bacon had lived. As it was, he took sick and died. His men now had no leader, and soon dispersed. Then the governor came back full of fuiy, and began to hang all those who opposed him. He might have put a great many of them to death if the king had not stopped him and ordered him back to England. This was King Charles II., whose father had been put to death by Cromwell. He was angry at what Governor Berkeley had done, and said : " That old fool has hung more men in that naked land than I did for the murder of my father." CHAPTER VIII Old Times in the Colonies HAT a wonderful change has come over this great country of ours since the days of our grandfathers 1 Look at our great cities, with their grand buildings, and their miles of streets, with swift-speeding electric cars, and thousands of carriages and wagons, and great stores lit by brilliant electric lights, and huge workshops filled with rattling wheels and marvelous machines ! And look at our broad fields filled with cattle or covered by growing crops, and divided by splendid highways and railroads thousands of miles in length! Is it not all very wonderful ? "But has it not always been this way?" some very young persons ask. " I have lived so many years and have never seen anything else." My dear young friend, if you had lived fifty or sixty years, as many of us older folks have, you woiild have seen very different things. And if we had lived as long ago as our grandfathers did, and then come back again to-day, I fancy our eyes would open wider than Governor Andros's did when he saw that the charter was ^one. In those days, as I told you, when any one wanted to make a light, he could not strike a match and touch it to a gas jet as ^^•e do, but must hammer away with flint and steel, and then had nothing better than a home-made tallow candle to light. Why, I am sure that many of you never even saw 81 OLD TIMES IN THE COLONIES 85 a pair of snuffers, which people then used to cut off the candle wick. Some of you who live in old houses with dusty lofts under the roof, full of worm-eaten old furniture, have, no doubt, found there odd-looking wooden frames and wheels, and queer old tools of various kinds. Sometimes these wheels are brought down stairs and set in the hall as some- thing to be proud of And the old eight-day clocks stand there, too, with their loud "tick-tack," buzzing and ticking away to-day as if they had not done so for a hundred years. The wheels I speak of are the old- spinning wheels, with which our great- grandmothers spun flax into thread. This thread they wove into homespun cloth on old-fashioned looms. All work of this kind used to be done at home, though now it is done in great factories, and we buy our clothes in the stores, instead of spinning and weaving and sewing them in the great old kitchens before the wood- fire on the hearth. Really, I am afraid many of you do not know how people lived in the old times. They are often spoken of as the "good old times." I fancy you will hardly think so when I have told you something more about them. Would you think it very good to have to get up in a freezing cold room, and 86 OLD TIMES IN THE COLONIES go down and pump Ice-cold water to wash your face, and go out in the snow to get wood to make the fire, and shiver for an hour before the house began to warm up ? That is only one of the things you would not think good. I shall certainly have to stop here and tell you about how people lived in old times, and then you can say if you w'ould like to go back to them. Would any boy and girl among you care to live in a little one-story house, made of rough logs laid one on another, and with a roof of thatch — that is, of straw or reeds, or anything that w^ould keep, out the rain ? Old Time tt t -^x. i „ Houses, 1 mean, with only one or two rooms. Houses ' ' -^ ' and some of them with chimneys made of wood, plastered with clay on the inside so that they could not be set on fire. These were the oldest houses. Later on people began to build larger houses, many of which were made of brick or stone. But I am afraid there was not much comfort in the best of them. They had no stoves, and were heated by great stone fireplaces, where big logs of wood were burned. They made a bright and cheerful blaze, it is true, but most of the heat went roaring up the wide chimney, and onl\- a little of it got out into the room. In the winter the people lived in their kitchens, with the blazing wood-fire for heat and light, and at bed-time went shivering off to ice-cold rooms. Do you think you would have enjoyed that ? They had ^ery little furniture, and the most of what they had was rude and rough, much of it chopped out of the trees by the farmer's axe. Some of the houses had glass windows — little diamond-shaped panes, set in lead frames — but most of them had nothing but oiled paper, which kept out as much light as it let in. All the cooking was done on the great kitchen hearth, where the pots were hung on iron cranes and the pans set on OLD TIMES IN THE COLONIES 87 the blazing coals. They did not have as much food to cook as we have. Mush and milk, or pork and beans, were their usual food, and