 Chapter 1 of American History Stories, Volume 1. Many, many years ago, oh so many that I fear you could not count them even, this country in which we live was one vast expanse of woodland and fields, mountains and swamps. There were no cities, no villages, not even a single house to break the view across the wild fields. The whole country looked as it does now in those places which have not yet been built up. Did you ever stand on a high hill and look off across the country where not one house was to be seen? How broad the fields looked and how strange it was to see the sky dipping down and seeming to rest upon the hills and trees away off at that horizon line. Well, that is the way it looked to the little boys and girls here so many years before the white people came to this country. We do not know very much about these little boys and girls and their fathers and mothers for they knew nothing about writing and so left no books to tell us about themselves. We know that they used to live in tents which they called wigwams, that they called the women squaws and the baby boys and girls papooses and that they were all called Indians by the white men. These Indian people, according to our ideas, were very rude and wild. The fathers spent their time in hunting and fishing. The mothers stayed about the tents, kept the fires going, tilled the ground, raised the corn, cooked the food such as it was, and loved their children just as mothers do the world over. The little boys and girls had no schools, no books, no toys to keep them busy, so they spent their time playing about the tent or learning to fish and hunt and build canoes. Perhaps you think they had lovely times with nothing to do, but I am afraid they sometimes had very hard times too. If I were to tell you the way the tribes of Indians used to pounce down upon their homes and slay the fathers, burn the mothers, and steal the children, and the way the children used to huddle into their tents during cold, cold winters, I think you would not envy them at all. Please visit LibriVox.org. American History Stories, Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt. Chapter 2. Early Discoveries Little indeed did the people of Europe know of this country across the water or of the strange copper-colored people living here. Lately there has been raised in Boston a monument in memory of Leif, the brave Northman or Norseman, who in the year 1000 sailed from his home in Iceland and came to the coast of America. The vessel in which this Norseman came was odd-looking enough. Sometimes it moved along by the aid of its sails. Sometimes each man would take an oar, and so help it move over the water. The first land these hardy Norsemen found was flat and stony near the sea, but inland high mountains could be seen from the shore. This was Newfoundland. Then on the Norseman sailed farther south, pleased with the warmth of the sun and the green trees, the songbirds and the rich fruits. At one place, supposed to be on the shores of Massachusetts or Rhode Island, one of their company found such delicious wild grapes and in such abundance that Leif gave to the country the name of Vinland. So delightful was the climate and so rich the fruits that the little band built huts and planned to spend the winter in their beautiful Vinland. It was all very strange to them, the swiftly changing day and night, for in their own land they had only one long day and one long night in a year. Spring came and Leif hastened back to Iceland to tell of the wonderful new land. Other Norsemen came and later still a Norwegian nobleman with his beautiful young wife, Gudfrida. A colony was formed and the people lived very happily here for three years or more. Then, for some reason, the colony died out and little is known of them except what has been found in old chronicles in Iceland. In Newport, Rhode Island is a strange old tower which was once believed to have been built by these Norsemen. Certainly it is old enough and strange enough, but as to the true story of the Norsemen in America, I suppose we shall never know it. They were brave, sturdy people and very fond of adventures. No people were ever so brave upon the sea as these Norsemen and it is a great pity we do not know all about them. These Norsemen were the only Europeans who ever ventured far away from home. The people of the southern countries of Europe would look out across the sea and wonder, but they dared not venture out a great ways upon the ocean. In fact, the ships in those days were very small and frail, hardly more sea-worthy than a simple pleasure yacht today, and therefore very little had been learned of the oceans. There is, sailors of southern Europe would sometimes say, an island far out to sea, a beautiful sunny island with rich fruits and beautiful flowers and great purple mountains, rich gems and gold and silver sparkle about its shores, and in the center on a gentle slope of ground stands the Palace of the Seagod. But although the southern sailors talked of it and the poets sang of it, no one had ever seen this land. Sometimes on a clear day, standing upon the shores and looking away out to where the sky seemed to dip down and meet the earth, some imaginative person would think he saw the island and would call to his companions, but before they could come, behold, it always disappeared. There was living at this time a good man whom the people called Saint Brandon. He was always trying to help others to do what to him seemed right and good, and when he heard of this island, he, with another good priest, sailed away towards it, hoping to find an opportunity to help the people who might be living there. He never found the island, however, the Atlantis as it was called, but he did find, so he said, another island, afterwards called the island of Saint Brandon. But the wonderful part of the story is that even this island could never again be found. Whether Saint Brandon was fond, like the other adventurers of his day, of telling a big story, or whether he did honestly find an island which, by and by, sank below the level of the water as sea islands sometimes do sink, no one could ever tell. Once in the history of Spain there was a terrible war between the Moors and the Spaniards. Seven Spanish bishops pursued by these Moors took to their ships and sailed out upon the sea. Better by far drowned than be overtaken by our cruel foe, said they, and they sailed out into the great sea, beyond all side of land, into the very sunset, so they said. These bishops came at last upon an island, a beautiful sunny island, rich in fruit and flowers and the most wonderful trees. Here they built seven cities, each bishop placing himself at the head of his own city and governing such natives as lived in his part of the island. By and by, when the cities were prosperous, the seven bishops returned to Spain and told of their wonderful discovery. Strange to say, however, no one was ever able to find this island and no one has ever found it yet. Of one other island we must speak, and that is the island of Bimini. This island was not only rich and beautiful, but there was upon it a fountain of sparkling water whose waters could restore youth and strength to the weakest and oldest of men. Such an island as that was certainly well worth searching for, and in 1512, long after Columbus had sailed to the New World, an old man, Ponce de Leon, sailed away in search of this wonderful fountain of youth. Remember, this was the childhood of the modern world, a time when wise old men and women would listen to stories that today only a baby could be made to believe. It does not seem possible that they believed these tales, yet they must really have thought them true for the books they made in those days tell us so. And who knows, after all, that the things we believe today may not, hundreds of years later, seem just as strange to the people who will be living then. End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of American History Stories, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Read by Colinda American History Stories, Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt Chapter 3 Christopher Columbus But all these stories, foolish as they may seem, proved in the end a good thing. They kept the people wide awake and on the lookout for any new discovery far away upon the mysterious ocean. By and by, there was born in the little village of Genoa, Italy, a baby boy who was destined to do more than guess and dream about the land beyond the sea. He was really to go and explore it and bring back proofs of its existence. This baby boy, as every American school child knows, was Christopher Columbus, the man whom now we are proud to honor as the discoverer of America. Living as he did in this little seaport town, he was generally, when not at school, to be found standing about the wharves, watching the great ships come in and listening to the marvelous stories that the sailors told. Genoa at this time was a very rich town and it sent ships to all parts of the known world. The little boy, eagerly drinking in all the wonderful stories the sailors were so fond of telling, thus learned much of the far away countries, much that was true and much also that was purely imaginary. I shall be a sailor, he would say to himself as he listened, and then, like all other small lads, he longed to grow big and strong and old. When I'm a man, I shall be a sailor. When I'm a man, I shall go to all these wonderful countries and gather these beautiful things and bring home ships loaded with silver and gold. The parents of Columbus were poor people. His father was a woolcomber, but they were wise and they tried to give their boy a good education. He was taught to read and write, and when, by and by, he was old enough to know what he should most enjoy, his father sent him away to a school where he could study arithmetic and drawing and geography. To Columbus there was no study so fascinating as geography. He had listened eagerly to the sailor's stories in his very early boyhood, and so now he eagerly devoured every book and drank in every story he could find about the wonderful countries so far away. And he would say to himself, I must be a sailor, I must be a sailor. One day his good father said to him, My boy, I have watched you for a long time, and since you have made up your mind to be a sailor, and since you like best those studies that have to do with navigation, I am willing to send you to the University of Pavia, where, I am told, geography, astronomy, map drawing and navigation are wisely taught. Columbus was a happy boy you may be sure. Now indeed I may be a sailor, cried he, a wise one, an explorer and a discoverer perhaps. And seizing a book, he ran down to the wharf to watch the ships and dream of the happy time when he should have learned all the wonders of navigation and be able to guide for himself one of these great ships. Columbus improved every hour of his term at the University, learning so fast and showing so much eager interest and real thoughtfulness that the teachers were very proud of him and predicted a great future for their pupil. But even they had little idea of how great that future was to be. Columbus was only 14 years old when he made his first voyage out upon the Great Blue Sea with some traders bound for the East Indies. From that time on his life was like that of all sailors, I suppose, full of adventures, narrow escapes and marvelous experiences. When he was 35 years old he went to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. He was a quiet, dignified, thoughtful man now. His hair already white and here and there on his face were lines of care and trouble. For Columbus's life had not been an easy one. Neither had he been satisfied to drift along contented with whatever he had been taught, whatever he had heard and read. The stories of the great flat earth born upon the back of an elephant or upon the shoulders of a great giant, the tales of the sea gods and wind gods, all of which were believed in those early days, had long since ceased to amuse or satisfy him. They are not reasonable, he would say to himself. They are like the stories one tells little children. There must be something different from all this. And so, year after year, Columbus pondered and pondered upon these questions. He read every account of travels, every story of adventure, every theory of the earth's size and shape he could find. But none satisfied him. It's easy enough to guess and to guess about these things, he would say, but there must be some natural law, some real fact that if discovered would