The Story of American History for Elementary Schools
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Title: The Story of American History for Elementary Schools
Author: Albert F. Blaisdell
Release date: December 8, 2010 [eBook #34600]
Language: English
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* * * * *
THE STORY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
_FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS_
BY
ALBERT F. BLAISDELL
AUTHOR OF "FIRST STEPS WITH AMERICAN AND BRITISH AUTHORS,"
"STORIES FROM ENGLISH HISTORY," ETC.
BOSTON, U.S.A.
GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
The Athenaeum Press
1902
COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY
ALBERT F. BLAISDELL
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PREFACE.
Some sort of a first book on American history is now quite generally
used in schools as a preparation for the more intelligent study of a
larger and more formal text-book in the higher grammar grades.
For beginners, a mere compilation of facts is dry and unsatisfactory.
Such books have now given place, for the most part, to those prepared on
a more attractive and judicious plan. The real aim in a first book
should be to interest boys and girls in the history of their country,
and to encourage them to cultivate a taste for further study and
reading.
This book is intended for use in the earlier grammar grades and to be
preliminary to the study of a more advanced work in the higher grades.
The author has also kept in mind the fact that the school life of many
children is brief, and that all their instruction in American history
must come from a text-book of this kind.
The author has not aimed to cover the whole range of our country's
history. Of many noted men and important affairs no mention is made.
Only the leading events of certain periods and the personal achievements
of a few representative "makers of our country" are treated in any
detail. The subject is approached through biographical sketches of a few
of the more illustrious actors in our nation's history. Some prominence
is given to exceptional deeds of valor, details of everyday living in
olden times, dramatic episodes, and personal incident.
The schoolroom test demonstrates the fact that such a treatment of the
subject is more attractive and profitable to children of the lower
grades than the mere recital of minor matters and petty details of
public events.
The author would acknowledge his indebtedness to Dr. Homer B. Sprague of
New York City for editorial help in reading and revising the manuscript.
Thanks are also due to Dr. John E. Sanborn of Melrose, Mass., for
editorial assistance.
A. F. BLAISDELL.
NOVEMBER, 1900.
NOTE.--The attention of teachers and pupils is especially directed to
the practical usefulness of the subject of "Reference Books and
Supplementary Reading for Successive Periods in American History," as
treated on pages 424-435 in the Appendix.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. AMERICA IN THE OLD DAYS 1
II. COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 10
III. SIR WALTER RALEIGH AND CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 31
IV. THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS 47
V. MORE ABOUT THE PILGRIMS 60
VI. THE INDIANS AND HOW THEY LIVED 73
VII. THE DUTCH IN NEW YORK; THE QUAKERS IN PENNSYLVANIA 88
VIII. THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS 106
IX. EVERYDAY LIFE IN COLONIAL TIMES 126
X. THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION 139
XI. LEXINGTON AND CONCORD 158
XII. THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL 170
XIII. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 184
XIV. THE BURGOYNE CAMPAIGN 198
XV. WASHINGTON AND THE REVOLUTION 222
XVI. THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH 250
XVII. THE STORY OF ARNOLD'S TREASON 271
XVIII. JOHN PAUL JONES: OUR FIRST GREAT NAVAL HERO 286
XIX. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: HIS HIGHLY USEFUL CAREER 296
XX. EVERYDAY LIFE ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 311
XXI. WHAT OUR NAVY DID IN THE WAR OF 1812 323
XXII. THE SETTLEMENT OF THE PACIFIC COAST 339
XXIII. LINCOLN AND THE WAR FOR THE UNION 353
XXIV. MORE ABOUT THE WAR FOR THE UNION 369
XXV. OUR NAVY IN THE WAR FOR THE UNION 387
XXVI. THE WAR WITH SPAIN IN 1898 406
APPENDIX. Books for Reference and Collateral Reading in
the Study of American History 424
INDEX 436
THE STORY OF AMERICAN HISTORY
CHAPTER I.
AMERICA IN THE OLD DAYS.
=1. The Story of our Country.=--We are sure that every intelligent and
patriotic American youth must like to read the story of our country's
life. To a boy or girl of good sense no work of fiction can surpass it
in interest or power.
How delightful to let the imagination summon up the forms and the deeds
of the fearless Norse sailors who dared to cross the unknown seas in
their frail and tiny vessels without compass and without charts! How
interesting the oft-told but ever-fresh narrative of the intrepid
Columbus and his memorable first voyage into and across the "Sea of
Darkness"! What romance was ever more exciting than the stories of the
fierce struggles between the white men and the Indians for existence and
supremacy on this continent?
How deep the pathos of the simple tales that tell of the patient
sufferings, the severe toils, the ever-present dangers, and the heroic
self-denials of the early colonists in making for themselves homes in
the New World! How richly suggestive are those pages that record the
glorious events of our American Revolution--the splendid and immortal
deeds of Washington and his illustrious associates!
Then there is the thrilling account of the most tremendous civil war in
all history, with its four million soldiers, its two thousand battles,
and its preservation of the Union.
And to come down to a time within the memory of every schoolboy, the
echoes of the Spanish-American conflict have hardly yet died away. The
story of this short war in the summer of 1898 still rings in our
ears--with its astounding naval victories at Manila and Santiago, the
freedom of Cuba, and the destruction of the last vestige of the once
mighty Spanish supremacy on this western continent!
=2. Lessons of Wisdom and Inspiration to be learned.=--But beyond and
above all mere gratification and pleasure to be derived from the study
of our country's history, there are in it lessons of wisdom to be
learned, there is inspiration to noble living, there is an uplifting of
the soul to a higher plane of thought and sentiment, there is constant
aid in the development and upbuilding of manly and womanly character.
And when we think of the marvelous growth of less than three centuries
which, beginning with the infant colonies of Jamestown and Plymouth, has
made us a nation of more than seventy millions; when we think of the
wonderful record of trial and triumph and unceasing progress, and of the
great and good and wise men that have laid the foundations and reared
the superstructure of this mighty temple of liberty,--we must be blind
indeed and ungrateful beyond expression not to recognize with devout
thankfulness the guiding hand of a beneficent Providence.
America, under God, stood at Plymouth for religious freedom; in the
Revolution, for independence; in our civil war, for the preservation of
the Union. She now stands for humanity, civilization, and the uplifting
of the whole race.
=3. The People of Ancient America.=--Wise men who have made a special
study of the subject tell us that this country has been continuously
inhabited by generations of men for many thousands of years. Rude tools,
and human skulls, intermingled with bones of animals of species long
extinct, have been found in caves or dug out of deep layers of earth;
and they indicate that in the Mississippi valley and on the Atlantic
and Pacific slopes there lived, perhaps hundreds of ages ago, men of a
low grade of culture.
In the great museums--as the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, the
Peabody Museums at Cambridge and New Haven, and the natural history
rooms at New York and elsewhere--may be seen thousands of the relics of
vanished races of men and animals that once inhabited this continent.
=4. The Red Men or Indians.=--The Indians constitute a race by themselves.
Whether they are descended from some of those prehistoric inhabitants of
whom we have just spoken no one can say; but they make up an American
type with marks as clearly recognized as those that distinguish the
Mongolians and the Malays. For long ages the red men had spread
themselves over the two continents, from Hudson Bay to Cape Horn. With
few or no exceptions, all had the same copperish or cinnamon color,
deep-set and intensely black eyes, high cheek-bones, straight black
hair, with little or no beard; but the long lapse of time, the great
varieties of environment, and perhaps other causes, brought about
striking differences of appearance, of manners, customs, dialects, and
the like.
=5. Three Principal Divisions of the Indians.=--The eminent historian, Dr.
John Fiske, groups the Indians in three leading divisions,--as savage,
barbarous, and half-civilized.
The savage Indians ranged to the west of Hudson Bay, and southward
between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, to the northern part of
Mexico. They lived by catching fish or game. They knew little or nothing
of tilling the soil. They did not dwell in permanent villages, but
roamed from place to place like Bedouin Arabs.
[Illustration: ANCIENT CLIFF DWELLINGS.]
The barbarous Indians inhabited the country east of the Rocky Mountains.
They did not depend wholly upon hunting or fishing, but knew how to
upturn the soil slightly with rude tools, and raise squashes, beans,
tomatoes, and, most important of all, Indian corn. They lived in
villages, and made houses that would last several years. They had dogs
of an inferior breed, but no other domestic animals. Some tribes were
able to weave coarse cloth and make weapons of polished stones. They had
strange social customs and singular religious beliefs. Fighting was
their principal occupation.
The half-civilized Indians once lived in New Mexico and the adjoining
region. They have had almost nothing to do with the history of the
United States. They are the Pueblo Indians, so called from the _pueblos_
or strongholds, dwellings which they built of stones or of sun-dried
brick. Some of these strongholds, story above story, would accommodate
at least three thousand inhabitants! They were built oftentimes in
situations almost inaccessible, like eagles' nests on cliffs, apparently
that they might be defended more easily against the attack of an enemy.
=6. The Northmen and their Discoveries.=--The real contact between the
eastern and western halves of the world practically began in 1492, the
year of the first great voyage of Columbus. Occasional visitors may have
sailed before that date directly across the "Sea of Darkness" from the
Old World to the New. The subject is shrouded for the most part in the
mists of vague stories and obscure traditions.
It seems quite certain, however, that in the year 986 a daring
Scandinavian navigator, Eric the Red, founded on the southwestern coast
of Greenland a colony that lasted four or five hundred years. In the
same year, as the Iceland Sagas (heroic legends) tell us, another Norse
sailor, voyaging from Iceland to Greenland, was driven by storms far out
towards the southwest, and was perhaps the first white man to behold the
American coast.
[Illustration: NORSE RUINS IN GREENLAND.]
Many interesting ruins of stone-built houses and of a church are still
to be seen on that desolate Greenland shore. In those ages the Northmen,
or Norsemen, as the people of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were called,
were the most skillful sailors in the world. Eric the Red had several
sons, bold sailors like their father. The oldest of these (whose statue
stands on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston), Leif the Lucky, with thirty-five
hardy men, sailed south from Greenland in the year 1000, to explore
these lands that had been discovered fourteen years before. He landed at
several points along the coast. In a place which he called "Vinland the
Good" (land of vines), he found an abundance of luscious wild grapes.
Just where this sturdy Norse sailor feasted on the grapes is, of course,
uncertain, but good authorities are inclined to think it may have been
not far from Plymouth, on the coast of Massachusetts Bay. He returned
home in the spring. Two years later Leif's brother, Thorwald, came on a
voyage of discovery, but was killed by the natives in the summer of
1004.
In the spring of the year 1007 an Icelandic chief, accompanied by his
wife and a crew of one hundred and sixty men, in three vessels, came to
this Vinland. He remained here three years, and had many dealings with
the Indians.
[Illustration: A NORSE SHIP.]
The Norsemen went home and gave vivid and accurate descriptions of the
land they visited. They described the Indians, the fish, the animals,
and the plants, all of which are given in the Icelandic chronicles. No
real relic, however, of these people has yet been found upon our own
coast.
Columbus, who visited Iceland in the year 1477, may have had access to
the Icelandic archives, and have learned of the discoveries of these
rovers of the deep. But we have no evidence on that point. After the
eleventh century America remained as much unknown as if the bold
Northmen had never steered their dragon-prowed ships along our shores.
The waves that incessantly rolled upon its sands or dashed against its
rocks brought no vessel from the far-away lands of the East. Nearly five
hundred years were to come and go before, in the fullness of time, the
hour struck for the real and fruitful discovery of the New World. It was
left for Columbus, the great Genoese navigator, to open wide its gates!
[Illustration: LANDING OF THE NORSEMEN.]
CHAPTER II.
COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
=7. Commercial Activity in the Fifteenth Century.=--In southern Europe,
the last half of the fifteenth century was a period of great commercial
activity. Then, for the first time, many voyages of exploration were
made in various directions, to find new riches, new markets, or new
routes of travel and transportation. Merchants were turning their
attention more and more to enterprises in far-off regions beyond the
seas.
Venice and Genoa became rivals for the vast and valuable trade of India.
With other Italian cities they grew rich and powerful. They kept great
fleets of merchant vessels plying back and forth across the
Mediterranean.
They sent out to India large quantities of copper, iron, pitch, wool,
hides, and the like, and brought back cargoes of drugs, spices, silks,
pearls, and other luxuries. But the path of this commerce between the
Mediterranean and India required both ships and caravans; and whether by
way of the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea, or by Damascus and the
Persian Gulf, or by the Black Sea and the Caspian and thence across the
eastern plains, the journey was long, tedious, costly; always hazardous,
and often, by reason of the Turkish wars, positively dangerous.
And so it became important, especially for the merchants of Spain and
Portugal, the would-be rivals of Venice and Genoa, to find a shorter and
safer route. In many a country, people were asking, "Is there no easier
way to get to India?"
In the attempts to solve this problem Portugal took the lead. Her
sailors boldly ventured farther and farther down the coast of Africa
until, about twenty years before Columbus discovered America, they
crossed the equator. But it was not till five years after the memorable
exploit of Columbus, that Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese captain, rounded
the Cape of Good Hope and crossed the broad Indian Ocean to India. Two
years later he returned home with his vessels full of rich merchandise
from that country.
=8. The Shape of the Earth--Spherical or Flat?=--The learned men of that
age, for the most part, believed the earth to be round like a ball. But
the common people, and doubtless many of high rank, thought the land
surface to be flat, with a flat ocean flowing around it on every side.
Now if the earth were really a sphere, and no larger than was commonly
supposed, it would seem that the easiest way to get to India, unless
unforeseen obstacles intervened, would be to strike out to the west and
sail straight across the "Sea of Darkness," as the sailors called the
Atlantic. To embrace so startling a theory and deliberately to risk his
life in testing its truth, required a man of keen sagacity, of lofty
faith, of unbending resolution, and of the most heroic daring. Such a
man was Christopher Columbus.
=9. Columbus; his Early Life as a Sailor.=--He was born at Genoa, in or
about the year 1445. He was the son of a poor wool-comber, and while yet
very young he helped in his father's daily toil. We find him a studious
boy, early able to write a good hand and to draw maps and charts for
mariners visiting his home. He loves the sea, listens eagerly to old
sailors' "yarns," weaves their fancies and legends into his day-dreams,
and is fired with ambition to go in search of strange lands. How shall
he realize his visions? Who will believe in him?
At the age of fourteen he becomes a sailor. He sails south along the
African coast, and north as far as England, and even to Iceland. Always
observing, studying, planning, the ardent, thoughtful boy grows up an
earnest, thoughtful man. He is convinced that the earth is a globe, and
that, if he sails west far enough, he will reach India by a route
shorter than any to the east. Nothing can shake his faith in this
belief. It becomes the inspiration of his life.
But like that of many learned men of his day, his estimate of the
distance is widely wrong. He supposes it to be only a few thousand
miles, requiring but a few weeks' sail. Little does he imagine that
directly in his westward path lies a vast continent, and beyond this
rolls an ocean far wider than the Atlantic!
=10. Curious Things from the Unknown West.=--To reflecting minds many
facts gave hints of lands in the distant west. Curiously carved wood had
been washed ashore by westerly gales; far out on the sunset sea an old
pilot had picked up a quaintly wrought paddle; cane stalks of tropic
growth, and huge pines that could not have come from the east, had
drifted to the Azores. It was believed that these articles, strange to
European eyes, had floated across the broad ocean from the eastern coast
of Asia.
Meditating much upon all these and kindred facts, and upon the teachings
of science, Columbus conceives himself to be divinely commissioned to
open up this new route to India, incidentally discovering unknown lands
and showing that the earth was round. But this stupendous project calls
for ships, men, and vast sums of money. He is poor, and he has no rich
patrons.
=11. Columbus seeks Aid from Foreign Governments.=--For ten years Columbus
tried to persuade some European government to send him on this voyage
across the Atlantic. First he sought help from his own people, the
republic of Genoa; then from Venice, and afterwards from Portugal. For
seven years he had patiently and persistently endeavored to interest
Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of Spain, in his scheme of a
shorter route to India than that which their rivals, the Portuguese,
were hoping to find by sailing down the western coast of the dark
continent. After years of waiting and seeking, the long-sought help at
last came. Isabella had faith in Columbus, and proved herself a firm
friend. She listened patiently to his plans; and she finally decided to
fit out an expedition at the expense of her own kingdom of Castile.
By the terms of the agreement, Columbus was to be admiral of all the
oceans he sailed and viceroy of all the lands he discovered, and to have
one-eighth of all the profits of the expedition--the pearls, diamonds,
gold, silver, and spices.
It was hard work to get a crew willing to go on this long voyage into
the mysterious western seas. It was indeed a strange and hazardous
project, and prudent sailors, though stout-hearted, might well shrink
from taking the risk. Some, badly in debt, consented to ship on
condition that their debts should be paid. Others, convicted culprits,
promising to join the expedition, were released from jail.
=12. Columbus sails on his Wonderful Voyage.=--Finally, in August, 1492,
after a delay of several months, three vessels with ninety men sailed
from Palos, a little port of Spain, on the most wonderful voyage the
world has ever seen--the voyage which ended in the discovery of the
great New World. What a heroic venture,--to sail out into an unknown
ocean!
[Illustration: VESSELS OF COLUMBUS CROSSING THE OCEAN.]
Every day and every hour took them farther from home. Onward and still
onward they were sailing, across the trackless and boundless deep, with
nothing in sight but sky and ocean.
No wonder they became angry with themselves for having started upon what
seemed so foolhardy an enterprise. When at first the land sank from
sight on the eastern horizon, many of them lamented their sad fate, and
cried and sobbed like children. Columbus, fearing trouble, took the
precaution to keep two different reckonings as to the distance sailed, a
true one for himself and a false one for his men.
To add to their fears, the needle of the compass no longer pointed, as
usual, a little to the right of the north star, but began to sway toward
the left. Columbus did not know what to make of this variation of the
compass needle, but by giving an ingenious astronomical explanation he
managed to satisfy his men.
"This day we sailed westward, which was our course," were the simple but
grand words which the brave commander wrote in his journal day after
day. The sailors, in despair and rebellion, threatened to throw him
overboard; but he stood firm in his hope and courage, gazing almost
incessantly towards the ever-receding western horizon.
=13. The Great Problem at last solved.=--Many times the eager sailors
thought they saw land, and many times they were disappointed. At last
birds began to circle around the ships. A bush covered with fresh red
berries floated by, and a piece of carved wood. Presently the birds were
seen to fly southward. By these signs Columbus felt sure that they were
approaching land. "We shall see land in the morning," he said to his
men. All was excitement and activity. No one could sleep. All waited
impatiently for the dawn.
The day broke, and a beautiful island appeared before them. Columbus was
the first to step upon the beach; the others followed; all knelt as the
great discoverer kissed the ground and gave thanks to God. He rose from
his knees, drew his sword, unfurled the great flag of Spain, gorgeous
with its red and gold, and in the name of Spain he took possession of
the land, calling it San Salvador. From his sublime purpose the mighty
navigator had not swerved a hair's breadth! He had solved the great
problem! He had earned a name that should never die!
