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THE GOLDEN TREASURY HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, AND RELIGION VARIOUS COUNTRIES OF THE GLOBE, BIOGRAPHIES OF THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS PEOPLE. BY JAMES HUNTEE, A. M SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCKIPTION. PHILADELPHIA: THAYER. MERRIAM & COMPANY. Limited, 1891. Copyright, 18S-, by John B i, a k k i, y . INTRODUCTION. I HE study of History — including under this term not only a record of the great political events of different countries, but also of their customs, arts, sciences, literature, religion, and topography — has always had a special attraction for the well- constituted mind. Man is distinguished from the inferior animals as much by an intelligent curiosity as by any other endowment. It is this endowment, indeed, that prompts him to inquire into the unknown — ta undertake perilous voyages of discovery, to push his researches into the secrets of nature, to make costly experiments in the domains of science and of art. But the poet has well said : "The proper study of mankind is man;" and in no w^ay can this laudable spirit of inquiry be so legitimately gratified as by a study of the history of one's own and other countries, such as we now present. If this be true generally, it applies wnth double force to our own time and country. The whole world is becoming knit together into one great family. Commerce and religion alike prompt us to regard all men as brethren. By means of the telegraphic wire and cable, information is now conveyed from clime to clime with the rapidity of thought, while the news from all lands is spread before the public daily by the periodical press. But these communi- cations do not speak in the same way to all. To the man of culture all is intelligible and clear. He peruses them with pleasure, often with profit, and the information thus acquired takes its due place in his well-ordered mind, and, remaining fixed in his memory, is added to his store of knowledge. But there are many to whom such communications are all but valueless. They (1) 2 INTRODUCTION. know little or nothing of the countries of which they read, and, as a conse- quence, news of them, or from them, is neither fully intelligible nor interesting to them. It does not amalgamate with anything previously in their minds, is imperfectly understood, and forgotten nearly as soon as read. In America, especially, to which men flock from all parts of the world as to an asylum for the oppressed, no man can afford to be ignorant of the history and conditions of other lands. The uninformed man cannot take a proper position in an intelligent community; he feels afraid to express himself, and is humiliated and rendered unhappy by a sense of his inferiority'. It is with the view of putting it in the power of ever)' inhabitant of this country to enroll himself in the former class that the following work has been compiled. The intelligent reader will perceive that it is not a mere bald record of dry details — a skeleton-history, in fact, as we sometimes find such publications to be — but that, while no' fact of importance is omitted, it seizes more particularly on such salient events as are typical of the periods and countries described, and, by exhibiting these in fuller detail, endeavors to give the reader an insight into the life and modes of thought of the various peoples and times. With the object of enlivening the narrative and making it pleasing as well as instructive, appropriate illustrative poetical extracts are freely in- troduced, as well as interesting stories and legends. The topography of the different countries is fully e.xhibited and similarly treated. One feature well worthy of attention is the condensed reviews of the past and present state of the literature, religion, arts, and sciences of different countries, with brief biographies of the men who have most distinguished themselves in each depart- ment. The productions, industries, and resources of each land are fully shown, with its modes of government and present political situation. In short, the aim has been to overlook nothing that an intelligent reader will desire to learn concerning the countries treated. How that end has been attained it is for the generous American public to determine. JAMES HUNTER. ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Queen Victoria Frontispiece. Oxford, England ii Cathedral of York 13 Wycliffe 14 Westminster Abbey 16 Summer scene in England 19 Druidical Sacrifices 25 Alfred the Great in his Stldy 31 Baptism of Cnut 35 William the Conqleror 37 Burial of William the Conqueror . •. . 40 William II. (Rufus) 41 JIenry 1 43 Stephen 1 44 Henry II 45 Warwick Castle 46 Murder of Thom.-vs-a-Becket 47 Gathering of Crusaders 50 Richard I. (Cceur-de-Lion) 51 King John swearing Vengeance against the Barons 52 Henry III 54 Edward I. (Longshanks) 56 A Tournament 57 Edw.\rd II 59 The Tower of London 60 Edward III 61 Windsor Castle from the River .... 64 Chaucer : Characteristic Scenes of his Time 65 Richard II 68 Costumes of Richard II. 's Time 69 Henry V 73 Henry VI 74 Margaret of Anjou and the Robber ... 76 Edward IV 77 Richard III 78 Murder of Edward IV.'s Children ... 79 Edward VI 84 Mary 1 84 Queen Elizabeth in her Youth 85 Sir Francis Drake 86 Sir Walter Raleigh . . • 87 Shakespeare 88 Carrying Queen Elizabeth in State ... 90 Costumes of Queen Elizabeth's Time ... 90 Charles 1 93 Oliver Cromwell 95 Trial of Charles 1 96 e.kecution of charles 1 97 Milton dictating Paradise Lost to his Daughter loi Charles II. 102 William III. (of Orange) 104 Costumes, Time of William and Mary . . 105 Queen Anne 106 Costumes of Anne's Time 107 Lord Byron 113 Prince of Wales 119 Houses of Parliament, London 123 PAGE Portrait of Gladstone 124 St. Paul's Cathedral, London 127 Irish Jaunting-car 132 Bessbrook Linen Mills and Village, County Armagh, Ireland 133 Father Matihew 135 Robs Castle, Killarney 136 Monument to Daniel O'Connell 137 Charles Stewart Parnell 138 Birthplace of Thomas Moore 139 The Giant's Causeway 140 Oliver Goldsmith 142 Custom House, Dublin ,. 143 Edinburgh 144 Home of Robert Burns 145 Robert Burns 150 James Watt discovering the Power of Steam 151 "Brigs o' Ayr" 152 Sir Walter Scott 153 Thomas Carlyle 154 Sir William Wallace 157 Royal Regalia of Scotland 158 Mary Stuart receiving her Death-Sentence. 159 St. Augustine, Florida 161 Scene in Central America 163 Portrait of Pizarro 165 South American Indians 168 Popocatepetl 170 Hidalgo y Costello 172 Benito Jiarez, Ex-President of Mexico . . 174 Cypress Trees at Chapultepec 175 The Inca Hauscar 176 Bay of Rio de Janeiro 181 Gallery of Dom Pedro 1 183 Niagara of Brazil . -. 187 Tail-piece 188 Harbor and City of Quebec 189 Death of Montcalm 192 The Thousand Islands 196 Scene on the Eastern Coast of Canada . . 198 The Capitol at Washington 200 Plymouth Rock 202 An Indian Attack 203 Penn's Treaty with the Indians .... 205 Patrick Henry 211 Lexington 212 Declaration of Independence 215 On the War-path 217 George Washington 219 Mount Vernon . . '. 220 The White House; Home of the Presidents 224 John Adams 225 Thomas Jefferson 226 Jamf^ Madison 22S James Monroe 229 John Quincy Adams 230 John C. Calhoun 231 A Mormon Home 232 Andrew Jackson 232 3 ILLUSTRATIONS. Danif.i, Webster . Martin V'an Buren General William H. Harrison John Tyler James K. 1'olk The Alamo, Mexico Zachaky Taylor Millard Killmore Franklin Pierce James Buchanan Abraham Lincoln ViCKSBURG John Ericsson Andrew Johnson Indian Chief General t'iRANT RUTHKRKOKI) 15. HAYES Samuel J. TiLDEN James A. Garfield Chester A. Arthur General Hancock Stephen Grover Cleveland Giant Trees of California Niagara Falls YosEMiTE Valley switjjerlanij of america Point Chautauqua Tii'TOP House, Mount Washington . . . William Cullen Bryant Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . . . . Birthplace of John Howard Payne . . . Grand Canal, Venice School of Vestal Virgins Statue OF Julius C.«sar Interior of St. Peter's, Rome Raphael Galileo Doge's Palace, Venice Destruction of Pompeii Pope Pius IX Guiseppe Garibaldi King Humbert IV Angoui.eme Marie Antoinette Napoleon's Residence at St. Helena . . Tomb of Napoleon I Blucher's March to Waterloo Porte St. Denis Column, Place Vend6me, Paris CoMTE DE Paris General Boulanger Royal Palace, Madrid The Ar.mada Spanish Priest Bridge of Saragossa King Alfonso XH On the Coast of Norway The Vikings Queen Margaret awaiting the Attack the Vitali TvcHo Brahe Lake of Geneva Arnold von Winkelried at Sempach . . John Calvin Belfry of Bru(;es Street in Ghent Heidelberg Castle, from the Neckar . . Street in Berlin Martin Luther Mayence First Printing-Press Copernicus John Kepler ', Cologne Cathedral PAGE ■ 2ii ■ 235 • 236 ■ 236 • 237 . 238 239 . 240 ■ 241 . 242 ■ 243 . 246 . 246 . 248 ■ 249 . 250 • 251 , 252 . 252 • 253 • 255 . 256 , 256 , 257 . 258 ■ 259 . 260 • 263 , 264 . 26S • 273 • 277 . 2S1 . 2S5 . 287 . 2S9 . 290 • 295 . 296 ■ 297 . 298 • 299 • 306 ■ 307 • 308 • 309 • 310 • 3" • 312 • 3'3 • 3"4 • 317 • 3'9 • 320 • 322 ■ 324 • 325 • 327 • 330 • 33' ■ 335 • 3i(> ■ 337 • 338 • 340 • 342 ■ 344 ■ 346 • 347 ■ 348 . 348 • 350 Bismarck 351 Von Moltke 353 Crown Prince of Germany 356 Street in Vienna 357 Napoleon and Louise 359 Beethoven 360 Glacier 362 Novgorod 364 Peter the Great 366 Catherine the Great of Russia 368 Burning of Moscow 369 Siege of Sebastopol 371 Ale.\ander II 372 Reading Emancipation Proclamation .... 373 Nihilist Printing-office 374 Crossing the Steppes 375 Newsky Prospect 377 Kremlin at Moscow 378 Cathedral at St. Basil 379 Odessa 380 Archimandrite 381 Russian Nuns begging Alms 381 Russian Family 382 Gold Mines, Siberia 383 Siberian Dogsledge 384 Constantinople 385 Mosque 389 Alexandf.r I. OF Bulgaria 390 Dervishes 391 Circassian 394 A Sultana's Room 395 Remains of ruined Temple at Corinth . . . 396 Site of Troy 398 PiATo 402 Aristotle 402 King George 1 403 View of Crete 404 Acropolis at Athens 405 Tail-piece 406 The Pyramids 407 Exterior of Temple of Isis 410 Cairo 412 Doum Palms 416 Moses' Well 417 Ferry of Kantara 418 Egyptian Family 420 A Street in Tunis 423 Scenes in the Life of Dr. Livingstone . . . 426 Christmas at an African Station 427 Asiatic Types 429 Birth of Christ 431 Church of the Holy Sepulchre 433 Hillah, on the Euphrates 435 Avenue of Hindoo Temples 437 LUCKNOW 440 Bombay 441 Hindoo Gods 443 Hindoo Musician 445 Hindoo Princess 447 The sacred Altar of Heaven, Pekin .... 449 Chinf.se Hanging-Garden 451 Interior of a Chinese Temple 452 Chinese Locomotion 454 Chinese Family 455 Chinese Children 457 Japanese Lady 458 Japanese Family 460 Botanical Garden, Adelaide 462 Ornithorhynchus 467 Australian 468 Lake Rothe-Mahana 470 New Zealander 471 Dyaks of Borneo 474 A Volcanic Cone 475 CONTENTS. Introduction i ENGLAND. ENGLAND TO THE TIME OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST. Extent and physical aspect of England — Picturesque scenery — Homes of the poets — Agriculture, manufactures, and commerce — National debt — Army and navy — Religion of ancient Britain — Druidical sacrifices — Boa- dicea and her struggle with the Romans — Early British tribes and races — The story of Caedmon — Clothing and domestic habits of the earlier inhabitants of Great Britain — Scandinavian invasion — Alfred the Great — St. Dunstan and the Devil — Torture of Queen Edgiva — The Danes and Anglo-Saxons become one united people — King Cnut and " the pudding " — Godwin and his singular death . . . . . . .11 FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE REIGN OF THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER. Battle of Hastings and conquest of England — Norman law phrases in our American courts — Characteristic death of William the Conqueror — Assassination of William Rufus — Battle at Trenchbray — Wreck of the " White Ship" — Robin Hood, Little John, and Friar Tuck — Modes of trial by ordeal — Murder of Thomas-a-Becket, and penance of Henry II. — Poisoning of the fair Rosamond — Richard Coeurde-Lion and his wars in Pales- tine — Saracenic terror of Richard — Romantic story associated with Richard's captivity in Austria — " The devil is loose " — Magna Charta — Murder at midnight of Arthur, heir to the throne of England — Eleanor of Castile sucking the poison from the wound of her husband — Roger Bacon and his great inventions and dis- coveries — His discovery of gunpowder — His persecution and imprisonment — The Welsh Bards — ^The first prince of Wales — Attempt to subjugate Scotland — Execution of Jews — -Tournaments — Sports of the common people — Beheading of Gaveston — Terrible death of Edward II. — English and Scottish border warfare — Battles of Crecjy and Poictiers in France — The " Most Noble Order of the Garter" — Wickliffe and the Re- formation in England — -Chaucer, "the Father of English Poetry" — Westminster Abbey — Insurrection of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw — The Battle of Chevychase — Whittington and his cat 37 FROM HENRY IV. TO THE EXECUTION OF CHARLES I. Owen Glendower, Douglas, and Harry Hotspur — Battle of Agincourt — Rebellion of Jack Cade — The "Wars of the Roses " — Margaret of Anjou and the robber — Warwick, the " King-maker "—Introduction of printing into England — Witchcraft and astrology — Death of Richard III. at the battle of Bosworth — Impostures of Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck — Battle of Flodden — Fall of Cardinal Wolsey — Tyrannical reign of Henry VIII. — " Bloody Mary " — Execution of Maiy, Queen of Scots — Destruction of the Spanish Armada — Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh — Shakespeare and the golden age of English literature — Lord Bacon — The translation of the Scriptures — The English Revolution under Cromwell, Hampden, Pym and others — Trial and execution of Charles I. .............. 71 FROM THE COMMONWEALTH TO THE PRESENT. The " Praise-God Barebones Parliament " — Milton and his poetry — The plague of London — Great fire of Lon- don — The " Rye-house Plot " — Bunyan and the " Pilgrim's Progress" — Battle of the Boyne — Newton and his discoveries — A brilliant age of literature — Rise and development of Methodism — Defeat of Charles Edward at CuUoden — Founding of the British Empire in India — Conquest of Canada — The new style of reckoning time introduced — Hogarth and his pictures — English comedy — Victories over France and Spain on sea and land — Great poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries — The steam-engine and other remarkable inventions and discoveries — English statesmanship and oratory — Catholic emancipation — Steam navigation — The Ci7Stal Palace — Crimean war — Indian mutiny^The Zulu war and death of Prince Napoleon — The war in the Soudan and murder of General Gordon — Beaconsfield and Gladstone — Art, literature, science and philosophy in England at the present day 96 (5) 6 CONTENTS. I RELAN D. Similarity of the aspect of the country and the character of the people— English rule in Ireland— Humorous Legends St. Patrick and " The King of the Serpents" — Agriculture and manufactures in Ireland — Wit and humor of the beggars — The jaunting-car — Father Matthew and his temperance campaign — The Blarney Stone The Lakes of Killarney and their beautiful legends — Legends of other lakes — Daniel O'Connell and Catho. lie emancipation — Charles Stewart I'arnell and the Irish Home Rule Party — Irish statesmen, patriots, and orators The poetry of Thomas Moore — The Giant's Causeway — Belfast and Dublin — The primitive inhab- itants of Ireland — Irish civilization and scholarship at the period when other nations were sunk in darkness and barbarism — The great contributions of Ireland to English literature, science and art . . . .129 SCOTLAN D. A land ruggeo, but free and independent — The vast strides made in one century from obscurity and poverty to a foremost place in the civilization of the world — Geographical aspect of Scotland — The Highland and Low- land races — Their " fierce native daring " in warfare — Rob Roy — Agriculture and manufactures in Scotland — Scottish fisheries — The national religion— Scottish universities— Great names in literature science and art — Picturesque and beautiful scenery — Epochs of Scottish history — Wallace and Bruce — Mary, Queen ol Scots — John Knox and the Scottish Refonnatii)n— Union of Scotland with England upon equal terms . . 144 CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. A preliminary glance at the stupendous strides made eveiy day by the United States — All climates within its territor)' — Its vast resources — Pre-Columl)ian discovery of America — Voyages of Columbus— Americus Ves- pucius — Search for the "Fountain of Youth" — The discovery of the Pacific ocean by Balboa — Invasion of Mexico by Cortez — Its conquest by Spain — Achievement of its independence — Capture of Mexico by the United States — Invasion of Mexico by the French, and the Austrian Prince Maximilian placed upon its throne — The Emperor Maximilian shot — Benito Juarez and Porfirio Diaz — Mexico described — Pizarro and the con- quest of Peru — Wealth of ancient Peru — Peruvian war of independence under Bolivar — Peruvian silver mines — Railway traffic in Peru — Venezuela and her struggle for independence — Prosperous condition of Chili — The Argentine Confederation — Central America — The acquisition of Brazil by Portugal — Proclamation of independence — Extent, mineral wealth, and agricultuml resources of Brazil — People of Brazil — The literary and scientific attainments of iis present emperor ............ 161 CANADA. Discoveries of John and Sebastian Cabot — Jacques Cartier sails into and gives name to the " Gulf of St. Law- rence " — Founding of Quebec — Aboriginal inhabitants of Canada — The capture of Quebec and deaths of Gen- eral Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm — Invasion of Canada and capitulation of General Hull — The fair dealing of the Dominion of Canada with her Indians — Louis Riel's rebellion — Murder of Scott — The Red River expedition under Sir Garnet Wolseley — The governmental constitution of Canada — Extent of territory — Progress in agriculture — Canadian fisheries — Navigation and railway travel — Vast resources of British Columbia ................... 189 THE UNITED STATES. THE UNITED STATES TO THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. Settlement of the United States — John .Smith and Pocahontas^— Settlement of Maryland — The Pilgrims' voyage in the Mayflower — Colonization of New England — Penn's treaty with the Indians — James Oglethorpe and the settlement of Georgia 200 FROM THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION TO THE DEATH OF WASHINGTON. Ignorance and folly of the English Government — The " Stamp Act " and its repeal — The tax on tea — Destruc- tion of tea in Boston harbor — Eloquence of Patrick Henry — War declared between England and the Colonies — Lexington and Bunker Hill— Battles of Trenton, Princeton, and Bennington — Surrender of Burgoyne at Sar- atoga — Massacre in the valley of Wyoming — Treason of Arnold and execution of Major Andre — The siege of Vorktown — Surrender of Comwallis — Treaty of peace between the English and United Stales— Life, char- acter and appearance of George Washington — His.death 208 CONTENTS. 7 LITERATURE AND GENERAL PROGRESS IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. First book written in America — Poetry, science and philosophy of Colonial authors — Jonathan Edwards — Ben- jamin Franklin, his writings, inventions and discoveries — The " Greatest Natural Botanist in the World" . 221 THE THIRTEEN STATES A NATION— ITS HISTORY TO THE WAR WITH MEXICO. Convention at Philadelphia — Ability and energy of Alexander Hamilton — Duel between HamiltDn and .Aaron Burr — Hamilton's successful financial measures^Death of Wasliington — .\dams' administration — Jefferson's administration — Trial of Aaron Burr for treason — Fulton's invention of the steamboat — War of 1812 — The " .Monroe Doctrine" — Visit of Marquis Lafayette — Eloquence ol Henry Chay — Statesmanship of John C.Cal- houn — Joseph Smith and the religion of the Mormons — Andrew Jackson's administration — His civil and mil- itary career — Daniel Webster and Robert Hayne — Panic of 1837 — Invention of the telegraph by Morse — War declared against Mexico ..,.....,,..,,. 22a FROM THE MEXICAN WAR TO THE PRESENT DAY. Generals Taylor and Scott invade Mexico — Battle of Buena Vista — Capture of Mexico by General Winfield Scott — Zachary Taylor's victories — The Missouri Compromise — -Stephen A. Douglas, " The Little Giant" — Election of .Abraham Lincoln and outbreak of the Civil war — Defeat of the Southern Confederacy and sur- render of General Lee to General Grant — -Assassination of Abraham Lincoln — Reference to the sea-fight between the Monitor and Merrimac — Inventions of John Ericsson — Great fire in Chicago — Fire in Boston — Battle between General Custer and Sioux Indians — Death of Custer — Political contest between R. B. Hayes and S. J. Tilden — .Assassination of President Garfield — Death of General Hancock — Career of Stephen Grover Cleveland ................... 236 PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NORTH AMERICA. Mountain systems of the United States — Giant trees of California — Falls of Niagara — The Yosemite Falls — The Switzerland of America — The " Switch-Back " railroad — Chautauqua — Mount Washington — United States Signal Service — Weather indications and cautionary signals .......... 255 LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS. Drake — Halleck — Br)'ant — Longfellow- — Holmes, with extracts from his poetry — Poetry of Whittier — Sad life and dcith of Edgar Allan Poe — -John Howard Payne, his dramatic works — Verses of " Home, Sweet Home " usually omitted — Remains of Payne brought from Africa to the United States — Living poets — Prose authors — Novelists — Historians and essayists — Progress in engraving and book-illustration — Chromolithography — American painters and sculptors — Musical compositions — .American inventive talent . . . . • 262 ITALY. ROME. Climate and physical aspect of Italy — Its wealth in art — -Great achievements of the Italian people — Romulus and Remus and the she-wolf — The rape of the Sabines — ^The Horatii and the Curiatii — The rape of Lucrelia and banishment of the Tarquins — Three Romans keep at bay a hostile army — War between Rome and Car- thage — Stupendous victories gained by Hannibal over the Romans — Hannibal's defeat and death — Destruction of Carthage — Marius and Sulla — Caius Julius Caesar, and anecdotes concerning him — His victories and re- forms initiated by him — .Assassination of Cresar — Reign of Augustus, and golden age of Roman literature — Destruction of Jerusalem — Persecution of Christians and burning of Rome under Nero — Roman Catacombs —Career of Rienzi — The Colosseum — St. Peter's and the Vatican — Italian art — Michael Angelo and Raphael 273 PROMINENT CITIES OF ITALY. Beauty of Florence — Dante and his " Divine Comedy " — Great men born in Florence — Its magnificent monu- ments and works of art — The city of Venice — Terrible government of the " Council of Ten " — The Bridge of Sighs — Grand Canal of Venice — P.idua — Verona and the great men born there — It manufactures and .-igricul- tural products — Interesting aspect of Milan — M.agnificent cathedral in Milan — Beautiful situation of Naples — Life in Naples — Ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum — .A united Italy — Cavour, Mazzini and Garibaldi — Pope Pius IX. — Garibaldi's life in New York — Present government of Italy — Attempted assassination of King Humbert 288 8 CONTENTS. FRANCE. ' FRANCE FROM ITS EARLIEST HISTORY TO THE REVOLUTION. Primitive inhabitants of France— Merovingian chiefs— Clovis, and founding of the French monarchy— Reign of Charlemagne— The Capet dynasty — The Crusades — Peter the Hermit— Capture of Jerusalem by Godfrey of Bouillon Second crusade — Noble conduct of the Sultan Saladin — The Boy Crusade — Life in the middle ages Tournaments— The Chevalier Bayard — Romantic literature — Richelieu, Mazarin, and Colbert — Rabelais and his humorous romances— Essays of Montaigne— Wits and literary men of France— Disgraceful reign of Louis XV.— Debauchery of the Court of France— Sufferings of the French people 299 THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE. Starvation amongst the French people — Storming of the Uastile — Insurrection of women — Mirabeau — F'light of Louis XIV. " The Marseillaise " war-hymn — Trial and execution of King Louis — The assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday — The " Reign of Terror " — Notable executions — The " Goddess of Reason " . . 304 FRANCE FROM THE OPENING OF THE CAREER OF NAPOLEON. Character of Napoleon Bonaparte — Characteristic anecdotes — Personal appearance of Napoleon — His banish- ment and death at St. Helena — French Revolution of 1848, and flight of Louis Phillippe — French Republic nd Empire under Louis Napoleon — Defeat of the Austrians by the French under Napoleon III.— The Franco-German war — Destruction of the Vendome Column by the Communists — Magnificence of Paris — Its marvels of architecture — Museums, galleries and theatres — Present claimants to the throne of France — Gen- eral Boulanger — French greatness in literature, science and art — France, the vineyard of the earth . . 306 SPAIN. Geographical aspect of Spain — Earliest inhabitants of Spain — Serlorius and his tame fawn — Defeat of Roderic, " Last of the Goths " — Chronicle of the " Cid " — Defeat of the Moors by the Cid, after his death — Splendor of Granada — I'alace of the Alhambra — Siege of Granada — "The Last Sigh of the Moor" — The Spanish Armada — Literature and art of Spain — Circumstances under which Cervantes wrote " Don Quixote " — Anec- dote of Murillo — .\necdote of Marshal Soult — Madrid — Bull-fighting — Description of Seville and Valencia — The Virgin Mary and her portrait — Singular story concerning St. Vincent — Saragossa and its sieges — The maid of Saragossa — Revolution in Spain — Assassination of General Prim — Spain a republic — Alfonso becomes king — Spanish love for shows, games and festivals — Passion for dancing — Love of fighting — Various traits of the Spanish people 3 '4 PORTUGAL. Extent, climate, and resources of Portugal — Lisbon and its subjection to earthquakes — Camoens and his great poem, " The Lusiad " — Grotto of Camoens in China — Industry and commerce of the Portuguese . . • 3^3 DENMARK, NORWAY AND SWEDEN. The Scandinavian sea-kings — Charlemagne and the Norsemen — Mythology and war-songs of the Vikings — Norse settlements in England and France — Margaret, the " Semiramis of the North " — Victories of Gustavus Adolphus — The battle of Lutzen and death of Gustavus Adolphus — Career of Charles XII. of Sweden — Union of Norway and Sweden — Character of the Danes — Danish literature, art and science — Character of the Norwegians and the Swedes — Recreations and amusements 324 SWITZERLAND. Early races of Switzerland — The House of Hapsburg — The vow of the Swiss patriots — Death of Gessler by William Tell — The battle of Mortgarten — The Swiss Confederation — Battle of Sempach and heroic conduct of Arnold von Winkelried — Victory at Nefels and achievement of independence by the Swiss — The Sempach convention — Production and commerce — Exports of Geneva — .A.lpine ascents — Chamouni, Mont Blanc, and Lake of Geneva — Imprisonment of Bonnivard in the Castle of Chillon — Intellectual achievements of the Swiss 331 THE NETHERLANDS. Religion of Holland and Belgium — City of Brussels — Ch.->.racter of the Belgians — Scenery of Holland — Dutch ancestry — Cleanliness — Legend of the Flying Dutchman 337 CONTENTS. 9 GERMANY. United German Empire — House of HohenzoUern — Thirty Years' war — Peace of Westphalia The Seven Years' war— Frederick the Great— Legends of the Rhine — Nibelungenlied — Life in Berlin— Luther and Melanc- thon — Luther throws the inkstand at the devil — Beautiful legend of St. Elizabeth — Anecdotes of Augustus II. —Dresden and Mayence — Invention of printing — Art, science and literature of Germany — Cologne cathedral — St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins — Franco-German war — Shrewdness and foresight of the Emperor AVilliam — Statesmanship of Bismarck — Generalship of Von Moltke — Surrender of the Emperor Napoleon III. — Proclamation of the German Empire in Versailles— Anecdote of Emperor William 340 AUSTRIA. Area of Austria — Government and population of Austria — Defeat of the Turks under the walls of Vienna Music and musicians — Palace of Schonbrunn — Bavaria — BohemiaT-Curious relics in the cathedral of St. Vitus in Prague — Loretta chapel in Prague — Tyrol and the Tyrolese ^CJ RUSSIA. Early history of Russia — Defeat of Peter the Great by Charles XII. of Sweden — Habits of Peter the Great — Palace of ice — Catherine the Great — Defeat of Kosciusko and ruin of Poland — French retreat from Moscow — War in the Crimea — Death of the Emperor Nicholas — Emancipation of the Serfs — Assassination of Alex- ander II. — The Nihilists — Alexander III. — Conquests of Russia in Central Asia — St. Petersburg — Moscow — The Kremlin — Novgorod — Religion of the Russians — Russian superstitions — Siberia — Siberian lack of hos- pitality 364 TURKEY. Geographical position and population of Turkey — The Mahometan religion — Turkish history — Defeat of Bajazet by Tamerlane — Siege of Constantinople — Massacre of the Janizaries — War with Russia — Dancing Dervishes — Turkish shopkeepers — Women in Turkey— Legend of the Maiden's Tower ...... 385 GREECE. Remarkable physical features, climate and history of Greece — -Supreme quality of its literature, philosophy, science and art — Lycurgus, Draco and Solon — Marathon — Thermopylse — Plague at Athens — Epaminondas — Philip of Macedon — Defeat of Porus by Alexander the Great — Philosophers of Greece — Greek oratory and the drama — Modern history — Ruins of ancient cities and temples — Religion of the Greeks .... 396 EGYPT. Early civilization of Egypt^ — Overflowing of the Nile — Pyramids and the Sphinx — Superstitions of the Eg)-ptians — Rameses the Great — Statue of Memnon — Conquest of Egypt by Cambyses — Antony and Cleopatra — Invasion of Egypt by Napoleon — Assassination of General Kleber — Pefeat of the Fj-ench at Aboukir — Life in Cairo — Ruins of Egyptian temples and statues — Ruins of Thebes — Moses' Well — The Suez canal — Religion of an- cient Egypt — Remarkable discovery of Mummies — The Soudan— Arabs of the Soudan — "Chinese Gordon" — Suakin ................... 407 THE BARBARY STATES. Morocco and the Moors — American resistance to slave-trading — Attack upon Tripoli by Commodore Preble — Capture of Algerine vessels by Commodore Decatur — Attack upon Algiers by an English fleet — Defeat of Abdel Kader by the French 422 CENTRAL AND SOUTH AFRICA. Desert of Sahara — Wild animals of Africa — .African Pigmies — Source of the Nile — The Congo and the Zambesi ' — African explorers and exploration — Livingstone's propositions in regard to Africa ..... 424 SYRIA AND PALESTINE. Syria and Palestine — The " Holy Places" — The Holy Sepulchre — Strange people in Jerusalem — Antioch and Damascus — Ruins of Tadmor — Ruins of Baalbec — Tyre and .Sidon — Siege of Acre — .-\rabia and the Arabs — Nineveh — Hanging-gardens of Babylon — Fall of Babylon — Climate of Persia ...... 429 INDIA. Hindoo chronology — Hindoo literature — Invasion of India by Alexander the Great — British Empire in India — *' Black Hole " of Calcutta — Lord Clive — Warren Hastings — Sepoy rebellion — Massacre at Cawnpore — 10 CONTENTS. Storming of Delhi — Generals Havelock, Outram, and Sir Colin Campbell — Fall of the Mogul Empire Physical geography of India — Hindoo architecture — Great cities of India — The Ganges — Hindoo Mythology Juggernaut The Thugs — Nautch or dancing girls — The Vale of Cashmere — Immolation of widows — Cash- merian character and language 437 CHINA. Vast population of China — Great Wall of China — Invasion of China by Kubla Khan — Terrible earthquake in China War between Great Britain and China — Humorous story of the American Minister to China — Insur- rection in China — Chinese artificial lakes and hanging-gardens — Weird legends — Life in China — Chinese advertisements— Superstitions — Chinese locomotion — Dwarfing of the feet by females — Chinese government — Chinese in California 449 JAPAN . Pvcligion, manners and customs of the Japanese — United States treaty with Japan — The Tycoon and Mikado — Japanese love of Nature — Religion and mythology of the Japanese — Mechanical and artistic worlt — Physical features of the Japanese — Domestic liabits of the Japanese — Kemale fashions — Modern civilization . . 45S AUSTRALIA. Geographical position and history of Australia — Colonization of Australia — Van Diemen's Land — The YaiTa- yarra — Sydney and Melbourne — New South Wales and Tasmania — The first Australian newspaper — Dis- covery of gold at Ballarat — Australian gold-diggings — Burke and Wills cross the Australian continent — Markets in Melbourne — " Paddy's Market" — " Sold again and got the sugar" — Chinese immigrants — Re- sources of Australia — Aboriginal inhabitants 462 NEW ZEALAND, POLYNESIA, AND THE MALAYSIAN ISLAN DS. Islands of New Zealand — Lake Rothe-Mahana — The Maoris — Gradual extinction of the Maoris — Sandwich islands — Decrease in their population — Society islands — Manners of the natives of Otaheite — Fertility of Java — Valley of poison — Upas tree — Character of the Malays . , 470 ENGLAND. " O England, model to thy inward greatness, Like little body with a mighty heart." 'UCH are the seemingly boastful words with which Shakespeare apostrophizes his native land. We say "seemingly boast- ful," for if ever any race had just cause to be proud of its record it is that noble race— Kelt, Anglo-Saxon, Dane, and Norman, blended and combined — which has given its " mighty ' heart " to this little realm of England, and which, as constitut- ing the groundwork of that type of humanity now developing in our own country, is destined to carr>' America — mighty body harmonizing with mighty heart— to a point of eminence not hitherto reached by any nation. ^ ^ [ID 12 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. England is, in extent, the smallest of all the great powers of Europe; yet in reo-ard of territories and population dependent on her, as well as of manu- factures, commerce, and wealth, she is far ahead of any of them. The area of En^ 158 THE GULDEN TREASURY. armies met on the 24th of June, at Bannockburn, and the result was the com- plete and final discomfiture of the English, who never again ventured to at- tempt the conquest of Scodand. Constant wars there were between the lands, but this was greatly because the Scotch thus lent aid to France in defending itself against England, so that it passed into a proverb : " He that would France win must with Scotland first begin." Scotland has been the scene of much partisan warfare, both secular and religious. Her great wars of this class have been in conjunction with affiliat- A;^ i III! , " ,-::, ";y^.- ,- •ji HHmi ■S ill li ■ ^^:''|-:;;; '11 ,;■■■-■ ^" f\.. W:\ ^ ,^j'ii'liill .1*1 ' '' ■ ■: $L ^M^A Ji 1 W^m 1- 'mm^ ^'?A>* ""..^^XW.^N?^ 0^ ■ ^^^^^-^ '-jJm i^ffi^ %:.-■-' „/ "rw'' \-r:-">\' ■;-;■> # "8 I : ;' ■i wamm 1 ■ ■M ll li- fe' ■■ ;:■ luk.l'v. Ill v.viSH !■ .'i: ^ ,,' ;"^::^^| f ■ .i» ■ '-i/^' ■";*!. :: '['■' ---^^^' » 1 l(t^ ^^■-'^^rI - ft ■ ,'.'' .1!',': '■)x'. . ^ .r^""' V ■ ' . " -^—:=^-=L 1 , 'I'. 1 I ■ ROYAL REGALIA OF SCOTLAND. ing parties in her southern neighbor, England. Under the head of " England" we have already alluded to the most prominent of those wars, but none have furnished the literature of the world outside of Scodand with so great interest as the trial and execution of the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots. Totally defeated at the battle of Langside, she fled to England in 1568, and threw her- self upon the protection of Elizabeth, by whom she was kept a prisoner for nineteen years, and then tried by a commission on the charge of engaging in a conspiracy against that unscrupulous queen's life. Her death was heroic, and her sad fate has drawn towards her the sympathy of the world. The next great event in Scottish history is the Reformation. The grand MARY STUART RECEIVING HER DEATH-SENTENCE. 1159) 160 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. distinction between this great change in Scotland and England was, that in Scotland the Reformation originated among the people themselves ; in Eng- land it was dictated by a lustful king. The key to the movement in Scodand is to be found in the popular rhyme : " The priests o' Melrose made good kale on Fridays when they fasted, They neither wanted beef nor ale as lang's their neibor's lasted." Then followed some lines we do not print. John Knox, the reformer of Scotland, was but the type and outcome of the national mind. It has been said that no great national change of religion has been made by people on account of conviction of the error of the doctrines taught, but only by reason of the dissolute lives of the teachers. This was the case in Scodand. Had the priests and monks been temperate and chaste, Scotland might to this day have been Catholic. John Knox, by whose influence popery was extirpated in 1560, merely therefore embodied the will of the mass of the people, the way having been prepared for him by earlier reformers, as Patrick Hamilton and Wishart. One circumstance to be deplored in connection with the Scottish reformation is the destruction of the fine old abbeys, cathedrals and other re- ligious structures. It is said this was done in accordance with Knox's counsel : " Ding down the nests and the corbies will flee awa'." Glasg'ow cathedral alone was rescued through the energy of the "trades." Knox's grand characteristic was fearlessness. He braved an adverse court with Mary, the Catholic queen, at its head, as well as a stern nobility. When he was laid to rest in the church- yard of St. Giles, Edinburgh, the Earl of Morton, looking on the face of the dead, said, " there lies one who never feared the face of man." In Scodand he did a grand work by insisdng on the establishment of its then unrivalled system of parish schools. The persecution of the Presbyterians by Laud, under Charles II., only served to attach the people more firmly to their own faith, and embitter them against episcopacy. At the accession of William and Mary to the throne of Great Britain in 1688, all endeavors at spiritual compulsion ceased, and the people dwelt at peace. In 1707 the union of England and Scodand was ac- complished, after which the history of England and Scodand became identified. On the whole, this survey, brief as it is, justifies Gladstone's proud statement that " Scotland was always able to hold her own with England ; " and that she was thus able "to meet England on terms of equality " has been a blessing to both countries. I AMERICA. " Wesbvard the star of empire takes its way." O wrote Bishop Berkeley over a hundred and fift}' years ago. And gazing with prophetic eye down the vista of the future, as if the glorious destiny of the as yet unborn republic to him was as clear as the noonday, and as if witnessing its emblem in that flag which is an image of the everlasting heaven with its brio-ht stars against the blue background of the sky, and the red bands which accompany the sun in the west, he added the inspired words : " Time's noblest offspring is his last." Four hundred years have not yet passed away since Christopher Colum- bus, a sailor of Genoa, in Italy, made his first voyage to the American conti- nent. Two hundred and eighty years ago there was not a setder within the boundaries of the United States or its territories, and now it contains a popu- lation of 50,000,000, and with every day the number is increasing. It also contains one-sixth of the whole wealth of the world. " Every night," says a professor in Princeton College, " it is stronger by a regiment of fighting men and richer by $2,000,000, than the night before." Nowhere in history can a parallel of such progress be found. In the United States we have almost every variety of climate, indeed it might almost be called a world of itself Fruits of all climates grown upon its own soil can be brought to the door of almost every inhabitant. The United States consumes every year 300,000,000 bushels of wheat, and still it has 150,000,000 bushels to sell to other nations. And beneath its surface all the metals and minerals needed by man are stored away for his use. Coal, iron, gold, silver, copper, lead and oil, are to be found in abundance. 11 (161) ]fi2 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. The central portion of North America, from the Atlantic ocean to the Pa- cific, is included in the territory of the United States. Thirteen States, one by one, were founded along the Adantic coast, and twenty-five others have been founded since. Its area equals twenty-five times that of Great Britain, or fif- teen times those of such countries as France, Germany or Spain. Indeed Texas alone or California alone is larger than either. In 1882 there were more miles of railroad in the United States than in all Europe, and nearly as many as in all the world outside of the United States. The number is increasing at the rate of about 10,000 miles each year. There were three times as many miles of telegraph in the United States in 1882 as in any other country. This quantity is increasing at the rate of about 20,000 miles each year. In the United States there are nearly a quarter of a million public schools, and over six million pupils in daily attendance. In addition to schools of medicine, law, and theology, there are nearly four hundred colleges. There are more than 11,000 newspapers and periodicals. There are about 90,000 congregations belonging to the various Christian denominations, all supported by the freewill offerings of those who belong to them, and all are more gen- erally prosperous than if they depended on government aid such as is the case in other countries. When we look forward into the future, so far as we are able to judge from the present conditions of progress, we can hardly avoid being startled at the result. It was noticed long ago that the population of the United States doubled every twenty-five years. This condition has steadily continued. Now this will make the |X)pulation of the United States twenty years from now 100,000,000. About the year 1930, it ought to be 200,000,000; and it has been supposed that before the end of the next century the population may be 800,000,000 ; the number which good judges think the territory of the United States will support. But that which is even more startling than the increase in numbers is the increase in power. Every year 1,000,000 sewing machines are produced, and they can do more work than 12,000,000 women could do by hand. Thus the working power of the country as to sewing, grows far faster than even its women increase. It is the same with steam machinery in regard to men. It is true that the people of Great Britain and other civilized countries have the same advantages of machinery, but they have not the same resources for its continuous growth and development. Great Britain's coal supply will be used up in a century. We know already of 200,000 square miles of coal territory in the United States, forty times as much as in Great Britain, and twenty times as much as in all Europe together. It is thus evident that fifty years hence there will be no power on earth to be compared to the United States of America. There are no enormous armies re- AMERICA. 163 quired for self-protection, as in Russia, France, and Germany, and which ex- haust a nation's resources. We judge of what the future will be from the conditions at present at work, and from the changes which have taken place from the past to the present. It is the story of these changes, and the inci- dents connected therewith which we intend to make the subject of our special attention. Nevertheless, as it is our purpose to review the history of the whole American continent, a preliminary glance at its more northern region and at the nations of South and Central America will be requisite for the com- pleteness of our undertaking. SCENE IN CENTRAL AMERICA. About the year looo the Northmen or people of Norway and Denmark, after having settled in Iceland and Greenland, pushed their way to the coast of North America. Some of them settled in Rhode Island. These discov- erers sent back to their native country descriptions of the places discovered. Nevertheless, there is no reason to suppose that Columbus had any knowl- edge of these discoveries which had been forgotten long before his time. Even Greenland itself in the fifteenth century, was known to the Northmen only by the name of the lost Gj'eeii/and. Most persons supposed, at that time, that the earth was a flat surface, and 1G4 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. few had any correct notions of its form. Among those who believed it to be round, was Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, in Italy, and who was born in the year 1447, whose parents were poor, and who were able to give him but little education. Columbus was sent to sea at an early age, yet he, improving all his op- portunities for observation and study, became one of the most intelligent mariners of the age. Believing the earth to be round, and that the shortest route from Europe to the eastern coasts of Asia would be found by sailing in a westerly direction, he anxiously sought the means for making the ex- periment. He visited Portugal — laid his plans before the king of that country — and requested that he might be supplied with a ship and seamen to navigate it ; but he was laughed at. He applied to his native country, Genoa, where he met with a like ill success. He then went to Spain, where he arrived in great poverty, having previously exhausted the little fortune which his industry had acquired. The first notice we have of his being in Spain, is as a stranger, on foot, stopping at the gate of a convent near the seaport of Palos, and asking for some bread and water for himself, and his little son Diego, who accompanied him. While they were partaking of this humble refreshment, the priest of the convent, Juan Perez, happened to pass by, and perceiving that Columbus was a foreigner, he entered into conversation with him. He soon learned from him the object of his travels ; detained him several days as a guest ; became a believer in his scheme of a western route to Asia; and, after promising to maintain and educate his son Diego at the convent, he and some friends furnished Columbus with the means of continuing his jour- ney to Cordova, to visit Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of Spain. When Columbus arrived at Cordova, he found the king and queen so busily engaged in preparations for war against the Moorish kingdom of Grenada, that they could find no time to listen to him, and he was therefore obliged to wait until a better opportunity offered, and in the meantime he supported himself by making and selling maps and charts. P^inally, however, although most persons at Cordova regarded him as a kind of madman, or wild adventurer, yet some distinguished men became con- vinced of the justness of his theory, and, through their influence, he was en- abled to see the king, and explain to him his plans. Ferdinand was highly pleased with the idea of so important a discovery as Columbus hoped to make; but, being doubtful about the success of such a voyage as was proposed, he ordered the most learned men of the kingdom to assemble at Salamanca, to hear Columbus explain his theory, and then give their opinion of its merits. Several years, however, passed away, during which time he was kept in AMERICA. 165 suspense by the repeated promises of the king and queen, that, when the war should be ended, and they could find a little more leisure, they would give his project a more attentive consideration. PORTRAIT OF PIZARRO. Frum the .titthcnliL p irtr.iit pp-'-^crved in the Miiveiim .it Lima. At length Columbus, losincj all patience after so many delays, gave up all hope of assistance from the throne, and was on the pomt ot leavmg bpam for the purpose of laying his plans before the king of France, when Queen Igg THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Isabella resolved to engage in the enterprise, and pledged her jewels to raise the necessary funds. Columbus, who was already on his way to France, was called back to court, where all the necessary arrangements were soon made. It was agreed that he should be high admiral of all the seas, and governor of all the lands that he should discover ; and that he should have a tenth part of all the profits arising from the merchandise and productions of the coun- tries under his government. Three small vessels were fitted out in the little seaport of Palos, the largest of which, called the Santa Maria, Columbus himself commanded. The names of the other vessels were the Pinta and the Nina. On board this fleet were ninety seamen, and a number of private adven- turers — in all, 1 20 persons. On the 3d of August, 1492, Columbus sailed from Palos, a small town on the seaboard of Andalusia, northwest of Cadiz. He first directed his course to the Canary Islands, where he remained several weeks, refitting one of his vessels, and taking in wood and water and provis- ions for the voyage. On the 6th of September he departed from the Canaries, and sailed di- rectly westward into the unknown ocean, where no ship had ever before ven- tured. When the seamen lost sight of land their hearts failed them, for they seemed to have taken leave of the world ; and after they had sailed onward twenty days in the same direction, they began to be filled with dismay at the length of the voyage, and were anxious to return. So alarmed did they finally become that they threatened to throw Columbus overboard, and return without him. Still Columbus adhered to his purpose, and used every expedient to dispel the fears of the seamen, and encourage them to proceed. The favoring breeze, blowing steadily from the east, wafted the vessels rapidly forward over a tranquil sea, and Columbus found it neces- sary to keep his crews ignorant of the great distance they had gone. About the first of October several patches of herbs and weeds drifting from the west were seen, and many birds came singing around the vessels in the morning, and flew away at night. These signs of land were very cheering to the hearts of the poor mariners, and every one was eager to be the first to behold and announce the wished-for shore. But still day after day passed, and although signs of land became more and more frequent, yet the seamen be- came so impatient and clamorous, that it was with the greatest difficulty that Columbus could prevent an open mutiny. Beautifully does the German poet Schiller allude to his situation at this time: " Steer on, bold sailor — wit may mock thy soul that sees the land, And hopeless at the helm may droop the weak and weary hand ; Yet ever— ever to the West, for there the coast must lie. And dim it dawns and glimmering dawns before thy reason's eye ; Yea, trust the guiding God — and go along the floating grave. AMERICA. 167 Though hid till now — yet now behold the New World o'er the wave. With Genius, Nature ever stands in solemn union still ; And ever what the one foretells, the other shall fulfil." On the nth of October, however, the signs of land had become so certain, that all murmuring ceased. On that day a green fish, such as keeps near the land, swam by the ships ; and a branch of thorn, with berries on it, floated by ; they picked up, also, a reed, a small board, and a staff artificially carved. All were now on the lookout for land, and during the following nio-ht not an eye was closed in sleep. About ten o'clock Columbus himself saw a light which seemed to be on shore; and on the morning of the 12th the sailors saw land, and then arose " The cry That told the Indian isles were nigh To the world-seeking Genoese, When the land-wind from woods of palm, And orange-groves and fields of balm Blew o'er the Haytien seas." — Halleck. During the ceremony of taking possession, the natives looked on with wonder and awe. When at the dawn of day they beheld the ships at a dis- tance, moving about without any apparent effort, they thought they were mighty sea-monsters, which had issued from the deep during the night. The shiftincT and furlinof of the sails, which resembled huoe winsfs, filled them with astonishment. But when they saw the boats approach the shore, and a num- ber of strange beincrs, clad in elitterino- steel, or raiment of different colors, landing on the beach, they fled in affright to the woods When, however, they saw that no attempt was made to pursue or molest them, they gradually recovered from their terror and approached the Span- iards, frequently prostrating themselves with their faces to the earth, and making signs of adoration. They finally ventured to touch the Spaniards, and to examine their hands, faces and clothing. They expressed great admiration at the white complexion of the strangers, whom they believed to be children of the sun. Nor were the Spaniards much less surprised at the sight of these strange, but simple and artless people, whose color, of a dark copper or dusky brown, was so different from that of Europeans. They wore no clothing; their hair was coarse, straight and black ; they had no beards ; and their bodies, hands and faces, were painted with a variety of colors. Columbus, supposing that the land which he had discovered was a part of eastern or southern Asia, which was known by the name of India, called the inhabitants Indians. The world which Columbus discovered, and which should have received the name of Columbia, has been called America, from the name of a distin- 168 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. guished Italian navigator, Americus Vespucius, who visited the country sev- eral times before the death of Columbus, and wrote a glowing description of it. It is supposed that the first voyage of Americus was made in the year 1497, when he discovered the continent itself on the coast of Brazil, before it was seen by Columbus, and that this is the reason why it has been called America, after his name. Spanish adventurers never rested from their eager search after the treas- SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS. ures of the new continent. An aged warrior called Ponce de Leon, fitted out an expedition at his own cost. He had heard of the marvellous fountain whose waters would restore to him the years of his wasted youth. He searched in vain. The fountain would not reveal itself to the foolish old man, and he had to bear without relief the burden of his profitless years. But he found a country hitherto unseen by Europeans, which was clothed with mag AMERICA. 169 nificent forests, and seemed to bloom with perpetual flowers. He called it Florida. He attempted to found a colony in the paradise he had discovered. But the natives attacked him, slew many of his men, and drove the rest to their ships, carr>'ing with them their chief, wounded to death by the arrow of an Indian. Ten or twelve years after Columbus had discovered the mainland there was a Spanish settlement at the town of Darien, on the isthmus. Prominent among the adventurers who prosecuted, from this centre of operations, the Spaniard's eager and ruthless search for gold was Vasco Nunez de Balboa — a man cruel and unscrupulous as the others, but giving evidence of wider views and larger powers of mind than almost any of his fellows. Vasco Nunez visited one day a friendly chief from whom he received in gift a large amount of gold. The Spaniards had certain rules which guided them in the distribution of the spoils, but in the application of these rules disputes con- tinually fell out. It so happened on this occasion that a noisy altercation arose. A young Indian prince, regarding with unconcealed contempt the clamor of the greedy strangers, told them that, since they prized gold so highly, he would show them a country where they might have it in abundance. Southward, beyond the mountains, was a great sea; on the coasts of that sea there was a land of vast wealth, where the people ate and drank from vessels of gold. This was the first intimation which Europeans received of the Pa- cific ocean, and the land of Peru on the western shore of the continent. Vasco Nunez resolved to be the discoverer of that unknown sea. Among his followers w^as Francisco Pizarro, who became, a few years later, the dis- coverer and destroyer of Peru. Vasco Nunez grathered about 200 well-armed men and a number of dogs, who were potent allies in his Indian wars. He climbed with much toil the mountain-ridge which traverses the isthmus. After twenty-five days of diffi- cult journeying his Indians told him that he was almost in view of the ocean. He chose that he should look for the first time on that great sight alone. He made his men remain behind, while he, unattended, looked down upon the Sea of the South, and drank the delight of this memorable success. Upon his knees he gave thanks to God, and joined with his followers in devoutly singing the Te Dcuvi. He made his way down to the coast. Wading into the tranquil waters, he called his men to witness that he took possession for the kings of Castile of the sea and all that it contained — a large claim, as- suredly, for the Pacific covers more than one-half the surface of the globe. POPOCATEPETL. MEXICO. N 1 518 the Spanish governor of Cuba sent an officer, Ferdinand Cortez, with ten ships and 600 men to conquer the empire . I?gf of Mexico. Having- founded the colony of Vera Cruz as a S^^*W basis of operations, Cortez then broke all his ships to pieces. ^^^ This he did to insure success, for he thus shut himself and his soi- ^ diers up in the invaded land. I Montezuma was the emperor of the Mexicans. Gradually advanc- ing through his territories, the Spanish force at last reached the capital. Everywhere they were regarded as deities — children of the sun. Scrolls of cotton cloth were carried far and wide through the terror-stricken land, on (170J MEXICO. 