give us the truth. On account of the smallness of the ships, together with the superstitious fears the sailors had of the unknown sea with its angry and revengeful gods, no one had ever sailed very far out upon the ocean, and so had little thought of what might be found far out beyond the horizon. There may be land away out there, Columbus would say. At any rate, I am convinced that this earth is round and that by sailing straight out to the westward we should come to the East Indies, a much easier and more speedy route than we now have. Hear him, hear him, the people would say. He is crazy. He dares say the earth is round, when we and all our ancestors before us have known that the earth is flat. Ha ha, laughed others. Let him sail westward as far as he pleases. When he has reached the end of the great sea, and the sea gods have cast him over, then he will learn how foolish he is, and Portugal will be well rid of him. But John II, then king of Portugal, was convinced that these notions of Columbus, as the people were pleased to call them, were not so absurd as they seemed. The man knows what he is talking about, I believe, said he. I will get his plans from him, pretend to favour them, pretend to be willing to aid him, then, then, well. We'll see who will have the honour of the first expedition, Columbus the Genoese Woolcomber's son, or John II, king of Portugal. And so this mean king led Columbus on to tell his plans and his reasons for believing the earth to be round. The king was wise enough to see that there was sound common sense and reason in these plans. Then, when he had learned all, and had obtained the maps and charts which Columbus had made, he secretly sent out a vessel, and ordered the captain to follow closely the route Columbus had marked out. This was a mean trick, and I am glad, and you will be, that it did not succeed. No sooner was the vessel out of sight of land than the ignorant captain and the superstitious sailors began to be frightened. We are surely sailing off the edge of the earth, cried they. What shall we do when the sea gods learn that we have dared come out of our home into their sacred waters? Then a great storm arose, the waves rolled and tumbled and broke above the mountains high, the thunder rumbled and the lightning flashed. Terror stricken, the sailors turned their vessel homeward. The gods are angry with us, they are punishing us for our boldness, cried the ignorant sailors. A more frightened and miserable crew never sailed back into Lisbon Harbour than this one sent out by King John II. And when Columbus heard of it, angry and disgusted with the meanness of the king, he would have no further talk with him, but taking his little son Diego with him, he left the country and went to Spain. Friendless and without money, Columbus, with the little Diego, travelled from place to place, always seeking someone who would understand him and help him to an audience with the king or queen of Spain. If only somewhere a person of wealth could be found who would fit out for him a new fleet, Columbus had not a doubt or a fear but that he could return with news of new lands or at least of a short route to India. Years and years rolled by, and Columbus had gained nothing but a world wide name of being a fool or an insane man. Men sneered at him, boys hooded at him in the street. Surely it was a brave man who could endure all this for the sake of right. But it is always so. As you grow older and read larger histories than these, you will find that seldom has a great man or woman brought to the world any great new truth that ignorant and superstitious people did not scoff at it and make the life of the brave discoverer one of wretchedness and persecution. I will go to France, said Columbus at last, and see if I can get the help of the French king. And he started with his little son Diego to walk the long distance. One day while on the road, Columbus stopped at the gate of a great grey convent in the town of Palos and asked for food. As the gate man brought them bread, one of the monks passed by. Struck with the dignity and the courteous refined appearance of Columbus, he said to himself, Whom have we here? This is no ordinary beggar, I will speak with him. So, going up to Columbus, he saluted him kindly and asked him to stop and rest. Glad enough for both Columbus and Diego to accept this hospitality, and together they entered the great halls of the convent. Now the monk was a man of great learning for those days. More than that, he was a man who thought and who was always ready to accept any new theories, providing they seemed reasonable and honest proofs of their truth could be presented with them. The intelligence and conversation of Columbus attracted the monk at once. This man knows what he is talking about, thought he. Surely I must bring him to Queen Isabella. She, if anyone, will give him patient and intelligent hearing. At that time the Spanish king and queen were busy with a great war against the Moors, so that it was a long time before either could listen to Columbus. But after long weeks of delay he was summoned before them. There, before the king and queen and a large body of wise men as they called themselves, Columbus told his story. All listened attentively. It was like a wonderful dream or a grand fairy story, and people were very fond of wonder stories of any kind in those days. But when the wise men were asked their opinion of the story as one at all likely to be true, they roared with laughter. The earth round, cried they, it is absurd. If a fleet were sent out upon the ocean it would certainly sail over the edge and fall down, down into unknown space. And if the earth were round, said others, and if this crazy man could sail down and stand upon his head on the other side of the sphere, how, pray, could he ever get back again? Has he learned to sail uphill? This was indeed unanswerable, so they all thought. Of course he could not, and of course he was a fool to think of such a thing. And so Columbus was sent away in disgrace, while the wise men entertained their friends for days after, with the absurd story the crazy Genoese had told them. I will go to France, said Columbus to the good monk, when, discouraged and weary at heart, he returned to the convent with the story of his defeat. There is no hope for me in Spain. Wait, wait, said the monk. I myself will go to the Queen. I cannot bear that this honour should pass into the hands of the French. I will go to Isabella and beg her again to give you a hearing. And so it was that once more Columbus waited and was led at last into the presence of the only one in all Spain who seemed to be kind enough at heart and to be far-sighted enough to know that Columbus was neither foolish nor crazy. After long hesitation, for it was not an easy matter in those days to fit out a fleet, nor was it a politic thing for Isabella to move in opposition to all the advice of her countrymen, she sent this word to Columbus. I will undertake the enterprise for my own kingdom of Castile, and I will pledge my jewels, if need be, to raise the funds. End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of American History Stories, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Read by Colinda American History Stories, Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt Chapter 4 The Voyage With Isabella's aid and a little money which Columbus himself had, three ships were fitted out. These were not tall stout ships, such as you see lying at our wharves, with the broad sails, huge wooden sides, and wide decks. They were small, frail craft, not so large as those you may see today, sailing up and down rivers and small lakes. On Friday, August 3rd, 1492, three small vessels, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Niña, with twenty men on board, set sail from Spain. They sailed for weeks across the unknown waters, keeping all the time to the west, until at last the sailors began to be frightened at the thought of their distance from home. They threatened to throw Columbus overboard if he did not turn back, and at length, Columbus promised them that if they did not see land in three days, he would return to Spain. You can imagine how anxious Columbus must have been during those three days. He felt that land was near, although he could not prove it to the sailors. To turn back now would have been a terrible disappointment. But fortunately for Columbus, signs of land began to appear. Birds came and rested on the masts of their ships, a large branch of a tree floated by, and even the dullest sailor could not fail to believe these signs. At last, one morning at daybreak, the cry of, Land! Land! was heard from the foremost ship, and in a few hours more, they reached the shores of a small island, which they called San Salvador. When Columbus set foot upon the dry land, he at once set up the Spanish flag and took possession in the name of Spain. A few days later, they set sail for a larger island in the distance, and safely anchored in one of its harbors. They named this island Hispaniola, but it is now called Haiti. A beautiful island it proved to be, for the climate was soft and mild, there was an abundance of rich fruit, and there were many strange trees and flowers. When the natives saw the white sails of the vessels, they rushed down to the shores, yelling with astonishment, for they never had seen a ship before, and of course were terribly frightened. Some thought they were great birds with white wings, some thought the great spirit had come. They were glad to see Columbus and his men, and they said to them in their strange language, Welcome white men! And from that time they were very kind to Columbus and his men, and helped them not a little in exploring the island and in hunting for food. Columbus at first treated them kindly, and it would have been well had all white men continued to do so. Columbus however soon returned to Spain and told of his great discovery and of the wonderful copper-colored people, some of whom he had brought back with him with their straight black hair and headdresses of feathers and faces streaked with paint. All Spain was filled with wonder, and it was not long before shiploads of men were sent over to the new country so that very soon the island was settled by Spanish people. I wish that I could tell you that Spain was so proud of Columbus and so grateful to him for his gift that he was ever after treated with great honor, that he never again wanted for anything which money and favor could buy, and that he died peacefully at last, loved and honored by all. This is certainly what you might expect to hear of so brave a man. But there were jealous envious men in Spain who plotted against Columbus, and when a few years later he went again to the islands he had discovered, he was seized by one of these Spaniards who had been sent out to govern the colony which had settled there, was put into chains and sent back a prisoner to Spain. When they heard of this cruel treatment the people of Spain were indignant and insisted that he be restored to his rights. The Queen is said to have been moved to tears by his story. Columbus made two more voyages of discovery, but sickness and disappointment had undermined his health and he died shortly after at Valadolid on the 20th of May, 1506. End of Chapter 4 Chapter 5 of American History Stories This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Reading by Kalinda American History Stories, Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt Chapter 5 Other Great Explorers But if Columbus discovered America, how did it happen that the country was named America? It certainly seems as if Columbia would have been a better and more fitting title for it, and it would have been but fair to Columbus after all he had borne to have had his name remembered in naming the country. But people were not very careful in those days about being fair to anybody or anything, and so when in 1497 America's Fespuchius made a voyage to the New World, and on his return talked much of the great continent he had seen and wrote a diary about it, people began speaking of this New World as the country of America's Fespuchius. By and by they called it America. And since Columbus was not the man to whine at injustice, and America's Fespuchius did not seem to object to the honor conferred upon him, it soon became customary throughout Europe to speak of the New World as America. America's Fespuchius made another voyage a few years later, and this time directing his course farther south he came upon the continent of South America. He sailed along