 Chapter 24 of Hero Tales from History, this is a Libydox recording. All Libydox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit Libydox.org. Hero Tales from History by Smith Burnham. Livingstone, the white man of the dark continent. Little Davy Livingstone was a queer, quiet scotch laddie. His father was a high-minded man, but he was so poor that he had to take Davy out of the village school when he was 10. In those days, the early part of the 19th century, children began to work when they were very young, so Mr. Livingstone sent the lad to work, with other boys of his own age, as a piece in a cotton mill. David worked from six in the morning till eight at night, stopping only for lunch. With his first week's wages, the 10-year-old boy bought a Latin grammar. He was so eager to learn that he went to night school from 8 till 10 at night. He studied till midnight, and even later, when his mother did not take his books away and send him to bed, his great desire was to be a missionary. So he took up other languages besides Latin, and such studies as would fit him for missionary work. As soon as he was able, he went to London and elsewhere to study, working part of the time to earn enough to pay his way. On a visit to London, Livingstone met Dr. Moffat, a leading missionary in South Africa, and soon decided to work in Africa himself. He had prepared himself to help men's bodies as well as their souls, so he went thirst as a medical missionary. Dr. Livingstone's first mission station or centre was 700 miles further north than Dr. Moffat's, in a region which was dangerous because of savage men, wild beasts, and worst of all, an unhelpful climate. In this lonely place, the new missionary began to tell the ignorant black people about the one true God. He cured them of their illnesses and showed them how to dig canals and build dams to water their little farms. He also taught them to till those farms in a better way than they had known. In the region there were many lions. One day, when the missionary was out of a band of natives, he met one of the big beasts. Livingstone and one of his black men shot at the lion, which sprang up with a roar and bound it into the bushes through the circle the men had made round him. Then two more lions appeared. Before Livingstone could reload his gun, he saw one great brute with bristling mane and angry eyes springing upon him. Its weight bore him to the earth. The lion seized his shoulders jaw strong enough to carry off an ox. When someone asked him afterward what he fought just then, Dr. Livingstone replied, I was wondering what part of me he would eat first. In a letter the doctor described this adventure. With his terrible roar sounding in my ear, the lion shook me as a dog does a rat. But strange to say, I felt neither pain nor fear, though fully conscious of all that passed. As I turned to escape the weight of his paw which was resting on my head, I saw his eyes turn toward Melbelwe, one of the natives, who was about to fire. But his gun missed fire in both barrels. Instantly the lion quitted his hold of me and leaped on Melbelwe, biting him badly in the thigh. Then he dashed at another man who was about to attack him with his spear. But at that moment the previous shots the lion had received took effect and he dropped to the ground dead. Livingstone was bitten in eleven places. His arm was badly mangled and bones were broken in several places. It was many months before he was well. The broken arm was always weak and he bore the marks of that big lion's teeth to his dying day. While recovering from his wounds, Livingstone made the long journey to the home of Dr. Moffat and married that gentleman's daughter Mary. Miss Moffat was born in South Africa so that she knew the language and ways of the people. This made her true help me to her husband in his noble work. Livingstone called himself Jack of all trades. I read in journeying he wrote, but little at home. Building, gardening, cobbling, doctoring, tinkering, carpeting, gun mending, faring, horse doctoring and shewing, wagon mending, preaching, schooling, lecturing in divinity to a class of three, fill up my time. When Livingstone reached the country of one of the black tribes, thousands of miles to the north, all the people of the region, numbering six or seven thousand, poured out to see the white man. The missionary was greatly relieved to find that the chief of this region, who was only 18 years old, was disposed to be friendly. The white man and his party were well cared for and given plenty of good food, of which there were badly in need. They were nearly starved because unfriendly natives on the way had refused to sell them food. In regions where the Arab slave traders had robbed, killed and carried away and sold many of the natives, the people were afraid of Livingstone, for they thought all white men must be robbers and murderers. But in reality, the brave Scotch missionary was a great worker against the slave trade, writing and saying all he could to make people in Europe and England know how wicked it was. Although Livingstone journeyed about so much, travel was very hard and dangerous. He and his faithful men often had to go up to their necks in swamps, where the hot, moist air was filled with poisonous insects and across rivers in great peril from the crocodile and hippopotamus. Not only did Livingstone have numerous hare-breadth escapes and lions, elephants and other wild beasts, but he was many times stricken with the terrible African fever. Because of his wonderful recoveries, the natives thought his life was charmed, and they were afraid he was a wizard who worked cures by magic from the devil. But the good doctor soon won their friendship by his great kindness to them. Livingstone travelled thousands of miles by water in clumsy boats. He wrote to a friend, describing the life of one of these river trips. We rise a little before five when it is daylight. While I am dressing, the coffee is made, and after I've filled my little coffee pot, I leave the rest for my companions, eagerly to swallow the refreshing drink. Meanwhile, the servants are busy loading the boats. Which done, we embark. The next two hours while the men row swiftly onward are the pleasantest of the whole day. About eleven we land and eat our luncheon, which consists of what is left and suffer the evening before, or a sly back with honey and water. After resting for an hour, we enter the boats again and take our places under an umbrella. The heat is oppressive. And as I am still weak from my recent attack of fever, I cannot go ashore and hunt. The rowers who are exposed to the sun without cover, drip with sweat and begin to tire by afternoon. We often reach a suitable spot to spend the night two hours before sundown. Now as we are all tired, we gladly make a halt. As soon as we are ashore, the men cut grass on my bed and poles on my tent. The bed is then made. The boxes with our supplies piled on each side of it. And lastly, the tent is stretched above. Four or five paces in front of it, a huge fire is lighted. Besides which, each man has his own place, according to the rank he occupies. Two of the macaloulos are always at my right and left, both in eating and sleeping. While McCona, my head boatman, lies down before the door of my tent, as soon as I go to bed. A space beyond the fire, it's staked out for the cattle in the shape of a horseshoe. The evening meal consists of coffee and sly bark, or of bread made from maize or kaffee or corn. Unless we are lucky enough to shoot something to supplies with a pot of meat. We go to bed soon after and silence descends upon the camp. On moonlight nights, the fire is allowed to go out. While Livingstone was exploring to the northward, he discovered the great cataracts of the Zambezi, which are even higher and wider than Niagara. He named them Victoria Falls in honor of the Queen of England. He also found the lakes in which the Zambezi flows into the eastern sea and the Congo into the western and opposite sides the continent of Africa. The two rivers are like two long water snakes with their tiny tails close together, but they're wide open mouths, thousands of miles apart. Dr. Livingstone had sent his wife to England for the benefit of her health and to educate their children. The people there were greatly pleased with results of Livingstone's labours in Africa, for all of the country discovered by him would belong to Great Britain. So the British government gave him its support and paid him a small salary for the work he was doing for science and for the world. By this time, other missionaries had come to help save the dark continent. The wives of two of these were coming up from England with Mrs. Livingstone when she returned. There was great joy on both sides, that of the three husbands in the heart of Africa, and that of the three wives on their way to join them. But Livingstone and both his friends were seized with African fever, and when their wives came, the two men missionaries had just died. Even Mrs. Livingstone, though she'd been brought up in Africa, took the disease and died. The two missionaries' wives soon returned to England. But Dr. Livingstone could not even then be persuaded to leave the needy people to go to England to rest a while and see his now-movellous children. Besides all these labours and besides the exact reports he made on the animal life, flowers, trees, rocks and geography about new land, he wrote books about his adventures and experiences which had an immense sale. This made him a man of considerable wealth. But after providing wealth for his family and for the education of his children, he spent the greater part of his fortune, ten to thirty thousand dollars at a time, for the benefit of his black children. When Livingstone did go to England, it was only for a short visit. While absent from Africa he seemed always to hear those millions of poor ignorant people calling him. Once he purchased the parts of a little steamer and brought it back to Africa. The boat was put together and was run on some of the lakes and rivers he had discovered. The vessel proved to be a poor affair which ran very slowly and was always breaking down. But the natives were astonished and would have worshiped it if he had let them. As time went on larger and better boats were sent out to him. Once he had to discharge his engineer but he ran the steamboat himself. He found it easier of course to make his journeys with the help of steam though he had to go to many places where the boats could not be taken. A writer has described a trip Livingstone and his friends made in July. It was now the African mid-winter and the nights were very cold. The tetsy flies were more troublesome than ever. Wild beasts became more numerous every day in this uninhabited region. Herds of elephants, buffaloes, zebras and many kinds of antelopes were frequently seen which allowed the head of the caravan to approach within 200 feet of them. The wild boars of which many were seen were very shy while on the contrary troops of monkeys hastily retreated into the jungle at the side of the travellers chattering angrily about the coming of the white man. Guinea fowl, doves, ducks and geese were also plentiful. With the darkness a new and even more numerous world of living creatures awoke. Lions and hyenas roared and howled about the camp. Unknown birds sang sweetly or screeched as if in fear and all sorts of strange insect noises were heard. One day Livingstone narrowly escaped losing his life and the attack of a two-horned rhinoceros. This beast was strangely quick in spite of its great bulk and very savage being one of the few animals which will attack a man without being first attacked. While making their way through a dense picket Livingstone had become separated from the others and were stooping to gavers and specimen when a black rhinoceros made a furious charge at him. The strange to say is suddenly stopped short giving him time to escape. In his flight his watch and chain became entangled in a branch and stopping