 Chapter 6 of THE MEN WHO FOUND AMERICA This LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Elijah Fisher. THE MEN WHO FOUND AMERICA by Frederick W. Hutchinson Chapter 6. Harry Soto came to the father of waters. In the olden days, while the bold Columbus was sailing across the ocean, who lived in a gray, mossy castle in Spain, a young lad named Ferdinand de Soto, this Ferdinand was a very lonely boy. He had no father and no mother, and there were no other boys with whom he could play. All he could do was to watch the birds flying in the green woods near the castle and listen to their sweet songs. Sometimes, in the long, beautiful afternoons, he would go out to a walking with his faithful dog, a ride on top of his big black horse that the boy had known and loved ever since he was a little boy. Ferdinand did not go to school. There weren't too many schools in those days, and only the very rich could go. And Ferdinand, though he lived in the castle, was very poor. But he did learn how to ride on a horse and how to fence with the sword. His servant taught him these things. This servant was a good, strong old man, with eyes as black as a coal, and hair and beard as white as snow. Soon the younger Ferdinand learned so well that he could fence better than his teacher. And, as for horses, Ferdinand could ride horses that the old man was afraid to mount. One day there came to the castle a very rich and noble man named Don Pedro. He looked at the handsome young Ferdinand, and was very much pleased with him. Ferdinand was very polite and had good manners, so at last Don Pedro him seemed like a very fun lad. Would you like to come to my place and learn to read and write and become a great soldier like your father used to be? I should like it very much, replied young Ferdinand. I should like to learn many things, and then to be a soldier. And when I am, I wish to go to America or Columbus. Very well, said Don Pedro, come with me and live in my palace. You can imagine how happy the young Ferdinand was to leave the gloomy old castle to go with Don Pedro. And he was still happier when he got there, for the rich Don Pedro had a daughter named Isabella. This Isabella was as beautiful as the day, and as good as she was beautiful. The two children liked each other, and in the lonely afternoon they played many games while the sun has set its long shadows on the green grass. Ferdinand now had lessons. He learned to read and to write. He was sent to a great school where they taught him many wonderful things. And every day he grew taller and stronger, until at last his birthday came around, again, and he was 19 years old. Then a strange thing happened. The young Isabella too had grown up to be a beautiful girl, with wonderful deep gray eyes, and red lips so that it curved like a bow. And her hair was as black as this night. Ferdinand loved Isabella very tenderly, and Isabella loved Ferdinand. And, yeah, they wanted to marry and live happily ever afterwards. But Don Pedro was in America, and they had to wait until he came back. At last Don Pedro came home, and Ferdinand went up to him and said, Don Pedro, you are very good to me. You have brought me up like your own son. Now I am a man, and I love your daughter Isabella. May I have her as my wife? Don Pedro was a greedy man, and he wanted his daughter to marry a great rich lord, and not a poor young boy like Ferdinand. So he said, No, I will not let you marry any daughter. You have taken my food, but you will not take my child. So Ferdinand was sad and did not know what to do, for he loved Isabella very dearly, but he could not marry her against her father's wishes. Then Don Pedro thought of a very clever plan. He said to himself, From Ferdinand and the young Isabella live here in my castle, their love will grow until it knows no bounds. And perhaps someday, when I am away serving my king, these young people will get married. That will never do. But if I can get Ferdinand away, then Isabella will forget him, and will marry a great rich lord, and live in a beautiful big castle. So the clever Don Pedro said to Ferdinand, You have always wanted to be a soldier, and to go to America like the great Christopher Columbus. Now it's your time. You are a man, and can gain honor and gold for yourself. And now it is for your king. But you must not think of Isabella. You must think of America. The words of the clever Don Pedro moved to the heart of the young brave lad. You are right, Don Pedro. He answered, I will go to America. I think that Ferdinand must have been very sad when he had spoken those words. For little did he know whether, in all his life, he would ever again look upon his sweet beautiful face of Isabella. Perhaps on his way to America, the little ship would strike a rock, or go down in a storm, and Ferdinand would be drowned. Or perhaps the Indians would kill him, or he would die of fever, or would be cast into prison with nothing to eat or drink, but bread and water. And the rats would squeak, and the day would be as dark as the night. Perhaps he would be drowned into such a prison by some wicked man, and never be set free. And even if he came back after many hard years and many great tips, he might find that Isabella had married and forgotten all about him. So you may well believe that Ferdinand, brave young man as he was, wept bitter tears when he said goodbye to the fair Isabella. And yet Ferdinand was anxious to go. All the brave young Spaniards wanted to go to America to fight to the Indians, to teach them about God, to find gold for themselves, and new countries for the king. Every now and then some young men would come back from America with gold and silver and pearls and rubies and beautiful wonderful words, and strange things that no man had ever heard yet said eyes on before, and many heard the stories about the red men who lived in the beautiful land of America. Well, as these ships were ready for Ferdinand and sailed away, and for 15 long years he stayed in America. They could not begin to tell you all the words they said he saw there, or the many bold deeds that he did. All of the brave men who had gone to America none was braver than Ferdinand de Soto. After a while he met the Spanish general, Pizarro, who was going to Peru to conquer that country. Pizarro told de Soto about Pruincas, of the wonderful temples and palaces, and how rich had they were with all the gold and silver. I'm going to Peru to conquer that land, he said to de Soto, and I want you to come with me because you are such a brave man. They went to Soto, said to de Soto, and told him of all the dangers he would meet in that new land. The young Ferdinand was not afraid. He loved danger as he loved the beautiful Isabella whom he had left in Spain. I'll go with you, Pizarro, said Ferdinand, and I will be a good and true soldier. And so during all that great war against the Incas of Peru, Ferdinand fought bravely by the sight of Pizarro, the wisest and the bravest of all the men in that army. When Peru was conquered, and after many other great adventures, Ferdinand returned to Spain. Fifteen years had passed since he had left. Now he was no longer a poor boy, but a rich and powerful man, and everybody respected him because of his wise words and brave deeds. You may be sure that Ferdinand was very happy to see a once similar beautiful country in which he was born. However, much, you may travel, you are always happy when at last you come back to your own house. So it was with Ferdinand. He almost cried with joy when he saw again the old Masi castle where he had played at. There were the same old trees, the same long dusty road, where he used to ride upon his great black horse. But most happy of all was Ferdinand when he saw the beautiful Isabella. She was more lovely than ever. Her father, the clever Don Pedro, was now dead, and during all of those long years, the beautiful Isabella had loved the young Ferdinand. She had always been sad because Ferdinand was away, but she never forgot him. And when the great lords in Spain had come to her and asked her to marry them, she always shook her head and spoke sadly. No, my good lord. She answered, I love the young Ferdinand, he's so tough, who fights for his king and the land of America. I shall wait until he comes for me. So they were married, and all the great lords and ladies who were invited to the wedding said they had never seen so handsome a couple. There were many of plenty of cakes and wine for all the people who came, and there was a table where the poor could sit down and eat as much as they wished. Everybody laughed and cried for joy. Then Ferdinand took his beautiful wife to a great palace in Isabella, and there they lived so happily and the days flew by like minutes, and even the king envied them because they were so happy. The brave Ferdinand was very good to his beautiful wife. He bought for her all that her heart could desire. So it happened that he spent all the gold over that he had brought with him from America. Then one day, Ferdinand said to his wife, I shall go to America again to bring you more gold and more silver and all the beautiful things that are found in that country. Ferdinand said this to make his wife happy, but the beautiful Isabella was not happy. I was so sad when you went away the last time, she said, I cannot bear to have you leave me again. Mommy, I pray you go with, let you ensure your dangers. So the good Ferdinand, he said, kissed his brave and told her she might go with him, and many younger lords of Spain wanted to go also. They all knew how bold and true and wise Ferdinand was, so the ships that were filled with young nobles all dressed in bright colored clothes. Then after a long journey, the ships that came to the island of Hispaniola where they were many Spaniards. Here Ferdinand told Isabella to wait for him. There are many dangers where I go, he said, but I will soon come back with gold and silver and all that the heart can desire. Little did Ferdinand know when he kissed his wife goodbye that he would never see her again as boldly she sailed there to the land of Florida. Here he found many wonderful things, but nowhere did he find the great minds of gold and silver that Cortez had seen as Co and Pizarro and Peru. The Indians told him that the gold and silver could be found in the great wild country to the west. So Ferdinand and his little army marched toward the west. Every day they moved further and further away from their home and further and further away from the lonely Isabella who waited on the island. Everywhere they looked for gold, but the Indians always pointed toward the west where the sun sets. Always they said to the Spaniards, just go far west into the wild, wild country, and there you will find gold. In their long, hard march the brave Ferdinand de Soto and his little army had many adventures. Some, sometimes the Indians were friendly and would sit down with the white men about to the fire and smoke and pipes. This was a sign among the Indians to show that they were friends with the white men, but sometimes the Indians were not friendly and fought with the Spaniards. I do not blame these