the coast for several thousand leagues, very carefully noting all changes in the soil, the climate, and even in the stars. In those southern skies reported he, there is a constellation never seen by us, a group of four bright stars arranged in the shape of a cross. One cannot imagine how strange these southern heavens look with this great central figure of four bright stars. The winds grew colder and colder as they sailed long. The nights were fifteen hours long. Before them lay a great rocky ice-bound coast. Let us return, begged the superstitious sailors, we must be nearing the land of perpetual cold and darkness, and we shall all be caught in the great fields of ice and be frozen to death. So America's turned his vessel homeward, glad and eager to tell of his discovery of the land of the Southern Cross and of the marvelous sights he had seen. All Europe rang with praises of the explorer. His writings were passed from one to another, and everybody talked about them. America's Vespuchias, and not Columbus, was now the hero of the hour. But during all these years the Spaniards had been sending over colonists until now there were flourishing Spanish towns on those islands round about where Columbus had first landed. The Spanish had begun to be very cruel to the poor Indians, and the Indians were not slow to see that it was an unlucky day for them when the great white ships of Columbus came to their shores. About twenty years after the landing of Columbus, Balboa came over with a small fleet on a voyage of discovery. A few years later Balboa helped to found a colony on the Isthmus of Panama, and was made its governor. He was very angry because the Spaniards treated the Indians so unjustly, and ordered that no man of his colony should treat them as the other settlers had done. The poor Indians who had suffered so much from the Spaniards were very glad to find these newcomers so kind to them, and when they found that the great desire of Balboa was for gold, a chief sent him a large box full of the precious metal as a peace offering. No sooner, however, had Balboa opened the box, then the men all began quarreling over it, snarling and fighting each other like fierce dogs. The Indian chief, looking with scorn upon their greedy wrangle, said, Shame upon you Christians, there is a land not far away where there is gold enough for all. Balboa and his men cared very little for the Indians discussed, but began at once to beg him to lead them to this land of gold. One bright morning very soon after, they started toward a ridge of mountain land beyond which, so the Indians said, lay a great ocean, and also the land of gold. Balboa, anxious to see this great ocean first, left his men on the side of the ridge and climbed to its top alone. There lay spread out before him, rolling and sparkling so peacefully, the great Pacific Ocean, never seen before by a white man. Calling his men to him, he descended the ridge, and arriving at the shore, took possession of the ocean in the name of Spain. Since I have told you about Balboa and the new ocean, I must tell you about the first voyage around the world. A Portuguese named Magellan started out from Spain with a large fleet, hoping to find a way through this new continent by which he might sail to the Spice Islands. He sailed directly across the Atlantic to America, and looked all up and down the coast for an opening to the other ocean. Finding there was none, he sailed down to the most southern point of South America, and after sailing around that point he came out into the new ocean. When he saw it first, it looked as it did when Balboa first saw it, smiling and peaceful. On account of its calm, sunny appearance, he named it at once the Pacific, which means peaceful. They saw some very strange people as they sailed along the coast of South America, who, so Magellan's men said, were 10 and 12 feet tall. These people were unusually tall, but it is not very likely that they were quite as tall as the men said. Sailors in those days like to tell very big stories, I think, just as they do now. These natives of South America were as surprised to see the white men as the white men were to see them. The natives could not understand how such little men could make such big ships move, and they thought the boats must be the babies of the ships. They pulled from the ground and gave to the white men to eat, something which Magellan and his men said looked like turnips and tasted like chestnuts. The sailors ate them eagerly without cooking, and carried some of them home to Spain as great curiosities. Do you guess what they were? Nothing but common potatoes which are eaten now everywhere, but which then were only known to the natives of America. But it was not curiosities nor even gold and silver that Magellan most desired to find. Like most of the explorers, including Columbus himself, he was in search of a short route to the East Indies. And as he sailed down the Atlantic coast, he hoped at every little bend in the shore to find himself able to steer his ship directly west towards the Indies. So onward he sailed till, as we said, he finally reached the southern end of South America, passed through the Straits of Magellan, as they were afterwards called, and came into the Pacific. Here was another route to India, that was sure. But unfortunately it was not another, but a shorter route that the European merchants wanted. However, Magellan sailed straight across the new ocean as far as the Philippine islands, meaning to return to Spain by the old route around Africa. He had five ships when he set out from Spain, but one of these had been lost while sailing down the Atlantic coast of South America. When he entered the Straits, the captain of another vessel, discouraged by the distance before him, turned and went back to Spain. With three ships then, Magellan crossed the Pacific. Then, at the Philippine islands, two more ships were lost in battles with the natives, and he himself was killed. Only one ship, the Victoria, with but eighteen men, and those sick and half-starved, was able to make its way back to Spain to tell the story of the first voyage around the world. End of Chapter 5 Chapter 6 of American History Stories, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. American History Stories, Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt Chapter 6 English Explorers But what was England about all this time? No more then than now was she the nation to sit quietly by and see another country carry off a prize. England was soon awake to the possibilities of the New World. She, too, sent out explorers and set up her claims of possession. Among those who set forth were John Cabot and his son, Sebastian, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Walter Raleigh. It was in 1497 that the Cabot set sail. Sebastian Cabot had lived in his boyhood days in Venice, the beautiful city built so many years ago on little islands off the coast of Italy. The streets of this city are water, and the people ride up and down the streets in boats called gondolas, just as in our cities we ride up and down the streets in carriages. It must have been here that Sebastian grew to love the sea, for to the Venetian boy a gondola is what a bicycle is to you. Sebastian used often to say, I think sometimes I am more at home on the water than I am on land, and to go back to my boat is the rest to me that going on land is to other men. Now when reports of the discoveries of Columbus began to attract the English people, the Cabots were inspired with a new zeal for exploration, and in 1497 fitting out the good ship Matthew away they went. The English King Henry VII having given them permission to sail to all parts of the seas and countries of the east and to take possession of all lands they might visit. Generous King indeed, to give away lands that he had never seen and that he was by no means sure were on the face of the globe. We believe, said the Cabots, that there is a shorter northwest passage by which we may sail to India, and we will go in search of it. Ah, that northwest passage, it has proved a sort of will of the wisp to sailors ever since, for every now and then, all along the years since 1497, some adventurous seaman has thought he was the man born to find the wonderful short fruit. But alas, it was never found, and the fate of the sailors has always been much the same. If they have lived to return at all, it has always been with the same sad story of wretched suffering from starvation and cold. The Cabots met with little success on this first voyage, but in the following year, 1498, Sebastian Cabot, for his father was now dead, sailed out for the second time on a voyage of discovery, this time full of courage. We only learned our way about the strange waters on our first voyage, said he, but this time we shall bring back reports of discovery. Sailing off towards Iceland, he went on towards Labrador. Here he reports that he passed that island and found the sea so full of codfish as truly to hinder the sailing of the ships. Salmon, too, came swimming down the rivers in enormous numbers, and bears flocked at the watersides to catch and eat them. There were no fishery bills in those days, and the American bears and the English sailors fished side by side with not a thought of quarreling. Sailing on southward, Cabot discovered to his great astonishment that the coast was continuous for miles and miles from Labrador to Florida. This is not India, said he, it is a continent, a new found land, lying somewhere between Europe and India. And so, while we remember that it was Columbus's daring that set all this zeal for search into motion and brought about all these wonderful discoveries and opened up to Europe the grand new world, let us give to the Cabots the lesser honor, but the honor do them, of being the first to bring back the report that out beyond the waters lay a new continent, a new found land. Red by Colinda American History Stories, Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt Chapter 7 Sir Francis Drake But of all the gay, brave knights of Queen Elizabeth's court, none was so gay and brave as Sir Francis Drake. Like Sebastian Cabot, Drake had as a boy, been as much at home on the water as on land. Indeed, perhaps it would be the whole truth to say this time that the boy was entirely at home on the water, in as much as his father had, when Francis was quite a little lad, moved his whole family, twelve children and all, into an old hall of a ship which lay wrecked off the coast of Kent. There they lived year after year, a jolly crew you may be sure, until one by one the boys grew up and pushed off for themselves to join some cruising party up and down the coast. In all the years since Columbus had discovered America, for it was now 1577, the Spaniards had been pushing on across the new continent and up and down the coast, until there seemed a fair prospect of their gaining possession of the whole of the new world. More than this, the Spanish navy, growing stronger and stronger as the years rolled on, had for some time been making things generally disagreeable to the vessels of all other nations, even went out upon a mid-ocean. Does Spain propose to lay claim to the very waters of the ocean? said Queen Elizabeth. We shall see, answered Sir Francis gallantly, and he did see. Sailing away from England amid the cheers of his countrymen, loaded down with honors and buoyed up with promises of future glory on his return, Sir Francis Drake set gaily forth to teach the Spaniards a lesson, to explore new coasts and conquer new countries should opportunity present, but above all, to teach the Spaniards a lesson. In 1572 he started for the West Indies, plundering every Spanish vessel he met on the way. He destroyed one whole Spanish town on one of the islands, and even crossed overland with his men the Isthmus of Panama, destroying Spanish shipping on the other side. From the top of a tree which he climbed while on the Isthmus, he obtained his first view of the Pacific and resolved, he said, to sail an English vessel in those seas. And in a very few years he made good his word. Five years later, in 1577, while sailing down the coast of South America, driven blindly on by storm and wind, the golden hind, Drake's ship, reached one morning a point of high rocky land, the meeting place of the two great oceans, the extreme southern point of South America, Cape Horn. "'Tis an ill wind that blows nobody any good,' said Sir Francis, or at least he might have said it, as he looked with surprise upon the strange view before him. "'Let us sail up this western