171 which were pictured pale-faced bearded warriors, trampling- horses, ships with spreading wings, and cannons breathing out Hghtning, and dashinf to the earth tall trees far away. The emperor admitted Cortez to his capital, but at the same time sent a secret expedidon to attack Vera Cruz. The hopes of the Mexicans revived when they saw the head of a Spaniard carried through the land ; for then they knew that their foes were mortal. At this crisis Cortez resolved on a bold stroke. Seizing Montezuma, he carried him to the Spanish quarters, and forced him to acknowledge himself a vassal of Spain. Having held Mexico for six months, Cortez left it to defeat Narvaez, whom the Cuban government, jealous of his success, had sent against him with nearly a thousand men. During his absence all was uproar in the capital. Two thousand Mexican nobles had been massacred for the sake of their golden ornaments; and the Spanish quarters were surrounded by a furious crowd. The return of Cortez, with a force increased by the troops of the defeated Narvaez, was oil cast on flame. Montezuma, striving to mediate, was killed by a stone tlung by one of his angry subjects. The Spaniards were, for a time, driven from the city ; but in the valley of Otumba (1520), the Mexicans were routed, and their golden standard was taken. Soon afterwards the new emperor was made prisoner, stretched on burning coals, and gibbeted. The siege of Mexico, lasting seventy-five days, was the final blow. The fall of Peru followed soon after the conquest of Mexico, and from Peru the tide of Spanish conquest flowed southward to Chili. The river Plata was explored, Buenos Ayres was founded, and communication was opened from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Forty years after the landing of Columbus the margins of the continent bordering on the sea had been sub- dued and possessed, and some progress had been made in gaining knowledge of the interior. There had been added to the dominions of Spain vast re- gions, whose coast-line on the west stretched from Mexico southward for the distance of 6,000 miles — regions equal in length to the whole of Africa, and largely exceeding in breadth the whole of the Russian Empire. For 300 years Spain governed the rich possessions which she had so easily won. At the close of that period the population was about sixteen millions — a number very much smaller than the conquerors found on island and con- tinent. The increase of three centuries had not repaired the waste of thirty years. Of the 1 6,000,000, two were Spaniards ; the remainder were Indians, negroes, or persons of mixed descent. At length the time came in which Mexico, in concert with the other colonies of Spanish America, threw oft' the intolerable yoke of the mother country. When the Mexicans gained their independence they raised to the throne a popular young officer, whom they styled the Emperor Augustine First 172 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. They were then a people utterly priest-ridden and fanatical ; and the clergy whom they superstitiously revered were a corrupt and debased class. The reformers had avowed the opinion that the church was the origin of most of the evils which afflicted the country. The emperor, while he offered equal civil rights to all the inhabitants of Mexico, sought to gain the clergy to his cause by guaranteeing the existence of the Catholic Church. But a monarchy proved to be impossible, and in less than a year a republican uprising, headed by Santa Anna, forced the emperor to resign. A federal republic was then organized, with a constitu- tion based on that of the great republic whose terri- tories adjoined those of Mexico. For the next thirty years Santa Anna is the promi- nent figure in Mexican politics. He was a tall, thin man, with sun-browned face, black curling hair, and dark, vehement eye. He possessed no states- manship, and his general- ship never justified the confidence with which it was regarded by his coun- ■ trymen. But he was full of reckless bravery and dash, and if his leading was faulty, his personal bearing in all his numer- ous batdes was irreproach- able. His popularity ebbed and flowed with the exigencies of the time. He repelled an invasion by Spain and an invasion by France, and these triumphs raised him to the highest pinnacle of public favor. Then his power decayed, and he was forced to flee from the country. When new dangers threatened the unstable nation HIDALGO Y. COSTELLO. Father of Mexican Independence. MEXICO. 173 he was recalled from his banishment and placed in supreme command. At one period one of his legs, which had been shattered in battle, was interred with solemn funeral service and glowing patriot oratory. A little later the ill- fated limb was disinterred, and kicked about the streets of Mexico with every contumelious accompaniment. His public life was closed by a hasty flight to Havana — his second movement of that description. In 1846 war was declared between Mexico and the United States. At Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and at Buena Vista the Mexicans were totally defeated by General Taylor. General Scott, of the United States army, be- sieged Vera Cruz and captured it. He then proceeded against the capital. At length the Mexican army, under Santa Anna, were routed by Generals Shields and Pierce, and the city government sent to ask a truce. On the 7th of September the army was again in motion ; the great fortress of Chapultepec, commanding the city, was taken by storm ; Santa Anna and his officers fled ; and on the 4th the flag of the United States floated over the ancient home of the Montezumas. With the surrender of her capital the power of Mexico Avas broken. By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Upper California, with Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, was ceded to the United States. The latter agreed to pay $15,000,000, and assume debts due American citizens from the Mexican government. The other captured places were restored. On account of abuses in the government, there came a demand for reform, and the Mexicans took a large step towards the vindication of their liberties. The leader in this revolution was Benito Juarez, a Toltec Indian, one of that despised race which the Aztecs subdued centuries before the Spanish invasion. This man had imbibed the liberal and progressive ideas which now prevailed in all civilized countries ; and his personal ability and skill in the management of affairs gained for him the opportunity of conferring upon Mexico the fullest measure of political blessing which she had ever received. The Liberals were now a majority in Congress, and the gigantic work of reformation began. But Juarez and his government were afterwards driven for a time from the capital. The aims of his enemies concurred with an ambition which at that time ani- mated the resdess mind of Emperor Napoleon III. The Mexican clergy, supported by the court of Rome, gave encouragement to his idle dream. An expedition was prepared, in which England and Spain took reluctant and hesitating part, and from which they quickly withdrew. A French army entered the capital of Mexico. Juarez and his govern- ment withdrew to maintain a patriot war, in which the mass of the people zealously upheld them. An Austrian prince sat upon the throne of Mexico without support, excepting that which the clerical party of Mexico and the bayonets of France supplied. A few years earlier or later these things dared not have been done ; but when the French troops entered Mexican territory the United States waged, not yet with clear prospect of success, a struggle on 174 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. the results of which depended their own existence as a nation. They had no thouo-ht to give to the concerns of other American states, and they wisely suffered the empire of Mexico to run its sad and foolish course. But now the southern revolt was quelled, and the government at Washington, havino- at its call a million of veteran soldiers, intimated to Napoleon that the farther stay of his troops on the American continent had become impos- sible. The emperor waited no second summons. When the French were gone the patriot armies swept over the country, and this deplorable attempt to set up imperialism came to an ignominious close. The Emperor Maxi- milian fell into the hands of his enemies, and was put to death according to the terms of a decree which his own government had framed. Juarez was again elected president, and returned with his Congress to the city of Mexico. During his whole term of office he had to main- tain the Liberal cause in arms against the tenacious priest- hood and its followers. When he died, a Liberal president, named Porfirio Diaz, was chosen to succeed him. Benito Juarez was an un- mixed Toltec. Porfirio Diaz, the strongest Mexican of his times, and in many respects the General Grant of his country, is of mixed blood. Every- where the Aztec face, unmistakable in its pathetic features, goes with the best and worst types of Mexican character. It may be at first a matter of surprise that the average Mexican seems to know so litde of his own country, and to have so little local pride in its history and interesting antiquities. It is not strange to him ; he has always been there, and has never thought much about it. It is not yet a show country. When this feature changes, it will, as usual, change too much. Another strange thing is, that with an advancement in art that surprises every visitor, the country has no literature. The galleries of the capital are filled with specimens of the old and new schools, many of which would be masterpieces in any country. Yet there is not a publishing house in the re- BENITO JUAREZ, EX-PRESIDENT OF MEXICO. MEXICO. 17o public, and the three or four bookstores of the city are filled with French works, either scientific or novels. Chihuahua, to the traveller from the United States, may be regarded as the first Mexican city. It contains some 18,000 inhabitants, and is a permanent departure from the adobe style of architecture, which has always been re- garded by us as the inevitable and unavoidable building material of the Mexican. A hundred miles south of Chihuahua is Santa Rosalia, famous among Mexicans for its sanitary hot-springs. It is reported by the few foreigners who have yet visited it to be, as to the quality of its waters, probably the finesf health resort in America. The City of Mexico, with a population variously estimated at from 225,000 to 300,000, is situated upon ground that was once the bed of a lake. The lake was what is now the Valley of Mexico. CYPRESS TREES AT CH APULTEPEC. The streets are some sixty feet wide, with wide sidewalks, and the city lies closely built in regular squares. The buildings are mosdy of two, though sometimes of three or four stories. The square in front of the cathedral, called the Zocalo, is the olace of universal resort, though there are two or three others, handsome and clean, but not so well kept nor so expensively ornamented. It is the city of churches, as Mexico is unquestionably the land of churches. Their towers, always handsome, assist very much in making up the general view. Fenced by impassible barriers for some three hundred years, this old, rich, quaint and isolated empire has suddenly become the coming country of the capitalist and the tourist ; a land in which, by the invitation of its people, we have already begun an endless series of beneficent and bloodless conquests. PERU. JHE conqueror of Peru was Francisco Pizarro, a man who could neither read nor write, and whose early days were spent in herd- M" ing swine. Running away from home in early life, he became a '^ soldier, and saw much service in the New World. Between 1524 and 1528, while exploring the coast of Peru, he formed the design of conquering that golden land, being tempted by the abundance of the precious metals, which glittered everywhere, forming not merely the ornaments of the people, but the commonest utensils of everyday life. He sailed from Panama with 186 men, in February, 1531. A civil war then raging in Peru between two brothers, who were rivals for the throne, made his task an easier one than it might otherwise have been. The strife seems to have been to some extent decided when the Spaniards landed, for Atahualpa was then Inca of Peru — so they called their kings. Pizarro found the Inca holding a splendid court near the city of Caxamarca ; and the eyes of the Spanish pirates gleamed when they saw the glitter of gold and jewels in the royal camp. The visit of the Spanish leader was returned by the Inca, who came in a golden chair, encompassed by 10,000 guards. A friar, crucifix in hand, strove to convert this worshipper of the sun, telling him at the same time that the pope had given Peru to the King of Spain. The argu- ment was all lost on the Inca, who could not see how the pope was able to give away what was not his, and who, besides, scorned the idea of giving up the wor- ship of so magnificent a god as the sun. The furious priest turned with a cry forS vengeance to the Spaniards. They were' ready, for it was all a tragedy well re- hearsed beforehand. The match was laid to the levelled cannon, and a storm of shot from great guns and small burst upon the poor huddled crowd of Peru- vians, amid whose slaughter and dismay Pizarro carried off the Inca. As the price 01 freedom, Atahualpa offered to fill his cell with gold. The offer was accepted, and the treasure divided among the Spaniards ; but the unhappy Inca was strangled after all. The capture of Cuzco completed the wonderfully easy conquest of Peru. (176) THE INCA HUASCAR. PERU. 177 Pizarro founded Lima in 1535; and, six years later, was slain by con- spirators, who burst into his palace during the mid-day siesta. Of all the cities of South America, Lima has an aspect most peculiar and original, the buildings being little more than huge cages of canes plastered over with mud. The city is said to be " the paradise of women, the purga- tory of husbands, and the hell of donkeys." In the war for independence by the South American provinces Peru was the last stronghold of Spanish authority. Spain put forth her utmost effort to maintain her hold upon the mineral treasures which were almost essential to her existence. The desire for independence was less enthusiastic here than in the other provinces ; the insurrectionary movement was more fitful and more easily suppressed. When independence had triumphed everywhere besides, the Peruvian republic was struggling hopelessly for existence. The Span- iards had possessed themselves of the capital ; a reactionary impulse had spread itself among the soldiers, and numerous desertions had weakened and discouraged the patriot ranks. The cause of liberty seemed almost lost in Peru ; the old despotism which had been cast out of the other provinces seemed to regain its power over the land of the Incas, and threatened to establish itself there as a standing menace to the liberty and peace of the continent. At length on the plain of Ayacucho, 12,000 Royalists encountered the Re- publican army under Bolivar, numbering scarcely more than one-half the opposing forces. The outnumbered independents fought bravely, but the for- tune of war seemed to declare against them, and they were being driven from the field with a defeat which must soon have become a rout. At that perilous moment an English general commanding the Republican cavalry struck with his force on the flank of the victorious but disordered Spaniards. The charge could not be resisted. The Spaniards fled from the field, leaving their artillery and many prisoners, among whom was the viceroy. A final and decisive vic- tory had been gained. The war ceased ; Peru and Chili were given over b)- treaty to the friends of liberty, and the authority which Spain had so vilely abused had no loncrer a foothold on the soil of the great South American continent. Peru is believed to extract silver from her mines to the annual value of a million sterling — an amount somewhat smaller than these mines yielded down to the war of independence. Peru exports chiefly articles which can be obtained without labor or thought. The guano, heaped in millions of tons on the islands which stud her coasts, was sold to European speculators and carried away by European ships. But these vast stores seem to approach ex- haustion. Fortunately for this spendthrift government, discovery was made some years ago of large deposits of nitrate of soda, from the sale of which an important revenue is gained. 12 lyg THE GOLDEN TREASURY. For Peru, lying chiefly between lofty mountain ranges remote from the sea, railway communication is of prime importance. In the time of one of her best presidents there was devised a scheme of singular boldness ; and by the help of borrowed money, on which no interest is paid, it has been partially executed. A railway line, setting out from Lima, on the Pacific, crosses the barren plain which adjoins the coast, climbs the western range of the Andes to a height of nearly sixteen thousand feet, and traverses the table-land which lies between the great lines of mountain. When completed, it will reach some of the tribu- taries of the Amazon at points where these become navigable, thus connecting the Pacific with the Adantic where the condnent is the broadest. There are, in all, about fourteen hundred miles of railway open for traffic in Peru, three- fourths of which are government works. VENEZUELA. ,!rs^''^=>.ii j-{£ provinces which bordered on the Gulf of Mexico had a larger intercourse with Europe than their sister states, and were the first to become imbued with the liberal ideas which were now gaining prevalence among the European people. Seven of these northern provinces formed themselves into a union, which they styled the Confederation of Venezuela. They did not yet assert independence of Spain ; but they abolished the tax which had been levied from the Indians; they declared commerce to be free ; they gathered up the Spanish governor and his councillors, and, having put them on board ship, sent them decisively out of the country. Only one step remained, and it was speedily taken. Next year Venezuela declared her independence, and prepared as she best might to assert it in arms against the forces of Spain. One of the fathers of South American independence was Francis Miranda. He was a native of Caraccas, and now a man in middle life. It was this man who laid the foundations of independence, but he himself was not permitted to see the triumph of the great cause. The patriot arms had made some prog- ress, and high hopes were entertained ; but the province was smitten by an earthquake, which overthrew several towns and destroyed 20,000 lives. The priests interpreted this calamity as the judgment of heaven upon rebellion, and the credulous people accepted their teaching. The cause of independence thus supernaturally discredited, was for the time abandoned. Miranda him- self fell into the hands of his enemies, and perished in a Spanish dungeon, and his lieutenant, Don Simon Bolivar, was the destined vindicator of the liberties of the South American continent. s^ 5^ CHILI. F all the Spanish provinces of America, Chili furnishes the best example of a well-ordered, settled, and prosperous state. Its area is only one-fifth and its population one-fourth that of Mexico, but its foreign commerce is nearly one-half lari^^cr. For this commerce its situation is peculiarly favorable. Chili, a long and narrow country, lies on the Pacific, with which it communicates by upward of fifty seaports. It is, therefore, only in small measure dependent for its progress upon railways and navigable rivers. For sixteen years after throwing off the Spanish yoke. Chili was governed despotically, without a constitution. During those years constant disorders prevailed. At length the general wish of the nation was gratified. A consti- tution was promulgated, under which the franchise was bestowed on every married man of twenty-one years, and on every unmarried man of twenty-five,, who was able to read and write. With this constitution the people have been satisfied. The government has been throughout in the hands of a moderate conservative party, which has directed public affairs with firmness and wisdom, and has manifested zeal in the correction of abuses. Opposing parties have not in Chili, as in the neighboring states, wasted the country by their fierce contentions for ascendency. In the exercise of a wise but rare moderation, the views of either party have been modified by those of the other. A method of government has thus been reached which men of all shades of opinion have been able to accept, and under Avhich the prosperous development of the country has advanced with surprising rapidity. THE ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION. jUENOS AYRES, a city founded during the early years of the conquest, was the seat of one of the viceroyalties by which the Spaniards conducted the government of the continent. It stands on the right bank of the river Plate, not far from the ocean. The Plate and its tributary rivers flow through vast treeless plains, where myriads of horses and cattle roam at will among grass which attains a height equal to their own. WJien the dominion of Spain ceased, Buenos Ayres naturally assumed a preponderating influence in the new government. The provinces which had composed the old viceroyalty formed themselves into a confederation, with a 180 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. constitution modelled on that of the United States. Buenos Ayres was the only port of shipment for the inland provinces. Her commercial importance, as well as her metropolitan dignity, soon aroused jealousies which could not be allayed. Within a few years the confederation was repudiated by nearly all its members, and for some time each of the provinces governed itself inde- pendently of the others. The twenty-three years of despotism had done nothing to solve the political problems which still demanded solution at the hands of the Argentine people. The tedious and painful work had now to be resumed. The province of Buenos Ayres declared itself out of the confederation, and entered upon a separate career. The single state was wisely governed, and made rapid prog- ress in all the elements of prosperity. Especially it copied the New England common-school system. The thirteen states from which it had severed itself strove to repress or to rival its increasing greatness ; but their utmost efforts could scarcely avert decay. They declared war, in the barbarous hope of crushing their too prosperous neighbor. Buenos Ayres was strong enough to inflict defeat upon her assailants. She now, on her own terms, re-entered the confederation, of which her chief city became once more the capital. CENTRAL AMERICA. L^ j^^ yiXCE the time of the Spanish Conquest, in the sixteenth century. i^Cj^^lS' Central America has been the theatre of tribal wars, fierce relig- ^|7TT> ious animosities, dictatorial usurpations, and volcanic eruptions <^>_^,>i^ and earthquakes, carrying widespread destruction and death. d^^T'i*^ Guatemala — then Central America — originally composed all the narrow part of the continent, extending over 800 miles in length, and covering an area of 130,000 square miles. As a geographical division, what is now known as Central America would include the entire stretch of territory from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the Isthmus of Darien, which forms the nexus between the two great continents of North and South America. But the political inter-relationship has so influenced the use of the name, that it now distinguishes that area confined in the five independent republics of North America, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, San Salvador and Guatemala. The Isthmus of Panama belongs to the division of South America, as a part of New Granada, while the Peninsula of Yucatan and the Isthmus of Tehuan- tepec are incorporated with North America, as parts of Mexico. The five provinces do not greatly vary in their physical characteristics. The surface of of the country is hilly, and in most parts mountainous, and the climate warm and very moist. BAY OF RIO. BRAZIL. , . ING John, of Portugal, to whom Columbus first made offer of his ^T project of discovery, was grievously chagrined when the success ^ of the great navigator revealed the magnificence of the rejected opportunity. Till then Portugal had occupied the foremost place ^- as an explorer of unknown regions. She had already achieved the discovery of all the western coasts of Africa, and was now about to open a new route to the East by the Cape of Good Hope. Suddenly her fame was eclipsed. While she occupied herself with small and barren discoveries, Spain had found, almost without the trouble of seeking, a new world of vast extent and boundless wealth. Portugal had obtained from the Pope a grant of all lands which she should discover in the Atlantic, with the additional advantage of full pardon for the sins of all persons who should die while engaged in the work of exploration. The sovereigns of Spain were equally provident in regard to the new territory which they were now in course of acquiring. The accommodating Pope, will- ing to please both powers, divided the world between them. He stretched an imaginary line from pole to pole, one hundred leagues to the westward of the (isi) -^g2 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Cape de Verd islands : all discoveries on the eastern side of this boundary were inven to Portugal, while those on the west became the property of Spain, Portu'-^al, dissatisfied with the vast gift, proposed that another line should be drawn, stretching from east to west, and that she should be at liberty to pos- sess all lands which she might find between that line and the South Pole. Sp:iin objected to this huge deduction from her expected possessions. Ulti- mately Spain consented that the papal frontier should be removed westward to a distance of 270 leagues from the Cape de V^erd islands, and thus the dis- pute was happily terminated. Six years after this singular transaction, by which two small European states parted between them all unexplored portions of the earth, a Portuguese navi>'-ator — Pedro Alvarez Cabral — set sail from the Tagus in the prosecution of discovery in the East. He stood far out into the Adantic, to avoid the calms which habitually baffled navigation on the coast of Guinea. His reckon- ing was loosely kept, and the ocean currents bore his ships westward into res^ions which it was not his intention to seek. After forty-five days of voyag- ing he saw before him an unknown and unexpected land. In searching for the Cape of Good Hope he had reached the shores of the great South Ameri- can Continent, and he hastened to claim for the King of Portugal the territory he had found, but regarding the extent of which he had formed as yet no con- jecture. Three Spanish captains had already landed on this part of the con- tinent and asserted the right of Spain to its ownership. For many years Spain maintained languidly the right which priority of discovery had given. But l^ortugal, to whom an interest in the wealth of the New World was an object of vehement desire, took effective possession of the land. She sent out sol- • diers ; she built forts ; she subdued the savage natives ; she founded colonies; she established provincial governments. Although Spain did not formally withdraw her pretentions, she gradually desisted from attempts to enforce them ; and the enormous territory of Brazil became a recognized appendage of a petty European state whose area was scarcely larger than the one-hundredth part of that which she had .so easily acquired. For 300 years Brazil remained in colonial subordination to Portugal. Her boundaries were in utter confusion, and no man along all that vast frontier could tell the limits of Portuguese dominion. Her Indians were fierce, and bore with impatience the inroads which the strangers made upon their pos- sessions. The French seized the Bay of Rio de Janeiro. The Dutch con- quered large territories in the north. But in course ot years these difficulties were overcome. The foreigners were expelled. The natives were tamed, pardy by arms, pardy by the teaching of zealous Jesuit missionaries. Some progress was made in opening the vast interior of the country and in fixing Its boundaries. On the coast population increased and numerous setdements sprung up. The cultivation of coffee, which has since become the leading ,liM, 184 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Brazilian industry, was introduced. Some simple manufactures were estab-3 lished, and the country began to export her surplus products to Europe.} There was much misgovernment ; for the despotic tendencies of the captains- o-eneral who ruled the country were scarcely mitigated by the authority of] the distant court of Lisbon. The enmity of Spain never ceased, and frotnj time to time burst forth in wasteful and bloody frontier wars. Sometimes! the people of cities rose in insurrection against the monopolies by whiclij wicked governors wronged them. Occasionally there fell out quarrels be- tween different provinces, and no method of allaying these could be found ex- cepting war. Once the city of Rio de Janeiro was sacked by the French. Brazil had her full share of the miseries which the foolishness and the evilj temper of men have in all ages incurred. These hindered, but did not alto-J gether frustrate, the development of her enormous resources. During the eighteenth century the Brazilian people began to estimatel more justly than they had done before the elements of national greatness! which surrounded them, and to perceive how unreasonable it was that country almost as large as Europe should remain in contented dependence on one of the most inconsiderable of European states. The English colonies in North America threw off the yoke of the mother country. The air wasl full of those ideas of liberty which a year or two later bore fruit in the French! Revolution. A desire for independence spread among the Brazilians, and ex-J pressed itself by an ill-conceived rising in the province of Minas Geraesr But the movement was easily suppressed, and the Portuguese government maintained for a little longer its sway over this noblest of colonial posses sions. During the earlier years of the French Revolution, Portugal was permittee to watch in undisturbed tranquillity the wild turmoils by which the other European nations were afflicted. At length it seemed to the Emperor Napo-j leon that the possession of the Portuguese kingdom, and especially of the Porti.guese fleet, was a fitting step in his audacious progress to universal do-j minion. A French army entered Portugal ; a single sentence in the Motiiteuf informed the world that "the House of Braganza had ceased to reign."' The French troops suffered so severely on their march, that ere they reached Lis-I bon they were incapable of offensive operations. But so timid was the gov-j ernment, so thoroughly was the nation subdued by fear of Napoleon, that \\ was determined to offer no resistance. The capital of Portugal, with a popu-| lation of 300,000, and an army of 14,000, opened its gates to 1,500 raggec and famishing Frenchmen, who wished to overturn the throne and degrade the country into a French province. Before this humiliating submission was accomplished, the royal family had gathered together its most precious effects, and with a long train of followers] set sail for Brazil. The insane queen was accompanied to the place of em- BRAZIL. 1^5 barkation by the prince regent and the princes and princesses of the family, all in tears; the multitudes who thronged to look upon the departure lifted up their voices and wept. Men of heroic mould would have made themselves ready to hold the capital of the state or perish in its ruins ; but the faint- hearted people of Lisbon were satisfied to bemoan themselves. When they had gazed their last at the receding ships they hastened to receive their con- querors and supply their needs. The presence of the government hastened the industrial proo-ress of Brazil. The prince regent (who in a few years became king) began his rule by opening the Brazilian ports to the commerce of all friendly nations. Seven years later it was formally decreed that the colonial existence of Brazil should cease. She was now raised to the dignity of a kingdom, united with Portugal under the same crown. Her commerce and agriculture increased; she began to regard as her inferior the country of which she lately had been a dependency. The changed relations of the two states were displeasing to the people of Portugal. The council by which the affairs of the kingdom were conducted became unpopular. The demand for constitutional government extended from Spain into Portugal. The Portuguese desired to see their king again in Lisbon, and called loudly for his return. The king consented to the wish of his people reluctantly ; for besides other and graver reasons why he should not quit Brazil, his majesty greatly feared the discomforts of a sea-voyage. His son, the heir to his throne, became regent in Brazil. The Brazilians resented the departure of the king. The Portuguese meditated a yet deeper humiliation for the state whose recent acquisition of dignity was still an offence to them. There came an order from the Cortes that the prince regent also should return to Europe. The Brazilians were now eager that the tie which bound them to the mother country should be dissolved. The prince regent was urged to disregard the summons to re- turn. After some hesitation he rave effect to the gfeneral wish, and intimated his purpose of remaining in Brazil. A few months later he was proclaimed emperor, and the union of the two kingdoms ceased. Constitutional govern- ment was set up. But the administration of the emperor was not sufficiendy liberal to satisfy the wishes of his people. After nine years of deepening un- popularity he resigned the crown in favor of his son, Dom Pedro, whose reign extended over the long period of forty-nine years. Brazil covers almost one-half the South American Continent, and has therefore an area nearly equal to that of the eight states of Spanish origin by which she is bounded. She is as large as the British dominions in North America ; she is larger than the United States, excludingr the untrodden wastes of Alaska. One, and that not the largest, of her twenty provinces is ten times the size of England. Finally, her area is equal to five-sixths that of 186 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Europe. She has a sea-coast hue of 4,000 miles. She has a marvellous system of river communication ; the Amazon and its tributaries alone are navjo-able for 25,000 miles within Brazilian territory. Her mineral wealth is so ample that the governor of one of her provinces was wont, in religious processions, to ride a horse whose shoes were of gold ; and the diamonds of the royal family are estimated at a value of ;^3,ooo,ooo sterling. Her soil and climate conspire to bestow upon her agriculture an opulence which is unsur- passed and probably unequalled. An acre of cotton yields in Brazil four times as much as an acre in the United States. Wheat gives a return of thirty to sev- enty-fold ; maize, two hundred to four-hundred-fold; rice, a thousand-fold. Brazil supplies nearly one-half the coffee which the human family consumes. An endless variety of plants thrive in her genial soil. Sugar and tobacco, as well as cotton, coffee, and tea, are staple productions. Nothing which the tropics yield is wanting, and in many portions of the empire the vegetation of the temperate zones is abundantly productive. The energy of vegetable life is everywhere excessive. The mangrove seeds send forth shoots before they fall from the parent tree ; the drooping branches of trees strike roots when they touch the ground, and enter upon independent existence ; wood which has been split for fences hastens to put forth leaves ; grasses and other plants intertwine and form bridges on which the traveller walks in safety. But the scanty population of Brazil is wholly insufficient to subdue the enormous territory on which they have settled and make its vast capabilities conduce to the welfare of man. The highest estimate gives to Brazil a popu- lation of from eleven to twelve million. She has thus scarcely four inhabi- tants to every square mile of her surface, while England has upward of 400. Vast forests still darken iier soil, and the wild luxuriance of tropical under- growth renders them well-nigh impervious to man. There are boundless expanses of wilderness imperfectly explored, still roamed over by untamed and often hostile Indians. Persistent but not eminendy successful efforts have been made to induce European and now to induce Chinese immigration. The population continues, however, to increase at such a rate that it is larger by nearly two million than it was ten years ago. But these accessions are trivial when viewed in relation to the work which has still to be accomplished. It is said that no more than the one hundred and fiftieth part of the agricultural resources of Brazil has yet been developed or even revealed. Among the people of the cities of Brazil we find several classes. The en- terprising business class, planters, etc., is made up of native Brazilians, Portu- guese, and Europeans generally. The lower class forms a mixed multitude of Portuguese, aborigines and negroes. The children of this class go about nearly naked until ten or twelve years old. All of the lower orders have a passion for jewelry — gold, if practicable ; if not, gilt being acceptable — the main point being that it shall be big and brilliant. Negro girls, selling fruit. NIAGARA OF BRAZIL. (187 ISS THE GOLDEN TREASURY. dress in white, and carry large trays on their heads, while their necks and ears are loaded down with massive chains, charms, and rings. Nowhere can an honest, hard-working man get on so \vell with such a minimum of money or ability as in the interior and smaller towns of Brazil. The services of a useful hand, whatever be his specialty, will be paid for at once, and at the highest possible value, and will always remain in demand, and it is simply his own fault if employment does not lead on to fortune, and to what we may call rank. i Altoo-ether, if we consider the present condition of Brazil as regards its government, the nature of its population, and the character of its industries and natural products, it will be seen that there is here offered to the world a field for the exercise of human intelligence and energy quite unsurpassed, a climate and soil possessing peculiarly advantageous qualities, and a wealth of natural production almost unsurpassed. The Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro II., was born in Rio Janeiro, Decem- ber 2d, 1825. He was crowned July 18th, 1841, and since his accession to the throne Brazil has been steadily increasing in power and usefulness. The emperor possesses remarkable literary and scientific acquirements, is a just and liberal sovereign, and enjoys the warm affection of his people. He is also a member of the French Academy of Sciences. On November 14th, 1889, and the succeeding days a revolution broke out in the Empire of Brazil, which in many respects was a remarkable event. The outside world had no suspicion that a strong republican feeling existed in Brazil, or that any dissatisfaction was felt at the course of the aged Emperor, who had reigned in peace and prosperity for well nigh fifty years. The leader of the revolution was General Da Fonseca, who is now President of the Brazilian Republic. The revolution was notable for the swiftness with which it succeeded, and for the absence of riot and violence during its brief progress. It appeared that the Emperor had no partisans, even in his own capital, to strike a blow for him ; nor does the Emperor himself seem to have for a moment thought of resisting the revolutionary tide. He simply awaited the good pleasure of the successful chiefs of the republican party; and their good pleasure was that he should sail for Portugal. Set sail he did, without a word of remonstrance or even of reeret. Thus quickly and quietly passed away the only monarchy remaining on eidier American continent ; thus was the circle of American republics made at last complete by the memorable accession to them of the United States of Brazil. It is important to note that for a certain period at least monarchy as a political institution has been absolutely repudiated from the Canada line to Cape Horn, and that the republican principle has been accepted and adopted throughout the area of the self-governing American nations. 1 he revolution in Brazil was not, however, the result of an uprising against BRAZIL. tyranny, for Dom Pedro was a liberal-minded monarch. The following poem composed by him many years ago for a lady's album exhibits his keen sense of duty: If I am pious, clement, just, I am only what I ouglit to be ; The sceptre is a mighty trust, A great responsibihty ; DOM PEDRO And he who rules with faithful hand. With depth of thought and breadth of range. The sacred laws should understand. But must not at his pleasure change. The chair of justice is the throne ; Wiio takes it, bows to higher laws; 188a THE GOLDEN TREASURY. The public good, and not his own, Demands his care in every cause. Neglect of duty — always wrong — Detestable in young or old — By him whose place is high and strong Is magnified a thousand-fold. When in the East the glorious sun Spreads o'er the earth the light of day. All know the course that he will run, Nor wonder at his light or way ; But if, perchance, the light that blazed Is dimmed by shadows lying near. The startled world looks on amazed, And each one watches it with fear. I, likewise, if I always give To vice and virtue their rewards, But do my duty thus to live : No one his thanks to me accords. But should I fail to act my part, Or wrongly do, or leave undone, Surprised, the people then would start With fear, as at the shadowed sun. 1886 CANADA. cess which had crowned the efforts of Columbus awak- ened in Europe an eager desire to make fresh dis- coveries. Henry VII. of England had consented to equip Columbus for his voyage; but the consent was withheld too long, and given only when it was too late. England and France had missed the splendid prize which Columbus had won for Spain. They hastened now to secure (189) HARBOR AND CITY OF QUEBEC. 190 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. what they could. A merchant of Bristol, John Cabot, obtained permission from the king of England to make discoveries in the northern parts of America. Cabot was to bear all expenses, and the king was to receive one-fifth of the o-ains of the adventure. Taking with him his son Sebastian, John Cabot sailed straio-ht westward across the Adantic. He reached the American continent, of which he was the undoubted discoverer. The result to him was disappointing. He landed on the coast of Labrador. Being in the same latitude as England, he reasoned that he should find the same genial climate. To his astonishment he came upon a region of intolerable cold, dreary with ice and snow. John Cabot had not heard of the Gulf Stream and its marvellous influences. He did not know that the western shores of northern Europe are rescued from perpetual winter, and warmed up to the enjoyable temperature which they possess, by an enormous river of hot water flowing between banks of cold water eastward from the Gulf of Mexico. The Cabots made many \ oyages afterwards, and explored the American coast from extreme north to extreme south. The French turned their attention to the northern parts of the New World. The rich fisheries of Newfoundland attracted them. Jacques Cartier, a famous sea-captain, sailed, on a bright and warm July day, into the gulf which lies be- tween Newfoundland and the mainland. He saw a great river flowing into the gulf, with a width of estuary not less than loo miles. It was the day of St. Lawrence, and he opened a new prospect of immortality for that saint by giv- ing his name to river and to gulf. He erected a large cross, thirty feet high, on which were imprinted the insignia of France ; and thus he took formal pos- session of the country in the king's name. He sailed for many days up the river between the silent and pathless forests, past great chasms down which there rolled the waters of tributary streams, under the gloomy shadow of huge precipices, past fertile meadow-lands and sheltered islands where the wild vine flourished. The Indians in their canoes swarmed around the ships, giving the strangers welcome, receiving hospitable entertainment of bread and wine. At length they came where a vast rocky promontory, 300 feet in height, stretched far into the river. Here the chief had his home ; here, on a site worthy to bear the capital of a great state, arose Quebec ; here, in later days, England and France fought for supremacy, and it was decided by the sword that the Anglo-Saxon race was to guide the destinies of the American continent. Numerous tribes of savages inhabited the Canadian wilderness. They ordmarily lived in villages built of logs, and strongly palisaded to resist the attack of enemies. They were robust and enduring, as the climate re- quired; danng m war, friendly and docile in peace. The torture of an enemy was their highest form of enjoyment; when the victim bore his sufferings bravely the youth of the village ate his heart in order that they might become CANADA. 191 possessed of his virtues. They had orators, politicians, chiefs skilled to lead in their rude wars. Most of their weapons were of flint. They felled the great pines of their forests with stone axes, supplemented by the use of fire. Their canoes were made of the bark of birch or elm. They wore breastplates of twigs. It was their habit to occupy large houses, in some of which as many as twenty families lived together without any separation. Licentiousness was universal and excessive. Their religion was a series of grovellino- super- stitions. There was not in any Indian language a word to express the idea of God ; their heaven was one vast banqueting-hall where men feasted per- petually. The origin of the American savage awakened at one time much controversy among the learned. Had there been a plurality of creative acts ? Had Euro- peans at some remote period been driven by the contrary winds across the great sea ? If not, where did the red man arise, and by what means did he reach the continent where white men found him ? When these questions were debated, it was not known how closely Asia and America approach each other at the extreme north. A narrow strait divides the two continents, and the Asiatic savage of the far north-east crosses it easily. The red men are Asiat- ics, who, by a short voyage without terrors to them, reached the north-western coast of America, and gradually pushed their way over the continent. The great secret which Columbus revealed to Europe had been forages known to the Asiatic tribes of the extreme north. In course of years it became evident that England and France must settle by conflict their claims upon the American continent. So many conflicting grants were made by the monarchs of the respective nations that no lawyer could reconcile them. The region called Nova Scotia was claimed by both British and French, the latter calling it by the name of Acadia. The opening lines of Longfellow's beautiful poem, "Evangeline," are de- scriptive of the region of Acadia : " This is the. forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, Stand like druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic. Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms. Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest. In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas, Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pre Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched to the eastward. Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks without number. Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with labor incessant, Shut out the turbulent tides ; but at stated seasons the flood-gates Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the meadows. 192 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and cornfields • Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain ; and away to the northward Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic Looked on the happ)- valley, but ne'er from their station descended." At the beginning of the war success was mainly with the French. The Enorjish were without competent leadership. An experienced and skilled offi- cer — the Marquis de Montcalm — commanded the French, and gained impor- tant advantage over his adversaries. He took Fort William Henry, and his allies massacred the garrison. He took and destroyed two English forts on Lake Ontario. He made for himself at Ticonderoga a position which barred the English from access to the western lakes. The war had lasted for nearly three years ; and Canada not mere- ly kept her own, but, with greatly inferior resources, was able to hold her powerful enemy on the defen- sive. But now the impatient English shook off the imbecile government under which this shame had been incurred, and the strong hand of William Pitt assumed direction of the war. He found among his older officers no man to whom he could intrust the momentous task. Casting aside the routine which has brought ruin upon so many fair enterprises, he promoted to the chief command a young sol- dier of feeble health, gentle, sensi- tive, modest, in whom his unerring perception discovered the qualities he required. That young soldier was James Wolfe, who had already in subordinate command evinced courage and high military genius. To him Pitt intrusted the forces whose arms were now to fix the destiny of a con- tinent. While Wolfe lay on a sick-bed, a council of war was called, and Colonel Townshend proposed the skilfully audacious plan which was adopted by all. Above Quebec, a narrow path had been discovered winding up the precip- itous cliff, 300 feet high ; this was to be secretly ascended, and the Heights of Abraham gained, which overlook the city. Part of the British fleet, containing DEATH OF MONTCALM. CANADA. 193 that portion of the army which had occupied the northern shore, sailed past Quebec to Cap-Rouge. The rest of the troops marched up the south sliore till they arrived opposite the men-of-war. Here embarking in flat-bottom boats, they dropped down the river the same night to Wolfe's cove, and almost unopposed, division after division scaled the Heights. When morning dawned, Wolfe's whole disposable force, in number 4,828, with one small gun, was ranged in battle-array upon the Plains of Abraham. The Heights of Abraham stretch westward for three miles from the de- fences of the upper town, and form a portion of a lofty table-land which extends to a distance from the city of nine miles. They are from two to three hundred feet above the level of the river. Their river-side is well-nigh perpendicular and wholly inaccessible, save where a narrow footpath leads to the summit. It was by this path — on which two men could not walk abreast — that Wolfe intended to approach the enemy. The French had a few men guarding the upper end of the path ; but the guard was a weak one, for they apprehended no attack here. Scarcely ever before had an army advanced to battle by a track so difficult. The troops were all received on board the ships, which sailed for a few miles up stream. During the night the men re-embarked in a flotilla of boats and dropped down with the receding tide. They were instructed to be silent. No sound of oar was heard, or of voice, excepting that of Wolfe, who in a low tone repeated to his officers the touching, and in his own case prophetic, verses of Gray's " Elegy in a Country Churchyard." Quickly the landing- place was reached, and the men stepped silently on shore. One by one they climbed the narrow woodland path. As they neared the summit, the guard, in panic, fired their muskets down the cliff and fled. The ships had now dropped down the river, and the boats plied incessantly between them and the landing-place. All night long the landing proceeded. The first rays of the morning sun shone upon an army of nearly five thousand veteran British sol- diers solidly arrayed upon the Heights of Abraham, eager for battle and con- fident of victory. Wolfe marched them forward till his front was within a mile of the city, and there he waited the attack of the French. Montcalm had been wholly deceived as to the purposes of the British, and was unprepared for their unwelcome appearance on the Heights. He had always shunned battle ; for the larger portion of his troops were Canadian militia, on whom little reliance could be placed. He held them, therefore, within his intrenchments, and trusted that the approaching winter would drive away his assailants and save Canada. Even now he might have sheltered himself behind his defences, and delayed the impending catastrophe. But his store of provisions and of ammunition approached exhaustion, and as the Eng- lish ships rode unopposed in the river, he had no ray of hope from without. Montcalm elected that the great controversy should be decided by batde. 13 194 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. He marched out to the attack with 7,500 men, of whom less than one- half were regular soldiers, besides a swarm of Indians, almost worthless for fio-htinfj such as this. The ?>ench advanced firing, and inflicted considerable loss upon their enemy. The British stood immovable, unless when they silendy closed the ghastly openings which the bullets of the French created. At length the hostile lines fronted each other at a distance of forty yards, and Wolfe gave the command to fire. From the levelled muskets of the British lines there burst a well-aimed and deadly volley. That fatal discharge gained the batde, gained the city of Quebec, gained dominion of a continent. The Canadian militia broke and fled. Montcalm's heroic presence held for a mo- ment the soldiers to their duty ; but the British, flushed with victory, swept forward on the broken and fainting enemy. Montcalm fell, pierced by a mortal wound ; the French army in hopeless rout sought shelter within the ramparts of Quebec. Both generals fell. Wolfe was thrice struck by bullets, and died upon the field, with his latest breath oivincr God thanks for this crownino- success. Montcalm died on the following day, pleased that his eyes were not to wit- ness the surrender of Quebec. The battle lasted only for a few minutes ; and having in view the vast issues which depended on it, the loss was inconsider- able. Only 'fifty-five British were killed and 600 wounded; the loss of the French was twofold that of their enemies. From this time Canada remained in the hands of the English. When the American colonists revolted they desired the Canadians to act with them, and assist them in their efforts against the British government. This the Cana- dians declined to do, and the Americans invaded their territory, but were, however, repulsed. During the course of the peaceful years which followed, Canada increased steadily. In 181 2, Canada was again involved in war, and subjected to the miseries of invasion. Many Americans clung to the belief that the Canadians were dissatisfied with their government, and would be found ready to avail themselves of an opportunity to adopt republican institutions. But no trace of any such dis- position manifested itself The colonists were tenaciously loyal, and were no more moved by the blandishments than they were by the arms of their re- publican invaders. Soon after the declaradon of war an American army of 2,500 men set out to conquer western Canada. The commander of this force was General Hull, who announced to the Canadians that he had come to bring- them "peace, liberty, and security," and was able to overbear with ease any re- sistance which it was in their power to offer. But victory did not attach her- self to the standards of General Hull. The English commander, General Brock, was able to hold the Americans in check, and to furnish General Hull CANADA. 