Indians for fighting with de Soto. Before de Soto had come to this land there had been other Spaniards there and these men had been very, very cruel. They had killed many Indians and thrown their pretty little babies into the river and one day they took the Indian chief and cut his nose off. Some of the Indians had thought that all Spaniards were cruel and wicked so they fought to go down and killed many of his men. Then another misfortune be called de Soto. There were many great rivers to cross and there were no boats. So de Soto made canoes out of the trunks of trees and moved his little band of soldiers over on there. But sometimes the boats were unsafe and horses and men were drowned. Then too many of the men died of fever because they had to go through great swarms where no white men had ever been before. And when you sink into the ground up to your waist sometimes there was not enough food and many men grew sick and died. So the soldiers grew afraid and begged to be taken home. But the bold de Soto said, No, we are all brave men and we must never return back. Then there are one of the greatest things in all the world. De Soto had come to America to find gold and he did not find it. But he found what was much greater, a mighty river. This river was the greatest in all America. It was so large that the great Indians called it the Mississippi which means in their language the father of waters. This river has become the great water of America. Cities have grown up on it. Boats have gone up and down its wide waters and more good has come from it than from the many barrels of gold. And it was Ferdinand who first found its river who first came to the father of waters. When De Soto saw this Mississippi river there were no boats on it and no cities near it. It was just a great wide river gleaming in the sun, stretching out its arms toward the north and south. But De Soto was happy. He loved the river as he loved the beautiful Isabella who waited for him so many, many miles away. And now Ferdinand was willing to turn back. The Indians there were not all at friendly. And his army was very little and very weak. Many of the soldiers were sick from the fever so sadly De Soto turned his back on the great river and started his march home. Before he had gone many miles the great Ferdinand De Soto fell sick. Every day he grew worse and every day he longed to see his beautiful Isabella and the wonderful Mississippi river that he had found. But the fever grew worse and worse and at last the brave Ferdinand De Soto died. The sad soldiers buried him in the forest and then started homers. But before they had gone many steps one of the soldiers who was very clever thought of a plan. If the Indians find De Soto's grave he said they will know that our brave leader is dead. Then they will no longer fear to attack us. Therefore let us bury him in the great river that he lives so well so that no man can find his grave. And this they did. They buried his body and put it into the hollow of a great heavy tree and in the dead of the night they placed it in the river and let it sink. This was almost 400 years ago that perhaps even today at the bottom of the great Mississippi river there lies the body of the brave Ferdinand De Soto who among all white men was the first who come to the father of waters. End of Chapter 6 Read by Elijah Fisher Chapter 7 of The Men Who Found America This LibriVox recording is in the public domain The Men Who Found America by Frederick W. Hutchinson Chapter 7 The Boy Who Loved the Sea More than 300 years ago in a little town on the shores of the sea there lived an English lad whose name was Walter Braylock This Walter was a very bright happy boy active and brave He loved all kinds of sports He loved to run and fight and play He loved to breathe in the cool fresh air as every evening he ran along the lonely country roads But most of all he loved the sea Every day the young Walter could be found in the blue water swimming near the shore or rowing in a boat or sailing before the wind He loved the sea and was not afraid of it even in the stormiest weather Now Walter was not the only English boy who loved the sea All the little English lads loved it The English at this time did not live in great cities as they do today Many of them, like Walter Braylock lived in little towns and villages right on the shores of the sea They could look at the water every day when it was blue and quiet and the sky was clear and also when the sea was rough and angry and storms broke out from the clouds overhead There were many bold fishermen in those days and these fishermen would sometimes take the little lads out with them in their boats and so what happened that at this time many of the English boys knew a great deal about the sea and became good sailors The young Walter used to listen to young stories about the English sailors who were taking their ships to all the seas but the stories he loved most here were of two brave Englishmen named Francis Drake and John Hawkins These sailors hated the Spaniards who were then the strongest and most cruel people in the world So these brave English sailors used to fight against the cruel Spaniards and lay in wait to capture their vessels and all the gold and silver that was in them Sometimes I think the English sailors were just as cruel as the Spaniards with whom they fought but they were very brave these English sailors were and when the young Walter heard about them he too wanted to go to sea and fight the Spaniards and take their gold But the time had not yet come The young Walter was only 14 years old and he had much yet to learn that a boy should learn many things before he becomes a man So the young Walter was sent to the great University of Oxford where he was taught a great many things He used to study out of the big books that were so heavy that a boy could hardly carry them It was a very beautiful place this Oxford and Walter met their many lads from all over England They told him wonderful stories about the great men of England the soldiers and sailors the poets and the great lords who lived in London and saw the queen every day and helped to rule the kingdom Walter longed to grow up to be a lord so he too could see the queen and help rule the kingdom Now Walter loved to study but more than anything else he wanted to go out into the great world and be a man So at 17 he went to the beautiful school at Oxford and went to France where a great war was going on He fought for six years doing many brave acts and becoming a great soldier Then he went to Holland and helped the people of that country to fight against the Spaniards and everywhere else he went to the people loved him because he was so brave and handsome and witty even more than he loved fighting and when he was 26 years of age he left the army and went on a ship to America He wanted to go to Newfoundland which is an island many miles north of this country because he thought he could sail further and find a river or straight that would lead right through America to the Pacific Ocean If he could find such a river or straight then he could sail right through America to the Indies and do what Columbus tried to do so many years before Well, there isn't any such straight in America and so Raleigh could never have found it but he did not even get the chance The Spaniard saw his little vessel and sailed after him and he lost one of his ships and his other ships were damaged so the brave Walter Raleigh had to come home again Then there happened a little thing that made Walter Raleigh the most famous man in all England One day, while he was in London he saw the Queen walking home along the street Now the Queen, whose name was Elizabeth was very proud and very fond of clothes She had over a thousand dresses and many of these were embroidered with beautiful jewels I did not know how many shoes and slippers and silk stockings she had, but I do know she had many Now, just as Walter looked up he saw that the Queen stopped in front of a muddy place in the street She did not want to get her new shoes wet The great lords who were with the Queen looked worried They did not know what to do but young Walter, spring forward took off his handsome cloak the most beautiful cloak he had and kneeling down before the Queen spread the cloak on the muddy spot that she could walk on without getting her shoes dirty Well, the Queen was very much pleased She smiled at the handsome young man at her feet and, telling him to rise, asked What is your name, young man? May it please your Majesty he replied, bowing very low My name is Walter Raleigh Will, Master Raleigh replied the Queen You have done a very gracious act Ask of me what you will and you may have it Now, this was the way in which Queen spoke in these days when they were pleased with anything you did and sometimes the man would ask for a suit of armor and sometimes for a horse and sometimes for a hundred pieces of gold Walter Raleigh asked for none of these May it please your musty he said If I may have anything I wish you may ask for the cloak upon which your Majesty has just deigned to step By this, he meant that it was a great honor for the Queen to walk on this cloak Now, Queen Elizabeth was very much surprised Why, we, Walt Master Raleigh she answered The cloak is not mine to give it is yours and has always been yours Not so, replied Walter Raleigh Not so, your Majesty The cloak was mine until your royal foot touched it but in that moment it became yours and this is what I ask of you Majesty that you give to me my cloak that I may always look on it and remember this day So the Queen gave Raleigh his cloak but she gave him many other things besides, she made him a knight which was something that all men wanted to be and she let him have lands and gold and many beautiful things She made it a law that no man in all England could sell broad to cloth or wines except only Walter Raleigh which made the young man even richer than before Those were good days for Walter Raleigh or as he was now called Sir Walter Raleigh He was the greatest man in all England, his clothes were the finest in the kingdom and the band around his hat had pearls on it and he wore diamonds and rubies and beautiful feathers and the white ribbons that tied his shoes and beautiful gleaming jewels sued all over them He even had a suit of armor that was made all of silver indeed he had so many things that I cannot remember them all Of course Raleigh loved to be a great Lord among the English but he loved the sea even more Now that I am a rich he said I wish to buy ships and sail to America There I can find a new land for England and in after years of English men will bless the name Walter Raleigh So Sir Walter Raleigh went to the Queen and told her of his plan Yes, said the Queen She'll be glad if you send your ships to America and find new lands for England but you cannot go yourself Sir Walter I want you to stay in England and help me rule the kingdom She said this because she was very fond of Sir Walter and was afraid he might die on long journey or be killed by the Indians in America Now the Queen's words made Sir Walter very sad he