coast.' At one place where they landed for water they found a Spaniard asleep, thirteen bars of silver worth four thousand ducats lying by his side. "'We took the silver,' said Sir Francis dryly when he told his story to the queen, and left the man. At another place they saw a Spaniard driving eight sheep to Peru. Across the back of each sheep were two bags of silver. Without so much as an if-you-please, Sir Francis's men took the silver, for they had come, you know, to teach the Spaniards a lesson. Again, entering the harbor at Caio, where seventeen Spanish ships loaded with treasure lay at anchor, the Englishman took possession of all the treasure and sailed away as gaily as mischievous schoolboys. So they went on up the coast, taking the Spaniards everywhere by surprise. "'Very likely,' said the staring young captain, since the two great oceans meet at the southern extremity of this great new land, they will also meet at the northern extremity. We will sail on northward around that point out into the Atlantic to our English coast.' A very pretty little trip, thought all the crew, especially as, for the best of reasons, anything would be pleasanter than sailing back again through Spanish waters and past Spanish forts. So on they went up the coast, enjoying everything and looking hopefully for the northern point. But it grew so very cold and the days grew so short and the ice was so threatening, they were forced to turn back and take their chances among the Spaniards, who by this time were pretty sure to have recovered from their surprise and to be on the lookout for the returning vessel. "'But what need of sailing around Cape Horn?' said Drake. "'We can sail far out into these western waters and the earth being round. We can sail through the Indian Sea around the Cape of Good Hope and up the European coast.' And this he did, reaching England November 3, 1580, the first Englishman to sail around the world. How the church bells rang out as the ship entered the harbor, how the guns thundered and how the people cheered. And Queen Elizabeth herself, delighted indeed at his success, conferred the honour of knighthood upon him, gave him the title of Sir Francis, and presented him with a coat of arms, a ship on a globe. The golden hind she ordered to be lodged in the Deptford dock as a monument to the courage and daring of the brave sailor. For years it stood there, and when its timbers began to decay, a chair was made from it and presented to the University of Oxford. And in the college building it still stands, as grand and as important as ever, ready to tell always its wonderful history. End of Chapter 7 Chapter 8 of American History Stories, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Read by Colinda American History Stories, Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt Chapter 8 Sir Walter Raleigh There was another gallant Englishman who made a great name for himself upon the sea. Did you ever hear of the young Englishman who, when one day Queen Elizabeth, taking her daily walk, came to a muddy place in the road, threw down his rich plush coat and with a profound bow, begged her queenship to do him the honour to cross upon it? Well, that young Englishman was the Sir Walter Raleigh of whom we hear in the stories of the earliest discoveries. Sir Walter had made a voyage with his older brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who had tried again and again to find the northwest passage of which the cabbage so long before had talked and written. And now a time had come when English was very anxious to get a colony founded in North America, before the Spanish should take possession of the whole country. Several attempts were made, but none of them were successful. One colony, called in history the Lost Colony, was made up of a hundred families. They settled upon the beautiful island of Roanoke in Albemarle Sound, Virginia. When their rough houses were built and the people had planted their fields and seemed comfortable and prosperous, their governor, John White, returned to England to report their success and to bring back provisions for the colony. The governor did not like to leave the colony, for there were hostile Indians round about. His people depended on him for guidance, and then, too, there was a little baby girl, his granddaughter, little Virginia Dare, the first English baby born on American soil, who had a wonderful hold on the heartstrings of the ruffled governor, and made him wish that he might stay there on the beautiful island to protect her from all danger. But the colonists needed provisions, so the brave governor sailed away. On reaching England he found the country in such commotion, and the Queen so busy with the war going on between Spain and England, that it was three long years before he could get together the provisions and the help he needed to carry back to the little colony. When at last he did set sail, it seemed to him that the ocean must have grown thousands and thousands of miles wider. The voyage was so long, and he was so anxious about the little colony, and so eager to see the little baby colonist. At last the vessel neared the island. Eagerly Governor White looked up and down the shores for some sign of welcome, but only the stillness and the gloom of the forest greeted him, not a sign of life. The huts were deserted, not a sound was to be heard save the cry of the birds and the moaning of the trees. On a tree were cut the letters C-R-O-A-T-A-N. What did that mean? Was it the name of some place to which the colonists had moved? No one knew, no one ever knew, and not one trace of this lost colony, not one trace of the little English baby Virginia Dare, has been found to this day. It was at this time that many reports came of the enormous amounts of gold to be found in Guiana. Why, said one adventurer, it lies in lumps about the streets and in the forests, it lies like fallen trees across one's paths. England must have some of that gold, she needs it to carry on the war, said Raleigh. It will never do to let Spain capture it all. And so he set forth for the wonderful gold country. Of course he found no such quantities of gold, but he explored the rivers and brought home most valuable reports of the New World. Later, in a great battle with the Spanish vessels, Raleigh so contrived to set his own vessel across a narrow channel that the whole Spanish fleet was crippled and had no choice but to blow up their own vessels or see them captured by Raleigh. This victory was a terrible blow to the Spanish power on the sea. Never again did she dare defy the powers of other countries as she had done or proudly proclaim herself mistress of the seas. From that day the power of Spain was broken. Queen Elizabeth was proud indeed of her brave knight, and all England rang with praises of their bold deliverer. But by and by the Queen died. King James of Scotland became King of England. Now the skies grew black indeed for Sir Walter. King James hated him, was jealous of him, and felt he was a man to be feared. Accordingly he had him shut up in prison, and later condemned him to death. It is a sad, cruel story, and we will not repeat it here. Only you may be sure, good brave man that Sir Walter was, that he died nobly, and that as the years rolled on the world grew more and more to appreciate and honour him. The French, too, and the Hollanders were at this same time sending explorers across the sea to find a short route to India. That was how it happened that Jacques Cartier discovered the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and Henry Hudson the mouth of the Hudson. Cartier's heart beat fast when he found this great river, and saw it led directly west. Hudson, too, though his river ran so far to the north, still hoped it might somewhere turn towards the west. For you see, the people of those days did not yet realise that they had discovered a new continent thousands of miles wide, and that no river or system of rivers could extend from shore to shore. This idea of a vast country came to the people slowly. For first, when Columbus discovered the island of Hispaniola, the people thought of this new western land as merely a series of islands. Then, when Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, he reported the new land as only a narrow strip. But gradually, when Magellan sailed so far south, and Cartier so far north, the people began to realise that the new land was not an island, nor even a narrow strip of land. And so the truth of the discovery grew until by and by it was known that great continents had been discovered, continents as large as all Europe and Asia put together. And they named these two great continents North America and South America. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Read by Colinda American History Stories Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt Chapter 9 The Colonies I am going to ask you now to take a long trip with me out of the period of discoveries over into the period of the colonies. You must not imagine that these few men I have told you about made all the discoveries in the new America. There were many more, so many, that I think you might read about them every day for a whole year and then not read the half. Hundreds and hundreds of men had been sent over by England, France, Spain and many other European countries. These men had wandered about the country, daring much and suffering much, sometimes fighting and killing the Indians and sometimes getting killed themselves. Sometimes a band of these men would come over intending to build towns and live here together as they had lived in their old homes in Europe. But for a long time something would always happen to prevent their success. Often the men grew homesick or they grew lazy or worse still the Indians who now had good reason to hate the pale faces as they called the white men would fall upon them and scalp them and slay them with their tomahawks. But in spite of all the efforts of the Indians the pale face colonies finally succeeded and in due time there came to be little towns up and down the sea coast. It was as early as 1535 that the French came over to Florida and built two forts and made a settlement of importance. For some time these French people lived in their settlement happy and prosperous. But one day some Spanish vessels arrived and claiming the country because they had first discovered it they took possession of the French settlement and massacred the people. There they built a fort for themselves and made plans for building a town. This they did and a successful town it proved for it still stands the old fort and all at St. Augustine in Florida. And now people go to visit it and wonder about the old fort and up and down the quaint narrow streets and say this is the oldest town in America. It was not until 1607 however that settlement by the English began in real earnest. At that time a number of men having permission from the English government to come to America and found a colony set sail from London. They reached the mouth of a river in Virginia which they named the James in honor of their English king. The town they began to build they named Jamestown. One of the leading men of this company was called John Smith. He was a very wise and able man and seemed always to do the right thing at just the right time. The story of his life is as interesting as a novel. If there were time I would tell you some of his strange adventures at sea and on the battlefield. One adventure of his in Jamestown colony will show you what a brave man he was and how a little Indian girl saved his life. John Smith had started up the river on an exploring expedition. Some Indians had been watching him and when Smith left his boat they seized it, scalped the men he had left with it and then ran to overtake Smith himself. When he saw them coming he turned and fought them so furiously that although there were many of them they had much trouble to secure him. They led him to their camp. Here he entertained them by showing them his compass and told them how the needle always turned to the north. This amused the Indians so much that they allowed him to live some weeks in peace. They decided at last that he was too wise and therefore too dangerous to have about and that the sooner he was killed the safer it would be for them. So when they had held a long council and had performed some wonderful war dances around him they led him forth to be killed. Poor Smith could see no way of escape and as he used to tell afterwards he was more frightened than he had been when in his younger days he was