their bread was mostly made of rye or cornmeal. The boys and girls who had nice books they wanted to read often had to do so by the light of the kitchen fire ; but I can tell you that books were very scarce things in those days. If any of us had lived then I know how glad we would have been to see the bright spring time, with its flowers and warm sunshine. But we might have shivered again when we thought of next winter. _^ Of course, the people had some good times. They had Thanksgiv- ing-day, Avhen the table was filled with good things to eat, and elec- tion-day and training- day, when they had outdoor sports. And they had quilting and husking-parties, and spinning bees, and sleigh-rides and picnics and other amusements. A wedding was a happy time, and even a funeral was followed by a great dinner. But after all there was much more hard work than holiday, and nearly everybody had to labor long and got little for it. They were making themselves homes and a country, you know, and it was a very severe task. We, to-day, are getting the good of their work. Down South people had more comfort. The weather was not nearly so cold, so they did not have to keep up such blazing fires or shiver in their cold beds. Many of the rich A PIONEER'S CABIN 88 OLD TIMES IN THE COLONIES planters built themselves larj^e mansions of. wood or brick, and bnnight costly furniture from England, and lived in great show, with gold and silverware on their sideboards and fine coaches drawn by handsome horses when they went abroad. In New York the Dutch built quaint old houses, of the kind used in Holland. In Philadelphia the Quakers lived in neat two-storied houses, with wide orchards and gardens round them, where they raised plenty of fruit. When any one opened a shop, he would hang out a basket, a wooden anchor, or some such sign to show what kind of goods he had to sell. In New England Sunday was kept in a very strict fashion, for the people were very religious. It was thought wicked to play, or even to laugh, on Sunday, and everybody had to go to church. All who did not go were punished. Church Goinir And, mcrcy on us, what sermons they preached in those cold old churches, prosing away some- times for three or four hours at a time ! The boys and girls IkuI to listen to them, as well as the men and women, and you know how hard it is now to listen for one hour. If they got sleepy, as no doubt they often did, and went off into a snooze, they were soon wide awake again. For the constable went up and down the aisles with a long staff in his hantl. This had a rabbit's foot on one end of it and a rabbit's tail on the other. If he saw one of the women asleep he would draw the rabbit's tail over her face. Hut if a boy took a nap, down would come the rabbit's ft)ot in a sharp rap on his head, and up he would start very wide awake. To-day we would call that sort of sermons cruelty to children, and I think it was cruelty to the old folks also. Do you think those were "good old times" ? I imagine some of you will fancy they were "bad old times." But they were not nearly so bad as you may think. For you must bear in mind that the people knew nothing of many of the OLD TIMES IN THE COLONIES 89 things we enjoy. They were used to hard work and plain food and coarse furniture and rough clothes and cold rooms, and were more hardy and could stand more than people who sleep in furnace-heated rooms and have their tables heaped with all kinds of fruits and vegetables and meats. But there was one thing that could not have been pleas- ant, and that was, their being afraid all the time of the Indians, and having to carry muskets with them even when they went to church. All around them were the forests in which the wild red men roamed, and their cruel yell might be heard at any time, or a sharp arrow whiz out from the thick leaves. The farm-houses were built like forts, and in all the villages were strong buildings called block-houses, to which everybody could run in times of danger. In these the second story spread out over the first, and there were holes in the floor through which the men could fire down on the Indians below. But it makes us tremble to think that, at any time, the traveler or farmer might be shot down by a lurking savage, or might be seized and burned alive. We can hardly wonder that the people grew to hate the Indians and to kill them or drive them away. There was much game in the woods and the rivers were full of fish, so that many of the people spent their time in hunting and fishing. They got to be as expert in this as the Indians themselves, and some of them could follow a trail as well as the most sharp-sighted of the red men. AN OLD MEETING HOUSE OR CHURCH 90 OLD TIMES IN THE COLONIES Sonic of you may have read Penimorc Cooper's novels of Indian life, and know what a wonderful hunter and Indian trailer old Natty Bumppo was. But we do not need to go to novels to read about great hunters, for the life of Daniel Boone is as full of adventure as that of any of the heroes of Indian life. Daniel Boone was the most famous hunter this country has ever known. Tie lived much later than the early times I am talking