to loosen it he saw the beast still standing in the same spot as if held back by an unseen hand. On reaching a safe distance he uttered a shout of warning thinking some of the party might be near. At this the rhinoceros rushed away grunting loudly. While Dr Livingstone was in England he was welcomed with highest honours. He was invited to visit Queen Victoria and her husband the Prince Consort. The so strong was the missionary spirit in him that he preferred talking to cotton spinners and the people in the slums of the east end of London. He was quite glad to go back to Africa and escape from the medals degrees and other great honours showered upon him. After his return to the Dark Continent for the last time he went farther than ever into the interior in an attempt to discover or at least approve where the Great River Nile begins. When he had nearly reached the goal he was driven back by hostile tribes which had recently suffered from tax of slave traders. At this time the Arabs who carried Livingstone's letters down to the coast to be sent to England destroyed them all. For fear he had written to England about the slave outrages they had committed. For this reason nothing was heard of him for years. It was thought that he'd been murdered by savages or had died of African theater. At last the publisher of the New York Herald sent Henry M Stanley the newspaper's foreign correspondent with all the money he needed to find Dr Livingstone or if he were no longer living to get any records that could be found. After a long search the American newspaper man heard of a white man hundreds of miles further in the interior. Trace and trail grew more and more distinct and at last the American company with the American flag flying marched up to Livingstone's camp on the shore of one of the great lakes he had discovered. Of this meeting Stanley wrote as I advanced slowly toward him I noticed he looked pale and weary. He had a grey beard and wore a cap with a faded gold band on it. I could have run to him and embraced him only I did not know how he would receive me. So instead I walked up to him and said Dr Livingstone I presume. Yes said he of a kind smile we both grasped hands. I thank God Dr that I've been permitted to see you said I and he answered I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you. I found myself gazing at the wonderful man at whose side I now sat in the heart of Africa. Every hair of his head every line of his face his pallor and the weary lucky war all told me what I'd longed so much to know. The two explorers spent months together talking over their discoveries and experiences. Stanley had much to tell him of what was going on in the world outside. Nearly all Livingstone's store of supplies had been stolen but Stanley had prepared for that. He insisted on providing the old missionary with everything he might need. A Stanley's tenderness Livingstone wrote to his daughter he laid all he had at my service divided his clothes into two heaps and pressed one upon me then his medicine chest his goods and everything he had the true American generosity to coax my appetite he often cooked dainty dishes for me with his own hands. The tears often started to my eyes at some fresh proof of his kindness. As Dr Livingstone was again recovering from a very severe attack of fever Stanley begged him to go home to England with him for a year of rest but the aged missionary shook his head sadly. Stanley returned to the outside world. About a year after this David Livingstone was found kneeling beside his bed in a hut and built of bamboo poles and coarse grass. He had died while praying. Millions of natives in the heart of the dark continent were heartbroken when they heard of the medical missionary's death. They spent months in wailing and mourning for they had lost their white father. Two devoted black men carried the body of their beloved master hundreds of miles through the swamps and jungles of Africa and placed it on a shipboard to be taken back to England. The ship was met at the English seaport by a special train heavily draped in mourning which carried the honored remains up to London. Great Britain has strong reasons for honoring David Livingstone. He had added a million square miles to the known world and put great lakes rivers mountains and countries on the map of Africa. There was a magnificent funeral in Westminster Abbey where the great missionary and explorer was buried beside the sacred ashes of kings, queens, princes and statesmen. Thus he received the highest honors England can bestow upon her most illustrious dead. On the black marble slab which marks David Livingstone's final resting place are the last words he is known to have written. They are about the cruel slave trade. All I can say in my solitude is may Heaven's rich blessing come down on everyone. American English Turk who will help to heal this open sore of the world. End of Chapter 24 Chapter 25 of Hero Tales from History This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Like Many Waters Hero Tales from History by Smith Burnham. Peary, a hero of the Great White North. For hundreds of years after Columbus explorers sought the Northwest Passage through the frozen seas of North America. It was not until 1853 that such a channel was actually traced. Even then it was so filled with ice that no sailor, however brave and skillful, could have made his way through. Long ago the search for the Northwest Passage gave place to the great desire and purpose to reach the North Pole. Of course there is no pole standing out of the northern half of the world. The axis or axle of the earth is only an unseen line which scientists have thought of as if it ran straight through the center of the earth. The place in the middle of the top of the globe where this line, if there were one, would come out is named the North Pole. And the same place at the opposite end is called the South Pole. It is easy to see how many boys could have a great longing to run away to sea and seek their fortunes in foreign lands. But it is hard to understand why any young man should wish to undertake the awful hardships of bitter colds and blizzards. With the risk of falling down ice cracks hundreds of feet deep and of starving or freezing to death in trying to get to the pole. Especially if there is nothing but snow and ice to see there if he ever could find the place. Yet in his youth Robert E. Peary had a strange desire to visit the inland ice region of Greenland. Robert was a Pennsylvania lad whose father had died when he was three. He grew up to care for his widowed mother. He went to an Eastern college and was graduated second in a class of 51. Then he passed the rigid tests for engineer in the United States Navy. Like young Robert E. Lee, Robert E. Peary was first assigned to engineering duty on the Eastern coast in Florida. Then he was sent as one of a number of experts in science to survey a route through Nicaragua as many people believed that a ship canal should run through Nicaragua rather than across the narrow Isthmus where the Panama Canal was dug afterward. So it was not until he was 30 years old that Robert E. Peary was able to realize the dream of his boyhood and explore the bleak and frozen plains even beyond Greenland's icy mountains. Five years later he started out to go farther north than any white man had ever been. His first attempt to reach the pole was in 1891 when he took with him his young wife. This was the first time a white woman ever had made the journey into the unknown regions of the Great White North. With the Pearies in this dangerous undertaking went Dr. Frederick A. Cook, a surgeon, and Matthew Henson, the Peary's colored helper. On board the kite, the special ship for this journey, the leader's leg was broken by the setting slipping of the rudder. This accident kept them from advancing farther north that fall through the constant care of his wife. The faithful Matthew and Dr. Cook, Lieutenant Peary, was restored to health and strength by the following spring. Peary knew how to make the best of everything. The half-year he was laid up by this accident was that of the Arctic night. For six months in the year, spring and summer, the sun in the Arctic regions can be seen moving in a complete circle up in the sky. In other parts of the world, what is called the sunset is just the turning away of one side of the earth from the sun. And sunrise is the whirling round of that side into the sunlight again. What is called night is the time when the sun is shining on the other side of the earth. But the sun moves north in spring and summer so that during those seasons in the Arctic region it never sets, and there is daylight all the time. In the fall and winter the sun moves south, and then in the Arctic region it never rises, so there is night for six months. While nursing his broken leg during his Arctic night, Lieutenant Peary was by no means idle. He sent the kite thousands of miles back to the United States. He made friends with the Eskimos, his little fat red-faced northern neighbors who lived in igloos, as they called their small dome-shaped houses built of blocks of ice. He learned all he could of their language and their ways. He found out how to hunt the reindeer, the musk ox, and other big game of the north, and studied and trained the Eskimo dogs, which would draw his sledges the thousands of miles he must yet go to reach the pole. At last when his leg was entirely well, it was early spring, when the sun could be seen rising, shining a little while in the middle of the day and setting just above the frozen plains and icebergs to the south of them. In May when the sun was circling a little higher in the sky for several hours every day, Peary and a small party harnessed sixteen dogs to four sledges and started off on a camping trip towards the farthest north. With one companion who was used to the life in the cold northern countries, he climbed a mountain of ice nearly a mile high. These two heroes kept on alone across bleak regions broken up by ice cracks called crevasses, hundreds of feet deep, over slippery hummocks or ice mounds, through deep snow drifts and fogs, in constant danger of precipices and pitfalls. On the fourth of July they reached the body of water which they named for the day, Independence Bay. Here they climbed an icy height which they called Navy Cliff. From here they beheld a splendid expanse of clear country stretching still farther away toward the north. It was now the arctic mid-summer, they were surprised to find flowers blooming in sheltered nooks and to hear the hum of bees and flies. There were birds also, snow-bunting and sandpiper, flitting and flying about. On the little patches of bright green that showed through the snows of ages, musk oxen, which look like both sheep and buffalo, were grazing. Peary shot five of these to supply meat for the men and dogs on the return journey of five hundred miles or more. The way back was beset with even greater dangers than before. While they were on their way north, they had known that the shifting and breaking up of fields of ice might cut them off forever from their friends and supplies, so every few hundred miles they had cached or buried tools and provisions and marked the places so that they could find them again when a little food might save them from starving. In spite of such precautions many exploring parties found only hardship, starvation and death in the cruel ice. But Peary and his party succeeded in making their return to the inland ice fields, the region of young Peary's boyish dreams, through violent windstorms, drifting snows and freezing fogs, even the hardy little arctic dogs were half famished and worn out. Finding the kite with other explorers waiting for them there, the Peary Party sailed down to the United States, meeting mountain-like icebergs and shooting walruses and polar bears by the way. Lieutenant Peary at once went to work preparing for a second attempt at the discovery of the north pole. Mrs. Peary again accompanied her husband