thrown overboard from a ship or when he fought the Turks. He was brought out, bound hand and foot and a savage had already raised his war club to dash out his brains when just then uprushed little Pocahontas the daughter of the great Indian chief Powhatan threw her arms around John Smith's neck and begs the chief to spare his life. Strange to say the cruel old chief seemed moved by the child's pleading and the prisoner was released and even allowed to return to Jamestown. For some time John Smith remained in the little white settlement guiding the affairs of the colony. As long as he was there all went well for Smith was a very wise man and not afraid to work hard with the other men in making the settlement a pleasant home. At last however having met with a severe injury he was obliged to return for a time to England. You would suppose that after he was gone the men would have been wise enough to keep on tilling the ground and building their houses. But instead when John Smith returned to Jamestown he found the men quarreling among themselves. They had used up the provisions and were almost starving. Had Smith not returned just when he did I fear they would have given up the colony and gone back to England. But Smith worked hard to save Jamestown and for a time he prevailed upon the men to stop their foolish quarreling and to go to work to build up the colony and protect it from the Indians. Later he made many voyages along the American coast exploring the shores as far as Canada. The Indians however were never quite friendly and after years and years of continual quarreling with them the Jamestown colonists determined to have peace in some way. One of them, Captain Argal, thought it would be a good plan to steal Pocahontas and then send word to the Indians that they would do her no harm so long as the colony was not troubled. Pocahontas was now a young woman nearly nineteen years old and was said to be very beautiful. At any rate soon after coming to the colony she won the heart of a young Englishman named John Ralph and he took her to his old home in England. Pocahontas was received in England with much honour and came to be greatly loved by all who knew her. It was Ralph's plan to spend a few months in England and then to return to the colony in America and make for himself and Pocahontas a home in which they hoped to live the rest of their lives. But Pocahontas began to fail in health. Probably the change from her free forest life to the close house life of an English city was more than she could bear. Day by day Pocahontas grew weaker and at last she died. She left a little baby boy who was as beautiful it is said as his mother had been. John Ralph took the little one to America and there he grew up in the colony. Some of the good families in Virginia today are proud to say that they are descendants from the little son of Pocahontas. End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 of American History Stories, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Read by Colinda American History Stories, Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt Chapter 10 Plymouth Colony The next English colony was settled in Massachusetts. One stormy day in December 1620, there sailed into Plymouth Harbor a queer little vessel named the Mayflower. On board this little craft were a hundred brave men and women who had come from England in order to escape religious persecution. These are rather large words for young folks, but I think it better for you to learn them just here because they seem somehow to belong to these particular people. Why, you will understand later. Now, it seems rather cruel to leave these wanderers out in the cold storm, but we must for a few moments while we hurry over to England to learn what had happened there to force these men and women across the ocean at this stormy time of year. Many years before, King Henry VIII of England had had a great quarrel with the Pope at Rome. The Pope, being the head of the Catholic Church, sent certain orders to King Henry for all England at that time was Catholic and always obeyed the Pope in every point. But King Henry had made up his mind that he would obey no one and that he would be the head of the Church himself, so he announced to his subjects that no longer were they to pay any attention to the Pope's orders, but that they were to obey him instead. And so came about the English Church. This seemed a fearful thing to some of the people. They believed God would send some terrible punishment upon them. Still, there were very many people in England who were glad of the change and who, therefore, took the king's side in the trouble that followed. King Henry died before the people had all grown used to the change and left the throne to his son, Edward, who believed as his father had done and held to the English Church. Edward died very soon after he came into power and his sister Mary took the throne. Now Mary was an earnest Catholic and, as you would suppose, began at once bringing back the priests and doing everything in her power to restore the old religion. But Mary's reign, too, soon came to an end and Queen Elizabeth took the throne. Elizabeth was as strong an English Church woman as Mary had been a Catholic and so again the country was thrown into confusion, places of worship were destroyed, priests were displaced, and all who were Catholics were expected to join the English Church, just as in Mary's reign all those who were of the English Church had been expected to turn Catholics. Queen Elizabeth was followed by James I, the king, you remember, who so cruelly caused Sir Walter Raleigh to be put to death. James was meaner than any of the kings and queens who had gone before him and persecuted all Catholics or Protestants who opposed his ideas. But you will begin to wonder what all this has to do with the men and women we left in Cape Cod Harbor. As you will see, it has everything to do with them. During all this trouble there, a class of people had been rising in England who lived neither in the Catholic Church nor in the English Church as it was then. These people dressed very strangely and acted even more strangely. Now it was the fashion in those days for gentlemen to wear their hair long and to dress in very elegant clothes. But these people who hated both the churches, dressed in the very plainest of clothes, wore their hair so short that they were nicknamed round heads, would not allow music in their churches, would not have the old church service, and in short would have nothing but the very barest and plainest of everything. These people were called Puritans, Roundheads, Separatists, and many other names by the English Church people who looked upon them as fools and lunatics. You may be sure the Puritans or Separatists did not have a very enjoyable time in England under King James. At last in 1608 a little band of Separatists from Scrooby in England, unable to bear their persecutions any longer, went over into Holland. There they lived happily enough, but they longed for a home of their own where they could teach their own religion and make it the religion of the country. For this reason they went back to England, obtained permission to found a colony in the New World, and with their hearts full of hope and courage started out in the Mayflower and the Speedwell for the unknown land. The Speedwell however was obliged to put back into port because it was found to be unseaworthy. Thus it was that the Mayflower alone came into Cape Cod Harbor. You will often hear these Puritans who came first to America, spoken of as Pilgrims or the Pilgrim Fathers. This was a name given them because of their Pilgrimages to Holland and to America in search of a home. Try to remember this, these plain, honest, God-fearing people were all called Puritans in England, while the few who wandered about and finally settled in Plymouth were given the name of Pilgrims. Let us go back to Cape Cod Harbor now and see what these Pilgrims have been doing all this time. It was one of those snowy, windy days that we who live in the northeastern states expect to have now and then in the wintertime. Not a pleasant sort of day to spend on the ocean even in the snuggest and warmest of vessels. Much less pleasant it must have been to those wanderers in their rudely built vessel drifting about at the mercy of the wind and tide. The Pilgrims had intended to land much farther south where it was pleasanter and warmer, but the storm was so severe that the captain of the Mayflower said he must make port wherever he could. I am afraid they were not over-pleased when their vessel came into Cape Cod Harbor, for there they found only a sandy, desolate shore awaiting them, and as it was in the dead of winter you can imagine how cold and bare it looked. The trees were leafless, the ground was frozen, and the waters about the shores were covered with sheets of ice. But they were brave and sturdy, and although they would have been glad to be welcomed by the pleasant warmth of the southern lands as they left their weather-beaten vessel, still they bravely accept what was before them, perfectly sure that they had been guided to this shore by divine providence. As soon as they had all landed they gathered together about that large rock at the water's edge, known now as Plymouth Rock, and kneeling down thanked God for their safe deliverance from the perils of the sea. Then they went sturdily to work. These men were not idle, lazy good-for-nothings as many of those first colonists in Virginia had been. They did not need a John Smith to urge them to be industrious. They were all terribly in earnest. They had left their native land and with their brave wives had come over to this wilderness to build homes for themselves. Can you not fancy their axes ringing in the still winter days as they felled the trees for lumber with which to build their rude houses? Can you not fancy the brave, tender-hearted wives and mothers working cheerfully on in the bitter cold of their old uncomfortable houses, washing, ironing, baking, brewing, pounding the corn, spinning the cloth, and making the homes comfortable and even cheerful in the thousand ways which only mothers and wives can understand? And the little boys and girls, too. There were not very many of them, to be sure. But you may be sure the children of such noble men and women would bravely bear the cold and hunger without a tear, and would try in all their little ways to do their part toward helping their fathers and mothers to build up their village. And there were two little babies, too. Little baby boys who were born during the voyage from England to America. I am afraid these little babies didn't have all the beautiful little dresses, puffs, and powders that our babies have. I should not wonder if the little strangers were wrapped in very ordinary shawls and blankets, and that the mothers were very thankful they could keep them from the cold. Nevertheless, I suspect these little babies had a very warm welcome from all these sturdy, hard-working men and women, and were the pets of the whole colony. Can you not see the women coming every day to look in upon the new babies, and the men, each glad to stop and amuse the little ones for a minute as they went to and fro, and the children only too happy to be allowed to take care of them? The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers The breaking waves dashed high on a stern and rock-bound coast, and the woods against the stormy sky, their giant branches tossed, and the heavy night hung dark the hills and waters o'er, when a band of exiles moored their bark on the wild New England shore. Not as the conqueror comes, they the true-hearted came, not with the roll of stirring drums and the trumpet that sings of fame, not as the flying come in silence and in fear, they shook the depths of the desert's gloom with their hymns of lofty cheer, amidst the storm they sang till the stars heard and the sea, and the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang to the anthem of the free, the ocean eagle soared from his nest by the white waves foam, and the rocking pines of the forest roared, this was their welcome home. There were men with hoary hair amidst that pilgrim band, why had they come to wither there away from their childhood's land? There was women's fearless eye, lit by her deep love's truth, there was manhood's brow serenely high, and the fiery heart of youth. What sought they thus afar, bright jewels of the mine, the wealth of the seas, the spoils of war, they sought of faith's pure shrine? I call it holy ground, the land