about, but the country he lived in was as wild as that found by the first settlers of the country. When he was only a little boy he went into the deep woods H "tTr"" "^^^^ lived there by himself for several days, shooting game and making a fire to cook it by. lie made iiimself a litllc hut of boughs and sods, and lived there like an Indian, and there is where his father and friends found him when they came seeking him in the woods. \'ears afterwards he crossed the high mountains of North Carolina and went into the great forest of Kentucky, where only Indians and wild animals lived. For a long time he stayed there by himself, with the Indians hunting and trying to kill him. But he was too wide awake for the smartest of them all. One time, wlien they were close on liis trail, he got away from them by catching hold of a loose grape-vine and making a long swinging jum|), and then running on. When the Indians got there they lost the marks of his foot-prints and gave up the chase. At another time when he was taken prisoner he got up, took one of their guns, and slipped away from them without one of them waking up. Many )ears afterwards, when he and others had built a fort in Kentucky, and brought out their wives and children, Boone's daughters and two other girls were carried off by Indians while they were out picking wild flowers. OLD TIMES IN THE COLONIES 91 Boone and other hunters were soon on their trail, and fol- lowed it by the broken bushes and bits of torn dress which the wide-awake little girls had left behind them. In this way they came up to the Indians while they were eating their supper, fired on them, and then ran up and rescued the girls. These young folks did not go out of the fort to pick wild flowers after that. Once Daniel Boone was taken prisoner, and would have been burned alive if an old woman had not taken him for her son. The Indians painted his face and made him wear an Indian dress and live with them as one of themselves. But one day he heard them talking, and found tliat they were going to attack the fort where all his friends were. Then he slipped out of the village and ^^ °""^ ran away. He had a long journey to make and the Indians followed him close. But he walked in the water to hide his footsteps, and lived on roots and berries, for fear they would hear his gun if he shot any game. In the end he got back safe to the fort. He found it in bad con- dition, but he set the men to make it strong, and when the Indians came they were beaten off Daniel Boone lived to be a very old man, and kept going farther west to get away from the new people who were com- ing into the Kentucky forest. He said he wanted " elbow room." He spent all the rest of his life hunting, and the Indians looked on him as the greatest woodsman and the most wonderful hunter the white men ever had. CHAPTER IX A Hero of the Colonies () you not think there are a good many interesting stories in American history ? I have told you some, and I could tell you many more. I am going to tell you one now, about a brave young man who had a great deal to do with the mak- ing of our glorious country. But to reach it we will have to take a step backward over one hundred and fifty years. That is a pretty long step, isn't it? it takes us away back to about the year 1750. But people had been coming into this coun- try for more than a hundred and fifty years before that, and there were a great many white men and women in America at that time. These people came from Spain and France and Great Britain and Holland and Germany and Sweden and other countries besides. The Spaniards had spread through many regions in the south ; the French had gone west by way of the Great Lakes and then down the Mississippi Ri\er ; but the British were settled close to the ocean, and the country back of them was still forest land, where only wild men and wild beasts lived. That is the way things were situated at ihe time of the story which I now propose to tell. The young man I am about to speak of knew almost as much about life in the deep woods as Daniel Boone, the great hunter, of whom I have just told you. Why, when he was only sixteen years old he and another boy went far back into 92 A HERO OF THE COLONIES 93 the wild country of Virginia to survey or measure the lands there for a rich land-holder. The two boys crossed the rough mountains and went into the broad valley of the Shenandoah River, and for months they lived there alone in the broad forest. There were no roads through the woods and they had to make their own paths. When they were hungry they would shoot a wild turkey or a squirrel, or sometimes a deer. They would cook their meat by holding it on a stick over a fire of fallen twigs, and for plates they would cut large chips from a tree with their axe. All day long they worked in the woods, measuring the land with a long chain. At night they would roll them- selves in their blankets and go to sleep under the trees. If the weather was cold they gathered wood and made a fire. Very likely they enjoyed it all, for boys are fond of adventure. Sometimes a party of Indians would come up and be very curious to know w^hat these