into the arctic regions and the 12th of September, 1893, the first white baby ever seen in that far northern country was born. This was the Peary's little blue-eyed daughter, bundled deep in soft warm arctic furs and wrapped in the stars and stripes. During the first half year of her life, Marie's no-baby Peary, as they named her, never saw the sunlight. Before the sun began to show above the southern horizon again, Papa Peary started off on another 1,200-mile ice journey. This time he took with him eight men, 12 sledges, and 92 Eskimo dogs, but some of the dogs were strangers to the rest and those from different places fought one another. As it is hard enough to separate only two fighting dogs, it was impossible to stop the wholesale dogfight that went on continually and kept the party from going forward. The cold became even more intense. The temperature went down to 60 degrees below zero, conditions were so much worse than on the previous trip that Peary decided to cash all the provisions and other things they did not need to preserve life and return to the place where he had left his wife and baby. The feet of the men, even of the Eskimos of the party, were badly frozen and when they returned to their base of supplies, out of the 92 dogs there were only 26 left. But the heroic explorer would not give up. He and his little family stayed north of the Arctic Circle while he made discoveries and proved the truth of the statements of those who had been there before him. Little Snow Baby also made her observations. She saw Eskimo children living in their small round hives of ice and hearing them teasing their mothers for whale blubber and other kinds of grease, just as the children at home plead for candy or ice cream. An Eskimo child likes a tallow candle much better than a stick of candy and will chew the cotton candlewick until there's no more grease left in it. Lieutenant Peary made eight trips to the Arctic regions, sometimes he would advance farther north than any explorer before him. Then when he was almost within reach of the pole, everything would fail and he would have to retreat and go back thousands of miles to the United States and begin to raise a fortune for the next attempt. At one time his ship, on the way to the north, would be caught in the ice and crushed like an eggshell. On another occasion the boat would be frozen up in miles and miles of ice so that he and his men would have to wait for spring to come and thaw it out of the clutches of the terrible white giant Jack Frost. It needed the patience of Job to endure and overcome the trials which came thick and fast upon him. One summer the wealthy friend died who had promised him all the money he needed to reach the pole. But a newspaper owner in London, England offered his yacht, the windward, for the next polar trip. This time the great Arctic explorer froze both his feet and had to have eight toes cut off. The cold was awful, from 51 to 63 degrees below zero. After many weeks of acute suffering he was removed to a less severe climate. In 1902 for the seventh time, Peary came within a few degrees of the pole and finding that he could not go farther was forced to return to the United States. In the first gloom of this defeat he wrote, The game is off, my dream of 16 years is ended. I have made the best fight I knew. I believe it has been a good one, but I cannot do the impossible. But this hopeless state of mind did not last long. Peary spent six more years in preparing for one last desperate attempt. On the 6th of July 1908 he left New York City for his eighth voyage to the Arctic on his latest ship, the Roosevelt, determined to reach the pole or die in the attempt. This time when he came within a few degrees of his goal he decided to leave all behind but the faithful Matthew and one Eskimo while he made the last dash. When he came within a few miles of the spot he had sought for nearly 20 years he was prostrated by overwork and excitement. After a short rest he went on and stood on the 6th of April 1909 in the place called the North Pole. There was nothing to see, not a living thing but themselves and their dogs, but he was now on the top of the world. There was no north, no east, no west, only south. The only north he could see was up in the cold gray sky. Directly overhead was the North Star toward which the pole points. Peary stayed in that desolate neighborhood thirty hours taking observations and planting five United States flags to show to future comers that America had been first to discover and take possession of the North Pole. One flag he mounted on a pole which he set in the top of a hummock of ice as if the North Pole were a flag pole standing up out of the surface of the earth. This was called nailing the American flag to the North Pole. Then he wrote this postal card to mail to his wife. 19 North Latitude April 7th 1909 My dear Joe, I have won out at last, have been here a day, I start for home and you in an hour, love to the kidsies, Bert. End of Chapter 25 Chapter 26 of Hero Tales From History This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Holland. Hero Tales From History by Smith Burnham. Chapter 26 John Smith, the Captain of Many Adventures Stories of the strange adventures of Columbus, John Cabot, and other explorers made a restless lad of little motherless John Smith of Willoughby, England. When he was 14, he had made ready to run away from home, but then his father died and left him the owner of an estate in the charge of guardians. Those mean men cared more for the property than for the boy who was to have it when he was old enough. So they gave him only a little pocket money and hired him out by law as a apprentice to a tradesman who treated the well-to-do lad as if he were a slave. In less than a year, young John Smith ran away in good earnest, leaving master, guardians, and property behind. He had attended two free schools and had gained what would be equal to a common school education in these days. He went right to Paris because France and Spain were at war just then, but peace was declared almost as soon as he was able to enlist. After several hard experiences, young Smith engaged in the service of the Duke of a little kingdom which was fighting the Turks. In one of his books, John Smith describes his adventures in these desperate battles. He tells of killing three Turks single-handed in mortal combat and of how his princely master designed for him a coat of arms having in it three Turks' heads. But ill fortune soon befell young Captain John Smith. In a battle with the Turks, he was wounded and left for dead and became the property of a Turkish chief who, as Smith goes on to tell, sent him for width to Constantinople to his fair mistress for a slave. By 2020 chained by the necks, they marched in file to this great city where they were delivered to their several masters. The princess to whom Captain John Smith was sent was too young to own any kind of property. Afraid her mother would sell her white slave before she was of age, she sent him to her brother, a distant chief, asking him to be kind to her prize. But the brother treated his sister slave so brutally that Smith killed him and escaped in his master's clothes to Russia. Here he found people who were unfriendly enough to the Turks to file off the iron collar which he still wore. On his way back to England, Smith found himself on the ship of a friendly French pirate, where he had to fight for his life against two Spanish men of war. The French ship succeeded in escaping from the Spaniards into a port on the northern coast of Africa. From here, Smith took ship for London and entered the service of the Virginia Company, whose business it was to carry on the settling of America, begun by Sir Walter Raleigh. The Virginia Company secured a charter from King James and in December 1606 sent more than a hundred men to America. It was a strange company for such an enterprise. There were four carpenters, one blacksmith, one bricklayer, one mason, one tailor, one sailor, one drummer, two surgeons, two boys, or men's servants, and only 12 laborers, but there were 48 gentlemen of whom some were ne'er-do-wells and other downright criminals who could not work because they did not know how to do anything useful. Even before they reached Virginia, quarrels broke out among members of the party and Captain John Smith was falsely accused of conspiracy and condemned to be hanged. He escaped, however, and afterward forgave the conspirators. The king had sent out the colony with sealed orders, which were not to be opened until they reached Virginia. When the orders were opened, John Smith was found to be among the seven men appointed as counsel for the colony, but the men highest in control were unfit to command such an enterprise. They spent 17 days searching for a good site for a settlement. The place which they finally chose was a long distance from the coast, was hard for a sailing vessel to reach, and lay in an unhealthy place between the shallow river and a bad swamp. The river was named the James and the settlement Jamestown, both in honor of the king. As for Captain John Smith, the others of the party were jealous of him. They thought he knew too much because he saw how little they knew. Most of the party expected to get rich quick, and they did not care how they did it so long as it was at the expense of someone else. So instead of fishing for oysters, planting gardens, and clearing farms, they went hunting for gold and making trouble with the Indians. They did discover something they thought was gold, but know it all Smith told them the yellow stuff was only fool's gold, which is the common name for iron pyrites. Instead of following Smith's advice and working all together to prepare for the future, they became so spiteful that they would have imprisoned him if he had not been too shrewd for them. The Indians grew more and more hostile. The condition of the settlers was fast becoming hopeless. Smith himself wrote of their condition, what toil we had with so small a power, 12 laborers out of more than 100 men, to guard our workmen a days, watch all night, resist our enemies, and affect our business, to relay the ships, cut down trees, and prepare the ground to plant our corn. The settlers' provisions were disappearing faster than they expected. One of them wrote at this time of the sad set of affairs, our drink was water, our lodgings, castles in the air. The foolish president of the council was soon displaced. The man elected in his stead was said to be of weak judgment in dangers and less industry in peace, but he had the sense to leave the management of affairs to John Smith. That capable captain now took hold with the firm hand. He fought the Indians till they gained a wholesome respect for him and the English. Then he played on their curiosity and superstition, so as to get them to bring Indian corn, venison, and wild turkeys to feed the white men. He set the idlers to work at chopping down trees and the like. When he had things going right in Jamestown, the tireless captain went out exploring the wilderness. Captured by a hostile tribe of Indians, he showed them his compass and told them a story which made them afraid to kill him. So they took him as a great prize to the Pal Hutton or head chief of all the tribes of that part of the country. The Pal Hutton and his chiefs knew too well that this was the mighty chief who had thus far kept the white men out of their clutches. They held a solemn pow wow and condemned the troublesome captain to death. They laid his head on a stone and a chief was lifting his war club to dash out the prisoner's brains. When Pocahontas, the Pal Hutton's beautiful daughter, rushed out and threw herself between the death club and Smith's head. She pleaded so earnestly, threatening to kill herself if Smith was harmed, that her father gave orders to stop the execution and to keep the white man prisoner. With the help of the Indian girl, he soon made his escape. Pocahontas proved a true friend to the English. More than once, she