195 with reasons for withdrawing his troops from Canada and taking up position at Detroit. Thitlier he was quickly followed by the daring Englishman, lead- ing a force of 700 soldiers and militia and 600 Indians. He was proceeding to attack General Hull, but that irresolute warrior averted the dano-er by an ignominious capitulation. A litde later a second invasion was attempted, the aim of which was to possess Oueenstown. It was equally unsuccessful, and reached a similar ter- mination — the surrender of the invading force. Still further, an attempt to seize Montreal resulted in failure. Thus closed the first campaign of this lam- entable war. Everywhere the American invaders had been foiled by gready inferior forces of militia, supported by a handful of regular troops. The war had been always distasteful to a large portion of the American people. On the day when the tidings of its declaration were received in Boston, flags- were hung out half-mast high in token of general mourning. The New England States refused to contribute troops to fight in a cause which they condemned. The shameful defeats which had been sustained in Canada en- couraged the friends of peace, and the policy of invasion was loudly de- nounced as unwise and unjust. The close of the war was equally disastrous to the invaders. Since then peace has reigned in Canada ; and it is with pleasure we note the friendly feel- ing that is constantly growing between the great Republic and the great Dominion. There still remain in the various provinces of the Dominion about 90,000 Indians to represent the races who possessed the continent when the white man found it. Canada has dealt in perfect fairness with her Indians ; and the Indians have requited with constant loyalty the government which has treated them with justice. A rebellion was indeed raised by the French half-breed population, upon the Dominion of Canada desiring to add to its possessions the vast domain of the Hudson Bay Company. Their leader in the rebellion by which they hoped to throw off the au- thority of Canada and Great Britain, and establish themselves as an inde- pendent nation, was Louis Riel, an ambitious but reckless young French Ca- nadian. Riel became president of the new republic, and gathered an armed force of 600 men to uphold the national dignity. He turned back at the frontier the newly appointed governor ; he seized Fort Garry, in which were ample stores of arms and provisions ; he imprisoned all who offered active opposition to his rule. The distant Canadian government looked on at first as amused with this diminutive rebellion. They did not think of employing force to restore order ; they sought the desired end by persuasion. A party of loyal inhabitants made a hasty and ill-prepared rising against: the authority of the provisional government. They were easily beaten back by the superior forces under Riel's command, and some of them were taken 19G THE GOLDEN TREASURY. prisoners. Among these was a Canadian named Scott, who had distinguished himself by his obstinate hostihty to the rule of the usurpers. Riel deter- mined to overawe his enemies and compel the adherence of his friends by an act of most conspicuous and unpardonable severity. Poor Scott was subjected to the trial of a mock tri- bunal, whose judgment sent him to death. An hour later he was led forth be- yond the gate of the fort. Kneeling, with bandaged eyes, among the snow, he was shot by a firing-party of intoxicated half-breeds almost before he had time to realize the cruel fate which had befallen him. This shameful murder in- vested the Red River rebel- lion with a gravity of aspect which it had not hitherto worn. There then arose in Canada a vehement demand that the criminals should be punished and the royal authority restored. The despatch of a military force sufficiently strong to overbear the resistance of the insurgent Frenchmen was at once resolved upon. Happily there was at that time in Canada an officer endowed with rare power in the department of military organization. To this officep, now well known as Sir Garnet Wolseley, was intrusted the task of preparing and com- manding the expedition. No laurels were gained by the forces which Colonel Wolseley led out into the wilderness ; for the enemy did not abide their com- ing, and their modest achievements were unnoticed amid the absorbing in- terest with which men watched the tremendous occurrences of the war then raging between Germany and France. Nevertheless, the Red River expedi- tion claims an eminent place in the record of military transactions. It is probably the solitary example of an army advancing by a lengthened and almost impracticable route, accomplishing its task, and returning home with- out the loss of a single life either in battle or by disease. And the wise fore- thought which provided so effectively for all the exigencies of that unknown journey is more admirable than the generalship which has sufficed to gain bloody victories in many recent wars. THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. CANADA. 197 Under the constitution of Canada executive power is vested in the qiieen and administered by her representative, the governor general. This officer is aided and advised by a Privy Council, composed of the heads of the various great departments of state. The Senate is composed of seventy- eight members appointed by the Crown, and holding office for life. The House of Commons consists of 206 members. These are chosen by the votes of citizens possessing a property qualification, the amount of which varies in the different provinces. Canada gives the franchise to those per- sons in towns who pay a yearly rent of six pounds, and to those not in towns who pay four pounds ; New Brunswick demands the possession of real estate valued at twenty pounds, or an annual income of eighty pounds; and Nova Scotia is almost identical in her requirements. The duration of Parliament is limited to five years, and its members receive payment. The Parliament of the Dominion regulates the interests which are common to all the prov- inces ; each province has a lieutenant-governor and a legislature for the guidance of its own local affairs. Entire freedom of trade exists between the provinces which compose the Canadian nation. Canada is, in respect of extent, the noblest colonial possession over which any nation has ever exercised dominion. It covers an area of 3,330,000 square miles. Europe is larger by only half a million square miles; the United States is smaller to nearly the same extent. The distances with which men have to deal in Canada are enormous. From Ottawa to Winni- peg is 1,400 miles — a journey equal to that which separates Paris from Con- stantinople. The adventurous traveller, who would push his way from Win- nipeg to the extreme north-west, has a farther distance of 2,000 miles to trav- erse. The representatives of Vancouver island must travel 2,500 miles in order to reach the seat of government. The journey from London to the Ural mountains is not greater in distance, and is not by any means so diffi- cult. From Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, to New Westminster, the capital of British Columbia, there is a distance of 4,000 miles. The occupation of about one-half of the Canadian people is agriculture. In the old provinces there are nearly 500,000 persons who occupy agricul- tural lands. Of these, nine-tenths own the soil which they till ; only one- tenth pay rent for their lands, and they do so for the most part only until they have gained enough to become purchasers. The agricultural laborer — a class so numerous and so little to be envied in England — is almost unknown in Canada. No more than 2,000 persons occupy this position, which is to them merely a step in the progress toward speedy ownership. Land is easily acquired; for the government, recognizing that the grand need of Canada is population, offers land to every man who will occupy and cultivate, or sells ar prices which are little more than nominal. The old provinces are filling up steadily if not with rapidity. During the ten years from 1851 to 1861 the 198 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. land under cultivation had become greater by about one-half. During the following decade tiie increase was in the same proportion. Schools of agri- culture and model farms have been established by government, and the rude methods by which cultivation was formerly carried on have experienced vast ameliorations. Agriculture has become less wasteful and more productive. Much attention is given to the products of the dairy. Much care has been successfully bestowed upon the improvement of horses and cattle. The manufacture and use of agricultural implements has largely increased. The short Canadian summer lays upon the farmer the pressing necessity of swift SCENE ON THE EASTERN COAST OF CANADA. harvesting, and renders the help of machinery specially valuable. In the St. Lawrence valley the growing of fruit is assiduously prosecuted ; and the ap- ples, pears, plums, peaches, and grapes of that region enjoy high reputation. Success almost invariably rewards the industrious Canadian farmer. The rich fields, the well-fed cattle, the comfortable farm-houses, all tell of pros- perity and contentment. The fisheries of the Dominion form one of its valuable industries. The eastern coasts are resorted to by myriads of fishes, most prominent among which is the cod-fish, whose preference for low temperatures restrains its farther progress southward. Sixty thousand men and 25,000 boats find profit- able occupation in reaping this abundant harvest. A minister of fisheries tvatches over this great industry. Seven national institutions devote them- CANADA. 199 selves to the culture of fish, especially of the salmon, and prosecute experi- ments in regard to the introduction of new varieties. Besides the oudays incurred in carrying on the ordinary business of gov- ernment, large sums, raised by loan, are annually expended on public works. Navigation on the great rivers of Canada is interrupted by numerous rapids and falls. Unless these obstructions be overcome, the magnificent water-way with which Canada is endowed will be of imperfect usefulness. At many points on the rivers and lakes canals have been constructed. The formidable impediment which the great Fall of Niagara offers to navigation is sur-. mounted by the Welland canal, twenty-seven miles in length, and on which, with its branches, two and a half million sterling have been expended. Much care is bestowed, too, upon the deepening of rivers, and the removal of rocks and other obstructions to navigation. The vast distances of Canada render railways indispensable to her development. The Canadian government and people have duly appreciated this necessity. They have already constructed 7,000 miles of railway, and are proceeding rapidly with farther extension. Between the Rocky mountains and the Pacific there lies a vast tract of fertile land, possessing an area equal to six times that of England and Wales. This is British Columbia — the latest-born member of the confedera- tion, which it entered only in 1871. The waters of the Pacific exert upon its climate the same softening influence which is carried by the Gulf Stream to corresponding latitudes in Europe, and the average temp&rature of Columbia does not differ materially from that of England. Gold is found in the sands of the rivers which flow down from the Rocky mountains ; coal in abundance lies near the surface ; large tracts are covered with pine-forests whose trees attain unusual size; many islands stud the placid waters which wash the western shores of the province ; many navigable inlets sweep far into the in- terior — deep into forests, for the transport of whose timber they provide ample convenience. In the streams and on the coasts there is an extraor- dinary abundance of fish ; on the banks of the Eraser river the English miner and the Indian fisherman may be seen side by side pursuing their avo- cations with success. The wealth of Columbia secures for her a prosperous future ; but as yet her development has only begun. Her population is about 12,000, besides 30,000 Indians. Her great pine-forests have yet scarcely heard the sound of the axe ; her rich valleys lie untilled ; her coal and iron wait the comincr of the strong arms which are to draw forth their treasures; even her tempting gold-fields are cultivated but slighdy. Columbia must be- come the home of a numerous and thriving populadon, but in the meantime her progress is delayed by her remoteness and her inaccessibility. I THE CAPITOL. AT ^A^ASHINGTON. THE UNITED STATES. " Lord of the Universe! shield us and guide us, Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun : Thou hast united us, who shall divide us ? Keep us, O keep us, the Many in One ! Up with our banner bright, Sprinkled with starry light. Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore ; While through the sounding sky, Loud rings the nation's cry, — Union and Liberty ! — one evermore ! " — 0. IV. Holmes. ^) IGHTY years had passed since the discoveries by the Cabots before EngHshmen made any serious effort to estabUsh homes in North America. Under a patent from Queen EHzabeth in 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh sent 108 colonists to occupy Virginia, which had been so named by Elizabeth in honor of her own state as a maiden queen. This attempted setdement ended in total failure, a result brought about by the hardships of the wilderness and massacre by Indians. (200) THE UNITED STATES. 201 Another attempt at colonization was made, and in course of time a perma- nent settlement was formed. The most enterprising and useful man among the settlers was Captain John Smith. He was a man of great strength — bold, active, judicious, and enterprising ; and by his exertions alone the colony was often saved from fam- ine, and prevented from being destroyed by the Indians. When the welfare of the colony was in some measure secured, Smith set forth with a few companions to explore the interior of the country. He and his followers were captured by the Indians, and the followers were summarily butchered. Smith's composure did not fail him in the worst extremity. He produced his pocket-compass, and interested the savages by explaining its properties. He wrote a letter in their sight — to their infinite wonder. They spared him, and made a show of him in all the settlements round about. He was to them an unfathomable mystery. He was plainly superhuman. Whether his power would bring to them good or evil, they were not able to determine. After much hesitation they chose the course which prudence seemed to counsel. They resolved to extinguish powers so formidable, regarding whose use they could obtain no guarantee. Smith was bound and stretched upon the earth, his head resting upon a great stone. The mighty club was uplifted to dash out his brains. But Smith was a man who won golden opinions of all. The Indian chief had a daughter, Pocahontas, a child of ten or twelve years. She could not bear to see the pleasing Englishman destroyed. As Smith lay wait- ing the fatal stroke, she caught him in her arms and interposed herself be- tween him and the club. Her intercession prevailed, and Smith was set free. From lands originally belonging to Virginia a new colony had been formed, with a more liberal constitution both as to civil and religious rights. George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, obtained from Charles I., in 1629, a grant of lands north of the Potomac, where all persons, but especially Catholics, might enjoy freedom of worship. The country was called Maryland in honor of the queen, Henrietta Maria. Great religious differences now existed in England. Many hundreds of Puritans, finding that there was no toleration for their views in England, sep- arated themselves from the church, and as many as were able sought an asy- lum in Holland. Eleven quiet and not unprosperous years were spent in Holland. The pilgrims worked with patient industry at their various handicrafts. They quickly gained the reputation of doing honestly and effectively whatever they professed to do, and thus they found abundant employment. Mr. Brewster established a printing-press, and printed books about liberty, which, as he had the satisfaction of knowing, gready enraged the foolish King James. The little colony received additions from time to time as oppression in England be- came more intolerable. 202 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. The instinct of separation was strong within the pilgrim heart. They could not bear the thought that their little colony was to mingle with the Dutchmen and lose its independent existence. But already their sons and daughters were formino- alliances which threatened this result. The fathers considered long and anxiously how the danger was to be averted. They determined ao-ain to go on pilgrimage. They would seek a home beyond the Atlantic, where they could dwell apart and found a state in which they should be free to think. The Mayflower, in which the pilgrims made their voyage, was a ship of i6o PLYMOUTH ROCK. tons. The weather proved stormy and cold ; the voyage unexpectedly long. It was early in September when they sailed; it was not till the nth of No- vember that the Mayflower dropped her anchor in the waters of Cape Cod bay. It was a bleak-looking and discouraging coast which lay before them. Nothing met the eye but low sand-hills, covered with ill-grown wood down to the margin of the sea. The pilgrims had now to choose a place for their setdement. About this they hesitated so long that the captain threatened to put them all on shore and leave them. Litde expeditions were sent to explore. At first no suitable locality could be found. The men had great hardships to THE UNIIEIJ STATES. 203 endure. The cold was so excessive that the spray froze upon their clothes, and they resembled men cased in armor. At length a spot was fixed upon. The soil appeared to be good, and abounded in " delicate springs " of water. On the 23d of December, the pilgrims landed, stepping ashore upon a huge bowlder of granite which is still reverendy preserved by their descendants. Here they resolved to found their settlement, which they agreed to call New Plymouth. Twenty-three years after the landing of the pilgrims the population of New AN INDIAN ATTACK. England had grown to 24,000. Forty-nine litde wooden towns, with their .wooden churches, wooden forts, and wooden ramparts, were dotted here and there over the land. There were four separate colonies, which hitherto had maintained separate governments. They were Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven. There appeared at first a disposition in the pilgrim mind to scatter widely, and remain apart in small self-governing com- munities. For some years every litde band which pushed deeper into the wilderness setded itself into an independent state, having no political relations with its neiehbors. But this isolation could not continue. The wilderness 204 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. had other inhabitants, whose presence was a standing menace. Within " strik- ing- distance " there were Indians enough to trample out the soHtary Htde EncrUsh communities. On their frontiers were Frenchmen and Dutchmen — natural enemies, as all men in that time were, to each other. For mutual de- fence and encouragement, the four colonies joined themselves into the United Colonies of New England. This was the first confederation in a land where confederations of unprecedented magnitude were hereafter to be established. During the first forty years of its existence the great city which we call New York was a Dutch settlement, known among men as New Amsterdam. That region had been discovered for the Dutch East India Company by Henry Hudson, who was still in search, as Columbus had been, of a shorter route to the East. The Dutch have never displayed any aptitude for colonizing ; but they were unsurpassed in mercantile discernment, and they set up trading-sta- tions with much judgment. Three or four years after the pili;rims landed at Plymouth the Dutch West India Company determined to enter into trading relations with the Indians along the line of the Hudson river. They sent out a few families, who planted themselves at the southern extremity of Manhattan island. The whole country in their possession they called New Netherlands. The Dutch retained possession of New Netherlands until the year 1664, a period of about fifty years, when an English fleet arrived and demanded the surrender of the country. The Dutch governor at that time was Peter Stuy- vesant. He did all in his power to induce his people to take up arms and re- sist the English, and it was not until two days after the magistrates of New Amsterdam had agreed to the surrender that he reluctantly yielded it. Dur- ing the next year a Dutch fleet arrived and reconquered the country ; but in the succeeding year it was restored to the English, who held it until the American Revolution. The name of William Penn will ever be associated with all that is interest- ing in the early history of Pennsylvania. This man was the only son of Ad- miral Penn, who long served his country with ability and honorable reputa- tion as an officer in the English navy. At an early age the son was sent to the University of Oxford, but becoming imbued with the principles of a re- ligious sect called Quakers, or Friends, he was fined for boldly avowing their sentiments, and afterwards expelled from the university, at the age of sixteen. As the English government was indebted to his father, he applied for and obtained a grant of territory in America, in payment of the debt. In honor of Penn's father, the territory thus granted was named Pennsylvania. In the year 1681, Penn sent out several ships with emigrants, mostly Quakers, and he gave instructions to his agent that he should govern the litde colony in harmony with law and religion — that he should gain the good will of the na- tives — and that if a city should be commenced as the capital of the province, it should not be like the crowded towns of the old world, but should be laid THE UNITED STATES. 205 out with a garden around each house, so as to form "a green countrj-- town." Penn dealt justly and kindly with the Indians, and they requited him with a reverential love such as they evinced to no other Englishman. The neicrh- boring colonies waged bloody wars with the Indians who lived around them now inflicting defeats which were almost exterminating — now sustaining hide- ous massacres. Penn's Indians were his children and most loyal subjects. PENN'S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS. No drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by Indian hand in the Pennsylvania territory. Soon after Penn's arrival he invited the chief men of the Indian tribes to a conference. The meeting took place beneath a huge elm tree. The pathless forest has long given way to the houses and streets of Philadel- phia, but a marble monument points out to strangers the scene of this mem- orable interview. Penn, with a few companions, unarmed, and dressed ac- cording to the simple fashion of their sect, met the crowd of formidable 206 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. savao-es. They met, he assured them, as brothers "on the broad pathway of o-ood faith and good will." No advantage was to be taken on either side. All was to be " openness and love ; " and Penn meant what he said. Strong in the power of truth and kindness, he bent the fierce savages of the Dela- ware to his will. They vowed " to live in love with William Penn and his children as long as the moon and the sun shall endure." They kept their vow. Long years after, they were known to recount to strangers, with deep emotion, the words which Penn had spoken to them under the old elm tree of Shakamaxon. The fame of Penn's settlement went abroad in all lands. Men wearied with the vulgar tyranny of kings heard gladly that the reign of freedom and tranquillity was established on the banks of the Delaware. An asylum was opened " for the good and oppressed of every nation." Of these there was no lack. Pennsylvania had nothing to attract such "dissolute persons" as had laid the foundations of Virginia. But grave and God-fearing men from all the Protestant countries sought a home where they might live as con- science taught them. The new colony grew apace. Its natural advantages were tempting. Penn reported it as " a good land, with plentiful springs, the air clear and fresh, and an innumerable quantity of wild-fowl and fish — what Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be well contented with." During the first year twenty-two vessels arrived, bringing 2,000 persons. In three years Philadelphia was a town of 600 houses. It was half a century from its foun- dation before New York attained equal dimensions. When Penn, after a few years, revisited England, he was able truly to re- late that " things went on sweedy with friends in Pennsylvania ; that they in- creased finely in outward things and in wisdom." The thirteen States which composed the original Union were Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Delaware, Mary- land, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Of these the latest born was Georgia. Only fifty years had passed since Penn established the Quaker State on the banks of the Delaware. But changes greater than centuries have sometimes wrought had taken place. The Revolution had vindicated the liberties of the British people. The tyrant house of Stuart had been cast out, and with its fall the era of despotic government had closed. The real governing power was no longer the king, but the Parliament. Among the members of Parliament during the rule of Sir Robert Wal- pole was one almost unknown to us now, but deserving of honor beyond most men of his time. His name was James Oglethorpe. He was a soldier, and had fought against the Turks and in the grreat Marlboroueh wars against Louis XIV. In advanced life he became the friend of Samuel Johnson. Dr. THE UNITED STATES. 207 Johnson urged him to write some account of his adventures. "I know no one," he said, "whose life would be more interesting: if I were furnished with materials I should be very glad to write it." Edmund Burke considered him " a more extraordinary person than any he had ever read of." John Wesley " blessed God that ever he was born." Oglethorpe attained the great age of ninety-six, and died in the year 1785. The year before his death he attended the sale of Dr. Johnson's books, and was there met by Samuel Rogers, the poet. " Even then," says Rogers, " he was the finest figure of a man you ever saw ; but very, very old — the flesh of his face like parchment." This kind-hearted man, observing that there were great numbers of poor people in England, who could with difficulty obtain a living there and were often imprisoned for debts which they could not pay, conceived the project of improving their condition by transporting them to America, and giving them the lands on which they should settle. Without difficulty Oglethorpe found associates to unite with him in his benevolent enterprise, and in the year 1732 the King of England gave them a grant of the country between the rivers Altamaha and Savannah, which they were to hold, not for their own benefit, but, as was expressed in the charter, " in trust for the poor." In November of the same year Oglethorpe sailed with 1 20 emigrants, mainly selected from the prisons — penniless, but of good repute. He sur- veyed the coast of Georgia, and chose a site for the capital of his new State. He pitched his tent where Savannah now stands, and at once proceeded to mark out the lines of streets and squares. \* Next year the colony was joined by about a hundred German Protestants, who were then under persecution for their beliefs. The colonists received this addition to their numbers with joy. A place of residence had been chosen for them which the devout and thankful strangers named Ebenezer. They were charmed with their new abode. The rivers and the hills, they said, reminded them of home. They applied themselves with steady industry to the cultivation of indigo and silk ; and they prospered. The fame of Oglethorpe's enterprise spread over Europe. All struggling men, against whom the battle of life went hard, looked to Georgia as a land of promise. They were the men who most urgently required to emigrate; but they were not always the men best fitted to conquer the difficulties of the immigrant's life. The progress of the colony was slow. The poor persons of whom it was originally composed were honest but ineffective, and could not in Georgia more than in England find out the way to become self-support- ing. Encouragements were given which drew from Germany, from Switzer- land, and from the Highlands of Scodand, men of firmer texture of mind — better fitted to subdue the wilderness and bring forth its treasures. 208 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. Up to the year 1764 the Americans cherished a deep reverence and affec- tion for the mother country. They were proud of her great place among the nations. They gloried in the splendor of her military achievements ; they copied her manners and her fashions. She was in all things their model. They always spoke of England as " home." To be an Old England man was to be a person of rank and importance among them. They yielded a loving obedience to her laws. They were governed, as Benjamin Franklin stated it, at the expense of a little pen and ink. When money was asked from their assemblies, it was given without grudge. "They were led by a thread" — such was their love for the land which gave them birth. Ten or twelve years came and went. A marvellous change has passed upon the temper of the American people. They have bound themselves by great oaths to use no article of English manufacture — to engage in no trans- action which can put a shilling into any English pocket. They have formed "the inconvenient habit of carting" — that is, of tarring and feathering and dragging through the streets such persons as avow friendship for the English government. They burn the acts of the English Parliament by the hands of the common hangman. They slay the king's soldiers. They refuse every amicable proposal. They cast from them forever the king's authority. They hand down a dislike to the English name, of which some traces lingered among them for generations. By what unhallowed magic has this change been wrought so swiftly? By what process, in so few years, have 3,000,000 people been taught to abhor the country they so loved? The ignorance and folly of the English government wrought this evil. For many years England had governed her American colonies harshly, and in a spirit of undisguised selfishness. America was ruled, not for her own good, but for the good of English commerce. She was not allowed to export her products except to England. No foreign ship might enter her ports. Woollen goods were not allowed to be sent from one colony to an- other. At one time the manufacture of hats was forbidden. In a liberal mood Parliament removed that prohibition, but decreed that no maker of hats should employ any negro workman, or any larger number of apprentices than two. Iron-works were forbidden. Up to the latest hour of English rule the Bible was not allowed to be printed in America. In 1765, the famous " Stamp Act" was made a law. All legal documents were to bear a government stamp, costing from three-pence to thirty dollars, according to the importance of the transaction. Every newspaper and pamphlet must be stamped, and every advertisement must pay a tax. The Americans remonstrated. THE UNITED STATES. 209 Benjamin Franklin told the House of Commons that America would never submit to the Stamp Act, and that no power on earth could enforce it. The Americans made it impossible for government to mistake their sentiments. Riots, which swelled from day to day into dimensions more " enormous and alarming," burst forth in the New England States. Everywhere the stamp distributors were compelled to resign their offices. One unfortunate man was led forth to Boston Common, and made to sign his resignation in presence of a vast crowd. Another, in desperate health, was visited in his sick-room and obliged to pledge that if he lived he would resign. A universal resolu- tion was come to that no English goods would be imported till the Stamp Act was repealed. The colonists would " eat nothing, drink nothinor, wear nothing that comes from England " while this great injustice endured. The act was to come into force on the ist of November. That day the bells runo- out funereal peals, and the colonists wore the aspect of men on whom some heavy calamity had fallen. But the act never came into force. Not one of Lord Grenville's stamps was ever bought or sold in America. Some of the stamped paper was burnt by the mob ; the rest was hidden away to save it from the same fate. Without stamps, marriages were null ; mercantile trans- actions ceased to be binding ; suits at law were impossible. Nevertheless, the business of human life went on. Men married ; they bought, they sold ; they went to law — illegally, because without stamps. But no harm came of it. England heard with amazement that America refused to obey the law. There were some who demanded that the Stamp Act should be enforced by the sword. But it greatly moved the English merchants that America should cease to import their goods. William Pitt — not yet Earl of Chatham — de- nounced the act, and said he was glad America had resisted. Pitt and the merchants triumphed, and the act was repealed. The repeal of the Stamp Act delayed only for a little the fast-coming crisis. A new ministry was formed, with the Earl of Chatham at its head. But soon the great earl lay sick and helpless, and the burden of government rested on incapable shoulders. Charles Townshend, a clever, captivating, but most indiscreet man, became the virtual prime minister. The feeling in the public mind had now become more unfavorable to America. Townshend proposed to levy a variety of taxes from the Americans. The most famous of his taxes was one of three-pence per pound on tea. All his proposals be- came law. Several ships were freighted with tea, and sent out to America. Cheaper tea was never seen in America ; but it bore upon it the abhorred tax which asserted British control over the property of Americans. Will the Americans, long bereaved of the accustomed beverage, yield to the tempta- tion, and barter their honor for cheap tea ? The East India Company never doubted it ; but the company knew nothing of the temper of the American people. The ships arrived at New York and Philadelphia. These cities 14 210 TIIK (;()L1)KN TREASURY. Stood firm. The ships were promptly sent home — their hatches unopened — and duly bore their rejected cargoes back to the Thames. When the ships destined for Boston showed their tall masts in the bay, the citizens ran together to hold council. It was Sabbath, and the men of Boston were strict. But here was an exigency, in presence of which all or- dinary rules are suspended. The crisis has come at length. If that tea is landed it will be sold, it will be used, and American liberty will become a by- word upon the earth, Samuel Adams was the true king in Boston at that time. He was a man in middle life, of cultivated mind and stainless reputation — a powerful speaker and writer — a man in whose sagacity and moderation all men trusted. He resembled the old Puritans in his stern love of liberty, his reverence for the Sabbath, his sincere, if somewhat formal, observance of all religious ordi- nances. He was among the first to see that there was no resting-place in this struCTcrJe short of independence. "We are free," he said, "and want no king." The men of Boston felt the power of his resolute spirit, and man- fully followed where Samuel Adams led. It was hoped that the agents of the East India Company would have con- sented to send the ships home ; but the agents refused. Several days of ex- citement and ineffectual negotiation ensued. People flocked in from the neighboring towns. The time was spent mainly in public meetings ; the city resounded with impassioned discourse. But meanwhile the ships lay peace- fully at their moorings, and the tide of patriot talk seemed to flow in vain. Other measures were visibly necessary. One day a meeting was held, and the excited people continued in hot debate till the shades of evening fell. No progress was made. At length Samuel Adams stood up in the dimly lighted church, and announced, "This meeting can do nothing more to save the coun- try." With a stern shout the meeting broke up. Fifty men disguised as In- dians hurried down to the wharf, each man with a hatchet in his hand. The crowd followed. The ships were boarded ; the chests of tea were brought on deck, broken open and flung into the bay. The approving citizens looked on in silence. It was felt by all that the step was grave and eventful in the high- est degree. So still was the crowd that no sound was heard but the stroke of the hatchet and the splash of the shattered chests as they fell into the sea. All questions about the disposal of those cargoes of tea, at all events, are now ij| solved. This is what America has done ; it is for England to make the next move." Lord North was now at the head of the British o-overnment. It was his lord- ship's belief that the troubles in America sprung from a small number of am- bitious persons, and could easily, by proper firmness, be suppressed. " The Americans will be lions while we are lambs," said General Gage. The king believed this, and Lord North believed it. In this deep ignorance he pro- THE UNIIEn STATES. 211 ceeded to deal with the great emergency. He closed Boston as a port for the landing and shipping of goods. He imposed a fine to indemnify the East India Company for their lost teas. He withdrew the charter of Massachu- setts. He authorized the governor to send political offenders to England for trial. Great voices were raised against these severities. Lord Chatham, old in constitution now, if not in years, and near the close of his career, pleaded for measures of conciliation. Edmund Burke justified the resistance of the Americans. Their opposition was fruitless. All Lord North's measures of repression became law; and General Gage, with an additional force of soldiers, was sent to Boston to carry them into effect. In September, 1774, the first Continental Congress met at Philadelphia. Fifty-three of the best and ablest men in the country were there ; men deeply- versed in Eng-lish law, and who knew well that king and Par- liament were violating the con- stitution which they were sworn to maintain. Awed by a feeling of the tremendous results which depended upon their conduct, a long and deep silence fell on all the members of the assembly. It was broken by Patrick Henry, of Virg-inia — the greatest orator of his day, and perhaps the great- est that America has yet produced — who recited the wrongs of the colonies with magnificent elo- quence, and yet with strict ad- herence to the truth. Patrick Henry was born in the year 1736, and died in 1 799. He was a man of limited edu- cation and in early years displayed few indications of his future great- ness. He was exceedingly fond of fishing and hunting, and of so- cial pleasures, all of which were allowed to interfere with his duties. He married at eighteen, failed twice in business, once in an attempt at farming, and finally, when twenty-four years of age, entered the profession of law after six weeks' study of the subject. Henrj' was a man of high moral courage, and the instinctive champion of the wronged and the oppressed. The opening scenes of the Revolution fired 212 THE GOI.UEN TKKASUKY. his patriotic soul ; evidently the time and purpose for which he had been born had arrived. His speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses electrified the country, and gained him the reputation, at the age of twenty-nine, of being " the greatest orator and political thinker of a land abounding with public speakers and statesmen." From this time forth he was prominent in the political conventions and congresses of the colonies, and, in 1776, he was elec- ted the first republican governor of the State of Virginia. He held this office until 1779, when, being no longer eligible, he returned to the legislature. At the close of the war he was again chosen governor, and served until 1786, when he resio^ned. In 1 794, he retired from the law, and removed to his estate. After this he declined several honorable positions in public life, but was finally persuaded by Washington and others to become a candidate for the Virginia LEXINGTON. senate, in 1799,10 order to oppose certain measures there. He was easily elected, but death interposed before he could take his seat. The colonists endeavored by every peaceable means in their power to have their wrongs redressed ; but as Britain showed no signs of relenting in her treatment of them, they then settled down to the conviction that they must either fight for their liberty, or forego it. They at once prepared themselves for the contest. General Gage had learned that considerable stores of ammunition were collected .at the village of Concord, eighteen miles from Boston. He would seize them in the king's name. Late one April night 800 soldiers set out on this errand. In the early morning they reached Lexington where a body of militia awaited them. The patriot volunteers were ordered to disperse, there THE UNITED STATES. 213 being only about seventy of them altogether. Firing ensued, by whom first is not known ; but eighteen of the seventy lay dead or wounded on the village green, whilst the rest fled. The British pushed on to Concord, and destroyed all the military stores they could find. Their march homeward was mainly on a road cut through dense woods. The people of the surrounding country had been gathering in the meanwhile, and now hung upon their flanks and rear. From the woods throughout the whole line of that return march came shot thick and heavy. It was sunset ere the soldiers, half dead with fatigue, got home to Boston. This fatal e.xpedition had cost them nearly three hundred men. The blood shed at Lexington had been swiftly and deeply avenged. The battle of Bunker Hill followed soon after. Two thousand British soldiers charged up the hill against the American intrenchments, which they carried, after having been twice repulsed, but with a loss of nearly eleven hun- dred men, whilst the American loss was less than five hundred. The time was now ripe for the consideration by Congress of the great question of independence. It was a grave and most eventful step, but it could no longer be shunned. On the 7th of June, 1776,3 resolution was introduced declarinor " That the United Colonies are and outrht to be free and inde- pendent ; " and on the 4th of July the Declaration of Independence was adopted, with the unanimous concurrence of all the States. Our illustrious poet Bryant vividly depicts the spirit which animated the patriots at this time, in his poem entitled, " Seventy-Six." " What heroes from the woodland sprung. When through the fresh-awakened land, The thrilling cry of freedom rung And to the work of warfare strung The yeoman's iron hand ! " Hills flung the cry to hills around, And ocean-mart replied to mart. And streams, whose springs were yet unfound, Pealed far away the startling sound Into the forest's heart. " Then marched the brave from rocky steep, From mountain-river swift and cold ; The borders of the stormy deep. The vales where gathered waters sleep, Sent up the strong and bold ; " As if the very earth again Grew quick with God's creating breath, And, from the sods of grove and glen, Rose ranks of lion-hearted men To battle to the death. 214 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. " The wife whose babe first smiled that day, The fair fond bride of yester-eve, And aged sire and matron gra}% Saw the loved warriors haste away, And deemed it sin to ,./f^.^lj land is typical of our time and our country, STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND, ^ud lu its Comparatively few pages the youth of our land will find a story of trial, struggle and triumph, inspiring the highest ideals, illustrating the noblest virtues and teaching the truest lessons of the citizenship into which they are born. We have now reached the period of the present administration. On the 19th day of June, 1S8S, the Republican National Convention, which met at Chicago, nominated Benjamin Harrison for the presidency, to which office he was elected November 6th. The Hon. Levi Parsons Morton was elected Vice-President. Benjamin Harrison comes of good stock on both sides of the family. His mother was a Avoman of character and ability, and his father came of a family distinguished for courage, patriotism and statesmanship. The great-grandfather was conspicuous during the revolutionary period. He voted for and signed the Declaration of Independence. President Harrison was born at North Bend, Ohio, August 20th, 1833. On October 20th, 1853, he was married to Miss Carrie W. Scott, of Oxford, Ohio. When the war broke out he recruited the Seventieth Regiment of In- diana Volunteers. He was a faithful, brave, efficient commander, and did valuable service in the many battles in which he was engaged. On February 15th, 1889, the House of Representatives agreed with the Senate on the admission of the four new States of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Washington. The bill was finally passed by both Houses February 20th, and in the following November these States were all admitted jnto the Union. The greatest disaster of which we have any record in the history of Penn- 255a THE GOLDEN TREASURY. sylvania was the sweeping away of the greater part of Johnstown and adjoin- ing villages by the collapsing of the South Fork Dam, which had been origin- ally constructed to supply the old State canal with water. Heavy rains had filled the dam to overflowing, when suddenly the sides gave way, and an im- mense body of water rushed down through the thickly populated and narrow valley of the Conemaugh. The loss of life and property was enormous. It is a remarkable fact that the three ablest captains, Grant, Sherman and BENJAMIN HARRISON. Sheridan, who fought for the Union, were born in the State of Ohio. Grant died July 23, 1885, and Philip Henry Sheridan died suddenly of heart disease on Sunday, August 5th, 1888, in his fifty-eighth year. Sheridan was a resdess spirit. His appetite for war was not gone when the civil strife ended. It is known that Mexico and Canada alike fired his active imagination, and that he would have gone into any movement where he could have been a leader. An anecdote of his boyhood may not be uninteresting as showing how the 2556 THE UNITED STATES. 255 man is often foreshadowed in the boy. Patrick McNauly, Sheridan's school- teacher, tried to punish " Phil " because some boy had thrown a bucket of water over him. But " Phil," who saw that suspicion had fallen upon him, ran home, the teacher chasing him until " Phil's " dog, Rover, treed the teacher and kept him there. He begged " Phil " to call off the dog, for it was bitter cold. But the boy would not. Mr. Sheridan at last came out of the house. " Did you throw any water upon your teacher? " inquired the father. " No, sir," was the prompt reply. As Mr. Sheridan had implicit confidence in the boy's veracity under all circumstances, he refused to call off the dog until the teacher had promised not to Hck " Phil." This may be regarded as the first surrender to Sheridan. In the present age, and more especially in our own country, events which in an earlier period of the world's history would have occupied many years now take place in a day. This was notably the case in the opening up of the Oklahoma lands in accordance with a proclamation by President Harrison. On the morning of the 2 2d of April, 1889, Guthrie, the capital of Oklahoma, had but twenty inhabitants ; and on the night of that same day 8,000 souls slept there under tents ; whilst carpenters were at work all around them. Next day — April 23d — the sun shone upon hotels, law-offices, doctors' offices, shops, banks, job-printing offices, and even gambling-houses, all engaged there in active business. PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NORTH AMERICA. If we take a glance at the physical aspect of North America we will find that two great mountain systems form the rocky framework of the continent. The eastern or Appalachian system, extending in a direction nearly parallel with the Atlantic coast, is divided by several river-valleys into the White mountains of New Hampshire, the Green mountains of Vermont, the Adi- rondacks of New York, the Alleghenies of Pennsylvania and Virginia, the Blue Ridge and Cumberland mountains of the Southern States. The gentle slope and frequent divisions of these mountains permit the navigation of many rivers far from the sea ; and the two thousand miles of coast which now form the eastern and part of the southern limit of the United States, are broken by bays, inlets, and fine harbors, large enough to shelter the shipping of all the world. The Cordilleras of the western part of the continent form a grand moun- tain-system 1,100 miles across its greatest width, consisting of elevated table- lands cut by narrow canons and bounded by still higher ridges and peaks. The coast range descends abruptly to the. Pacific, and its westward-flowing rivers are short and rapid. It is broken in the north by the gorges, or dalles, of the Columbia river, and farther south by San Francisco bay, which extends 256 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. SO far into the interior as to receive the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the eastern slope. On the various elevations west of the Sierra Nevada, nearly all the grains GIANT TREES OF CALIFORNIA. and fruits of the world can be made to grow ; but the date-palm, most bounte- ous of the gifts of nature, has been found best adapted to the river- valleys of Arizona, The greatest growth of the soil is the gigantic sequoia of California, whose trunk, twenty feet or more in diameter near the base, rises often to a height of 300 feet. There are ten groves of these big trees. Some of the trees, by actual measurements, have been found to be 450 feet in height, whose huge trunks measure 1 1 6 feet in circum- ference. North-westward from the Mississippi valley is a chain of five great lakes, con- taining collectively nearly half the fresh water in the world. Before reaching the last of the lakes, the mass of water plunges over a precipice 160 feet in height, making the great cataract which is known as the Falls of Niagara. Niagara falls are situated on the river of the same name, a strait connect- ing the floods of Lakes Erie and Ontario, and dividing a portion of the State NIAGARA FALLS. THE UNITED STATES. 257 -^^ of New York on the west from the Province of Ontario. The cataracts thus lie within the territory both of Great Britain and the United States. Niagara, in the Iroquois language, signifies "Thunder of Waters." The waters for which the Niag- ara is the outlet cover an area of 150,000 square miles — floods so grand and inexhaustible that the loss of the hundred mil- lions of tons which they pour every hour, through succeeding centuries, over these stupendous preci- pices is totally impercep- tible. The Horseshoe Fall, always marvellous from whatever position it is viewed, forms the con- necting link between the scenes of the American and Canadian sides of the river. This mighty cata- ract is 144 rods across, and it is said by Professor Lyell, that 1,500,000,000 cubic feet of water pass over its ledges every hour. Gull Island, just above the Horseshoe Fall, is an unapproachable spot up- on which it is not likely yosemite valley. that man has ever yet stood, and it is hardly possible that he can ever do so. Three miles below the falls on the American side is the Wiiirlpool, resem- bling in its appearance the celebrated Maelstrom on the coast of Norway. The Yosemite falls in California are amongst the most wonderful in the world. Yosemite, in the Indian tongue, means " Large Grizzly Bear." There is first a vertical leap of 1,500 feet; then a series of cascades down a descent equal to 626 feet perpendicular, and then a final plunge of 400 feet to the rocks at the base of the precipice. The rumble and roar of the falls are heard at all times, but in the quiet of the evening they are so great that it seems as 17 258 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. if the very earth were shaking. No falls in the known world can be com- pared with these in height and romantic grandeur. The renowned Staub- bach of Switzerland is greatly inferior, both in height and volume. There are other remarkable falls in the Yosemite valley. One, bearing the romantic name of Bridal Veil Fall, leaps over a cliff 900 feet high into the valley be- low. ■ The water, long ere it reaches its rocky bed, is converted into mist, and descends in a white sheet of spray. The Virgin's Tears creek, on the other side of the valley, directly opposite the Bridal Veil, makes a fine fall over 1,000 feet high, inclosed in a deep recess of the rock. This is a beautiful fall while it lasts, but the stream which produces it dries up early in the season. In the United States there are many places which will afford as grand panoramic views of mountain and valley as can be found in Switzerland it- self. This is notably so amongst the coal regions of Pennsylvania. Mauch Chunk, for instance, is noted for being situated in the midst of some of the wildest and most picturesque scenery in America, the village lying in a nar- row gorge between and among high mountains, its foot rest- ing on the Lehigh river and its body lying along the hill- sides. The village is but one street wide, and the valley is so narrow that the dwelling houses usually have their gar- dens and outhouses perched above the roof. Prospect Rock is a projecting bluff from which a pleasant view may be had ; but the view from Flag- staff Peak, just above, is much finer, and the ascent is easily made. Glen Onoko is a wild and beautiful ravine on the side of Broad mountain, about two miles from the village. It is 900 yards long and from forty to eighty feet wide, and pre- sents a continuous succession of cascades, rapids and pools, SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA. ^hich afford a fine spectacle in seasons of high water. The celebrated "Switch-Back" railroad, which at one time was used to THE UNITED STATES. 259' bring coal from Panther-Creek valley, is now used only as a pleasure road. It is run by gravity. The cars are drawn to the top of Mount Pisgah by a powerful engine on the summit, whence they descend six miles, by "-ravitv, to the foot of Mount Jefferson, where they are again taken up by means of an in- clined plane, which ascends 462 feet in a length of 2,070 feet, and then run on to Summit Hill. From that point the cars return, all the way, by the "back- track" or gravity road, to Mauch Chunk, landing the passengers but a short distance from the spot where they commenced the ascent of Mount Pisgah. Chautauqua lake, long the pride of western New York, and now the ad- miration of the whole country, claims here a word from us. It lies 700 feet above Lake Erie, which is but seven miles distant. It is about twenty miles POINT CHAUTAUQUA. in length, and o. an average depth of twenty feet, ranging from shallows of but a few inches to eighty feet. Its banks are of gentle slope, stretching up- ward on every side into a beautiful landscape of forest and field. At Chautauqua, what is known as the Sunday-School Assembly was pro- jected by members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and organized under the auspices of the normal department of the Sunday-School Union of that church. With its National Sunday-School Assembly, Church Congress, Scientific Congress and temperance conventions; with wise men in control, and call- ing together the best talent of the nation to its yearly feasts of science and religion ; with its Park of Palestine, Jewish Tabernacle, model of Jerusalem 260 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. oriental house and Great Pyramid ; with its book bazaar and museum ; with Ostrander and orientals in full dress, together with Van Lennap, the Turk; with an auditorium of 5,000 capacity, a pavilion of 2,000 capacity, a children's temple in amphitheatre form to seat also 2,000; with its vocal concerts, in- strumental concerts, stereopticon exhibitions, fire-works, music on the lake and croquet ; with its cool, clear springs, health-giving breezes and gende showers ; with boating, bathing and fishing, and its unlimited go-to-meeting privileges — every day three first-class lectures or sermons ; five services for Bible-study, etc., etc. — Chautauqua is already a household word in thousands of American homes. Our work would be incomplete did we omit all reference to Mount Wash- TIP-TOP HOUSE. MOUNT ^Ar ASHINGTON. ington, the loftiest of the White mountains in New Hampshire. The summit, 6,293 feet high, is an acre of comparatively level ground, on which stand the Mount Washington Summit Hotel, the old Tip-Top House, the engine-house of the railway and the United States signal-service observatory. At this sta- tion, which is occupied in winter, observers have recorded a temperature of 59° below zero, while the wind blew with a velocity of 190 miles an hour. The range of the thermometer, even in midsummer, is from 30° to 45°. The view from Mount Washington is incomparably grand ; but its use as being a signal-service station gives it a special interest. The importance of the signal service calls for some slight description of it. The Signal Service is a military organization which takes note of the de- velopment and progress of storms and other atmospheric phenomena, and THE UNITED STATES. 