[Illustration: COLUMBUS'S FIRST VIEW OF THE NEW WORLD.]
=14. The New World and its Strange People; the Homeward Voyage.=--The
island on which Columbus first landed was one of those we now call the
West Indies, the name given by him. The voyagers were wild with delight
at the new country. They gazed in wonder at the rare and lovely flowers,
the bright-colored birds flashing through the sunlight, the lofty palms,
the strange trees bearing abundant fruits; but most of all at the
singular people, whom of course they called Indians.
[Illustration: MAP OF COLUMBUS'S ROUTE ON HIS GREAT VOYAGE ACROSS THE
OCEAN.]
Not less were the natives astonished. They thought the strange visitors
divine beings from the sky, and the ships unearthly monsters from the
deep. Columbus found the natives kindly and generous with gifts. Maize
or Indian corn, potatoes, cotton, and tobacco were found; but neither
gold nor diamonds.
Columbus felt sure that this land was some part of Asia. After a stay of
twelve weeks he decided to sail back to Spain with the news of his great
discovery. He took with him a number of the natives and a vast store of
curiosities. On the voyage a terrific storm raged for four days, and it
seemed as if the frail vessels must be destroyed. The peril being very
great, Columbus wrote upon parchment two brief accounts of his
discoveries; each of these he wrapped in a cloth, enclosed it in a large
cake of wax, and securely packed it in a tight cask. One of these kegs
was flung into the sea, and the other was lashed to the vessel.
The two frail vessels, however, rode out the storm and at last put into
one of the Azores to refit. On the homeward way another storm overtook
the weary voyagers, and Columbus was glad to reach at last a port in
Portugal. From thence in March, 1493, he arrived safe in the harbor of
Palos.
=15. Columbus receives a Royal Welcome on his Return.=--A royal welcome
was given Columbus on his return. The man who had been laughed at for
his strange theories, now returning from a newly discovered world beyond
the sea, was regarded as the greatest of men. Ferdinand and Isabella
received him with royal pomp and asked him to tell them his story.
Marvelous it must have seemed, and all who heard it must have listened
with breathless attention. The highest honors were bestowed upon him.
His discovery of course excited intense interest throughout the
civilized world.
But the high honors paid to him aroused the jealousy of the courtiers.
Once, while sitting as a guest of honor at table, one of the courtiers
said with a sneer that it was not such a great thing after all to
discover the New World; any one else could have done it. By way of reply
Columbus took an egg from a dish before him, and handing it to the
courtier, asked him to make it stand on end. The man tried but could not
do it. Others tried but failed, and the egg came back to Columbus. He
struck it upon the table with slight force, cracking the shell a little,
and then it stood upright.
"Oh, any one could do that," said the courtier. "So any one could
discover the Indies after I have shown the way," was the reply of
Columbus.
[Illustration: COLUMBUS REBUKING THE COURTIERS.]
=16. Columbus sails on Other Voyages across the Atlantic.=--In spite of
the joy among the Spanish people over the great discovery, there was
general disappointment that Columbus brought back no gold or precious
stones. It was believed that another voyage might bring better success.
Accordingly he soon prepared to sail again across the ocean. There was
no trouble now in obtaining crews; multitudes wished to go.
In September, 1493, he started--this time with seventeen ships and
fifteen hundred men! He landed among the Caribbean Islands. The natives
were frightened at the horses which were brought over, thinking the
rider and the steed all one; they were doubly terrified to see the man
dismount and the strange being come to pieces, making two separate
animals!
Columbus coasted along the south side of Cuba, and being sure it was
India, tried to find the mouth of the Ganges! Seeing traces of a gold
mine that had once been worked, he concluded that in that region must
have been found the gold of Ophir, which had been used for Solomon's
temple, and that probably the great temple itself was not far off!
=17. Queen Isabella proves a Friend.=--After a great deal of trouble
during his absence of nearly three years, Columbus returned home in
1496. Serious disputes followed his arrival. Much disappointment was
felt that he had found no gold or diamonds; many denounced "the foreign
upstart" as a fraud and a tyrant, saying that he cost more than he was
worth. Jealousy, intrigue, disappointed greed, hatred for fancied
slights, every motive to hostility took shape against him. Yet as
Isabella was still his friend, and as he hoped for better fortune in
another trial, he prepared for a third voyage. In May, 1498, with six
vessels and two hundred men he again set sail.
On this voyage Columbus touched the mainland of South America and passed
the mouth of the river Orinoco. The broad flow of the great river, the
magnificent scenery, and the charming climate delighted him. "This must
be the river," he said, "that flows through the Garden of Eden."
Meanwhile, many of the Spaniards that had been left on the islands
rebelled against him. Evil-minded officials in Spain sent out a sort of
inspector to examine into the rebellion. Prompted by malice, he exceeded
his authority and caused Columbus to be chained as a criminal. With
stern fortitude the stout-hearted mariner endured the cruel irons, and
he was thus taken back to Spain. The captain of the vessel offered to
free him from his chains. The brave discoverer answered sadly but
proudly: "No: I will wear them as a memento of the gratitude of
princes!"
=18. The Fourth and Last Voyage.=--His firm friend, the queen, justly
indignant, received him with tears. Then the much-enduring old man broke
down, and with sobs and weeping threw himself at her feet. The
great-hearted Isabella encouraged him to go on still another expedition.
In May, 1502, with four vessels and one hundred and fifty men, he sailed
on his fourth and last voyage.
He skirted the south side of Cuba, touched at Honduras, and coasted
along the northern shores of South America. Many of his men were killed
by the Indians, his company was short of food, his ships began to leak,
the vessel on which he sailed was wrecked, and the voyage was every way
disastrous. In November, 1504, old, feeble, and broken-hearted, Columbus
returned to. Spain. His royal patron and best friend, Isabella, was
dead. His constitution was shattered by the labors and perils he had
undergone. His last year was passed in sickness and poverty. In 1506 he
closed his eyes in death.
=19. Columbus and his Mighty Achievement.=--After all his four eventful
voyages, this prince of explorers died in the belief that he had reached
the eastern shores of Asia, and that, too, by the best and most direct
route. He never imagined that he had found a new continent. Although
self-deceived as to the true nature of his discoveries, he yet well
deserved all the honors that have crowned his memory. His own time was
not worthy of him; but after-ages have paid him due and ever-increasing
reverence. His name will forever be linked with lofty ideas and
magnificent achievements.
Columbus was a man of noble and commanding presence, tall, and
powerfully built. He had long-waving hair, a fair, ruddy complexion, and
keen blue-gray eyes that easily kindled and glowed. He inspired strong
affection and deep respect. He always carried himself with an air of
authority, as became a man of great heart and lofty thoughts.
Why was this continent not named for Columbus? Let me tell you. Because
in his life it was not known as a new world, and hence had no need of a
new name. It already had the names India and Cathay (China). In 1501
Americus Vespucius, a Florentine merchant and a mariner already familiar
with the western waters, sailed on his third voyage far southward along
the eastern coast of South America. The vast size of that country thus
became partially known. He wrote an account of his voyages to the "New
World," and in his honor it was named "America." Gradually this name was
applied to the northern continent also.
[Illustration: LANDING OF COLUMBUS.]
=20. The Cabots and their Voyages.=--We need not be told that these
expeditions made a great sensation in Europe, and that many bold
mariners started out from Portugal and Spain. The sovereigns of other
nations, too, as England and France, soon sent navigators to make claims
for their own countries. Among the most notable of these were the
Cabots, John and his son Sebastian. Though natives of Genoa, they lived
in England and had entered the service of King Henry VII. They had
permission from him to sail across the Atlantic and to take possession,
in his name, of any lands which were not known to Europeans.
In May, 1497, with one ship and eighteen men, John Cabot with his son
Sebastian left England. The first land he saw is supposed to have been
either Cape Breton Island or the shores of Labrador. He did not remain
long on that cold and dismal coast, but returned home to England after
an absence of about three months. John Cabot was probably the first
European since the days of the Northmen to set foot upon the mainland of
North America.
On his return he was received with much honor by the king. He was called
"The Great Admiral," and he went about the streets richly dressed in
silk, followed by a crowd of admirers. The next year the Cabots set out
upon a second voyage. This took a wider range. The exact limits of these
explorations are not clearly known; but it is believed that they
discovered the coast of Labrador, sailed along to Newfoundland, thence
probably as far south as Cape Cod, and perhaps to Cape Hatteras.
Inasmuch as Columbus never set foot upon the mainland of North America,
the Cabot discoveries are of importance. It is claimed that they gave
England a right to the settlement and ownership of this northern
continent.
Sebastian lived to be a very old man, and to the last was full of
enthusiasm about the new-found world He was known as "The Great Yeoman."
It was said of him: "He gave England a continent--and no one knows his
burial place!"
=21. A Spanish Knight seeks the Fountain of Youth.=--A singular expedition
was that of Ponce de Leon, a brave knight who had sailed with Columbus
on his second voyage. The Spaniards had heard somewhere in eastern Asia
the old, old legend, of a fountain whose water gave perpetual youth to
any one who drank of it. In 1513 Ponce de Leon sailed from Porto Rico,
where he had been governor, with three vessels, in search of this
wonderful "Fountain of Youth."
On Easter Sunday (which in Spanish is Pascua Florida, flowering Easter)
he first came within sight of a coast to which he gave the name
Florida, partly in honor of the day and partly because it was indeed a
region of flowers. He took possession of it in the name of the King of
Spain. Never before had he seen so beautiful a region. It seemed the
land of eternal summer.
He landed not far from what is now St. Augustine, and followed the coast
south to its western shore; but he went back disappointed. If he or any
one else ever saw this spring of magic power, it was only in dreams. In
1521 our romantic knight sailed again in search of the hoped-for
fountain; but by reason of a severe wound from an Indian arrow he was
forced to return to Cuba. There he died of his painful injury.
=22. How De Soto sought in Vain for Gold.=--Another adventurous Spanish
knight was Ferdinand de Soto. He attempted to explore and conquer the
country across the waters to the north of Cuba. In 1539, with nine
vessels and five hundred and seventy men, he left Havana. Landing on the
eastern coast of Florida, De Soto marched north to the Savannah River,
thence going westward. Dangers beset him on every side. Sometimes the
natives, who had learned to fear and hate the Spaniards, sent poisoned
arrows flying through the air. Sometimes they purposely led their greedy
foes into swamps in the search for gold. The Spaniards in turn treated
the Indians with extreme cruelty.
[Illustration: DE SOTO'S FIRST VIEW OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.]
A number of dreadful battles were fought in which De Soto lost many men.
Through tangled forests and swamps the Spaniards, suffering from hunger
and sickness, plodded on their weary march. De Soto would not turn back.
He was determined to find gold. The proud Spaniard could not endure the
thought of failure. He had promised his followers an abundance of
treasure, and he resolved to keep that promise.
At last they reached the banks of a mighty river. Compared with other
streams it was like the sea. It was the great Mississippi. De Soto was
probably the first white man that ever gazed upon it. Under his
direction the men built rafts, crossed the "Father of Waters," and
pushed far on to what is now Arkansas and Missouri, in search of the
fabled land of gold. They never found it. Instead of gems and gold, they
found hunger, sickness, and death.
=23. Death of De Soto.=--At last, a little group exhausted and emaciated,
they turned their steps southward and toward the great river again. De
Soto was broken-hearted. A fever seized him, and he soon died.
The Indians stood in great awe of De Soto. They called him a "child of
the Sun," and believed he would never die. His men therefore wished to
conceal the fact of their leader's death. They wrapped his dead body in
a mantle and sank it at night beneath the waters of the Mississippi. The
wretched remnant of his followers managed to build a few boats, and in
these they floated down the stream. A few of them at last reached
friends to whom they told the story of their failure.
CHAPTER III.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH AND CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.
[Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEIGH.]
=24. Sir Walter Raleigh: Soldier, Sailor, and Courtier.=--Not until many
years after the voyages of the two Cabots did the English begin to make
settlements in the New World. For more than three-quarters of a century
no one seemed to comprehend the vast importance of the discoveries of
those explorers, or to dream of the wonderful changes that would follow
during the coming ages. But there was at last one man in England of high
rank who foresaw that a great nation would some time people the realm
beyond the Atlantic. That man was Sir Walter Raleigh. He was a skillful
sailor, a daring soldier, an accomplished scholar, an elegant poet, a
learned historian, a graceful courtier--in fact, a prince among men. He
became a great favorite with Queen Elizabeth. He was very rich, and
when he asked permission to fit out ships and establish colonies in
America, the queen readily granted his request.
The first two vessels sent out by Raleigh reached the coast of North
Carolina in 1584. No attempt at colonization was then made, and they
soon sailed back to England. When Queen Elizabeth heard of the wonders
of the new country--its luscious fruits, its "sweete-smelling timber
trees," its rich soil, whereon the natives seemed to live "after the
manner of the golden age"--she said: "This place shall be named Virginia
in honor of me." For the great queen was called the "Virgin Queen," and
she used to boast that she was wedded to her kingdom alone.
=25. First Attempts to colonize Virginia.=--Soon afterwards Raleigh sent
out vessels on a second voyage "to plant an English nation in America."
It had been planned to make a settlement on Roanoke Island; but the
Indians were warlike, food was scarce, and the colonists instead of
planting corn searched for gold. After they had nearly died of
starvation a vessel arrived, which carried the homesick men back to
England. Two years afterwards a third company was sent out by Raleigh.
This company included men, women, and children. These also settled at
Roanoke Island. There, in August, 1587, was born Virginia Dare, the
first American child of English parentage.
This colony also fared hard. The governor sailed back to England for
supplies, and when he returned to America, after being delayed for three
years, every trace of the colony had disappeared. It was never known
whether the colonists had gone far away, to live with the Indians, or
had somehow perished. They were never heard of again.
=26. How Tobacco and Potatoes came into Popular Use.=--And thus it was
that in the first colonizing of this country Sir Walter Raleigh had as
much to do as any other one man. Although his various attempts at
settlements proved failures, yet he opened the way, set the example, and
made it less difficult for others to come to America.
One of the most wholesome and nutritious of vegetables, the common white
potato, had never been seen in Europe until some of the Virginia
settlers sent to Sir Walter as a present several of the "roots," as they
were called. He showed the poor how easily potatoes could be raised.
Thus they first came into use as a staple article of food.
The settlers in Virginia soon found that the Indians took great comfort
in smoking the dried leaves of a certain fragrant herb. This was the now
well-known tobacco plant. The English colonists tried smoking,--and
liked it. They sent some of the plant across the ocean as a present to
Sir Walter. He tried smoking, and he also liked it!
At first it seemed a strange sight in England to see a man smoking. The
story is often told that as Raleigh was one day enjoying his pipe, a
servant came into the room. As the man had never before seen any one
smoke, he was much astonished; he thought his master was on fire. He
rushed out of the room, seized a pitcher of water, and running back
threw it over Sir Walter!
[Illustration: RALEIGH'S SERVANT INTERRUPTS HIS MASTER'S SMOKE.]
From that time till now tobacco has been most extensively used. The
settler who raised tobacco could buy with it whatever he needed. Large
crops of it were carried to England and sold. It did much to establish
the commercial prosperity of the Virginia colony.
=27. Captain John Smith and his Early Career.=--In the year 1607 there
came to Virginia a remarkable man by the name of John Smith. He plays
an important part in the early history of that colony.
This the most famous John Smith that ever lived, was born in England in
1580. While yet a boy he was fond of wild and daring adventures. When
thirteen years old he sold his school books and ran away from home. When
he became a young man he went to the continent, and for two or three
years fought in the Dutch and French armies.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.]
Once, when Smith was a sailor on a ship going from Marseilles to Italy,
a terrible storm arose; the sailors, believing that he was the cause of
their bad luck, threw him overboard. But, swimming "with lusty sinews,"
he managed to reach an island near by, and thus his life was saved. He
was rescued from the shore and was taken on board a French man-of-war.
Soon afterwards the ship met an enemy, and a battle ensued. In that
conflict the young English sailor fought so hard that the ship's
officers gave him a share of the plunder of the captured vessel.
=28. His Romantic Adventures.=--Our bold adventurer now went farther east
and enlisted in the Austrian army to fight against the Turks. In that
service he soon became well known as a brave and dashing fellow, and
before long he was made a captain of cavalry. After a battle in which
the Austrians were defeated, Smith, badly wounded, lay a while among the
dead. But he was found and cared for. After his wounds had healed, he
was taken to Constantinople and sold to the Turks as a slave. A Turkish
lady showed him great kindness.
Then he was sent to Russia. There, at a place about a mile from the
house of his cruel master, he was set to threshing grain. One day his
owner rode up and shamefully abused him. Stung by his insolence, Smith
killed the man with a flail, exchanged his own slave garments for his
victim's clothes, hid the body in the straw, mounted a horse, and
started off. He traveled over Russia, Austria, France, and Spain, and at
last, after many stirring adventures, drifted back to his old home in
England again.
All these stories and many more Captain John tells us in his book of
travels. Perhaps they are true, and perhaps we may conclude with some
other persons that Smith was a daring fellow at telling stories as well
as at fighting Turks!
=29. Captain John begins his Career in the New World.=--When our
adventurer arrived in England, all the talk was about the wonderful
western world. Although he had roamed so widely and had fared so hard,
he was then less than thirty years old and was ready for new adventures.
All of his previous life seemed a preparation for a career of romance
and heroism in the New World. So he joined an expedition which sailed
for Virginia in the early part of 1607.
On the voyage his superior talents and experience were so evident that
his comrades became jealous of him, and on some pretext caused him to be
put in chains. They had a long and stormy voyage. It was as late as
April when they reached Chesapeake Bay. They were so glad to leave the
stormy ocean and find a place of rest that they named the land near
their first anchorage Point Comfort, a name it still bears.
They entered between two capes, which they called Charles and Henry from
the king's two sons. From their king, James the First, they named the
river up which they sailed the James, and they called the village that
they built Jamestown. Thus was laid in the year 1607 the foundations of
the first permanent English settlement in the New World.
=30. How Smith managed the Virginia Colonists.=--These Virginia colonists
were not suited to the rough, hard work of making a settlement in this
new country. They had not been accustomed to earn their living by manual
toil. They liked to call themselves "gentlemen," as if that title
somehow made an excuse for shiftless idleness. The real need was for
farmers, carpenters, blacksmiths, masons--useful mechanics and willing
laborers. These genteel settlers expected to find in this wonderful
region plenty of gold; their sole purpose was to get enough of the
precious ore, and then go back to England and remain there.
But Captain Smith was the saving spirit of the colony. He showed the
immigrants the necessity of labor, and told them plainly that if they
would not work they must not expect to eat. He taught them to fell trees
and build huts. Their voyage had been so long, and so much of their
provisions had been spoiled, that, when they landed, their stock of food
was almost gone. Something must be done, and that soon, or they would
starve.
Then was shown the courage, skill, and good sense of an energetic
leader. The corn that a few friendly Indians brought to the settlers was
not enough to feed so many. Therefore Smith took some companions, went
in his boat up and down the rivers, made friends of the Indians, and
bought from them corn and game, giving in payment shiny trinkets, beads,
and little mirrors.