warned Captain Smith of the deep-legged plans of the Virginia tribes to murder all the white settlers at a stroke. She became a convert to Christianity, was christened Rebecca, and was confirmed in the Church of England. Then a young settler, John Rolf, married her and took her to England, where she was received in the homes of lords and ladies, and entertained by the Queen as Lady Rebecca and the Princess Pocahontas. Some of the first families of Virginia proudly proved that this beautiful and devoted Indian girl was one of their ancestors. Not long after his escape from the Indians, John Smith was seriously injured by the explosion of some gunpowder and was compelled to return to England for treatment. His work in Virginia was done, but the restless soul of the old Captain could not let him be content to remain at ease in England. He made other voyages of exploration along the coast to the north of the Dutch island of Manhattan. From his careful observations he drew a good map of that northern country and gave it the name New England. So besides starting the Great Southern Colony of North America, he prepared the way for the pilgrims to settle at Plymouth. End of Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Hero Tales from History This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rita Butros. Hero Tales from History by Smith Burnham Chapter 27 Champlain The Father of New France In Samuel de Champlain's earlier life he was both a soldier and a sailor of France. He was a great adventurer who came to visit the new country in America claimed for France by Jacques Cartier about 75 years before. He was a personal friend of Henry of Navarre who became Henry IV King of France. Champlain was a great lover of King and country. He said to the high officials at court Spain has her new Spain and England her New England why should not we have our new France in America? The King and the rich nobles thought it was a good idea and one leading man at the French court sent Champlain to carry out his own project. The brave explorer started a settlement on the coast near the wide mouth of the Saint Lawrence but on account of the wars France was engaged in this wealthy Frenchman found that he could no longer spare money to carry on the enterprise and Champlain had to give up the settlement he had so nicely started and go back to France. But Samuel de Champlain was a plucky soul whom nothing could frighten or discourage. He had a romantic nature to which the wildlife in America appealed. It was not long before he was back in the New World sailing up the Saint Lawrence. There he saw a high steep cliff at a narrow point in the wide river and decided that it would be a good place to build a fort and make a settlement. He started both at once placing the fort on the head of the cliff and building several houses at its foot. Champlain who was quite an artist made a drawing of this small group of houses and named the little settlement Québec. On account of its high cliff above a narrow place in the river Québec is called the Gibraltar of America. Gibraltar is the name of a high rock on the coast of Spain guarding the entrance to the Mediterranean. In this narrow settlement Champlain planted a garden with as many roses and other flowers as he could. He had a kind heart and a pleasant face and soon became as great a friend to the Indians as William Penn in Philadelphia. Champlain encouraged his French friends to treat the men of the forest as their brothers. As he was a devout Catholic he did everything he could to make the savages Christians sending good men to live among them and teach the natives how to live right. He not only tried to help pious men to convert the Indians but he went himself to trade and hunt with the neighboring tribes and make them his friends. More than this he sent young Frenchmen to live among the different tribes and learn the language and the ways of the Indians. These hardy young heroes were called woodrunners and became the first white guides and scouts in the wilds of America. It was necessary for Champlain to make several voyages home to old France. On one of these visits the father of New France now 40 years of age married Helene the young daughter of a wealthy citizen of Paris but instead of taking her to share his rough life in the wilds of the St. Lawrence he sent her back to school to fit herself better to aid him in teaching the Indians when she was old enough to come with him to the New World. When he went back to Quebec he went farther up the St. Lawrence to an island which Cartier had called Mount Royal and started another little settlement which he named Montreal. Here he made everything as beautiful as he could planting roses and other flowers as he had done at Quebec. The island in the river opposite this new settlement he named Saint Helene for the child wife he had left behind in old France. This island now known by the English name Saint Helene's is a park and pleasure ground for the people of Montreal. The white governor found before long that the Indians around Quebec were not satisfied with a friendship which showed itself in teaching them to be Christians and in trading beads for the furs the savages had gathered by shooting and trapping in the forest. It seemed strange that tall stern red men should be so childish as to care much for beads but it must be remembered that the Indians used beads of special colors in weaving bands and strings of wampum which they used for money. Their own beads were very hard to make from shells so they were as eager for a glass beads of certain colors as white men are for the smallest grains of gold. The Indians were less trouble to Champlain and his friends than the English and other Frenchmen too who tried to turn the Indians against him and his settlers. Other ships than those of Champlain's company landed every now and then at points along the Saint Lawrence to trade with the Indians. These white men would try to make the savages unfriendly to Champlain so that they would trade only with the newcomers. Somewhat as a business house today tries to take customers away from other dealers. The simple men of the forest could not understand these tricks of trade of the wily white men. Champlain in one of the stories of his adventures relates that the Indians came to tell him about some fur traders from other parts of France. They tell us that they would come and fight for us against our enemies if we liked. What do you think of it? Are they telling the truth? No, they are not, said Governor Champlain earnestly. I know well enough what they want. They tell you this only to get your trade. The white governor is right, shouted the Indians. Those men are women. They only want to make war on our beavers. By this they meant that the other Frenchmen were willing to promise anything. In order to get all the beaver and other fur skins the Indians might have to sell. As the Indian squaws were not allowed to go into battle the savages showed their contempt for white men by calling them women. Champlain knew that the Indians would not accept him as a real friend unless he would fight for them against their enemies, the cruel and powerful Iroquois who lived south of the St. Lawrence. The tribes of the Iroquois were the most daring and warlike of the red men and were feared by all their neighbors. The Indians looked upon the white governor and his men as workers of miracles with their fire sticks as they called the rude guns which the French called arquebuses. In one of his accounts Champlain describes the first of a number of battles he helped the Indians to fight against the Iroquois. After describing how his red friends met the enemy at night and agreed to fight next morning he continued, meanwhile the whole night was spent in dancing and singing on both sides with many insults and other taunts such as how little courage we had, how great their power against our arms and when day broke we would find this out to our ruin. Our Indians did not fail in talking back telling them they would witness the effect of arms they had never seen before. After each side had sung and danced and threatened enough day broke my white companions and I were always concealed for fear the enemy would see us preparing our arms the best we could being separated each in one of the canoes belonging to the St. Lawrence savages. After being equipped with a light armor we took each an arquebus and went ashore. I saw the enemy leave their barricade. They were about 200 men of strong and robust appearance who were coming slowly toward us with a gravity and assurance which greatly pleased me led on by three chiefs. Hours were marching in similar order and told me that those who wore three tall feathers were the chiefs and that I must do all I could to kill them. The moment we landed our Indians began calling me with a loud voice and making way placing me marching at their head about 20 paces in advance until I was within 30 paces of the enemy. The moment they the Iroquois saw me they halted gazing at me and eye at them. When I saw them preparing to shoot at us I raised my arquebus and aiming directly at one of the three chiefs two of them fell to the ground by this shot and one of their companions received a wound of which he died afterwards. I had put four balls in my arquebus. Our Indians on witnessing a shot so favourable for them set up such tremendous shouts that thunder could not have been heard and yet there was no lack of arrows on either side. The Iroquois were greatly astonished seeing two men killed at once though they were protected by arrow-proof armour woven of cotton thread and wood this frightened them very much. While I was reloading one of my white men in the bush fired a shot which so astonished them and knew that they lost courage took to flight and abandoned the field and their fort hiding in the depths of the forest where I followed them and killed some others. Our savages also killed several of them and took 10 or 12 prisoners. The rest carried off the wounded. 15 or 16 of ours were wounded by arrows. They were promptly cured. After gaining the victory they amused themselves plundering Indian corn and meal from the enemy also the arms which the Iroquois had thrown away in order to run faster. After feasting, dancing and singing we returned three hours later with the prisoners. I named the place where this battle was fought Lake Champlain. The white governor went on to tell about the devilish delight his friends the Saint Lawrence Indians took in torturing their Iroquois prisoners. The braves and even the squas would try to think of something to do that would make the dying Indian sufferings still more terrible. If the victim cried out or uttered the least sound the torturing Indians would laugh and dance about for joy. Champlain begged his friends to stop this fiendish sport but they could not understand why. The Iroquois would have tortured them just as wickedly if they had won. So the white governor shot several of the suffering victims to put them out of their agonies. After that when the Saint Lawrence Indians gained a victory Champlain would demand as many prisoners as he could for his share. These he would not allow to be tortured and in time would contrive to let them escape. By being friends with the neighboring tribes in war Champlain made bitter enemies of the Iroquois who lived in New York so that in the later years between France and England those powerful tribes fought with the English against the French and in the end helped to place new France in the hands of the British. Champlain's sympathetic and romantic nature made him a welcome visitor whether in the wigwams of the savages or in the palaces of the kings and noblemen of France. He did all he could to help the people of old France and new to understand one another. He sent a young Frenchman up into the country some distance north of Montreal to live among the savages. After this youth had spent the winter in the north he came back to the Saint Lawrence with glowing stories about the finding