where first they trod, they have left unstained what there they found, freedom to worship God. CHAPTER 11 THE PURITANS The colonists worked hard during the whole winter and spring and summer, so that by the time the next winter came they had quite comfortable homes. The Indians had been very kind to them, probably because they had been kind and honest in their dealings with the Indians. Soon, encouraged by the success of the pilgrims, there came other bands of English men and women to the shores of Massachusetts. Some sailed into Salem Harbor, settling there, others went to Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Charlestown, and several other places. These later bands of colonists were larger than the earlier. Besides this, they were quite wealthy people. They were Puritans, like those who had come to Plymouth, but they had not been persecuted very severely, and did not come, therefore, because they were driven from England. They had come hoping to find new homes for themselves where they could enjoy greater freedom in their manner of worship, to be sure. Still, I want you to keep distinctly in your mind the difference between these colonies. The Dutch in America In Europe, there is a small country called Holland. It is a strange little country. It is flat and so low that the whole country would long ago have been swallowed by the ocean, had not the sturdy people built great walls of mud and stone to keep back the water. Holland is sometimes called the land of windmills, because there are so many of these great wheels whizzing and whirring about the country. Now, the merchants and workmen of this little country were far ahead of those of England in these days of which we are reading. Although there was hardly a stick of timber in the whole land, yet Holland built more ships and did more trading than England had thought of. It was not long, therefore, before some of these enterprising Dutch merchants became interested in the long sought-for short route to China and the Indies, and in the autumn of 1693 they engaged Henry Hudson and Englishmen to search for the passage for them. In the spring of the following year, Captain Hudson, with a crew of about twenty men, set sail from Holland in the half-moon, and following a map and letter sent him by his friend Captain John Smith, he arrived on September 31 at the fine bay now known as New York Harbor. As he entered the bay, the Indians came hurrying out from the shores in their canoes, paddling up to the half-moon. They were friendly, as Indians generally were until some act of treachery or cruelty on the part of the white men put them on their guard, and they freely traded with the sailors of the strange half-moon. Then Hudson sailed as far up the beautiful river as he could with his vessel, and then sent boats up as far as what is now Albany. Perhaps, said he, this river cuts through the continent to the other ocean and will prove to be a short route to the Indies. But, as you and I know now, he was disappointed in this. The river grew less and less navigable as it neared its source, and Hudson was obliged to sail back into New York Bay. But so beautiful had the country seemed to him, and so valuable were the furs which the Indians offered in trade, that Hudson on his return to Holland gave a most glowing description of the opportunities for making wealth in this new world. So glowing indeed, that it was not very long before the wide-awake enterprising little country sent traders to settle upon the banks of the river and to build up villages for themselves. Holland, accordingly, now claimed the whole country around the river and named it New Netherland. The Dutch colonists went to work at once trading with the Indians, cultivating the land and building their mills with the great whirring sails. The Indians were terribly afraid of these monsters, which were able to grind corn or saw boards. They would sit for hours staring at the strange things, wondering if they were alive. Often they would set fire to them, believing an evil spirit must be in them. But on the whole the Dutch men got along very well with the Indians, and it was not many years before they bought from the Indians the whole island of Manhattan and began the building of their city, New Amsterdam, or, as it is now called, New York. Some of the very first governors of this Dutch colony are said to have been rather remarkable men in one way or another. There was Peter Minuit, an enterprising man I am sure you will believe, when you hear that one of his first acts was to buy the whole of Manhattan Island from the Indians for twenty-five dollars, and that, too, paid mostly with beads and trinkets of which the Indians were very fond. Minuit was followed by Van Twiller, the second governor. Of this man I will give you Washington Irving's own description. He says, Van Twiller was exactly five feet six inches in height and six feet five inches in circumference. His head was a perfect sphere and of such dimensions that dame nature with all her ingenuity would have been puzzled indeed to construct a neck capable of supporting it. Therefore she had declined to try and had settled it firmly on the top of his backbone just between his shoulders. His body was oblong. His legs were short but sturdy in proportion to the weight they had to sustain, so that when erect he had much the appearance of a beer barrel on skids. Then by and by came gallant old Peter Stuyvesant. He was a grim old fellow, battle-scarred, and no more movable when his mind was made up than a wall of solid granite. How he did puff and steam as he stumped around on his funny old wooden leg, shouting his orders and telling of his own wonderful feats in battle. But for all this he was a good governor, and his love for the colony, his pride in it, and his honest desire to see it all and the best it could be, will never be quite forgotten by the New York people. They say that sometimes the bump bump bump of the old wooden leg, even now, is to be heard dark nights moving as of yore up and down the aisles of St. Mark's church near where his bones lie buried. Well, if this is so it only goes to prove that he still loves Old Manhattan Island as he loved it in those early days when he was its ruler and its governor. It was while brave old Peter Stu Vizant was governor that the English first sailed into the harbor of New Amsterdam and demanded the surrender of the city under the claim that the country belonged to the English, having been discovered by Cabot. The fact is the English king, having learned that the Dutch had secured a very valuable fur trade through their friendliness with the Indians, made up his mind that he needed it. He accordingly gave the territory of New Netherlands to his brother, the Duke of York, and sent several ships to capture the city. The Dutch were too few to resist, and the appeals of Governor Stu Vizant to defend the city were vain, and so New Amsterdam passed into the hands of the English on August 29, 1664. The city was then named New York, and although eight years later the Dutch retook the city, Holland finally gave up all title to New Netherlands and it became an English colony. This was in 1674. New Amsterdam was an odd little city at that time, looking for all the world like a little Dutch city dropped down upon the new continent. The little wooden houses had gable roofs, the ends of the houses were of black and yellow brick, over the door were great iron figures telling when the house was built, and on the roof there was sure to be a gay looking weather vane whirling around in the strong wind, trying, so it seemed, to keep pace with the whirling windmills that stretched their great arms over the city. Inside the houses you would have found great roaring fireplaces with pictured tiles up and down the sides, such funny pictures telling all about Noah and the Ark, or perhaps about the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea. Can you not fancy just how the older brothers and sisters used to sit by these great houses pointing out the wonderful pictures to the little children? I am always glad to think of these little children of the Dutch colonists. They were all so much happier and freer than the little Puritan children. Their homes were so much more cheerful, their parents so much less grim and severe, and there was so much more love and joy everywhere about them. Such fairy stories as these Dutch people could tell as they sat about their great fires in the long winter evenings, or out upon the doorsteps in the warm summer nights. Not a forest nor a dale, not a single peak of the Catskill Mountains, but had its legend or mysterious story for them. When the thunder rolled, the people would say, Hark! That is Henry Hudson and his companions playing at nine pins up among the mountains. And the children would shout and laugh and say, Good Henry Hudson, good Henry Hudson, the sailors could not kill you when they bound you and put you afloat on the cold ocean. The little fairies guided you back to your own river and to your own blue-topped Catskills. Kind little fairies, good Henry Hudson. There are so many other stories to tell of this early history of our country that I am going to leave this colony just here. It seems too bad, for these Dutch people were so strange in their dress and customs and had such odd ideas that I should like to tell you a score of stories about them. I should like to tell you about Rick Van Winkle, who slept for twenty years up in the mountains. I should like to tell you about old Ichabod Crane, who thought he was pursued by a ghost, of Henry Hudson and his crew playing nine pins up among the mountains. But you must read Irving's sketchbook and his Nickerbocker history. There are stories enough there to keep you all busy for a year. But now I must ask you to leave these queer old Dutch people and hurry across to Maryland with me. There is another kind of people there waiting for us. End of Chapter 12. Chapter 13 of American History Stories, Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. American History Stories, Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt. Chapter 13. Other Colonies. You remember the misery of the people of England under Henry and Mary and Queen Elizabeth. First they must all be devoted to the English church to please the king. Then they must all turn Catholics to please Mary. Then back they must turn to the English church with Queen Elizabeth. It seems very strange to us now that it should have been considered necessary for a whole country to change its religion to suit the religion of the ruler. But the people in those days had not learned that it is not what a person believes as much as what he is that makes him a good or bad citizen. Thus at the time the pilgrims left England, they were not the only people who were being persecuted. The Catholics too were having a hard time of it. They also were casting longing eyes towards a free country where they could worship God in their own way. At last one of their nobles, Lord Baltimore, obtained from the English king, Charles I, a grant of land and permission to found a colony to be called Maryland on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Lord Baltimore died before he could carry out his good work, but in 1634 his son, Leonard Calvert, came over bringing with him 300 emigrants. After a voyage of four months they reached the mouth of the Potomac and there built a town named St. Mary's. The Indians in this part of the country had not seen the white people then and when they saw them sailing up the Potomac they rushed down to the banks in wonder. Suddenly they gave a great yell and disappeared in the forests. Oh! said they, we have seen a canoe as big as an island and with as many men on it as there are trees in the forest. They could not understand that a ship was built board by board and they wondered where there could be found a tree large enough to hollow out such a canoe as that. As soon as these English people were settled in their new home they made laws for their colony. Their laws were very just and generous especially in regard to religion. All persons were free to worship as they pleased in Maryland. On account of this generous law in the new colony many Puritans from Virginia who had been persecuted there came to Maryland. Quakers came from Massachusetts and all classes came from England. Among the latter were many Methodists who not only desired to worship God in their own way but sent missionaries among the Indians. Later, John and Charles Wesley the founders of Methodism came over to assist in the work but the bad