wanted to go with the ships to the land new land because ever he was a little boy he had loved the sea but he had to do as the Queen said so the ships sailed without him Now these ships went to America and came home again The sailors brought back with them a string of white gleaming pearls, skins of strange animals and two Indians to show English men what red men looked like They told Sir Walter wonderful stories of the beauty of the country and Sir Walter heard the stories of the sailors he wanted to go to this new land more than ever so the next year he sent out more ships Now on these second ships went one hundred brave men who when they saw the new land called it Virginia The Indians told Ralph Lane the governor of this colony many strange stories They told him of a beautiful city back in the forest where the walls were made of pearl and where there was gold and silver in the streets Now he know that there was no such city but the governor believed the Indians and instead of planting corn for the winter he and his men searched and searched for the walls of pearl Everything went badly with the little colony There was not enough food to eat and many of the men starved to death The Indians too came unfriendly though at first they had been very kind to the white men I will tell you why they changed One day an Indian stole a silver cup for an Englishman and instead of punishing the thief the white man burned all the corn that the Indians had planted and set fire to all their houses to the whole village was in ashes so the poor Indians had nothing to eat and no place to sleep and I for one don't blame them for not being friendly to the white men Everyday things grew worse and at last the little band of Englishmen went back to their own country They had not found gold or silver but they had found what was much better tobacco, potatoes and corn These things had never been known in England before though today all the people in Europe use them just as the Americans do Sir Walter liked tobacco very much and being a grown man he used to smoke every day out of a great lung pipe One day a very funny thing happened He had hired a new servant a man who had never seen tobacco in all his life Sir Walter sent him out to bring in a great pitcher of beer and when he came back he saw smoke coming out of his master's mouth and he thought that he must be on fire So what do you think he did? He poured the pitcher of beer over Sir Walter's head to put out the fire Of course the fire did not go out but all of Sir Walter's clothes were spoiled but Sir Walter had more clothes and so he only laughed The ships which Sir Walter had sent to America all came back but he did not lose hope and after a while he went back to the new land In this colony there were 150 men 17 women and 11 little children and Captain John White was the Governor but the people of this colony too were cruel to the Indians and so of course the Indians were unfriendly to them After a little while all their food gave out and as the Indians would not give them corn they would go back to England and come back with more food Now Captain White did not want to go on this long journey His little granddaughter the first English child ever born in America was only a few weeks old and Captain White didn't want to leave her but if he did not go back the people would die of hunger so one day he set sail for England Now at this time he was against the Spaniards and all English ships had to be used in the fight so Captain White's vessels were taken from him and he could not go back to his little granddaughter Virginia Dare nor to the men and women and children he had left in Virginia It was three years before he could get ships to cross the great ocean and when he did make the long journey he would have been all lost What became of them no man ever knew perhaps they died of hunger or were killed by the Indians It was all so many years ago and the people that were alive then are all dead now so we shall never know what did become of the little band whom Sir Walter Rayleigh sent to America or of the dear little baby Virginia Dare After a few years Rayleigh who still loved the sea got the queen to let him leave England this made him very happy and buying some ships he sailed across the ocean to South America Here he landed in a country called Guyana not a rich country but there were many Indians Of course these Indians told him wonderful stories and of course these stories were not true A tribe of Indians they said who lived up the river were so rich that they sprinkled gold dust on their bodies and back in the forest where other tribes had eyes in their shoulders and mouths in their chests Rayleigh believed these foolish stories because in the those days people were not so wise as they are today and so he sailed up to the great river in search of these riches Well as there was no older wonderful city of course Sir Walter Rayleigh could not find them though he hunted a long time and so after a few months he went back to England a very sad man Now as Sir Walter grew old this is what happened Queen Elizabeth as queens sometimes do grew tired of her friend and one day Sir Walter was thrown into prison Of course the queen let him out again but by this time one had turned against him Now many men hated Sir Walter because of his great pride So when Queen Elizabeth died and he knew King James ruled over England the King heard many stories against Sir Walter He believed these stories and so for the second time Sir Walter was put in prison Here he stayed for 12 sad years That was a long time to stay in prison So as Sir Walter would have been there even longer had he thought of a plan by which to get out You see Sir Walter knew that King James was very fond of gold so he sent a man to the king to say in South America is much gold If your majesty will let me out of prison I will go to that country and after a short time will return to England with all my ships full of gold This plan pleased King James very much So he let Sir Walter out of prison and gave him ships and sent him to South America But we cannot always do what we promise to do and though Sir Walter tried very hard he could not find any gold in South America Instead he became very sick and some great Spanish vessels seeing how small his ships were chased him and forced him to return home Sir Walter realized You may well believe that he was sad at the thought of meeting his angry king And the king was angry when he found that Sir Walter had not brought the promise gold He threw him into prison and then a little later ordered his head to be cut off By this you see how very angry the king was Now Sir Walter was always brave He was brave as a little boy brave as a soldier and brave when he came to die Touching the edge of the axe that was to cut off his head he said this is a sharp medicine but I found sound cure for all diseases By this he meant that after death his troubles would all be over And so they were The cruel king, James cut off his head of this brave man He could not make people forget him Even today we remember Sir Walter Rayleigh We have a city named Rayleigh and memory of him And in all parts of our country the children are told of the brave little English boy who loved the sea End of Chapter 7 Read by Elijah Fisher Chapter 8 Of The Men Who Found America This slipper box recording is in the public domain The Men Who Found America by Frederick Winthrop Hutchinson Chapter 8 The Little Red Princess Of The Forest This is the story of a princess not a fairy princess with golden locks and long silken gowns but a real princess You might have called her a savage if you had seen her running barefooted about in the forest because she was just a little black haired Indian girl married with other little Indians in the woods of Virginia Yet this girl was a princess and her father was a king Now the name of this princess was Pocahontas It is a large name for such a little girl and yet, though it has 300 years since she lived no one has forgotten her name No one has forgotten the story of this beautiful red princess who lived in Virginia for the reason why In those days Virginia was very different from what it is today There are no cities and railroads and houses and streetcars no theaters or parks or schools There were no white people there at all It was all a wild country with great rivers and forests where no roads led and all the people the men and women the little boys and girls the Indians Well, as the years went on Little Pocahontas had her 12th birthday She was so beautiful and so very good and kind that all the Indians loved her The women embroidered her skirts with bright colored porcupine squills and with feathers and beads and the men brought her presents of beautiful birds and little gray squirrels all wrapped in the forests But the king her father loved her most Whenever he came back from a journey his first question was always Where is Pocahontas? and then he patted her on the head and gave her some shells which the Indians used for money There was nothing in the world that the king would not do for his little daughter Now Pocahontas had never seen a white man She thought that all men read like her father and the other brave Indians with whom she lived You see, there never had been any white men in her part of the country The brave, cruel Spaniards had gone to Cuba and Florida and Mexico and countries to the south and the French explorers who were very brave too had gone north to Canada and to the great St. Lawrence river The English, to be sure had sent men to Virginia but they had only looked around the coast and not gone into the forest So Pocahontas and her father King Powhatan had never seen a white man in all their lives But one day the soldiers of the king brought into the village with a prisoner whose hands and feet were tied with thongs The prisoner was a tall man with light hair and blue eyes and what was even more wonderful with skin as white as milk The Indians shook their tomahawks in front of his face and made a motion with their long knives as though they were going to cut off his head But the man only laughed and he did not show any fear Now the Indians, like a brave man and when the prisoner laughed at their knives they thought he must be a very brave man indeed And little Pocahontas who was watching from the door of her father's wigwam which is the Indian name for a little tent thought him brave too She liked this white man who was not afraid of the tomahawks of the bravest warriors and she was sorry when she saw how the thongs of deerskin with which she was bound cut into his white skin So she asked her father to have the Indians unbind their prisoner and this they did The white man who laughed at the tomahawks was Captain John Smith He was one of the bravest of all the brave Englishmen who came to America so long ago He had been a soldier in England and when he was very young he had gone to fight against the Turks who were making war on the Christians The young John Smith was so very brave in this war that when the English wanted men to win the new country of Virginia King James they chose him for their