But the river lands were low and unhealthful; the water was bad; very
many of the settlers became sick; and, before the autumn frosts came,
more than half of them had died. Smith worked hard to help the survivors
and to teach them to help themselves. Meanwhile, in his boat, he made
long excursions up the James and the Potomac rivers, hoping perchance to
find a way to the South Sea, as every one then called the Pacific Ocean.
[Illustration: SMITH EXPLAINING THE COMPASS TO THE INDIANS.]
=31. Captured by the Indians.=--On one of these exploring expeditions a
gang of natives attacked Smith and killed all his men. He seized an
Indian and holding him as a shield, shot down three of the savages. The
place being swampy, he suddenly sank to his knees in the oozy soil and
was captured by the enemy. Then the quick-witted prisoner, taking out
his pocket compass, showed the vibrations and use of the needle, and
spoke of the sun, moon, and stars. He interested his captors so deeply
that they were sure he must be a supernatural being from some far-off
world. They were afraid to kill him.
He persuaded them to send to the colony a piece of paper on which he had
written. The result surprised them all the more! This strange being
could make paper talk!
=32. How Pocahontas saved Captain John's Life.=--At last Captain John was
sent to the great chief Powhatan, and by him was held captive during
several weeks. These Indians, too, he amused with his compass and his
writing; but after a while they grew tired of him, and Powhatan
concluded to kill him.
So one day they gathered around the victim; he was stretched on the
ground, his head was placed on a stone, and all was ready. A savage was
just raising his club for the fatal blow, when forth rushed the bright
young Pocahontas, the pet daughter of the old chief. Throwing her arms
around Smith's neck, she turned her face to her father and begged him to
spare the captive's life. "Kill _me_," she cried; "kill _me_; you shall
not kill _him_!" It seems that Smith had been improving his time in
making whistles and rattles and strings of beads and shells for the
Indian girl, and so had won her affection; and she in return saved his
life! Indian chiefs do not often indulge in pity; but for the sake of
his beloved daughter Powhatan released Smith and soon after let him go
back to Jamestown. Such is the story of his romantic rescue as Captain
John told it years afterwards. While there is nothing improbable about
it, yet some people believe that he invented the story to magnify his
own importance.
=33. The Romantic Story of Pocahontas.=--Pocahontas was at this time only
about twelve years of age. Ever afterward she continued to be very
friendly to the colonists, and often visited them at Jamestown,
sometimes bringing baskets of corn to the hungry white men. Once the
faithful girl came stealthily by night long miles through the dark
forests to inform Smith of an Indian plot to murder all the whites.
As Pocahontas grew up, one of the young Englishmen, John Rolfe, became
much attached to her. He said he had had a marvelous vision telling him
that he ought to make her a Christian and marry her. That was nothing so
very wonderful, for then as now tender-hearted youths often dreamed at
night of what they were thinking of by day. In 1613, in the rude little
church at Jamestown, Pocahontas gave up her Indian religion, accepted
the Christian faith, and was baptized. She took the name Rebecca. The
next year she was married to Rolfe. This romantic marriage was very
fortunate for the colony, for it made her father, Powhatan, a warm
friend to the feeble settlers, who at this time were in sore need of
help.
=34. The Indian Princess receives a Warm Welcome in London.=--Three years
afterwards the fair Indian girl, "Lady Rebecca," went with her husband
to England, where of course she attracted a great deal of attention. The
people came in crowds to see her. They cheered as she rode through the
streets of London.
Pocahontas became a great favorite with the nobility, and was even
received at court by the queen. But, for all that, she soon became
homesick. Even amid the splendid novelties of London life, she longed to
be once more among the noble forests and the lovely wild flowers of her
old Virginia home. It was in the year 1617 that she prepared, with many
pleasing anticipations, to return to the scenes of her childhood. But
she suddenly sickened and, after a brief illness, died. She was only
twenty-two years old. She left an infant son who came eventually to
Virginia, and there grew to a worthy manhood. Many excellent families of
Virginia are today proud to claim him as their ancestor.
=35. The Troubles of the Colonists increase.=--When Captain Smith, after
his romantic rescue, returned to the colonists, he found them in a
pitiful condition. During his absence the prospect had become in every
way gloomy. Hunger and sickness had reduced their number from over a
hundred men to only forty, and these were planning to go back to
England.
At this distressing time another vessel arrived from England bringing
one hundred and twenty immigrants. This event brightened the darkly
drooping spirits of the colonists. But the sunshine did not last long.
These new-comers, like the old, were mostly idlers and "vagabond
gentlemen," as the settlers called them. "We did not come here to work,"
they said. "Then you shall not eat," said the brusque leader. He was as
good as his word. They soon found they must work or starve.
=36. The Greed of the Colonists for Gold.=--One trouble that annoyed
Captain Smith very much was this: the English people kept urging the
colonists to send home gold. Those that arrived later, like those that
came before, had no idea of working for a living, but only the hope of
shoveling up gold to carry away.
They were so ignorant of minerals that, finding in the soil small yellow
scales of shining mica, they sent home bushels and bushels of it,
believing it to be gold. Another group of men supposed the little
glittering crystals of iron ore were really gold, and they spent weeks
in collecting the worthless stuff to send to England. No wonder Captain
Smith, although the leader of the colony, had hard work to manage and
feed men who would far rather dig "fool's gold" than raise corn.
=37. The Starving Time in Virginia.=--All this happened while Smith was
using the utmost wisdom and skill to guide the colony for the best. On
one unhappy day a bag of gunpowder exploded near him, burning him so
badly that he had to return to England for surgical treatment. This was
in September, 1609. After he had gone, the colonists fell into still
greater trouble, and the "starving time" followed. The people were
compelled to eat dogs, rats, snakes, and toads; many died of starvation;
four hundred and ninety men were reduced to sixty; but, by the fortunate
arrival of more vessels, help finally came.
Within the next few years the colony was set upon its feet, and the
foundations laid of a prosperous commonwealth. An energetic governor,
Sir Thomas Dale, made the idlers till the ground and promptly hanged the
criminals. The soil was found the best in the world for growing tobacco.
Hundreds of skilled farmers came over to Virginia to make their fortunes
by the cultivation of this fragrant weed.
=38. Further Explorations along the Coast.=--Having at length recovered
from his wound, Smith scorned to remain idle, and became anxious to
undertake another maritime enterprise. There was at that time a great
deal of excitement in England about _North_ Virginia, then so called. In
1614 he sailed again with two vessels on a voyage of discovery in that
region.
He touched first the shores of Maine, the nooks and corners of which he
explored; he then sailed along the ocean fringe from Penobscot Bay to
Cape Cod. He examined the coast carefully, entered the bays and rivers,
and named a number of prominent islands and capes. He sailed around Cape
Ann. To the three islands off the end of the cape he gave the queer name
of Three Turks' Heads. He prepared very carefully a map of the whole
country, as far as he had seen it, and he called it NEW ENGLAND.
On his return to England Smith presented his map to the king's son,
Prince Charles, who confirmed the name that had been given to it. Next
year he started out again. His object was to found a colony in New
England, a region of which he had great hopes. But his vessel was
captured by a French man-of-war, and he was taken to France. With a
return of good fortune this hero of surprising deeds escaped, and
finally got back safely to England.
=39. His Last Days; the "Father of Virginia."=--Our bold explorer now gave
up all plans of founding another colony in America. But he lived to know
and rejoice in the success of the Pilgrims and the Puritans in
Massachusetts. He wrote several books describing his travels and his
wonderful adventures.
He had shown himself vigorous, quick-witted, far-seeing. He had been the
ruling spirit and the preserver of the Virginia colony. In fact, he has
often and justly been called the "Father of Virginia." His strong hand
had also opened wide the door of New England.
We must think of Captain John Smith as the hero of the first struggle of
English civilization with the wilderness of America. Wherever he was,
his genius and resolute will had made him a leader. There was never a
braver man. After a life full of romantic adventures and daring
exploits, he died in London in 1631 at the age of fifty-two.
CHAPTER IV.
THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMS.
=40. The Old-Time Idea about Kings.=--We shall do well to remember that in
England, about three hundred years ago, the sovereign's will commonly
had the force of law. Many people really thought there was such
sacredness about a royal ruler that whatever he commanded must be right,
whatever he forbade must be wrong. Indeed, there was a proverb, "The
king can do no wrong." He had his own kind of church and his own mode of
worship. Everybody must attend that sort of church and practise that
form of worship, or be punished.
=41. Sturdy Englishmen dare to disobey the King.=--But there were, after
all, many honest, sturdy people in England who did not accept this
notion about the king. They did not like his style of religion, and they
would not pretend to like it. Besides, they felt that they had a right
to meet quietly by themselves, publicly in their own churches, or
privately in their own homes, and worship in their own way.
But these people were regarded with suspicion. Presently a number of
them were seized and thrown into loathsome jails; not a few were heavily
fined or made to suffer bodily harm; some died on the gallows; and all
this because, in spiritual affairs, they had dared to disobey the
monarch.
=42. The Pilgrims seek a Home in Holland; the First Attempt a
Failure.=--Those who were brave enough to oppose the king's despotism in
religious matters were at first styled Separatists, because they
separated from the "established church." Afterwards some of them came to
be called familiarly Pilgrims, because they wandered from place to place
on the way "to heaven, their dearest country," as they said. They longed
to go where they could be free to worship God as they pleased.
At last a company of them hired a vessel to take them just across the
North Sea to Holland. They chose Holland, because in that country all
people were allowed to worship as they thought best.
But just before the hour at which they had intended to embark, watchful
officers found them, seized most of their money and goods, dragged them
back, and put them in prison. It was indeed a pretty hard lot, punished
if they stayed in the country, and punished if they tried to get away!
=43. The Second Attempt Successful.=--The next year the Pilgrims again
tried to leave their native land. This time they succeeded. Taking their
wives and little ones, these resolute men, led by their pastor, the good
John Robinson, went as strangers and pilgrims to Holland. From time to
time the same refuge was sought by other persecuted people, till many
hundreds had settled in the old city of Leyden. Here they first
exercised that freedom of faith which had been denied them in the land
of their birth, and now they first experienced the delight of holding
their religious meetings without fear.
They were so industrious and honest that their Dutch neighbors took very
kindly to them.
[Illustration: A PILGRIM COLONIST.]
But when they had lived in Holland about twelve years, they decided to
remain no longer. Their children were learning the Dutch language, and
they themselves were slowly becoming foreigners. They were not pleased
with such results, for they still regarded themselves as Englishmen,
still loved the English people, the English ways of living, and the
glorious memories of their mother country.
About this time people were beginning to go to the New World beyond the
ocean, and these Pilgrims made up their minds to leave Holland and seek
a dwelling place in far-off America.
There were then about a thousand of them living in Holland. Nearly a
hundred of the young and strong were selected to go in advance and make
a beginning in the New World. They managed to charter for this purpose
two small vessels, the Speedwell and the Mayflower. In July, 1620, the
Speedwell sailed from Delftshaven; the Mayflower was chartered to sail
from an English port.
A very pathetic parting it was for these poor exiles upon the shore of
Holland, clasping their friends' hands for the last time, and looking
upon the dear faces they were to see no more. With their beloved
minister, Elder John Robinson, they knelt upon the sand while he prayed
earnestly for God's blessing upon their perilous undertaking. The
Pilgrims stopped at Plymouth, England, on the way, and as the Speedwell
seemed to be unseaworthy, they all, with others of the same faith who
joined the company there, went on board the Mayflower. In this one
vessel, after many delays, the one hundred and two people that finally
made up the Pilgrim company sailed from Plymouth in September, 1620, on
their long and dangerous voyage.
=44. The Pilgrims' Voyage across the Stormy Atlantic.=--Crowded upon their
little craft, this devoted company of men, women, and children had a
dreary and anxious voyage of nine weeks. During severe weather the seas
sometimes ran so high that for days the Mayflower was driven at the
mercy of wind and waves, while all of the company, except the sailors,
were compelled to remain, shivering and seasick, below the deck. In the
foul air were bred the germs of quick consumption, the disease which
carried off so many of this "Pilgrim band" during their first winter on
the wild New England shore.
=45. An Incident of the Voyage.=--During one of these storms a lively
young man named Howland fell overboard and would have been lost had he
not seized a rope which was trailing in the sea. Bradford quaintly says
in his journal that the young fellow "was sundry fathoms under water,"
but that he held on until "he was hauled up by the same rope to the brim
of the water," and with the aid of a boat-hook was at last safely landed
on deck. Howland was none the worse for his cold bath. He lived to sign
the compact at Cape Cod, and became a most useful citizen of the new
commonwealth, and the ancestor of many families.
=46. Arrival on the Bleak New England Coast.=--How often, in the last days
of that dismal voyage, did the Pilgrims gaze far into the west, always
hopeful, but no doubt sometimes dreading the future! As the weeks passed
by, the weather became very cold, and they had scanty means for warming
their cabin. When they neared the coast a driving storm compelled them
to change their course, so that instead of going up the Hudson River as
they had intended, they were forced into Massachusetts Bay, as it is now
called, and along the icy shores of Cape Cod.
All the coast was white with snow, and the future looked cheerless and
dark. There were no light-houses to warn them of dangerous shoals, no
life-saving men patrolling the beach to help shipwrecked mariners. No
one stood on the barren sandy shore to welcome them; they felt that they
were indeed strangers in a strange land.
=47. They sign a Compact in the Mayflower's Cabin.=--Inside the curved
point of Cape Cod, in a small bay which is now the harbor of
Provincetown, the Mayflower first dropped anchor. While there, John
Carver and William Bradford wrote a formal agreement for the government
of the company, and all of the forty-one men signed it.
This compact was drawn up and signed on a chest belonging to Elder
Brewster, which afterwards served as a table in his family. During the
first winter, when food was very scarce and the Pilgrims were obliged
to live almost entirely upon clams, the good Elder never failed to ask a
blessing upon their scanty meals, and to thank God, "who had yet given
them of the treasures hid in the sand."
[Illustration: PILGRIM ELDER ASKING A BLESSING.]
By the compact it was agreed that all were to have equal rights. They
pledged themselves to help and to defend each other, and to obey such
laws as they might make for the good of the colony. They then chose John
Carver for their first governor.
=48. They explore the Cape Cod Shore under the Lead of Captain Miles
Standish.=--A small party soon landed and tramped along for miles looking
for a suitable place to make a home. They could nowhere find good
drinking water. For three or four weeks the Mayflower with its precious
cargo sailed along the inner coast, trying to find a safe and inviting
harbor. Small parties often went ashore to explore the country.
One day a company of sixteen, led by Captain Standish, went ashore to
spend a number of days exploring a little way inland. This Captain
Standish, although one of the company, was not really a Pilgrim in his
way of living, nor in his religious views. His business was that of a
soldier, an employment more common then than now. He had met some of the
Pilgrims in Holland and was much pleased with their simple habits and
honest ways. When they were preparing to sail to the New World, he
thought it likely that they would need a soldier to show them how to
fight. So he came with them, and they soon were glad to have just such a
man. It was indeed well he did come, for he was often the most useful
member of the whole colony.
While the Mayflower lay at anchor in Provincetown harbor, and the
explorers were searching for a landing-place, a baby boy--the first New
England child of English parentage--was born on board of the vessel.
They gave him the quaint name of Peregrine. At Plymouth you may still
see the cradle in which little Peregrine White was rocked.
=49. Their Travels along the Shore of Cape Cod Bay, and what they
find.=--They discovered the remains of a hut which seemed to have been
recently occupied. So they surmised that Indians were living somewhere
in the vicinity. They came upon some piles of roasted acorns, and the
next day they caught a glimpse of a few savages and a deer. Soon
afterwards they saw a dog and more Indians. "The wild men ran away and
whistled the doggie after them." One day they discovered two or three
mounds of earth. One of these contained rude mats and an earthen dish.
They dug into other mounds and unearthed the skeletons of a grown person
and a child, a box containing Indian bows and arrows and spears with
flint points.
[Illustration: THE MILES STANDISH HOUSE.]
=50. They find Baskets of Indian Corn.=--In another place they noticed
heaps of sand freshly smoothed over. On scraping away the earth, what
should they find but Indian baskets full of corn! They had never seen
any such grain. They were delighted with the sight of the bright-colored
kernels, some red, some yellow, and others blue. The baskets were round,
narrow at the top, and contained about three bushels each. They carried
to the vessel all the corn they found, for they were in sore need of
food; but they were careful to save enough for seed in the spring. They
were honest men, and when long afterwards they found the Indians who had
buried the corn, they paid them a fair price for it.
[Illustration: LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS AT PLYMOUTH.]
One day these Pilgrim wanderers shot three fat geese and six ducks.
These they ate with wonderful relish, or "with soldier stomachs," as
their story says. At another time, as they were tramping through the
woods, William Bradford, not very careful, perhaps, as to where he was
stepping, suddenly found his foot entangled in a queer way. When his
companions came to help him out, they found he had been caught in a deer
trap set by the Indians!
=51. First Attack by Indians.=--One morning, just after their night's
sleep by a camp fire, and while engaged in their prayers, the weary men
were startled by a wild cry, very different from anything they had ever
heard. For a moment even Captain Standish was alarmed. It was an Indian
war-whoop; and the cry was followed by Indian arrows. Standish and his
men now fired their guns at the Indians. The firing caused the savages
to run away in great astonishment. They had never known of guns, and
were greatly afraid of these strangers who could instantly make thunder
and lightning. The Pilgrims had never before been targets for arrows, so
they kept these strange weapons, which were pointed with eagles' claws
or sharp pieces of deer's horn, as curiosities.
=52. The Search for a Home.=--The Pilgrims were very anxious to get
settled as soon as possible; yet when Sunday came they stopped all work
and spent the day in reading the Bible, in singing their hymns, and in
prayer. For nearly a month they sought, with much weariness and in
bitter cold, a place suitable for settlement. It must have been a cruel
and pitiful work for those poor men. They waded knee-deep in the snow;
slept unprotected under the wintry sky; often suffered from hunger; and,
for fear of Indians, were always compelled to keep anxious watch.
[Illustration: FIRST ATTACK BY THE INDIANS.]
After a tedious search along the shore of what is now Massachusetts Bay,
these stout-hearted wanderers at last found a sheltered place where, not
far from the shore, there was an abundant spring of good water. Near by
were some old cornfields that had formerly been used by the Indians.
Here they decided to land. The water being shallow, the vessel was
anchored nearly a mile from the beach. The Pilgrims were brought in
their boat, a few at a time, from the vessel to the landing-place. To
reach the shore, it is said that they found it convenient to step upon a
large stone. This is now known as Plymouth Rock. It is claimed that the
first English woman to set foot upon this stone on the Plymouth shore
was Mary Chilton.
=53. The Famous Plymouth Rock.=--Plymouth Rock is not very large; but it
is sacred in the eyes and the hearts of every American. Every year
thousands go to look upon "the stepping-stone of New England"; to linger
by the graves of the Pilgrims; and to see in Pilgrim Hall the many
curious interesting things which once belonged to those pioneers of
western civilization.
[Illustration: CANOPY OVER PLYMOUTH ROCK.]