of a salt sea much farther north. He was taken to France and became the lion of the day there for explorers from all lands were still looking for a northwest passage across America to the South Sea and China. Just about this time Henry Hudson had discovered the Hudson River and was lost in Hudson Bay in his search for this passage but this was not yet known in Europe. So Champlain with his strong desire to explore and to prove a great benefit to mankind arranged to command an expedition into the far northern wilds and make his young friends boasted discovery of actual use to old and new France. With the young explorer and an Indian guide the governor and a company of men reached the lake and island belonging to the tribe with which the young Frenchmen had stayed. In talking with those Indians about the great discovery Champlain spoke with pride of his young friends energy and success. They laughed and told him he had been fooled for that young man had never gone farther north than the island on which they were standing. This was a bitter experience for the good white governor. The Indians who had told him before that there was no salt sea anywhere near that region taunted Champlain with now who were your friends don't you see that he wanted to cause your death? Give him to us and we promise you he shall never lie again. Champlain knew too well that with the savages hatred of a liar and their cruel modes of punishment they would have tortured that young Frenchmen to death. Of course the kindhearted governor could not permit this but he did make the fellows stand before all the Frenchmen at Montreal and confessed that he had been guilty of lying and committing a great fraud. After that as Champlain himself expressed it we left him to the mercy of God. At last Cyr de Champlain brought his young wife to Canada. Her brother who had been a settler on the St. Lawrence for years exclaimed when he met her you are a brave girl to come here. The Indians always glad to welcome the great white chief were now doubly glad to see his young squaw. They greatly admired the little white witch as they called her and would have worshipped her if she had let them. She wore a small mirror the fashion in Paris then as a sort of charm. When she allowed the Indians to see their painted faces in this they said she carries each one of us in her heart. She used her good influence over her dusky admirers to persuade them to be baptized. Of a very devout spirit Madame de Champlain returned to France after a short stay in the western wilds and entered a convent in Paris. Once more England and France were at war and King Charles I looked with jealous eyes upon the fair islands and settlements of the St. Lawrence. English warships appeared before Quebec claimed possession and threatened to take that place. The white governor wrote back with French courtesy to the impudent enemy. We will await you from hour to hour and shall endeavor if possible to dispute the claim which you have made over these places upon which I remain sir your affectionate servant. The English commander did not dare dispute the claim then but he came again with a powerful force and the white governor was forced to yield and go back to France. But at the end of the war England returned Canada to France and the father of New France came again to Quebec his capital among the rejoicings of all the people both French and Indians and even of our friends our enemies the English. Here he lived like another French knight without fear and without reproach until he received the call of the king of kings in the far country on Christmas day 1635. End of Chapter 27 Chapter 28 of Hero Tales from History This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Elizabeth Holland Hero Tales from History by Smith Burnham Chapter 28 Miles Standish The Brave Little Captain of Plymouth Little is known of the life of Miles Standish before he sailed from Holland among the 102 passengers of the Mayflower on its way across the stormy ocean to the wilderness of America The brave men and women who had been driven out of England on account of their religion by foolish King James had made their escape to Holland. Although the Dutch who lived in that country were very kind to them the English people decided to go to America where they could live and worship as they wished and teach their children their own language and ways of living for though their king was silly and mean they still loved dear old England. The Mayflower was a poor clumsy leaky craft about the size of a coast-wise scooter which would not be allowed to risk a voyage across the ocean today. The Pilgrims, as the Mayflower passengers were called, did not know just where to land. The part of America to which they had chosen to go was called Virginia but that was the name of the country all along the eastern coast from the south nearly to New York Harbor which had been claimed by the Dutch only a few years before. The Pilgrims had a vague idea of landing about halfway between New York and Jamestown which had been settled some years before by John Smith and a company of men from England but storm after storm drove the Mayflower farther and farther northward till the Pilgrims found themselves just within the long protecting arm of land called Cape Cod they were very tired of being huddled together and pitched about in the little ship many of them were ill from the close quarters as well as from terrible sea sickness during the long voyage they had nothing but moldy bread and saltboard to eat for there were no canned meats vegetables and fruits in the fall of 1620 when the Pilgrims made their long voyage across the sea the first thing they did was to go ashore near the end of Cape Cod where the Pilgrim mothers did their much needed washing the Cape was a long low sandy arm of land extending far out to sea the ship's carpenter worked to finish the shallop or small sailboat which he had started to build during the voyage it was intended for the purpose of sailing in shallow water to find a good place to live where there were trees for shelter and springs of water and if possible a good safe harbor in which the Mayflower and all coming ships might stay at anchor the Pilgrims held a meeting in the cabin of the Mayflower and signed a paper which they called the Compact by which they agreed to live and be governed they elected John Carver the oldest man in the company Governor although they are called the Pilgrim Fathers they were nearly all young or middle-aged men Elder Brewster the minister was about 40 years old and Miles Standish was 36 William Bradford who wrote the story of the settlement in his diary and John Alden the Cooper were still younger the Pilgrims chose 20 of their number to go along the shore of Cape Cod toward the mainland to find a place to build their cabins and spend the winter for it was late in November and very cold while waiting for the shallot to be finished this Pilgrim Lookout Committee led by Miles Standish started out of foot on their great search not knowing what might happen to them Captain John Smith had explored that part of the country after he lived two years at Jamestown, Virginia he had made a map of all that region which he named New England the men went ashore from the Mayflower and had walked along the Cape a mile or more when they saw a party of Indians with a dog coming toward them when the red men saw the white strangers they hid in the bushes and whistled to their dog which followed them out of sight Miles Standish and his men tried to catch up with the Indians and speak with them but they were afraid of the strangers who wore helmets and armor over their bodies and thighs and carried fire sticks as the Indians called the guns the Pilgrims followed the natives about 10 miles without seeing them again then they built a hasty camp of logs and brush in which 18 men slept while three stood on guard outside nothing happened that night to disturb them next day they saw wild ducks and deer and discovered a kettle and some fresh mounds of earth which William Bradford wrote in his diary we digged up and found a fine great new basket full of very fair corn of this year with some six and 30 goodly ears of corn some yellow and some red and other mixed with blue the basket was round and narrow at the top it held about three or four bushels which was as much as two of us could lift up from the ground and was very handsomely and cunningly made but whilst we were busy about all these things we were in suspense what to do with it and at length after much talk we concluded to take as much corn as we could carry away with us and when our shallot came if we could find any of the people we would satisfy, pay them for their corn the rest we buried again for we were so laden with armor that we could carry no more as they walked slowly on noting all the strange things they met they found a deer trap one of their number wrote down afterward just what happened at this point as we wandered we came to a tree where young sapling was bowed bent down over a bow and some acorns strode underneath Stephen Hopkins said it had been to catch some deer so as we were looking at it William Bradford being in the rear when he came and went about it gave a sudden jerk up and he was caught by the leg it, the deer trap, was a pretty device made with a rope of their own making and having a noose as well made as any rope maker in England can make even though solemn pilgrims had to laugh to see brother Bradford with one foot up in the air and his head on the ground the men returned to the ship and reported what they had seen when the shallot was completed they sailed away in that and went farther on little voyages of discovery but Cape Cod is a long peninsula and they went back and forth several times between the land and the ship which remained at anchor near the end of the Cape one time they came back from their site hunting and found that another pilgrim had been born on the Mayflower this baby William White was its father was the first white child born in this part of America they named the baby Peregrinus the Latin word for pilgrim so he was called Peregrine White there was a mischievous small boy in the Mayflower that Billington boy the pilgrims called him who found some gunpowder and proceeded to make trails of it on the deck then touched a live coal to it and made it flash up so young Francis Billington made the first fireworks in New England he also shot off a musket there were two kinds of musket one called the match lock lighted by punk or slow match there were no friction matches for 200 years after that and the other kind called the snap pants or flintlock while playing with fire that Billington boy flashed a line of powder which ran back to the kegs of gunpowder and came very near blowing up the Mayflower and all on board another time the home hunters had a hard day and being tired and hungry made their camp and went to rest after placing men on guard Radford wrote in his journal about midnight we heard a great and hideous cry and our sentinels called arm arm so we bestured ourselves and shot off a couple of muskets and the noise ceased we concluded that it was a company of wolves or other wild beasts for one told us he had heard such a noise in Newfoundland about five in the morning we began to be stirring and two or three men who doubted whether their pieces would go off or no made trial of them and shot them off but thought nothing at all after prayer we prepared ourselves for breakfast and for a journey and it being now twilight in the morning it was thought meat best to carry the things down to the shallop a non all of a sudden we heard a great and strange cry which we knew to be the same voices though they varied their notes one of the company came running in and cried they are men Indians Indians and with all their arrows came flying amongst us our men ran with all speed to recover their arms as by the good providence of God they did in the meantime Captain Miles Standish having a snap hands ready made a shot and after him