261 which reports the same to the public, when not engaged in the duties of war- fare. The observers of the signal corps are trained not only in the art and prac- tice of military field-signalling, but in the ordinary army drill and rules and habits of discipline ; they constitute a part of the regular military establish- ment of the nation, always ready for active service. Occupied in time of peace with scientific work of acknowledged value, the cost of their mainten- ance is but a small additional burden upon the country, fully requited by their meteorological services to it. Experience has shown that arduous meteoro- logical labors such as they perform have not been secured from any civil corps. As the signal-service observers must report several times a day to the Washington office, each regular report serves in effect as a telegraphic roll-call of all the stations spread over the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, insuring promptitude, vigil- ance and steadiness in the entire signal corps. The net-work of the signal-service stations now extends over the conti- nent from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, and the intervening territory from the Gulf (including the West Indies) to the Canadian frontier, and is in receipt, by comity of exchange, of daily telegraphic intelligence of the weather from the Canadian Dominion and its outlying posts. These reports from 147 stations of observation are not infrequently concentrated at the central office in the space oi forty niiinites. The stations at which cautionary signals are displayed are equipped with flags, lanterns, etc., for exhibiting the cau- tionary day or night signals, and also for communicating with vessels of any nationality. In addition to the regular force of military observers, there was trans- ferred to the signal service on February 2d, 1874, at the instance of Professor Joseph Henry, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the entire body of Smithsonian weather observers in all parts of the United States. In ororanizinCT the service of simultaneous weather observations, the first o o problem that presented itself was to devise a system of observations which would, when mapped accurately, represent the aerial phenomena at the same instant of time, and in their actual relations to each other, and thus enable the investigator to discover the laws of storms and their rates of movement over the earth's surface. Certainly no solid foundation for the science of the weather could have been laid in 1870 upon any of the then existing systems. The European weather stations at that date, and long after, were engaged in making non-simultaneous reports ; no two of them, unless they happened to be on the same meridian, read off their instruments at the same time. The perfectly simple scheme of simultaneous observations aimed at the rescue of weather research from the chaos in which for ages it had lain. Its cardinal principle of observation is to gain frequent views of the atmospheric 262 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. condition and movements over the country as they actually are, and as they would be seen, could they, so to speak, be photographed. The cautionary storm-signals which accompany the " Synopsis and Indica- tions," issued to the press three times each day, constitute a very important part of the signal-service work, and it was the possibility of preparing such storm-warnings for the benefit of navigation that originally gave the chief stimulus to the establishment of a weather bureau. The cautionary signals are of two kinds: i. Those premonishing danger- ous winds to blow from any direction. 2. Those premonishing off-shore winds, likely to drive vessels out to sea. Both kinds are needed by mariners as the storm-centres approach or depart from a maritime station. The first, distinctively termed the " Cautionary Signal," consists of a red flag with a black square in the centre, for warning in the daytime, and a red light by night. The second, or " Cautionary Off-Shore Signal," consists of a white flag with black square in the centre, shown above a red flag with square black centre by day, or a white light shown above a red light by night, indicating that, while the storm has not yet passed the station and dangerous winds may yet be felt there, they will probably be from a northerly or westerly direction ; this second signal, when displayed in the lake region in anticipation of high north to west winds, is designated the " Cautionary North-west Signal." The display of either signal, however, is always intended to be cautionary, and calls for great vigilance on the part of vessels within sight of it. LITERATURE. The true glory of a nation becomes manifest in its literature, and an ac- count of our country would be incomplete did we omit reference to those of our nation who have shown the pen to be still mightier than the sword. We have already alluded to the first books published in America, and will now mention the names of some of our most celebrated authors whose works have appeared since the opening of the nineteenth century. Joseph Rodman Drake was born in 1795, and died in 1820. He was a poet of brilliant promise. He was the author of the patriotic poem, entitled "The American Flag." His genius, however, shone pre-eminent in the im- agery of the exquisite fairy tale, "The Culprit Fay." This poem was written in three days, on a wager laid between Cooper the novelist, Halleck the poet, and himself Fitzgreene Halleck, the friend of Drake, was also born in 1 795. He died in 1867 ; but he wrote little or nothing after 1830, although before that year he had become famous. His immortal lyric, " Marco Bozzaris," alone gained hmi literary celebrity. Upon the death of his brother-poet, Drake, he wrote a beautiful tribute to his memory, from which we extract the following lines: THE UNITED STATES. 26.'! " Green be the turf above thee, Friend of my better days ! None knew thee but to love thee. None named thee but to praise." William Cullen Bryant, the Wordsworth of America, a native of Cum- mington, Massachusetts, was born in 1794. He resided for over half a cen- tury in New York city, where he held the position of editor of the Evening Post. A lover of nature, the reverence he felt for her is seen in strongly marked lines through- out his writings. " Thanatopsis " was writ- ten and delivered by the author, in his nineteenth year, at a college commence- ment. His finest poems are "To a Water- fowl," " Death of the Flowers," " Forest Hymn," "Song of the Stars," "The Plant- ing of the Apple-Tree," "Waiting by the Gate," "Our Country's Call" and "The Flood of Years," the last being written at the age of eighty-two. In 1871 he com- pleted a translation of the " Iliad and Odyssey " of Homer, upon which he had been encraored for six years. He died in 187S. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, our loved and revered poet-laureate, the first American author to be honored with a memorial in Westminster Abbey, was born in Portland, Maine, in the year 1807, "in an old square wooden house upon the edge of the sea." Graduating from Bowdoin College in 1825, he was, four years afterwards, elected professor of modern languages and literature in his alma mater, which position he relinquished to accept a similar one in Harvard in 1835. His duties as a " teacher" were varied by occasional travels to Europe, and his writings are thus enriched with legen- dary, historic and biographical notes. From 1836 he resided in the " Craigie House," which was purchased for him by his father-in-law in 1S43, the year in which he married Miss Appleton. Mary Flora Potter, his first wife, who died suddenly at Rotterdam, four years after their marriage, was a daughter of Judge Potter, of Portland, very lovely in person and rarely gifted in mind. It may be a consolation to poets who receive litde for their verses to know that the " Psalin of Life " first appeared in the Kmckerbockcr, and was never paid for. Longfellow has a fruitful imagination, under the control of the most per- feet taste, and a remarkable power of illustrating moods of mind and states WILLIAM C. BRYANT. 264 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. of feeling by material forms. He has a great command of beautiful diction, and equal skill in the structure of his verse. His poetry is marked by ten- derness of feeling, purity of sentiment, elevation of thought and healthiness of tone. He understands and can express all the affections of the human heart. The happy delight in his poems ; and they fall with soothing and sym- pathizing touch upon those wlio have suffered. His readers are more than admirers ; they become friends. And over all that he has written there hangs a beautiful ideal light — the atmosphere of poetry — which il- luminates his page as the sunshine does the natural landscape. Of his leading works are " Hyperion," a ro- mance ; " The Spanish Student, Kavanagh," a tale ; " The Golden Itw Legend," "Tales of a Wayside Inn," " Outre Mer/'" The Building of the Ship," "The Day is Done," " Morituri Salutamus," "Hia- watha," " Miles Stan- dish," " Flower de Luce," " New England Tragedies," "Wreck of the Hesperus," " Paul Reveres Ride," "Chil- dren's Hour," "Village Blacksmith," " The Divine Tragedy," "Translation of Dante's Divina Commedia," and " Michael Aneelo," a drama. Longfellow died in 1882. Oliver Wendell Holmes, M. D., was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 29th, 1809, was graduated at Harvard College in 1829, and com- menced the practice of medicine in Boston in 1836. He has been for many years one of the professors in the medical department of Harvard College, and he is understood to be highly skilful, both in the theory and practice of his profession. He began to write poetry at quite an early age. His longest productions are occasional poems which have been recited before literary so- HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. THE UNITED STATES. 265 cieties, and received with very great favor. His style is brilliant, sparklino- and terse ; and many of his heroic stanzas remind us of the point and con- densation of Pope. In his shorter poems he is sometimes grave, and some- times gay. When in the former mood, he charms us by his truth and manli- ness of feeling, and his sweetness of sentiment ; when in the latter, he de- lights us with the glance and play of the wildest wit and the richest humor. Everything that he writes is carefully finished, and rests on a basis of sound sense and shrewd observation. Dr. Holmes also enjoys high reputation and wide popularity as a prose writer. He is the author of "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," " The Professor at the Breakfast Table " and " Elsie Ven- ner," w-orks of fiction which originally appeared in the Atlantic Monthly Mag- azine, and of various occasional discourses. The following extracts are very characteristic of Holmes : " Day hath put on his jacket, and around His burning bosom buttoned it with stars." — Evening — by a Tailor. " Give us men ! A time like this demands Great hearts, strong arms, true faith and willing hands. Men, whom the lust of office does not kill ; Men, whom the spoils of office can not buy; Men who possess opinions and a will ; Men who have honor, men who will not lie ; For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds, Their large professions and their little deeds. Wrangle in selfish strife — lo ! Freedom weeps. Wrong rules the land, and waiting justice sleeps." — Give Us Men. John Greenleaf Whittier was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1808. He has written much in prose and verse ; and his writings are characterized by earnestness of tone, high moral purpose and energy of expression. His spirit is that of a sincere and fearless reformer ; and his fervent appeals are the true utterances of a brave and loving heart. The themes of his poetry have been drawn, in a great measure, from the history, traditions, manners and scenery of New England ; and he has found the elements of poetical in- terest among them without doing any violence to truth. He describes nat- ural scenery correctly and beautifully ; and a vein of genuine tenderness runs through his writings. We subjoin a poem of Whittier's, because it is only in our country that the verses are applicable. "The Poor Voter on Election D.\y. " Tiie proudest now is but my peer, The highest not more high ; To-day, of all the weary year, A king of men am I. To-day, alike are great and small The nameless and the known ; My palace is the people's hall, The ballot-box mv throne ! 266 THE C.OLDEN TREASURY. "Who serves to-day upon the Hst Beside the served shall stand ; Alike the brown and wrinkled fist, The £;loved and dainty hand ! The rich is level with the poor, The weak is strong to-day ; And sleekest broadcloth counts no more Than homespun frock of gra)-. " To-day let pomp and vain pretence My stubborn right abide ; I set a plain man's common-sense Against the pedant's pride. To-day shall simple manhood try The strength of gold and land ; The wide world has not wealth to buy The power in my right hand ! " While there's a grief to seek redress. Or balance to adjust, Where weighs our living manhood less Than Mammon's vilest dust — W^iile there's a right to need my \ote, A wrong to sweep away. Up ! clouted knee and ragged coat ! A man's a man to-day ! " Edgar Allan Poe ( 1 809-1 849), " the poet ot morbid anatomy," was born in Boston, and died in Baltimore, where, after life's fitful fever, he sleeps well. The victim of melancholia, a morbid disposition, and an insatiate thirst for intoxicants, in rebellion against a world that misunderstood the man and has attempted to falsify the reputation of one with whom " poetry was not a purpose, but a passion," his life displayed some irregularities, though it is on record by one who, from business association, had every opportunity of es- timating his character, that he was " a winning and well-mannered gentle- man." His first literary production, "Al Aaraaf and Minor Poems," was un- successful. This was followed by "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Payne," and the weird and powerful romances that bear the impress of a master-rnind, of "The Mystery of Mary Roget," "The Murders of the Rue Morgue," "The Gold Bug," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and the poems "The Raven," "The Bells," " Ulalume," "The Haunted Palace" and "Annabel Lee." Suffering induced by Poe's dissipated habits brought his wife to an early grave, and he wrote of his loss in some very musical lines : " The moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes " Of the beautiful Annabel Lee. And so, all the night-tide I lie down by the side Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea — In her tomb by the sounding sea." John Howard Payne, the sixth of nine children, was born in New York, June Qth, 1792. He came of a family of conspicuous literary ability and of gentie breeding. Robert Treat Payne, a signer of the Declaration, and Robert Treat Payne, Jr., were of the same family. Miss Dolly Payne, also, who became the wife of President Madison, was his kinswoman. THE UNITED STATES. 267 Payne was the author of some noble and lasting literary work in his day one of the grandest of heroic tragedies now played, " Brutus, or the Fall of Tarquin," being from his pen. He was both in America and England recocr- nized as an actor of advancing reputation, and as an author of merit. In one of his plays he introduced the song of "Home, sweet Home." The sono- at once became popular. In less than a year 100,000 copies were sold by a publisher who did not even put Payne's name on the title-page. As this soncr is, and always will be, a favorite wherever the English languge is spoken, we give the words as they appear in Payne's original manuscript. '■ 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it e\'er so humble, there's no place like home ! A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there, Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere ! Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! There's no place like home ! There's no place like home ! '• "An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain ; O give me my lowly thatched cottage again ! The birds, singing gayly, that came at my call. Give me them — and the peace dearer than all ! Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! There's no place like home ! There's no place like home I " There are two of the original verses which are now commonly omitted, but as they appear to express the poet's own personal feelings in regard to himself as being a wanderer from his native land, we think it well to give them here. "To us, m despite of the absence of years,- How sweet the remembrance of home still appears! From allurements abroad, which flatter the eye, The- unsatisfied heart turns, and says, with a sigh, ' Home, home — sweet, sweet home. There's no place like liome — there's no place like home!' " Your e.\ile is blessed with all fate can bestow. But mine has been checkered with many a woe ; Yet, though different our fortunes, our thoughts are the same And both, as we think of Columbia, exclaim, ' Home, home — sweet, sweet home. There's no place like home — there's no place like home ! ' " Payne was appointed American consul at Tunis in 1S42, and sailed thither the year following. 268 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. [ From Tunis, Payne was recalled in 1845. He was reappointed in 185 1. In April he sailed from New York, and he died in Tunis, June, 1S52, in his six- tieth year. The United States government caused a marble slab to be placed at his grave, which bears the following inscription : In memory of Colonel John Howard Payne, Twice Consul of the United States of America to the Kingdom of Tunis, This stone is placed here b>' a grateful country. The slab has also engraven on it these lines, written by Mr. R. S. Chilton: " Sure, when thy gentle spirit fled To realms beyond the azure dome, With arms outstretched God's angels said, ' Welcome to heaven, " Home, Sweet Home." ' " BIRTHPLACE OF JOHN HuVVAHU PAYNE. In 1883, the remains of Payne were brought to Washington, and on June 9th, the ninety-first anniversary of the poet's birth, were buried with appro- priate ceremonies in Oak Hill Cemetery, Georgetown, District of Columbia. The following verses were written by Will Carleton, on the removal of the remains of John Howard Payne to this country: " The banishment was overlong. But it will soon be past ; The man who wrote Home's sweetest song Is coming home at last ! For years his poor abode was seen In foreign lands alone, And waves have thundered loud between This singer and his own. THE UNITED STATES. 269 But he will soon be journeying To friends across the sea ; And grander than of any king His welcome here shall be." — Coining Home at Last. Carleton was born in 1845, and in 1869 graduated at Hillsdale College, and then entered the journalistic profession, to which he still belono-s. He is the author of " Betsey and I are out," " Over the Hills to the Poor-House," and other well-known ballads. Space will not permit our dwelling upon many other worthy names in poetry. Bayard Taylor was alike eminent as a poet, novelist, and traveller. Read won fame both with brush and pen. Boker is a lyric and dramatic writer of great excellence, and has represented the United States at Constan- tinople and St. Petersburg. Bret Harte has given us some able dialect poetry, and Walt Whitman has shown remarkable originality. Nor ought we to omit Alice Carey, who was born in 1820 and died in i87i,and who was the greatest female genius that our country has produced, was born at Mount Healthy, near Cincinnati, and died at her home in New York City. Contribut- ing verses to the Cincinnati press at the age of eighteen, which were well received, she first attracted attention by a series of sketches of rural life. Removing with her sister Phoebe (1824-1871) to New York, the two issued a volume of poems. She wrote " Married, not Mated," and " Holly- wood," novels; "Pictures of Country Life," "The Bridal Veil," "Thanks- giving," " Krumley," "The Bishop's Son," and "Snow Berries." Phoebe Carey wrote many beautiful poems, such as " Nearer Home," and, among other amusing parodies, one on the " Psalm of Life." If we turn to prose we will find names equal in ability to those mentioned in poetry. Washington Irving, the most popular of American authors, and one of the most popular writers in the English language during his time, was born in New York, April 8th, 1783, and died November 28th, 1859. His numerous works are too well known to need enumeration; and his countrymen are so familiar with the graces of his style and the charm of his delightful genius, that any extended criticism would be superfluous. His writings are remark- able for their combination of rich and original humor with great refinement of feeling and delicacy of sentiment. His humor is unstained by coarseness, and his sentiment is neither mawkish nor morbid. His style is carefully finished, and in his most elaborate productions the uniform music of his ca- dences approaches monotony. He is an accurate observer, and his descrip- tions are correct, animated and beautiful. In his biographical and historical works his style is flowing, easy and transparent. His personal character was affectionate and amiable, and these traits penetrate his writings and constitute no small portion of their charm. Few writers have ever awakened in their 270 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. readers a stronger personal interest than Irving ; and the sternest critic could not deal harshly with an author who showed himself to be so gende and kindly a man. James Fennimore Cooper, the author of " The Spy," " The Pilot," "Leather-stocking Tales," etc., was born at Burlington, New Jersey, on the 15th of December, 1789. The distinguished novelist was also author of the "History of the Navy of the United States." He died in 1851. William EUery Channing was born at Newport, Rhode Island, April 7th, 1780, was graduated at Harvard College in 1798, and died October 2d, 1842. Dr. Channing's style is admirably suited for the exposition of moral and spiritual truth. It is rich, flowing and perspicuous ; even its diffuseness, which is its obvious literary defect, is no disadvantage in this aspect. There is a persuasive charm over all his writings, flowing from his earnestness of pur- pose, his deep love of iiumanity, his glowing hopes and his fervent religious faith. William Hickling Prescott was born in Salem, Massachusetts, May 4th, 1796, and died in Boston, January 28th, 1859. His grandfather was Colonel William Prescott, who commanded in the redoubt at Bunker Hill. He is the author of four historical works — "The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella," " The History of the Conquest of Mexico," " The History of the Conquest of Peru" and "The History of the Reign of Philip the Second ; " which last was left unfinished at the time of his death. These are all productions of great merit, and have received the highest commendations at home and abroad. Among their most conspicuous excellences may be men- tioned their thoroughness of investigation and research. Mr. Prescott ex- amined, with untiring industry, all possible sources of information, whether in print or in manuscript, which could throw light upon the subjects of which he treated. This was the more honorable to him, as, in consequence of an acci- dent in college, he was deprived, to a considerable degree, of the use of his eyes, and was constantly obliged to make use of the sight of others in prose- cuting his studies. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the sage of Concord, was born in Boston, in 1803, graduated at Harvard in 1821, taught for a short time, ministered thought to a congregation for three years in his native city, and then retired to the classic town, where he lived till the end, only varying the studious retirement of his life by lecturing in this country and abroad. His writings are observ- ant and speculative ; display a quaintness of language and a philosophic taste and power that has made a vivid impression upon the literature of the nineteenth century. He died in 1882. Henry Ward Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, June 24th, 1813, graduated at Amherst College in 1834, studied theology under his father, the Rev. Lyman Beecher, and from 1847 until his death (March 8th, 1887) was THE UNITED STATES. 271 pastor of the Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, New York. As a lecturer he enjoyed an unrivalled popularity, earned by the happy combination of humor, pathos, earnestness and genial sympathy with humanity, which his discourses present. He was a man of great energ)^ of temperament, fervendy opposed to every form of oppression and injustice, and with a poet's love of nature. His style was rich, glowing and abundant. Harriet Beecher Stowe was born at Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1812; but resided for several years, with her husband, Professor Stowe. at Mandarin, on the -St. John's river, Florida. Her fame was established by the pub- lication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin " (in 1852), the most widely read book ever written in America. In George Bancroft and John Lothrop Motley we have historians whose reputation worthily reaches wherever the English language is read. THE FINE ARTS. In the oreneration which immediatelv succeeded the American Revolution, there was very little devotion to art. The adjustment of commercial and po- litical relations at home and abroad, naturally required all the energies of the people. In the beginning of this century, however, the art principle began to develop itself side by side with literature. Still at no time was there a total lack of tendency towards pictorial representation. If we take into account all the drawbacks incident to a new country which the study of art necessarily meets with, we will find that its progress in the United States has been wonderfully rapid. There are branches of art unknown in ancient times, whicli have attained remarkable development with- in the present century. And in engraving, and the illustration of books and periodicals, the palm of superiority has been freely conceded to American ar- tists by the critics in the art centres of the old world. Indeed, it is those branches of pictorial art which conduce to the education, the comfort and even luxury of universal mankind, which it has been the mission of the great Republic to bring to perfection, as it has been in corresponding branches of science and mechanical invention. Its w^ork in art as in science has been for the good of the many, and not, as in the old world, mainly for the benefit of the few, as may be seen in the strides it has made in chromolithography, which has made the works of the world's most eminent artists familiar to the com- monest and poorest. But even in the arts of painting and sculpture America has been produc- tive of great names. It will be sufficient to mention the names of West, Allston, Church, Leslie, Weir, Bierstadt, Cole, Rothermel, Hamilton and Moran in painting; Greenough, Powers and Harriet Hosmer in sculpture, as evidence that the highest order of genius in art can exist side by side with the rhost unwearied industry in commerce and manufactures. 272 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. In the kindred art of music, the United States has also been a benefactor to the world. The compositions of Bliss and Sankey in sacred music ; and of Stephen Foster in his plaintive negro melodies, are the delight of many homes in the old world, as well as homes in the New. But it is inventive talent by which Americans are most distinguished. The inventive genius which the subduing of a great, wild continent first called into action has been only heightened by prosperity. The soil of South Africa, Australia and Japan is turned by American plows, and their harvests are gathered by American mowers and reapers ; fires in European cities are ex- tinguished by American steam fire-engines ; American palace-cars roll over European railways ; and American steam-boats ply on the Rhine, the Danube, and the Bosphorus, Great London newspapers are printed on the type-re- volving press invented by Richard Hoe, of New York. Viewing then the rapid progress, vast extent, and present prosperity of our country, well might our poet-laureate Longfellow sing: " Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State ! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity, with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! We know what Master laid thy keel, What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat In what a forge, and what a heat, Were shaped the anchors of thy hope. " Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! Our hearts, our hopes are all with thee. Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears^ Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee — are all with thee." GRAND CANAL, VENICE. ITALY. !HE limits of the Italian peninsula have been most distinctly ^ traced by nature. The Alps, which bound it on the north, from the promontories of Liguria to the mountainous penin- sula of Istria, present themselves like a huge wall, the only breaches in which are formed by passes situated high up in the zones of pines, pastures, or eternal snows. Its delightful climate, beauteous skies and fertile fields distinguish it in a narked manner from countries lying beyond the Alps. For nearly two thousand years Italy remained the centre of the civilized vorld. Two of the greatest events in history, the uniting of the Mediterra- lean world under the laws of Rome, and at a later age the regeneration of he human mind, to which the term " renaissance " has been given, originated n Italy. 1 There is no other country in the world which can boast of an equal num- 'er of cities remarkable on account of their buildings, statues, paintings and ecorations of every kind. There are provinces where every village, every roup of houses even, delights the eye eitiier by a fresco painting or a work f the sculptor's chisel, a bold staircase or picturesque balcony. Italy owes the rank it has held for more than two thousand years not 18 (:iV3) 274 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. merely to its monuments and works of art, which attract students from the extremities of the earth, but also to its historical associations. Every fortress, every country house, marks the site of some ancient citadel, or of the villa of a Roman patrician ; churches have replaced the ancient temples, and though the religious rites have changed, the altars of gods and saints arise anew on the spots consecrated of old. The Italian is the most richly endowed of all the European nations. When we look to the splendid achievements of this race in all its subdivisions — to the artists, authors, soldiers, natural philosophers, and civil engineers, which the peninsula has produced — we other peoples are compelled to bow our h'eads before them in every department of intellectual exertion. ROME. Rome, the most celebrated of European cities, famous in both ancient and modern history, formerly for being the most powerful nation of antiquity, and afterward the ecclesiastical capital of Christendom and the residence of the pope, and since 1871 the capital of United Italy and the residence of the king, is situated on both banks of the Tiber, about sixteen miles from its mouth. The earliest history of Rome is legendary, or to some extent fabulous, with a basis of historical truth. It is said that Rhea Silvia, a female de- scendant of yEneas, one of the Trojan heroes, was compelled by her uncle to become a vestal virgin, whereby she was obliged to remain unmarried. But by the god Mars she became the mother of twin sons, Romulus and Remus. Thereupon her uncle caused her to be killed, and her infants to be thrown into the river Tiber. The river at the time happened to have overflowed its banks, so that after a short time, when the waters subsided, the basket con- taining the babes remained standing on dry land. There they were suckled by a she-wolf and fed by a woodpecker, until they were found by a shepherd, who took them to his wife. When the boys had grown up to manhood they resolved to build a town near the spot where they had been saved. When the new town was finished, a dispute arose as to which of the two brothers should give it its name ; from words it came to blows, and Romulus slew his brother. In order to increase the number of inhabitants, Romulus opened an asylum, inviting all to come and settle in the new place. Vagabonds of every description came, and all were welcome. But as there were no women among them, the population would soon have died out, and in order to prevent this Romulus applied to the neighboring communities of Latins and Sabines to obtain wives for his subjects. This request was scornfully rejected, and Romulus then resolved to obtain by a cunning device what had been refused to his fair demand. He invited the neighboring tribes to a festival to be celebrated in honor of the god Neptune; and while the strangers were witnessing the games, the Romans ITALY. 275 suddenly seized their daughters and carried them by force to their homes. To ave'nge this outrage, the Latins and Sabines took up arms against Rome. The former were easily defeated, but during the heat of the fight with the Sa- bines, the Sabine women threw themselves between the combatants, implorinji- them to desist from destroying one another, and declared themselves willing to remain with their new husbands. After the death of Romulus, a whole year passed away without a succes- sor being elected, and in the meantime the government was conducted by the senate. At length the Ramnes or Romans chose from among the Sabines Numa Pompilius, of Cures, a man renowned for his piety and wisdom. The legend represents him as the founder of all the great religious institutions, just as Romulus is described as the author of the political organization of the state. Numa's reign was a period of uninterrupted peace, during which the people were engaged in the peaceful pursuit of agriculture and in the worship of the gods. In all he did the king was supported by the counsels of the nymph Egeria, with whom he had interviews in a sacred grove near Aricia. After the death of Numa Pompilius the Romans chose Tullus Hostilius for their king. His reign, extending from b. c. 672 to 640, is described as the very opposite of that of Numa, for he is said to have neglected the worship of the gods and to have been engaged in perpetual wars with his neighbors. The first of these wars was waged against Alba Longa, in consequence of certain acts of violence for which reparation was refused by that city. The contest between the two little states remained for a long time undecided, until at length the commanders arranged that the dispute should be determined by a combat of three Roman brothers, called the Horatii, with three Alban brothers called the Curiatii, who happened to be serving in their respective armies ; and it was agreed that the conquering party should rule over the vanquished. When the three champions of each party met, two of the Ho- ratii were killed, while all the three Curiatii were indeed wounded, but still able to fight. The surviving Horatius then took to flight, and the three Curi- atii pursued him at such intervals as their wounds permitted. This was what Horatius had foreseen, and turning round, he slew them one after another. It ivas thus decided that Rome should rule over Alba. When the Romans re- :urned home in triumph, Horatius met his sister, who burst into tears and lam- entations, when she saw among the spoils won by her brother a garment -lie had woven with her own hands for one of the Curiatii, to whom she had )een betrothed. Horatius, enraged at her conduct on such an occasion, ran ler through with his sword. For this outrage he was tried and sentenced to leath ; but he availed himself of his right to appeal to the people, who, noved by the recollection of what he had done for his country, and by the ntreaties of his father, who by his death would have been left childless, ac- nitted him. 276 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. The kingly government of Rome came to an end with the expulsion of Lucius Tarquin, in 510 B. c. ' ' During the latter part of his reign, Tarquin was involved in a war with Ardea, a fortified town of the Rutulians, who had probably refused to ac- knowledge the supremacy of Rome. The town accordingly was besieged, but with little success ; and one day, while the king's sons and their cousin, Collatinus, were feasting in their tents and discussing the virtues of their wives, it was arranged that the three should go home unexpectedly by night, to see how the princesses were spending their time. The wives of the two brothers were found at Rome, revelling at a luxurious banquet; but when they came to Collatia, they found Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, engaged in domestic occupations with her maid-servants. She accordingly was acknowl- edged to be the best of the three ; but in her humble occupation she appeared so lovely and beautiful, that a few days later Sextus Tarquin, one of the princes, returned to Collatia, where, as a kinsman, he was hospitably received. : But in the dead of night he entered her chamber, and threatened to expose her name to everlasting shame, if she refused to gratify his lust. By intimi- dation he gained his end. But on the following morning Lucretia sent for her father and husband, who came accompanied by Publius Valerius and Lucius Junius Brutus. To these four men Lucretia revealed the crime committed upon her, and having called upon them to avenge the wrong, plunged a dag- ger into her own breast. Brutus, throwing off the mask of idiocy, which had been assumed by him in order to escape the danger of being put to death, a fate which had befallen others, drew the dagger from the wound, and vowed destruction to the royal house of the Tarquins. The three others took the same oath. Brutus then gained over the people and the army of Rome, and drove out the Tarquins. In the first year of the republic a conspiracy was formed among a num- ber of young patricians for the purpose of restoring the exiled monarch; they were joined even by the sons of Brutus. When it was found out, the guilty were put to death, and Brutus, with a sternness peculiarly characteristic of a Roman, ordered his own sons to be executed. The fall of Tarquin has been the subject of many poems and dramatic works. Shakespeare made " The Rape of Lucrece " the subject of his longest poem. And our own poet. John Howard Payne, the author of " Home, Sweet Home," has, in his tragedy entided " Brutus, or the Fall of Tarquin," sur- passed all other authors who have treated dramatically of the same subject. Tarquin afterwards went and obtained the assistance of Porsenna, King of Etruria, who marched against Rome and pitched his camp on the right bank of the Tiber. On one occasion, it is said, the Romans crossed the Tiber with the intention of driving the enemy from his strong-hold, but were re- pulsed and returned to the city ; and the enemy would have pursued them 278 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. across the river, had not Horatius Codes, a bold and powerful Roman, who was o-uardino- the wooden bridge with two comrades, kept the whole hostile army at bay, while his countrymen were busily engaged in breaking down the brido^e. He is even said to have dismissed his two comrades and alone to have resisted the whole army until the bridge was demolished. He then threw himself into the river, and safely swam across, amid showers of darts from the Etruscans. IVIacaulay, in his " Lays of Ancient Rome," has, in vigorous verse, vividly depicted this fight : " Then out spake brave Horatius, the captain of the gate : ' To every man upon this earth death cometh, soon or late. Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, with all the speed ye may; I, with two more to help me, will hold the foe in play. " ' In yon straight path a thousand may well be stopped by three. Now, who will stand on either hand, and keep the bridge with me ? ' Then out spake Spurius Lartius, a Ramnian proud was he : ' Lo ! I will stand at thy right hand, and keep the bridge with thee.' "And out spake strong Herminius, of Titan blood was he: ' I will abide on thy left side, and keep the bridge with thee.' ' Horatius,' quoth the Consul, ' as thou sayest, so let it be.' And straight against that great array forth went the dauntless three." In the year b. c. 509, Rome concluded a commercial treaty with the wealthy city of Carthage, a Phoenician colony on the north coast of Africa. The same treaty had been twice before renewed, and the relation between the two re- publics had always been of an amicable kind, but the Carthaginians seem to have become apprehensive of the growing power of Rome. Disputes arose between the two powers, and at length Rome declared war against Carthage, and finally compelled it to sue for peace, which was only granted on most hu- miliating conditions. This was called the First Punic War. The Second Punic War arose by Hannibal, a young man of nineteen, lay- ing siege to Saguntum, a city of Spain in alliance with Rome. The Romans remonstrated, but in vain, and war was the consequence. Saguntum was de- stroyed, and the inhabitants put to the sword. The contest was now between Rome and Hannibal. Hannibal, with a force of 90,000 foot, 12,000 horse and thirty-seven elephants, began his memorable march across the Alps. When he descended on the south side, his forces were reduced to 20,000 foot and 6,000 horse. He then met two Roman armies, and defeated them both. In the following spring he met, at Lake Thrasimenus, the Roman consul Flamin- ius, who was defeated and slain. In this battle 15,000 Romans perished. At length the Romans prepared to crush their terrible enemy with one blow. They proceeded to Apulia with a large army of 80,000 foot and 6,000 horse, ITALY. 279 and pitched their camp near the little town of Cannae. Here Hannibal ao^ain totally defeated the Romans, leaving 47,000 of them dead on the field. But the support necessary for Hannibal to carry on his career of victory to a suc- cessful issue was denied iiim, and at Zama he was defeated by Scipio ; and the war was decided in favor of Rome. Hannibal returned to Carthage and did all he could to repair the losses whicli his country had sustained. But the fear and enmity of Rome, and the jealousy of many of his own countrymen, forced Hannibal to quit his own country as an exile. He took refuge with Antiochus, King of Syria, who made war against Rome, but through not fol- lowing the advice of Hannibal was easily defeated. Hannibal then souo-ht the protection of Prusius, King of Bithynia ; but here, too, the Romans pursued him, for they did not feel safe whilst he lived ; and Hannibal, seeing that Pru- sius could protect him no longer, put an end to his life by poison. Forty years after the death of Hannibal the Romans, seeing that Carthage was recovering to some extent its former prosperity, became bent on destroy- ing it. The Carthaginians were driven to desperation, and, although they suf- fered from the most terrible famine, they defended every inch of ground, even after the enemy had entered the city. The battle which raged in the streets lasted for six days, after which the fury of the invaders and a fearful confla- gration changed the once proud mistress of the Mediterranean into a heap of ruins. Fifty thousand of its inhabitants who escaped from the massacre were sold as slaves ; and Scipio, like his great namesake, was honored with the sur- name of Africanus. The territory of Carthage was changed into a Roman province under the name of Africa, and a curse was pronounced upon the site of the ancient city, so that it should never be rebuilt. Wars, both foreign and domestic, now followed each other in rapid suc- cession. The Cimbri and Teutons, wild northern tribes, were defeated by the Roman general Marius. Civil war then arose between Marius and Sulla, in which more than 100,000 lives were sacrificed. In this, Sulla was victorious. Pompey, a young partisan of Sulla, gained many victories and, upon the death of Sulla, became the most popular man in Rome. Ever since the time of Marius and Sulla, the leading object of the men in power was to gain popularity at any cost, and that not with a view to benefit their country, but to gratify their own ambition and avarice. Hence the his- tory of this period down to the establishment of the monarchy, is little more than the personal history of men who endeavored to outdo one another. By far the most eminent and most talented among them was Caius Julius C.xsar, born in b. c. 100, and belonging to one of the most ancient patrician families. He was fast rising in popular favor at the time when Pompey was quietly en- joying the fruits of his victories. Julius Cssar was a man of the highest culture, and was indefatigable in everything that he undertook. He was equally great as an orator, an author, 280 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. a creneral and a statesman. He has been called " the greatest man in all history ; " and Shakespeare styles him "The foremost man of all this world." Csesar was of slender build, fair, of a delicate constitution, and subject to violent headaches and epileptic fits. He did not, however, make these disor- ders a pretence for indulging himself. On the contrary, he sought in war a remedy for his infirmities, endeavoring to strengthen his constitution by long marches, and by simple diet. Thus he contended with his distemper and for- tified himself against its attacks. He was a good horseman, and brought that exercise to such perfection by practice that he could sit a horse at full speed with his hands behind him. He also accustomed himself to dictate letters as he rode on horseback, and found sufficient employment for two or more secretaries at once. As an evidence of his naturally ambitious temperament, a remark made by Caesar whilst coming to a little town near the Alps may be given. His friends, jocularly, took occasion to say, " Can there be any disputes for offices here ? " upon which Caesar answered, " I had rather be the first man here, than the second in Rome." He seemed totally without fear. On one occasion, when some of his soldiers became panic-stricken, and were fleeing from the enemy, he took one by the neck, and making him face about, said, 'You are taking the wrong road ; this is the way towards the enemy." When Caesar was at war with Egypt, its princess, Cleopatra, with a friend named Apollodorus, got into a small boat, and in the dusk of the evening made for the palace which Caesar had captured. As she saw it difficult to en- ter undiscovered, she rolled herself up in a carpet; Apollodorus tied her up at full length, like a bale of goods, and carried her in at the gates to Caesar. This strategem of hers, which was a strong proof of her wit and ingenuity, is said to have opened her the way to Caesar's heart ; and he insisted that she should reign with him. After this, Pharnaces, a king of Pontus, stirred up all the kings and te- trarchs of Asia against the Romans. Caesar defeated them in a great batde, and ruined their whole army. In the account he gave one of his friends in Rome of the rapidity with which he gained his victory, he made use of only three words, " I came, I saw, I conquered." Caesar having conquered all the world then known to Rome, was told by the senate that he must now disband his forces. This Caesar refused to do, and crossing the Rubicon, a river dividing Gaul from Italy, he marched towards Rome. A Roman army, under Pompey, was sent against him. Pompey was completely defeated, and fled to Egypt, where he was murdered. Caesar was now virtually the sole ruler of the Roman empire, and on his. STATUE OF JULIUS C^CoAR. {2Sl) 282 THE COLDEN TREASURY. return from Africa he silenced all fears and apprehensions by proclaiming a ireneral amnesty, and by assuring his fellow-citizens that his sole object was to restore peace and order. He celebrated four triumphs, and entertained both soldiers and citizens with every kind of public amusement. During his stay at Rome, in b. c. 46, he introduced his celebrated reform of the calendar, which, through the ignorance or caprice of the pagan pontiffs, had fallen into the greatest disorder. Cfesar not only remedied the existing evil, but made regu- lations to prevent its recurrence; and the calendar, as reformed by him, re- mained in use until a. d. 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII. introduced another reformed calendar, which is still in use. Whilst in Rome a conspiracy was formed against him. He was warned in reti^ard to it, but with characteristic indifference, for he never feared death, he paid no attention to the warning. A soothsayer also forewarned him of a great danger which threatened him on the ides of March, and when the day was come, as he was going to the senate-house, he called to the soothsayer, and said, laughing, " The I'des of March are come ; " to which he answered sofdy, "Yes; but they are not gone." When Caesar entered the house, the senate rose to do him honor, but the conspirators drew their swords and gathered round him in such a manner that, whatever way he turned, he saw nothing but steel gleaming in his face, and met nothing but wounds. The other senators were seized with conster- nation and horror, insomuch that they durst neither fly nor assist, nor even utter a word. Cjesar, seeing himself doomed, drew his robe over his face, and yielded to his fate. The assassination was soon followed by civil war. Mark Antony, a friend of Caesar, and Octavius, a son of Caesar's niece, made war against the assassins Brutus and Cassius, and defeated them upon the plains of Philippi. These conspirators afterwards committed suicide by falling upon their own swords. Antony and Octavius were now the chief rulers in the Roman empire. Antony married Octavia, the sister of Octavius, but afterwards divorced and left her for Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. Octavius then declared war against Egypt and defeated Antony and Cleopatra, who then put an end to their own existence. When Octavius, in b. c. 39, returned from the East, the senate and the people vied with each other in their servility and adulation. Two years later he received the tide of Augustus, that is, the Venerable, a title which was af- terwards assumed by all the Roman emperors. The most important event which marks the reign of Augustus is the birth of Christ. The reign of Augustus, or more correctly, the period from the death of Sulla to that of Augustus, forms the eolden aee of Roman literature. The Latin language then reached its highest development, and the greatest poets, orators and historians belong to that period. ITALY. 283 In the first century of the Christian era, Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans ; and history can show nothing to match the horrors of that siew, or the deadly work produced by war and famine. Mothers snatched the morsels from their children's lips. The robbers broke open every shut door in search of food, and tortured most horribly all who were thouf^ht to have a hidden store. Gaunt men, who had crept beyond the walls by night to c^ather a few wild herbs, were often robbed by these wretches of the poor handful of green leaves for which they had risked their lives. Yet, in spite of this, the starving people went out into the valleys in such numbers that the Romans caught them at the rate of 500 a day, and crucified them before the walls, un- til there was no room to plant and no wood to make another cross. The siege lasted 134 days, during which 1,100,000 Jews perished, and 97,000 were taken captive. Some were kept to grace the Roman triumph ; some were sent to toil in the mines of Egypt ; some fought in provincial theatres with gladiators and wild beasts; those under seventeen were sold as slaves. Eleven persecutions of the Christians — some fiercer, others fainter — marked the dying struggles of the many-headed monster, Paganism. More than three centuries were filled with the sound and sorrows of the great con- flict. In the tenth year of the brutal Nero's reign the first great persecution of Christians took place. A fire, such as never had burned before, consumed nearly the whole city of Rome ; and men said that the emperor's own hand had kindled the flames out of mere wicked sport, and that, while the blazing city was filled with shrieks of pain and terror, he sat calmly looking on and singing verses on the burning of Troy to the music of his lyre. This story finding ready acceptance among the homeless and beggared people, the tyrant strove, by inflicting tortures on the Christians, to turn the suspicion from himself upon them. On the pretence that they were guilty of the atrocious crime, he crucified many ; some, covered with the skins of wild beasts, were worried to death by dogs in the theatres ; tender girls and gray- haired men were torn by tigers, or hacked with the swords of gladiators. But the worst sight was seen in the gardens of Nero, where chariot races were held by night, in which the emperor himself dressed as a common driver, whipped his horses round the goal. There stood poor men and women of the Christian faith, their clothes smeared with pitch, or other combustible, all blazing as torches to throw light on the sport of the imperial demon. In the wider persecutions that followed, for this one was chiefly confined to Rome, there was perhaps, no scene of equal horror. During these persecutions the Christians took refuge in the catacombs or underground caves. These had been used, at first, simply as places of wor- ship and sepulture. But now an entire change in their construcdon took 284 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. place. They became obviously designed for the purposes of safety and con- cealment. Centuries after this period, during the short and tumultuous career of Cola di Rienzi, the catacombs were the scenes of the plots and counterplots of tiiat troublous time; and were also used as places of refuge and concealment. Rienzi, the son of an innkeeper and a washerwoman, was, in early youth, deeply read in the great masters of the Latin tongue. Cicero and Livy were his special favorites. His classic enthusiasm gained for him the friendship of Petrarch. He was very poor, reduced to a single coat, when he received the post of apostolic notary, which rescued him from poverty. The feuds of the noble families, Colonna, Orsini and Savelli, filled the streets with daily riot and bloodshed. Rienzi, whose fiery eloquence made him a man of mark in Rome, might often be seen in the centre of an eagerly attentive crowd, inter- preting the words of some old brass or marble tablet, and dwelling fondly on the ancient glories of senate and people. Encouraged by the flashes of pa- triotic fire which from time to time burst from the enslaved people, he formed the bold design of seizing the helm of the state. Rienzi drove out the nobles from Rome, and was elected tribune. Italy flourished under his government; but his rule was brief. The nobles, se- cretly gathering strength, rose in arms against him ; whilst the citizens seeing his inability to cope with the nobles also revolted. His palace was stormed and burnt, and he himself stabbed to death. The career of Rienzi has been made the subject of one of Bulwer's finest romances; and the reader will find therein a picture of Italy in mediaeval times, more faithful than that usually given in professed history. Rienzi has also -been made the subject of a beautiful tragedy by Miss Mitford. Byron thus writes of the great patriot : " Then turn we to our latest tribune's name, PVom her ten thousand tyrants turn to thee, Redeemer of dark centuries of shame — The friend of Pctraich — hope of Italy — Rienzi ! last of Romans ! " No city in the world can show greater objects of interest than are to be found in Rome. The remains of all the epochs of civilization of which we have any knowledge, can be found there within a day's ride. In its galleries is to be found the most of what we have of antique art. The greatest of antique structures in Italy is the Colosseum. It was built in honor of Titus, and it is said that 60,000 Jews were engaged on it ten years. In the middle ages it was a feudal fortress for a long time, and finally a quarry from which were built churches and palaces, until by its consecration as holy ground, on account of the number of martyrs supposed to have been immolated there, I 1-8-3; 286 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. further ravage was stopped. The subsequent repairs, though greatly inter- ferino- with its picturesqueness, will doubtless have the effect of preserving the remainder for centuries more. It is said to have given seats to 87,000 spectators, and was inaugurated a. d. 81, the same year in which Titus died, on which occasion 5,000 wild animals and 10,000 captives were slain. The in- auguration lasted 100 days. St. Peter's, the great marvel of Christian Rome, is built on or near the place where stood the Temple of Jupiter Vaticanus, so called because it was the place where the vates, or augurs, made their auguries from the victims sacrificed, and from which is derived the name borne by the papal palace of the Vatican. The first structure on this site was an oratory erected in a. d. 90 to indicate the place where St. Peter was buried. Constantine the Great erected a basilica on the spot. The present structure was commenced by Julius II. about 1503, under the direction of Bramanti ; but the present form of the basilica is due more to Michael Angelo than to any other of the many architects employed on it. The Vatican is the capitol of modern Rome, and its gallery of sculpture the most complete and valuable in existence. It is three stories high, and comprises an infinite number of saloons, galleries, corridors, chapels, a library of 100,000 volumes, a museum which is immense, twenty courts, eight grand stairways and 200 small ones. It is far superior to any palace in the world in history, being the most ancient and decidedly the most celebrated of all the papal palaces, composed of a mass of buildings erected by many different popes, covering a space 1,200 feet in length and 1,000 in breadth. It is the winter residence of the pope. In the Vatican are to be found the greatest works of Raphael, who is uni versally acknowledged to be the greatest painter that has ever lived. The "Transfiguration " was the last and greatest painting of the immortal master, painted for the cathedral of Narbonne by order of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, afterward Clement VII. For many years the picture was preserved in the church of St. Pietro, in Montorio, from which the French had it re- moved to Paris. In 18 15, on its return, it was placed in the Vatican. The idea throughout the piece seems to express the miseries of human life, and lead those who are afflicted to look to heaven for comfort and relief. The upper portion of the composition represents Mount Tabor; on the ground the three apostles are lying, affected by the supernatural light which proceeds from the divinity of Christ, who, accompanied by Moses and Elijah, is floating in the air. On one side are nine apostles ; a multitude of people on the other, bringing to them a demoniac boy whose limbs are dreadfully convulsed, which produces on every countenance an expression of terror. Two of the apostles point toward heaven. The figures on the mount of the two prophets and the three disciples are magnificently executed, while the figure of the ITALY. 