captain I do not think that anybody ever had any trouble or ran into more danger than did this brave gentleman It was not easy to cross the ocean in those days The little sailboats were often wrecked and when there were cruel pirates who would catch sailors and throw them into the sea And even when John Smith and his little band of men went to James River in Virginia and made noosity of James Town their troubles were not over They did not have enough to eat and it was hard to get any food from the unfriendly Indians Besides the men who had come with Captain Smith were not used to work They wanted to find gold and silver and become rich right away and they did not want to plant corn and build houses and forts So you may well believe that Captain Smith had enough trouble when his people did not have food and were hungry and when some of them fell sick and died, as they did then they all complained They even cried to go home to England They had much trouble with the Indians too And at last, as I told you before Captain John Smith and some of his men were captured and taken to King Powhatan's village So you can well believe that poor John Smith was very happy when to please Pocahontas the king ordered him to be united Now the Indians were curious to know all about the white men They spent long hours in front of their wickwams listening to the strange stories of Captain Smith He wrote a few words on a sheet of paper that the men in Jamestown could read these little black marks on the paper They were filled with wonder for the Indians had no schools and could not read or write It is strange, they said However, prisoner can talk to a man a hundred miles away He must be a great chief and a friend of the gods Then Captain Smith showed the Indians his compass He told them that with this little needle he could never be lost Even where the woods were dense he could find his way back to the campfire Now, you and I know that the needle of the compass always points to the north but the Indians did not know this and they thought it was magic that told Captain John Smith the way So they grew afraid of this white man Pocahontas was not afraid The days passed till one morning the king Powhatan called his warriors together to see what they wished to do with their captive They all sat around a great campfire and each man smoked his long pipe Pocahontas was not there because no woman was allowed at these meetings but you may be sure that she was very anxious to hear what they would do with the white man After a while one of the Indian chiefs he was a very old man with a great scar burning across his forehead spoke I know it is the custom of our tribe Oh King Powhatan to kill the men who are taken in battle but this man is not like other men he is brave he can talk to his best friends a hundred miles away he speaks with magic to the stars so I say send him back to his people When the man with the scar had finished speaking there was a low murmur which showed that many of the Indians were pleased but there were others who did not like Captain Smith and were afraid to keep him alive A little old man who was very thin had a very squeaky voice arose and spoke Oh King Powhatan it is not safe to let this man live he is the friend of the devils or how else could he talk with the stars a little mark speaks to his friends a hundred miles away besides it is the custom of our tribe that we kill all prisoners therefore I say Oh King let the white man die and so it was agreed I think that in his heart the good King Powhatan would have liked to save Captain Smith but he would not go against the wishes of his chiefs I believe that Pocahontas was very sad when she heard that her friend must die during the long summer days when he had been a prisoner in the village she had grown very fond of him he had told her wonderful stories of England, the great country across the sea and of the little white boys and girls who lived there and of all the schools they went to and to the games they played and now the man who had been so kind to her would have died far from the country he loved all day she walked in the forest trying to think of some plan by which she could save his life but when night came and she returned sadly to camp she had not yet thought of a plan now as she near the village she met a young brave dressed in his war paint hurry oh princess he said for the white man is to die at sundown she ran even faster than the young brave and reached her father's wickwam just in time to see John Smith bound hand and foot stretched on the ground his head resting on a big flat stone all the Indians made way for the princess as she pushed her way to the front and then as a warrior raised a great club to dash out the Englishman's brains she fell on her knees and threw her arms around his neck if the club fell on captain Smith it must kill her too from her knees she begged her father the king to give her the life of the white man powhattan and all the Indian chiefs loved a brave act they looked at the little girl kneeling before them ready to die to save her white friend so the king said let the white man go free and the Indians all grunted which meant that they too were really glad so John Smith rose from the ground a free man and was sent with twelve Indians back to Jamestown but this was not the only time that the little red princess saved the life of her friend the Jamestown settlement was in danger of attacks by bad Indians and more than once Pocahontas came through the forest at night to warn captain Smith that his enemies were coming then too she asked her father the king to give corn to the English and often the little village would have starved but for the little red princess of the forest who sent them corn one day when Pocahontas came to Jamestown she found that captain Smith and back to England to be cured of a wound this made her very sad but she still went often to Jamestown to hear news of her friend at last one day she was told that he was dead after that the little red princess stayed in the forest she did not go then very often to the English village though she still sent presents of corn to the white people but John Smith was not dead and Pocahontas was to meet her good friend once more not in the great silent forest was she to see him nor yet in the little city of Jamestown but in England far across the sea and this is how the little red princess of the forest happened to go to England in the village of Jamestown there lived a young Englishman named John Rolf now Rolf was not a prince and in stories only the prince can marry the princess but a real red princess is different from a fairy and so after some years Pocahontas and John Rolf were married the wedding was in a little church at Jamestown because Pocahontas had become a Christian and you may well believe that all the good Indians came to see their beautiful princess married well after some time John Rolf and his young wife crossed the ocean to England and thus it was that in the great city of London Pocahontas met her old friend John Smith once more you may well believe that she was glad to see him again after so many years and that they had many happy times together it soon happened that everyone in London was talking about Pocahontas the London people had never seen a red princess before especially a princess who had done so many brave deeds and saved the lives of so many Englishmen so all London wished to honour her the king and the queen sent for Pocahontas and she was often at their court where all the great lords and ladies loved her and gave her beautiful presence but at last the time came for John Rolf to go back to Jamestown Pocahontas was very sad at the thought of leaving England and all her kind English friends and she was sad too because her little son who had been born in England must take the long rough journey but their plans were all made and the good ship was ready to sail then it was at the last moment that poor Pocahontas was taken ill all the great doctors of London came to see her but their medicines were of no use after a few days of suffering she died John Rolf buried her in England among the white people there but I like to think of her best in the great silent woods of Virginia where for so long she had lived with her Indian tribe and where she was called Pocahontas the little red princess of the forest End of Chapter 8 Red by Elijah Fisher Chapter 9 of The Men Who Found America This LibriVox recording is in the public domain The Men Who Found America by Frederick Winthrop Hutchinson Chapter 9 The Englishman Who Sailed for the Dutch This is the story of the man who started New York the greatest city in all America it all happened 300 years ago at a time when Sir Walter Bayly was still in prison and when the little red princess of the forest way down in Virginia was saving the life of Captain John Smith and this is the way it happened In a little English village there lived a boy named Henry Hudson this boy like so many other English lads loved the sea and he always wanted to be a sailor there were many games that Henry could play he was never really happy except when he was out on the ocean sailing his boat and learning how to keep it safe in the wind and storm he used to watch the rough fishermen as they steered their boats and cared for their sails in the rough weather and soon there was nothing about a boat that the young Henry did not know just as well as a man Well while Henry was still a boy he went to sea to learn more about the great ocean he did not run away secretly but he went to the captain of a vessel and told him that he would work as a sailor for a few years without any pay so that he could learn all about boats the captain looked the young Henry over from head to foot and he thought to himself here is a fine strong lad he will make a good sailor you may stay with me until you are 21 and I will teach you everything about a ship and make a good sailor out of you so Henry Hudson stayed with the captain and every day he learned more about the ways of the sea and how to handle a boat he studied in books too and soon knew all about the seas of the world and all the countries that any white man had ever visited the captain of a ship himself and everybody was glad to sail on his boat because they let Henry Hudson was a brave sailor and was not afraid even in the roughest sea in those days there were great companies who sent out ships to all parts of the world to trade with the different nations in England there was a company of this kind called the Muscovy Company now this company heard about the wise captain Henry Hudson and they wanted him to sail a ship for them and find out new countries and sell English goods to the strange people he met in the new lands so Hudson made several voyages for them he sailed far north and every day the weather got colder and colder for as everybody knows if you go south it gets warmer and if you go north it gets colder well after a while they told that the sailors almost froze the ropes of the ships and even the sails were covered with ice and in the sea the sailors saw great floating mountains of frozen snow now