another after they too had shot other two of us were ready but he wished us not to shoot till we could take aim for we knew not what need we should have and there were four only of us which had their arms there ready our care was no less for the shallop but we hoped all the rest would defend it we called unto them to know how it was with them and they answered well well everyone and be of good courage we heard three of their pieces go off and the rest called for a firebrand to light their punk matches for their matchlock muskets one took a log of the fire on his shoulder and went and carried it unto them the cry of our enemies was dreadful especially when our men ran out to recover their arms their note was after this manner woach woach ha ha hatch woach this hideous and great cry was the first Indian war hoop the pilgrims ever heard it must have curdled the blood of those quaint old Puritans who had never heard a modern college yell the white men's match locks and snap hands has seemed to have scared the Indians even more than their war hoop and arrows tipped with brass butchord and eagle's claws frightened the white men so the red men ran away and lived to fight another day the Indians who first fought with the pilgrims proved to be the Nossits an unfriendly tribe living on Cape Cod the white men named this place the first encounter the lookout committee went on after this until they reached the mainland and soon found the site they had been searching for so long Bradford's diary contains the record on the Sabbath day we rested and on Monday we sounded the harbor and found it a very good harbor for shipping we marched also into the land and found diverse cornfields and little running brooks a place very good for situation so we returned to our ship Mayflower again with good news to the rest of our people which did much comfort their hearts though Bradford did not then think it worth mentioning there was a big boulder in the edge of the harbor upon which these men sprang out of the shallop this happened on the 21st of December 1620 and is known as the landing of the pilgrims on Plymouth Rock December 21st is celebrated now more than 300 years after that event as forefathers day this place was marked Plymouth on Captain John Smith's map of New England and the pilgrims who had sailed from Plymouth, England were glad to give their new found settlement that name four days after this landing the Mayflower sailed from the end of Cape Cod and came to anchor in Plymouth Harbor the first thing the pilgrims did was to build a common house of logs to be used later as a sort of town hall then they erected a square cabin on top of the hill for both church and fort on its flat roof they mounted three brass cannon Christmas Day came while they were building their first cabin but they worked all that day for they were too strict even to celebrate Christmas while they were building their village of log cabins with thatched roofs some of them stayed in their quarters on the Mayflower it seemed a long time before they saw Indians again but one day while the grave and reverend pilgrims were holding a council in their common house a tall red man came stalking up to their door saying welcome Yankees welcome Yankees Yankees was the nearest the Indian could pronounce Englishmen from this the people of New England are still called Yankees this Indian's name was Samoset he had learned a little English from some fishermen farther north on the New England coast he came again to Plymouth bringing another red man named Squanto who years before had been carried away with other savages by an English captain and sold into slavery Squanto had been taken to London and learned to speak English he was glad to stay with the pilgrims and talk for them to the tribes around Plymouth for while he was away a slave in foreign lands his own people had been taken with a dreadful disease called a plague and when he came back they had all died and poor Squanto was left alone in the world the pilgrims elected Miles Standish who was the only soldier in the company their captain but about the first work Captain Standish had to do was to take care of the sick and he did so according to the poet Longfellow with a hand as gentle as women's in the spring there were only 51 of the pilgrims just one half the number that had landed on Plymouth Rock among the first to die was Rose Standish the captain's beautiful wife although they were not attacked that winter they knew the Indians were lurking about so the pilgrims did not make mounds of the graves in their poor little burial ground on the hill for fear the savages would see how few white men were left and attacked them while they were all so ill at one time only two men were well enough to nurse all the rest and bury them as fast as they died in April the men were well enough to plant corn and do other work it was so hot that Governor Carver the oldest of all the pilgrims was prostrated by the heat and died William Bradford was elected governor in his place when the pilgrims had erected cabins enough to house all of who were left of them they built a stockade or wall of upright logs around the settlement in April 1621 the Mayflower started back to England much as they had suffered through the long dreary winter none of the pilgrims was to return home on their little ship that plucky band of men and women had come to America to stay they marched to their church fort on the hill every Sunday led by their governor minister and captain the men carried their muskets to be ready to defend themselves if the Indians tried to surprise them while at their worship the pilgrims believed in watching and fighting as well as praying after a long time Massasoit the great Indian chief came with a company of his braves to see the pilgrims and the white men and the red made a treaty of peace and friendship afterwards the chief of a more distant tribe sent an Indian runner to Plymouth with a bundle of arrows tied together with a rattlesnake skin captain Standish promptly filled the snakeskin with powder and bullets and sent it back this frightened the Indians for they thought the white medicine man had the power to send a plague among them which would make them all sick and and die after a time the people of Plymouth were comfortable and at peace with their Indian neighbors then a lad known as that Billington boy disobeyed the rules by going outside the limits and was lost the settlers were alarmed and captain Standish took a small company of men and made a search for the lad they found him with the unfriendly nosets the Indians they had fought with at the first encounter the Indians around Plymouth laughed at the little red-headed white captain because he was so small he was so quick-tempered that they named him little pot that soon boils over once when a tall wiry Indian north of Plymouth insulted him the fiery little captain had all he could do to control himself Standish and three other white men had gone up to that place for the purpose of punishing the Indians who were threatening the whole colony with death watching his chance the white captain sprang upon the big Indian chief who had sneered at him snatched the savage's own knife and killed him with a single stab the other white men dispatched their Indians the account of this brave deed of the captain of Plymouth was reported among the Indians far and near and the pilgrims had long years of peace because the red men had gained a wholesome respect for Miles Standish whose name they now changed to sword of the white man and of chapter 28 chapter 29 hero tales from history this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rita Butros hero tales from history by Smith Burnham 1866 to 1947 chapter 29 John Winthrop a Puritan maker of Massachusetts John Winthrop cannot be called a boy's hero yet he was a hero and his life was strange and interesting he was a son of a good Puritan family in England when a young man he met Oliver Cromwell who became Lord Protector of England he was acquainted with John Milton the blind Puritan poet who wrote Paradise Lost one of the greatest poems in the English language John Winthrop had also to transact certain business with Cromwell's cousin John Hampton the great English patriot who opposed King Charles when he sought to impose taxation upon the people without their consent young Winthrop was married the first time when he was 17 and his son Henry was born when the young father was 18 in 1629 the father decided to go to America where he could worship God as he thought best he and 400 men and women set sail from England in a fleet of small ships intending to join the settlement at Salem started a year before one of these ships was the Mayflower in which the pilgrims of Plymouth had sailed nine years before on their second morning out of England they spied eight ships coming behind them the captain of the Arabella the ship on which Winthrop sailed as he wrote in the logbook or journal of the voyage caused the gun room and gun deck to be cleared after noon we still saw those eight ships to stand towards us having more wind than we they came up a pace we all prepared to fight with them and took down some cabins which were in the way of our ordinance cannon and out of every ship were thrown such bed matters as were subject to take fire we drew forth our men and armed them with muskets and other weapons and instruments for fireworks to try it our captain shot a ball of wild fire fastened to an arrow out of a crossbow which burnt in the water a good time the women and children were removed into the lower deck that they might be out of danger all things being thus fitted we went to prayer upon the upper deck it was good to see how cheerful all the company appeared not a woman or child showed fear it was now about one of the clock and the fleet seemed to be within a league of us therefore our captain because he would show he was not afraid of them and that he might see what was to be done before night should overtake us talked about and stood to meet them and when they came near we perceived them to be our friends so every ship as they met saluted each other and the musketeers discharged their small shot and so God be praised our fear and danger was turned into mirth and friendly entertainment our danger being thus over we aspired two boats fishing in the channel so every one of our four ships manned out a skiff and we bought of them great store of excellent fresh fish of diverse sorts the voyagers were 76 days nearly 11 weeks crossing the Atlantic they had passed through storms but when early in June they sighted America Winthrop wrote in his journal we had now fair sunshine weather and so pleasant a sweet air as did much refresh us and there came a smell offshore like the smell of a garden there came a wild pigeon into our ship and another small land bird in four days the Arabella was anchored in Salem Harbor the poor little settlement welcomed some of the newcomers with a good supper of venison pasty in the meantime most of our people went on shore upon land of Cape Ann which lay very near us and gathered store of fine strawberries Salem where we landed pleased us not wrote one of the men on board to a countess in England Winthrop who had been elected governor of the colony they were to found looked about for a better place to settle and decided on a site they called Charles Town on the Charles River although they had left England because of their obstinate and foolish king Charles I they named rivers and towns for him and one of their earliest churches was called King's Chapel when no one was allowed to think for himself or even to wear such clothes as he saw fit it would have been regarded as almost a crime to speak a word against the king no matter how much he deserved a bad name when Governor Winthrop came back from Charles Town to Salem he wrote in his journal we went to Massachusetts to find out a place for our sitting down by Massachusetts he meant only that part of the country along Boston Harbor about 15 miles south of Salem just