From the name of the last town they had left in England, the Pilgrims
named this, the first spot in Massachusetts settled by white men, New
Plymouth. The date of the landing was December 21, 1620, and its
anniversary is now celebrated as "Forefathers' Day."
CHAPTER V.
MORE ABOUT THE PILGRIMS.
=54. The Hardships caused by the Winter Season.=--We may think it
unfortunate, and so indeed it was, that the Pilgrims had not come to
this country in the spring or summer. They would have had a much
pleasanter voyage, and on their arrival might have found the forests
green, the birds singing in the trees, and the ground adorned with
flowers. If they could have come in April or May they would probably
have had warm, pleasant weather for landing or exploring, and could have
built their houses at their leisure. They could have planted their
fields as soon as they landed, and in a few months could have gathered
sufficient crops for their support.
=55. The Toil and Perils of the First Winter.=--As it was, our Pilgrim
fathers found the landing very tedious. In a single small boat they had
to come and go, and bring all their provisions and household goods. Some
of these very articles of furniture, such as Governor Carver's armchair,
old spinning wheels, odd-looking seats and chests, and the big iron
kettles in which they boiled their dinners, and also Captain Miles
Standish's sword, we can see at Plymouth to-day.
While the men were moving the goods, and until rude structures had been
prepared for their shelter on shore, the women and children remained on
the Mayflower. Of course the best houses that could be made were very
rude affairs. In fact, rough though they were, it was a hard task to
build them at all; for hardly one of the company was really fit for such
work.
Many times the weary men were forced to wade in deep snow. When they ran
their loaded boat on the sandy beach, they often had to leap into the
cold water up to their waists to pull it ashore. More than once they
were obliged to be out all day in a furious storm of rain and sleet,
which froze on their clothes till every man wore a covering of ice.
=56. Suffering, Sickness, and Death make Sad Havoc.=--Thus it came about
that the Pilgrims suffered severely from exhaustion and disease. There
were soon only a few men well enough to chop down the trees for their
houses. Without beasts of burden, the tired workers themselves had to
drag the logs as best they could, and then with slow and painful toil
hew them to the right size and shape and put them in their proper
places.
Through that long and tiresome winter nearly all sickened, and many
died. Before spring one-half of those who had landed from the Mayflower
were gone. That the Indians might not know how terribly the numbers had
been diminished by death, the bodies were buried secretly; and the
graves were marked by no mounds nor stones, but were made level with the
surrounding soil.
[Illustration: SAMOSET'S FIRST VISIT TO THE PILGRIMS.]
The wonder is that these Pilgrims, ill, hungry, and cold, did not become
discouraged, give up their enterprise, and go back to England in the
Mayflower. Splendidly courageous indeed they were to pursue their
purpose so bravely. Weeks and months they worked and suffered, but they
never flinched. They were content and even happy in the consciousness of
freedom gained and duty done. They had come to stay--and they stayed.
At last the dreary winter wore away. Spring came, bringing the soft
south winds and the songs of birds. Busy hands were soon planting and
cultivating. The hearts of the Pilgrims were filled with hope.
=57. A Kindly Visit from the Indians.=--One day in early spring they were
surprised at seeing an Indian march boldly into their settlement,
saying, "Welcome, English! Welcome, English!" His name was Samoset. He
had learned a little English from fishermen on the coast of Maine. The
settlers received him very kindly. After several hours he went away.
In a few days he came back with another Indian named Squanto, who had
once lived in Plymouth but had been kidnapped and carried to England.
Squanto said that Massasoit, the chief of the tribes in the
neighborhood, was near by, and that with sixty of his men he would
shortly pay a visit to the Pilgrims. The Indian chief soon appeared and
was cordially received. He promised to be a good friend to the English,
and in return the settlers agreed to treat the Indians kindly. For over
fifty years this promise was sacredly kept.
Squanto made himself very useful to the Pilgrims. He showed them how to
plant maize by first manuring the ground with fish, then putting the
kernels and the alewives together in the hill. The grain now first
received the name of Indian corn. He also taught the settlers how to
catch eels by treading them out of the mud with their feet. Shortly
afterwards Squanto came to live with the Pilgrims, and proved himself
their firm friend.
Sometimes other Indians were hostile. Once a chief named Canonicus, who
was an enemy of Massasoit and did not like the Pilgrims, sent to
Governor Bradford a bundle of arrows wrapped in the skin of a
rattlesnake. He meant this to be a threat of war. The resolute governor
threw the arrows on the ground, filled the snake's skin with powder and
bullets, and sent it back to the chief! Canonicus was quick-witted
enough to take the hint, and thereafter he let the Pilgrims alone.
=58. First Houses built in the New Home.=--The first building the Pilgrims
put up was a log house twenty feet square, in which they stowed away
their scanty provisions, furniture, guns, and powder. They slept there
till houses were built for separate families. This storehouse also
served as a kind of fort till they had put up a better one on top of the
high hill, now known as "Burial Hill," close by. As they had no
shingles nor boards, they used for a covering of the roof long grass and
seaweed. The chimneys they made mainly of big stones; the upper part,
however, consisted of large sticks plastered over with clay.
The dirt floor was soon trodden hard and smooth. The large cracks
between the logs of the walls were filled with a kind of mortar made of
mud and grass. In those days glass was very costly, and so for windows
oiled paper was used.
After the storehouse was sufficiently advanced, the settlers began to
work on other houses. They laid out a street which they called Leyden
Street, and built their houses on each side of it. The same street with
the same name is in Plymouth to-day. The whole colony was divided into
family groups, each unmarried young man choosing a family to live with,
and each group having its own dwelling.
=59. Perils and Mishaps of the First Winter.=--Even before the houses were
finished, the men built a high picket fence around the whole settlement,
with a stout gate on each side; for they were in constant fear of the
Indians. In fact, they had to keep a sharp lookout every day, and a
guard watched every night to give the alarm in case of danger. So
watchful were they that, whether chopping wood, eating dinner, or at
meeting on Sunday, every man had his gun close at hand, ready for
instant use.
One day, soon after the storehouse was finished, it happened that
Governor Carver and William Bradford were both within, sick in bed.
Suddenly the dry thatch caught fire from the chimney sparks, and the
whole roof went up in a blaze. The sick men were lifted out safely. No
serious damage was done to anything but the roof, and that was soon
replaced by a new one.
=60. How the First Log Houses were built.=--If we could have made a visit
to one of the rough log houses of the Pilgrims after they had brought in
their scanty furniture from the vessel, and when affairs had become a
little settled, many things would have seemed strange to us.
There is no front entry to the house, for there is only one rough door,
and that opens directly into the house; no parlor, no bedroom, no
kitchen, but all in one, with perhaps a loft overhead. The inside walls
are like the outside, rough, but plastered between the logs. The roof is
made of timbers, for there is no sawmill for sawing logs into boards.
The timbers do not fit closely, and although there is a covering of
thatch, the snow blows in quite freely.
=61. A Peep into a Pilgrim's House.=--Let us take a glimpse into one of
these Pilgrim houses. The huge fireplace, made of rough stones laid in
clay, fills nearly one whole side of the house. The men bring in great
logs of wood for the fire. Even when the logs are on the fire there is
room for a person to sit on a stool at each end of the logs, and yet be
inside of the fireplace. This is the children's favorite seat.
The chimney has a big throat, as large as a hogs-head. One can sit at
the end of the logs and look up and see the sky. The sides of the
chimney are roughly laid, and the big stones project so far into the
room that the children use them as a staircase in climbing up to their
bed in the loft.
[Illustration: A SETTLER'S LOG CABIN.]
In those days nobody had ever heard of a stove. All the cooking of the
family was done over a huge fire or in front of it. They used the iron
pots and skillets they had brought from England, some of which are still
preserved at Plymouth. If they had the good luck to shoot a wild goose
or turkey, they thrust a long iron rod through it and roasted it above
or before the fire, giving it a turn now and then; or else they hung it
very near the fire with a stout string, turning it around at times. The
wintry winds often dashed in strong gusts down the big chimney, making
it freezing cold all through the house.
=62. The Scant Furnishings of their Homes.=--There were few or no chairs,
but here and there a stool, or some solid blocks cut from the trees. In
one corner, on a rude shelf resting upon two wooden pins driven into the
log, were a few books,--always a Bible, a hymn book, the Psalms, and
possibly a few others.
Hanging from a beam was a little iron cup, in which there was some fish
oil, with a twisted rag or a bit of wick; this contrivance served for a
lamp when needed. But the big fire usually answered for an evening lamp.
On one side of the room was a rough cupboard or case of shelves for
their few dishes. They had no nice glass or china with which to make a
display. The glass they had was coarse and of a brownish tint. The early
settlers often used leather bottles, leather cups, and rough plates
called trenchers, chipped from blocks of wood. Often two persons ate out
of one trencher. At this time forks were not in general use. The
Pilgrims cut their food with knives and then managed it with their
fingers.
Their few pewter dishes they were very proud of, and they kept them in
sight in the cupboard, bright with frequent scouring; for the Pilgrim
women were excellent housewives, and everything about the house was
scrupulously neat and clean.
[Illustration: PILGRIMS GOING TO CHURCH.]
=63. Other Articles of Household Furniture.=--Around the log cabin were
two or three big chests, in which each family brought over its goods.
These were used to keep their better clothing in, if they had any, and
for seats. In the corner was a spinning wheel to spin the wool for their
clothing. On these large wheels the mothers and daughters used to spin
great piles of wool and flax. Two or three of the houses had large
looms--machines on which the thread they spun was woven into stout cloth
for the family.
We should have seen no timepiece in their living rooms. There was
neither clock nor watch in the whole settlement. On sunny days the
women knew when to have dinner ready by the noon mark, as it was
called--a notch cut on some beam near the window, showing just where the
line betwixt sunshine and shadow came at twelve o'clock.
In the corner of the log house was the gun, close to the door, where it
would be ready for use at any moment.
Although the family slept in the one big room, we should not have seen
any bed in the daytime. It was turned up against the wall, and fastened
to the side of the cabin. At night it was turned down and nearly filled
the room. None of the beds were very soft, for they were filled with hay
or leaves. By and by, after they had shot enough wild fowl, they had
feather beds.
=64. Around the Dinner Table.=--When the little family gathered around the
table for dinner, there was before them neither an abundance nor a
variety of food. There was no milk, butter, nor cheese; for there was no
cow in the colony. It was four years before a cow was brought over from
England. They had no eggs, no beef nor pork nor lamb, and of course no
vegetables yet, nor any nice white bread. The provisions they brought in
the ship were partly spoiled, and were nearly used up. So they had to
get food as best they could.
Now and then the colonists killed some game, but they had to be careful
and not waste their powder and shot. One day they shot and cooked an
eagle; but, as Bradford wrote in his journal, it was "woefully tough."
They could not often shoot a bear or a deer. They obtained some corn of
the Indians by trading such trifles as they could best spare. The
records tell us that once a Pilgrim bartered a little dog for a peck of
corn.
=65. The Daily Fare becomes scant; Hardships increased by Hunger.=--By and
by all the other food failed, so that their main article of diet was
corn. This they made into meal by pounding it on smooth stones. But even
this supply from the Indians was often scanty and uncertain, so that at
times they were without it until, after a year or two, they raised their
own crops.
The rest of their provisions they obtained from the ocean--clams,
lobsters, and various kinds of fish. But their fishing boat was so frail
and their hooks and nets were so poor that this source many times
disappointed them.
Thus, the two articles on which they chiefly depended being Indian corn
and sea-food, they were sometimes entirely destitute, unable to obtain
either.
What a condition! "I have seen men," wrote one of the Pilgrims,
"stagger by reason of faintness for want of food; they knew not at night
where to have a bit in the morning." They were so badly off that if it
were possible for a friend to visit them, the best they could offer him
would be a piece of fish and some water!
[Illustration: PILGRIMS WATCHING THE RETURN OF THE MAYFLOWER.]
Such was the daily living of the first Pilgrim settlers in this country.
Such were a few of the hardships they bravely and patiently endured. And
yet, strange to say, when the Mayflower sailed for home in the early
spring, as we have before stated, not one of these stout-hearted men and
women returned in her to England.
CHAPTER VI.
THE INDIANS AND HOW THEY LIVED.
=66. How the Indians looked; the Clothes they wore.=--Let us now learn a
few things about the Indians as they were before their habits and mode
of life had been changed by contact with white men.
The heads of the Indians were always bare. It was customary for them to
allow one tuft of hair to grow longer than the rest. This was called the
"scalp lock." When a fight had been finished, this lock served as a
convenience to the victor. It enabled him to remove handily the scalp
from the head of a dead enemy, and to carry it easily away as a trophy
of triumph.
The Indians had the curious custom of smearing their faces and their
bodies with red paint. On great occasions, such as the holding of a
tribal council or a war dance, they painted themselves a more brilliant
red. The bright color was believed to give a formidable aspect. They
decked themselves with queer ornaments of many sorts. Around their necks
they wore strings of shining stones, bits of mica, baubles made of
copper, and animals' teeth highly polished. Feathers were held in great
esteem. Success in war entitled the victor to wear eagles' feathers as a
mark of the greatest distinction. In this love of finery the men were
fully as vain as the women.
[Illustration: LONG HOUSE OF THE IROQUOIS INDIANS.]
The clothing of the Indians was, for the most part, fashioned out of the
dried skins of animals, such as the deer and the beaver, whose flesh had
been used for food. Unlike that of civilized people, this clothing was
seldom or never changed, but was worn till it was worn out. If not
unwashable, it was rarely washed. The "noble red man" was not a model of
cleanliness. He had never heard of soap.
=67. What the Indians had to eat.=--The food of the Indians varied with
the place and the season, but game and fish were the principal articles.
Their game was chiefly deer, bears, moose, raccoons, foxes, wild geese,
and wild turkeys. Having no salt nor spices, no bread nor potatoes,
neither milk, butter, nor cheese, their living must have lacked such
relish as we give to ours.
In the settled villages the Indians cultivated rude gardens. In these
they raised corn, beans, squashes, and tobacco; but, considering the
crudeness of their tools, we must suppose that the crops were scanty.
The squaws used to cook corn and beans together, making _succotash_.
Both the dish and the name have come to us from the Indians. Green corn
they used to roast in hot ashes, very much as we sometimes do now at
clambakes or other outings. Meat they commonly cooked by thrusting a
stick through it and holding it over the fire; but they sometimes boiled
it in rude earthen pots. Fish they broiled on a frame of sticks.
=68. The Indian's Struggle for a Living.=--The principal work of the
Indians was to get food enough. They did not hunt or fish merely for
sport, as men and boys of our time are apt to do. To the Indian, hunting
was the serious task of providing for his family and himself. At times
the supply became very slight. It was especially so in the winter. Then
they really suffered from hunger, and were forced to eat ground-nuts and
acorns--anything to keep alive. But when they had had good hunting they
would eat enormously. At times, when game was scarce, different tribes
would have savage fights for the best hunting ground.
Their only drink was water. After the white man came they learned the
use of rum and whiskey, and would pay a great price for what they called
"fire water." On the other hand, the white man learned from the Indian
the use of tobacco. It was a bad bargain both ways.
=69. Hardships of the Indian Women.=--The Indian warriors occupied
themselves with war and the chase. They looked upon ordinary labor as
degrading, and fit only for women. These they treated very much as
slaves. The squaw did all the everyday work--building the wigwam,
raising the crops, making the clothes, and weaving bark mats for the
beds. On journeys the women carried their infants, or papooses, on their
backs.
With some tribes woman held a higher place. She had a considerable
degree of influence in public matters, and often decided the question of
peace or war. She could even drive away her husband if he failed to
bring home game or fish enough for the family.
=70. The Indians' Weapons.=--Indian wars were conducted in a manner
entirely different from that of civilized nations. The weapons were the
bow and arrow, the hatchet of sharp stone, and the war club. The
bowstring was made of Indian hemp or the sinews of the deer. The
arrowhead was of sharp flint or bone; its point was often made of an
eagle's claw or the spur of a wild turkey. The stone hatchet, called
"tomahawk," had a long handle and was a powerful weapon.
[Illustration: INDIAN WAR CLUB.]
After the Indians had seen the white man's guns, hatchets, and knives,
and could obtain such things for themselves, the use of their own rude
weapons was abandoned.
Gunpowder was for a long time a mystery to the Indians. At first they
thought that it grew from the ground, like the tobacco plant. It is said
they once sowed some of it in the spring, expecting to see it take root
and grow. They supposed every white person knew how to make it; and so,
once upon a time, when they had captured two young girls, they tried to
force them to make a supply of it.
[Illustration: INDIAN STONE HATCHET.]
=71. How the Indians fought.=--In battle, Indians did not come out in fair
and open fight, as is the custom of white men; but their skill consisted
in surprises, shooting from behind rocks and trees, skulking around at
night, and killing the enemy asleep. Captives in war were frequently
tortured in the most barbarous ways; sometimes they were tied to trees
and were slowly burned to death or were shot. But it was a high standard
of Indian valor to bear the sharpest pain without flinching, with never
a groan or any sign of suffering.
[Illustration: INDIAN CALUMET OR PIPE OF PEACE.]
The Indians, believing as they did that all animals were protecting or
unfriendly spirits, often addressed them as if they were human beings.
The story is told of an Indian who shot at a large bear and wounded him.
The bear fell and lay whining and groaning. The Indian went up to him
and said: "Bear, you are a coward, and no warrior. You know that your
tribe and mine are at war, and that yours began it. If you had wounded
me, I would not have uttered a sound; and yet you sit here and cry and
disgrace your tribe."
=72. The Use made of Wampum, or Indian Money.=--Indians had little use for
gold or silver, but they had something in its place, which they called
"wampum." This was made of bits of seashells like beads. The pieces had
a hole in the center, so that they could be strung in long strips or
made into belts.
Wampum was used for a long time as regular money or the medium of
exchange between the Indians and the whites, and even between one white
and another. Strings of it were passed around for purposes of trade, as
we now use coins of silver and gold. But after a while, as seashells
became plentiful, wampum became almost worthless, and then the Indians
were glad enough to take the white man's silver money.
[Illustration: TREATY-BELT MADE OF WAMPUM.]
Among some of the tribes, bands of wampum were woven into ornamental
belts, and these were decorated with colored beads combined into
striking figures and designs. The wampum belts were often given as a
pledge that the giver would faithfully live up to certain terms of a
treaty.
=73. Indian Tools and Snowshoes.=--As the Indians had so little to work
with--no iron for knives, nor tools of any kind except flinty stones
made sharp and called "hatchets"--it is wonderful how ingenious they
were in supplying their personal wants. They kneaded in oil and
softened with heat the furry skins of animals, and from these they made
excellent garments for winter. From dried deerskins they fashioned a
sort of soft serviceable shoe called the "moccasin." This was wrought
from a single piece of the leather. It fitted snugly to the foot and was
tied with strips of buckskin at the ankle.
The danger of starving in the winter when the snow was deep led the
Indians to invent the snowshoe. This was made of a light framework of
ash, filled with meshes of rawhide, thus presenting a broad surface to
the snow. By this contrivance the Indians could travel in winter as
easily as in summer.