these mountains are called icebergs and they are very beautiful especially when the sun shines upon them and the white snow glistens and the clear ice turns a wonderful shade of green but the icebergs although very beautiful are also very dangerous they float around in the sea and if they strike a ship then that ship is broken to pieces the way a nut is crushed in a nutcracker so every day the voyage in the north became more dangerous and some of Hudson's men wanted to go home but their captain would not return I will not go back he said until I have done what I was sent to do and he kept on his voyage now when Henry Hudson reached England he had sailed further north and any man had sailed all the world up to that time now when the people of Europe heard how Hudson had sailed further north than anybody in all the world they all wanted him to sail their ships Holland at this time was a country of sailors and here too was a company like the Muscovy Company only it was the Dutch East India Company well the men who owned this company were always looking for brave captains so when they heard of Henry Hudson they sent for him and said we are the Dutchman and you are an Englishman but as you are a brave and wise sailor we want you to sail our ships for us and they gave him money and sent him off in a ship called the Half Moon with 20 sailors and some Englishman and some Dutchman and thus it was that the bold Englishman Henry Hudson sailed for the Dutch again Hudson sailed towards north but this time it was colder even than before and the sea was so full of ice that his sailors grew afraid even more afraid than his first sailors had been you see the ice was really very very dangerous the boat got shot in the ice you could not move it no matter how hard you tried and if it got caught between two great icebergs it was squeezed until its masts and sides were broken to pieces so I'm not surprised that the sailors grew frightened for I should have been frightened if I were there and I think you would have been frightened too and they were frightened they said they would throw Hudson overborn so Hudson had to tell the pilot to turn the boat and he sailed south along the coast of America now I've told you before how in those days all sailors believed in a short cut between the Atlantic ocean and the Pacific ocean so it is not strange that Hudson believed in this short cut too and wanted to find it besides Captain Smith who was a friend of Hudson had told him that there was such a short cut the name that was given to this short cut was the Northwest Passage although nobody had ever seen it and in true there wasn't any to see well as Hudson was sailing along the coast he came to a great stream which he thought must be the greatest Northwest Passage that all brave sailors were in search of so he turned his boat and sailed up the river which was really the Hudson river the river that flows through the state of New York and does not go anywhere near the Pacific ocean the water was clear and fresh and the longer Hudson sailed the shallower it became until he had gone about a hundred miles his boat could not go no further so he had to turn around once more and sail back his men landed on the beautiful at the river and rested from their hard journey so it was that the Hudson river was found by Henry Hudson and the great city of New York was founded by Dutchman though Henry Hudson was born in England he sailed for the Dutch and that gave the Dutch the right to all the land he found well they liked this river these home loving Dutchmen and they liked too so they sent out from Holland ships with people to build houses and forts and trading stores for the Indians here they also gave the Indians hatchets and knives and little glass beads of many colors and got from the red men soft beautiful furs and soon there was a little village here which the Dutch called New Amsterdam after their own city of Amsterdam Holland for over 50 years they held this little city and then the English came and took it from them and called it New York as this is its name today the name of the greatest city in all America the city built upon the land which Henry Hudson found let us return to Henry Hudson he soon saw that this beautiful stream was nothing but a river and not a shortcut to the Pacific at all he was sorry of course but anyway he did a great deal he got many furs from the Indians and made them all his friends you see the Indians liked Hudson because he was good to them he did not treat them cruelly as the Spaniards had done and he did not try to rob them or murder them or make slaves of them and the Indians never forgot this kindness and from that time they went away to all the Dutch who came to that part of the country at first the Indians did not know what to say or do to Hudson and the white men like the other Indians of our stories they had never seen a ship or a white man before some of them thought that the ship was a great fish or an animal and still others believe that it was a strange new house that floated on the water as for Hudson the Manitou or Great Spirit who was the God of the Indians and they worshiped him in a queer way gathering in a great circle they danced around him all their queer Indian dances because being a great spirit they thought that their dancing would please him then Henry Hudson gave the Indians axes and shoes and stockings but the red men did not know what to do with the gifts they thought the heads of the axes and the shoes must be ornaments to be worn around the neck and the stockings they used to put tobacco and they hung them at their belts now I think that shoes and stockings were very foolish gifts to make to the Indians because everybody knows that they always wear moccasins but the axes were a very sensible present the Indians were pleased with the axes they cut down trees and chopped wood for their fires much more easily than before when they had used their big hunting knives well the Indians certainly didn't like Hudson and Hudson like the Indians so one day the chief invited him to a dinner it would not have been polite to refuse this invitation he could not say that he had a previous engagement which is the way some people have of making excuses then they do not want to go anywhere anyway Hudson really wanted to go when he came to the wickwam he found the chiefs eat on a mat on the ground Hudson looked around for a chair but as there was none he sat on the mat too and waited for what would come next it was in two big wooden bowls of only one kind a sort of stew made up of pigeons and dog cooked together now a dog isn't a very good thing to eat at least we don't think it is but the Indians thought this a very fine feast well Hudson was polite and he had such a good time at the dinner that the Indians were sorry when he sailed away I think that Henry Hudson wanted to come back again to the friendly Indians but when he reached Europe the English kept his vessel and made him stay in England Hudson wanted to sail for the Dutch but his own people said no you must sail for us you must not find new lands for any country but England so the next year the brave Hudson sailed once more and this time he sailed on English he took with him his own son a young lad and a man named Henry Green and also a good many sailors you will hear of this Henry Green again before the story is ended far north Henry's steered the little vessel and soon he came to a great bay which no white man had ever seen before and which was afterwards called Hudson's Bay because Hudson found it here it was a very cold indeed and every day it grew colder the ice froze around the vessel and for eight months the little ship could not move an inch food got scarce and then as always happened the men were afraid of starving and longed to get home as soon as the ice began to melt even a little they begged Hudson to go back to England do not stay in this cold land they said where we shall surely freeze and starve to death but Hudson would not do this he believed that at last he was in worthless passage and soon would find the Pacific Ocean be brave for the ship shall not return to England until I find out about this bay perhaps these words of Hudson would have kept the men quiet if it had not been for the wicked Henry Green Hudson had always been friendly to Green but this wicked man was not grateful night and day he talked to the men until he got them to turn against their good captain and they did turn against him in this way hand and foot both Henry Hudson and his son were tied so tight that they could not get loose and then with seven sick men they were put in a little boat and turned a drift in the Great Sea while the wicked Henry Green and the other man sailed home to England when they reached home I'm very glad to say these wicked men were all punished they were put in prison and a ship was sent to Hudson Bay to look for the brave Henry Hudson but he was not found so to this day no one knows what became of the little boat and of good Captain Hudson so I suppose that left alone without food he died there in the Great Frozen Sea but who knows there were many simple Dutch people who lived near New York and the Catscale mountains who never believed that Hudson was dead whenever it thundered in the hills these old men used to say Henry Hudson and his men are playing nine pins in the mountains End of Chapter 9 Read by Elijah Fisher Chapter 10 of the men who found America this LibriVox recording is in the public domain The Men Who Found America by Frederick Winthrop Hutchinson Chapter 10 The Father of New France About 300 years ago there lived in France a man who wanted to find a new country he loved France, its green fields and its cool forests its rivers and quiet country roads its cottages and its beautiful palaces but what this man wanted was a new France a country where Frenchmen could go and speak their own language and meet other Frenchmen this man's name was Samuel Chaplin even as a little boy when he played with other lads in the fields he had this one plan to find a new country for France he knew that he could find this country in America because America was so big so he asked everybody he met to tell him what they knew in the sea he asked questions about the lakes of America its rivers, its great forests and its wild plains he asked questions about its gold and silver its mines and fisheries and the vegetables and fruits and everything that grew there now in the little town in which Chaplin grew up there lived some fishermen who had been to America they had not been in the southern lands for example Florida and Peru where the Spaniards had gone for gold the Spaniards did not like the French they would not let a Frenchman live in the countries that belonged to them so these bold fishermen of France sailed further north they used to start in the first warm days of spring in their little fishing boats and sail all the way across the ocean to America here in the quiet coast of Maine and Newfoundland they would fish all summer and when the weather got cold they would sail back with their fish to the little homes in France they were very brave men