287 Saviour is of surpassing loveliness. Before Raphael had finished the patnt- incr, he was himself called away to the land of the blessed, to behold in reality the spiritual beings which inspiration had led him to portray in such a lovely manner. He was but thirty-seven : and while his body lay in state his last work was suspended over the couch, and was carried before him at his funeral while yet the last traces of his master-hand were wet upon the canvas. ,^p/f/?^.frvivv\ RAPHAEL. " And when all beheld Him where he lay, how changed from yesterdaj — Him in that hour cut off, and at his head His last great work ; when, entering in, thej- look"d 288 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Now on tlie dead, then on that masterpiece ; Now on his face, h'feless and colorless, Then on those forms divine that lived and breathed And would live on for ages — ail were mo\'ed, And sighs burst forth, and loudest lamentations." FLORENCE, To Florence has been awarded the title of the fairest city of the earth. Who can doubt it, situated as it is in the rich valley of the Arno, surrounded by beauties of nature and of art, immortalized by Byron and Rogers, and re- vered as the birthplace of Dante, Petrarch, Boccacio, Galileo, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Benvenuto Cellini, and Andrea del Sarto ? What beautiful recollections of the past must naturally be awakened in the appreciative mind while tarrying in a spot which has given birth to such noble contributors to poetry and the arts? Beautiful gardens adorned with statues, vases, foun- tains, and other decorations, as well as the open squares or piazzas, continually attract the eye of the visitor ; and the palaces, which are very numerous, each containing rare paintings and sculptures, form the principal objects of interest in this delightful city, which is the pride of Tuscany. The climate of Florence is delightful, varying but thirty degrees from summer to winter. The " Divine Comedy" of Dante was the first great Christian poem ; and it has been called one of the " landmarks of history." The subject or plot may be thus stated : Dante, astray in a gloomy wood and beset by wild beasts, is rescued by the shade of the poet Virgil, who has left his proper abode in a painless region of hell for the purpose of guiding Dante through the world of lost souls, at the request of Beatrice, whom Dante had known in his youth, but who is now an inhabitant of heaven. Over hell-gate an awful inscription is placed: " Through me you pass into the city of woe; Through me you pass eternal woes to prove; Through me among the blasted race you go. 'Twas Justice did my most high Author move. And I have been the work of Power divine, Of supreme Wisdom, and of primal Love. No creature has an elder date than mine. Unless eternal, and I have no end. O you that enter me, all hope resign." From agony to agony the pilgrims plunge deeper and deeper into the abyss of hell, meeting sinner after sinner whose ghastly story is told at more or less length, until they reach the visible, abhorrent presence of Lucifer, who from "perfect in beauty" has by rebellion become absolute in hideous horror. Mid-Lucifer occupies the earth's centre of gravity. Virgil, with Dantfc ITALY. 289 clinging to him, clambers down the upper half of Lucifer and climbs up the lower half, whereby the twain find themselves emerging from the depth of hell upon the Mountain of Purgatory. This purgatory is the domain of pain and hope — finite pain, assured hope. Here the shade of Beatrice assuming in her own person the guidance of her lover, Virgil vanishes. Under the guardianship of Beatrice, Dante mounts through eight suc- cessive heavens to that ninth which includes within itself all blessedness. Dante was of middle stature, and had a long face and aquiline nose. His complexion was very dark, and his countenance always sad. The most important church in Florence is the church of Santa Croce. It contains monuments erected to the memor)' of the most celebrated men of Italy. Byron alludes to it in the fourth canto of " Childe Harold:" " In Santa Croce's holy precincts lie Ashes which make it holier; diist which is, Even in itself, an immortality, Though there were nothing save the past, and this, The particle of those sublimities Which have relapsed to chaos : here repose Angelo's, Alfieri's bones, and his, The starry Galileo, with his woes ; Here Machiavelli's earth returned to whence it rose." w * GALILEO. The principal monuments of the church are as follows : Michael Angelo Buonarotti. The three statues of painting, sculpture, and architecture appear as mourners. His bust, by Lorenzi, Is considered a most correct likeness. The position of this monument was selected by Michael Angelo himself that he might see from his tomb the dome of the cathedral, the delight and study of his mind ; Alfieri's monument, by Canova, erected at the private expense of the Countess of Albany; colossal monument to Dante; monument of Machiavelli ; also ol Lanzi, writer on Italian art. VENICE. The city of Venice, formerly called the " Queen of the Adriatic," is un- rivalled as to beauty and situation. It stands on a bay near the Gulf of Venice. In this gulf, or Adriatic sea, the ceremony of espousing the Adriatic took place annually on Ascension day. It was performed by the doge, accom- panied by all the nobility and ambassadors In gondolas, dropping into the sea a ring from his bucentaur or state barge. This ceremony was omitted for the first time in many centuries in 1797. 19 290 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. DOGES PALACE, VENICE. In 1 1 72 the appointment of the doge and other magistrates was vested in the grand council of four hundred and eighty members. Change after change took place, until a Council of Ten secured the government to themselves. Under this unchecked oligarchy a reign of terror began. The ten were terri- ble ; but still more terrible were the three inquisitors — two black, one red — appointed in 1454. Deep mystery hung over the three. They were elected by the ten ; none else knew their names. Their great work was to kill ; and no man — doge, councillor, or inquisitor — was beyond their reach. Secredy they pronounced a doom ; and ere long the stiletto or the poison cup had done its work, or the dark waters of the lagoon had closed over a life. The spy was everywhere. No man dared to speak out, for his most intimate com- panions might be on the watch to betray him. Bronze vases, shaped like a lion's mouth, gaped at the corner of every square to receive the names of sus- pected persons. Gloom and suspicion haunted gondola and hearth. No scene in Venice is of greater interest to the traveller than the " Bridge of Sighs," immortalized by Byron in the fourth canto of " Harold Childe:" " I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs ; A palace and a prison on each hand : I saw from out the waves her structures rise, As from tlie stroke of the enchanter's wand : A thousand years their cloudy wings expand Around me, and a dying glory smiles O'er the far times, when many a subject land Look'd to the winged lion's marble piles, Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles." Criminals were conveyed across this bridge to hear their sentence, and ITALY. 291 from there led to their execution ; from this it derives its melancholy but ap- propriate name. The Grand Canal, which takes a serpentine course through the city, is in- tersected by 146 smaller canals, over which there are 306 bridges, which being very steep, and intended only for foot-passengers, are cut into steps on either side. These canals, crossed by bridges, form the water-streets of Venice, the greater part of the intercourse being carried on by means of gondolas. They are long, narrow, light vessels, painted black, according to an ancient law,, containing in the centre a cabin nicely fitted up with glass windows, blinds,, cushions, etc. ; those belonging to private families are much more richly- decorated. PADUA. A little over twenty miles from Venice lies Padua, the most ancient city of the north of Italy. It abounds in tradition, and its foundation was ascribed to Antenor, after the siege of Troy. It was taken by Alaric, Attila, and the Lom- bards, but restored by Charlemagne to its former grandeur, and under his successors it became flourishing and independent. The appearance of the city is very singular: large portions of irregular unoccupied ground, situated on the outskirts, adds to its peculiarity. The houses are supported by rows of pointed arches ; the city is of a triangular form, surrounded with walls and intersected with canals. It has a low, marshy situation, at the terminus of the Canal of Monselici, between the Brenta and Bacchiglione. Travellers are generally much disappointed in the appearance of this city, it being very damp and exceedingly gloomy ; the streets are narrow, unclean, and very monoto- nous ; they are bordered by arcades, and have no leading thoroughfares. The University of Padua was quite celebrated in the fourteenth and fif- teenth centuries ; it was not only patronized by an immense number of students from all parts of Europe, but also from Mohammedan countries. Dante and Petrarch were among its pupils ; Harvey received his degree of medicine here in 1602 ; Galileo and Guglielmi were among its professors of philosophy. VERONA. Verona is delightfully situated on the river Adige, which flows through it and divides it into two unequal parts, forming a peninsula. The river, being wide and rapid, is crossed by four noble stone bridges. Verona is particularly celebrated for having been the birthplace of many distinguished men, some of whom are worthy of particular mention: The celebrated Roman poet Catullus, born b. c. 86 ; he lived and died poor, as many other poets have done, although he possessed a superior genius. At the time of his death he was thirty years old, in the flower of his age, and at the height of his reputation. He had a great admiration for the fair sex: in 292 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. speaking of Lesbia, and how many kisses would satisfy him, said that he de- sired as many as there were grains of sand in the deserts of Libya and stars in the heavens. AureHus Macer, a Latin poet in the age of Augustus ac- quired considerable fame. Cornelius Nepos, the Latin historian, who flour- ished in the time of Julius Csesar ; he left the "Lives of the Illustrious Greek and Roman Captains" as a monument to his memory; he died in the reign of Augustus. " Caius Secundus Pliny the elder," one of the most learned of the ancient Roman writers, born a. d. 23. There was one person who did more to increase, by his own efforts, the fame of the city, than all the rest of its natives. This was the celebrated painter Paul Cagliari, surnamed Veronese from having been born in Verona, which event took place in 1530. He was the son of a sculptor, and at an early age manifested a strong desire to become a painter. He was styled by the Italians " the happy painter." Titian and Tintoretto were selected as his models of perfection. Verona is distinguished as one of the most industrious towns of Italy. It has nine establishments for weaving silk; sixty silk-twist factories; large leather, earthenware and soap factories ; also others for the weaving of linen and woollen fabrics. Its trade consists chiefly in these articles ; also in raw silk, grain, oil, sumach and agricultural produce. Two weekly markets are located here; two fairs take place annually, and continue for fifteen days each. The fruits and flowers raised in Verona are remarkably fine. The climate is healthy, but a litde keen, on account of its near approach to the Alps. MILAN. Milan is the principal city of northern Italy, nearly circular in its formation, and surrounded by a wall which was mostly erected by the Spaniards in 1555. The space between the canal and wall is laid out in gardens and planted with fine trees ; the city proper is about eight miles in circumference, and although, like most ancient cities, it is very irregularly laid out, yet it is one of the most interesting in Europe, full of activity and wealth, has some noble thorough- fares, and displays a number of fine buildings kept in thorough repair. Milan stands at an elevated height of 452 feet above the sea. It was an- nexed to the Roman dominions by Scipio Nasica, 191 B. c. It ranked the sixth city in the Roman empire in the fourth century. In the twelfth century it was the capital of a republic, and afterward of a duchy in the families of Sforza and Visconti. It was held by Spain, after the battle of Pavia, until it was ceded to Austria in 17 14. It was taken by the French in 1796, and also after the battle of Marengo, in 1800. From 1805 until 18 14 it was the capi- tal of the kingdom of Italy. Milan cathedral is the finest Gothic edifice in Italy, and, as a church, ranks next to St. Peter's. No person can fail to be impressed with its sublimity; II ITALY. . 2^3 and the idea suggests itself to one beholding it that, although nature in her works was so perfectly faultless and impressive, man, in his efforts to com- pete with her, was brought into very close alliance. If so grand at all times, how greatly must that grandeur be increased when the entire buildino- is il- luminated, as it was after the battle of Magenta, and to celebrate at the same time the anniversary of the five days of March, 1848, when the Milanese rose and expelled their Austrian masters ? After the entire city was illuminated, gorgeous rays of light, representing the Italian colors, red, green and white, blazed forth simultaneously from this magnificent edifice; spire, roof and body presendng a mysterious grandeur and sublime beauty, with which no one could fail to be everlastingly impressed. The delicate tints of the crimson, as they reflected upon the white marble of die cathedral, were scarcely surpassed by the deeper color which it afterward assumed, and then so mysteriously changed into green, and then to the purest white. In Milan is to be seen the celebrated painting of "The Last Supper," by Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest painting by one of the greatest painters that has ever lived. NAPLES. The country around Naples is rich in beauties of scenery ; nothing can well be conceived to be more beautiful. Quite a celebrated author remarks that he congratulated himself upon being delayed on the route, so that he did not arrive at Naples until late at night, for it enabled him to anticipate v.ith brighter hopes the beauty of the scene that opened on his eyes with the hght of morning. The situation of Naples is as fine as can be imagined, being partly seated on a spacious bay, upon the shores of which are magnificent villas and gardens. It is principally in respect to situation that this city surpasses most others. The streets are straight, and paved with square blocks of lava laid in mortar, and said to resemble the old Roman roads. Owing to the mildness of the climate, a great deal of business is carried on In the open streets, and, while walking along, you are accosted by numerous different traders. There is but little real magnificence in architecture; and, though many of the buildings are erected on a very grand scale, they are generally overloaded with ornament. The houses resemble those of Paris, except that they are on a larger scale. Naples is very ancient. It was founded by the people of Cumce, a colony from Greece, who gradually spread themselves round the bay of Naples, and was called from this circumstance Neapolis, or " The New City." In after years it became, as it is now, a seat of pleasure. Its hot baths, the number and excellence of its theatres and other places of amusement, its matchless scenery, the mildness of its climate, and the luxury and effeminacy of its inhabitants, made it a favorite retreat of the wealthy Romans. The nobility are fond of great show and splendor. The females are 204 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. proud, even when very poor. They never go out unless to ride, and bestow great pains and time upon their personal charms, to fascinate the other sex. The principal promenade of the ladies is on their own roof, which is generally adorned with shrubs and flowers. Within a few hours' journey from Naples are the ruins of Psestum, and also the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79. The grandeur, gloom and majesty of the temples of Paestum, standing alone as they do amid their mountain wilderness, similar to Baalbec, without a vestige near of any power that could have raised them, surpasses anything of the kind on earth. The principal ruins are the Basilica, the Temple of Neptune, the Amphitheatre, the Temple of Vesta and the Forum. The early history of Pompeii is involved in obscurity, but the supposition is that it was settled by Osci and Pelasgi prior to the establishment on this coast of the Greek colonies from Euboea. It fell into the hands of the Sam- nites about the year 440 B. c, and was taken by the Romans eighty years afterward ; during the Social War it revolted with the other Campanian towns, and but little more was known respecting it until it was visited by an earth- quake A. D. 63, which occasioned great destruction ; it was afterward over- whelmed, in 79, by the eruption of Vesuvius, and continued to be buried under the ashes and other volcanic matter for about 1,669 years. Notwithstanding that the celebrated architect and engineer, Domenico Fontana, who was em- ployed in constructing an aqueduct to convey water to Torre, fell in with the ruins of the city, no particular attention was paid to the discovery until 1748, when the peasants were employed in cutting a ditch, since which time it has continued to be an object of great interest, and since 1755 the progress of excavation has been pretty constantly prosecuted. Pompeii has the reputation of being " the most wonderful of the antiqui- ties of Italy, and one which it is said never disappoints the traveller who is at all acquainted with the history of ancient Rome." Herculaneum was destroyed by torrents of volcanic mud, upon which, in subsequent eruptions, ashes and streams of lava fell to a depth varying from seventy to no feet: no great loss of life resulted from the destruction of this city. It is said by an eminent historian to have been built on elevated ground between two rivers, thereby rendering the atmosphere perfectly healthy. Some quite distinguished Romans resided in the city and suburbs. Too much cannot be learned or said of these ruins of antiquity, with the history of which every student must be familiar. The melancholy destruction of such a city, the desolation which spread from dwelling to dwelling, the flight of mother, father, sister and brother from the scene of terror and confusion, must awaken feelings of awe and sympathy in every human heart. Mothers, with infants in their arms, seeking safety and protection, gathering their little ITALY. 295 ones around them, trying to escape uninjured, and yet how many were plunged into a fearful eternity ! A united Italy had always been the dream of her greatest patriots; but it was not till 1870 that this dream was realized. The main agents in bringing about this result were Count Cavour, one of the greatest of modern statesmen, and the patriots Mazzini and Garibaldi. In 1848, when France had once more cast out her king, the Italians rushed to arms for the purpose of driving DESTRUCTION OF POMPEII. out the Austrians from Italy, and of becoming a united nadon. Pius IX., who had recendy become pope, had given some unexpected evidences of a sym- pathy with the popular desire. He permitted a body of Roman volunteers to join the patriot ranks, but, being a man of peace, he soon withdrew his per- mission. General Garibaldi spent the largest portion of the years 1S51, '52, and '53 296 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. on Staten Island, and the house in which he hved has been made, in a way, a memorial by die Italian colony of New York, who purchased it, and after suit- ably marking it with a marble tablet commemorative of the great revolutionist's stay in it, presented it to Antonio Meucci, whose guest he was during most of his stay in the United States. Signor Meucci knew Garibaldi in South America, and for many years lived in Havana, Cuba. Originally a sculptor, he was but in moderate circumstances when Garibaldi, escaping from Austrian tyranny in Piedmont, took ship at POPE PIUS IX. Genoa and arrived in New York. He offered him the shelter of his humble home on Staten Island and the "Liberator" gladly accepted it. The twain, with General Avezzano, formed a partnership in the manufacture of stearine and parafifine candles on a small scale, and the furnace in which they melted and mixed their material before runnineinto the moulds is still standincr in the yard of the brewery, where it is slowly crumbling away under the tooth of time, surrounded by huge beer casks. ITALY. 297 Dr. Nardyz, who was then an officer of the corvette, and subsequently served on Garibaldi's staff in Italy, thus describes the hero's appearance at that time: "He was about five feet six or seven inches high, and weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds. His eyes were light and his hair and beard red. He was very quick and active on his feet, and very pleasant and agree- able in his manners. At the time he was quite poor, all his property in Italy having been sequestered, and he acted as salesman of the candles he helped to manufacture. They were a novelty at the time, and he was concerned in their invention. He used to carry them to New York in a basket and go about from store to store disposing of them and soliciting orders for more." Garibaldi was high up in masonry, and while a resident of Staten Island he established the masonic lodge in New York which now bears his name. GARIBALDI. The marble tablet affixed to the front of the house bears a legend, of which the following is a translation : Here lived and labored, from 185 1 to 1853, GUISEPPE GARIBALDI, THE HERO OF TWO WORLDS. March 9th, 1884. Erected by Friends. In return for his services to Italy and Victor Emmanuel (although he had litde love for the latter) Garibaldi was given a pension of two hundred thou- sand francs a year. He retired to the island of Caprera, and on this before rather barren rock he established a home which was truly delightful. He 298 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. made it a garden spot, but, no doubt, amid its enjoyments his memory often reverted to the time when he was an exile in the humble abode on Staten Island. Garibaldi for a time governed Naples. The people were asked to declare their wishes in regard to their political future. They voted, by vast majorities, in favor of union with Sardinia. King Victor Emmanuel, in accepting the new trust, summoned the people to concord and self-denial. " All parties," he said, " must bow before the majesty of the Italian nation, which God uplifts." Humbert IV., King of Italy, the eldest son of King Victor Emmanuel, was born March 14th, 1S44. At an early age he obtained an insight into political and military life under the guid- ance of his father. He took part in the reorganization of the ancient kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and in 1862 he visited Naples and Palermo, where he shared the popularity of Gari- baldi. In 1868 he married his cousin, the Princess Marguerite of Savoy. He succeeded to the throne on the death of his fa- ther, in 1878. In the same year, as he was entering Na- ples, a man named Passanante approached the royal carriage and attempted to assassinate him with a poniard. The king escaped with a slight scratch, but the prime minister, who was with him, was wounded rather badly in the thigh. King Hum- bert has shown himself to be a eood king and brave soldier. Byron, in his " Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," thus apostrophizes Italy, its remarkable history passing vividly before his mind ; " Italia! O Italia! thou who hast The fatal gift of beauty, which became A funeral dower of present woes and past, On thy sweet brow is sorrow plough'd by shame And annals graved in characters of flame." KING HUMBERT IV. ANGOULEME. FRANCE. ^UROPE was gradually peopled from Asia. Four great tides of migration may be noted. First came the wave which peopled Greece and Italy; then Celts and Cimbri, who occupied Spain, ^^^ France and Britain ; in the third place the Germans, who filled VJ^CV'' Central Europe ; and lastly, Sarmatian or Sclavonic tribes, who peo- • pled the north-east, and upon whom pressed the Huns from Mount Ural, and Tartars from beyond the Caspian. Early in the sixth century we find France parcelled out among three nations — Franks in the north and centre, Visigoths in the south-west and Burgundians in the south-east. Underlying these ruling races was a great mass of Celts or Gauls, and some Roman settlers, reduced to a state of vas- salage. Clovis, the leader of the Salian Franks, was at first merely a captain of leudes, or free warriors, with no tide to command except what his personal qualities gave him. He roved from city to city, until the influence of the clergy, and the gift of a gold crown and purple robes from Constantinople, gave him some show of royalty, and then he fixed his court at Pans. Beginning with Pharamond in 418, the list of Merovingian kings of the '^ '^ (299) 300 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Franks contains thirty-four names. Third of these was Meroveg or Meer- v/iCT (sea-warrior), from whom the race derived their name. And the fifth was Clovis, who has been already named as the true founder of the French monarchy. Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, was born about 742, and when twenty- nine years of age became ruler of the Prankish kingdom. His reign divides itself into two parts. The one, extending from its open- incr in 771 to the complete subdual of the Saxons in 804, was spent in con- stant wars on almost every frontier ; the other, from 804 to his death, was de- voted to the organization and improvement of the vast empire which his sword had won. The chief wars of Charlemagne were with the Saxons beyond the Rhine, the Lombards of Italy, the Saracens of Spain, and the Avars, who occupied modern Hungary. He fought also with the Danes, and the Sclavonic tribes on liis eastern border. Charlemagne died of pleurisy in his seventy-second year. A year before, in the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, amid the applause of the assembled no- bles, he had caused his only living son Louis to assume the imperial crown. Louis le Debonnaire, fitter for a monk's cell than a selfish court or brawl- ing camp, succeeded his great father, and did all his gentle nature could for twenty-six years to humanize his subjects. But belted bishops and lawless chiefs were too strong for him. War among his three sons then divided the empire. Lothaire, the eldest, seized the imperial title ; but Charles and Louis, uniting, defeated him in 841, on the bloody field of Fontenaille. Two years later a treaty was made at Verdun, by which France and Germany became separate and independent states. Charles held France ; Louis ruled Ger- many; while Lothaire received Italy, with some broken strips along the Rhone and Rhine. As had happened in the family of Clovis, the race of Charlemagne, called Carlovingians, grew very degenerate ; and there is noth- ing in the history of kings branded with nicknames, such as the Stammerer, the Fat, the Foolish, the Lazy, to challenge our notice or respect. Such men misgoverned France, until, in 987, under Hugh Capet, a new dynasty arose. With that date the history of the Franks ends ; that of the French begins. The history of France soon merges, from this period, into that of the Cru- sades, when all Christendom began to be aroused by the wild eloquence of Peter the Hermit. This man, said to have been a native of Amiens, was a soldier in his youth. Upon the death of his wife, he retired broken-hearted to a hermit's cell, from which, however, his innate love of change drove him a pilgrim to the Holy Land. Returning thence full of anger at the degradation of the sacred spot, he obtained leave from Pope Urban II. to call all true Christians to arms ; and as he passed through Italy and France, a fleshless spectre, clad in mean rai- I FRANCE. 3QJ ment, with bare head and feet, and staggering under a heavy crucifix, his fierce war-cry woke an echo in milHons of hearts. Within the same year two general councils were called by the pope one at Placentia, the other at Clermont, in Auvergne. At the latter, both the pope and the hermit spoke in words of fire. With one voice all who heard cried out in the old ¥r(tnc\\, '' Dieti li volt /" — "It is the will of God ! " and few there were who left the old market-place on that day without a red cross on the shoulder, to mark them as soldiers in the sacred cause. The great captain of the first crusade (war of the cross), was Godfrey of Bouillon, or Boulogne, the Duke of Basse-Lorraine. This leader is the hero of Torquato Tasso's great poem, "Jerusalem Delivered." Godfrey one day, in single combat with a Turk, cut his foe in two ; one-half fell into the river, the other sat still on horseback — " by which blow," sajs Robert the Monk, "one Turk was made two Turks." At last the capital of Palestine, lovel}' even in her desolation, rose in their view. The knights, springing from their saddles, wet the turf«with tears of mingled joy and grief. Barefooted and weeping the little band advanced. Under a sky of burning copper, with no water in the pools and brooks, they fought for five long weeks before Godfrey and his stormers stood victorious within the walls. The massacre of 70,000 Moslems, and the burning of the Jews in their synagogue, stained the glory of the conquerors. Forty-eight years passed, and then a second crusade began, which ended disastrously, although Jerusalem still remained in the hands of two orders of military monks — the Hospitallers and Templars. But when the news came that Jerusalem had fallen before Saladin, the great Sultan of Egypt, and that the golden cross, which had glittered for eighty-eight years on the Mosque of Omar, marking its transformation into a Christian church, had been trampled in the streets, Europe for the third time girt herself for war. The three great western princes took the cross — Richard I. of England, Philip Augustus of France and Frederic Barbarossa (Redbeard) of Germany. A tax, called Saladin's tithe, was laid upon Christendom to meet the expenses of the war. As was usual in all the Crusades, complete absolution from sin was promised to every soldier who struck a blow at the infidel. It was, however, nearly a year after their setting out that the royal warriors appeared before Acre ; Philip first, Richard shordy afterwards. New vigor sdrred in the besiegers ; and Saladin must have trembled for his hold upon the key of Syria when he saw the plain whitened with a new camp of many thousand tents. One glimpse of the great Saracen's character must not be passed by. Even at so great a crisis, this generous foe sent frequent pres- ents of pears and snow to cool the fever, of which Richard and Philip lay sick in their tents. Ere long the broken ramparts of the city yielded to the crusaders, and the sultan fell back towards the south. 302 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Soon after the fall of Acre, Philip returned to France. Other Crusades followed, only to end disastrously. The strangest was the Boy Crusade of I 21 2. A shepherd boy, Stephen, of Vendome, gave out that God in a vision had bestowed on him bread, and had sent him with a letter to the King of France. Round him gathered 30,000 children of about twelve years. Boys were there, and o-irls in boys' clothes, on horseback and afoot. The tears and prayers of their parents could not turn them from tiieir mad design. The strange flame spread through all France; from castle and from hut the litde ones fled to follow the car of Stephen. With wa.x candles in their hands, clad in pil- grim's dress, they moved, singing hymns, over the hot dusty plains of Prov- ence, upheld through all the toils and terrors of the way by the wild hope that the waters of the sea, drying up before them, would open a path to the Holy Land. Robbed by the way, they were yet more pitilessly cheated in Marseilles. Two merchants agreed to take them to Palestine, for the love of God, as the canting scoundrels said. The children set sail in seven ships. Two of these were wrecked, and all on board lost. The other five bore their precious freight to Egypt, where all were sold as slaves. It is some consola- tion to know that the rascally merchants were soon after hanged in Sicily. The life of the Middle Ages is deeply colored with the brilliant hues of chivalry. There the knight is the central figure — the model of mediaeval art — the hero of mediaeval literature — foremost in every court revel and greenwood sport, in the glittering tilt-yard and the dusty battle-field. The tournament has been well called the link which united the peaceful to the warlike life of the knight. They were first held in France, as the French origin of the name seems to show. England and Germany soon followed the example of their neighbors. The lists, in which the encounters took place, were roped or railed off in an oval form, generally between the city and a wood. The open spaces at each end were filled with stalls and galleries for the ladies and the noble spectators. Bayard, who fell in France in 1524, was almost the last of the prcnx chev- aliers of that knighdy land. The Emperor Maximilian I. is still called in Ger- many ''dcr letzte Ritter" — the last knight. In England chivalry, as a system, lasted till the time of Elizabeth. We find a brilliant reflection of chivalry in the romantic literature which grew up about the time of the Crusades. The Romance pictures the knight in his glory, splendid but clumsy; suave and courteous in the extreme, but very often brutal. The enchanted castle with its beautiful and distressed cap- tives, the monster dragons and other terrors to be overcome by the uncon- quered arm of the hero, were the allegorical images of evils existing in that terrible time, when might was the only right, highly magnified and colored by the untaught poets, who sang of them. It is a pity to think that the knight- FRANCE. 3Q3 errant Is a very doubtful character, whose picture, if ever he existed, must have been drawn from those chevaliers who travelled from tournament to tourna- ment, claiming- and receiving hospitality everywhere as citizens of the world. The Romance, owing its birth to chivalry, repaid the benefit by prolonging the life of chivalry for many years. The deeds of Arthur and Charlemagne formed the subjects of some of the earliest romances. The history of France during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries brought into prominence the great names of Richelieu, Mazarin and Colbert. France had already produced one or two great names in literature. Rab- elais, the greatest of all humorists, was born at Touraine in 14S3. His chief work is a satirical romance, of which a giant, Gargnatua, and his son are the heroes. He died in 1553. Montaigne printed his "Essays" in 1580, and they are by far the best of their kind. Our own great essayist, Emerson, calls Montaigne one of the great "representative men" of the world. The great brilliance of the court of Louis XIV. was owing to the cluster of wits and literary men whom he gathered round him. Corneille and Racine, the tragedians ; Moliere and Regnard, the comedians ; Boileau and La Fon- taine, the poets ; La Rochefoucauld and La Bruyere, the wits ; Des Cartes and Pascal, the philosophers ; Bossuet and Arnauld, the divines ; Mabillon and Montfaucon, the scholars ; Bourdaloue and Massillon, the preachers ; all gave lustre to his reign. With such men he lived in close intimacy; and thus, too, he struck a blow at the old noblesse, for his aristocracy of talent, of which he made so much, was drawn almost altogether from the ranks of the people. The writings of these great stars of French literature bear the stamp of the age. They are highly polished and have a stately grace ; but they were written by men who breathed an atmosphere of splendid artificiality ; and they lack, in consequence, "that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin." They were not written for the whole world, but for the favored few who wore ruffles and brocade. Dryden and Pope, who got their inspiration from Paris, are the best examples in English literature of a similar style. Louis XV. being only five years old when his great-grandfather died, the government was placed in the hands of Philip, Duke of Orleans, the nephew of the dead king. This prince, whose licentious extravagance was rivalled by that of his worthless minister, the Cardinal Dubois, held the regency for eight years. When, in 1723, Orleans and Dubois sank within a few months of each other into the grav^, Louis XV. was a boy of fourteen. Three years later began the administration of Cardinal Fleury, tutor to the king, which, lasting for seventeen years marks the best period of a shameful reign. Then, when Fleury died, France went rapidly down the hill. The court, ruled by the painted favorites of the licentious king, Pompadour and Dubarry, exhausted every shape of cosdy debauchery. The last sou of taxation was wrung Irom 304 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. the starving peasants. The soldiers of France were beaten at Dettingen, at Rossbach, and at Minden. Canada, Nova Scotia, and some of the finest of the Antilles were wrested from Louis by the English. The health of the public mind was sapped by the infidelities of Voltaire and the mock sentimen- talism of Rousseau. THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE, Louis XVL succeeded his grandfather on the loth of May, 1774. Then twenty years of age, he had been already four years married to Marie An- toinette, the beautiful daughter of Maria Theresa. The young couple entered with the fresh joy of their years into the gayeties of the coronation, and all hicrh-born France rang with the noise of feasting. But in every square mile of the land there were men whose wives and children cried to them in vain for bread. At last, after many muttered warnings, and long-gathering darkness, the tempest broke in awful fury. A fierce mob, whose souls were leavened with infidelity and brutalized by changeless misery and never-satisfied hunger, raged through the Paris streets. The spark which fired the mine was a rumor that the soldiers were marching to dissolve the Assemblj'. Necker, too, the sole hope of the starving people, had been dismissed. Cockades of green leaves, torn from the trees, became the badge of the rioters. Shots were heard in many quarters. An old man was killed by a bullet from the Ger- man oruards. Then the grim old prison of the Bastile was stormed. Within its dark walls hundreds of innocent hearts had broken, pierced through with the iron of hopeless captivity. The terrible Icltres de cachet — sealed orders from the king to arrest and fling into prison without a trial, and often without any dis- tinct charge — had packed its dungeons with wretched men during the late reign. Little wonder, then, that the first rush of the mob was to the Bastile. Dragging cannon from Les Invalides, they opened a fire upon the walls, burst in, and, seizing the governor, slew him in the Place de Greve. The flames then burst out all through the land, e.xcept in La Vendee. The chateaux of the nobles were pillaged and burned to the ground. Tortures were inflicted by the fierce peasants upon their former masters. The royal Jleur de lis was trampled in the mud, and the Tricolor upraised. One day in autumn a swarm of women gathered around the Hotel de Ville, crying, " Bread ! give bread ! " It became the nucleus of a riotous crowd, surging with wild outcries through the street. Then out came Millard with a drum, who said he would lead them to Versailles. Outside the bar- riers he strove to disperse them, but no — they would go on. Hungry, and wet with heavy rain, when they found that the king and the Assembly woul<' give them only words, they gathered round the palace. Some fool fired oPi FRANCE. 3Q5 them. Sweeping through an open gate, they spread through all the splendid rooms ; and the queen had scarcely time to escape by a secret door, when her bedchamber was filled with a fierce and squalid throng. The timely arrival of Lafayette, and the consent of the king to remove to Paris, alone quelled the tumult. Dark and still darker grew the sky. Mirabeau, "our little mother Mira- beau," as the fishwomen of the gallery used lovingly to call him, was made president of the Assembly in January, 1791. He exerted all his giant genius to quell the storm, whose rising gusts had been felt at the Bastile and Ver- sailles ; and poor Louis clung to the hope that this aristocratic darlino- of the rabble might yet save him. But Mirabeau died in April ; and while the sprino- blossoms were brightening in all the fields of France, the Bourbon lilies drooped their golden heads. There seemed no hope for Louis but in flirrht. He fled in despair, but was recognized, stopped at Varennes, and brouo-ht back to Paris. Matters then grew worse than ever at the centre of the Revolution. The Paris mob rose like a sea, swelled by some troops from Marseilles, who, first singing along Paris streets the war-hymn of Rouget de Lisle, caused it hence- forth to be known as " The Marseillaise." King Louis was tried for treason and conspiracy against the nation. He denied the justice of the charge. But denial was useless before judges such as his. Death was the sentence of the court after a discussion of some days. The Reign of Terror began. The Girondists, friends of moderate republican- ism, were slain without mercy, or driven over the land, without shelter or food, to die. When Marat met a merited death — he was assassinated in his bath by Charlotte Corday, a young girl from Caen — Robespierre was left sole dictator of France. A frightful carnage followed. Every day saw red baskets of human heads carried from the guillotine, whose dull thud was music to the crowd. Women sat and worked as calmly as in the pit of the theatre, wliile the fearful tragedy was played out before their eyes. Fathers brought their lifde ones to see the heads fall. And as fast as the prisons were emptied by this wholesale butchery, fresh victims, denounced often by their nearest neighbors, were thrust into the cells to await their certain doom. Queen Marie Antoinette followed her husband to the guillotine and the grave in the October of the same year. Bailly, Condorcet, Barnave, and Madame Roland met the same fate. Philip Egalite, whose vote had been given for the death of his royal kinsman, went also to his richly deserved doom. Still the mob cried for more heads. The guillotine could not be stopped. Some of the Mountain-men, less tigerish than their fellows, were first laid below its edge. Such were Danton and Camille Desmoulins. It is litde wonder that Christianity was cast aside in this Reign of Terror. The God- 20 306 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. ^ Wji^-- dess of Reason, impersonated by a worthless woman, was openly worshipped, and torches were burnt before her shrine. A thing was then tried, the failure of which is a noteworthy proof how little man's wisdom is when compared with that of the all-wise God. Every tenth day was appointed a day of rest and amuse- ment; but neither man nor beast could bear the strain of ten days' work. The French Revolution may be said to have come to an end with the opening of the career of Napoleon Bonaparte ; indeed we may say that with this man's life a new era dawned upon the world. A British writer says in regard to him, that " Nature liad no obstacles that he did not surmount — space no opposition that he did not spurn: and, whether amid Alpine rocks, Arabian sands, or Polar snows, he seemed proof against peril, and endowed with ubiquity ! "The whole continent of Europe trem- bled at beholding the audacity of his de- signs and the miracles of their execution. Scepticism bowed to the prodigies of his performances — romance assumed the air of history ; nor was there aught too incredible for belief when the world saw a subaltern of Corsica waving his flag over her most ancient capitals. All the visions of antiquity became commonplace in his contemplation; kings were his people: nations were his outposts; and he disposed of courts, and crowns, and camps, and churches, and cabinets, as if they were the titular dig- nitaries of the chess-board. " Grand, gloomy, and peculiar, he sat upon the throne a sceptred hermit, and wrapt in the solitude of his awful originality. A mind, bold, independent, and decisive ; a will despotic in its dictates ; an energy that distances expedi- tion, and a conscience pliable to every touch of interest, marked the outline of this extraordinary character, the most extraordinary perhaps, that, in the an- nals of this world, ever rose, or reigned, or fell. " Such a medley of contradiction and, at the same time, such an individual consistency, were never united in the same character — a royalist, a republi- can and an emperor; a Mahometan, Catholic, and a patron of the synagogue; a subaltern and a sovereign ; a traitor and a tyrant ; a Christian and an in- fidel — he was through all his vicissitudes the same stern, potent, inflexible original — the same mysterious, incomprehensible self; the man without a model and luithoiit a shadow." MARIE ANTOINETTE. FRANCE. 307 At an early age, when others scarcely start in life, Napoleon's years were outnumbered by his victories ; and the kings of Europe conquered by his sword, or subjugated by his genius, lowered before the imperial ea 1 peared, Alvaro described her minutely to the famous artist Joanes, who made several attempts, but invariably failed. At length he joined the church, tried again, and succeeded to a miracle. When the picture was finished, the Vir- gin descended to examine it, and pro- nounced it perfect. St. Vincent is the patron saint of Valencia, " the St. Paul of Spain." He came into the; world under peculiar cir- cumstances; in fact, before he came he was continually barking in his mother's womb. His mother, having consulted the bishop on the subject, was assured that she would bring forth a " mastiff which would hunt the wolves of heresy to hell." It is alleged he never changed his one woollen garment, never wore linen, nor washed himself The city of Saragossa is chiefly noted for the memorable sieges it has SPANISH PRIEST. 320 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. sustained, both in ancient as well as in modern times. It passed from the hands of the Romans into those of the Goths. It was conquered by the Moors, who made it their capital, in 1017. A century later the Moors were expelled by Alphonso of Aragon, after a long siege. Early in the century, Spain, wearied with resistance, succumbed to the genius of Napoleon, and the town of Sarao-ossa alone remained unconquered. Women of all ranks assisted in its defence, forming themselves into battalions of two and three hundred, and shirking no exposure or danger. The French were so exasperated at the protracted defence offered by this sinole town, that they bribed the people in charge of a powder magazine to BRIDGE OF SARACOSSA. blow it up during the night. The enemy then pressed forward, and com- menced a vigorous cannonade, and the consequent confusion in the city became fearful; the terror-stricken defenders were about to capitulate; the French were already pouring into the town through the breaches made by the explo- sion and their cannons, when the " Maid of Saragossa " appeared upon the scene, turned the fortunes of the day, and immortalized her name. Dressed in white, a cross hanging from her neck, her dark hair falling upon her shoulders, her eyes sparkling with the excitement of her resolve, she issued from the church of the Donnas del Pillas and, disregarding the insults of the soldiers, passed through the streets to the ramparts. Mounting the breach, she seized a lighted SPAIN. 321 match from the hands of a dying- engineer and set fire to his piece ; then, kissing- the cross, she exclaimed: "Death or victory ! " and reloaded the cannon. The despairing people were seized with fresh hope, enthusiasm filled each saddened heart, a great cry arose, " Long live Agostina ! " and the fortunes of the day were changed. Napoleon, having driven Ferdinand VII. from the Spanish throne, set his brother Joseph up in his place. In 1868 a revolution took place in Madrid, and Isabella, Queen of Spain, was forced to Bee, and take refuge at Paris. Spain remained without either a monarchical or any other form of setded government until 1870, when Bis- marck proposed to place on the vacant Madrid throne the dapper litde Prince of HohenzoUern, of Kaiser William's royal stock and household. Napoleon III. demurred, and it was on account of this insignificant pretext that the ter- rible war between Germany and France was fought. Before it had ended, Amadeus, son of Victor Emmanuel of Italy, was offered the throne by General Prim, and agreed to accept it. He was pompously inaugurated as king at Madrid on the ist of January, 1871. For this work Prim was assassinated while he was passing in his carriage through the street, during the royal cere- mony. Amadeus soon found that he had not got on a bed of roses. He was a foreigner, not a Spanish prince — and that was crime enough in the eyes of those he had come to reign over. The reception that he met with from his new subjects was a freezing one ; in their eyes he was not only a foreign in- truder, but the son of the blasphemous and excommunicated King of Italy, who was at that moment trampling under his feet the dazzling crown of St. Peter, at Rome. He had fondly hoped that all the Spanish factions and par- ties would be disposed to unite on him. Nothing of the sort occurred. Car- lists, Isabelinos, Republicans, Internationalists, Intransigents — each and all saw in his accession an excellent opportunity to work up the national feeling on their particular side, and their intriguing operations at once commenced. Amadeus then renounced the crown, and the mock royalty had scarcely left the palace ere a " Republic " was proclaimed, the senate and cortes amalgamated under the tide of " National Assembly," in the French style, and a new ministry was seated in the cabinet. "Spain a republic! — what next?" The news fairly took away the breath of everybody in Europe, so unexpected and stunning was it. Anything rather than that from. old Spain! But the telegraphic despatches were emphatic — official. Nevertheless, people at once nodded their heads, giving a sly laugh or wink, and spoke of the new-born as " premature." They knew best. The new republic lasted only the same lengtli of time that Amadeus had reigned; it gave place to King Alfonso on the ist of January, 1875. 21 322 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Alfonso XII., Francisco d'Assisi Fernando Pio Juan Maria de la Concep- cion Gregorio, was born November 2Sdi, 1857. He was married, 1878, to Maria de las Mercedes, who died the same year. Alfonso was marriedaeain to the Archduchess Chris- tina, of Austria, 1879. He died in 1885. The Spanish passion for public shows, games and festivals is deeply rooted. In Spain we still meet with that love of pageant which with us barely survives. The bull-fights, so often de- scribed, are a remnant of the public circus of im- perial Rome ; and still at- tract their thousands of ardent spectators. The great fair of Seville is a centre for all manner of shows ; and the natural love of dancing finds vent not only in the theatres, but in every popular re- KiNG ALFONSO XII. ^,nion throughout Anda- lusia. Spanish men and women, though reputed grave, dance in all manner of places, and in all styles. How many names of dances betray their Spanish origin, such as the Fandango, the Catucha, the Bolero. Gustave Dore has drawn various groups of Andalusians enjoying this their favorite pastime, all full of grace and spirit, and giving an idea of determined expression' of en- joyment to which the phlegmatic nations of the North can afford no parallel. We laugh and sing because we are amused, and with no thought of how we do either. And we dance because we like the motion set to music ; but the Spaniard dances to express his emotions of pleasure, and puts mind into the action. But even more universal than the love of dancing is the love of fighting inherent in the people. They will draw out the knife upon every pretext. Malaga has, perhaps, the worst reputation for street rows and impromptu duels ; but other towns are not far behind. PORTUGAL. 323 Still, in all these traits of character is the germ of possible restoration in the future— courage, gayety of spirit, a keen eye for beauty in motion, in color, in costume — a capacity for work whenever the backward institutions of the country allow a chance of profit — these things have remained by the Spanish people amidst all their decadence. PORTUGAL. ■""^.