It is said that an Indian upon snowshoes could easily travel forty miles
a day. Strangely enough, all the cunning of the white man has never
availed to make anything better for such a purpose.
=74. Indians as Hunters.=--The Indian contrived ingenious traps for
catching bears, moose, and other sorts of game. One of these devices
consisted of a long and heavy log, carefully balanced upon a post placed
upright in the ground, with a log attached to one end of it. The roving
animal would approach, and by jumping attempt to get the bait that was
so attractive. The movement would cause the log to fall, and thus,
perhaps, the creature would be killed.
Fish were killed by shooting them with the arrow as they swam; or they
were caught with hooks of bone, or taken in rivers by means of a weir,
or brush fence, fixed across the stream. Sometimes they were taken in
nets woven from the bark of the elm, and in traps of wickerwork not
unlike the lobster pots now in use.
The Indians had a remarkable faculty, resembling that of the
ventriloquist, whereby they could imitate the voices of woodland
creatures--the hoot of the owl, the cry of the wild turkey, the howl of
the wolf. By this means they could readily attract animals of various
species to a spot where they might easily kill them. Even hostile
Indians out searching for game were in this manner sometimes allured to
the place of danger.
=75. Story illustrating the Indian's Keen Observation.=--It is marvelous
what quick eyes the Indian had to see almost instantly things that other
persons would never see at all. The story is often told of an Indian who
returned one day to his wigwam and found that a large piece of venison
had been stolen. He looked carefully around, and then started off for
the thief. He asked the first man he met if he had seen a little old
white man with a short gun and a small dog with a short tail. Afterwards
he explained how he learned all these points. He said he knew the thief
was little, for he had to pile up some stones to reach the venison; old,
by his short steps; white, by the toes of his tracks turning out; that
he had a short gun, for when it fell to the ground from where it leaned
against the tree, it made a short mark in the dirt. He knew by the dog's
track that the dog was small; he knew that the dog had a short tail,
because a short groove had been "wiggled" in the dust where the dog had
sat while his master was stealing the meat!
[Illustration: AN INDIAN CAMP OF TO-DAY IN THE FAR WEST.]
=76. The Indians were Cruel, Cunning, and Revengeful.=--As to character,
the Indian had, like all the rest of us, a good and a bad side. Though
usually silent and moody in the presence of white men, travelers tell
us that the Indians had lively games when by themselves, and enjoyed fun
and frolic and story-telling like other people. They were crafty and
treacherous, as well they might be from their constant warfare.
[Illustration: INDIAN ATTACK ON A SETTLER'S HOUSE.]
They were cruel and remorseless in their revenge, and they never forgot
a wrong. Full of cunning, they took pride in ingenious tricks. They
would wear snowshoes with the toes turned backwards, that the enemy
might think they had gone the other way! In their homes they were
filthy, lazy, and improvident. They were passionately fond of gambling,
after they had learned it of the whites!
On the other hand, they were patient of hunger, cold, and fatigue, and
were wonderfully brave. They were hospitable to an acquaintance in need,
even sharing the last of their food with him. They were grateful for
benefits, and never forgot a kindness. Their promise was almost sacred,
and the pledge of their chief was rarely broken.
When the early settlers in this country treated the Indians kindly, they
usually received kindness in return, as we shall see later in reading
William Penn's dealings with the Indians in Pennsylvania. But now and
then some rude white man was cruel or dishonest in dealing with them,
and then he learned that the red man knew what revenge means.
If any serious offense was given to the Indians they brooded over it,
and then, eager to inflict more harm than they had suffered, instead of
punishing the offender alone, they spent their revenge upon all they
could reach of the white race. So they sprang suddenly upon peaceful
villages and cruelly killed innocent men, women, and children.
=77. Anecdote of Tecumseh.=--The true Indian warrior had a certain proud
dignity that challenged respect. At a great council of the government
with the Indians, the famous Indian chief, Tecumseh, after he had made a
speech, turned to take a seat, when it was found that by accident no
chair had been placed for him. General Harrison instantly called for
one. It was brought by the interpreter, who said, "The Great Father
wishes you to take a chair." "My father!" he said with dignity, as he
wrapped his blanket about him to seat himself in Indian style upon the
ground; "the Sun is my father, the Earth is my mother, and on her bosom
will I repose."
=78. Care and Training of the Indian Children.=--The care and training of
Indian children were peculiar. When the little papoose was very young,
it was not fondled nor much attended to. Quite early it was placed in a
small trough of bark and strapped in with a mat or skin in front, the
little bed being padded with soft moss. This bit of a cradle was handy
to carry around, to lean against a log, or to hang up in a tree.
[Illustration: INDIAN PAPOOSE.]
As they grew up, they were as happy as other children. Their parents
made toys for them, and their older mates taught them songs and games.
As soon as they were large enough, each had his share of work to do. The
girls had to help their mothers to dress skins for clothing, to bring
wood and water, and to work in the rude garden.
=79. The Indian Boy's Early Training.=--The Indian boy was early trained
for hunting and war. His first lessons were to manage his bow and
arrows, and then he was taken into the woods to shoot. He was taught to
set traps for small game, and his father often slyly put some animal in
the snare to encourage the young hunter.
So the boy was taught, not arithmetic and grammar, but all about
birds--their colors, their different whistles and cries, and what each
note means; their food and habits, where they nest, how they fly, and
the best way to shoot them. His lessons included the study of rabbits
and squirrels, of beavers and foxes, and of all such game.
[Illustration: BOY WARNING SETTLERS OF AN INDIAN ATTACK.]
By the time the Indian boy had seen twelve or fourteen _snows_, as the
Indian would say, he could make his own bows and arrows and could help
make canoes. He had received many lessons about shaping tomahawks and
war clubs, and how to use them. Playing ball was a favorite game with
Indian youth. Catlin, the celebrated authority on Indian life, tells us
that he used to ride thirty miles to see a ball game, and would sit on
his horse all day to see a match played by six to eight hundred or even
a thousand young Indians.
=80. How the Indians buried their Dead.=--For the most part the Indians
buried their dead in mounds or in shallow graves, sometimes prostrate,
but often in a sitting posture facing the east. But some tribes placed
the body on a high scaffold raised on long poles out of the reach of
wild beasts. Beside the body were carefully placed the weapons of the
dead, paints, any favorite trinkets he used to wear, and food to sustain
him on his journey to the far-off Happy Hunting Grounds.
CHAPTER VII.
THE DUTCH IN NEW YORK; THE QUAKERS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
=81. The Search for a Shorter Route to India.=--We must not forget that
during all these years the European nations in their desire for riches
were often searching for a shorter route to China and the East Indies.
They hoped to succeed in this either by sailing to the north of Europe
or America, or by finding some opening across the newly discovered
continent. For more than a hundred years after the time of Columbus many
a daring navigator came forward to undertake this business.
=82. Sir Henry Hudson, the Bold and Skillful Mariner.=--Several years
before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, a bold and skillful mariner
named Henry Hudson, a friend of Captain John Smith, was hired by some
London merchants to search for the imaginary northern passage. For this
purpose he made two perilous voyages. Once he sailed along the eastern
coast of Greenland until the ice stopped him. After three months he
returned to England. The next year he tried it again, and sailed
farther north, but as before was turned back by the ice.
Hudson tells us that on one of these voyages two of his sailors saw a
mermaid swimming close to the ship's side. The upper parts of her body
were those of a woman, but below she was a fish, and as big as a
halibut! Probably the creature was a seal, an animal with which English
sailors were not at that time familiar.
=83. Hudson enters the Dutch Service.=--At last, in 1609, Hudson, who had
now become famous, entered the service of the Dutch East India Company
and sailed from Amsterdam to find the long-sought route. Living near the
ocean, the Dutch at this time were great sailors and traders. They owned
more ships than all Europe besides. Their sails whitened every ocean.
They were glad to hire "the bold Englishman, the expert pilot, and the
famous navigator," as they called Hudson, to brave the perils of the
Arctic seas.
Again this intrepid sailor, "the Nansen of the year 1608," went too far
north, and again he found himself caught in the ice of the desolate
Arctic regions. He now made up his mind to go farther west. He coasted
along Greenland, passed southward to Newfoundland, sighted Cape Cod, and
then sailed as far south as Virginia. Finding the English settlers
there ahead of him, he turned about and steered north again, keeping
close to the wild and unknown coast.
=84. Hudson sails up the Hudson River in the Little "Half Moon."=--In
September, 1609, Sir Henry found himself not far from the mouth of a
broad river, and dropped anchor near what is now Sandy Hook. The Indians
here were kind to their strange visitors, and came on board the vessel
to trade. They brought grapes, furs, and pumpkins, and traded them for
beads, knives, and hatchets.
[Illustration: THE "HALF MOON" ON THE HUDSON.]
After a few days the anchor of the little "Half Moon" was raised, the
sails were spread, and Hudson was slowly wafted past the Palisades and
far up the noble river which still bears his name. Because for many
miles the water at high tide was salt, he thought that he had surely
found the long-wished-for passage to India.
No white man had ever before sailed up this, perhaps the most beautiful
of American streams. With what wonder and hope must the captain and his
men have gazed on the lovely scenery, rich in the gorgeous hues of
autumnal foliage! In fact Hudson, in the story of his voyage, says that
the lands on both sides were "pleasant with grass and flowers and goodly
trees,--as beautiful a land as one can tread upon."
=85. Kindly received by the Indians.=--The Indians, filled with curiosity,
flocked from far and near to the banks of the river to see the "great
white bird," a name they gave the "Half Moon" on account of its white
spreading canvas wings. As they peeped out from the rocks and woods
along the shore, they had the same feelings of curiosity and awe as did
the natives that gazed in wonder upon the vessels of Columbus more than
a hundred years before.
Hudson sailed north until he reached a point near where Albany now
stands. As the river now became narrower and its water fresh, he was
convinced at last that he could never find his way to India by this
route.
=86. Hudson returns Home; his Sad Fate.=--After a time, disappointed at
his failure to reach India, Hudson sailed out of the river and across
the ocean to England, and afterwards to Holland. The stout-hearted
mariner never saw his "great river" again. On his next and last voyage
he sailed farther north and entered the immense land-locked bay that now
bears his name. He thought that he had this time surely discovered the
long-sought opening to the Pacific. Imagine his dismay when, after
coasting around its sides for nearly three months, he was forced at last
to believe that this inland sea had no western outlet!
The long Arctic winter came. Hudson's men were nearly starved. They had
endured so many hardships that in a frenzy of despair and wrath they at
last bound their captain hand and foot, thrust him on board a small boat
with his son and some sick sailors, and set them adrift. This was the
last ever seen or heard of Hudson.
Probably, like De Soto, the bold navigator found his grave in the vast
waters that he was the first to discover.
=87. The Dutch claim the Territory; Manhattan Island bought of the
Indians.=--The Dutch now laid claim to all the territory along the Hudson
River, and in 1614 they took possession of it under the name of New
Netherland. In a few years they began to establish trading posts, where
they might buy of the Indians the skins of bears, beavers, and otters.
After a time the Indians sold the Dutch the island of Manhattan for the
sum of twenty-four dollars. This settlement, then called "New
Amsterdam," was the beginning of what is now one of the largest and
richest cities in the world--Greater New York.
=88. The Dutch Settlers prosper.=--For the first few years the settlers in
New Amsterdam were poor; but after a time richer and more influential
men made homes for themselves in this colony. They secured from the
Dutch East India Company the right to own by purchase from the Indians a
tract of land sixteen miles in length and extending an unlimited
distance into the interior, and to establish there a colony of fifty
people. The rich landholders were called "patroons," and their great
estates laid the foundation of the wealth of many of the leading
families of the Empire State.
[Illustration: DUTCH WINDMILL.]
=89. How the Dutch People lived.=--As the Dutch prospered, they built
better houses. These were of wood. Each house had on its roof one
weathercock, and often many of them. The gable ends were built of
various-colored bricks brought over from Holland.
[Illustration: A DUTCHMAN OF NEW AMSTERDAM.]
The Dutch women were excellent housekeepers. We owe to them the
doughnut, the cruller, cookies, and many other delicious articles of
skillful cookery. Many a pleasant custom had its origin with these
genial Dutch settlers, such as the Christmas visit of Santa Claus, the
display of colored eggs at Easter, and the friendly visiting on New
Year's day. The floors in these thrifty homes were covered with white
sand, on which quaint figures were sketched with a broom. There were
huge fireplaces with Dutch tiles of different colors, on which were
represented scenes from the Bible. The Dutch men were fond of good food
and of their pipes. They used to have in front of their houses a porch
or "stoop," sometimes called a "bowerie," on which they could sit and
smoke and tell stories and take their ease generally. The men wore
several pairs of knee breeches at once, one over another, with long
stockings, and with huge buckles at the knees and on the shoes. Their
coats, too, were adorned with great buckles of silver or brass.
The women were neatly dressed, usually wearing several short petticoats
of many colors. Their stockings were of their own knitting, and had as
many hues as the rainbow. Their shoes had very high heels.
=90. Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor; New York surrenders to
the English.=--The last Dutch governor was Peter Stuyvesant, brave and
honest, but a very stubborn man. He was so obstinate that he was
nicknamed "Headstrong Peter." He was also known as "Old Silverleg,"
because, having lost a leg in war, he used a wooden one adorned with
strips of silver. He was a tyrant in his way, and at length his people
would not endure his tyranny, especially as the English settlers in the
same region enjoyed more liberty and had increased more rapidly in
numbers and riches than they.
[Illustration: PETER STUYVESANT.]
And so it happened that when an English fleet sailed into the harbor in
1664, the people did not come to the help of "Headstrong Peter," but
gladly surrendered the town to the English in spite of "Old
Silverleg's" wrath! The name of the colony was changed to New York in
honor of the Duke of York, the brother of King Charles II.
=91. How the Quakers were persecuted.=--About forty years after the
Pilgrims had built their homes in Plymouth, the members of a peculiar
religious sect, the Society of Friends, were bitterly persecuted in
England. In spite of their ill-treatment, which lasted for many years,
they greatly increased in numbers. A few men and women of wealth and of
high social position joined them.
These Friends, or Quakers as they were commonly called, were singularly
blunt in speech and plain in dress. But they were an honest, sober,
God-fearing people. They wished to treat all men as friends, brothers,
and equals. They did not approve of war and would not serve as soldiers.
As they believed all men equal, they recognized no superiors: they would
not doff their hats to any one, not even to the king, for they thought
"the Lord forbade it." They said they would acknowledge no master, king,
or lord, save only Him who was their "Master in heaven," the "King of
Kings and Lord of Lords."
Naturally enough, in those days of bigotry and intolerance the doctrines
and behavior of the Quakers made the king and his great men very angry.
They threw hundreds of them into prison. Consequently, many of the
Quakers left their homes, came to this country, and settled in
Massachusetts. But the stern sons of the Old Pilgrim Fathers would not
endure them. They drove them away or put them in prison. The Boston
Puritans even hanged four Quakers who had repeatedly come back after
having been several times punished and driven into exile.
[Illustration: WILLIAM PENN.]
=92. William Penn becomes a Quaker.=--About the time King Charles II was
restored to the throne of England (1660) there lived in that country a
handsome young man of noble birth and talents of the highest order.
William Penn was his name. There is a portrait of him in the dress of an
English cavalier, with flowing curls over his shoulders, and a face of
manly tenderness and beauty. This man, the founder of Pennsylvania, was
the only son of a brave English admiral who had won signal victories for
his country during the Dutch war, and was held in high favor by the king
and the royal family. While Penn was a boy and in college, his heart was
stirred within him by listening to the Quaker preachers. He believed
they were right. He was convinced that he ought to join them, and did so
in spite of the ridicule of his rich and titled friends.
=93. Young Penn falls into Disgrace with his Family and is sent from
Home.=--Young Penn was expelled from college and sent home. The old
admiral, in his anger because his only son would disgrace his family by
uniting with the despised Quakers, drove him from his door. The mother,
however, interceded, and the stubborn youth was allowed to travel for a
time on the Continent to divert his mind from what they called his
foolishness.
Alas for the old admiral's ambitious plans for his gifted son! William
was out-and-out a Quaker; and no title, honors, or favor could induce
him to give up his faith. He pleaded with the king to allow the English
people freedom of conscience, so that they might worship God as they
deemed best. He tried in vain to procure the release of the Quakers from
the prisons where hundreds of them were then confined. For a time Penn
was himself shut up in the Tower of London, the prison of offenders of
high rank. While there he wrote his best known work, _No Cross, no
Crown_. The king's brother, the Duke of York, however, soon brought
about his release.
=94. Penn inherits Wealth; secures a Grant of Land from the King.=--Penn's
father was after all a generous man and regretted his treatment of his
son. On his death, in 1670, he left him all his estate. Penn made a good
use of his wealth. He devoted his time, money, and talents to secure
legal protection in England for the persecuted Quakers. The task was
almost hopeless.
In his despair Penn longed to build a quiet home for his people in the
wilderness of America. He had heard of the happiness and prosperity of
the Pilgrim settlements, and he now planned to lead his brethren across
the Atlantic. The gallant admiral at his death had a claim against the
government of about eighty thousand dollars. Now King Charles was a
spendthrift and always in debt. Penn told the king that he would accept
lands in America instead of money in payment of this claim. The
easy-going monarch was only too glad to take up with this offer, for he
had plenty of land in America but very little silver and gold.
On condition that he should be paid two beaver-skins every year, the
king granted Penn a large tract of land on the western bank of the
Delaware river, and named it Pennsylvania, or "Penn's Woodland."
=95. A Colony of Quakers established in Pennsylvania.=--Penn now planned
to send his Quaker colony to the new home in America. He came over in
person in the fall of 1682, and landed at New Castle, Delaware. Penn
sailed in an open boat up the broad and beautiful Delaware River until
he came to the place on which his chief city or capital was soon to be
laid out. The "Quaker King," for thus he was called, was received with
great joy by the people. They knew that he would keep his promise to
secure full freedom of conscience and speech for all. He called it a
"free colony for all mankind."
[Illustration: A PROSPEROUS QUAKER.]
No person was compelled, as were the Pilgrims of New England, to attend
any church or practise any form of religious worship. Only murder and
treason were punished with death. Before this Penn had written to the
colonists, saying, "You shall be governed by laws of your own making; I
shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person."
=96. Penn selects a Location for his Capital; Philadelphia, "the City of
Brotherly Love."=--On a neck of land between the Schuylkill and the
Delaware, Penn selected a site for his "faire and greene country
towne"--a city of refuge and a home of free speech and conscience. And
he generously bought the land from some Swedes, who had bought it from
the Indians.
Penn now laid out his city and gave it the Bible name of Philadelphia,
which means "brotherly love." As he stood with his friends on the high
ground and beheld the country in its autumn foliage, the good man said:
"I have seen the finest cities of Europe, but I never saw so beautiful a
place for a city as this."
=97. His Kind Treatment of the Indians.=--Penn knew how cruelly some of
the other colonies had treated the Indians. This should not be done in
Pennsylvania. The Indians must be fairly dealt with. Their lands were
not to be taken away by force, but must be openly bought and honestly
paid for. If a settler wronged an Indian, he was to be punished. In
short, in this Quaker colony they were all to live together as brothers.