after his return his eldest son Henry who had come over on another ship arrived at Salem that very day the young man started with several of the ship's officers to visit some Indian wigwams in his journal the father describes what happened they saw on the other side of the river a small canoe he would have had one of the company swim over and fetch it rather than walk several miles on foot it being very hot weather but none of the party could swim but himself and so he plunged in and as he was swimming over was taken with a cramp a few rods from shore and drowned my son Henry my son Henry wrote the bereaved governor to his wife in England ah poor child yet it grieves me much more for my dear daughter yet for all these things I praise my God I am not discouraged Henry the son of John Winthrop's first wife had been married in England he had come without his bride to the western wilds to build a little home before sending for her heart soar but not dismayed governor Winthrop took his followers and tried to make the settlement at Charlestown now part of the great city of Boston but their sufferings were not over as at Jamestown on the James River in Virginia about 25 years before this the settlers were ill with malaria and some of them died then a strange old hermit who had lived about 20 years alone on a tree-topped hill on the other side of the river came to see the new governor and invited him to come over the river and build his town on the hill which had been named Three-Mount Trimountain or Tramont so Winthrop and his people moved once more and named the new place for the city of Boston in England the old hermit proved to be William Blackstone a minister from Old England on the Three-Mounts he tilled a small farm which extended down into the now historic Boston Commons he had brought from England his library and spent his time reading farming and raising apples he had left England because he would not worship according to the legal forms there but he did not like the way the Puritans wished him to worship either so he moved away from Boston as soon as he could dispose of his house and other real estate Blackstone also had been kind to the Indians his influence didn't much toward keeping the Red Tribes friendly with the white settlers of Boston on the highest of the Three-Mounts was placed a sort of lighthouse or beacon which sailors could see far down the harbor this gave the name of Beacon Hill to that part of Boston on this hill the State House has since been erected this building has a great dome covered with gold leaf which glistens in the sun and can be seen for many miles around all roads lead to the dome of the State House in Boston as the spokes of a wheel come together in the hub because of this fact a humorous writer gave Boston the title of the hub of the universe though the Indians gave the early settlers very little trouble the wolves which howled around the settlement were alarming and sometimes dangerous to the little children sometimes a bear would come ambling into Boston town the people's cows were pastured on the common this made some people who wished to make fun of Boston claim that the narrow crooked streets of that city were laid out by the cows as they wandered down from the common to drink at a certain spring sometimes the town suffered from disease and famine one day when Governor Winthrop had divided his last cup full of cornmeal with a starving beggar he appointed a day of fasting and prayer to God for food on the very day set for this fast a ship arrived from England with provisions and the people had a feast instead another time when the people did not have enough to eat an Indian chief named Chikatabat came and presented the governor with a great quantity of corn as with the Indians so with the white settlers at first it was either feast or famine the people of Boston were kinder to the Indians than to the white men who failed to agree with them in religion they banished the Baptists and hanged the Quakers besides Roger Williams they drove out a good woman named Anne Hutchinson because she argued too well against some of their beliefs this gifted woman and her family were murdered and scalped by Indians in the log cabin in which they lived after they were banished from Boston Governor Winthrop finally sent for his wife and his other children one of his sons became governor of Connecticut John Winthrop was 12 times elected governor of Massachusetts more than once he was chosen deputy governor he was good to the poor and unfortunate in this he was far in advance of his time it was said that he kept his private purse open for the public once when he found that a man was stealing wood from his pile he laughed and said he would stop that he did so by inviting the man to come in the daytime and help himself to all the wood he needed but the man never came again Cotton Mather one of the greatest of Boston preachers said of Governor Winthrop that he was the terror of the wicked and delight of the sober the envy of the many but the hope of those who had any hopeful design in hand for the common good of the nation End of Chapter 29 Chapter 30 of Hero Tales from History This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by like many waters Hero Tales from History by Smith Burnham Roger Williams a minister who lived the golden rule When the Pilgrim Fathers left Europe in the clumsy little ship the Mayflower they came to America to have freedom to think and act as they believed right in matters of religion Many men in England who wished to have their own religious beliefs were called Puritans because they wished to purify the Church of England from the things which they thought were wrong King James of England had announced that they must all worship in the ways of the Church of England or he would harry them out of the land Puritans and other people who would not conform to the service of the Church of England were called nonconformists The group of nonconformists who went away from their own country in 1620 to come as strangers to America were called the Pilgrims They came to America in the Mayflower and landed on a big boulder in the edge of the harbor at a place they named Plymouth Companies of Puritans sailed from England a few years later and landed on the shores of Massachusetts Bay some at Salem and some at a place they named Boston for another town in England John Winthrop was the leader of this last company and was made governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony The Puritans soon found that there were some of their number who did not believe just as they did It seems strange now that those who had come from England just to find a place where they could worship God in the way they saw fit could not let others do the same They came to do what their consciences told them was right but they would not let others think that any other way was right So when members of the Society of Friends called Quakers came dressing differently and thinking it wrong to fight and treat the Indians cruelly the Puritans sent them away If the Quakers came back to Boston after being sent away they were hanged on the common A man who did not think what his neighbors believed was likely to have a hard time of it for anyone to dress differently from others was considered a great offense It was the same all over the world especially in England The first man who tried to wear a silk hat in London was chased through the streets The mob battered his hat and tore his clothes and he barely escaped with his life Therefore, when Roger Williams a bright young minister from England came to preach in the First Church of Boston the people soon found that he believed in a different form of baptism from theirs and some were angry enough to wish to kill him for being a Baptist so he left Boston and went to live at Plymouth The preaching of those days was not so much about doing good and living by the golden rule as about certain fixed beliefs This often led to angry arguments and some good people became very violent On this account, Roger Williams soon had to leave Plymouth Then he went to Salem and built a little church there which is still standing, about 300 years old Here the young minister kept on preaching what the leaders thought were strange and wicked teachings It was decided that such a reckless preacher should be arrested and sent in chains to England to be tried and imprisoned or put to death But Roger Williams heard of this decision and did not wait to be arrested When the captain and his men from Boston came to the Salem minister's house they found that he had left there three days before When the people of Boston, Salem and Plymouth next heard of Roger Williams he was settled on Narragansett Bay The Indians there received him gladly for he had been one of the few white men who treated them kindly as William Penn, 50 years afterwards dealt with the Indians along the Delaware River Williams and his friends built a group of log houses and named their settlement Providence because they believed that in the Providence or care of God they had found a safe retreat among the savages from the severity of the pious Puritans of Massachusetts Quakers and other religious people who were driven from the Puritan colonies came and settled near Roger Williams Even here the people of different beliefs quarreled over religious matters and good pastor Williams had all he could do to keep them from fighting and injuring one another Soon the savage Pequot Indians tried to persuade all the Indian tribes to join together and kill at a stroke all the white men who had come over the great water and taken from the natives certain parts of their country When the white men of Boston and Plymouth heard of this they sent and begged Roger Williams to use his good influence with his neighbors the Narragansetts a large and powerful tribe to prevent them from joining in the plot to murder all the white men as the Indians could have done if all the tribes had joined together and attacked all at once Here was a chance for Roger Williams to get even with those who had wished to kill or imprison him and who had driven him from place to place But the minister of Providence returned good for evil taking his life in his hands he went to the Indian village The Pequot Braves were there in the wigwam of Canonicus the Narragansett chief trying to persuade him and his tribe to take part in a war against the pale faces Roger Williams was a hero he stayed with those Indians sleeping with them at night without showing the least sign of fear though he knew very well that a savage Pequot might stab him in his sleep The Providence minister was successful Canonicus refused to join with the Pequots because the Narragansett stayed out of the war Other tribes also kept out of it The Pequots went ahead but the white men defeated and destroyed them By his conduct at this time of need Roger Williams set both red men and white men a noble example He taught them by all his life that a true Christian loves his enemies and does good to those who treat him badly The man who founded the town of Providence and the state of Rhode Island was the friend of both white men and red because he lived the golden rule End of Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Hero Tales From History This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Rita Butros Hero Tales From History by Smith Burnham Chapter 31 Lord Baltimore Calvert and Claiborne The Three Fathers of Maryland George Calvert of Kipling, England was such a fine man that he was beloved by King and people alike King James gave him the title of Sir George Calvert and made him Secretary of State As the King and the Church in England were Protestant Sir George felt at his duty to give up his royal honors when he became a Catholic But King James' son, Charles I instead of taking Calvert's rank away from him made him Baron Baltimore A Baron is higher in position than a Knight who is called Sir A few years after the Pilgrims came to America and settled at Plymouth in order to worship God