I can tell you these French fishermen sometime one of them would get caught in a storm and his little boat would go down to the bottom of the cold sea then a poor woman in France would sit by the window waiting, waiting, waiting and sometimes these fishermen would land on the shore in America or sail their boats up the rivers they told Chaplain of the wonderful sights they had seen of the wide rivers rushing down from the north of the deep quiet of the beautiful forests of the tall spruce and pine trees of the clean cold waters of the little lakes they told how the naked Indians went about in light canoes made of the birch of trees how these Indians would carry their canoes on their backs from river to river and from lake to lake they told Chaplain of the beautiful brown and white furs that the Indians had furs so soft and warm that any lady in France even the queen herself would be happy to wear them when Chaplain had heard all these stories he became more eager than ever to make a new France in America this cold country of the lakes and forests did not have gold and silver mines but after all thought Chaplain gold and silver are not the only things in the world the Frenchman who would live in this new France could get fish from rivers beautiful woods from the forests and soft warm furs from the Indians Chaplain dreamed of the time when all this country would be filled with Frenchmen living in the beautiful new cities and loving and obeying the king of France now Chaplain who was just the man to find a new country he was very wise and very very brave of all the men who went to America Spaniards and Frenchmen, Dutchmen and Englishmen I do not think there was anyone braver than Chaplain when he was still very young he had sailed in the French ships and had learned to be a good sailor and a plucky soldier he had fought in many battles for his king and no one could ever say that Samuel Chaplain was a coward then later after he had left the army Chaplain went to the West Indies and to Mexico here he saw the lands that Columbus had found and he watched all that the Spaniards were doing in these soft warm lands to the south but as I told you the bold Chaplain wished to find his new country not in the warm lands to the south but in the cold countries to the north so after a while he joined a little band of Frenchmen who were going to the great country which is now called Canada now these Frenchmen to whom Chaplain went were good kind men they did not kill the Indians nor rob them as I am sorry to say so many other white men did but they loved the Indians there was a one man among them who was very very kind his name was Port Trincourt he had been a great lord in his own country but he did not want to go back he lived peacefully and happily with the Indians tough them new ways of farming and many other things of which they had never heard before and the Indians loved the French lord as he did their own father even the little Indian children used to come in out of this house whenever they liked and lie on the ground while he ate his dinner and every now and then he threw them raisins and nuts with little brown hands now this life was very beautiful but Chaplain was not happy he wanted this great country of America to belong to France and he wanted to learn all about its rivers and lakes and forests so that the other people who would come later would know the way to go and the best places to live in across great forests he went coming at rivers and islands of lakes till at last he reached the mighty St. Florence river where another Frenchman had been a hundred years before here Chaplain stayed for several months and then he returned to France but the next year which was 1608 Chaplain came back again to St. Lawrence river and he began to build a little city called Quebec which was to be the greatest city in the country but even before his workmen were through putting up with the first houses there was trouble for good Chaplain among the men whom he had brought with him from France was a very wicked fellow named Duval I do not know why Chaplain let him come along but I suppose that at first he did not know how wicked Duval really was you see many of the soldiers very cruel and very wicked anyway this Duval made a plan with three other men to go to Chaplain's bed while he slept then all four men were to take Chaplain's neck in their hands and squeeze it till he could not breathe and so strangle him to death it would have gone hard with Chaplain if one of the men had not told him of this wicked plot when Chaplain heard it and then he had the wicked Duval hanged and the other three men he sent back to France to be punished but this was not the last of Chaplain's troubles a great sickness called scurvy broke out among the men who were with him of the twenty-eight men twenty died and only eight were left to bury the dead even these eight men were sick and every day they came to Chaplain and begged him to take them back to France do you not remember they said do you not remember how warm and sunny and beautiful it is at home how the blue grapes hang in every bunches on the green vines how the lovely women smile with joy and the little children play about our knees and beg us for stories let us go back to our beautiful France and to our wives and children but Chaplain told them to be brave and patient so they waited and in the spring their courage was rewarded more ships came with brave Frenchmen and these ships were loaded down with food so all the men with Chaplain were again happy Chaplain had learned that it was best to be kind to the Indians and so it happened that all the Indians near Quebec were his friends now one day Chaplain heard of a great lake to the south and he wanted to go there to find out all about it so he asked the friendly Indians to take him but they shook their heads we cannot go there in peace they said because of the five nations who are these five nations asked Chaplain then the friendly Indians answered him quickly they are our enemies these five nations the Indian tribes who kill us when they can and whom we kill when we can we are always at war but they told Chaplain though we cannot go to the great lake in peace we are going there in war we are going to fight the five nations come with us you and your men and your guns and fight with us against these peoples so Chaplain and two of his men went with the friendly Indians to fight the five nations there were 60 Indians in all and they traveled in light canoes going down the rivers that emptied into the great lakes the Indians and front always held their bows in their hands ready to shoot if they should see any of the warriors of the five nations and those in the back canoes were always looking around for animals so that they could shoot them and cook them so that the little army would have enough food every night they sent a few canoes ahead to watch out for the enemy at last one evening as Chaplain and his men were canoeing down the lake they met the Indians of the five nations there were 200 Indians in this army but the 60 friendly Indians were not afraid because they had Chaplain with them when the five nations see the guns of the Frenchmen said the chiefs among themselves and hear them speak noise and fire and death they will be so afraid that they will run away and we will win the battle it was too late to fight that night so both little armies waited until the sun rose on the lake the next morning during all the long hours they stayed near each other and in the darkness they each called the others cowards they made a great noise I can tell you well the fight began the next morning and then the army of the five nations had a great surprise the first thing they saw was a white man in gleaming armor who held a gun in his hands and had a gleaming sword in his belt the Indians shot their arrows at this white man but the arrows did not do any more harm than if they had been shot at a rock then Chaplain aimed at his gun and shot bullets and two of the chiefs of the five nations fell down dead two other Frenchmen shot bullets and more chiefs fell dead now the five nations had never seen men killed in this way before they could not see the bullets that went so fast through the air and they thought that the white men had killed their chiefs with a noise so the army of the five nations grew very much afraid one of the Indians began to run then another, then another and soon the whole army was running away the Indians who were with Chaplain ran after them shooting them with their arrows killing and catching very many I think that both sides were very cruel and it seems to me sometimes that Chaplain though he was a brave man and a very wise man would have done better if he had kept out of all their crawls for from that day the five nations were always the enemies of the French but would never let the French go to the south where they wanted to go after this came busy years for the brave Samuel Chaplain he had found his new country for France and every year he traveled over it and learned more about it he traded with the Indians for their beautiful furs and sent them to France where the fine ladies of the court wore them in the winter Chaplain sent a young Frenchman to study the Indian languages so that Chaplain could talk to them in their own way and he sent an Indian to France to learn to speak French but Chaplain who was too brave to stay always so now every now and then he would go on a great trip once he went north to find a great salt sea that a Frenchman had told him about it was one of the hardest and most dangerous trips that a man ever took there were great swamps where Chaplain sink to his waist and deep forests where the bushes and brushwood were so thick and dense that he had to cut his way with the great knife making a step and all these hardships were useless for there really wasn't any great salt sea so of course they never found it then Chaplain went on a second long journey to the west he traveled with the friendly Indians for many weeks till at last they came upon the town of the five nations you would have been surprised to see that town it was not like other cities and stores and brick houses and electric cars it was just a few plain long one story houses as big as theaters and these houses were a lot of little rooms and in each room a family of Indians around the town were four rows of stakes like telegraph poles and the Indians stood behind these poles when they shot their arrows this time the Indians who were with Chaplain were beaten in the fight because they could not do as the Frenchman told them even Chaplain himself was shot twice in the leg and the Indians had to carry him away in a basket that they fastened to their backs you see they were friends of Chaplain and they did not want him to be caught and killed by the Indians of the five nations that was a hard winter for Chaplain the Indians who were friendly to him wanted him to stay with them and he asked for a guide to show him the way back to his home in Quebec they would not let him go you see Chaplain did not know this country as well as the Indians did and he was afraid of