white boys were doing. But the Indians were peaceful then, and did not try to harm them. One party amused the young surveyors by dancing a war dance before them. A fine time they had in the woods, where they stayed alone for months. When they came back the land-holder was much pleased with their work. Now let us go on for five years, when the backwoods boy-surveyor had become a young man twenty-one years of MARY BALL— AFTERWARDS MOTHER OF GEORGE WASHINGTON 94 A HERO OF THE COLONIES age. If we could take ourselves back to the year 1753, and j)lunge into the woods of western Pennsylvania, we might see this young man again in the deep forest, walking along with his rifle in hand and his pack on his back. He had with him an old frontiersman named Gill, and an Indian who acted as their guide through the forest. The Indian was a treacherous fellow. One day, when they were not looking, he fired his gun at them from behind a tree. He did not hit cither of them. Some men would have shot him, but they did not ; they let him go c^ away and walked on alone through the deep woods. They built a fire that night, but they tlid not sleep before it, for they were afraid the Indian might come back and try to kill them while they were sleeping. So they left it burning and walked on a few miles and went to sleep without a fire. ' A few days after that they came to the banks of a ^vide ri\er. N'ou may find it on your map of Pennsylvania. It is called the Alleghany River, and runs into the Ohio. It had been frozen, for it was winter time ; but now the ice was broken and floating swiftly down the stream. \\' hat were they to do ? They had to get across that stream. The only plan they could think of was to build a raft out of logs and try to push it through the ice with long poles. This they did, and were soon out on the wild river and anu)n>'' the floating" ice. It was a terrible passage. The great cakes of ice came swirling along and striking like heavy hammers against the raft, almost hard enough to knock it to pieces. One of these heavy ice cakes struck the pole of the young traveller, and gave him such a shock that he fell from the raft into the freez- ing cold water. He had a hard enough scramble to get back on the raft again. A HERO OF THE COLONIES 95 After a while they reached a little island in the stream and got ashore. There was no wood on it and they could not make a fire, so they had to walk about all night to keep from freezing. The young man was wet to the skin, but he had young blood and did not suffer as much as the older man with him. When morning came they found that the ice was frozen fast between the island and the other shore, so all they had to do was to walk across it. These were FANEUIL HALL, BOSTON, "THE CRADLE OF LIBERTY" not the only adventures they had, but they got safe back to Virginia, from which they had set out months before. Do you want to know who this young traveller was ? His name was George Washington. That is all I need say. Any one who does not know who George Washington was is not much of an American. But quite likely you do not guess what he was doing in the woods so far away from his home. 96 A HERO OF THF. COLONIES He had been sent there by the governor of Virginia, and I shall have to tell you \vhy. But first you must go back with me to an earlier time. The time I mean is when the French were settling in Canada along the St. Lawrence River, and going west over the lakes, and fioating in canoes down the Mississippi River to the (iulf of Mexico. Wherever they went they built forts and claimed the country for their king. At the same time the Hnglish were settling along the Atlantic shores and pushing slowly back into the country. You should know that the French and tlie Fnglish were not the best of friends. They had their wars in liuropc, and every time they got into war there the\- began to fight in America also. This made terrible times in the new country. The French had many of the Indians on their side, and they marched through the woods and attacked some „, ""^° of the English towns, and the cruel Indians Warfare o murdered many of the poor settlers who had done them no harm. There were three such wars, lasting for many years, and a great many innocent men. women and children, who had nothing to do with the wars in Europe, lost their lives. That is what we call war. It is hixd enough now, but it was worse still in those days. The greatest of all tlie wars between the French and the English W'-as still to come. Between the French forts on the Missi.ssippi and the English settlements on the .Vtlantic there was a vast forest land, and l)otli the French and tlie F^nglish said it belonged to them. In fact, it did not belong to either oi them, but to the Indians; but the white men never troubled themselves about the rights of the old owners of the land. \\niile the Enritish fleet was sent against it, and also an army of eight thousand men, iirider Ciencra! Wolfe. Vox two or three months they fired at the city from the river below, but the French scorned them fi"om their steep hill-top. At length General Wolfe was told of a narrow path by which he might climb the hill. One dark night he tried it, and by daybreak a large body of men hai)iKil Icaxcs aiul roots and made some sort of tea out of llu in. It was ])oor stuff, hut it did not pay any tax. And thc\ would not lni\- auN' cloth or other goods brought from luv..