That everything might be done in a business-like way, Penn sent word to
various tribes of Indians that he would meet them on a certain day to
make a treaty. He wanted them to hear what he had to say. He sent word
to them that he was a man of peace, and no firearms would be brought to
the meeting. The Indians gladly accepted Penn's invitation.
[Illustration: PENN'S MEETING WITH THE INDIANS.]
=98. The Celebrated Treaty with the Indians.=--On the chosen day they came
from far and near. They met under the branches of a great elm tree a
little north of Philadelphia. This giant son of the forest, called ever
afterward "The Treaty Tree," became an object of deep interest. It was
protected with extreme care. During the Revolutionary war, even the
British officers posted guards around it to prevent its branches from
being used for firewood. The venerable tree blew down some ninety years
ago. Its rings proved it to be two hundred and eighty-three years of
age. A monument with a suitable inscription now marks the spot where
Penn and the Indians met to pledge in "unbroken faith."
First, there was a feast of good things to eat, and numerous presents
were given to the delighted red men. The chiefs then seated themselves
on the ground and the council began. Penn carried no arms, wore no
uniform, and had no soldiers. He was at this time thirty-eight years
old, graceful and fine-looking, was dressed in a suit of drab-colored
clothes, had a blue sash around his waist, and wore a broad-brim hat,
which he did not take off for the sake of fashion or ceremony.
The Indians, seated around their chiefs, listened attentively while the
"Quaker King" spoke. He told them that the English and the Indians were
to obey the same laws, and both were to be equally protected in their
rights. No advantage should be taken on either side, but all should be
openness and love; that the great God above was the Father of both white
and red men, and that all were brothers and should live together in
peace. His words, so full of kindness, good will, and justice, won the
hearts of the dusky natives.
"We will live in peace with William Penn and his children," said the
Indians, "as long as the sun and moon endure." This treaty was never
broken.
=99. The Indians take Penn at his Word, and live afterwards at Peace with
the Quakers.=--After this talk was over, the pipe of peace was lighted
and passed round, and each took a whiff.
The Indians took Penn at his word. They believed in him and they kept
their part of the compact. It is said that not a drop of Quaker blood
was ever shed by an Indian, so much did the red men love and honor the
name of William Penn.
The good Quaker often visited the Indians at their councils, or at their
"powwows," as their festive gatherings were called. He went in and out
among them, visited them in their wigwams, and ate roasted corn and
hominy with them. He had frolics with the Indian children, joined in the
outdoor games of the warriors, and talked to them about their faith in
God, whom they called the Great Spirit.
=100. The Quakers prosper; Trials of Penn in his Old Age.=--We are not
surprised that the Quaker settlers prospered. In two years there were
six hundred houses; also schools and a printing press. Philadelphia had
grown more in three years than New York City in half a century. After a
few years the founder of the colony went back to England. He continued
to watch over his far-away colony, sending out emigrants and in every
way promoting its interest.
After some time Penn returned to this country, but remained only two
years. In his old age he met with sore trials. His son disgraced him by
his riotous living, his trusted agent proved dishonest, and at length
the good Quaker was financially ruined and was flung into prison for
debt. Not long after his release he died at the age of seventy-eight.
=101. Subsequent Prosperity of the Quaker Colony.=--When it once became
known that in Penn's colony a man could worship God as he pleased, enjoy
personal rights; that poor men could own their farms, and that there was
no dread of the Indians, we are not surprised that colonists quickly
flocked to Pennsylvania. This settlement surpassed all others in America
in rapid growth, and was for many years more prosperous and comfortable
than any other. About one-third of the inhabitants were Quakers, and
these were always a thrifty and peaceful people.
At the close of the Revolutionary war Philadelphia was larger than
either Boston or New York. Among the thirteen colonies Pennsylvania
ranked third in influence and population, being surpassed by none but
Virginia and Massachusetts.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS.
=102. Prosperity of the Early Colonists.=--For fifty years or more after
the colonists had established their homes in the wilderness of the New
World, they were growing rich and strong. They cleared away forests,
planted fields, traded with the Indians, and built for themselves more
comfortable houses.
Especially was this the case during the years when Cromwell and his
party were in power in England, and until after Charles II was restored
to the English throne. The settlers boldly pressed further and further
on, crossing great rivers, climbing steep mountains, and building log
cabins in far distant regions.
The colonists in Pennsylvania and Virginia pushed westward into the
valley of the Ohio, while the English settlers in New York made their
way through the forest toward the Great Lakes.
=103. The French in North America.=--More than seventy years before
Jamestown was settled, a French explorer by the name of Cartier had
entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, sailed up the river of the same name,
and taken possession of the country in the name of France. This same
region became afterwards the great French stronghold in America.
A Frenchman by the name of Champlain sailed up the beautiful river St.
Lawrence, and was so charmed with the scenery of the country that in
1608, the year after Jamestown was settled, he began to plant a colony
on the site of what is now Quebec. The settlement soon became a city and
the capital of the French possessions in America.
The French were also the first explorers of the vast interior regions of
our country. Their fur traders and trappers kept on good terms with the
Indians, and slowly pushed along the shores of the Great Lakes until
they had established a chain of trading-posts from the St. Lawrence to
Lake Superior. About the time of King Philip's War in New England Father
Marquette discovered the upper Mississippi, and floated down this great
river nearly as far as the mouth of the Arkansas.
=104. La Salle floats down the Mighty Mississippi.=--The bravest and
ablest of all the French explorers was a fur-trader by the name of La
Salle. This daring man, whose life was filled with romantic adventures
and hardships, bravely undergone, gave France the right to claim as her
own the vast domain of the Mississippi valley.
On Lake Erie, La Salle built a small vessel, in which he sailed to the
westward over the Great Lakes. In the year 1682, with a few companions,
he floated down the mighty Mississippi until he reached the Gulf of
Mexico.
[Illustration: LA SALLE AT THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI.]
With solemn ceremonies he claimed for France all the country drained by
this great river and its branches. This enormous territory, extending
from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, he named Louisiana in honor
of his king, Louis XIV. The narrow strip of land held by the English
along the Atlantic seaboard seemed a feeble possession compared with
the vast untrodden wilderness known as "New France."
Hand in hand with the French explorers and fur-traders, and often in
advance of them, went the Jesuit missionaries. In their efforts to carry
their religion to the Indians and convert them to their faith, these
zealous men boldly struck out into the unbroken wilderness of the great
West. They often became brave and intelligent explorers. All hardships
and all dangers, and even torture by the Indians, they endured without a
murmur.
=105. Beginning of the Contests between the French and English
Colonists.=--At the time the French and English were making settlements
on this continent, and for many long and weary years, with very short
intervals of rest, Europe was cursed with war. Whether these cruel
strifes between the nations arose from political ambition, greed for
gain, or common jealousy, there was always intermingled the same old
undercurrent of religious hatred. The French settlers in this country
were Roman Catholics, while the English were almost all Protestants.
Hence it is not strange that these bitter religious controversies were
not confined to the Old World, but stained with blood the soil of the
New.
The English colonists dearly loved their mother country; her wrongs were
their wrongs. Hence when war was declared between France and England,
the English colonists readily took up arms against the French.
=106. The French and Indian Wars.=--In the seventy-four years from 1689 to
1763 the American colonies were involved in four wars, occupying in all
twenty-seven years. These were called by different names; but the last
and most important is known as the "French and Indian War," which began
in 1755 and lasted about eight years.
These long contests really made one continuous series of hostile
operations, with only a breathing-spell now and then. It was one
long-drawn-out and stubborn battle to decide whether the French or the
English should be masters of North America. Jealous of the rich and
prosperous English colonies on the seaboard, and having determined that
England should not control the whole of this vast continent, the French
built a chain of more than sixty forts stretching from Montreal to New
Orleans.
The French had always treated the Indians with more consideration than
had their rivals. The Jesuit missionaries had converted many of the red
men to their religious belief. Sometimes the French took Indian women
for wives, and often they adopted the red man's ways of living.
=107. The Indians ally themselves with the French.=--When these sons of
the forest found the English slowly but surely crowding them out of
their haunts and homes, and saw that their hunting grounds were getting
reduced to mere strips of territory here and there, it was not strange
that they felt bitter towards the ever-encroaching new-comers. The
tribes had steadily diminished, and they were unable to cope
single-handed with the English. Hence they naturally looked to the
French for help, and the French readily induced the Indians to join them
against the English and their American descendants.
It was a fierce struggle. English and American blood flowed like water
before it was ended. The Indians never fought in open field, but always
after their own fashion. They trusted to sudden attacks, especially at
night, and to rapid raids, doing their savage work suddenly and
retreating swiftly into the forest.
Lonely families and small settlements suffered most. Like lightning out
of the clear sky came the horror of an Indian night attack. The
war-whoop waked the midnight sleepers and the glare of burning cabins
lighted up the darkness.
The massacre of defenseless women and children crimsoned the earth in
scores of settlements during these cruel wars.
[Illustration: INDIANS ATTACKING A SETTLER'S CABIN.]
=108. The Indian Attack on Deerfield in the Massachusetts Colony.=--One
bitter cold night in February, 1704, the French and Indians attacked the
town of Deerfield in the western part of Massachusetts. For this purpose
they had walked all the way from Canada on snowshoes. The people had
been warned of their danger, but the watchmen fell asleep, and the
villagers were awakened by the war-whoop of their savage foes. About
fifty men, women, and children were killed, and nearly a hundred
half-clad captives were marched off through the deep snows. Those who
could not keep up were killed with the tomahawk.
The minister of the village, Rev. John Williams, his wife and six
children, were among those captured and carried to Canada. The wife
lagged behind and was killed. Strange to say, however, the minister and
all his children, though they suffered all manner of hardships, and were
sold as captives, after a time reached home in safety. The good man
lived to write an account of his adventures.
One little girl seven years old was treated kindly by her captors and
was brought up as one of their tribe. She married an Indian chief and
long afterwards visited her people in Deerfield. She wore the Indian
dress and had come to love the wild life. Her former friends and
neighbors begged her to stay with them, but "she returned to the fires
of her own wigwam, and to the love of her Mohawk children."
=109. Hannah Dustin's Famous Adventure with the Indians.=--The story of
Hannah Dustin, of Haverhill, Mass., has often been told. One day in 1697
the Indians attacked the village. Mr. Dustin saved all his family except
his wife and her nurse, who were captured. They marched these women and
an English boy many long days to their camp on an island far up the
Merrimac River. As Mrs. Dustin's babe prevented her keeping up well on
the journey, an Indian cruelly killed it.
The boy, who understood the Indian language, heard the savages tell of
the horrible tortures they intended to inflict upon their captives. When
Mrs. Dustin heard of this she laid her plans. She made the lad slyly
learn from the Indians how to swing a tomahawk and where to strike.
One night, when the savages lay around the camp-fire sound asleep, the
three captives arose softly, each killed with one blow the Indian
nearest, then three more, and so on till ten were finished. One young
boy and one squaw escaped. It was an awful thing for Mrs. Dustin to do,
but the memory of her murdered child made her brave and strong. They
seized an Indian canoe, and the three paddled swiftly down the river,
and half dead with hunger and fatigue reached home. Their friends could
hardly believe their eyes. The heroic woman brought home ten Indian
scalps as proof of what she had done.
=110. How the Colonial Boys learned to shoot.=--We can now well understand
that the settlement of a new country amid hostile Indians demanded from
our colonial fathers eternal vigilance, and developed in them remarkable
skill with firearms.
Even the colonial boy, we are told, as soon as he was big enough to
level a musket, was given powder and ball to shoot squirrels. After a
little practice he was required to bring in as many squirrels as he was
given charges for the gun, under penalty of a severe lecture, or even of
having his "jacket tanned"!
At the age of twelve the boy became a block-house soldier, with a
loophole assigned him from which to shoot when the settlement was
attacked by the Indians.
Growing older, he became a hunter of deer, bears, and other wild
animals, and had at any moment, day or night, to be in readiness to pit
his life against those of hostile Indians.
=111. Capture of Louisburg.=--During the third French and Indian war,
which began when George Washington was a boy of fourteen and which
lasted four years, the New England colonists determined to strike a hard
blow against France. They fitted out an army of about four thousand
fishermen and farmers, put their expedition under the command of General
William Pepperell, and sailed from Boston to capture Louisburg on the
island of Cape Breton.
With its walls of masonry thirty feet high this was the strongest
fortress on the continent except Quebec, and was known as the "Gibraltar
of America." It commanded the entrance to the Gulf and the mouth of the
St. Lawrence. With the aid of a British fleet the colonists laid siege
to the great fortress.
After a lively contest of about six weeks, Louisburg was taken (1745).
The colonial army returned to Boston and was received with shouts of
joy. But at the close of the war Louisburg was restored to the French.
Great was the wrath of the colonists, who spoke of the day of surrender
as "a black day, to be forever blotted out of New England calendars."
=112. The Struggle beyond the Alleghanies.=--For a long time the Alleghany
Mountains served as a natural boundary between the English settlements
in the East and the French trading-posts and forts in the West.
Meanwhile the English settlers were steadily pushing westward over the
mountains and beginning to trade with the Indians on the other side. The
French merchants often met their hated rivals in the woods and quarreled
with them. From the first, England claimed all this country as her own,
and looked upon the building of French forts as an invasion of her
territory. The French stirred up the Indians to drive the English away,
and would not even allow them to make so much as a survey of land in the
rich Ohio valley.
=113. Young George Washington selected for an Arduous Undertaking.=--This
action of the French aroused the wrath of the prosperous Virginia colony
and of its energetic governor. He decided to send a letter to the French
commander warning him to leave the country. Governor Dinwiddie selected
for this task a land surveyor only twenty-one years of age. His name was
George Washington. He was even then known for his courage, his sound
judgment, and his knowledge of the Indians.
It was a journey of more than a thousand miles there and back, through
an unbroken wilderness. With seven companions young Washington set out
on his perilous trip in the fall of 1753. They climbed mountains, swam
streams, and threaded their way through mountain ravines, following
Indian trails which no white man had ever seen before.
After many hardships they reached the French posts. The French commander
read the letter that Washington had brought from the governor of
Virginia. He replied that he was there by command of his superior
officers, and that he meant to drive every Englishman out of the Ohio
valley! There was nothing for Washington to do but to start for home.
Winter had now set in and it was soon severely cold. The homeward
journey became a serious matter. The pack-horses gave out. The brave
young leader and his guide pressed ahead on foot. Often as they lay down
at night their wet clothing froze fast upon them. They secured an Indian
as a guide, but he proved a scamp. One evening at dusk he raised his gun
and fired at Washington, but missed his aim. The guide seized the
savage, flung him to the ground, and would have killed him, but
Washington spared his life. After many hardships and dangers the two men
reached home in safety.
=114. The Beginning of the Final Struggle.=--The final struggle was now
impending between England and France to determine which should control
America. The contest began in earnest in Virginia. Washington had taken
advantage of his perilous errand to the French commander to select a
place for an English fort. It was at the point where the Alleghany and
Monongahela rivers unite to form the Ohio. This is the spot where the
city of Pittsburgh now stands. It was the main entrance to the valley of
the Ohio. For many years it was called the "Gateway of the West." The
English built a fort on this spot, but the French easily captured it and
held it under the name of Fort Du Quesne.
=115. Braddock's Ill-Fated Expedition.=--Affairs now became so serious
that General Braddock was sent out from England with two regiments of
regulars. Early in the year 1755 he began his march through the Virginia
forests to recapture the French stronghold. He selected Washington as a
member of his staff. "I want you," said the British general, "to take
your Virginia riflemen and go with me and my veterans to drive the
French from Ohio." Washington consented. He joined Braddock's army with
three companies of Virginia riflemen.
[Illustration: WASHINGTON ATTEMPTING TO RALLY BRADDOCK'S REGULARS.]
The English general and his regulars were brave, but they knew nothing
about fighting Indians. Never did an army seem better prepared. They
felt sure of victory. Soon they plunged into the forest. There were no
roads there. After a hard march of four weeks they came within a few
miles of the French fort. Washington warned the proud British general
of his peril. "The Indians," said he, "may attack us in yonder deep
pass. Let me go ahead with my riflemen and skirmish for the savages."
Braddock was an old soldier, and he thought he knew more than his young
staff-officer who had learned from experience how to fight Indians. The
general laughed at the well-meant advice. Next day, as they were
marching through a deep ravine, suddenly came the yells of savages and
the crack of rifles. The British veterans were eager to fight, but they
could see no foe. The men were shot down like sheep.
The young Virginian and his riflemen leaped behind trees and rocks and
fought the Indians in their own way. All was confusion. Braddock acted
bravely. He had five horses killed under him. He did all that a valiant
man in such a situation could do; but it was in vain.
=116. Washington saves Braddock's Army from Destruction.=--Washington and
his Virginia rangers saved Braddock's army from destruction. The French
and the Indians knew well the tall figure of Washington, who was in the
thickest of the fight, and they kept firing at him. Two horses were shot
under him. Four bullets passed through his clothing, but he did not
receive a scratch.
Many years afterwards an old Indian chief came to see Washington, and
told him that he had fired from ambush on the dreadful day of Braddock's
defeat, and both he and his young warriors had often aimed at him as he
rode about delivering the general's orders; but as they could not hit
him, they had concluded that he was under the protection of the Great
Spirit and could not be slain in battle.
Braddock was at last hit. He sank to the ground mortally wounded. "What
is to be done now?" he faintly asked. "We must retreat," replied
Washington.
A retreat was ordered, and Washington and his riflemen defended the rear
so well that what was left of the routed army at last reached a place of
safety. More than seven hundred of them had fallen, including Braddock
himself and three-fourths of his officers. What a penalty the proud
British general paid for refusing to take good advice!
=117. The Virginians fight desperately for their Homes.=--The French were
now left in full possession of all the region west of the Alleghanies.
The Indians took advantage of the situation to make fresh attacks upon
the Virginia colonists.
The Virginians fought with desperation for their homes. Washington was
put in command of the forces. He wrote that "the supplicating tears of
the women and the moving petitions of the men melted him into deadly
sorrow." Three years after the Braddock calamity, Washington again
marched his men through the woods against Fort Du Quesne and recaptured
it.
The capture of this stronghold was an important event to the colonists,
for a highway which was never afterwards closed was then opened to the
great West. The name of the fort was changed to Pittsburgh, in honor of
England's illustrious prime minister, William Pitt, who had planned the
expedition.
It was just this experience in hard fighting against the French and
Indians that providentially aided in fitting Washington to win success
as commander-in-chief of the American forces in the fast approaching war
of the Revolution.
=118. Quebec, the carefully guarded Stronghold.=--We must remember that
there had been fighting for nearly two years in America before England
really declared war against France in 1756. During this time the French
had held the mastery, and the English had met with sad reverses. A new
leader had now come into power in England, the great statesman, William
Pitt.
The influence of this remarkable man changed the course of affairs as if
by magic. He fully understood America's greatest needs. From this time
the English were everywhere successful. Important forts were taken from
the French, such as Niagara, Ticonderoga, and Crown Point.