•-.ORTUGAL is one of the smallest European states, stretching along the western side of the Spanish peninsula. Its extreme length is 345 miles north and south; the greatest breadth is 140 miles. The climate and resources are similar to those of Spain. The city of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is one of great *(D antiquity ; but it has been subject to frequent earthquakes. ^ In 1755 Lisbon was at the height of its prosperity; but in ten min- utes, on November ist of that year, the greater and most elegant part of the city was one mass of ruins. Fifty thousand souls perished ; the number has been put as high as 80,000. The shock was felt nearly all over Europe. Camoens is the only Portuguese writer that has obtained celebrity in other countries than his own. His works, however, have been translated into most of the modern languages of Europe, and he has been counted worthy of a place among the great epic poets, in the category with Homer, Virgil and Milton. The subject of his great poem. " The Lusiad," is the pointing out to Eu- rope a hitherto unknown track to India, which was achieved by a Portuguese fleet under command of Vasco de Gama. The eventful and unfortunate life of the poet himself enabled him too truly to depict from his own experience the sorrows of love, the tumults of the battle-field, the dangers of the deep and the luxury of oriental manners, which form the most attractive portions of his poem. There is still to be seen, on the coast of China, a kind of nat- ural gallery formed by the rocks, which is called the Grotto of Camoens. At one time Camoens was shipwrecked ; and it was with difficulty he reached the shore, swimming with one hand and bearing his poem above the water with the other, while everything else he possessed was lost for ever. The people are industrious and commercial : they raise sheep and horned catde; and have lead and iron mines. They possess two large, flourishing seaports, Lisbon and Oporto ; and many colonial dependencies, some in Africa, as Senegambia and Mosambique, and others in Asia and the Oceanic isles. ON THE COAST OF NORWAY. SCANDINAVIA. if6^^3 DENMARK, NORWAY AND SWEDEN. ^HE Emperor Charlemagne, looking out one day over the blue Mediterranean, saw the snake-like galleys of the Norsemen stealing along the horizon, and, as he looked on them, he wept for his descendants. Already, for many a year, as soon as the spring sunshine had unlocked the sea, the Vikings — sea-kings, as they called themselves — stirred by a resdess, warlike spirit, had pushed out from the deep, rocky fiords of Scandinavia, steering south and south-west. In the names Norway, and Normandy, we still trace their old home, and the scene of one of their most successful descents. A branch of the great Teutonic family, they had spread over Denmark, (324) ;^2G THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Norway, and Sweden, from which lands, centuries eariler, had come the famous Goths — Teutons too. To guard the mouth of the Elbe against the Norsemen, Charlemagne built there a strong castle, which served as a nucleus for the great town of Hamburq-. Before his reign their warlike fire had spent itself within the circle of their own lands. We read, in particular, of a desperate battle fought in 740, on the heath of Braavalla, between Harold Goldtooth, the Dane, and Sigurd Ring, the Swedish king. Harold, old and blind, died like a hero on the field ; and Sigurd ruled in Scandinavia. But then, sweeping both shores of the North sea, began their wider rang- ings, which have left deep and lasting marks upon European history. One of the earliest of these rovers, Regnar Lodbrok, Sigurd's son, seized by Saxon Ella as he was ravaging Lindisfarne, shouted his war-song to the last, while snakes were stinoinir him to death in a Northumbrian dungeon.. Words cannot paint the ferocity of these northern warriors. Blood was their passion ; and they plunged into battle like tigers on the spring. Every- thing that could feed their craving for war they found in their religion and their songs. The chief god, Odin, was the beau ideal of a Norse warrior; and the highest delight they hoped for in Valhalla, their heaven, was to drink end- less draughts of mead from the skulls of their enemies. There was, they thought, no surer passport to heaven than a bloody death amid heaps of sliain. And their songs, sung by Skalds when the feast was over, and still heard among the simple fur-clad fishermen, who alone remain to represent the ilvild Vikinger, ring with clashing swords and all the fierce music of batde to the death. But into the very centre of this dark, raging barbarism sparks of truth fell, which brightened and blazed until the fierce idolatry lay in ashes. Ans- gar, the apostle of the north and first archbishop of Hamburg, pressing with a few monks through fen and forest, early in the ninth century, preached the cross at the court of Biorn, on the banks of Maelarn. England and France, as was natural from their position, suffered most in the descents of the Norsemen. During a part of the time that Harold Haarfager (Fair-haired) reigned in Norway (863 to 931), Alfred, King of Wesse.x, the mightiest of all the Norsemen's foes, was laying the foundation of British greatness. Little more than a century later, Alfred's crown passed to the Norseman, Canute, and Norsemen wore it for twenty-four years. Then a litde gap, and William, no longer a Norseman, but a Norman — mark well the change of name, for it denotes a deeper change of rough sea-kings into steel- clad knights — sat as a conqueror on the English throne, and set the wild Norse blood flowing down through the whole line of British sovereigns. The empire of Canute, consisting of Denmark and Norway, with' terri- tories along the shores of the Baltic, also of England and part of Scodand, MARGARET AWAITS THE ATTACK OF THE VITALI. :1271 328 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. was broken up, and Denmark was distracted by intestine feuds until the reign of Maro-aret, daughter of King'Waldemar, who, upon the death of her son Olaus, mounted the throne, aUhougli the female successor was not recognized, and by her beauty so gained the hearts of the people, that she was further elected Oueen of Norway. Not content with this, she marched into Sweden, and for seven years carried on a devastating war ;, and finally, by the treaty of Calmar in 1397, was proclaimed queen of the three Scandinavian countries. She also expelled the Vitali or Victuallers from the Baltic — German pirates who were so named because they had brought provisions to Stockholm whilst it was in a state of siege. By her valor and heroic deeds Margaret deserved and obtained the title of the "Semiramis of the North." The union of these three nations of Scandinavia existed, however, but nominally and, after being several times ruptured, was finally broken in 1523. In 1448, after the death of Christopher of Bavaria, Christian I., the first of the house of Oldenburg, which still reigns in Denmark, was elected to the throne. Norway and Denmark, however, remained united until 18 14, when Norway accepted the sovereign of Sweden as their own. The yoke of Denmark was shaken off by Sweden in 1523, when Gustavus Vasa, whose father had been slain in a previous insurrection, succeeded in driving out the Danes, and was elected king the same year. His grandson, the famous Gustavus Adolphus, mounted the throne at the age of eighteen, and by his great ability and military genius soon gained the admiration of all Europe. He was victorious in wars with Denmark, Russia and Poland. He ended his victorious career at the battle of Lutzen in 1632. The battle of Lutzen was fought between the Austrians, under the cele- brated Wallenstein, and the Swedo-German army under Gustavus Adolphus. Wallenstein would not move, and Gustavus had to attack. A thick mist covered the ground. The armies were close together, but neither could see much of the other. The king sang, with his soldiers, Luther's hymn, " A mighty fortress is our God ! " and then his own battle-song, " Verzage nicht, du Haufiein klein ! " He addressed, first to the Swedes, then to the Germans, two of the noblest orations before a batde that history records. In an enthusiasm of heroism he threw off his cuirass, and cried, " God is my armor ! " Wallenstein was suf- fering from gout in the feet. Although his stirrups were thickly padded with silk, he could not ride, and took his place in a litter. He called his officers together and gave them his orders, which were to fight chiefly on the defen- sive. Gustavus gave out the war-cry, " God with us ! " Wallenstein gave to his troops as a batde-cry, "Jesus Maria!" About eleven o'clock the mist cleared a litde, and the fiery king himself headed the attack upon the im- perialist lines and ditches. Gustavus, riding alone with his cousin, Duke Franz von Lauenburg, the f SCANDINAVIA. 399 page, Leubelfing, and a groom, stumbled upon an imperial ambush. His horse, maddened by a bullet, threw its rider and fled. The kinc- received a bullet in the arm and another shot in the back. This second shot was, as the Swedes maintain, fired by Lauenburg, who left the king to his fate, rode away, and afterward joined the imperialist side. German historians speak doubt- fully on the point, and the question of Lauenburg's treachery may be consid- ered an open one. The imperialist soldiers did not believe that the kincr could be alone with so small an escort. They, however, took Gustavus to be an officer of rank until he cried out, "I am the king of Sweden, and seal with my blood the Protestant religion and the liberties of Germany. Alas ! my poor queen ! " The imperialist soldiers then killed and stripped him, and tjlie tide of battle rolled on past the dead body. The faithful page, who alone re- mained with Gustavus, tried vainly to mount the king upon his own horse. The poor lad died, five days afterward, in Naumburg, of his wounds. So fell Gustavus Adolphus. His own side were startled when the king's horse rushed back into their lines. They did not know that he was dead; they supposed him taken prisoner. A kind of fury possessed the troops, and the spirit of Gustavus rendered them invincible. Wallenstein, de- spite this advantage, could not claim a victory at Lutzen. Wallenstein was well pleased when the news of the death of Gustavus Adolphus was brought to him. He said in his coarse proverb-like way, " Two cocks could not exist together on one dunghill." Charles XII., the "Madman of the North," was born in 1682 and as- cended the throne in 1697. During his minority Russia, Denmark and Po- land combined to despoil him of many of his dominions ; but their suc- cesses were of short duration. At the head of his troops he advanced from one triumph to another, until, intoxicated with success, he determined upon the conquest of Russia, which ended in a terrible defeat at Pultowa (1709). He was finally assassinated during the siege of Frederikshald in 1718. According to agreement, Norway was allotted to Sweden in 1S14 by the coalition against Napoleon, in payment for her aid in his downfall ; and in 1818 Bernadotte, who had been one of the great emperor's generals, but who had joined the coalition against him, ascended the throne with the tide of Charles XIV. Though Denmark looks such a litde country on the map, and indeed lost part of her possessions, Sleswig-Holstein, in the war with Prussia, of 1864, she is an active, intelligent state. The soil of Denmark is very sandy in parts, and flat where the peninsula abuts upon the mainland ; but the islands are extremely fertile, and the Danish farms are well cultivated; and there is a fair amount of manufactures. The Dane of to-day is no longer the fiery warrior he once was ; but brave, patient, thoughtful. He is thrifty rather than particularly industrious ; politically calm 330 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. and constant in all his affections. Quiet as he seems, the Dane has yet a fund of poetry possible of awakening, since in one generation he has had for countrymen Thorvvaldsen, the sculptor, and Hans Christian Andersen, whose beautiful stories have long been so popular in England. Thorvvaldsen lived and worked at Rome; but came back to end his days in his native land,*and was received with an ardent enthusiasm, of which the history of nations in relation to their great men affords but few parallels. The celebrated astronomer Tycho Brahe, remarkable for his invention of instruments and his numerous works, was a native of Denmark. He was born December 14th, 1546, and died Octobor 24tli, 1601. The character of the Norwegian is moulded by that of the bold, mountainous country which he inhabits — a country of for- ests .and of fiords. A fiord is a long arm of the sea, stretching so far inland that it comes to resemble an immense windinof salt-water lake. The coast of Norway is indented like a huge saw with these fiords, and the coasts are inhabited by farmers and fishermen. ; Among the Norwegian mountaineers none exhibit a truer picture of the I grand nature which surrounds them, than the race which inhabits the valley " of Hallingdal. They are quick, intelligent, robust and agile. The violent jumps and leaps, which distinguish their national dances, are so famous over ; the whole country, that these dances have got the general name of " Hailing," ' the name also of the music that accompanies them. These dancers are said to touch the rafters of the ceiling with their toes. The general character of the Swede is not much different from that of the Norwegian, only it is more lowland. Stockholm is a large flourishing town, the seat of the royalty of Sweden and Norway, where the ladies talk good French and the arts are held in high esteem. The climate of Sweden influences not only the country, but the town life. Sledge-driving is the favorite amusement of the Stockholm ladies during the winter months, and the more severe the cold the greater the enjoyment of the season. The goodness of a winter in Sweden depends on the hardness of the ice and the quantity of die snow. Without these, winter trade and winter pleasures would be sadly impeded. The spring thaw is very unpleas- ant, the deep snow in the streets of Stockholm has to be broken up with pick- axes, and what we call spring weather hardly exists. As soon as the disagree- able thaw is over, summer is come. TYCHO BRAHE. LAKE OF GENEVA SWITZERLAND. "^ARLY in the Christian era Helvetia, which was peopled chiefly by Gallic tribes, formed a part of the Roman empire. Then, over- run by various barbarous races, it was included in the kingdom of Burgundy the Less, and as such fell under the rule of Charle- ^V(j^ macrne. After his death it was annexed to the Romano-Germanic empire. Conspicuous among the many small sovereignties and states, into which it was broken even while owning a sort of dependence on the empire, were the Forest Cantons of Schvveitz, Uri and Underwalden, clustered round the southern shore of Lake Lucerne. In 1273, Count Rodolph of Hapsburg (Hawk's Casde on the Aar in north Switzerland) was elected King of the Romans, or Emperor of Germany. He is distinguished in history as the founder of the imperial house of Austria. Lord of many lands and towns in Switzerland, he held besides, by the free choice of the foresters themselves, the advocacy or protectorship of the Forest States. He did not allow his elevation to the imperial throne to sever the ties which bound him to the mountain-land. He spent much time among the Swiss ; and the many benefits and enlarged privileges they received from him were repaid on their part by unbroken affection and unbounded trust. But when, in 1298. his son Albert, Duke of Austria— which had been taken by Rodolph from Bohemia — was made emperor, a gloom fell upon Switzer- land. It soon became clear that his design was to make himself despotic master of all the land. The Forest Cantons were placed under two bailitils (331) 332 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. or governors, Gessler and Beringer, whose insolent tyranny soon became intolerable. Three of the oppressed foresters, Walter Furst, Arnold von Melchthal and Werner Stauffacher, met to plan the deliverance of their country. On a November night, in the meadow of Rudi, by Lake Lucerne, these three pa- triots, in the presence of thirty tried friends, swore beneath the starry sky to die, if need were, in defence of their freedom. And all the thirty joining in the solemn vow, the new year's night was fixed for striking the first blow. Meanwhile Gessler, the Austrian bailiff was slain by one of the thirty, William Tell, a native of Burglen, near Altorf, and famous over all the coun- try for his skill with the cross-bow. The romantic story, upon which, how- ever, some doubt has been cast by modern historians, runs thus: Gessler, to try the temper of the Swiss, set up the ducal hat of Austria on a pole, in the market-place of Altorf, and commanded that all who passed it should bow in homage. Tell, passing one day with his littles on, made no sien of reverence. He was at once draof^red before Gessler, who doomed him to die, unless with a bolt from his cross-bow he could hit an apple placed on his son's head. The boy was bound, and the apple balanced. Tell, led a long way off, aiming for some breathless seconds, cleft the little fruit to the core. But, while shouts of joy were ringing from the gathered crowd, Gess- ler saw that Tell had a second arrow, which he had somehow contrived to hide while choosing one for his trying shot. "Why," cried the bailiff, "hast thou that second arrow ? " And the bold answer was, " For thee, if the first had struck my child." In a violent rage, Gessler then ordered Tell to be chained, and carried across the lake to the prison of Kussnacht. A storm arising when they were half-way over, huge waves threatened to swamp the boat. By order of the governor, Tell, whose knowledge of the lake was remarkable, was unchained and placed at the rudder. Resolved on a bold dash for liberty, he steered for a rocky shelf which jutted into the waters, sprang ashore, and was soon lost among the mountain glens. And some time after, hiding in a woody pass near Kussnacht, he shot the tyrant Gessler dead with his unerring cross-bow. Thus for a few hours Tell shone out in the story of the world with a lustre that has never since orrown dim. Darkness rests on his after-life. We know &> nothing more than that he fouorht in the o-reat batde of Morsfarten, and that in 1350 he was drowned in a flooded river. The dawn of 1308 saw the foresters in arms. The Austrian castles were seized. The Alps were all alight with bonfires. Albert, hurriedly gathering an army, was advancing to crush the rising, when he was assassinated at the Reuss by his nephew, Duke John of Suabia. To their lasting honor, be it said- that the three revolted cantons refused to shelter the murderer, who lived and died iniserablv in Italy. SWITZERLAND. 333 Three great battles — Morgarten, Sempach and Nefels — mark the steps by which the brave Swiss achieved their independence. Seven years after Albert's death, his son, Duke Leopold of Austria, re- solving to pierce the mountains of Schvveitz and punish the audacious herds- men, left Zug with an army of 15,000 men, carrying great coils of rope to hang his prisoners. The pass of Morgarten, which ran for three miles be- tween the steep rocks of Mount Sattel and the litde Lake Egeri, was the only way by which heavy cavalry could pass into the doomed canton. With the dawn of a November morning, as the sun shone red through a frosty focr, the Austrians entered the pass — a host of steel-clad knights in front, and the footmen following in close order. Their advance was known and prepared for. Fourteen hundred herdsmen, who had commended their cause and them- selves to the God of battles, lined the rocky heights. Fifty exiles from Schweitz, burning to regain an honored place among their countrymen, gath- ered on a jutting crag that overhung the entrance of the defile, and when the Austrians were well in the trap, hurled down great rocks and beams of wood upon the close-packed ranks. Amid the confusion, which was increased by the fog, the Swiss rushed from the heights, and with their halberts and iron- shod clubs beat down the knights, who fell back upon the footmen, tram- pling them to death. It was a woful day for Austria, and for chivalry, when the steel cuirass and the knightly lance went down before the pikes and clubs of a few untrained footmen. Duke Leopold scarcely saved himself by a headlong flight over the mountains to Winterthur, where he arrived late in the evening, a haggard, beaten man. The valor of the Schweitzers was so remarkable in this batde, and through- out the orreat future stru(t\- 05^-'- giiim were former- ly only one country, the Netherlands, and were for a long time imder the dominion of Spain. They are, however now divided, and present some difference in the charac- ters of the people, as w-ell as in religious views. Belgium is a Catho- esses the most beautilul old eious orders "are so abundant, ariety, that, like that of the celes- is bewildering to the un- practisec' Sunday is better kept in Belgium than in France, and really is a day of pious rest. In fact, considering how near it is to France, and that the flat frontier provinces are covered with a network of railways, encouraging constant communication, it is very singular to see how much of the quaint old German spirit lingers in the smaller country, and how serious and quiet she is. Doubtless, had the French occupation under Napoleon continued, the con- stant pressure of French institutions would in time have somewhat assimilated the habits of the. two peoples. The French, however, met with a desperate resistance, which Henri Conscience has well described in his "Peasants' W ar," and when Napoleon was struck down, Belgium was set free ; being, in the -2 (•■«7) 338 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. first instance, united with Holland, and in 1S30 created into a separate king- dom under King Leopold. Brussels, the capital, is a lively town, and is said by some to be a smaller Paris; but though the new quarters and boulevards might for a moment deceive the traveller, a walk into the grand old market-place would soon undeceive him and show him he was in Belgium. It is a sort of neutral ' and beautiful works of art, such as temples, statues and paintings. But the Athenians were fickle, and generally ungrate- ful to their public benefactors ; and they sometimes ill treated Pericles. In the latter part of his administration, a terrible plague broke out in Athens. Many of the citizens fell down and died while passing through the streets. Dead bodies lay in heaps, one upon another. The illustrious Pericles was one of the victims of this pestilence. When he lay at the point of death, his friends praised him for the glorious deeds ,.jvhich he had achieved. "It is my greatest glorj-," replied Pericles, "that none of my acts have caused a citizen of Athens to put on mourning 400 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Three years before the death of Pericles, a war had commenced between Athens and Sparta. These were now the two principal states of Greece, and they had become jealous of each other's greatness. A fierce war fol- lowed, in which all the states of that part of Greece called Peloponnesus were enfao-ed. This bloody strife lasted twenty-eight years. In the course of this war, Alcibiades made a conspicuous figure among the Athenians. He was the handsomest and most agreeable man in Athens. At one period he was greatly beloved by the people, and possessed almost unlimited power. But he was ambitious and destitute of principle. Not long after this Thebes became for a brief period the most distin- o-uished city in Greece. For this it was indebted to its able generals, Pelopi- das and Epaminondas. Epaminondas was one of the best men that lived in ancient times. His private virtues were equal to his patriotism and valor. It is said of him that a falsehood was never known to come from his lips — one of the highest praises that can be bestowed on any man. Shortly after the close of the Theban war Greece was conquered by Philip, King of Macedon. Thenceforward, Philip controlled the affairs of Greece till his death. Perhaps, after all, he was a better ruler than the Greeks could have found among themselves. But he had many vices, and among the rest that of drinking to excess. One day, just after he had risen from a banquet, he decided a certain law-case- unjustly. The losing person cried out, " I appeal from Philip drunk, to Philip sober ! " And, sure enough, when Philip got sober, he decided the other way. A poor woman, who had some business with Philip, tried in vain to obtain an audience. He put her off from one day to another, saying that he had no leisure to attend to her. " If you have no leisure to do justice, you have no right to be king ! " said the woman. Philip was struck with the truth of what the woman said, and he became more attentive to the duties of a king. Philip was succeeded by his son, Alexander the Great, who became king at the age of twenty. Alexander subdued the Grecian states in the course of one campaign. He was then declared generalissimo of the Greeks, and undertook a war against Persia. The army which he led against that country consisted of 35,000 men. He crossed the Hellespont and marched through Asia Minor toward Per- sia. Before reaching its borders he was met by the Persian king, Darius, who had collected an immense army. Alexander defeated him, and killed 1 10,000 of his soldiers. He then marched to Persepolis; the capital of Persia, and burnt it to the ground. When Persia was completely subdued, Alexander invaded India, now HIndostan. One of the kings of that country was named Porus. He is said to have been seven feet and a half in height. This gigantic king led a great army against Alexander. Porus was well provided with elephants, which GREECE. 4Q1 had been trained to rush upon the enemy, and trample them down. Alexan- der had no elephants, but his usual good fortune did not desert him. The army of Porus was routed, and he himself was taken prisoner and loaded with chains. In this degraded condition the Indian king was brought into the victor's tent. Alexander gazed with wonder at the enormous stature of Porus. Although a great conqueror, he was himself only of middle size. " How shall I treat you ? " asked Alexander of his prisoner. " Like a king ! " said Porus. The answer led Alexander to reflect how he himself should like to be treated, had he been in a similar situation ; and he was induced to behave generously to Porus. Alexander the Great was destined to owe his destruction to the wine-cup. While drinking at a banquet in Babylon, he was suddenly taken sick, and death soon conquered the conqueror. The Greeks, when they heard of Alexander's death, had attempted to regain their liberty. But their struggles were unsuccessful, and the country was reduced to subjection by Cassander, who had been general of Alexander's cavalry. Cassander died in a few years. Thenceforward, the history of Greece tells of nothing but crimes and revolutions and misfortunes. A high place in the annals of the world will always be accorded to the Greek philosophers. Between six and seven hundred years before the Christian era there were seven philosophers, who were called the "Seven Wise Men of Greece ; " the philosopher Thales being considered the wisest of them all. One night, while this great philosopher was taking a walk, he looked upward to contemplate the stars. Being much interested in this occupation, he strayed out of his path and tumbled into a ditch. An old woman who lived in his family ran and helped him out, all covered with mud. "For the future, Thales," said she, "I advise you not to have your head among the stars, while your feet are on the earth ! " Some people think that the old woman was the wiser philosopher of the two. The philosopher Pythagoras believed that, when people died, their souls migrated into the boches of animals or birds. He affirmed that his own soul had once lived in the body of a peacock. Socrates was one of the wisest and best philosophers of Greece. Indeed he was so wise and good, that the profligate Athenians could not suffer him to live. They therefore compelled him to drink poison. Plato was born 429 years b. c, and was for eight years the pupil of Soc- rates. Indeed he was that great philosopher's constant companion until the day of his death. He had now no ties to bind him to Athens — perhaps, indeed, he did not feel secure there — and he went to live at Megara with his friend Euclid. Then he set out upon those travels of which we hear so much 26 402 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Pl-ATO. He was called Diogenes and know so little; "and," says an old historian, " whilst studious youth were crowding- to Athens from every quarter in search of Plato for their master, that philosopher was wandering along the banks of the Nile or the vast plains of a barbarous country, himself a disciple of the old men of Egypt." After storing his mind with the wisdom of the Egyptians, Plato is said to have gone on to Palestine and Phoenicia — to have reached China disguised as an oil merchant — to have had the "Unknown God" revealed to him by Jewish rabbis — and to have learned the secrets of the stars from Chaldean as- tronomers. Aristotle was called by Plato " the Mind of the School," in recognition of his quick and powerful intelligence. In order to win time, even from sleep, Aristotle is said to have invented a plan of sleeping, with a ball in his hand, so held over a brazen dish that whenever his grasp relaxed the ball would descend with a clang and arouse him to the resumption of his labors. Diogenes was the queerest philosopher of all. the Doof, either because he lived like a dog, or because he had a currish habit of snarling at every- body. His doctrine was, that the fewer enjoyments a man had the happier he was likely to be. This philosopher went about bare-footed, dressed in very shabby clothes, and carrying a bag, a jug, and a staff. He afterward got a great tub, which he used to lug about with him all day long, and sleep in at night. One day Alexander the Great came to see Diogenes, and found him mending his tub. It happened that Alexander stood in such a manner as to shade Diogenes from the sun, and he felt cold. " Diogenes," said Alexander, " you must have a very hard time of it, living in a tub. Can I do anything to better your condition ? " " Nothing, except to get out of my sunshine," replied Diogenes, who disdained to accept any other favor from the greatest monarch in the world. But not alone in epic poetry and philosophy did the Greeks attain great- ness. In the drama the names of ^Eschylus, Sophocles and Euripides are supreme. The Greek orator Demosthenes has never been equalled, and in sculpture and architecture Phidias and Praxiteles are beyond all comparison. We will now treat of Greece as she exists in our own day. The present government of Greece is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy. The ARISTOTLE. GREECE. 403 legislative power, since 1864, is in the hands of the king and the chamber of deputies. The person of the king is inviolable ; his ministers are responsible. The right to vote begins at the age of twenty-five, and at thirty the electors are eligible for election. The deputies are chosen for four years, but the senators are ap- pointed for life by the king. They must, however, have at- tained the age of forty. The population of Greece, including the Ionian islands, is 1,457,894. That of Athens, with its harbor, Piraeus, is 50,798. The army amounts to 31,300 men, viz., 14,300 regular troops, and 17,- 000 irregular. Navy : 34 vessels, 164 cannon, and 1,340 men. King George I. (Christian William Ferdinand Adolphus George) is the second son of the Kino- of Denmark and brother of the Princess of Wales. He was born December 24th, 1845, ^"d served for some time in the Danish navy. He was married at St. Petersburg to the Princess Olga, diugh- ter of the Grand Duke Constantine, October 27th, 1867. The Princess Olga was born September 3d, 1851. During the year 1877, when Russia had taken up the cause of Servia and Bulgaria against Turkey, the Greeks also took up arms for the purpose of annexing those territories which contained Greek population, but were gov- erned by Turkey. The European powers urged Greece not to take part in the conflict, and, as a reward of their neutrality, they guaranteed her the pos- session of those territories which the Greeks coveted ; a promise which was not kept. The Greeks otherwise might have been masters of a great part of Epirus, and of Thessaly, and of the island of Crete. Travellers generally land at Piraeus, the port of Athens, which is about six miles distant, and proceed at once to the city. A litde west of Piraeus, near the sea-shore, the throne of Xerxes was erected, that he might watch the progress of the battle of Salamis. Here he sat and saw the defeat of his fleet. The macadamized road to Athens follows the line of the most eastern of the long walls erected by Themistocles, remains of which are still visible. Smce January, 1869, a railroad has been opened from Piraeus to Athens, which is the first ever constructed on the soil of Greece. FORGE 1. 404 GOLDEN TREASURY. The city of Athens owes its celebrity entirely to its ancient greatness and the numerous remains of its former works of art. The modern city presents very little of interest. The surrounding scenery is lovely, and the climate de- lightful, but the streets are narrow and winding, with mean and badly-built houses. The Acropolis, or citadel, crowns the summit of a rocky hill, which rises abruptly out of the plain in the midst of the city. It has been a fortress from the earliest ages ; it rises 150 feet. The walls, which are built on the edge of the perpendicular rock, form a circuit of nearly 7,000 feet. They are of great antiquity, and were built pardy by the Pelagians, by Themistocles and Cymon, by Valerian, and latterly by the Turks and Venetians. A short distance to the west of this is the Areopagus, or Mars' Hill, of still greater interest to the Christian student, as the spot from which the apostle Paul VIEW OF CRETE. addressed the assembled multitude of ancient Athens. On the eastern end was situated the celebrated Court of the Areopagas, the highest judicial court of Athens, whose existence is dated from the time of Cecrops, about 1500 b. c. Corinth was founded 1900 years b. c, and was one of the most opulent cities of ancient Greece. Her peculiar position on the isthmus rendered her the commercial centre between Europe and Asia, and the sources of her wealth and power were increased by the Isthmian games, which took place in the neighborhood every three years. In 224 b. c. she joined the Achaean League, and became the seat of the assemblies of that confederation. It is now a miserable and thinly-populated village. The only ruins of an- tiquity are those of the temple, situated west of the modern village. Seven columns still remain, five looking west, and three toward the south (the col- umn forming the angle being twice counted). Five have their entablature still resting upon them, forming the angle of the building. The columns are GREECE. 405 of the Doric order, but heavy and ill-proportioned ; they are five feet ten inches in diameter at the base, and are formed of limestone covered with stucco. Their appearance proves them to be anterior to the temple of Egina, or to the temple of Theseus, at Athens. It is uncertain to what divinity this buiklinir was consecrated; some think to Fortune, others to Minerva. Our artist has given a faithful representation of this temple on page 396. Missolonghi has been immortalized by events which occurred during the War of Independence. Here, in 1822, Mavrocordato, with 500 men, sustained a siege of two months against a Turkish force of 14,000, commanded by Omar ben Vrioni. In 1825 it was again besieged by the Ottoman army, and held out for a year against the repeated assaults of an immensely superior force. In April, 1826, the besieged determined to cut their way through the ranks ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS. of their opponents and escape. Placing the women in their centre, dressed as men, they sallied forth, but the enemy had become aware of their intention, and but 2,000 escaped. The remainder determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible, and allured the Turks into the neighborhood of the powder maga- zine, when the whole exploded, burying conqueror and conquered in a com- mon tomb. Lord Byron died at Missolonghi in 1824. The Greek, after having been for centuries governed and oppressed by the Turk, has now an independent country of his own, and it rests with him- self to prove whether he is worth all the passionate sympathy which has been expended upon him by many of his English friends, of whom the most cele- brated has been Lord Byron. The population of his small country is pardy 406 GOLDEN TREASURY. Albanian, partly Hellenic. The Albanians come from the north, and are of Sclave race ; the Hellenes are the real descendants of the ancient Greeks, and may be divided into two bodies — the Pallicares, or people of the moun- tains, and the Phanariotes, or commercial Greeks, who flocked home from Constantinople as soon as their country was independent. The Greek people are exceedingly pious ; they are not Roman Catholics, but belong to the Greek Church, of which there are four patriarchs, namely: of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria. The inhabitants of the Kingdom of Greece are under the patriarch of Constantinople, who has, however, accorded them a certain local independence in the management of their church affairs. The archbishops and bishops are paid by the state, and by certain dues ; but the lower clergy are exclusively supported by the fees paid for baptisms, marriages, burials, etc., and if this is not enough they farm land and even keep shops. They are married men for the most part, and with families, and as their churches are not endowed, like those of the English clergy, they are obliged to provide for their own livelihood as best they can. The number of small churches is immense. It is considered an act of piety to build one, and of sacrilege to cause one to be taken down. In Athens and its neighborhood there are more than three hundred, of which only five or six are really in good working order. The rest are small chapels, only used for service at rare intervals, but none of them are wholly shut up. An odd relic of paganism exists at Athens. There is one column stand- ing of an ancient temple of ^'Esculapius. When a friend or child is sick, the people sometimes take a hair from his head, or a thread from one of his gar- ters, and attach the two ends with wax to this pillar, expecting that the invalid will derive benefit from this extraordinary operation. THE PYRAMIDS. EGYPT. 6 UT of the mists that surround the earliest ages the civilization of -^™. ,S) Egypt looms, like its mighty pyramids, that look down upon the j.'\t::)f^7. people of to-day. Go back as far as you will, you cannot find a time when the Egyptians were not civilized. V^ ' This most interesting of lands occupies the north-eastern S^ corner of the African continent. The waters of the Mediterranean form the northern limit of its soil. Upon the south it is bounded by Nubia, upon the east and west by the Red sea and the Libyan desert. The lowest of the Nile cataracts marks the frontier between Egypt and Nubia, where the modern town of Assouan stands beside the river's bank, and the foaming waters hurry past the temple-covered islands of Elephantine and Philc-e. From the shores of the Mediterranean to the first cataract, the valley of the Nile measures, in a direct line from north to south, an extent of 550 miles. The Nile runs through the midst of Egypt, from the south to the north. This river overflows its banks once a year, and thus fertilizes the country, for it very seldom rains in Egypt. The river begins to rise about the end of June, and continues rising until the first of October, at which time the traveller may have the opportunity of witnessing the singular appearance of the country. It then remams stationary a few days, and afterward crradually retires to its proper bed. At this period •^ '' (407) 408 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. of the year the Nile waters are charged with a thick sediment, a portion of which is left as a deposit upon the soil, to which it imparts the most fertilizing properties. The rise of the Nile is due to the periodical rains of Abyssinia and the countries farther south, whence the river derives its waters, and upon the greater or lesser quantity of which the height of the inundadon depends. The changes in its color are in the highest degree curious during the inunda- tion. The waters are of a greenish hue ; they afterward change to a deep brownish-red, closely resembling the appearance of blood, and again become clear after subsiding into their ordinary channel. According to Josephus, Menes was the first king of Egypt. He ascended the throne 2,320 years before Christ, or 4,207 years ago. The origin, how- ever, of the Egyptian nation, and the history of their kings, are involved in the greatest obscurity and uncertainty. About 200 years later Saophis built the Great Pyramid, and forty years after Sen-Saophis built the Second Pyramid. The pyramids seem equally large at a distance of six miles as at one. Ar- rived at the base of the great Pyramid of Cheops, and seeing the enormous size of the masses of stone of which it is composed, the sense of awe pro- duced by these edifices is still further increased. Cheops, or the Great Pyramid, stands farthest north, and is the one usually ascended and entered by travellers. It is 780 feet high, rising from a base which measures 764 feet each way, and which covers eleven acres of ground! It is estimated that Cheops had employed 100,000 men for ten years to make the causeway from the Nile to the pyramid for the purpose of conveying the stone, and 360,000 men twenty years to build the monument! The Second Pyramid was built by Sen-Saophis, son of Cheops or Saophis, 2,083 yeai's B. c. Its base is 690 feet square and 447 high. It was first opened, in the year 1200, by the Sultan El-Aziz Othman, son of Saladin. The Third Pyramid, built by Mencheres, B. c. 2040, is 333 feet square at the base, and 203 feet high. A short distance from the pyramids is the Sphinx — as much greater than all other sphinxes as the pyramids are greater than all other tombs. It is now so covered with sand that only the human part — the head and body — is visible. The whole figure is cut out of the solid rock with the exception of the fore-pa\ys, and worked smooth. The cap, or royal helmet of Egypt, has been removed, but the shape of the top of the head explains how it was ar- ranged. The Sphinx was a local deity of the Egyptians, and was treated by all in former times with divine honors. Immediately under his breast an altar stood, and the smoke of the sacrifice went up into the gigandc nostrils, now vanished from his face. The size of the Sphinx, as given by Pliny, is, height, 143 feet; circumference round the forehead, 102 feet. The paws of the leo- nine part extended 50 feet in front. EGYPT. 409 It is generally understood that sphinxes were the giant representatives and guards of royalty. How appropriate a guard this Sphinx of sphinxes is to these tombs of tombs! Though mutilated and defaced, the lonely Sphinx still possesses a strange and weird beauty. "Comely the creature is, but the comeliness is not of this world. The beast once worshipped is a deformity and a monster to this generation ; and yet you can see that those lips, so thick and heavy, were fashioned according to some ancient mode of beauty, some mode of beauty now foraotten for- gotten because Greece drew forth Cytherea from the flashing foam of the ^gean, and in her image created new forms of beauty, and made it a law among men that the short and proudly-wreathed lip should stand for the sicrn and main condition of loveliness through all generations to come. Yet still there lives on the race of those who were beautiful in the fashion of the elder world, and Christian girls of Coptic blood will look. on you with the sad, serious gaze, and kiss your charitable hand with the big pouting lips of the very Sphinx. " Laugh and mock if you will at the worship of stone idols, but mark ye this, ye breakers of images, that in one regard the stone idol bears awful sem- blanceof Deity — unchangefulness in the midst of change — the same seeing, will, and intent, forever and ever inexorable! Upon ancient dynasties of Ethiopian and Egyptian kings ; upon Greek and Roman, upon Arab and Ot- toman conquerors ; upon Napoleon, dreaming of an Eastern empire ; upon battle and pestilence ; upon the ceaseless misery of the Egyptian race ; upon keen-eyed travellers, Herodotus yesterday and Warburton to-day ; upon all and more, this unworldly Sphinx has watched and watched, like a providence, with the same earnest eyes and the same sad, tranquil mien : and we shall die, and Islam shall wither away, and still that sleepless rock will lie watching and watching the works of a new, busy race with those same, sad, earnest eyes, and the same tranquil mien everlasting. You dare not mock at the Sphinx." At the time when they constructed these marvellous works, the ancient Egyptians possessed more learning and science than any other people. Their superior knowledge caused them to be looked upon as magicians by the people of other countries. The Egyptians had, indeed, many absurd superstitions. Their chief god- dess was Isis, and another deity was Osiris. Of these they made strange images, and worshipped them. Isis was gready reverenced, and the people dedicated many splendid temples to her worship. An Ethiopian woman, named Nitocris, became Queen of Egypt in the year 1678 before the Christian era. Her brother had been murdered by the Egypdans, and she resolved to avenge him. For this purpose Queen Nitocris built a palace underground, and invited the murderers of her brother to a ban- quet. The subterranean hall, where the banquet was prepared, was brilliandy 410 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. illuminated with torches. The guests were the principal men in the kinL^dom. The scene was magnificent, as they sat feasting along the table. But suddenly a rushinof and roarine r sound was heard over- head, and a deluge of water burst into the hall. Queen Nitocris had caused a river to flow through a secret passage, and it extin- o^uished the torches and drowned all the company at the banquet. The most renowned monarch that reigned over Egypt was Sesos- tris, who is also called Rameses, The date of his reign is not pre- cisely known, but there EXTERIOR OF TEMPLE OF ISIS. are carvings in stone, lately found in Egypt, which are more than three thousand years old, and supposed to present portraits of him. They are, doubdess, the oldest portraits in existence. This king formed the design of conquering the world, and set out from Egypt with more than half a million of foot-soldiers, twenty-four thousand horsemen, and twenty-seven thousand armed chariots. His ambitious projects were partially successful. He made great conquests, and wherever he went he caused marble pillars to be erected with inscriptions on them, so that future ages might not forget his renown. When Sesostris went to worship in the temple, he rode in a chariot which was drawn by captive kings. They were harnessed like horses, four abreast; and their royal robes trailed in the dust as they tugged the heavy chariot along. But at length the proud Sesostris grew old and blind. He could no longer look around him and see captive kings drawing his chariot, or kneeling at his footstool. He then became utterly miserable, and committed suicide. A very famous king of Egypt was named Amenophis. He is supposed to be the same with Memnon, in honor of whom a temple with a gigantic statue was erected, of which some remains are still to be seen at Thebes. This statue was said to utter a joyful sound at sunrise, and a mournful sound when the sun set. Some modern travellers imagine that they have heard it. In the year 525 before the Christian era, Egypt was conquered by Cam- byses. King of Persia. He compelled Psammenitus, who was then king of I^gyp'^' to drink bull's blood. It operated as a poison, and caused his death. EGYPT. ^Ij Three hundred and thirty-two years before the Christian era, Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great, King of Macedon. Here he built a famous city, called Alexandria, which was for many centuries one of the most splendid places in the world. But the ancient city is in ruins, and modern Alexandria is far inferior to it. Alexander appointed Ptolemy, one of his generals, to be ruler of the country. From Ptolemy were descended a race of kings, all of whom were likewise called Ptolemy. They reigned over Egypt 294 years. The last of these kings was Ptolemy Dionysius, whose own wife made war ao-ainst him, A battle was fought, in which Ptolemy Dionysius was defeated. He attempted to escape, but was drowned in the Nile. His wife, whose name was Cleopatra, then became sole ruler of Egypt. She was one of the most beautiful women that ever lived, and her talents and accomplishments were equal to her per- sonal beauty. But she was very wicked. Among other horrid crimes, Cle- opatra poisoned her brother, who was only eleven years old. Yet, thouo-h all the world knew what an abandoned woman she was, the greatest heroes could not or would not resist the enticements of her beauty. When Mark Antony, a Roman general, had defeated Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, in Greece, he summoned Cleopatra to come to Cilicia, on the north-eastern coast of the Mediterranean. He intended to punish her for hav- ing assisted Brutus. As soon as Cleopatra received the summons, she hastened to obey. She went on board a splendid vessel, which was richly adorned with gold. The sails were made of the costliest silk. Instead of rough, sunburnt sailors, the crew consisted of lovely girls, who rowed with silver oars ; and their strokes kept time to melodious music. Queen Cleopatra reclined on the deck, beneath a silken awning. In this manner she went sailing along the river Cydnus. Her vessel was so magnificent, and she herself so lovely, that the whole spectacle appeared like a vision. Mark Antony was first warned of her ap- proach by the smell of delicious perfumes, which the wind wafted from the silken sails of the vessel. He next heard the distant strains of music, and saw the gleaming of the silver oars. But when he beheld the beauty of the Egyptian queen, he thought of nothing else. Till Mark Antony met Cleopatra he had been an ambitious man and a valiant warrior. But from that day for- ward he was nothing but her slave. Owing to Cleopatra's misconduct and his own, Antony was defeated by Octavius, another Roman general, at Actium, in Greece. He then killed him- self by falling on his sword. Cleopatra knew that if Octavius took her alive, he would carry her to Rome and expose her to the derision of the populace. She resolved not to endure this ignominy. Now, in Egypt there is a venomous reptile, called an asp, the bite of which is mortal, but not very painful. Cleo- patra applied one of these reptiles to her bosom. In a little while her body 412 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. o-rew benumbed, and her heart ceased to beat; and thus died the beautiful and wicked Queen of Egypt. This event occurred thirty years before Christ. After the death of Cleopatra Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire. It continued to belong to that power, and to the portion of it called the Eastern Empire, till the year 640 after the Christian era. It was then con- quered by tlie Saracens. It remained under their government upward of six centuries. The Saracen sovereigns were dethroned by the Mamelukes, whom they had trained up to be their guards. The Mamelukes ruled Egypt till the year 1517, when they were conquered by the Turks. They kept pos- session of Egypt till the year 1798. It was then invaded by Napoleon Bona- parte with an army of 40,000 Frenchmen. The Turks, ever since their con- CAIRO. quest of Egypt, had kept a body of Mamelukes in their service; these made a desperate resistance. A battle was fought near the pyramids, in which many of them were slain, and others were drowned in the Nile. Not long after this victory Bonaparte went back to France, and left General Kleber in command of the French army. General Kleber was a brave man, but a severe one, and his severity cost him his life. He had ordered an old Mussulman, named the Sheik Sada, to be bastinadoed on the soles of his feet. Shordy afterward, when the general was in a mosque, a fierce Arab rushed upon him and killed him with a dagger. In 1 801, the English sent Sir Ralph Abercrombie with an army to drive the French out of Egypt. General Menou was then the French commander. EGYPT. 413 Sir Ralph Abercrombie beat him at the battle of Aboukir, but was himself mortally wounded. In the course of the same year the French army sailed from Egypt back to France. The inhabitants lamented their departure, for the French o-enerals had ruled them with more justice and moderation than their old masters, the Turks. Egypt is now governed by a successor of Mehemet Ali, who bears the title of pasha, but the country is tributary to the Turkish Empire. Cairo, the capital of Egypt, was founded by the Arab conquerors of Egypt in the year 970 a. d. The name El-KaJiireh signifies " The Victorious." From the citadel of Cairo is displayed a magnificent panorama. To the east are seen the obelisk of Heliopolis and the tombs of the Mamelukes ; to the south the lofty quarries of Mount Mokattem, with ruined casdes, moulder- ing domes and the remains of other edifices ; south-west and west are the grand aqueduct, mosques and minarets, the Nile, the ruins of old Cairo and the island and groves of Rhoda ; beyond the river, on the south-west, the town Ghizeh, amid groves of sycamore, fig and palm trees ; still more remote, the pyramids of Ghizeh and Sakkara, and beyond these the great Libyan des- ert. In the northern direction may be seen the green plains of the delta, sprinkled with white edifices ; and to the north and north-east of the spectator is the city of Cairo, with her 400 mosques, whose sunlit domes are glistening in the sun. It is a never-to-be-forgotten sight. To those who are fond of fun and amusement, the excitement going on in Cairo from morning till night is immense. Dragomans — black, yellow and white — splendidly dressed in flowing trowsers, silk and satin vests, embroid- ered jackets and immense turbans, quarrelling with the donkey-owners, who are quarrelling and finding fault with the donkey-drivers, who are doing the same with the donkeys. The traveller threatens to belabor the dragoman, the dragoman does belabor the owner, the owner belabors the boy and the boy the donkey, and none of them seem to care much for it. Add to this half a dozen mountebanks; a dozen dealers in relics, turbans and handker- chiefs ; fifty dogs, one of whom is playing circus with a monkey on his back; a snake-charmer, with a bagful of immense snakes, all* standing erect (if a snake can be said to stand), with fangs protruding, ready to make a plunge at their conqueror, who offers to swallow any one of them for a shilling, and you have a faint idea of what is daily going on. Besides the Mahometans, who of course constitute the bulk of the m- habitants of Cairo, and who number nearly 250,000, there are some 30,000 or 40,000 of other sects and countries; such as Copts (native Egyptian Chris- tians), Jews, Greeks, Armenians and Franks. These are generally to be dis- tinguished from the Mahometans by their dress and their complexion, though of the latter there are many shades among all classes. Alexandria, the seaport and commercial capital of Egypt, contains nearly 414 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. three hundred thousand inhabitants. The main objects of interest here are Pompey's Pillar, which is of red poHshed granite, and loo feet in height; and Cleopatra's Needles, which were quarried in the reign of Thothmes III.. 1495 1!. c, and are consequendy now 3,382 years old. The Egyptian native is gentle, and travellers who always go armed to the teeth take a great deal of unnecessary trouble. They will meet with plenty of cheating and lying ; but that is generally the worst. Instances ot robbery and murder are comparatively rare. The people are now commonly called Arabs, but the rulers are Turks ; and in the seaport towns on the delta of the Nile is a great population of Christians, merchants from all the Mediterranean ports, and also Copts and Armenians. In Egypt, Arabia and Persia, the fruit of the date palm and doum palm trees forms the principal food of the people, and a man's wealth is computed by the number of such palms he possesses. Both the date and the doum palm are found in Egypt, but the former disappears as the traveller descends the Nile and enters Nubia. Abydos, alluded to in Byron's celebrated poem, " The Bride of Abydos," owes its importance to the fact that the god Osiris was buried here, and rich Egyptians from all parts wished to have their bodies lie in the sacred dust which their god had hallowed. The tombs are very old, and date back to the si.xteenth and seventeenth dynasties. The principal ruins, which cover a great extent, are the Memnonium, or palace of Memnon, the Temple of Osiris, and the Necropolis. The Temple of Osiris lies north of the Memnonium : this was one of the temples the most revered in Egypt. It was here that, in 1808, the famous in- scription, now in the British Museum, known under the name of the Table of Abydos, was found. It contained originally the names of all the ancestors of Rameses the Great, which agree with the names of the oldest of the Phara- ohs, which were found at the Memnonium at Thebes. Part of the tablet was unfortunately destroyed, and some of the names lost. North of the Temple of Osiris lies the Necropolis, or burial-ground, where may be seen numerous tombstones of the time of Osirtasen ; here was also a colossal statue of that Pharaoh, now in the museum of Cairo. Let us now take a glance at Thebes, the most celebrated and magnificent of the ancient capitals of Egypt ; the capital of the kingdom of the Pharaohs when in the zenith of their power, and whose remains exceed in extent and grandeur all the most lively imagination can depict. No written account can ever give an adequate impression of the effect, past and present, of its tem- ples, palaces, obelisks, colossal statues, sphinxes and sculptures of various kinds. They condnue from age to age to excite the awe and admiration of the spectator. To have seen the monuments of Thebes is to have seen the Egyptians as they lived and moved before the eyes of Moses. To have seen DOUM PALMS OF UPPER i:(.