^lanil. 11 the king was angry ami stubborn tiiey were angiN ant! stubborn, too, antl e\er\- da\- they grew more angrw until man\' of them began to think that they woidd be better off without a king. riu\- were not the kintl of people to l>c made slaxes of easih' b\ king (leorge or an)' otiier king. When the king heard ^'I'i the " Boston tea-party" he was in a fury, lie would make iJoslon \y\\ well for its tea, he said. So he sent soldiers there, and he gavg orders that no shii)s should go into or out of Boston harbor. The " Boston ,-, • . i » r ti i • r ^i i „ „ . „ I his stopped most oi the husmess ol the town, Tea-Party " i i ' and soon the yct^n- |)eo[)le had no work to do and \-er\- little to eat. But the)' iiad crowdetl meetings at Faneuil Hall, where Samuel Adams and John Hancock and other jialriots talked to them oS. their rights and wrongs. It began to look as if war would S(K)n come. The lime IkuI come at last for a union of the colonies. What i'Vanklin had fiiled to tlo at .\lbany in 1754 was done at IMiiladelphia in 1774. .\ meeting was held there which was calletl a Congress, ;md was UKule up of some of the best men ".A the countrN' sent from the colonies. C)ne of these was Cleorije Washington, who hail li\'ed on his farm at Mt. \'ernon siiice the end of the French War. Congress sent a letter tt> the kinoston, but many of them lay dead in the road. Th,e poor fellows killed at Le.Niington were terribly avenged. Far and wide spread the news, and (jn all sides the farmers left their plows and took down their rifles, and thousands of them set out along the roads to Pioston. Soon there were twenty thousand armed men around the town, and ii8 THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION the British were shut up hke rats in a trap. The American people were in rebelhon against the king and war had begun. It was to be a long and dreadful war, but it led to American liberty, and that was a thing well worth fighting for. \\'hile the people were laying siege to Boston, Congress was in session at Philadelphia, talking about as in on, ^^y]^lx\^ had bcst be done One i{ood thing; they Commander » b J did was to make George \Yashington com- mander-in-chief of the army and send him to Boston to fight the British there. They could not have found a better soldier in all America. The next good thing took place a year later. This was the thing which you celebrate with fireworks every 4th of July. Congress decided that this country ought to be free, and no longer to be under the rule of an English king. So a paper was written by a member from Virginia named Thomas Jef- ferson, with the help of Benjamin Franklin and some others. The paper is known by the long name of " Declaration of Independence." It declared that the American colonies were free from British rule, and in future would take care of them- selves. It was on the 4th of July, 1 776, that this great paper was adopted by Congress, and on that day the Republic of the United States of America was born. That is why our people have such a glad and noisy time every 4th of July. Everywhere the people were full of joy when they heard what -had been done. In the State House at Philadelphia rang out the great bell on which were the words, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants thereof" In New York the statue of King Ge"orge was pulled down and thrown into the dust of the street. The people did not know what dark days lay before them, but they were ready to suffer much for the sake of liberty, and to risk all they had, life and all, for the freedom of their nati\e land. "I AM READY FOR ANY 6ZRVICE THAT 1 CAN GIVE MY COUNTRY hero, sitting on his horse 1q the harves- field, accepted n .hJ above patriotic worQS. THE SURRENOeA AT YORKTOWN CHAPTER XII Fighting for Freedom NY of my readers who are true, scnind-heartcd Americans, and I am sure all of them are that, would have been glad to see how the New Eng- land farmers swarmed around Boston in April, 1775. Some of them had fought in the French war, and brought with them their rusty old muskets, which they knew very well how to use. And most of them were hunters and had learned how to shoot. And all of them were bold and brave and were determined to have a free country. The English red-coat soldiers in Boston \\'ould soon fintl that these countrymen were not men to be laughed at, even if they had not Ijeen trained in war. One morning the English woke up and rubbed their eyes hard, for there, on a hill that overlooked the town, was a crowd of Americans. They had been at work all night, dig- gint/ and making earthworks to fight behind, , 11- r ^1 T^^ ,• , ,- Bunker Hill and now had quite a tort. 1 he English otfi- cers did not like the look of things, for the Americans could fire from that hill — Bunker Hill, they called it — straight down into the town. They must be driven away or they would drive the troops away. I can