getting lost in the forest but the Indians treated him well and when the spring came around again they took him home to his city of Quebec after this Chaplain worked day and night to build up his new country he tried very hard to make it pleasant for the people who lived in Quebec and always tried to get more Frenchmen to come from France and live in the new country every year he took the long journey across the ocean and told everybody there of the wonderful land of America of all the things in the world what Chaplain most wanted was to make this new France even greater and more beautiful than the old France I think that if Chaplain had not been a very patient man he would have many a time given up Quebec and gone back to France to lead a peaceful quiet life often things went very badly indeed now the people did not cross the ocean as fast a Chaplain wanted them to and those who did come grumbled and quarreled often too the food they gave out and the people got sick and many starved but Chaplain though he was now a pretty old man would never give up once some English worships sailed into the harbour and asked Chaplain to give up the city to them the brave Frenchman had hardly any soldiers but he said no I will never give up my city of new France as long as I have a man or a bullet left I will never give up the city of Quebec and after a while the English captain became frightened because he thought that Chaplain might have a big army and so he sailed away but the next year three more English vessels sailed up the harbour and as this time Chaplain had only 16 half starved men he had to surrender but England did not keep the city it was handed back to France and Chaplain was again sent out to Quebec as commander over the little town so Samuel Chaplain the boy who had dreamed of new France now went back once more to that country but his days were almost over he became very ill and after lying in bed for more than two months he died an old man at the age of 68 years many many years later there was a great war between France and England and after the war was over the whole country of new France was given to England the English changed the name of the country to Canada but even now there are more than a million people living there who speak French and who are the children of the children of the children for many generations of the men who live with Chaplain and even now after 300 years these Frenchmen people and Canada and people all over the world for that matter refer the name of the great and good Chaplain and call him as they used to call him so long ago the father of new France End of Chapter 10 read by Elijah Fisher Chapter 11 of The Men Who Found America this LibBoss recording is in the public domain The Men Who Found America by Frederick W. Hutchinson Chapter 11 the Friends of the Indians many many years ago two Frenchmen traveling through a new wild forest country came upon a cross that was all covered with flowers there were no white men in all this country and so the Frenchmen wondered who had put the cross there and who had placed the flowers on it but later they learned that the Indians in this part of the country had laid the flowers on the cross then the Frenchmen knew that these Indians were friends because everywhere the French went they carried the cross and taught the Indians who loved them to place flowers on it now these two Frenchmen were very good men they treated the Indians kindly and the Indians who liked to be treated kindly were also good the Frenchmen is a very good lesson in all this if you want people to be good to you then you must always be kind to them now all the Frenchmen who came to America knew this and from the first they were kind to the Indians the Spaniards had been very harsh they had killed the red men or made slaves of them and sometimes the Indians had been cruelly beaten until they died they had been tortured too hung by their fingers and toes roasted over a hot fire starved and even chased with great fierce bloodhounds so I am not surprised that the Indians did not love the Spaniards the English and the Dott who came to America were not quite so cruel as the Spaniards but sometimes they too treated the Indians harshly for a very little wrong they would shoot an Indian or burn down a whole Indian village besides they were very proud and thought that the red men were only savages and they did not want to have anything to do with them and this I may tell you is a very bad way to act and think if you want people to like you and help you the Frenchmen who came to America acted much more wisely they really loved the Indians than they did with them in their poor little villages some of the Frenchmen had been great lords in their country they had beautiful castles with fine big rooms and gold and silver and wonderful carpets they had had many servants to wait on them and everything in the world that they wanted if these very men were not too proud to sleep they would have a pot of an Indian or share with him a meal of corn and dried meat they hunted with the Indians they fished with them they smoked their pipes with them and Indians and Frenchmen sat around the roaring campfire and talked together or looked up in silence at the bright little stars wherever the Frenchmen went they put up little chapels and here Frenchmen and Indians kneeled down said by side and prayed to the good God the French priests would baptize the little red children and when they grew old enough to understand he would teach them about God and the Bible some of the Indians became Christians and hung flowers on the little crosses which the Frenchmen built all over the country and so it was that when our two Frenchmen saw the flowers on the cross they rejoiced and were glad because they knew that even in this wild country far away from all white men they were with friends now these men were not only very good but they were also very brave one of them was named Luis Juliet he had been sent by the king of France to find out some good way to the Pacific Ocean the other was father Marquette a French priest as brave a man as any soldier and this father Marquette had lived with the Indians many many years he knew their languages and all their customs and the Indians loved him and called him their friend well it was not an easy thing that these brave Frenchmen were trying to do no white man had ever been in all this country before it was much pleasanters singing in Quebec the city which Good Chaplain the father of new France had founded but Juliet and good father Marquette were not afraid of danger they sailed down the St. Lawrence River into the Great Lakes and then on and on and on day after day and day after day until at last they reached Lake Michigan I think this part of their journey must have been the most pleasant the weather was warm the Indians they met were friendly and now and then they would come across some Frenchman who was living out in the wild country trapping animals for their furs or trading with the Indians and sometimes they would meet a good French priest who had come this great way to teach the Indians about God well at last they left the last Frenchman and the last wooden cross and started down a narrow but beautiful river that they believed flowed into them to sea the little river was so choked with rice that grew wild along its banks that their boats found it hard to move here their guides left them and then for a week they drifted slowly slowly down the river till at last with cries of joy they came to the Mississippi now this Mississippi river is the greatest river in America and one of the greatest rivers in all the world it was the same river that De Soto had found so many many years before when the Indians had told him that its name was the father of waters now you see whatever country owned the Mississippi river the great river that flowed from little streams all the way down to where it emptied into the great great sea the country would own all the land along its planks and so would be the greatest country in America that is why Juliet and father Marque wanted to sail all the way down the river so that all the land on its banks might belong to France besides they thought that perhaps it flowed into the pacific ocean you see Juliet and father Marque had no good maps and they did not know as you and I know that the Mississippi river flowed not west into the pacific ocean but south into the Gulf of Mexico when the two brave Frenchmen reached the Mississippi river they were a little afraid of the Indians who lived along its banks perhaps these Indians would be their enemies and would kill them so they no longer left their canoes at night and slept on the banks about a roaring campfire they feared that the sharp eyes of unfriendly Indians might see the smoke and that they might come and cut off their scalps and you know they slept so they tried their to the shore and they rolled themselves up in blankets so as to be ready to wake in a minute and paddle away they also made one of their men stay awake all night to watch for the red men but for eight days there was not an Indian in sight on the ninth day they saw a path leading up from the river and they knew that this path must go to an Indian village Juliet and Father Marquette did not know whether these Indians were friendly or not but they were both brave men maybe their hearts beat a little faster as they thought that perhaps the Indians would kill them but anyway they did not show any fear as they walked up the path to the village well after all the Indians were friendly the chief came forward with hands raised above his head which was always a sign of friendship with the Indians then other red men waved a long pipe of peace which was the same as though they had said let us be friends oh white men the two Frenchmen who invited to take dinner and the chief told them stories about the Great River and about the other Indians that lived along its banks and at last when Juliet and Father Marquette said goodbye all the Indians went with them as far as the river and the Indian chief gave them a present which was better than gold or silver or diamonds or rubies now I suppose you will want to know what this present that was better than gold or silver or diamonds or rubies well I will tell you it was a pipe not a steel old pipe such as a man carries in his pocket the pipe of peace whenever Juliet and Father Marquette went all they had to do was to show this camelette or pipe of peace and every Indian knew that the great chief who was the good friend of these white men and many times this pipe saved the lives of the two brave Frenchmen well wherever they went Juliet and Father Marquette showed the camelette of the great Indian chief and then the other Indians were friendly too and these two Frenchmen were so good and brave that the Indians liked them for their own sakes so down the river they sailed past big forests and beautiful rolling prairies until one day they saw a wide yellow river that flowed into the Mississippi this was the Missouri a great yellow roaring river and if they had time I think the two Frenchmen would have sailed up