^ FT (41&' 416 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. the tombs of Thebes is to have seen the whole religion of the Eg)'ptians at the most solemn moments of their lives. Nothing that can be said about them will prepare the traveller for their extraordinary grandeur. " Not all proud Thebes' unrivalled walls contain, The world's great empress on the Egyptian plain, That spreads her conquest o'er 9. thousand states. And pours her heroes through a hundred gates, Two hundred horsemen and two hundred cars From each wide portal issuing to the wars." The most striking of the ruins are those of Karnak and Luxor, on the eastern bank of the river, with the Memnonium, Medinet Haboo, Koornah, Tombs of the Priests, Tombs of the Kings and the Vocal Memnon, on the western side. The sanctuary of Ammon, a small granite edifice founded by Osirtasen, with the vestiges of the earliest temples around, is the centre of the vast collection of palaces and temples which is called Karnak. Among the ruins of the Memnonium are the fragments of the stupendous colossal statue of Rameses the Great. It has been broken off at the waist, and the upper part now lies prostrate on the ground. This enormous statue measures sixty-three feet round the shoulders, and thirteen feet from the crown of the head to the top of the shoulders. The Arabs have scooped millstones out of his face, but you can still see what he was — the largest statue in the w^orld. Rameses rested here in awful majesty, after the conquest of the whole of the then known world. Next to the wonder excited by the boldness of this sculpture, is the labor that must have been exerted to destroy it — to destroy these countless statues that strew the plains of Thebes. This wholesale de- struction was by the orders of Cambyses, the conquering king of Persia, about 2,400 years ago. The two immense colossi — one of them commonly known as the Vocal Memnon (the statue that, according to ancient tradition, uttered musical sounds when the rays of the morning sun first glowed above the eastern mountains) — stand, like lonely landmarks, hoary, blackened, time-worn and defaced, in the midst of the Theban plain. To any one who will take a glance at any map of Egypt, the importance of connecting the Red sea with the Mediterranean at the Gulf of Suez will be at once evident. The town of Suez is situated at the head of the gulf of the same name ; the Red sea dividing at its northern extremity into the gulfs of Akaba and Suez. The peninsular region inclosed between these two gulfs is a rugged mountainous wilderness, and the scene of the journey of the hosts of Israel ; and Suez, from the nature of the mountains on the Egyptian side, must have been the spot where they crossed. Not far away are the spring.*^ known as " Moses' Well," situated in the desert in an oasis, where, under the [■in, 418 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. grateful shade of the tamarind and palm, the air laden with the perfume of flowers, the Arab of Suez delights to come and forget the noisome odors of his city abode. The connection of the Red sea with the Mediterranean by a canal was considered a desirable object at a very early period in the history of the world. It is even asserted that, as early as the time of the Pharaohs, such a canal was actually constructed, extending from the Nile to the Gulf of Suez. In more recent times Napoleon I. projected a canal across the isthmus. Its value lies in the importance of the commerce of India to the rest of the world. The construction of the Suez canal was carried to a successful issue by the French savant, Ferdinand de Lesseps, in 1869. Subsequently, by a master- FERRY OF KANTARA. piece of diplomacy, the British government purchased the khedive's shares in the canal ; and extreme bitterness was aroused both in France and in Russia by the preponderance gained by England, both commercially and politically, by this remarkable transaction. At the east side of the Suez canal lies the plain of Pelusus. The highway from Palestine, Syria and Persia came by this plain ; a road still exists, and a ferry had to be established at Kantara, which word expresses " ferry" and tells of the former existence of the means of crossing the waters of the lake Menzaleh at this place ; a lake which now exists only on the western side of the canal, the portion on the eastern side having dried up. Among the many triumphs which have been achieved by scholars in the nineteenth century, the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphics takes a EGYPT. 4JJ) veo' high place. By this the history of Egypt has been unfolded, and its learning and wisdom made available for the people of to-day. This oreat achievement resulted from the discovery of the famous Rosetta Stone^by a French artillery officer, in 1799, during the expedition to Egypt under Napo- leon I. The stone, which is now in the British Museum, is two feet five inches wide, and contains inscriptions in three kinds of writing, one in hieroo-lyphics another in what is called demotic, or the language of the people, and the third in Greek. This last being known, furnished the key to the others, because all the inscriptions were found to be texts of the same decree, beino- a decree drawn up by the priests of Memphis in honor of their king, Ptolemy Epiphanes, B. c. 198. A large portion of the literature of Egypt comes down to us in the shape of Iristorical inscriptions graven upon pyramids, obelisks and walls of temples. The sentences are sometimes short and abrupt ; but frequently they have a kind of music which is exceedingly fine. They have also what is now called by Egyptologists "The Book of the Dead," but which the Egyptians them- selves called " Coming Forth by Day." This book exhibits their religious be- lief, their views of the judgment after death, and the transformations of the blessed dead before they attained final rest. The ancient Egyptians are the only people known who have succeeded in bringing the art of embalming or mummifying to perfection. They believed that the soul would revisit the body after a number of years, and therefore it was absolutely necessary that the body should be preserved if its owner wished to live forever with the eods. In 1 88 1 were discovered the mummies of Sethi I., Thothmes II., Thothmes III., and Rameses II., surnamed the Great; heroes whose exploits and fame filled the ancient world with awe more than three thousand years ago. The mummy of Thothmes III. was unrolled to make certain that the mono- gram of his name outside indicated that the remains within were really those of that .monarch. The inscriptions on the bandages established the fact be- yond all doubt. Once more human eyes gazed on the features of the man who had conquered Syria, and Cyprus, and Ethiopia, and raised Egypt to the highest pinnacle of her power. The spectacle was of brief duration ; the re- mains proved to be in so fragile a state that there was only time to take a hasty photograph, and then the features crumbled to pieces and vanished like an ap- parition, and so passed away from human view forever. The director of the Boolak Museum, to which the mummies had been taken, felt such remorse at the result that he refused to allow the unrolling of Rameses the Great, for fear of a similar catastrophe. Besides men and women, the Egyptians also mummified cats, crocodiles, snakes, birds, such as the ibis and hawk, and many other creatures. A region of territorj' in Eastern Africa, called Soudan, in itself most in- 420 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. sio-nificant, has, by reason of recent developments, been suddenly brought to the notice of the civilized world, and has engaged public attention in no small degree. Soudan is the name given to that vast extent of territory in Upper Egypt that stretches from Nubia to the confines of Abyssinia, and from the Red sea to the Libyan desert. The great river Nile, composed of Bah-rel-Abiad, the White, Bah-rel-Azrek, the Blue Nile, and the Atbara, together with the other tributaries, traverses its whole length from south to north. The land, as it recedes from the Red sea westward, assumes an elevation of i,8oo feet. Its surface is rugged, rocky and mainly barren. This vast territory is peopled by hordes of Arabs of various tribes, whose number is computed to be between 30,000,000 and 40,000,000. EGYPTIAN FAMILY. The Arab — and in this nomenclature, besides the natives of Arabia proper, all the inhabitants of northern and half of the eastern portion of Africa are to be comprehended — is a singular race. Wild and ferocious, like the savages of the Far West, the Arabs are endowed with a keener intellect and a highly nervous temperament; a characteristic which has impressed itself upon the Spanish nation by reason of contact. Unlike, however, the aborigines of America, who are stolid, content with hunting and the gratification of their natural wants, the Arabs are ever restless and aggressive, and prey upon their fellow-beings. Although very dark in complexion, they are not negroes ; their hair is coarse, but smooth. Slaves being a staple commodity among the Mussulmans, Mahometan- ism greatly tended to stimulate the ardor of the Arabs of Soudan to extra EGYPT. 421 exertion, and the consequence has been that the necrroes of Central Africa have been the sufferers. Frequent incursions are made into their territories and hordes are captured, who are either employed to till the ^^round for the benefit of their captors, or sold into slavery, both men and women ; the former, if young, being- first denaturalized, so as to be marketable for harem service. The British government endeavored to put a stop to the traffic in slavery, and for that purpose sent out Sir Samuel Baker. But his efforts were futile, for he could find no sympathy or support from any one, not even from the of- ficials themselves ; on the contrary, everybody was against him, either from principle or from interested motives. It is a wonder that he was permitted to return alive. In his report he says: "In ordinary times many a government official, if he meets with a gang of slaves driven by a party of marauders to some distant market, with their hands bound to a log of wood behind their backs, will content himself with a friendly 'parley' and a handsome bribe." Sir Samuel discovered one case in which the Egyptian deputy-o-overnor knowingly allowed a boat to pass which seemed to be laden with grain, but which contained more than 400 men, women and children, packed like her- rings below the deck where the supposed cargo was laid. Gordon Pasha, the celebrated " Chinese Gordon," succeeded Sir Samuel, with no better result. Gordon is supposed to have been killed at Khartoum, a city which was captured by a false prophet called the " Mahdi." Suakin, an important port on the Red sea, is famed as being the hottest place on the Red sea, if not on the globe. A conversation overheard one day in front of the governor's house will illustrate this. Two sentries were pac- ing to and fro, when one of them said : "Abdallah ! you knew Suleiman, our brother, who died from the effects of the heat?" " I knew him," replied Abdallah. "Listen, O my brother," continued Mustapha. "Last night Suleiman appeared to me whilst I slept, and said: 'Mustapha, Suakin is indeed hotter than hell — for I am in hell, as you may suppose. Hell is a cold place com- pared to Suakin ; so much so, that the night of my arrival there, feeling col4 I woke up the devil to ask him for a blanket.' Surprised, he asked me: ' Soldier, whence came you ? ' When I told him Suakin, he replied, ' I under- stand ; ' and thereupon he cried out : ' Give the man from Suakin a blanket.' " THE BARBARY STATES. ^^^^LGIERS, Morocco, Tunis and Tripoli are known as the Barbary ~ '^ States. They are bounded north by tlie Mediterranean sea, east and south by the desert, and west by the Adantic ocean. These coun- tries of North Africa were inhabited in the time of the Romans. Morocco was called Mauritania; and Algiers, Numidia. These regions fwere first setded by colonies from Phoenicia, Greece and other countries. In this region stood the celebrated city of Carthage in ancient times. Its site was about ten miles north-east of the present city of Tunis. France had loner been casting covetous eyes upon the litde state of Tunis, which nominally was under Turkish rule, but really was independent. It possessed the best, virtually the only harbors of the northern coast of Africa. Lying immediately east of Algeria, it was an asylum for Algerian malcontents and the refuge of insurrectionary tribes. Algeria, since its first occupation by the French, has been a dangerous possession, and even at present it cannot be regarded as thoroughly conquered, especially in the southern districts border- ing on the desert. At the Berlin congress, when it was arranged that Eng- land, Austria and Russia should each receive a part of the Ottoman Empire, Count St. Vallier, the French delegate, hinted the desire of his government to have a share of the spoils, by opposing the dismemberment of Turkey. One day, while he was expressing his views to Bismarck, the chancellor shrugged his shoulders and said : "Why not take Tunis for your share? No one will oppose you." From that moment Count St. Vallier withdrew his opposition. A few months later preparations for the French expedidon were being carried for- ward with energy and secrecy. On the pretext of chastising the Bedouins that had invaded Algiers, the French entered Tunisian territory. Then fol- lowed a series of so-called victories over the beggarly, unarmed and half- starved Bedouin Arabs, the bombardment of the defenceless town of Tabarca, expeditions against an imaginary enemy, and finally the parade march toward the capital. The country now called Morocco was conqureed by the Saracens about the same time with the other Barbary states. So also was Tripoli. All these states, except Morocco, afterward fell into the hands of the Turks. Three distinct races are usually included under the name of Moors, namely, the Arabs, the true Moors, and the Berbers. The Arabs came originally from the Sahara, over whose boundless wastes a large propordon of their race still wander. The Moors are essentially townsmen. They are the degenerate descendants of that section of the Arab (422) THE BARBARY STATES. 423 race, who, in the eighth century, after establishing the powerful kingdom of Fez, overran a large portion of Spain. The Moors fill the chief places under the government; and, notwithstand-' ing a great inferiority in numbers, possess more power than any of the other races. A STREET IN TUNIS. During a long period, the Barbary States were in the habit of fitting out vessels to^'cruise'' against the ships of other nations. Their prisoners were sold as slaves, and never returned to their own country, unless a high ransom was paid for them. The Americans were the first who made any considera- ble resistance to these outrages. In the year 1S03, Commodore Preble sailed to the Mediterranean sea with a small American fleet. He intended to attack 424 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Tripoli; but one of his frigates, the Philadelphia, got aground in the harbor. The Turks took possession of the Philadelphia. But one night Lieutenant Decatur entered the harbor of Tripoli, and rowed toward the captured vessel with only twenty men. He leaped on board, followed by his crew, and killed all the Turks or drove them overboard ; the Philadelphia was then set on fire. After this exploit. Commodore Preble obtained some gunboats from the king of Naples, and with these and the American vessels he made an attack on the fortifications of Tripoli. The Pasha of Tripoli was forced to' give up his prisoners. In the year 1815, Commodore Decatur — the same who had burnt the Phila- delphia — was sent with a fleet against Algiers. He captured their largest ves- sels, and compelled the Algerines, and the Tripolitans also, to agree never more to make slaves of Americans. In 181 6, Algiers was battered by an English fleet under the command of Lord Exmouth. This was the severest chastisement that the Algerines had ever received at that period. But in 1830 the French sent a large naval and military force against Algiers, commanded by Marshal Beaumont. The war continued for seventeen years, an Arab leader, by the name of Abdel Kader, making a powerful resistance to the French. At length Abdel Kader was de- feated and taken prisoner ; so the country was conquered, and Algiers, under the name of Algeria, is now a province of France. CENTRAL AND SOUTH AFRICA. FRICA is less known than any other grand division of the globe. Many portions of the interior have never been visited by Europeans. The greater part of the inhabitants are negroes, of which there are many tribes. Some of these are intelligent, and live tolerably well, but the greater part are either in a savage or barbarous state. The climate being warm, they need little shelter or clothing. Their houses are therefore poor mud huts, or slight tenements, made of leaves or branches of trees. Their dress is often but a single piece of cloth tied around the waist. They are, however, a cheer- ful race, and spend much of their time in various amusements. Besides the negroes, there are several other races of Africans. The in- habitants, from Egypt to Abyssinia, appear to consist of the original Egyptian people, mixed with Turks, Arabs and others. The people of the Barbary States are the descendants of the ancient Carthagfinians, mingled with the Saracens who conquered the country, together with Turks and Arabs. The immense Desert of Sahara — which is almost as extensive as the CENTRAL AND SOUTH AFRICA. 42.5 whole United States — with part of the adjacent regions, appears to be oc- cupied by wandering tribes of Arabs, who move from place to place with their horses and camels, like the people of Arabia, for pasturage or plunder. Africa may be considered as, on the whole, the least civilized division of the earth. The people are mostly Mahometans, and one-half of them are nearly in a savage state. The rest are in a barbarous condidon. The central parts of Africa abound in wild animals, such as lions, panthers, leopards, elephants, rhinoceroses, zebras and quaggas. The woods are filled with chattering monkeys, the thickets are infested with monstrous serpents, ostriches roam over the deserts, various kinds of antelopes and deer, in vast herds, graze upon the plains, hippopotami are seen in the lakes and rivers, and crocodiles abound in the stagnant waters. Wild birds of every hue meet the eye of the traveller in nearly all parts of the country. Central and Southern Africa can hardly be said to have any historj'. The inhabitants possess no written records, and cannot tell what events have hap- pened to their forefathers. The ancients had very curious notions about Africa, for they had visited only the northern parts, and contented themselves with telling incredible stories about the remainder. They supposed that toward the eastern shore of the continent there were people without noses, and others who had three or four eyes apiece. In other parts of Africa there were said to be men without heads, but who had eyes in their breasts. Old writers speak also of a nadon whose king had a head like a dog. There was likewise said to be a race of giants, twice as tall as common men and women. But the prettiest ol all these fables is the story of the Pigmies. These litde people were said to be about a foot high, and were believed to dwell near the source of the river Nile. Their houses were built something like birds' nests, and their building materials were clay, feathers, and egg-shells. These Pig- mies used to wage terrible wars with the cranes. An immense army of them would set out on an expedition, some mounted on rams and goats, and others on foot. When an army of the Pigmies encountered an army of the cranes, great valor was displayed on both sides. The cranes would rush forward to the charge flapping their wings, and sometimes one of them would snatch up a Pigmy in his beak, and carry him away capdve. But the Pigmies brandished their litde swords and spears, and generally succeeded in putting the enemy to flight. Whenever they had a chance, they would break the eggs of the cranes and kill the unfledged young ones without mercy. It was long supposed that the story of Herodotus about the Pigmies of Africa was altogether mythical, but within the past twenty years abundant evidence has accumulated of the existence of a number of tribes ot curious litde folks in equatorial Africa. The chief among these tribes are the Akka, 426 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. whom Schweinfurth found north-west of Albert Nyassa ; the Obongo, discovered by Du Chaillu in west Africa, south-east of the Gaboon, and the Batwa, south of the Congo. • These Httle people range in height from four feet two mches to about four SCENES IN THE LIFE OF DR. LIVINGSTONE. feet eight inches. They are intellectually as well as physically inferior to the other tribes of Africa. They are perhaps nearer the brute kingdom than any other human beings. The Obongo, for instance, wear no semblance of clothing; make no huts except to bend over and fasten to the ground the tops of three or four young trees, which they cover with leaves; possess no arts except the CHRISTMAS AT AN AFRICAN MISSIONARY STATION. ^427) 428 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. makincr of bows and arrows, and do not till the soil. They live on the smallej- eame of the forest, and on nuts and berries. For many centuries the mystery of the Nile had been a wonder to all who dwelt upon its banks, and to travellers who came there to learn the wisdom of the Eo-yptians. It flowed from unknown regions, and for the last thousand miles of its course did not receive a rivulet from either side, and only at rare and uncertain intervals a drop of water from the clouds. For nine months of the year its uniform and majestic flood rolled within its steep banks. Then, almost at a given day, from year to year, the river, with no apparent cause, began to rise, overflowing its banks and transforming the narrow valley into a lake. In a few weeks the flood subsided, leaving behind a thin layer of mud, the source of all the fertility of Egypt. In general terms, tropical Africa consists of an elevated central plateau, separated from low tracts along the coast by lines of hills and mountains, running at various distances from the coast. There are thus three well- marked divisions: the low, unhealthy coast region, the mountain ranges, and the central plateau. Of this plateau the chief water-basins, beginning from the south, are those of the Zambesi, whose waters are discharged eastward into the Indian ocean ; the Congo, whose waters flow westward into the Atlantic ; and the Nile, whose waters flow northward into the Mediterranean. The Congo is in volume of water second only to the Amazon. There is a remarkable feature connected with the Congo and the Zambesi. Both rivers flow three-quarters of the way across the continent, and for a considerable space parallel to, and at no very great distance from each other, but in op- posite directions ; the Zambesi from west to east, the Congo from east to west. The head waters of some of these affluents indeed interlock on an almost level table-land, which was crossed by both Livingstone and Cameron. David Livingstone was born near Glasgow, Scotland, in 1813. In 1840 he went as a missionary to South Africa, where he showed a decided tendency for scientific and geographical investigations. He died on the ist of May, 1873, on the shores of Lake Bangweolo. From the death of Livingstone the interest of African discovery centres mainly upon the long journeys of Cameron and of Stanley. The names of Barth, Baker and Speke stand high in the list of African explorers. Livingstone thought that " we ought to encourage the Africans to cultivate for our markets, as the most effectual means, next to the gospel, of their eleva- tion." He therefore proposed the formation of stations on the Zambesi, beyond the Portuguese territories, but having communication through them with the coast. This a number of religious bodies aereed to do. Livinestone said that " the country is so extensive that there was no need of clashing. All classes of Christians find that sectarian rancor soon dies out when they are working together among and for the heathen." CENTRAL AND SOUTH AFRICA. One of the most remarkable expeditions that ever entered Africa was that which was undertaken by Stanley for the rescue of Emin Pasha in 1887. Emin Pasha, originally a German physician who had been in the Turkish ser- vice, entered the service of the Khedive of Egypt in 1876 as surgeon and nat- uralist on the staff of General Gordon, who had just been appointed Gov- ernor-General of the Soudan. Two years after Emin was made Governor of the Equatorial Province, as he had shown great talents for administration. In a very short time he had swept the province clear of the slave traders, and reorganized the affairs of the province. After the success of the Mahdi in the upper part of the province, and the capture of Khar- toum, in spite of the near vicinity of the English relief expe- dition, Emin was put in great danger, but he refused to evacu- ate the region, and thus remit it to the renewed domination of barbarism and the slave trade. The European world be- gan to be apprecia- tive of the heroic and noble stand made by Emin in the very heart of savage Africa, and the final outcome of this sentiment was the relief expedition which Stanley gallantly offered to lead as a matter of love, not of reward. The enterprise was one of stupendous danger and obstacles. Stanley made for the Lake Albert Nyanza, where Emin was known to have had two steamers, and it was supposed that upon reaching the lake there would be litde difficulty in communicating with the Pasha himself Stanley, however. reached the lake with only 173 men out of 341 with which he started out. Sickness, starvation and the poisoned arrows of the fierce dwarfs of the Congo forest accounted for the rest. Stanley at length, after considerable time and difficulty, met Emin ; but the Pasha could not be induced to leave equa- torial Africa, and so render his past work useless. Stanley then returned to 428a HENRY M. STANLEY. THE GOLDEN TREASURY. bring up his rear-guard, about whom he began to be alarmed. He met the forlorn remains of it — one white officer and seventy-two men out of 257. Again, Stanley, with the reunited party, started to traverse the savage and hostile region which he had crossed twice before, but so terrible had been the punishment which he had inflicted on his assailants that his last march was not seriously hampered by foes, though imminently threatened by starvation. But the leader's heroic energy and endurance vanquished everything, and he finally reached the lake for the third time, eight months after he had left it. Fortune was again on the side of his failure. Strange things had happened during eight months. Emin's Egyptian officers had revolted against him, and placed him and Mountenay Jephson, Stanley's assistant, who had left with the Pasha, in confinement. At this time there appeared a fresh irruption of the Mahdists. The ultimate result was to so terrify Emin's rebellious people that the Pasha and his companion were released, and all were willing to accept Stanley's escort to the sea-coast. Emin Pasha did not, however, stay long with his rescuer. He seemed apparently to have enjoyed his life in the Soudan, and he longed to return. He had ruled there over a large extent of territory, and a submissive, if not at- tached, population. He had a small standing army, plenty of ivory, and al- though in the desert, he reigned lii^ and their contests are re- corded in the poem known as the " Mahabharata." The most celebrated of these sovereigns was Rama, or Ramchunder. who is supposed to have lived in the twelfth or thirteenth century b. c. His deeds are the subject of the great epic poem, the " Ramayana." The " Ramayana " is the oldest of all epic poems. The " Mahabharata " contains two hundred thousand sixteen-syllable lines, and fills four thick quarto volumes. The first event in the history of India of which we have an authentic ac- count was the invasion by the Persians, under King Darius, about 518-521 B. c. Long before the invasion of India by Alexander the Great, the Greeks travelled there in search of knowledge ; for there, more than two thousand four hundred years ago, says Voltaire, " the celebrated Pilpay wrote his moral fables, that have since been translated into all languages. All subjects what- ever have been treated, by way of fable or allegory, by the Orientals, and particularly the Indians." Hence it is that Pythagoras, who studied among them, and Pachymeres, a Greek of the thirteenth century, expressed them- selves in the spirit of Indian parables. India had long been subject to the Persians, and Alexander, the avenger of Greece and the conqueror of Darius, led his army into that part of India which had been tributary to his enemy. Though his soldiers were averse to penetrating into a region so remote and unknown, Alexander had read in the ancient fables of Macedonia that Bacchus and Hercules, each a son of Jupiter, as he believed himself to be, had marched as far, so he determined not to be outdone by them ; and thus the year 327 b. c. saw his legions enter- ing India by what is now called the Candahar route, the common track of the ancient caravans from northern India to Agra and Ispahan, after encountering incredible difficulties, and surmountingr innumerable dano^ers. " Few great things have had a smaller beginning than that stupendous anomaly," the British Empire in India. It was in the course of 161 2, in the reign of James, that the agents of the company timidly established their first little factory at Surat. At this period, the nominal sovereigns of the whole of India, and the real masters and tyrants of a good part of it, were the Ma- hometanized Mogul Tartars — a people widely different in origin, manners, law and religion from the Hindoos, the aboriginal or ancient inhabitants of the country. In 1744, France and England being at war in Europe, hostilities broke out between the English and French in India. Clive came to the front on the part of the former, while Bussy displayed admirable generalship on the part of the latter. In the year 1756 Surajah Dowlah seized upon Calcutta, and clapped 146 of the English into the "Black Hole," where all but twenty-three persons perished in a single night by suffocation. INDIA. 439 The student of the modern history of India is familiar with the names of Warren Hastings, who was elected governor-general of India, Hyder Ali, and his son, Tippoo Saib. Lord Cornwallis, who figured so prominently during our War of Independence, conducted a war against Tippoo Saib with such en- ergy that he compelled the latter to cede about one-half of his dominion and to pay in money $16,000,000. In the war which broke out in 1803 between the English and the Mahrattas, Sir Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington of the future and hero of Waterloo, did signal service, making a name that was afterward to be emblazoned on the bead-roll of illustrious warriors. The annexation of Sinde, in 1843, was followed by the wars with the Sikhs, who had been organized into a powerful military state by their great sovereign, Runjeet Singh. These hostilities led to the annexation by the English of the Punjaub. The next important event in the history of India was one which attracted the attention of mankind in all quarters of the globe, and forms, unquestion- ably, the most impressive incident in the annals of British India. This was the great Sepoy revolt. The year 1857-8 was the Hindoo sumbut 1914, in which fell the centenary of Plassy, and Hindoo astrologers had long predicted that in this year the power of the East India Company would terminate for ever. In the early part of 1857 it became apparent that a mutinous spirit had crept into the Bengal army. The military authorities had resolved to arm the Sepoys with Enfield rifles, and a new kind of cartridge, greased, in order to adapt it to the rifle-bore, was introduced into many of the schools of musketry in- struction. A report spread among the native troops that, as the cartridges in loading had to be torn with the teeth, the government was about to compel them to bite the fat of pigs and of cows, the former of which would be a de- filement to a Mussulman, and the latter would be a sacrilege in the eyes of a Hindoo. The wildest excitement prevailed for a time, but the substitution of the old for the new cartridges temporarily prevented an outbreak. Mean- while, though the greased cartridges had not been used elsewhere, the cry of danger to caste and creed was raised in many other stations. Disturbances occurred on February 19th at Burrampoor, on March 29th at Barrachpoor, where the first blood of the revolt was shed— the leader in the revolt being a private Sepoy in the Thirty-fourth Regiment, named Mungal Pandy— and April 24th at Meerut. On May loth a formidable rising took place at the latter station. The Europeans were massacred, and the mutineers marched to Delhi, where the garrison fraternized with them, and a second butchery was committed. In the north-west provinces simultaneous risings took place, and Benares, the sacred city on the Ganges, was in revolt on June 4th. On June 27th took place the horrible massacre at Cawnpore, under Nana Sahib, Rajah ol Bit- 440 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. hoor. Lucknow, the capital of Oude, mutinied. The Punjaub was saved by the administrative capacity of Sir John Laurence. The Presidency of Bombay was but litde disturbed, and that of Madras was tranquil with scarcely an ex- ception. Delhi was stormed September 14th, after a siege of three months. Two sons and two grandsons of the king were made prisoners by Captain Hodson, who shot them with his own hand. Cawnpore and Lucknow were taken from the rebels, and Gwalior was the last great battle of the campaign. The whole population was disarmed in the course of the spring and summer. One thousand three hundred and twenty-seven forts were destroyed, and 1,367,406 stand of arms captured. Of the number of Europeans killed and wounded during this mutiny no accurate estimate can be procured. Hundreds of English women and children were put to death after the most horrible outrages. During the mutiny of 1857, the British garrison in Lucknow, numbering about 1,700 men, was besieged by about 10,000 mutineers. After twelve weeks' defence, during which the British lost Sir Henry Laurence, their com- mander, and suffered from the ravages of cholera, small-pox and fevers scarcely less than from fire and assaults of the enemy, Generals Havelock and Outram fought their way in with a relieving force, September 25th. The defence was now resumed with fresh vigor, Sir James Outram, as senior officer, taking the command. On November 17th, Sir Colin Campbell reached the city with re- inforcements. A k\v days later the residency was evacuated, the British withdrawing by night to the Dilkoosha, where, on the 25th, Sir Henry Have- lock died of dysentery. General Outram was left with a division at Alum- bagh — the king's summer palace, about four miles from the residency — to watch the enemy, and the rest retired in safety to Cawnpore. In January, 1858, Outram was subjected to desperate attacks at the Alumbagh by 30,000 rebels, whom he defeated with about one-tenth that num- ber of troops ; and on Feb- ruary 2 1st, with six guns, and not quite 400 men, he routed another force of 20,- 000 troops. In the meantime the insurgents had fortified Lucknow, and occupied it with a large force. Early in March they were be- sieged by Sir Colin Campbell, who effected a partial entrance on the 4th ; but LUCKNOW. INDIA. 441 the capture was not complete until the 21st, when the city was abandoned by the enemy. One of the most striking events of this struggle was the endino- of the great Mogul Empire in India. The first of the Moguls who figures in Indian history was the great Tamerlane, who, in 1398, overran Bengal, captured Delhi and fixed upon it as his seat of government. But he never completed the subjugation of the country ; other conquests and designs called him away, and it was reserved for his descendant, Zahir Eddin Mahomet Baber, to complete what Timour had begun, and to be the founder of the Mogul dynasty in India in the year 15 19. In the seventeenth century the power and prosperity of the Moguls at- tained their height ; but toward its end the tide of the Mogul power began to BOMBAY. ebb. In the eighteenth century rebellion broke out in different portions of India, and the idiabitants obtained their independence. The Persians also invaded Bengal, captured Delhi, massacred the inhabitants and bore away plunder to the amount of $600,000,000. Meanwhile, the English, who had outstripped all their European competitors in India, were rapidly mcreasmg . in power ; and the result of the now inevitable struggle between the Mogul Empire, under a succession of effete and incapable monarchs. and the East India Company, represented by such men as Clive, Hastings, Coote, Welles- ley and Lake, could not be long doubtful. _ At length, in 1803, the Mogul emperors became simply pensioners ot the British East India Company. The last emperor, Abul Muguffer. became monarch in 1837, but was then past his si.xtieth year, and he held his empty tide merely by British sufferance. 442 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. But when the terrible mutiny of 1857 broke out, the revoked Sepoys flocked into Delhi from the adjacent stations, and proclaimed his restoration to the throne of his fathers. Accordingly, when Delhi was stormed on the 14th of September, the first care of the British was to possess themselves of the person of the aged mon- arch, who, with a crowd of terror-stricken followers, had taken refuge in the tomb of his ancestor, Humayun. Never was the capture of an emperor ef- fected under such extraordinary circumstances. No successful rival, sur-, rounded by his adherents ; no victorious general at the head of his troops, was there to demand his sword. The handful of conquerors were scattered far and wide over the vast city they had just captured ; and a single British subaltern rode to the entrance of the tomb, and dragged forth the last of the Moguls from among the cowering multitude that dared not lift a hand in his defence. Let the historian of the Sepoy war describe the scene : " So Hodson went forth and stood before all, in the open space near the beautiful gateway of the tomb, a solitary white man among so many, awaiting the surrender of a king, and the total extinction of a dynasty the most magnificent that the world had ever seen. It was then but a title, a tradition; but still the monarch of the Moouls was a livingr influence in the hearts of the Mahometans of India. And truly a grander historical picture was rarely seen than that of the single British subaltern receiving the sword of the last of the Mogul emperors in the midst of a multitude of followers and retainers, grieving for the downfall of the house of Tamerlane and the ruin of their own fortunes." After his capture he was tried by a court-martial, and sentenced to trans- portation for life, Rangoon being chosen as his place of exile. He died there on November nth, 1862, and beneath the shadow of the golden pagoda lie the- remains of the last of the Great Moguls. The extreme length of India, from north to south, is 1,900 miles, and its extreme breadth from east to west, exclusive of British Burmah, about 1,700 miles. The Empire of India, with its feudatory states, embraces a territory of 1,556,836 square miles, with a population of not less than two hundred millions. The climate varies from that of the temperate zone in the Hima- layas to the tropical heat of the lowlands ; on the central and southern table- lands the climate is comparatively mild, the thermometer falling as low as the freezing point in winter. During the rainy season the fall of rain in Bengal is from fifty to eighty inches. The north-east monsoon begins about the middle of October, and brings rain from the Bay of Bengal, which falls in torrents on the Coromandel coast until the middle or end of December, during which period the opposite coast of the peninsula enjoys fair weather and northerly breezes. From December to June is the dry season, during which little rain falls. In many districts of India splendid monuments of architecture abound, INDIA. 443 mostly the work of past ages, and many of remote antiquity, such as the tem- ples of Jain and Ajmeer, and elsewhere, some of which were built long be- fore the Christian era, and are distinguished not only for size and splendor of ornamentation, but for symmetry, beauty of proportion and refinement of taste. The mosques, palaces and tents erected by the Mahometan emperors are the finests pecimens of the Saracenic style of architecture in the world. Those at Agra, Delhi and Lucknovv are especially remarkable for their deli- cacy, beauty and taste. The most wonderful structures in the country are probably the great rock temples in the western part of Deccan and those near Bombay. A bishop, whose exquisite taste enabled him to appreciate the beauties of Hindoo architecture, has remarked: "These pagans build like giants, and finish off their work like jewellers." HINDOO GODS. Benares is celebrated as being the ecclesiastical capital of the Hindoos. It has been appropriately termed the Mecca of the Hindoos. A true Brahmin regards it as the holiest spot on earth, and believes that future blessedness is secure to the worst of men who are fortunate enough to die withm its pre- cincts. Hundreds of invalids are brought to Benares to be sanctified by so enviable a death. Even the water of the sacred Ganges is holier here than elsewhere, and quantities of it are taken from the ghauts and conveyed by pious pilgrims to every part of India. Calcutta is the principal city in India, and has been termed, on account ot its magnificent buildings, " The City of Palaces." The two other great cities of India are Madras and Bombay. 444 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. The relio-ion of the Hindoos is Brahminism, which teaches them that there is one principal deity, called Brahma, and several other inferior deities, called Vishnu, Siva, etc. They make strange images of these, and worship them. The priests are called Brahmins, and instruct the people in many vain cere- monies and cruel superstitions. Vishnu, however, is by many looked upon as the greatest of all gods, and many remarkable stories are told of him, and of his coming into this world, which shows the stupendous character of the Hindoo mythology. Once, when a child, under the name of Krishna, he is said to have swallowed some dirt, and his brothers ran and told their mother. She commanded him to open his mouth, so that she could see if they were telling the truth. He opened it, and she saw there The Three Worlds ! ^ At another time a wicked and cruel giant had obtained supreme control from heaven down to hell. Vishnu came to him as a dwarf, begging alms. Bali, the giant, contemptuously asked the shrinking beggar what he wanted. Only three steps of the great giant's dominions were timidly asked. " The blinded Bali, mocking, gave assent. And looked upon him with contemptuous eye. Swift grew the dwarf through such immense extent, That one step spanned the earth, one more, the sky! " Then, looking round, with haughty voice he said, ' The third where shall I take ? O, Bali, tell ! ' At Vishnu's feet the tyrant placed his head. And instantaneously was thrust to hell." It is also said that once Brahma, Vishnu and Siva had a dispute as to which was the greatest. Vishnu said that he would yield the palm of greatness to whoever would reach to the crown of his head or down to the soles of his feet. For fifty million years Brahma soared like lightning upwards, and Siva like lightning dived downwards for the same length of time ; but the one could not reach the head, nor the other the foot. As a consequence, when they re- turned, they both paid due allegiance to Vishnu. The " Car of Juggernaut," or (more properly) Jagannatha, and the sup- posed enormous loss of life by devotees allowing its wheels to run over them, is familiar to all readers of the life and religion of Hindostan ; but the stories of it have no real foundation in fact. These misrepresentations have been repeated until they have received implicit credence over the whole globe, and the name of "Juggernaut" is associated only with what is cruel and sanguinary. Whenever there is a sympathetic murderous destruction of hu- man life to be denounced, "Juggernaut" becomes the type of such acts, and is called upon to do duty by all writers and public speakers. It is scarcely possible to conceive a more complete perversion of the truth ; and it may be INDIA. 445 Stated that Jagannatha would to a certainty get heavy damages in any court, were he to prosecute his defamers. Jagannatha's relation to the Hindoo mytholog>' will partly explain his true nature. He is one of the manifestations of Vishnu, and is supposed to be the same as Krishna. The forms under which Vishnu is worshipped are more or less connected with love, while the manifestations of Siva are, on the con- trary, of a fierce and terrible kind. Had the character given to Jacrannatha been attributed to Siva, something like justification might be found for it. There is a well-known legend which illustrates the character of these dei- ties. Among the innumerable gods of the Hindoo Pantheon a discussion had arisen as to the reputation of the principal personages. One of the Devas at last proposed to try a practical test by which the matter might be setded. So he went up and kicked Siva. The result \yas terrible ; that god burst into a wild passion and destroyed millions of worlds before he calmed down again. The Deva then kicked Brahma. This deity became angry ; he grumbled and growled a little, but did nothing in par- ticular. The Deva then approached Vishnu, who was asleep, but awoke in- stantly on being kicked. He caught the foot that had given the blow and, stroking it with his hand, said he hoped it was not hurt, at the same time manifesting a warm anxiety, as if he had been the cause of pain to the Deva, or as if he had done him an injury. Durine the Car Festival self-immola- tion takes place. This, also, has been very much exao-eerated. Hamilton, in his " Gazetteer," states, " that during the four years prior to 1820 only three cases occurred, one said to be accidental, and the other two to get rid of excruciating diseases with which the victims were tormented." If this is anything like a fair estimate of the death-rate, there need be no hesitation in asserting, on the basis of statistics, that the railroad car is a much more bloodthirsty insti- tution than the car of Jagannatha. The Thugs derive their nomenclature from the Hindoo word ///«^^;w. which means " to deceive," and were a sect of assassins, now happily exterminated by the British government. They roamed about the country in bands of Irom thirty to 300, and strangled to death such persons as they could decoy mto HINDOO MUSICIAN. 446 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. their company. Their atrocious practices were not followed so much from impulses of plunder or malice, as from religious motives. They were wor- shippers of the goddess Kali, who presided over sensual indulgence and death. The movements of the professional dancing-women of India are as grace- ful as they are wonderful. Their agility is something marvellous, and their "chic" if occasionally a litde too expressive, is decidedly fetching. The nautch or dancing-girls of Calcutta are a separate and distinct corps of dancers. They dress in massive folds of silk down to the ground, and are decorated with a profusion of jewelry — bracelets, bangles and other ornaments. Their movements are wild and voluptuous, but seldom pass the bounds of modesty, as some writers have stated. Another class of dancers are the egg-dancers — girls who, dressed in scanty but gorgeous attire, place eggs, on the ends of sugar-canes radiating from a circular frame adjusted to a pad on the head, dancing the while to the music of the tom-tom, and whirling round and round till the eyes of the on-lookers become o-iddy in the gazing. The egg-dance is a very quaint and curious performance, and one which no visitor to India should fail to see. The Vale of Cashmere is undoubtedly the most beaudful and picturesque landscape in the world — a vast park, some ninety miles long by from thirty to forty wide. Everything appears arranged by a superhuman hand to de- light the eye ; fair fields and habitations ; rivers and lakes interspersed with verdant and flowery isles ; " the low whispering in boats " of all shapes and sizes, plied by Hanjis with intelligent countenances, shapely forms and costumes harmonizing most beautifully with that enchanting prospect; coundess streams and canals winding alongr through wavinor- rice-fields and green banks, whose limpid and rippling waters glisten in the sun like bands of silver. Hence it is that Mogul despots, so fierce elsewhere, seem to melt into human beings dur- ing their sojourn in Cashmere. These tyrants, like Nero, had artistic aspira- tions. Enchanted with the beautiful land, they took pride in embellishing it still more by erecting palaces and mosques, arranging terraces and laying out parks in the most picturesque sites, and by liberally rewarding poets for singing the delights of that enchanting abode. No wonder the Moguls called it the earthly paradise of the Indies, and that Akbar strove so hard to wrest it from its lawful kings. It is related that Jehan-Guir, his son and successor, .took such a fancy to this beaudful region that he could never leave it, and .that he declared that the loss of his crown would affect him less than that of Cashmere. Through the influence of the British government young married ladies have no longer before them the horrible prospect of being burned to death upon the funeral piles of their husbands. This inhuman custom, so long preva- lent in this region, only began to disappear quite recently, for in 1843, o^i the death of Soonchet-Sing, uncle of the Maharajah, the Jive hundred wives which INDIA. 447 constituted his principal harem were burned alive with his body at Ramnagar. and twenty-five others, that he had at Jummoo, shared the same fate. In 1863 another similar immolation took place at the violent and mysterious death of Jowahir-Singh, the Maharajah's cousin. Thirty-two of his widows were con- sumed with the remains of their late husband. On another occasion a solitary widow is described by an English tourist as sitting on a funeral pile with her husband's head upon her lap. Seized with terror at the approach of the hiss- ing flames, she sprang from the pile and sought to escape, but the attending priests, horrified at her scandalous conduct, caught her and threw her back upon the burning pile, where she perished, uttering screams that would have moved the hardest hearts. HINDOO PRINCESS. The Cashmerians are a stout, well-formed people, of Hindoo stock. Their complexion is brunette, and the women are very handsome. The Mahometan women are seldom seen abroad, and then so closely veiled are they that it is almost impossible to get even the slightest glimpse of their hidden beauties. The Hanji women, on the contrary, never cover their faces, and are remark- ably handsome in childhood ; but as they soon share their husband's occupa- tion (that of boatmen), and live mostly in the open air, their beauty fades very rapidly, but their features never cease to be attractive. The Cash- merians, as a rule, are brave, active and industrious, and fond of music, litera- ture and art. Their lano-uaee offers many curious analogies with the San- scrit, but their songs are in Persian. 448 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. The Hanji class is that with which tourists are brought most in contact. They are, perhaps, the best of the Cashmerians, and their disposition is not unlike that of the Venetian gondoliers. There is the same charm about them, the same vivacity, the same wealth of imagination. The Cashmerian nobles find much pleasure in their boats, and on pleasant evenings may be heard " Sounds from the lake, the low whispering in boats As they shoot through the moonlight, the dipping of oars. And the wild, airy warbling that everywhere floats Through the groves, round the islands, as if the shores, Like those of Kathay, uttered music, and gave An answer in song to the kiss of each wave. But the gentlest of all are those sounds full of feeling That soft from the lute of some lover are stealing — Some lover who knows all the heart-touching power Of a lute and a sigh in this magical hour." An enthusiastic author thus writes concerning India, and there is little doubt but that he has simply given utterance to what many have felt who have studied the literature and meditated upon the history of its remarkable people: " Weary of the misery songs of the Western World, weary of its air and steam and pain, weary of polemics and wire-drawn romance and faded senti- ment! Art thou weary of all this? When that hour comes take refuge in India of the olden time, where the gazelle starts in the quiet noontide at the footstep of the solemn-eyed Brahmin. In the infinitely deep, solemnly joy- ful India, where man for the first and last time declared and determined to himself what was eternal truth, and in that faith lived and died. In that glorious India which gave to the world a glorious drama, like that of Shake- speare, and the most perfect, sublime poem ever written, in the Mahabahrata — a poem before which the highest flight of Milton is trifling and the genius of the whole West feeble." THE SACRED ALTAR OF HEAVEN, PEKIN. CHINA. *HE territory of the Chinese Empire is nearly the same at the present day that it has been for several centuries. It is bounded on the north by Asiatic Russia, on the east by the Pacific ocean, and on the south by the Chinese sea and Farther hidia. On the west there are many mountains and sandy deserts, which divide it from Thibet and Tartary. This empire is very ancient, and has continued longer than any other that has ever existed. It is the most populous empire in the world, containing about three hundred and fifty milhons of people. Its history goes back four thousand years from the present time. The name of its founder was Fohi, whom some writers suppose to have been the same as Noah. There have been twenty-two dynasties, or separate families of emperors, who have successively ruled over China. Yet few of the emperors did any- thing worthy of remembrance. 29 (^^^^ 450 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. The Emperor Ching, who reigned about two thousand years ago, built a great wall in order to protect his dominions against the Tartars. It was fbrtv-five feet hi<^h, and eighteen feet thick, and it extended over mountains and valleys, a distance of fifteen hundred miles. This wall still remains, thouo-h in a ruinous state. When Ching had completed the wall, he thought himself so very great an emperor that none of his predecessors were worth rememberinor. He therefore ordered all the historical writings and public records to be burnt. He also caused four hundred learned men, who were addicted to writing histories, to be buried alive. Ching survived this whole- sale destruction but a short time, dying after an illness of only three days, in the year 210 b. c. From this time the empire was devastated by civil wars, and dynasties suc- ceeded each other with great rapidity. There were fourteen between the years 207 B. c. and A. D. 1279. At this time Kubla Khan invaded China with an im- mense army of Tartars. He and his descendants conquered the whole em- pire, and the latter governed it for many years. The Emperor Ching-tsa ascended thet hrone three or four centuries ago, A mine was discovered during his reign, and precious stones of great value were dug out of it. Some of them were brought to the emperor, but -he looked scornfully at them. "Do you call these precious stones?" cried he. " What are they good for? They can neither clothe the people, nor satisfy their hunger." So saying, he ordered the mine to be closed up, and the miners to be employed in some more useful kind of labor. About a hundred years ago, in the reign of Yong-tching, there was the most terrible earthquake that had ever been known. It shook down nearly all the houses in the city of Pekin, and buried one hundred thousand people, A still greater number perished in the surrounding country. In 1840 a war between Great Britain and China broke out, which con- tinued for two years. The British government sent an expedition against the Chinese, which took Canton and several other places. The war continued till 1842, when peace was made. Soon after a treaty of commerce was made between China and the United States. Mr. Cushing went to China and nego- tiated this treaty on the part of our country. It is said that he was one day invited by a mandarin to dinner. Mr. Cushing was curious to know what a particular dish was, and not speaking Chinese, inquired : " Quack ? — quack, quack? " The mandarin understood him, and, shaking his head solemnly, re- plied : " Bow-wow ! " In 1852 a great insurrection began in China, headed by a native Chinese, Tae-ping-wang. This man had acquired some notion of the Bible, and in his proclamadons he set forth some doctrines similar to those of Christianity. This rebellion was not suppressed until July, 1864, when Nankin, which had been made the rebel capital, was taken, and Tae-ping-wing committed suicide. Dur- CHINA. 