There was only one great stronghold left to the French. This was Quebec
on the St. Lawrence. It was not only one of the strongest fortresses in
the world, but it was commanded by the Marquis de Montcalm, one of the
ablest generals of his time.
=119. How Quebec was taken.=--A brave young officer, General Wolfe, was
sent out from England to command the attack on Quebec. The outlook was
enough to discourage any one, however experienced and skillful. The fort
itself is on a high point of land overlooking the city. The English
troops were on the river-bank, hundreds of feet below.
Every movement of the English was reported at once to the French. Wolfe
was at first repulsed at every point. One day, as he was reconnoitering,
he discovered a steep and narrow path which led up the precipitous bluff
to a level spot known as the Plains of Abraham. He made up his mind to
climb it with his men.
Soon afterwards the English troops were quietly rowed down the river,
under the cover of darkness, to a little bay since known as Wolfe's
Cove. As the young English general glided along in his boat, he quoted
extracts from Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard." As he repeated the
stanza beginning, "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power," he said
that he would rather have written that poem than take Quebec. The little
pathway was reached. Wolfe leaped first on shore. Under his leadership
the English soldiers climbed the steep.
[Illustration: WOLFE'S MEN CLIMBING TO THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM.]
At sunrise on the morning of Sept. 13, 1759, the British army, five
thousand strong, stood on the Plains of Abraham. Great was the amazement
of the French general, for he thought it impossible for any one to scale
the cliffs. Montcalm chose to come out of the fortress and fight the
English on the open ground. This was a fatal mistake, for after a
fierce struggle the French were defeated.
In the hour of victory Wolfe was fatally wounded. While dying he heard
the cry, "They run! they run!" Rousing himself he asked, "Who run?" Upon
being told it was the French he exclaimed: "Now God be praised; I will
die in peace!" Montcalm was also fatally wounded. When told he could not
live, the gallant Frenchman cried out, "So much the better; I shall not
live to see the surrender of Quebec!"
The French retired within their fortifications, but in a few days Quebec
was surrendered into the hands of the English. The fate of Canada was
decided by the fall of this city.
=120. The End of the War and the Result.=--Although the victory at Quebec
practically ended the French and Indian War, it was not until 1763 that
peace was declared. By the treaty France gave up to England the whole of
Canada, together with all the territory between the Alleghanies and the
Mississippi, except the city of New Orleans. She retained a few barren
islands near Newfoundland as a shelter for her fishermen. The vast
region spreading westward from the Mississippi towards the Pacific,
under the name Louisiana, together with the city of New Orleans, was
made over to Spain.
CHAPTER IX.
EVERYDAY LIFE IN COLONIAL TIMES.
=121. Severe and Curious Punishments.=--In the early colonial times the
laws were for the most part rigid and the punishments severe. Criminals
were occasionally branded with a hot iron. If a man shot a fowl on
Sunday, he was often publicly whipped. Small offenses were punished in a
way which would not be tolerated in our times. A woman who had been
complained of as a scold was placed in front of her house with a stick
tied in her mouth. Sometimes a common scold was fastened to what was
known as a "ducking stool" at one end of a seesaw plank, and ducked in a
pond or river!
Some crimes were punished by making the offender stand up on a stool in
some public place, while fastened to his breast was a large placard on
which his crime was printed in coarse letters, as LIAR or THIEF. There
were in some colonies public whipping-posts for the special benefit of
hardened offenders. In other cases the stocks were used, the culprit
being seated on a bench in a public place, his feet projecting through
holes in a plank; or the pillory, where he had to stand up with his neck
and wrists painfully confined in a similar way. These last two modes of
punishment were a source of no small amusement to the throng that
gathered around, whose jeers and scorn must have been hard to bear. Once
a couple of men in Plymouth county had a brisk little quarrel, and they
were punished by being bound together for twenty-four hours, head to
head and foot to foot.
[Illustration: CULPRITS IN THE PILLORY AND STOCKS.]
=122. How Sunday was kept.=--Sunday was rigidly observed in New England.
In olden times, and almost to our own day, the Lord's Day was made to
begin at sunset on Saturday evening. Sunday schools were not then known.
But every person was compelled to attend religious service or be
punished. If a man stayed away from church for a month without a good
excuse, he might be put in the stocks or into a wooden cage. No word
could be spoken with impunity against the church or the rulers. He who
used his tongue too freely was placed in the pillory or stocks, or was
fined, and in some extreme cases he lost his ears.
The minister was the great man of the village. He was looked up to and
consulted about nearly everything, and he generally decided what
punishment should be inflicted on evil-doers. In earliest times the
people were called to meeting by drumbeat or by the blowing of a horn.
The log meeting-house had oiled paper windows, or, if of glass, small
diamond-shaped panes set in leaden frames made in England.
Inside there was no fire and there were no cushions. Families did not
sit together as now; but old men, young men, and women all sat by
themselves. Boys occupied the pulpit steps or the gallery. On a bench
just below the preacher sat the row of deacons, facing the congregation.
If aged, they wore bright-colored flannel caps to protect their heads
from numerous drafts. It was the business of the deacons to "line off"
the Psalms as the people sang them. Books being very scarce, most of the
congregation did not have any: accordingly the deacon would read aloud
two lines, and when these were sung, read the next two, and so on. Every
one sang. There was no choir, no organ, no instrumental music of any
kind, and no hymns such as we have now. They sang the Psalms, which
were arranged in metre for convenience in singing.
=123. The Discomforts of attending Church in Colonial Days.=--As the
meeting-house was bitter cold in midwinter, women often carried
foot-stoves, small sheet-iron boxes containing a few hot coals, which
were a source of great comfort. The sermons were tedious, lasting two
hours or even more; for those patient people valued a sermon very much
according to its length. On the pulpit stood an hour-glass, which a
deacon would reverse when the sands of the hour had fallen through.
Since the seats were hard, and the sermons long, and the men and women
had worked early and late through the week, it was no wonder that some
of the hearers were sleepy. It was, however, a serious offense to sleep
in meeting. The watchful tithing-man, as he was called, was always on
the lookout for drowsy people. It was his duty to see that the Lord's
Day was respected by every person. He was armed with a long rod, one end
tipped with a hare's foot and the other with a hare's tail. If the
slumberer was a woman, he used to touch, possibly to tickle, her face
with the soft fur. But if a youngster nodded, his head got a sharp rap
from the rabbit's foot.
People in those days had to be thrifty. To save wear and tear, boys and
girls walked barefoot to church in summer, with their shoes and
stockings under their arms. They put them on as they entered the
meeting-house, taking them off again as they started for home.
[Illustration: NEW ENGLAND FIRESIDE IN COLONIAL TIMES.]
=124. The Food in Olden Times; what it was, and how it was served.=--In
old colonial times our wheat bread was comparatively unknown. Loaves
were made of mixed Indian meal and rye, not unlike the brown bread of
our time. Baked pumpkin with milk was a favorite dish. Bean porridge was
always a common article of food, and in some parts of the country it is
still popular. It was made by boiling beans with the liquor in which
corned beef had been cooked. It was very convenient for wood-choppers in
winter to carry a frozen piece of porridge in their pockets and thaw it
out for dinner in the woods. The longer it was kept, the better it
tasted. Hence the common rhyme, "Bean porridge hot, bean porridge cold;
bean porridge in the pot; nine days old."
In well-to-do families the cupboard or dresser shone with well-scoured
pewter plates, platters, and porringers. Square wooden plates were often
used; but with some poorer families there was one common dish used, from
which the whole family helped themselves with their fingers.
Instead of forks, which were not known, they had thick and clumsy pewter
spoons. These were easily broken, and they often had to be melted up and
run over again into moulds by men who traveled from house to house for
this purpose. In fact shoemakers, tailors, dressmakers, butchers, and
other highly useful artisans traveled about from one family to another
in pursuit of work.
=125. Schools in Olden Times; the Schoolmaster; Schoolhouses and how they
were furnished.=--In most of the colonies the settlers were hardly
located in their new homes before they began to provide schools for
their children. In 1635 the town of Boston "voted to entreat brother
Philemon Pormont to become schoolmaster," and, in 1647, the law was
passed which is the foundation of the splendid educational system of
Massachusetts.
Only six years after Boston was founded, the sum of two thousand dollars
was set apart to found "a seminary at Cambridge," which has now become
Harvard University. For years afterwards, every family gave annually one
peck of corn, or one shilling in money, to support the young college.
Besides the usual branches, the early schools were required to teach
religion and morals and the laws. They taught little enough of what we
call school studies.
The schoolhouses were rough and crude. They usually had but one room.
Within the room, the door and the big fireplace were on one side, while
against the other three walls was a long, rough shelf, in front of which
was a seat made of a split log with legs driven beneath. The pupils
faced the wall with their backs to the teacher. In front was another
lower bench filled by the younger pupils. The teacher sat near the
middle of the room, and there the classes stood to recite. The sessions
were long, seven or eight hours a day. The boys had to furnish the
firewood, and if any unlucky fellow failed to bring in his share, he
had to sit in a cold corner for that day. When the fire was brisk, the
scholars were almost roasted on one side and nearly frozen on the other.
The teachers were often incompetent, either broken-down men or needy
widows. The children brought each a few pennies a week for tuition.
There were not many text-books, and the supplies were very scanty. The
scholars often learned to write and "cast accounts" on pieces of white
birchbark.
=126. Newspapers, Traveling, and the Night Watchman.=--The first printing
press was set up at Cambridge in 1639. It was used chiefly to print
sermons and small pamphlets. The first newspaper published in America
was the _Boston News-Letter_ in 1704. It was a weekly, a brown sheet
hardly more than a foot square. News traveled slowly, for there was
little communication between city and city. Travelers were few, and
conveyances were slow. A stage-coach that made forty miles a day between
New York and Philadelphia was called, on account of its great speed, the
"flying machine."
In the cities, news was announced in the daytime by the public crier,
who walked the streets ringing a large hand-bell, and pausing at the
corners, where he recited his message of child lost, or reward offered,
or the happening of any important event. In the night the town
watchman, with rattle and lantern, paced the streets, stopping every
person he met after nine o'clock to demand his name and business. He
also called aloud the hours of the night in a sing-song tone:
"Twelve-o'clock-and-all-'s-well."
Sometimes his night cry was intensely interesting. At Philadelphia in
October, 1781, evening after evening every one went to bed anxious about
our army at Yorktown, and hoping every hour to hear tidings of victory.
One night the old watchman's cry was heard echoing along the lonely
streets: "Two-o'clock-and-Cornwallis-'s-captured!" How the windows flew
up! and how the hearty cheers burst along from house to house all
through the city!
=127. Other Details of Home Life in the Colonies.=--The home life of the
colonists improved as the years passed, but until the Revolution it was
very crude. In the families of well-to-do people the earth floors of
early days were replaced by boards, the proudest decoration of which was
a sprinkling of white sand, which on great occasions was swept into
ornamental waves with a broom. The door latch was for a long time of
wood, lifted by pulling a string hanging outside. Hence the hospitable
invitation used to be: "Come over and see us! We keep the latchstring
out." At night the string was drawn in, and that locked the door.
As there were no friction matches, fire was started by striking a spark
with flint and steel, which was caught on a bit of half-burned rag, and
then brought to a blaze with a splinter of wood tipped with sulphur. On
a cold morning, if one's fire was out and these tools were not at hand,
the resort was to send a boy to a neighbor for a brand!
[Illustration: NIGHT WATCHMAN ANNOUNCING THE CAPTURE OF CORNWALLIS.]
=128. How our Forefathers clothed themselves.=--The clothing worn by men,
women, and children was nearly all home-made from the wool of their own
sheep. It was a matter of pride with a good housewife to supply all the
nice warm clothes needed by her family, and the daughters were brought
up to card and spin and weave clothing, bedding, and table linen. After
a time very fine linen was made, especially by the Scotch-Irish settlers
who were skillful in raising flax and in weaving linen. We may safely
infer that the women of those days were obliged to work early and late
to provide warm clothing for themselves and oftentimes for large
families. In fact it was for many years regarded as almost a disgrace to
purchase clothing which might have been made at home.
But some were disposed to shine in apparel more showy than their purses
could afford or their rank allow. All such victims of personal vanity
were liable to be ordered to appear before the court; for any person
whose estate was less than a thousand dollars was "forbidden to wear
gold or silver lace, or any lace above two shillings a yard." Once a
"goodwife" by the name of Alice Flynt was required to show that she was
worth money enough to be able to wear a silk hood. But the woman proved
that she was, and she was allowed to wear her finery in triumph. In like
manner, "goodman" Jonas Fairbanks was arrested for wearing "great
boots," meaning boots with high tops that turned over showy red. He too
escaped punishment and continued to sport his extravagance.
=129. How the Wealthier People lived.=--But after a while in the cities,
the really wealthy, of whom there were not a few, often dressed in fine
style. Gentlemen when fully equipped wore three-cornered cocked hats,
long velvet coats, embroidered silk waistcoats with flaps weighted with
lead, breeches coming only to the knees, long silk stockings, and
pointed shoes adorned with large silver buckles. Stately men wore their
hair powdered, a long queue hanging down the back, where it was tied
with a black ribbon. The clothing was often enriched with gold and
silver lace, and glittering buttons. A mass of lace ruffles adorned the
wrists and flowed over the hands. The street cloak glistened with gold
lace, while a gold-headed cane and a gold snuff-box confirmed the
wearer's title to rank as a gentleman.
[Illustration: HOSPITALITY IN A SOUTHERN MANSION.]
Ladies of wealth in the city wore rich heavy silk over stiff hoops, and
towering hats adorned with tall feathers, with hair massed and powdered
as if with snowflakes. All the fashions of high life were very exacting
and precise. The wealth and style of the cities were displayed in the
fine houses, the heavy, rich furniture imported from England, the
massive silver plate of the tables, the luxurious living, and the choice
wines.
The forms of address, too, showed the social rank. The terms "lady" and
"gentleman" were applied only to persons of recognized standing. Our
everyday title of "Mr." was conferred only upon ministers and the
officers of the law, and upon their sons if college bred. The title
"Mrs." was limited to the wives of prominent men. But if Mr. John Smith
was proved guilty of any offense, as theft or lying, he was always
afterwards known only as John Smith. For ordinary people above the grade
of servants the title of "Goody" was in common use, meaning either
"Goodman" or "Goodwife."
CHAPTER X.
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.
=130. Our Forefathers, Men of Rare Ability and Sterling Character.=--Many
of our forefathers who had been driven from England to this country by
persecution were men of rare ability and sterling character. Some had
served their nation with credit in the army; others had won social and
political honors. Independent in their way of thinking, fearless in
speech and action, they were sternly opposed to governmental oppression.
They believed that royal power should be held within well-defined
limits. They would not tamely submit, as many did, to abuses from a bad
government and tyrannical kings.
=131. The Story of their Wrongs told to their Children.=--Now we may
safely believe that the early settlers told their children all about the
persecutions in England. The young folks learned well the sad tale of
how their fathers had been punished, and some of their neighbors hanged
or burned alive for worshiping God in what they thought the right way,
and how, for this reason, they had sought a shelter in the New World.
As the years passed, these children grew up to be men, and in their turn
they told it all to their sons. Again, when the new generation came upon
the stage of action, the fathers repeated it to their boys, and these,
when they attained manly strength, became the very heroes that fought so
bravely at Bunker Hill and King's Mountain and on many another
battlefield!
=132. A Feeling of Brotherhood among the Colonies.=--Then there was a
sense of freedom, an inspiration to liberty, in this open, unsubdued,
apparently boundless land. The free ocean, the immense forests, the
eternal mountains, all seemed to teach that here man was to be his own
master; that in this wide, new country, the people were destined to rule
themselves, and not bound to obey some stupid and obstinate king three
thousand miles away.
The colonies along the coast, having the same language, with similar
laws and customs, and having shared like sufferings from hunger and cold
and the Indians, were naturally drawn together by a feeling of
brotherhood.
=133. Cruel and Short-Sighted Policy of the Royal Governors.=--Before long
there came up real grievances. One fact that diminished the affection of
our forefathers for the mother country was the harsh treatment they
received from many of the governors sent over by the king. For the
colonies were not allowed to elect their own governors, nor could they
choose even the governor's council of advisers. These were appointed by
the monarch far away, who cared little for the Americans except to
extort money from them.
Indeed, the English king seemed to think almost anybody would do for
governor who contrived to wring money enough out of his distant
subjects. Many of the royal governors were self-conceited, arrogant, and
tyrannical. Consequently in some of the colonies there was almost
incessant quarreling between the governors and the people. By and by the
colonies came to be treated, not as a part of the home country, but as a
sort of foreign district to furnish a royal revenue.
=134. The Colonies begin to prosper.=--Notwithstanding all their
hardships, the colonies prospered. The people were wonderfully
enterprising. They built ships and made a great deal of money by trading
with the West Indies, France, Spain, and other countries. The New
Englanders alone had over five hundred vessels engaged in domestic and
foreign commerce and in profitable fisheries.
The early colonists were ingenious. They built and ran a sawmill a
hundred years before one was erected in England. They exported great
quantities of excellent lumber. They began very early to manufacture
farmer's tools, leather, boots and shoes, woolen cloth, hats, glass,
paper, salt, and gunpowder. The sale of these goods and of many other
things produced by them made a profitable trade. In return the colonists
bought in distant lands a great amount and variety of other merchandise.
=135. The British Government begins its Tyrannical Policy.=--But the
English rulers, seeing all this prosperity, became jealous and said:
"This will never do! We must stop it! Those distant colonists across the
ocean are driving a great trade; the foreign nations they deal with get
their money. We must have it; we must compel them to do all their
trading with us." And that is what the English government tried to do.
By 1750 not less than twenty-nine Acts of Parliament had been passed
with the intent to have all of the loss in trade fall on the colonies
and all the gain come to England.
In 1761 it was decided to enforce the so-called Navigation Acts,
forbidding the colonies to have any foreign commerce except in British
ships. Our colonial merchants were not allowed to export goods, nor to
import any except from England or her colonies. They must not import any
sugar or molasses without paying on it a heavy duty, which went to the
king. Under these unjust laws the British traders could fix low prices
on all they bought, and high prices on all they sold, and thus by this
double-edged method could shape their profits to suit themselves.
=136. Other Absurd and Tyrannical Laws.=--Still more odious than these
navigation laws were other absurd and tyrannical regulations made to
cripple the industries and manufactures of the colonies. The fact was,
the English Parliament meant that England's workshops should do all the
manufacturing, her merchants all the trading, and her ships all the
carrying for the colonies, that they might keep in England all the
immense profits of the colonial trade.
To bring this about, laws were passed forbidding the manufacture of all
such goods as English shops could produce. For instance, iron must not
be made from the abundant mines of our country. We must buy all our
hardware from England. It was a crime to use the wool from our own sheep
in making woolen goods, and we were forbidden to sell these articles
from one colony to another. For example, a Boston hatter could be
punished if he sold his hats in New York. Men were forbidden to cut down
trees on their own lands for staves and barrels. For wooden ware, as
chairs, tables, wheels, wagons, the raw material must be sent to
England to be worked up, and the finished goods brought back to this
country.