example of some of the white settlers often did as much harm to the Indians as the missionaries could do good. During this time colonies had also been settled in North and South Carolina and they had come to be important and flourishing. On the southern border of South Carolina there is a large river, the Savannah. When the Carolinas were settled the Indians made great trouble for the white men. They felt that the white men were taking their homes from them and that something must be done to drive these newcomers away. This was the time when the Indians in which the white men promised to make no settlements south of the Savannah river. This treaty was not broken for about 70 years. Then there came to be a new king in England called George II. He gave permission to General James Oglethorpe a wealthy but brave and charitable Englishman to found a colony south of the Savannah. General Oglethorpe's desire was to establish a place where poor people could obtain a new start in life, for at this time there was much poverty and wretchedness in England. In November 1732 his little band, 116 people in all set sail from England. They arrived off South Carolina in February of the following year and ascending the Savannah river chose for their home the present site of that city. Their leader sent for the Indians soon after their arrival purchased the land from them and made a treaty with them which was faithfully kept as long as General Oglethorpe remained in the country. They named their territory Georgia in honor of the king and when the laws for this new colony were drawn up Wise General Oglethorpe firmly declared that there should be no rum allowed there and that any sale of it to the Indians should be punished as one of the greatest crimes. He knew, wise man, that he was that drinking men would not be industrious enough to keep a colony prosperous and that it would be the very worst thing to allow the Indians to get a taste of the fire water, as the Indians called it. For a while the colony prospered as any colony would under such a wise leader but these colonists were not all earnest and industrious people as were the Puritans and the Quakers and though they were helped by the English government more than were those of any other colony it was not long before some of them began to grumble bitterly about the hardships of a new country. They also wrote letters to the king of England making all sorts of complaints against their leader until at last disgusted with them Oglethorpe returned to England saying that he was sick of the very name of colony. When the twenty-one years had passed for which Oglethorpe and his companions had been granted leave to hold this land in Georgia their charter was given back to King George. Georgia then became a royal colony and as the king cared very little what the colonists in Georgia or in any other colony did they were now free to have as much strong drink as they liked. For a time matters were in a bad state in the colony and it was not until several years later that the right kind of people came to Georgia. Then Georgia became a very different kind of colony and when by and by the revolution came on no colony was braver or did more in proportion to its size for the cause than did this of Georgia. End of Chapter 13 Chapter 14 of American History Stories, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org American History Stories, Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt Chapter 14 Customs in the Colonies During all these years a gradual change from the early days of struggle and poverty had been taking place in the older colonies especially in Virginia. Hearing of the many advantages in the New World a number of industrious and even wealthy families had come from England to settle in Virginia. They had obtained from the proprietors great tracts of land had built for themselves elegant mansions and were cultivating great fields of tobacco. These people were not Puritans nor Catholics they had not been persecuted at all and they were content with the English church but had come to America to found new homes and to trade and grow up with the country. Now in these early days it was very difficult to get laborers to work in the fields so it had become the custom to ship over criminals and poor people from England and make them work a number of years before they obtained their freedom. After a time Negroes began to be sent from Africa and thus it became quite common in the South for one to own a number of slaves and even in the northern colonies slaves were to be occasionally seen but here in Virginia where it paid to keep a great many laborers to cultivate the cornfields the planters owned a great many slaves. These slaves did the work of the fields and received no pay except their food and clothes. Very likely the masters were kind enough to them and very likely they worked no harder than men and women do everywhere but there is this great difference between slaves and other people who do work. The man or woman who goes out to work as we see them doing it today goes at a certain hour, works until a certain hour and receives pay for it. That man or woman has perfect liberty to do whatever he or she wishes with the pay received. Perfect liberty to go to another place to work. Perfect liberty to do anything and everything proper without asking permission of the employer. But how is it with a slave? His employer owns him just as he owns his horses or oxen. The slave takes the master's horses in the morning and goes out to work with them wherever the master bids. No matter how much or how little the slave and the horses have earned for the master the master takes it all. He would no more think of giving the slave a part of it than he would of giving a part to his horse. The horse receives his bed and supper for his day's work and the slave receives the same. So you see a slave has no hope no matter how hard or how well he may work of receiving anything for it which he can call his own. Is it any wonder then as the years roll on and on bringing him no reward for his labor that he grows to be stupid and heavy without ambition or hope and becomes as the slave holders used to say of him as dumb as the cattle he works with? But we must remember people did not think of slavery in those days as we do now. In the early days of the colonies the need of money was very much felt. There were various ways tried. In Virginia which was a great tobacco growing country the colonists used tobacco for money. This of course was just as good for if a farmer wanted to buy an article worth fifty cents he gave fifty cents worth of tobacco for it. In the early days of the colonies the need of money was very much felt. There were various ways tried. In Virginia they gave fifty cents worth of tobacco for it. The dealer who received the tobacco packed it away with other tobacco until he had a large amount of it. Then he would send it to England and receive for it goods for his store which he would sell again for tobacco. At one time in the early history of this colony when there were very few white women in America they were sent over from England about a hundred young women who were sold to the colonists for a hundred pounds of tobacco each. Each colonist then went to the minister with his tobacco had the marriage ceremony performed and then led her to his home. This would seem a very strange thing nowadays but we must remember there was then no other way for these colonists to obtain wives unless they were sent to them from the old country and it was no more than right that the future husband should pay the expense. There were also some very strange laws as well as customs in those early colonial days. If a woman was a scold she was ducked in running water three times. If she slandered anyone her husband was obliged to pay 500 pounds of tobacco to the governor of the colony. A husband had a perfect right in those days to whip his wife whenever he seemed to think she needed it. They had some good temperance laws. No man was allowed to keep a tavern who did not possess an excellent character. The names of all drunkards were posted up in the taverns and no one was allowed to sell liquor to them. In Connecticut no one under twenty years of age was allowed to use tobacco but his age was allowed to use it more than once a day. One must dress too according to the law. No one owning land not valued at $200 or more could wear gold or silver lace and only the gentility were allowed to use Mr. or Mrs. before their names. There were very severe laws against those who would not attend church. If a man was absent one Sunday he would not be given his allowance of provisions for a week. If a man was absent a second time he was whipped. A third time he was likely even to be hanged. In Virginia especially both men and women were sometimes whipped inside of the whole colony. For some offenses they were made to stand in the church with white sheets over their head during the service where they would be made to stand on the church steps where the name of their crime pinned upon their breasts. In New England they had an odd way of taking offenders out into a public place and putting them in the stocks where they were kept until sundown the subject of laughter and jokes of every passerby. Such punishments would seem un-Christian now but they were very common in those days. The New England people were also very strict regarding the Sabbath. As soon as the sun went down on Saturday evening their Sabbath began. From that time until sunset on Sunday night no manner of work was allowed to be done no visiting, no playing, no gaiety of any kind was permitted. One man, it is said, was brought to trial and fined for kissing his wife on a Sabbath morning. Public worship took place in what was called the Meeting House, the place where all meetings for attending to the town's business were held. Slowly and solemnly the families all walked to the church coming sometimes for miles from the country around. On reaching the church the men took their places on one side of the aisle and the women took theirs on the other. The children too sat all by themselves and there was a man appointed to keep them quiet. This man carried a long stick with a hard knob at one end and a little feather brush on the other. With the knob he knocked the heads of the men if they chanced to grow sleepy and with the feather tickled the faces of the women. I shouldn't wonder if he had to use this rod pretty often on men, women, and children all for the sermons were very long sometimes lasting whole hours and they were timed by an hourglass which stood upon the high pulpit and sometimes was a sermon considered at all of the proper length. And the singing, for many years it was the custom for the people all to rise and sing. There were few hymn books therefore the minister or someone of the deacons would read a line of the hymn the people would sing it then wait for another line to be read. But by and by singing schools began to come into fashion the claristers as the singers were called began to sit together during the church service leading the singing. There were not many tunes that the people knew but such as they did know they poured forth vigorously and were quite content with them for years and years. The first hymn book published in the colonies contained 28 tunes 28 tunes cried the people we can never learn so many. The book is a sin and a snare preached one minister from this pulpit this new sofa singing is wicked singing schools will lead to mischief let us have no more of this foolish vanity no more of this foolish vanity but the foolish vanity someway would not go the young people had begun to learn to sing and sing they would until in the course of time both people and ministers became reconciled to it wicked as it was and when in the 1764 Josiah Flag published a book containing 160 hymns no one thought of objecting on the contrary every singing youth and maiden hastened to own the book the churches throughout the colonies rang out with the whole 160 grand old tunes happy enough that there were so many to sing as to the men as you read in the Indian stories they brought their muskets to the meeting houses that they might have them in case of attack the meeting houses were not warmed even in very cold weather the people had an idea that someway they were better Christians if they bore all these discomforts without a murmur but soon the people began carrying hot bricks and stones to keep their feet in hands from freezing and by and by they carried little foot stoves these stoves were little tin boxes