tell you that was a busy and a bloody day for Boston. The great war-ships in the harbor thundered with their cannon at the men on the hill. And the soldiers began to march up the hill, thinking that the Yankees would run 119 iro FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM like sheep when they saw tlie red-coats coming near. But the ^'ankees were not there to run. "Don't fire, boys, till you see the whites of their eyes," said brave General Prescott. So the Yankee boys waited till the British were close at hand. Then they fired and the red-coats fell in rows, for the farmers did not waste their bullets. Those that did not fall scampered in haste dt)wn the hill. It was a strange sight to see British sokliers running awa)- from ^'ankee farmers. After awhile the British came again. Thev \\ere not so sure this time. Again the ^'ankee muskets rattled along the earthworks, and airain the British turned and ran — -those who were able to. They could ne\er have taken that hill if the farmer soldiers had not rmi out of powder. When the red-coats came a third time the ^'ankees could not fire, and had to fight them with tlie butts of tlieir guns. .So the IVitish won the hill : but they had fomul that ihi' Nank^'e f irniers were notcowarils; after that tiiue thev ne\er liked to march against American earthworks. PAUL REVEKE'S RIDE FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM i2i Not long after the battle of Bunker Hill General Wash- ington came to command the Americans, and he spent montlis in drilling and making soldiers out of them. He also got a good supply of powder and muskets and some cannon, and one dark night in March, 1776, he built a fort on another hill that looked down on Boston. I warrant you, the British were scared when they looked up that hill the next morning and saw cannon on its top and men behind the cannon. They would have to climl) that hill as they had done Bunker Hill, or else leave Boston. But they had no fancy for another Bunker Hill, so they decided to leave. They got on their ships ^ " '* and sailed away, and Washington and his men marched joyfully into the town. That was a great day for America, and it was soon followed by the 4th of July and the glorious Declaration of Independence. Since that 4th of July no king has ever ruled over the United States. We call this war the Amerfcan Revolution. Do you knoiv what a revolution is ? It means the doing away with a bad government and replacing it with a better one. In this country it meant that our people were tired of the rule of England and wished to govern themselves. They had to fight hard f(jr their freedom, it is true, but it was well worth titrht- ing for. The war was a long and dreadful one. It went on for seven long years. At one time everything seemed lost ; at other tinies all grew bright and hopeful. And thus it went on, up and down, to the end. I cannot tell you all that took place, but I will give you the important points. . After the British left Boston, they sailed about for a time, and then they came with a large arm\' to New York. W^ash- ington was there v/ith his soldiers to meet them, and did his best, but everything seemed to go wrong. First, the Ameri- 122 FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM cans were beaten in battle and had to march out of New York and let the British march in. Then Washin^t^ton and his ragged men were obliged to hasten across the state of New Jersey with a strong British force after them. They were too weak to face the British. When they got to the Delaware River the Americans crossed it and took all the l)t)ats, so that the British could not follow them. It was now near winter time, and Ijoth armies Q, WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE went into winter quarters. They faced each other,, but the wide river ran lietween. You may well think that by this time the American people were getting very down-hearted. Man)^ of them thought that all was lost, and that they would have to submit to King George. The army dwindled away and no new sol- diers came in, so that it looked as if it w^ould go to pieces. It was gro\\-ing \-ery dark for American liberty. But there was one man who did not despair, and that man was George Washington. He saw that something must be FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM 123 done to stir up the spirits of the people, and he was just the rnan to do it. It was a wonderful Christmas he kept that year. All Christmas day his ragged and hungry soldiers were marching up their side of the Delaware, and crossing the river in boats, though the wind was biting cold, and the air was full of falling snow, and the broken ice was Washington floating in great blocks down the river; but Crosses the nothing stopped the gallant soldiers. All Delaware Christmas night they marched down the other side of the river, though their shoes were so bad that the ground became reddened by blood from their feet. Two of the poor fellows were frozen to death. At Trenton, a number of miles below, there was a body of German soldiers. These had bcendiired by King George to help him fight his battles. That day they