as they thought right Lord Baltimore asked permission to make a settlement for himself and the Catholics of England who were persecuted because of their religion The first place chosen by him for a Catholic settlement was in Newfoundland But though the climate was lovely and cool there in spring and summer the settlers found it so cold in winter that they had to go back to England King Charles then granted Lord Baltimore another great tract of land much farther south between the English settlement at Jamestown and that of the Puritans at Plymouth in New England Lord Baltimore named this region Maryland in honor of King Charles' wife, the Queen of England As all the other English settlements in America were Protestant the party had great trouble in securing supplies and getting started for their new world Before they were quite ready the first Lord Baltimore died and his eldest son Cecil Calvert who then became Lord Baltimore inherited Maryland as part of his father's estate But some of the land granted to Lord Baltimore had been settled years before and was claimed by the colonists of Virginia On account of this young Lord Baltimore had to stay in London to look out for his rights in America Therefore his younger brother Leonard Calvert was sent to act for him as governor of Maryland At last the voyagers sailed away in two ships the Ark and the Dove There were 128 passengers not counting servants and children There were others on board who, not having money, bound themselves by law to work for a certain time in America to pay their passage across the sea The two ships were caught in a terrific storm on the way and the Dove was not to be seen anywhere After many days of hoping against hope those on the Ark gave up for lost the Dove and all their friends on it Then the Ark sailed on alone stopping after many weeks at one of the islands of the West Indies While they were anchored there their sorrow was turned to joy for the Dove caught up with them It had been driven out of sight by the fierceness of the gale and had found refuge in a harbor nearby The two sister ships now sailed northward and entered the mouth of the Potomac Of this river, Father White, one of the company wrote Never have I beheld a larger or more beautiful river The Thames seems a mere rivulet in comparison with it It is not disfigured by any swamps but has firm land on each side Fine groves of trees appear not choked with bushes and undergrowth but growing at intervals as if planted by hand so that you might easily drive a four-horse carriage through the midst of the trees Governor Leonard Calvert had heard so many stories of the fierceness and cunning of the Indians that he did not land at once After the two ships had cruised about the rivers and the bay awhile he decided to settle at the mouth of a small river which they named St. Mary's and built a group of cabins calling this place St. Mary's also They were quite surprised to find their Indian neighbors friendly bringing corn and provisions and showing them all they could about planting and trapping and hunting The settlers soon learned that the Indians were friendly because they wanted the white men to help them when they went to war with their savage enemies The red men thought the strangers fire sticks guns worked magic like lightning and thunder from above The children of young Maryland saw much to entertain and sometimes to frighten them When the Indians painted themselves with red black and yellow stripes they looked even uglier than before The white people had heard of the savage's war dances and scalp dances but they now found the natives had also their corn dances something like a harvest or a Thanksgiving festival The Maryland colonists were kind to the tribes and gained their friendship as Champlain had done and as William Penn and the Quakers of Philadelphia were to do about 50 years later The Indians in and around Maryland learned to believe in the goodness of the people of the Baltimore colony Most of the trouble Governor Calvert had in settling Maryland was with a white leader named Claiborne who had settled on the largest island in the bay He claimed that this land which was named Kent Island was part of Virginia Governor Calvert visited Jamestown and the governor of that colony said that the island was part of Lord Baltimore's land Then Claiborne announced that Kent Island was not only separate from either colony but that it belonged to him He had made friends among the Indians far and near and began to boast that he was going to drive all the other white people out of that country The Marylanders went to work like so many beavers building a fort and other defenses to be ready for an attack When they heard that the people on Kent Island had fitted out a large sailboat as a man of war Governor Calvert fitted up two pinnaces or small boats and mounted a cannon in each Then the men of Maryland sailed for Kent Island and captured it after a battle in which several persons were killed After this there was no more trouble with Claiborne and since that time Kent Island has belonged to Maryland Lord Baltimore held the rights over Maryland by a grant from the king somewhat as William Penn afterward came to own Pennsylvania Although Cecil Baron Baltimore was never able to visit his property in the new world his name was given to Baltimore the greatest city of Maryland and Anne Arundel County was named for his wife The purpose of the colony was not all religious Trading and business were also the objects of those brave settlers and some of the most successful merchant princes have sprung from that old Maryland stock the best out of old England The women of Maryland have been far famed for their beauty There is good reason for naming the loveliest of climbing roses Baltimore Bells The best thing grown in old Maryland was its patriotism When the fathers were signing the Declaration of Independence the chief man from Maryland was Charles Carroll As there was another Charles Carroll the hero in Independence Hall signed his name Charles Carroll of Carrollton The patriotic spirit of the colony still lives in that song popular in all the states Maryland, my Maryland End of Chapter 31 Chapter 32 of Hero Tales from History This is a LibriVox recording while LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Betty B. Hero Tales from History by Smith Burnham William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania When William Penn was born his father Admiral Sir William Penn was sailing out to sea on an English battleship Little William's mother was a lovely woman from Holland and as good as she was beautiful while in college at Oxford young Penn attended Quaker meetings which had been started by followers of George Fox the founder of a religious sect the Society of Friends or Quakers as they were commonly called The professors in charge of Oxford University did not believe in such meetings so they turned out of the college those who attended them When William Penn went home sent away from Oxford his father was so angry that he gave his Quaker son a beating and drove him from home Young Penn would have had to starve or beg in the streets but for his good mother who sent and helped him secretly even after that William was found at a Quaker meeting in London and put in prison for eight months William Penn's father was a great man a friend of King Charles I when that King was put to death Admiral Penn became the friend of Cromwell who had fought against the King after Cromwell died the Admiral attached himself to King Charles II and to the King's brother the Duke of York who afterward became James II although these four rulers were different even bitter enemies to one another shrewd Admiral Penn managed to keep the favor of them all he was ambitious also to have his eldest son become the favorite of Kings he allowed William to come home after he was free from prison in order to send him away to Paris as he hoped the youth would forget his queer belief in the gay life there the father asked the son's friends who were sons of English noblemen to influence William while in Paris to do everything that was against the Quaker belief one day a stranger met young Penn in the street and picked a quarrel with him drawing his sword and challenging the peace-loving young man to a duel with swords Penn was forced much against his will to fight he'd always been an active youth in fond of sports while at college he had been very good at fencing by skillful play he disarmed the quarrelsome fellow and ended the duel without hurting the stranger as if it were all done in sport this pleased all who saw the sword play and it did credit to the heart as well as to the skill of the young Quaker when William returned home he was so handsome and it gained so much in courtly manners that his father was thoroughly pleased but the great plague broke out in London then hearing off nearly 70,000 people in that city alone this frightened even the most worldly into leading religious lives and made William Penn's conscience trouble him but painting of his gay life he finally joined the friends for good and all and became one of their most earnest members and preachers his father ordered him out of the house and threatened to cast him off utterly William was now imprisoned in the London Tower because of something he had written against the Church of England while in prison he wrote no cross no crown and other works in defense of the Quakers his father whose heart was touched by his son's courage and unselfishness appealed to the Duke of York King Charles' brother and got William out of the tower Admiral Penn died soon after this leaving William a rich man the royal treasury owed him immense sums of money loaned to King Charles and his brother James but young Penn was again arrested because he was a friend and imprisoned in Newgate where the worst criminals were kept when he was again set free he began to seek some good place outside of England where he and his Quaker followers could serve God and their fellow men without being treated like criminals learning of a certain region in America he went to King Charles and asked for it in payment of the large amount of money Charles owed him as the king was still unable to pay the great debt in money he was glad to grant Penn a charter for the vast tract of land when Penn came before the king and the council to have the state paper signed and sealed he did not remove his hat as Quakers think it wrong to show such reverence to anyone but God King Charles allowed Penn to keep his hat on but removed his own to the astonishment of all and said with a smile it is the custom at court for only one person to remain covered Penn suggested calling the tract of country they were ceding to him Sylvania which meant forest land but the king insisted on naming it Penn Sylvania or Penn Forest this name was written in the charter so William Penn had to abide by it though he thought it vain to have the land name for himself the religious leader was now happy in having a country where he and his people could live and love God and one another in their own simple way sailing across the ocean in his good ship welcome Penn bought the country from its rightful owners the Indians he made a solemn treaty with them which was never sworn to and never broken no Quaker ever hurt or wronged an Indian and no Indian ever injured a friend though the red savages murdered settlers belonging to other religious faiths William Penn laid out a town which soon became the largest city in America or this place he made up a name Philadelphia composed of two Greek words meaning brother and love grand as it was to own such a great country as Pennsylvania and to found a large and flourishing city like Philadelphia it was even grander to teach people to live by the golden rule and to help along religious liberty it was most fitting that the Declaration of Independence should be adopted and signed in the state house of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia the city of William Penn End of Chapter 32