it but they could not stop so day after day they sailed on down down down the Mississippi I think that they must have had a good time of it seeing a new country all the while but they did not go the whole way when they had gone many hundreds of miles they were told stories of some very cruel Indians who lived in the south the friendly Indians said to them if you fall into the hands of these bad Indians they will surely tie you to a pole and burn you alive and if you escape perhaps the Spaniards will catch you then they are as wicked as the others so Juliet and Father Marquette talked it over for a long time and at last they thought it would be wiser to go back slowly they sailed up the Mississippi river and then across the country to the great lakes back the same way they had come on the way home they saw beautiful white swans with long beautiful necks swimming on the little silver lakes and in the dark green forests were cattle and goats and beautiful brown deer with wonderful spreading horns at last they reached Quebec and all the people on the town wanted to hear of the great adventures and lucky escapes of Juliet and Father Marquette now there was a brave man named LaSalle who heard the stories from the mouth of Juliet this LaSalle was a very great man in France his family were nobles and very rich and young LaSalle whose first name was Robert had been well brought up and had been taught many things he was so good that he even became a priest and everybody said that Robert LaSalle was a very good and a very wise man but Robert LaSalle wanted to go to America not only to find new lands but also to find what so many others had tried to find a new way to the pacific ocean so he gave up being a priest and went to the great new country of America LaSalle was not only a wise man but one who thought a great deal and now he thought of a new plan this plan was to build little French forts very little but very strong all the way along the great lakes and the Mississippi river and at the mouth of the Mississippi he planned a great great fort he wanted to put French soldiers in these forts so that the whole river and the country around would belong to France and this was done Frenchmen could go everywhere to get their furs and soon the little cities could be built and there would be a great strong new France and America so the dream of chaplain would come true now the first thing LaSalle had to do was to sail down the great Mississippi and find the best places for his little forts and trading posts and this was not an easy thing to do in those days it was a long hard journey from Quebec to the mouth of the great river and LaSalle tried many times before he succeeded on the first trip his ship was wrecked in a great storm and nearly everything was lost then he had no food and had to sail back miles and miles to get bread and meat later his money gave out and he had to wait until he had sold enough furs to buy a new ship and then once men tried to sail the wind blew against them and many times they had to sleep on the icy ground with nothing but the sky over them often and often they had no food at all but a few handfuls of corn but the worst trouble that LaSalle had was with his men they did not want to do much work and they were always complaining because the journey was so hard and because they had nothing to eat they did very well before they started that it would not be easy and so I for one think that they ought not to have complained but so it is with people some, like LaSalle's men will grumble and grumble over every little thing while others will bear all sorts of hardship and never say a word now there were with LaSalle complained one was his faithful French friend Tanti and another faithful friend was an Indian these two men one a Frenchman and one an Indian loved LaSalle and did whatever he asked the Indian knew the forest he could find his way through the great thick trees even in the dark so LaSalle took him as a guide when everybody else was tired and cross this good Indian was as brave and as patient as ever this was because he loved LaSalle and because LaSalle was always kind to all Indians well all the time the troubles of LaSalle grew worse and worse sometimes the little streams were filled with ice so that the canoes had to be moved on sludges and sometimes these brave men had to waved for miles and water up to their wastes of course the brambles and thorns tore their clothing to rags and when it grew cold their clothes froze as hard as ice they had to stop and build a fire before they could go any further I am sure these were times when even the brave heart of LaSalle almost broke but not once did he give up again and again he tried day after day till at last after years of disappointment LaSalle reached the mouth of the Mississippi river his patience and perseverance were finally rewarded it was in February over 200 years ago that the father of waters and all the country nearby had given by LaSalle to the king of France you can imagine the joy of LaSalle when at last he reached the end of his long journey he put up a cross on the banks of the river then he asked his men to kneel down and pray then it was that he named the new country Louisiana in honor of King Louis and in a loud voice called out that from that time on all the land should belong to France and for many years the great country of the Mississippi did belong to France but later much later when the grandchildren of the men who had been with LaSalle were all dead a new country grew up in America our country the United States and to us the French sold all this great country of the Mississippi yet the name of Louisiana is still the name of one of our states and even today all Americans think of LaSalle as a great and good man who did well for his country for all his good deeds LaSalle was not rewarded as he should have been two years after he had found the mouth of the Mississippi river he came back again with four ships and two hundred and eighty men this time he wanted to build the city and fort that he had planned so many years before but the captain of these vessels was a very stupid and a very jealous man he took LaSalle to the wrong place instead of to the mouth of the Mississippi and when LaSalle wanted him to sail again and try once more to find the mouth of the river this evil man would not do so so LaSalle started by land now he had no map and it was much further than he thought then too there were many hardships and his men grumbled and would not do as he said and at last two of the men who were very wicked and behind trees and when LaSalle was walking to the camp they shot him dead and that was the end of Robert LaSalle the man who found the mouth of the Mississippi and the one who was one of the true good and great friends of the Indians end of chapter 11 read by Elijah Fisher chapter 12 of the men who found America this LibriVox recording is in the public domain the men who found America by Frederick Winthrop Hutchinson chapter 12 what came of it all and now my stories are ended what wonderful stories they are how strange and how true as I finished my last story I closed my eyes and it seemed to me that I saw again all those brave men who had come from the east to explore our America I saw them all noble and swine-herd priest and soldier Spaniard and Frenchman and Englishman and Dutchman I saw the wise Columbus following the queen from place to place begging her to let him sail to the Indies and again I saw him when he was an old man poor, sick, and forgotten and so too I saw the others the wicked Bulboa the brave Henry Hudson the good father Marquette who loved the Indians and was loved by them how strangely it all happened these bold men searched for one thing and found another Columbus looked for the Indies and found America the Soto hunted for gold and Ponce de Leon wanted a fountain of youth so that he might drink the waters and never die and instead of youth and life he found Florida and death and so it was with the others the unfortunate Henry Hudson never thought of the great city of New York which was to grow up on his river he only thought of a shortcut to the Pacific Ocean and the wicked Bulboa hid in a barrel did not think he would be the first man to look upon the great ocean but all he wanted was to get away from the men who had lent him money so strangely did it all happen yes, they were strange men and they led strange lives up and down they went sometimes rich sometimes poor but always bold and daring a man who had nothing to look upon a great empire and become rich and famous in the eyes of all men think of Cortez who came out of prison to conquer all of Mexico and who became so rich that he did not know what to do with his money though at last he died poor and unhappy and think of Pizarro the barefooted, bare-headed swine-hard who became one of the greatest and richest and wickedest men in all the world how strange Cortez must have seemed to the Aztecs who had never before seen a white man nor a horse nor a gun nor a house that was on the sea and how strange the greedy Pizarro must have looked to the Incas and how strange and curious the Incas and their wonderful country must have seemed to Pizarro just so strange and wonderful were the things that happened to other explorers there was a nobleman who became a slave to the wild Indies there was bold Captain Smith whose life was saved by the little red princess of the forest and stranger still the same little girl who had saved his life in Virginia saw him again in London and this time she was a Christian and an Englishman's wife and a friend of the king and queen of all England it was very very strange I wish that I could really see all these great men the wise Columbus who sailed New Seas and found America the patient chaplain the good father of New France the bold LaSalle who sailed down the Mississippi River the faithful Henry Hudson the brave DiSoto and all the others yes I should like to meet them shake their hands to hear from their own lips their wonderful stories but this cannot be all of these things happened hundreds of years ago long before I was born and all the men and all the women all the kings and queens and nobles and sailors and soldiers and priests and Indian chiefs all are dead and now you will ask me what came of it all well that is another story let's say many stories many brave men came to America and many brave men lived here and strange and wonderful things happened but the end of it all was that a new country rose in America the United States and you and I and all other Americans have this good land for our country and so we Americans who live in the country that Columbus found and the others explored and conquered should always remember those brave men who risked their lives so many many years ago and for this reason we who love America should be grateful to them all but especially to the one who first pointed out the way to the bold sailor who crossed an unknown sea the good wise Christopher Columbus the man who found America end of chapter 12 end of the men who found America by Frederick Winthrop Hutchinson read by Elijah Fisher