had been eating a good Christmas dinner while the hungry Americans were marching through the snow. At night' they went to bed, not dreaming of danger. They were wakened in the morning by shots and shouts. Washington and his men were in the streets of the town. They had hardly time to seize their guns before the ragged Yankees were all around them and nearly all of them were made prisoners of war. Was not that a great and glorious deed ? It filled the Americans with new hope. In a few days afterwards, Wash- ington defeated the British in another battle, and then settled down with his ragged but brave men in the hills of New Jersey. He did not go behind a river this time. The British knew where he was and could come to see him if they wanted to. But they did not not come. Very likely they had seen enough of him for that winter. The next year things went wrong again for Washington. A large British army sailed from New York and landed at the 124 FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM head of Clioapcake Hay. Then they marched overland to Philadelphia. Washington fought a battle with them on Brandywine Creek, but his men were defeated and the British marched on and entered Philadelphia. They now held the largest cities of the country, Philadelphia and New York. While the British were living in plenty and having a very good time in the Ouaker city, the poor Americans spent a wretched and terrible winter at a place called Phiiadei hia Valley Forgc. The winter was a dismally cold one, and the men had not half enough food to eat or clothes to wear, and \'ery poor huts to live in. They suffered dreadfully, and before the spring came man\- of them died from disease and exposure. Po(^r fellows! they were paying dearl\- for their struggle for libcrtw But there was no such despair this winter as there had been the winter l)ef()re, for news came from the north that warmed the soldiers up like a fire. Though W^ashington had lost a battle, a great \ictory had been gained bv the Ameri- cans at Saratoga, in the upper part of New York state. \\niile General Howe was marching on Philadelphia, another British army, under General Burgoyne, had been marching south from Canada, along the line of Lake Cham- plain and Lake (Jeorge. But Burgoyne and his men soon found themselves in a tight place. F"ood began to run short and a regiment of a thousand men was sent into Vermont to seize some stores. The\' were met by the Green Mountain boys, led by Colonel Stark, a bra\'e okl soldier. "There are the red-coats," said the bold colonel. "We must beat them to-dav, or Bett)' Stark is a widow." Beat them they ditl. Onl)' se\-enty men got back to Burgoyne. All the rest were killed or captured. Another force, untler Colonel St. Leger, marched south from Oswego, on Lake Ontario. A large body of Indians was FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM 125 with him. This army stopped to besiege a fort in the wilder- ness, and General Arnold marched to relieve the fort. The way Arnold defeated St. Leger was a \ery curious one. He sent a half-witted fellow into the Indian camp with the tale that a great American force was coming. The mes- senger came running in among the savages, with bullet-holes in his clothes. He seemed half scared to death, and told the Indians that a vast host was com- ing after him as thick as the leaves on the trees. This story fright- ened the Indians am,! they ran off in great haste through the woods. When the British soldiers saw this they fell into such a panic that they took to their heels, leaving all their tents and can- non behind them. The people in the fort did not know what it meant, till Arnold came up and told them how he had won a victory without firing a shot, by a sort of fairy story. All this was very bad for Burgoyne. The Indians he Drought with him began to leave. At length he found him- self in a terrible plight. His provisions were nearly gone, he was surrounded by the Americans, and after fighting two MEETING OF WASHINGTON AND ROCHAMBEAU 126 FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM battles he retreated to Saratoga. Here he had to surrender. He and all his army became prisoners to the Americans. We cannot wonder that this warmed up the Americans like a fire. It filled the English with despair. They began to think that they would never win back the colonies. One thing the good news did \vas to get the French to come to the help of the Americans. Benjamin Franklin was then in Paris, antl he asked the king to send America ^ ships and men and money to America. The French had no love for the British, who had taken from them all their colonics in America, so they did as Franklin wished. There arc two more things I wish to tell you in this chapter, one good and one bad. When the British in Phila- del]jhia heard that the French were coming to help the Ameri- cans, thc\- were afraid they might be caught in a trap. So they left in great haste and marched for New York. Wash- ington followed and fought a battle with them, but they got awa)-. After that Washington's army laid siege to New York, as it had formerly done to Bostcm. That was the i/ood thin