with holes in the side a cover a door and handles with which to carry them in these boxes were put live coals and so the fire would last during the whole sermon as books were very scarce the minister read off one line of the hymn which the people would sing to some old tune then another line would be read and sung then another and another until him was sung when the service was over all walked solemnly home again the fathers and mothers were very strict on this Sabbath day and I fear many and many a little boy and girl dreaded to have this long dreary day come and were very glad when it was over for you remember there were no beautiful books and magazines in those days and if there had been the children would not have been allowed to read anything but the little New England primer which contained quaint pictures a few terrible verses and the catechism I'm sure we are glad people have got over the idea that Sunday should be such a dismal sober day I'm sure the heavenly father is much more pleased to see the children spending his day happily in their homes with their fathers and mothers and little sisters and brothers of all the men of rank or office in the colony none were looked upon with such reverence and respect as the ministers though the Puritans hated titles of all kinds considering them vain inventions they were willing to honor the minister with parson or elder or teacher and were ready to humble themselves before him I am afraid however that these ministers sometimes received little else than reverence where their salaries were generally very small sometimes they had none at all and depended wholly upon the gifts of the Puritans who supplied them with whatever they had or could spare alas said one pastor my people are very poor and I am very poor I have received for salary this year only turnips there being a generous harvest of that vegetable but I do not complain I have always been able to sell them or exchange them and thus I have been supplied with the necessary things of life end of chapter 14 chapter 15 of American History stories volume one this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org read by Kalinda American History stories volume one by Mara L. Pratt chapter 15 the New England Primer speaking of these little sober-faced children of the colonial times reminds me of the queer little books from which they learned to read I wish you could have seen one I have it is very very old now its leaves are all yellow and musty and I fear that before long they will fall in pieces like an old dead leaf it is a little square book with blue paper covers on which is an odd looking picture of two children kneeling to say their prayers in the book are several little verses and hymns and prayers a long list of questions and answers from the Bible the ten commandments and then some odd little verses with pictures which are odd or still on the opposite page are a few of them which I am sure you will say are very funny New England Primer time cuts down all both great and small Uriah's beautiful wife made David seek his life whales in the sea God's voice obey Xerxes the great did die and so must you and I youth forward slips death soon as nips Zacchaeus he did climb the tree our lord to see in Adam's fall we sinned all heaven to find the Bible mind the cat doth play and after slay the dog will bite a thief at night an eagle's flight is out of sight the idle fool is whipped at school End of Chapter 15 Chapter 16 of American History Stories Volume 1 This is LibriVox Recording All LibriVox recordings from the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Kalinda American History Stories Volume 1 by Mara L. Pratt Chapter 16 Manor of Dress You remember how very plainly the Puritans dressed at the time of their leaving England. Then the men wore their hair shaved so closely that they were called round heads. The women, too, all dressed very plainly in homespun dresses and stiffly starched white aprons. There was a time when a fine man who should wear his hair long and if a woman wore any sort of jewelry she was looked upon as a most wicked creature one upon whom the punishment of heaven would surely fall. As time went on and the Puritans mixed more and more with other people these severe styles gave way and at last the Boston folks of the Puritan colony were as gay in their dress as were the Cavaliers of Virginia. In History of America written for young people by Abbey Sage Richardson the description of these people as they dressed at this time just before the Revolution of which we are going so soon to hear that I think we must stop and read it. You remember the rude log cabin in which these first Puritans who came to Cape Cod Bay lived. Compare that rude cabin with Ms. Richardson's description of Governor Hutchinson's house in Boston as it looked in the Revolutionary time. It was a fine brick house three stories high. If we enter the house we shall find a large hall with massive staircases carved, the floor laid in elegant colored marble or different woods. The walls are painted, there are fluted columns supporting the ceiling and there is heavy mahogany furniture set around in stately grandeur. Speaking of the dress of the men she says, do you see that elegant looking man? He would hardly be left at now and called a round head. The Puritans now dresses the English Jew. They wear powdered wigs or else they powder their own hair and tie it in a long queue behind. Look at that gentleman standing in the doorway. He has on a red velvet cap with an inside cap of white linen which turns over the edge of the velvet two or three inches. A blue damask dressing gown lined with sky blue silk a white satin waistcoat with deep and brighter flaps black satin breeches with long white silk stockings and red Morocco slippers. When he goes out into the street he will change his velvet cap for a three-cornered hat his flowered brocade dressing gown for a gold laced coat of red or blue embroidered broadcloth with deep lace ruffles at the wrist put a sword at his side and wear a pair of shoes with great silver buckles. Let us see how the women of the same time used to dress. Here is a lady dressing for a dinner party. First the barber comes and does up her hair in frizzles and puffs and rolls one on top of the other until it all looks like a pyramid or a tower. She has on a brocade dress green ground with great flowers on it looped over a pink satin skirt. It is very low in the neck and it is greatly trimmed with lace. It is very tightly pulled over a stiff hoop which sticks out on both sides so far she has to go in at the door sideways. The heels of her low shoes are very high and she wears beautiful silk stockings. This is the way she dresses for a party but how does she dress at home? At home she wears a cap and a pretty gown a neat white apron and a muslin kerchief over her neck. This is the way the rich people dress. Look at the country people. The farmers wives wear checked linen dresses in the summer and strong home spun woolen dresses in the winter with clean white aprons and kerchiefs. The farmers wear stout leather breeches checked for shirts and frocks. Every day but Sunday the working men wear leather aprons and are not at all ashamed of them either. The very early houses of these colonists were rudely built structures usually of roughly hewn logs from the forests. To keep the houses warm the spaces between the logs were stuffed with dry leaves and the whole wall was then plastered over with mud. Sometimes the houses of the less industrious colonists were very carelessly built and little pains were taken to fit the logs together. There is a story told of one colonist who lying in his bed on the floor against the side of his log house felt in the dead of the night a sharp bite at his ear and starting up he saw the fierce head of a wolf pushing in through the space between his head. It was some little time before there was any window glass used in the colonies. Indeed glass was as yet very rare even in England. Bring oiled paper for your windows wrote a Massachusetts governor to his friends in England who were about to sail for the colonies. You need not bring oiled paper for your windows wrote a New York colonist to his friends. Oiled paper is used in Massachusetts colonies but here we have found in the rocks sheets but by and by when comfortable houses began to be built and window glass had become less rare we find the dwellings fashioned after the old English style of houses. The more wealthy colonists built great square buildings the rooms arranged as it seemed around a great central chimney in the middle of the house. They built the chimney says one writer and then fitted the rooms to the chimney. Perhaps they did it might seem so. At any rate each room had its own great open fireplace the warm red flames from which leaped and sprang up into the secret places and out of sight all in this one great chimney. It was a long time before stoves were invented and a long time again before a kind was invented that would really warm the rooms and be of use. The very first stoves it is said were built into the walls and when wood was to be put on the fire someone had to go out of doors to do it the door of the stove being on the outside of the house. But the old opened fireplaces with very best features of colonial life. Here in the long winter evenings the family would sit talking and telling wonderful stories, roasting chestnuts and apples and having just the very best of social times. You will not wonder that they lingered around their cheerful fires and were inclined to make the evening long when you hear what crude beds they often had in these same comfortable houses. Of course among the very wealthiest of the colonists this time there were great bedsteads and warm feather beds such as one often sees now in country places where the people are wise enough to still cling to their rich old fashioned furniture. But among the less favored classes the beds were not I am afraid the most comfortable things in the world and certainly they were not very handsome pieces of furniture by any means. One way of building up a sleeping place was to make two holes in the wall and into these to drive two poles. These poles served for the sides of the bed frame. Then two upright posts were erected with holes in them into which the side poles were driven. A cross beam from post to post and the bed frame was complete. Then slats were laid across or when possible ropes were woven in and out. A great bag of hay or straw sometimes pine boughs were laid on this. Then the bed was complete. But simple and easy to make as these beds and bedsteads were. Many strange stories are told of the scarcity of beds in the little taverns here and there at which travelers from town must stop overnight. In England, wrote one colonist, we were accustomed at the tavern to have a room and a bed and a privilege of bolting our door. It will be so here by and by when we have grown a little more settled in our new land and have had time and means to make more furniture. At present, however, if we go to bed alone in a tavern it is by no means sure that some fellow traveller will not, when we awake, be found sleeping soundly in the same bed having thrown himself down by our side perhaps across the foot of the bed. Furniture, too, of all kinds, was not common in the very first years of colonial life. The wealthiest people had their furniture brought from England, but in those days of slow sailing vessels such importation was far too expensive for poor families. The chairs and tables were accordingly home-made, like the bedsteads and were rude and rough, not very comfortable, but good enough for now as the patient, hard-working people would say to each other as now and then we recall their more comfortable English homes. Our chairs and tables were better, no doubt, in England, some father would say, but we can forgo all that for the blessed liberty of this country, and by and by we shall have them all again. A few long boards laid across carpenter's horses for a table, some long boards arranged bench fashion around the room against the walls, and the house was ready for a husking party or a quilting bee or any other good time, and the time was no wise or any less good that the furniture and preparations were so simple. Carpets were rarely seen then, even in the finest houses. The floors were sanded and in the best room, as they called their parlors, the sand was lined off into squares or diamonds, which suited the proud housekeeper's ambition quite as well as a real carpet with its squares and diamonds.