451 ing the progress of this rebellion, China was for a short time engaged in wars with England and France. The most famous man China has ever produced was Confucius, who was born about five hundred years before Christ. He was a learned man, and had many disciples or scholars, who attended his lectures and travelled about with him. He composed several books, which are held in great reverence, even to this day, by the learned Chinese. Pekin, the capital of the Chinese Empire, was built many centuries before the Christian era, though the exact date of its foundation is unknown. Its name signifies the "Court of the North." It consists of four dis- tinct divisions, which are distinguished by the following names : First, Kin-ching, or the pro- hibited city, containing only the palaces of the emperor and the dwell- ings of his immediate retainers; second, Hwang-ching, or the imperial city; third, Nin-ching, surrounded by a wall sixty feet high and forty feet broad at the top; fourth, Wai- ching, the Chinese city, with a wall thirty feet high and twelve feet in breadth. In the prohib- ited city are many arti- ficial lakes, fountains, hanging gardens, pavil- ions and flower-beds. Weird legends con- nected with the city of Foo-chow are numer- ous. It is said that a king of Foo-chow was once on his way up the moun- tain-side, attended by some of his soldiers. A ver>' holy priest ^was sittmg with his legs crossed, in devout meditation, direcdy in the king's path. A soldier commanded him to get out of the way; but he remained miper- CHINESE HANGING GARDEN. 452 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. turbably in his place. At a second, and more vehement command, he got out of the way, but in such a manner as to astonish the whole company. He rose directly up into the air for a considerable distance. The king begged him to descend, and promised to give him whatever he might ask. The modest priest responded with a simple request for as much ground as he could cover INTERIOR OF A CHINESE TEMPLE. with his robe. This was readily granted, and the priest began to spread out his robe, when, lo ! it expanded as he spread, until it covered the whole mountain-side, and the fields below, clear to the river. Thus it was that Koo- shan became consecrated ground. In a shady dell, not far from the monastery, is a trickling rill, with high sides of precipitous rock. The appearance of the bed of the rill impresses CHINA. 453 one with the idea that it must some time have been a stream of considerable size. The legend is, that a devout priest was once seated in meditation near the stream, and being disturbed by the noise of its waters, called out, "//a/t/" (Stop !) Immediately the rush of waters ceased, and ever since the stream has been only an insignificant rill. Another legend tells how a pious priest died, and after his death his hair continued to grow. Barber after barber was summoned to shave it, but could not succeed. At last a sister of his, living many miles away, heard of the trouble, and made a pilgrimage to Koo-shan. When she arrived the dead man opened his eyes. She announced her purpose of shaving his head, which she did with entire success. She promised to return periodically and perform this kind office, which promise she faithfully kept until she was sixty years old, when she asked him what he would do when she died. The old man made no answer, but wept; and from that period his hair ceased to grow. On leaving the foreign setdement for the city, which is three miles away, we enter upon a granite bridge, with forty solid buttresses placed at irregular distances, and connected by stones three feet square, and varying in length from twenty-five to forty-five feet. On these, as sleepers, are laid the stones which constitute the platform of the bridge. It has granite railings, mortised into granite posts. For nearly a thousand years has this bridge resounded to the steady tramp of the multitudes, crossing and recrossing ; and it seems ready for another thousand years of service. So dense is the throng that we sometimes find it difficult to keep our footing. Here is a peddler of wonder- ful salve, cutting his own flesh to show the marvellous curative properties of his salve. Here is a dentist, with a string of hundreds of teeth, the evidence of his skill. He pulls no teeth with cruel forceps, however, but puts a corrod- ing powder about the tooth, which loosens it from the gum, until it can be taken out with the fingers. Here, too, are men with eyes and noses eaten away by disease, piteous applicants for charity. But the bridge is passed, and we plunge into the main street leading to the city. It is only about ten feet wide. There are no wagons or carriages. All the carrying of persons or goods is done by men. The coolies carrying the sedan-chairs, and moving at a rapid pace, call out to the burden-bearers who are in the way, according to the burdens carried, either "Slop-buckets, out of the way!" or, "Turnips, to one side ! " or, " Opium, give us the road ! " Generally the crowd is good-natured, but once in a while there will occur a brisk fisticuff battle between coolies who have come into collision. On either side the street are stores and shops, some common enough, and others handsome and elegant. Swinging signs in front bear such high-sounding titles as " Perpetual Longevity," " Myriad Profits," " Flourishing Prosperity. ' Here is the " Eternal Happiness Oil-store," and there is the " Celestial Fra- grance Drug-store." 454 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. In time of a lunar eclipse, the people turn out with gongs, drums, old tin pans, and anything else that will make a noise, and beat away with great vigor. If the eclipse is total, as the darkness increases, the pounding becomes more vehement and excited ; and when the whole surface is obscured the din is per- fectly terrific. Men shout, "Drum away! Pound away! The dragon has the moon all inside his mouth now. If we don't make him give it up, it will be o-one forever!" Then, as more and more of the moon's surface comes out clear, they encourage each other to keep on until the dreaded dragon is compelled to yield it up entirely. When finally the moon sails off fair and clear through the heavens, they go off home with gongs and drums under CHINESE LOCOMOTION. their arms, in the happy consciousness of duty discharged, and congratulating one another that the moon is saved for future usefulness. A curious wheelbarrow used by the Chinese is worth noting. The vehicle is weighted upon each side, and requires nice adjustment and skill in its use. Two persons, one on each side, balancing the other, may thus travel. Some- times an improvised sail is added for the purpose of assisting the driver in propelling it. Of the moral character of the Chinese it may be said that they are a very industrious people, and habitually gentle in their manners and behavior; but that, with a curious inconsistency often seen in heathen nations, their punish- ments are of incredible barbarity. The most shocking pictures of Chinese CHINA. 455 tortures are to be met with, such indeed as are enough to give us the night- mare. What, then, must be the strange state of mind of those who inflict them. But if the Chinaman is indifferent to torture inflicted on criminals, he is equally so to physical pain inflicted on those he may be supposed to love his female children, whose little feet he confines, in accordance with a preposter- ous notion of beauty, until the members are permanently dwarfed. Little feet are considered a distinguishing beauty of Chinese women, and a walk like that which may be supposed to belong to the " swaying willow," is their ideal of a graceful deportment. One notable event of 1868 was the arrival of an embassy from China, the CHINESE FAMILY. first ever sent by that exclusive empire to any foreign power. Its head was Honorable Anson Burlingame, an American citizen, and lately his country's representative in China. ""He had so commanded the confidence of the Chi- nese government that the emperor had induced him to undertake this impor- tant mission, not only to the United States, but to several European courts. The Chinese had begun to cross the Pacific in great numbers, to hnd eniploy- ment in California and the inland mining States. A treaty, now concluded be- tween the Asiatic Empire and the American Republic, guaranteed security ot life, liberty and property to the people of either nation while in the territory of the other. 1 'ri -k h Formerly Mongolia, the Corea, Cochin China, Siam, Burmah and Thibet were all tributary to China, and sent ambassadors to Pek.n to acknowledge 456 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. their dependence. Thus China was completely surrounded by a chain of smaller tributary states, and this fact helped to establish the belief that the Emperor of China was emperor of the whole world, as even now represented in popular editions of Chinese maps, on which China occupies nearly the whole sheet, leaving Japan, the Philippines and Europe to be represented by small dots. These maps are accepted and thoroughly believed in by the people in the interior of China. The belief that the Emperor of China rules the world, so earnesdy propagated by the Chinese officials, found additional support from the fact of European ambassadors being sent to Pekin ; these being un- derstood by the people to be sent like the ambassadors of these tributary states to pay respect and do homage to the Chinese emperor. As a matter of fact the Chinese government does not derive much pecu- niary gain from Thibet, chiefly in duties levied at Ta tsien lu ; still it is a mine to the Chinese officials, even though it may be actually a burden pecuniarily to the Chinese government. The burden, however, is compensated for by having another dominion in the empire for the sake of prestige, and this is really why China is so jealous of European enterprise entering Thibet, the Corea, or Tonquin. An English official in India, once desiring to see the real color of the Thi- betian skin, paid the parents of a child to wash it in hot water, several waters, and with unlimited soap. Every effort was vain, the skin could not be reached through such a plating of dirt. It is said, with every show of truth, that it would be impossible to wash an adult Thibetan down to the skin. The beauty of a woman in Thibet consists in her being stout, broad, thick-set and heavily membered, and the accomplishments to be desired are that she should be above all things audacious, a good hand at a bargain and also an adept at repartee. In Thibet, if a man of means dies while the crops are standing, it would bring hail were he disposed of at that time, so he is pickled to await the har- vest. This is done by tying his head between his knees and putting him, sur- rounded with salt, into a bag. The bag is put in a basket, and the basket is sewn up well in cloth to prevent unpleasantness, and he is placed in the stable under the first floor to await the suitable day. Then, the day being chosen for his incremation, the ecclesiastics commence their prayers, etc., as many days ahead of the day fixed upon as the wealth of the family will allow. The day having arrived, he is cremated on a pile of wood saturated with melted butter to make it burn quickly. After that, there only remains to give a good dinner to the ecclesiastics and settle their bill satisfactorily. In Burmah and Siam the complexion is of great importance, as the natives wear nothing else until twelve or fourteen years of age, when, if the father is wealthy, they come out in a gaudy-colored silk skirt, or lungi, with a short jacket, and a bright handkerchief for the head ; but if poor, they usually have CHINA. 457 to be contented with a string of glass beads for another year, when they ar- rive at the dignity of a few yards of cheap cotton cloth. The Chinese emigration to California has assumed such great dimensions that it ought to be alluded to. It is not, however, to be wondered at that John Chinaman is no social favor- ite in California— he is so very ugly! very black of hair, very low of stature, " not a thing of beauty," and, moreover, when he laughs he shows his gums horribly. But he is most patient and industrious, cooks like a Frenchman, does up shirts in the laundry like an artist, and " never forgets to sew on the buttons." His first employment in California was as a house-servant, and he still continues to be largely employed in that capacity. He has a passion for Chinese children. learning, and seizes every opportunity of acquiring English. A lady, living in Sacramento, was obliged successively to discharge two young Chinese ser- vants, because they would, the moment her back was turned, mind the spelling- book instead of the wash-tub ; and " John " keeps to his high-flown poetical language. " In San Francisco his sign-board literature is a study — Virtue and Felicit)^ Sincerity and Faith, are common inscriptions over his shop doors." A restauratcnr styles his place of business the " Garden of the Golden Valley," and a drug store receives the appellation of " Benevolence and Longevity." In short, "John " is to be seen in California keeping intact all the well-known peculiarities of his race — a " silent man in his basket-hat, blue tunic and cloth shoes with wooden soles — this man of the long pigtail and bare neck, the re- strained, eager eyes and the yellow, serene, impassive face." But the worst of him as an emigrant is, that he does not come to stay, and so cannot be educated into a responsible citizen. His whole aim is to ac- cumulate two or three hundred dollars— wealth to him— and then recross the Pacific. He holds the worship of his dead ancestors to be a fundamental part of his religion, and every particle of their dust is sacred. This is the reason of Iiis insuperable objecdon to the introduction of railways into China; he is afraid they will plough up this sacred dust. So he cannot himself en- dure the thought of resdng elsewhere : and when he dies in Calilornta. he leaves strict orders that his " remains," sometimes his embalmed body, but usually his bones (boiled and stripped of flesh, that they may be packed com- pacdy in boxes, to reduce the cost of transportation), shall be sent home, 5,000 miles, for burial, by the company to which he belonged. JAPAN. JAPAN is an extensive empire, containing 26,000,000 of in- liabitants. These live to the east of China, upon several isl- ands, of which Niphon is the; largest. The people live crowd- ed together in large cities, and re- semble the Chinese in their re- ligion, manners and customs. It is uncertain whether the an- cient nations knew anything of this empire, and its early history is almost unknown. It is probable it has remained with little change for thousands of years. Its exist- ence was first ascertained by the Europeans about the year 1400; but as strangers are not permitted to travel in the country, very litde is found out concerning it. A treaty of peace and commerce was made between this country and the United States in 1S54. Japan has a temporal and a spiritual emperor. The first is called the Tycoon ; the latter, the Mikado, and he lives in complete seclusion in the little principality of Kioto, where he is venerated as a god and surrounded by a strict ceremonial. The political organization is complicated, the Tycoon having thirteen council- lors, five of whom are chosen JAPANESE LADY. from vassal princes, thirty-eight from among the hereditary nobility. It is these councillors who really govern, the Tycoon being understood to assent to their propositions ; and it he cannot or will not do so, then he is expected to resign in favor of his next heir. In fact, the government is a sort of constitutional monarchy. (458) JAPAN. 4.59 The population is divided into castes, which are hereditar>', as in ancient Egypt. The vassal princes, the hereditary nobility, the priests, soldiers, doc- tors, civil functionaries, etc., all following their callings, from father to' son. The first four castes only have the right to wear swords and wide trousers. The peasants belong to the soil. The singular charms of their land have developed an esthetic side to the character of the people that is discoverable not only in their intense love of flowers, but, indeed, as well in the passionate admiration of attractive views of land and sea. As landscape gardeners they are artists, creating marvels of picturesque beauty on an area of ground that others would think it hopeless to attempt improving. On all the roads and pathways throughout the country, wherever there is an especially fine view to be obtained, a resting-place is to be found, and rustic seats provided for the convenience of the wayfarer: and wherever there is travel sufficient to warrant it, there will be found tea-houses, located at every point of more than ordinary attraction as regards scenery. The Japanese are lovers of nature in all its phases. Their life may be said to be in full communion with the natural. All their temple grounds, and places devoted to wayside shrines, are indicative of their appreciation of the beautiful. Groves of trees encompass these places. No one is found with- out its surroundings of forest growth, and in most cases high elevations are selected, from which the view is fine and e.\tended, on which to build their temples. It is the same with the burial-places of the dead. Under the sigh- ing branches of the cedars and pines the dead are placed, to await the final destiny of all things, and their tombs are decorated with garlands and wreaths of fresh flowers, placed by loving and reverent hands. The religion of the people brings them into unison with nature, because they see their gods in all that surrounds them. Their legends tell of strange manifestations of power in the creation of their land, and the production of what they eat and what their eyes look upon. Gods of the hills and moun- tains, gods of the sea and gods of the flowers, are to them verities and not conceptions, tangible forms and not myths. In worshipping at nature's shrine they honor the gods. They may be said to be highly civilized, and there is a vigor and originality about their mechanical and artistic work which surpasses that of the kindred Chinese ; but they have always raised such obstinate ob- jections to communication with other nations, that it is only of Jate years we have been able to penetrate the mystery of their political and social condition. The best idea of the people is to be got from their own artistic produc- tions. Engravings, sketches in Chinese ink and colored prints, are to be bought in the shops of the principal towns ; and though the perspective, light, and shade is of a peculiar sort, these works of art are ver>- graphic, and rep- resent all sorts of scenes and ceremonies to which a foreigner could with dif- ficulty get access, if at all. 460 GOLDEN TREASURY. The Japanese are a somewhat diminutive race, the men being rather over five feet tail, and the women between four and five; showing a considerable disproportion between the two sexes. They have large heads, prominent cheek bones and features of a more regular and intelligent type than that of the Chinese. Their skin is also of different shades of brown, varying from dark to nearly fair; but it is never yellow. The young people and children have a good deal of color. The women of the upper classes are very fair, and esteem a delicate complexion as an evidence of rank ; but they never come up to our notions of beauty, on account of their eyes being set too ob- liquely in the head. This marked peculiarity is observable in all the Japanese JAPANESE FAMILY. paintings, of which numerous examples are to be seen in the United States now. The faces of both sexes are, however, mobile, and exhibit great variety in expression ; they are therefore more attractive than those of other Asiatic nations. The Japanese only marries one wife, and the women enter very young upon household cares. These, however, are not so heavy as with us, for the houses contain litde or no furniture — unless mattine be considered as such — for on matt ng the Japanese family sits, eats and sleeps. In the morning the citizen puts away his pillows and coverlids, sweeps out his room and all is done. In the evening he shuts up his shutters and pulls out his bedding, and sub-di- vides his house ingeniously with screens, and all his preparations are made. JAPAN. 461 The Japanese women wear their hair elaborately dressed, their lips painted, and their necks and faces artistically powdered and painted. A Japan- ese woman is considered very dowdy-looking, indeed, if her hair is not elaborately arranged ; and no matter to what social rank you turn, it is rare, in- deed, to find one who does not follow the fashion. A very peculiar custom among them is to shave their eyebrows off Another custom, but one which the people are gradually dropping, is the blacking of the teeth of married women. It is very disappointing, at times, to be riding down the street and meet a handsome Japanese woman — and there are many of them — and see her friendly smile suddenly disclose teeth as black as coal. Their walk is very peculiar. They all turn their toes in to such an extent that their walk be- comes a perfect waddle — the more exaggerated because of the high clogs they wear. They cling to this style of walking with the greatest tenacity. A few years since a foreigner started a dancing-school in Tokio. He had many pu- pils, and for a time things went on quite merrily, but a cloud soon arose. The girls' habits of walking prevented them from dancing well, and the teacher commenced teaching them to turn their toes out. They obeyed without a murmur; but the next day the teacher was informed that he might teach the girls to dance, but he must let their walking alone ; that it was a national cus- tom to walk in their manner, and it must be followed, and any interference with it would lose him his pupils. Generally gay and lively, often light and frivolous, the Japanese is disposed to turn everything into pleasantry. He skims over the surface, and rarely goes to the bottom of things. He excels in light criticism, caricatures and humorous conceptions. In politics he makes a clever opposition journalist and a dangerous writer of epigrammatic political pamphlets. A few years ago the stranger on landing in Japan might have imagined himself transported back to feudal times. Soldiers dressed in coats of mail, and armed with the lance, citizens clothed in long, loose vestments, princely processions, a feudal organization permeating the whole social fabric, and con- trolling all interests and classes, met him at every turn. The outward signs of this primitive civilization are gradually fading away. The mighty influences of steam and electricity are making themselves everywhere felt; railways are being built, canals dug. telegraphs erected, mines opened and worked on the newest and most improved systems. The civilization of the West is pouring into the land through a thousand different channels. BOTANICAL GARDEN, ADELAIDE. AUSTRALIA. 'USTRALIA is an immense island, containing three millions of square miles, and is about as extensive as all the United States. It is yet in its infancy, and may hereafter, from its great re- sources and its geographical position, become the greatest country on the globe. This great island was discovered by the Dutch in 1610, but the whole of it is now claimed as a territory '' 'V of Great Britain. Captain James Cook, the celebrated navigator, took possession of it in 1770. It is divided into North Australia, West Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales. Of all the Australian colonies the oldest is New South Wales, it having been settled in 1788; and till West Australia was established, in 1829, it included all the English settlements in the country. It was originally much more ex- tensive than it is now, including much of Victoria and Queensland, which were separated from it in 1851. Its area in acres is about five times that of Eng- land and Wales, and more than half as laree aeain as France. Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, is the oldest city of Australia. It is well built, with fine, broad streets and imposing public buildings, which, combined with its commanding situation on a splendid harbor, has gained for it the appellation of " The Queen of the South." Port Jackson, the harbor of Sydney, for variety, extent, and picturesque combinations, rivals, if it does (462) AUSTRALIA, 453 not surpass, the celebrated harbor of Rio de Janiero. Mr. Anthony Trol- lope speaks of it as " so inexpressibly lovely that it makes a man ask himself whether it would not be worth his while to move his household o-ods to the eastern coast of Australia, in order that he might look on it as long as he can look at anything." Victoria, once called Australia Felix from its beauty and fertility, though the smallest of the Australian colonies, is the most populous and the most wealthy. Melbourne, capital of the colony, has, in the course of forty years, become a city of 200,000 inhabitants, or, with the suburbs within a ten-mile radius, 250,000, thus already taking rank in the ninth place amongst the cities of the British empire, while in other respects unquestionably one of the best- built and finest in the world. As this city is but little known to the world at large, it seems desirable that we should give a brief statement of its wonderful history, and description of its present characteristics. John Pasco Fawkner died at Melbourne on September 4th, 1869, the un- disputed oldest inhabitant in a vast city that had no existence when he sailed up the Yarra-yarra in the schooner Enterprise in the summer of 1835. Where in the midst of a wilderness he had plowed his land and grown his first crop of wheat a city had arisen which, with its suburban townships, numbered nearly 170,000 souls. Long lines of carriages followed the pioneer to his grave, and the people in their thousands lined the spacious streets as the proces- sion passed. Cook, Flinders and Grant did litde more than name the prominent head- lands alone the southern shores of Australia. Lieutenant Murray, R. N., 1802, discovered Port Philip bay, and in the following year Colonel Collins, with soldiers and convicts to the number of 402, attempted to form a setde- ment on its shores. A bad site was chosen ; the expedition was a failure, and in 1804 the setdement was transferred to Van Diemen's Land. One man named Buckley ran away into the bush and lived for thirty years among the natives. In 1824 two catde-owners in New South Wales came in search of new pasture-grounds along the Murray river and across the Australian Alps to the present site of Geelong, but returned without accomplishing any result beyond exploring the district. The first attempt to colonize the territory now known as Victoria was in 1834. when Mr. Thomas Henty. with a few free settlers, located themselves at Pordand bay, 234 miles from where Melbourne now stands. In the following year John Batman led a party to Port Philip bay and made a remarkable treaty with the blacks, by which they ceded to him 600.000 acres for a quantity of blankets and tomahawks, or. as one ac- count states, for "three sacks of glass beads, ten pounds of nails, and hve pounds of flour." The English government subsequendy annulled this con- tract, but the representadves of Batman received /7.000 in compensation. Three months after Batman and his helpers had got to work John Fawkner s 464 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. schooner sailed past their settlement and up the Yarra-yarra, and was made fast to a eucalyptus tree on the bank, opposite to where the Melbourne Cus- tom House, an ornament to the city, now stands. The news of the discovery of rich pastures in the neighborhood of Port Philip bay soon spread far and wide. In spite of some opposition from the British cxovernment, emigrants flocked thither from New South Wales and Tasmania, taking with them their sheep and cattle. At the end of a few months the setdement contained a population of 224, of whom 38 were women. The possessions of the colonists included 75 horses, 555 head of cattle, and 41,332 sheep. It was at this period that William Buckley, the con- vict, who had escaped from the disastrous expedition of Collins in 1803, returned to his compatriots. He had been thirty-three years among the blacks and quite forgotten his own language. There was little in "The Setdement," as infant Melbourne was for some time called, to suggest its future wealth and vastness. In January, 1838, there were a couple of wooden houses serving as hotels for the country setders when they brought up their wool to send off by ship, or for new arrivals on their way to the "bush." "A small square wooden building" (says Mr. George Arden, an eye-witness), " with an old ship's bell suspended from a most defamatory-looking, gallows-like structure, fulfilled the duty of church or chapel to the various religious denominations, whence, however, the solemn voice of prayer and praise, sounding over the yet wild country, had an effect the most interesting and impressive." There were two or three shops, each selling anything useful, and a branch of a Tasmanian bank. Six months later numerous brick houses of two or three stories had risen ; the inns had become handsome and convenient ; streets were marked out and macadamized; the population had quadrupled, and a multitude of dealers had opened various kinds of shops. Fawkner opened the first inn, and on January ist, 1838, started the first newspaper. The Melbourne Advertiser. The first nine numbers were in manu- script, and limited to a circulation of one copy, which was kept at Fawkner's bar for public use. With the exception of a disastrous financial crash in 1842, the result of over-speculation and land-jobbing, the history of Melbourne till the gold discoveries in 1851 was a history of steady progress and success. Scarcely was the Port Philip settlement five years old when it began to clamor for separation from New South Wales. In 1842 its local institutions were im- proved, and it was allowed to send six delegates to the Legislative Council at Sydney. But Melbourne continued agitadng till, in 1850, its prayer was granted, and the British Parliament passed an act by which, on July ist, 1851, Port Philip became a separate colony, under the new name of Victoria, said to have been chosen by the queen herself. AUSTRALIA. ^g But it was in this year, ever memorable in the history of Melbourne that a rich gold-field was discovered within a hundred miles of the city, at Bal'larat The discovery of gold changed, as by the wave of the magician' s wand the entire future of life in Australia. The pulse of the community, which 'ere- while beat quietly and steadily, at once mounted to fever-heat. There was but one theme on every lip, and that theme was "gold." It intoxicated the whole body of the people. They rushed pell-mell to the various spots where the dazzling metal was supposed to be obtainable. The laborer left his implements of toil and ran. The mechanic quitted his bench. The clerk abrupdy threw up his situation. The merchant left his counting-room. The barrister left his case unfinished. Melbourne was all but deserted. In the course of a few months about one-half of the entire male population of the colony had left their wonted avocations and gone on the popular adventure. Then, too, the people came " in hot haste " from the neighboring colonies, crowd following crowd as fast as ships by sea and conveyances by land would bring them — men of every shade of character, and thousands with no char- acter at all, each and every one attracted by the bewildering glare of virgin gold. Little wonder that business came to a stand-still ; that the old land- marks were torn up ; that the foundations of society were out of course, and that social disorganization, rapine, dissipation, and even murder, speedily prevailed. Not less than 10,000 persons landed at Melbourne in one week in 1851. Successful diggers came down to the city, squandered their gold like mad- men, and went to search for more. It became possible to realize vast fortunes by supplying the wants of the gold-seekers, when men were willing to give an ounce of gold for a bottle of champagne. Lodgings of any kind were at a high premium ; to be allowed to stretch on the floor of a hotel coffee-room was the utmost favor many could obtain. The boilers of a steamer lying on the wharf were used as a sleeping-place by people who would have paid well for beds if money could have obtained them. To meet the exigencies of the case a town of tents, known as Canvas Town, rose on the St. Kilda road. Several thousand inhabitants lived in this temporary setdement, which was regularly laid out in streets, and existed for several months. The government service had a great difficulty in keeping up its staff of officials. An eminent lawyer from Sydney, appointed to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of Victoria, could find nowhere to lay his head, and after spending one night in an arm-chair at the Melbourne Club, resigned the appointment and went back. At one period the police force sank far below the required strength. A mounted force, known as the Cadets, was enrolled, in which many young men who found the labor of gold-digging did not suit them were glad to earn good wages. These guardians of the peace had for a time a prospect of plenty of work before them. The convicts from Tasmania 30 466 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. had rushed over in swarms. But, notwidistanding the disorganization pro- duced by the gold-fever, order was on the whole remarkably well maintained. For a while bushrangers made the roads to the diggings unsafe. During 18152-3-4 there were frequent robberies, but with the excitement of those years all disorderly symptoms passed away, and the colony of Victoria settled down into a law-abiding community. With the excepdon of the Ballarat riots in December, 1854, no serious disturbance is recorded in its history. Gold brought together a teeming population, developed all the resources of the country, constructed railways, and made Melbourne. Several expeditions have been undertaken by the Australians for the pur- pose of unveiling the secrets hidden in the interior of their great continent. In 1859 twenty-four fleet camels were procured from India for an expedi- tion. The command was given to Robert O'Hara Burke, a superintendent of Victoria police, and previously connected with the Irish constabulary and Australian cavalry. One of his colleagues was William John Wills, of the Melbourne Observatory, a young hero with a passionate love for exploration. In August, i860, the party, consisting of fifteen men with their camels and provisions for twelve months, set forth amidst the acclamadons of the Mel- bourne citizens. A depot was established at the Barcoo river, and on Decem- ber 1 6th Burke and Wills, with two men named Gray and King, pushed forward with a horse and six camels northward, and at length reached the Flinders river, where they met the tidal waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria. On February 23d, 1861, they commenced the return journey, having accomplished the feat of crossing the Australian continent. On April 21st Burke, Wills and King reached the Barcoo rendezvous to find it deserted. The expedition had abandoned the depot that day, giving their companions up for lost. The three adventurers wandered about in the wilderness till near the end of June, subsisting miserably on the bounty of the natives, and partly by feeding on the seeds of the nardoo plant. At length both Burke and Wills died of starvation. Melbourne abounds in edifices as substantial and enduring as are those of any place in the world ; the material, bluestone, of which most of the ware- houses and many of the public buildings are in whole or in part constructed, being, so to speak, of an imperishable nature. The House of Parliament, situated on an elevated site at the top of Bourke street, with its grand fa9ade and tower, 270 feet in height, is a magnificent structure. The richly decorated halls in which the two chambers meet have each a measurement of 76 feet by 40 feet, and 36 feet in height. There are splendidly-appointed reading and other rooms for senatorial comfort and convenience and a well-stocked library. Melbourne has a university which is endowed by government, the profes- sors having liberal salaries and residences. In connection with the university AUSTRALIA. 467 there is a museum— a large hall with galleries running round it— in which are displayed stuffed specimens of Australian birds, beasts and reptiles. The immense variety of Marsupialia, for which Australia is so remarkable, is here fully exemplified. Upon the walls are displayed the bones of the diprotodon —an awful kangaroo of the tertiary epoch, whose pouch rivalled the capacity of a modern omnibus. There are several markets in Melbourne. One of the principal, and perhaps the most interesting, is the Eastern, familiarly known as " Paddy's Market." Early in the morning on Wednesdays and Saturdays this market presents an animated scene. The abundant stores of potatoes, cabbages, pineapples, peaches, apricots, plums, and a variety of other fruits and vegetables, attract a goodly con- course of buyers. But it is on Saturday night that this market bursts forth in its full glory, when the stalls are lit up with gas- light. Along the pas- sages an immense crowd of men and women and boys and girls passes continu- ously, gazing, buying, talking, laughing, whilst the dealers shout the merits of their wares. Everything that can be eaten or drunk, or worn, or worked with or played with, seems on sale here. Oysters, stockings, crockery, chisels, Bibles, song-books, old clothes, opossums, tin-ware, black swans, and innumer- able other things are all near at hand ; fish, flesh, fowl, and vegetables of every sort are cheap and plentiful. " Cheap Jack " shouts his bargains, and Punch and Judy and Dog Toby attract their crowd as in the old country. Mutton is a very abundant article. 'T was attracted by a loud voice," says an eye-witness, " calling out, 'This way for cheap mutton ! ' A red-faced man in butcher's garb was standing on a barrow in the midst of the crowd. Around him were piled a number of half-carcasses of sheep, ready-dressed for cooking. The mutton was sweet and of fair average quality. The sales- man was holding up his half-sheep (cut lengthways through the middle), while he waved the other hand with animated gestures toward his audience. ' Cheap mutton here ! Come along ! Now's your time ! Who'll buy cheap ORNITHORHYNCHUS. 468 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. mutton ? ' A pause ensues ; the mutton is lowered for a moment to ease the arm ; up it goes once more, and then I hear him sing out, ' Sold again and got the sugar' (colonial slang for ready money). ' Half a sheep for a shilling! ' The purchaser was a litde girl, who tottered along with her load as if she held a little brother upsidedown. A young man took another at the same price. But there were few bidders ; the supply was evidently greater than the demand ; and it was certain that the salesman would have several half-car- casses unsold. . . . What, I thought, would the starving poor, the employed and unemployed classes of other great towns and cities think of this — half a sheep for a shilling, and scarcely any bid- ders ! " In Little Bourke street there is a Chinese quar- ter. In the dull, dark, and not very clean shops, tea, rice, opium, and va- rious articles specially required by the Chinese are the chief commodi- ties sold. The adjacent houses are tenanted by swarms of Celestials. Of these Chinese immigrants numbers are hawkers in the streets of Melbourne, carrying about various fancy wares in baskets suspended from the ends of stout bamboo- canes laid across their shoul- ders. At Emerald Hill there is a Chinese joss-house, or place of worship, with all the appurtenances for the due celebration of religious rites. The old colony of South Australia is generally flat, as compared with Victoria or New South Wales. Although so far south, and therefore farther from the tropics, and geographically more temperate, yet South Australia is very hot, and perhaps suffers more during the summer months of December, January and February than any of the other colonies, the thermometer often rising at Adelaide, the capital, to i io° or 115° in the shade; but the rest of the year is pleasant. AUSTRALIAN. AUSTRALIA. 469 The climate of West Australia is generally admitted to be one of the finest known. The mortality of the whole colony is said to have averaged only one per cent, since its formation, that of Great Britain being about two and a half per cent. Snow is unknown, and ice is only seen in the morning and in the depth of winter. For men able to work, who possess a very small capital, and have some knowledge of agriculture, there is probably no country in the world where a comfortable and even a luxurious existence maybe attained as easily as in West Australia. Queensland possesses a more uniformly hot climate than the more southern setdements. Over by far the larger part of the colony frost and ice are un- known ; while at Brisbane, the capital, the winter — June, July and August is a most delightful season, with cool mornings and evenino-s, bright and warm days, the sky always blue, and the air wonderfully transparent. The colony is almost entirely free from epidemic diseases, and is very favorable to those with a tendency to consumption. The great agricultural specialty of Australia is its wool, the produce of about fifty millions of sheep. Mining forms one of the most remunerative branches of industry. South Australia contains productive copper mines; New South Wales extensive coal measures, and especially gold. The richest gold-fields, however, are those of Victoria. In New South Wales a consider- able number of diamonds have been discovered; and these valuable gems have also been found in Victoria and Queensland. The natives of Australia are described as the most degraded people in the world. They are black, and have frizzled hair like negroes ; and they have very lean arms and legs. Their features have a resemblance to the monkey tribe, and they are said to be not much handsomer or more intelligent than the orang-outangs found in the Malaysian islands. When Captain Cook, about one hundred years ago, was describing the naked savages of the east coast of Australia, he said: "Their principal orna- ment is the bone which they thrust through the cartilage which divides the nostrils from each other. Our seamen, with some humor, called it their sprit- sail-yard ; and, indeed, it had so ludicrous an appearance that, till we were used to it, we found it difficult to refrain from laughter." The exceedingly wide-spread custom of tattooing the skin may also be alluded to here, as the result of the same propensity as that which produces the more serious deformations. The rudest form of the art was practised by the now extinct Tasmanians and some tribes of Australians, whose naked bodies showed linear or oval raised scars, arranged in a definite manner on the shoulders and breast, and produced by gashes inflicted with sharp stones, into which wood-ashes were rubbed, so as to allow of healing only under unfavor- able conditions, leaving permanent large and elevated cicatrices, conspicuous from being of a lighter color than the rest of the skin. LAKE ROTHE-MAHANA. NEW ZEALAND. '-^^^fZ^N the centre of the South Pacific, and far removed from the shores of Australia, rises the island group bearing the name of New Zealand. It consists of two large and several smaller islands, _ with a total area estimated at 101,000 square miles. The two ^4^>^ large islands are marked by striking physical differences. North ^^ Island, with its varied outlines, consists of two sections — the north- T western peninsula, abounding in fertile and ^vell-watered valleys, and the main body of the island, characterized by gently sloping hilly ranges and low-lying table-lands, varied here and there by volcanic peaks. The country is everywhere covered with a luxuriant growth of timber, except in the heart of the island, which is full of lakes, hot springs and geysers, depositing silica and sulphur, like those of the Yellowstone Park in the United States. South Island, which is the longer and more extensive of the two, presents a very different physical aspect. Its western side is traversed in its entire length by the so-called Southern Alps, a massive range from 10,000 to 13,000 feet high, whose slopes, up to the snow-line, are densely wooded. Towards the west they contain vast snow-fields and glaciers, extensive tracts filled with stony detritus, clefts and fissures of enormous depth, whence flow icy streams to the lakes of the table-land. (470) NEW ZEALAND. 471 These Maoris (which The lakes of New Zealand deserve especial notice, as they present many interesting features. They may be generally classed as due either to volcanic or glacial action, the former being the case in the North, the latter in the South Island. In the lake region of North Island there are remarkable groups of hot springs of various degrees of temperature. But the most wonderful part of the lake region is the small Rothe-Mahana, or Warm lake, with its boiling springs and silicious terraces. Almost every- where around the lake there is a seething, hissing and boiling sound from the numerous escapes of steam, boiling water, or hot mud; while in the lake itself hot springs are so numerous that the whole body of water is kept at a tem- perature of 90° or upwards. The aborigines of New Zealand are called Maoris, in their language means simply "men") are dying out quite as rapidly as are the Hawaiians, to whom they are akin. In 1842 their numbers were estimated at 1 14,- 000; in 1850 at 70,000; now 40,- 000. According to their own tradition their ancestors came hither some 400 years ago, in canoes, from an island which they called Hawaiki, supposed by some to be Hawaii; by others, who think it unlikely that canoes could make that long voyage of 4,000 miles, one of the nearer Navigator group. The first supposition finds some support from the fact that when Cook was there, in 1766, his Ha- waiian interpreter found no diffi- culty in conversing with the Maoris. Whether there were any human dwellers on the island before the Maoris arrived there is very un- certain. The only quadruped they found was a kind of rat ; but birds were plentiful, and the waters abounded in fish, which, with the roots of a kind of flag, and sweet potatoes, which they apparently brought with them, constituted their chief food when the whites first came in contact with them. NEW ZEALANDER. 472 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. Physically, the Maoris are a fine people. In stature and physical strength they will compare favorably with Europeans. Mentally and morally, in most respects, they rank far above the majority of uncivilized people. Generally they are of a light-brown color, with straight, black hair and prominent features. New Zealand is most favorably situated for the growth of all the fruits and vegetables of the temperate zone. In minerals, though late in the field, it now almost rivals the richest colonies of Australia. Large amounts of silver have also been exported. The Maoris are fully conscious of their approaching fate, a fate in which not only the people themselves, but also the native vegetable and animal life seem involved. The Maoris rightly say : " As the white man's rat has extir- pated our rat, so the European fly is driving out our fly. The foreign clover is killing our ferns, and so the Maori himself will disappear before the white man." POLYNESIA. Polynesia consists of many groups of small islands, which are scattered over a large extent of the Pacific ocean. None of them are wholly occupied by civilized people. The Sandwich islands are among the most important in Poly- nesia. The islands were discovered by Captain Cook, in 1777, and named in honor of the Earl of Sandwich. In February, 1779, the famous navigator was killed by the natives on the shore of Kaawaloa bay, Hawaii. The spot where he fell is now marked by a stone shaft, erected by England in 1874. "As these islands are not united under one government," says an early account of their discovery, " wars are frequent among them. The inhabitants are undoubtedly of the same race as those that possess the islands south of the equator ; and in their persons and manner approach nearer to the New Zealanders than to their less distant neighbors either of the Society or Friendly islands. Tattooing is practised by the whole of them." Some ten or twelve years after their discovery a Napoleonic king of Hawaii invaded successfully the several islands of the group, conquered and placed them under his own rule, and founded a dynasty that lasted until February, 1874. From their conquest until the present day the population of the island has steadily and rapidly decreased. Out of an estimated total of 400,000 natives in 1779, only 58,765 remained in 1866, and this latter number was still further diminished between the years 1866 and 1872 to 51,531. The causes of this POLYNESIA. 473 decrease are said to be "wars, drunkenness and human sacrifices;" but, ac- cording to native traditions, vast numbers of the people were swept away during the first part of the present century by periodical epidemics of small- pox and measles. Whatever the cause, the ominous fact remains. The natives are simple, honest, and obviously cheerful and contented ; but, like all residents of the tropics, they are wanting in physical energy. "The people," says a recent writer, "are surprisingly hospitable, and know how to make a stranger at home ; they have leisure and know how to use it pleasantly; the climate controls their customs in many respects, and nothing is pursued at fever-heat, as with us." A great drawback to the progress of the islands was, until late years, the lack of steam communication with the United States; but this has been re- moved by the Pacific Mail Company, whose steamers now touch at Honolulu once a month, on their voyages between San Francisco and Australia. The Society islands likewise belong to Polynesia. They are situated about a thousand miles south of the equator, which is nearly the same distance that the Sandwich islands are north of it. The largest of the Society islands is called Tahiti, or Otaheite. It is a hundred miles in circumference, and is inhabited by about ten thousand people. Like the natives of the Sandwich islands, they are generally handsome and of agreeable manners. The Otaheitan men are a fine, tall set ; the women very handsome and graceful, but somewhat small. They are verj' fond of dress, and attend the missionary' chapels in wonderful costumes formed of portions of a European toilette. They have been brought under the influence of Christianity by Methodist pastors. Byron, in his poem, " The Island," has written a beautiful description of Otaheite : " The chase, the race, the liberty to roam. The soil where every cottage showed a home ; The sea-spread net, the lightly-launched canoe; Which stemmed the studded archipelago O'er whose blue bosom rose the starry isles ; The healthy slumber caused by sportive toils ; The palm, the loftiest dryad of the woods, Within whose bosom infant Bacchus broods. " The cava-feast, the yam, the cocoa's root, Which bears at once the cup, and milk, and fruit; The bread-tree, which, without the ploughshare, yields The unreaped harvest of unfurrowed fields." DYAKS OF BORNEO. THE MALAYSIAN ISLANDS. S^^nter, Death of General, 250. Cleveland, Stephen Grover, 255. California, Giant trees of, 256. Chautaut|ua Lake, 259. Chromolithography in the United States, 271, Climate of Italy, 273. Carthage, Destruction of, 279. Caius Julius Ciesar, 280. Cataconilis of Rome, 283. Cathedral of Milan, 292. Charlemagne, Reign of, 300. Charlotte Corday, 305. "Cid," Chronicle of the, 315. Cervantes, Don Miguel de, 317. Canioens am! his poem of the Lusiad, 323. Charles XII. of Sweden, 329. Chamouni, Valley of, 336. Cologne Cathedral, 349. Catherine the Great of Russia, 367. Constantinople, Siege of, 388. Cleopatra, Death of, 411. Cairo, Life in, 413. Cambyses' conquest of Egypt, 416. Calcutta, " Jilack Hole " of, 438. Clive, Robert, 438. Cashmere, Valley of, 446. China, (jreat wall of, 450. Chinese advertisements, 453, Chinese in California, 457. Chinese in Australia, 468. Druidical Sacrifices, 24. Dunstan, St., and the Devil, 32. Douglas and Harry Hotspur, 72. Destruction of the Spanish Armada, 86. Drake, .Sir Francis, 87. Daniel O'Connell, 137. Dublin, 140. Discoveries of Cabot, 190. Duel between Hamilton and Aaron Burr, 223. Death of Washington, 225. Douglas, Stephen A., 240. Death of Lincoln, 245. of Custer, 250. of Garfield, 252. Drake, Joseph Rodman, 262. Dante and his Divine Comedy, 288. Death of Napoleon Bonaparte, 308. " Don Quixote," circumstances under which written, 317. Death of Gustavus Adolphus, 329. Danish literature, art and science, 330. Death of Arnold Von Winkelried, 334. Dutch, Character of the, 339. Dresden, 346. Dervishes, Dancing, 392. Desert of Sahara, 424. Damascus, Ruins of, 433. Delhi, Storming of, 440. Dancing-girls of India, 446. It was Extent and physical aspect of England, 12. Early British tribes and races, 23. England, Noiman conquest of, 37.' Eleanor of Castile, 55. England and Scottish border warfare, 69. English Revolution, 96. statesmanship and oratory, 122. literature, science and philosophy, 125. rule in Ireland, 130. Edwards, Jonathan, 221. Ericsson, Inventions of John, 246. Earliest inhabitants of Spain, 314. Elizabeth, St., 345. Empire, Proclamation of the German, 354. Early hi-story of Russia, 364. Epaminondas, 4CX). Egypt, Ancient civilization of, 407. Egyptians, Superstitions of the, 409. Invasion of, by Napoleon, 412. Egyptian temples, 414. Egypt, Conquest of, by Cambyses, 416. Egyptian mummies, 419. Egyptians, Religion of the Ancient, 419. Empire in India, British, 438. Flodden, Battle of, 82. Fire of London, 102. Father Matthew and his temperance campaign, 134. Fisheries, Scottish, 149. "Fountain of Youth," 168. Fisheries, Newfoundland, 198. Franklin, Benjamin, and his discoveries, 221. Florence, City of, 288. Great men born in, 288. France, Prinntive inhabitants of, 299. French monarchy under Clovis, 299. France, Wits and literary men of, 303. French Revolution, 304. Consulate and Empire under Napoleon, 306. Republic and Empire under Napoleon III., 308. Franco-German war, 308. French greoleon Bonaparte, 306. Nihilists, The, 373. Novgorod, 379- Nineveh, Ruins of, 434. Nautch or dancing-girls of India, 4461 New South Wales, 462. Owen Glendowcr, 71. Oglethorpe, James, 207. Poicliers, Battle of, 63. Poets, Homes of the English, 17. Plague of London, 102. 480 INDEX. Parnell, Charles Stewart, 1 37. I'izarro and the conquest of Peru, 1 76. I'enn's treaty with the Indians, 204. Poe, Edgar Allan, 266. Payne, John Howard, 266. Padua, 291. Pompeii, Destruction of, 294. Pius IX., 295. Peter the Hermit, 300. Paris, Magnificence of, 312. Prim, Assassination of General, 32I. Peter the Great, 365. I'lague at Athens, 399. Philip of Macedon, 400. Porus, Defeat of, 401. Philosophers of Greece, 40I. Palestine and Syria, 429. Persia, Climate of, 436. Quebec, Founding of, lio. Capture of, 1 10. Robin Hood, Little John and Friar Tuck, 44. Richard Coeur-de-I.ion, 50. ■ Rob Roy, 148. Riel's rebellion, 195. Romulus and Remus, 274. Roman Catacombs, 283. Rienzi, Nicoli de, 284. Rabelais, 303. Russia, Hi:.tory of, 364. Russian superstition, 382. Rameses the Great, 416. Religion of ancient Egypt, 419. of tlie Japanese, 459. Rothe-Mahana, Lake, 471. Scandinavian invasion of Great Britain, 30, Spanish armada, 87. Shakespeare, 88. Science and art in England, 1 25. Science, art and literature in Ireland, 142. Scotland, its freedom and independence, 144. Science, art and literature in Scotland, 150. Scotland's union with England, 160. Scott, General Winfield, 238. Signal Service, United States, 260. Science, art and literature in the United States, 262. in Italy, 274. in France, 313. in Spain, 317. Soult, Anecdote of Marshal, 318. Sarngossa and its sieges, 319. Science, art and literature in Portugal, 323. Sea-Kings, 326. Swedes and Norwegians, 330. Switzerland, early races of, 331. Sempach, Battle of, 333. Science, art and literature in Germany, 348. Siberia, 383. Science, art and literature in Greece, 402. Suez Canal, 418. Science, ait and literature in Japan, 459. Tournaments, 58. Translation of the Scriptures, 92. Trenton, Battle of, 214. Taylor and Scott invade Mexico, 237. Tilden, Samuel J., 251. Tell, William, 332. Tyrol and the Tyrolese, 362. Turkey, Geographical position and population of, 385. Turkish History, 387. Shopkeepers, 392. Turkey, Women of, 393. ThermopyliTe, Pass of, 399. Tadmor, Ruins of, 433. Thugs, The, 445. Tycoon of Japan, 458. Tasmania, 464. u Union of Scotland and England, 160. United Slates, Remarkable rate of progress of the, 161. Settlement of the, 20I. Treaty of peace between England and the, 218. Signal Service, 260. Voyages of Columbus, 164. Venezuela, 178. Vatican and St. Peter's, 286. Venice, Grand Canal of, 291. Valencia, 315. Victories of Gustavus Adolphus, 328. Vienna, Siege of, 358. Van Diemen's Land, 463. w William the Conqueror, 37. Wat Tyler, Insurrection of, 68. Wickliffe and the Reformation in England, 73. "Wars of the Roses," 75. Warwick the " King-maker," 76. Witchcraft and astrology, 78. Wolsey, Fall of Cardinal, 82. Wallace and Bruce, 157. Wolfe, Death of General, 194. Washington, George, 219. Webster, Daniel, 233. Whittier, J. G., 265. Westphalia, Peace of, 341. William, Emperor of Germany, 351 Wall, The great Chinese, 450. Yosemite Falls, 257. Varra-yarra, 463. Zulti war and death of Prince Napoleon, 121. Zambesi and the Congo, 428. Zealand, New, 470. /' n il n I c li UC SOUTHERN REGinrMLLIBWR^fAL, LI 'r