=137. A Bitter Feeling aroused against the Home Government.=--Now all
these laws seemed very harsh and unjust. And, indeed, they were
well-nigh intolerable. They crippled and almost ruined the business of
the colonies, and violated what our forefathers regarded as their
natural right to make what they pleased and sell where they pleased.
These laws were so unjust that our forefathers thought there was not
much wrong in evading them. They smuggled goods and carried them home.
British officers went around and searched houses from cellar to attic,
often with rudeness and insults. This conduct created much bitterness of
feeling. Pine trees of twelve inches or more in diameter were marked
with the "king's arrow," which showed that they were to be saved for use
in the navy. It was a criminal offense to cut down any such. However
much a settler might need them to build his house, he was forbidden to
touch them. In fact, before he cleared his land, he had to pay an
officer to come and make the arrow mark on the king's trees!
These unjust and absurd statutes produced a vast deal of ill-will toward
England. If they had been strictly enforced, no doubt the Revolution
would have come several years before it did. And yet there was also
much friendly feeling for the mother country. The friends and relatives
of the colonists still lived there, letters were constantly exchanged,
and hundreds of people coming and going every year kept up an affection
between the two countries. Our people in those times always called
England "home."
[Illustration: BRITISH STAMP.]
=138. The Obnoxious Stamp Act.=--There came at last one event which, of
all the troubles, hastened the Revolution. The French and Indian War had
cost both England and the colonies a great deal of money. King George
wanted to compel the colonies to pay part of this expense, and
accordingly Parliament passed in 1765 the "Stamp Act," the most
unpopular measure ever tried with the colonists. This law required that
stamped paper should be used for all bills, bonds, notes, wills, and
deeds, and even for all pamphlets, almanacs, and newspapers.
Stamps for this purpose had to be bought of stamp officers appointed by
the king. They were for the most part not unlike our revenue stamps. One
kind was a red-ink seal, made with a hand stamp; the other a seal on
blue paper, to be fastened on the article. The cost varied from one
cent to fifty dollars each. No document was legal unless stamped.
Our people at once saw that if England could levy taxes in this way, she
could in many other ways, and there would be no end to such high-handed
and tyrannical laws. Besides, there were no American representatives in
Parliament, and Americans had no voice at all in the matter. They felt
that the tax thus laid upon them was wrong. They did not object to
paying the cost of a trifling tax. They felt bound to resist the rank
injustice of the demand. It was not the amount but the principle at
stake.
=139. The Indignation of the People.=--The people were aroused. A storm of
indignation swept over the land. Violent opposition broke out along the
entire length of the colonies. They pledged themselves to stand by each
other. The cry passed through the land: "No taxation without
representation!" This became the watchword of the country. They did not
wish to avoid paying a fair assessment in a fair way; but they insisted
that, as always before, their own legislatures and not Parliament should
levy the contribution. Our forefathers declared over and over again that
they would not be taxed by a governing body three thousand miles away,
whose members had never seen America.
=140. Patrick Henry and his Bold Speech.=--One day the Virginia Assembly
was in session. Washington was there in his seat, and Jefferson, then a
young law student, stood listening at the door. Patrick Henry stoutly
argued that Virginia was not bound to obey any law which was plainly a
menace to the common freedom of Englishmen.
"Caesar had his Brutus," said the bold and eloquent orator; "Charles the
First his Cromwell, and George the Third"----
"Treason!" shouted the Speaker of the Assembly, and the cry, "Treason,
treason!" rang through the room.
[Illustration: PATRICK HENRY'S BOLD SPEECH.]
The intrepid patriot finished his sentence: "may profit by their
example. If that be treason, make the most of it!"
=141. The People combine to resist the Hated Law.=--The people combined to
resist, and a stamp-tax congress was held in New York. Lovers of liberty
would not deal in stamped goods. They refused to buy a single stamp.
Riots occurred at the stamp offices. Packages of stamps were seized, and
some were publicly burned in the streets. Boxes of stamped paper
arriving in vessels were seized and thrown overboard. Publishers of
newspapers decorated their headlines with skull and cross-bones instead
of stamps. Stamp officers were dragged out and compelled to swear they
would not sell any stamps.
[Illustration: PATRICK HENRY.]
On the day for the law to take effect, funeral bells were tolled, flags
were at half-mast, and shops were closed. New England, New York,
Virginia, and the Carolinas all felt alike and acted alike. William
Pitt, also called the Earl of Chatham, one of the greatest of
Englishmen, took his stand on the side of the colonies in a speech of
surpassing eloquence and power. The hated law was repealed in just one
year from its passage.
This happy news was received both in England and in America with
bonfires, ringing of bells, and universal rejoicings. But the joy was
short-lived. King George, "industrious as a beaver and obstinate as a
mule," and his followers in Parliament were not slow to pick a fresh
quarrel with the Americans.
The next year the English Parliament made a law requiring duties to be
paid on paper, glass, paints, and tea. Again the liberty-loving
Americans were a unit in opposing any kind of taxation that seemed to
them illegal. Some of the legislatures protested to Parliament, and King
George answered by breaking up the legislatures. The people indignantly
refused to buy any goods at all from England while these taxes were
demanded. English traders found their business going to ruin. Ships came
loaded with British goods, and had to carry them back.
=142. Bitter Hatred of the British Soldiers.=--So bitter was the
opposition in Boston that a regiment of British troops was sent there to
force the people to submit even at the point of the bayonet. But a brave
people, determined to be free, is not so easily forced.
The citizens of Boston were ordered to furnish lodging and food for the
soldiers. They would not do it--not they! Their hatred of the soldiers
grew more bitter. Brawls often occurred on the streets. The soldiers on
their part began to be insulting.
=143. Boston Boys stand up for their Rights.=--Even the children took part
in the quarrels, as an incident will show. During the winter the boys
used to build snow-slides on Boston Common and slide down upon them to
the frog pond. The English soldiers destroyed these slides, merely to
provoke the boys. The young Americans complained of the injury and set
about repairing it. However, when they returned from school, they found
the snow-slides destroyed again.
[Illustration: THE BOSTON BOYS MAKE THEIR PROTEST TO GENERAL GAGE.]
Several of the boys now waited upon one of the under-officers, and told
him of the conduct of his soldiers; but he would have nothing to say to
them; and the soldiers were more impudent than ever. At last the boys
called a meeting and sent a committee of the largest of their number to
General Gage, the commander-in-chief. He asked why so many boys had
called upon him.
"We came, sir," said the tallest, "to demand satisfaction."
"What!" said the general; "have your fathers been teaching you
rebellion, and sent you to show it here?"
"Nobody sent us, sir," he answered, while his cheek reddened and his eye
flashed. "We have never injured nor insulted your troops; but they have
trodden down our snow-slides and broken the ice on the pond. We
complained and they called us young rebels and told us to help ourselves
if we could. We told one of your officers of this, and he laughed at us.
Yesterday our slides were destroyed for the third time; and, sir, we
will bear it no longer."
General Gage was a kind-hearted and courteous gentleman. He looked at
them with admiration, and said to an officer at his side: "The very
children draw in a love of liberty with the air they breathe. You may
go, my brave boys; and be assured, if my soldiers trouble you again,
they shall be punished."
=144. The Boston Massacre.=--One night in March (1770) some soldiers
stationed in Boston got into a quarrel, and the noise increased until
the guard was called out. As the platoon of regulars drew up in line,
most of the crowd fell back.
A few remained and reviled the red-coat soldiers, shouting,
"Lobster-backs! Fire if you dare, you cowards! You don't dare to fire!"
Captain Preston, the officer in command, gave the word, "Fire!" The
regulars fired.
Five men were killed and several wounded. There was now intense
excitement in Boston. The Old South Church was crowded with an angry
town-meeting. Thousands filled the streets near by. The people demanded
that the troops be removed. The governor promised to remove one
regiment. "Both regiments or none," was the watchword.
Samuel Adams waited upon the governor, and stretching forth his long
right arm, and pointing his finger at him, he sternly demanded, in the
name of three thousand freemen, that the royal governor remove every
British soldier from Boston.
"I observed his knees to tremble," said the stern patriot in after
years; "I saw his face grow pale--and I enjoyed the sight."
Before sunset of the same day the British troops were removed from the
city and sent to a fort in the harbor. Not until then did the meeting in
the Old South break up.
This unfortunate affair was the so-called "Boston Massacre." It did more
to mould public opinion than weeks of vigorous protest and fine argument
could have done. It was one step, and an important one too, toward the
final appeal to the sword and the bayonet.
=145. The Famous Boston Tea Party.=--In view of all these troubles,
England took off the taxes from everything but tea. King George said he
must have one tax to maintain the principle of the right of taxation.
But the colonists refused to drink tea imported from China! The women
were patriotic and made their tea of raspberry leaves, sage, and other
plants, rather than use the hated foreign article.
But the government of England was determined we should buy tea, and the
merchants sent shiploads of it to our large cities. The Americans were
firm. They vowed that not an ounce of it should land. There was only a
few cents' tax on each pound. What our people disputed was the right of
the king to tax. When the tea reached New York and Philadelphia, none
dared to receive it, lest their houses should be pulled down about their
heads. In Charleston, S. C., some was taken ashore, but as no one would
buy it or pay the duty, it was hid in damp cellars, where it soon
spoiled. In Annapolis it was burned.
At Boston warning was several times given to the masters of the ships to
sail out of the harbor. On the last day before the tea must be landed or
be prevented by force from landing, a town-meeting was held in the Old
South Church. The crowd in the church, and in the streets about it,
numbered more than seven thousand people. "It was to be," says John
Fiske, "one of the most momentous days in the history of the world."
The discussion continued until dark, and candles were brought in. It was
decided that the tea should not be landed.
"Who knows," shouted one in the audience, "how tea will mix with salt
water?"
The church fairly shook with cheers.
Then up rose Samuel Adams and quickly said: "This meeting can do nothing
more to save the country."
This was the signal. A war-whoop was heard outside the door, and forty
or fifty men, disguised as Indians, went quietly aboard the three
vessels, and before the nine-o'clock bell rang three hundred and
forty-two chests of tea had been cut open and their contents emptied
into Boston Harbor. This was the famous "Boston Tea Party" we have so
often heard of, and it took place in the middle of December in 1773. A
large crowd of the friends of these men stood on shore until the deed
was done, and then, without doing any other injury to property, all
separated and went home in the clear, frosty moonlight.
The next morning there was not a chest of taxed tea in Boston, on
shipboard or on shore, and Paul Revere was riding post haste to
Philadelphia to let the good people of that city know that Boston had at
last thrown down the gauntlet.
One of the "Indians" found a handful of tea in his shoe the next
morning. He carefully saved it and sealed it in a bottle. It is still
shown as a souvenir of this informal "tea party" in Boston harbor.
One rash fellow, probably thinking that his family would like a good
drink of real tea, cut open the lining of his coat and waistcoat, and,
watching his chance, filled them with tea; but he was caught in the act
and handled pretty roughly.
=146. Attempts to punish Boston.=--"Boston shall be punished," said King
George when he heard of the "tea party." Parliament passed the "Boston
Port Bill." By this act the port of Boston was closed. No vessel could
go in or out except under the most rigid conditions. The object of
course was to frighten or force the Boston people into yielding to the
royal power.
Near-by towns and the other colonies came to their help by sending food
and other needed articles. The southern colonies sent flour and rice,
the middle furnished corn and money, and many towns sent sheep and
cattle. One town in Connecticut sent a flock of two hundred and fifty
sheep. Marblehead sent fish, and other towns grain.
Warm sympathy came from Virginia. "If need be," said Washington, "I will
raise a thousand men, subsist them at my own expense, and march myself
at their head for the relief of Boston." In fact all the colonies took
up the cause of Boston as their own. Of course the blockade made great
hardship for the poor. There was much suffering from the scarcity of
fuel and food. Still the people, as resolute as their leaders, made
little complaint and caused no disorder.
Dr. Joseph Warren overheard some British officers boast that if a
patriot ever addressed the people again in the Old South Church, he
would surely lose his life. This was enough. Warren begged the honor.
The church was so crowded that he had to get a ladder and climb in
through a window at the back of the pulpit. Many British officers were
present who annoyed the speaker with groans and hisses. The fearless
patriot, however, made a stirring speech "on the baneful influence of
standing armies in time of peace."
=147. The Home Government adopts Stringent Measures.=--The charter of
Massachusetts was annulled, and its free government taken away. General
Gage, the commander of the British army in America, was ordered to
Boston with several regiments and was appointed military governor with
despotic power. Cannon were mounted on the heights, tents pitched on the
Common, and companies of red-coats were marching to and fro in the
streets.
The effect was exactly what the wisest men in Parliament had predicted.
They had said that the colonies would unite more firmly, and that the
American people would be driven into open rebellion. King George was
obstinate and used all his influence to push the most obnoxious Acts
through Parliament.
=148. The First Continental Congress.=--The first Continental Congress
held its first meeting at Philadelphia in September, 1774. The ablest
men of the colonies were sent as delegates. They forwarded to the king a
candid statement of their grievances. It did no good. Massachusetts was
declared in a state of rebellion. In truth, it looked like it.
Such a condition of affairs could not last long. The feeling was intense
against the king and his all-powerful friends. Arguments were useless.
The royal authority was boldly and stubbornly defied. The sword and the
bayonet must now decide whether king or people were to rule in America.
"The contest may be severe, but the end will be glorious," said the
martyr-patriot Warren, who soon after fell at Bunker Hill.
CHAPTER XI.
LEXINGTON AND CONCORD.
=149. The Patriots prepare for War.=--When General Gage began to increase
slowly the number of troops in Boston, and especially when he began to
fortify Boston Neck, it was plain enough that this meant war. The people
on their part began to prepare anxiously for the coming struggle. Every
one felt that desperate times were near at hand. The patriots quickly
collected arms and ammunition and, having packed them in loads of hay
and similar disguises to deceive the British spies, sent them for safe
keeping to Concord, about sixteen miles northwest of Boston.
=150. Gage forms Plans to capture Military Stores.=--General Gage soon
learned this, and made secret preparations to capture these supplies.
Inasmuch as in previous expeditions of this kind he had met with
failure, the advantage of a surprise was this time to be increased by
the presence of a large force. The Americans, however, were quite as
keen of sight and hearing as their enemies, and had even more reason to
keep a sharp lookout.
About midnight on the 18th of April, 1775, Gage quietly sent out from
Boston nearly eight hundred soldiers. He had two objects in view; to
seize the military stores at Concord, and to arrest Samuel Adams and
"his ready and willing tool," that "terrible desperado," John Hancock.
Gage thought the start of his midnight soldiers was quite unknown to the
Americans. He never suspected that Warren and other vigilant patriots
had been watching every movement, and were determined to thwart his
plans. At about ten or eleven o'clock, two hours before the British
soldiers embarked, a signal lantern hung out of the belfry of the Old
North Church in Boston, and in a few minutes another by its side--"One,
if by land, and two, if by sea"--flashed the tidings of the coming
expedition.
=151. The Country about Boston aroused.=--An hour or two before the
British troops began to cross in boats to Charlestown, two horsemen, who
had been watching for the lantern lights in the steeple, dashed out on
swift steeds by different roads towards Lexington and Concord: William
Dawes went like an arrow over Boston Neck, and then through Roxbury and
Watertown, while Paul Revere across the water sped as if on wings from
Charlestown. Their swift horses' hoofs clattered sharply in the quiet of
this beautiful night, striking fire from the stones in the darkness.
But at almost every house they paused a moment to arouse the sleepers.
"Wake up!" they shouted. Windows flew open.
"What's the matter?"--"What's the mat-ter?"
"Matter enough, you'll find, by daylight!" was the hurried reply. "The
British are coming!"
=152. The Night March to Concord.=--Meanwhile the British soldiers were
marching along rapidly through the cool April night. They made no noise.
There was no drumbeat; the officers gave their commands almost in
whispers. Only the clatter of the horses' hoofs and the steady tramp of
the marching men broke the silence. When day dawned they approached the
village of Lexington, ten miles from Boston and about two-thirds of the
way to Concord. They were not entirely surprised to find, even so early,
a squad of armed minute-men awaiting them, for they had heard church
bells ringing and had seen, all along their march, lights moving to and
fro in the farm houses.
=153. The Patriots make a stand at Lexington.=--The British arrived at
Lexington about half-past four. Ready to meet them were some sixty or
seventy men drawn up on the village green close beside the
meeting-house, with loaded guns. As they stood there, silent and
fearless, on that sweet spring morning, April 19, 1775, their leader,
Captain John Parker, who fifteen years before had climbed the Heights of
Abraham by the side of Wolfe, addressed them briefly.
"Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon," said Parker; "but if
they mean to have a war, let it begin here!" Seventy men against eight
hundred! War it was, and it did begin there.
[Illustration: PAUL REVERE'S RIDE.]
Major Pitcairn, who soon afterwards fell at Bunker Hill, rode up and
cried out:--
"Disperse, you villains! Throw down your arms, you rebels, and go home!"
He then discharged his pistol and, turning to his soldiers, cried,
"Fire!" Instantly flashed out the first volley of the Revolutionary War,
and eight of the farmer minute-men fell dead!
The number of the Americans was so small in proportion to that of the
British that the only sensible course was to retreat. They retired with
a few parting shots at the enemy. Then the red-coats, giving three
cheers, marched on towards Concord, six miles farther.
The patriots at Concord had the day before received some hint of the
proposed capture, and had removed most of the military stores to the
woods. The British found two cannon, which they spiked, and some cannon
balls and gunpowder, which they threw into the river. Then they
destroyed a quantity of flour, cut down the liberty-pole, and set fire
to the courthouse.
=154. The Fight at Concord Bridge.=--While they were busy doing this,
fresh minute-men, about four hundred in number, were coming in from all
the adjoining towns. They gathered near the old North Bridge to drive
away some regulars who had begun to take up the planks. As the militia
approached, the British soldiers fired and killed several. Among the
dead was Captain Isaac Davis. Long after life was extinct, the fingers
of this brave patriot, as if still true to his purpose, held firm grasp
on his gun.
Major Buttrick, a leader among the soldier-farmers, shouted, "Fire,
fellow-soldiers! Fire!" Obedient to this order, the Americans in return
"fired the shot heard round the world!" The regulars fell back in
confusion. The minute-men held the bridge, and the enemy began a hasty
retreat.
[Illustration: THE MINUTE-MEN ATTACKING THE BRITISH REGULARS ON THE
RETREAT.]
Our men were too few in number to join in a square pitched battle with
the trained British soldiers; but as soon as these began to withdraw,
the patriots followed them closely and kept up a brisk discharge of
musketry. The previous volleys and the bell-ringing had aroused the
whole adjacent country, and fresh men came pouring in from every side.
Most of them were without their coats; but they had guns in their hands
and they knew how to use them.
=155. The British begin their Retreat.=--Occasionally the retreating
soldiers would stop and shoot back, and then hurry on and even run, to
escape the deadly bullets. Soon the minute-men, leaping over the stone
walls, ran on ahead, or, cutting across at some bend of the road, got a
long distance in advance. Then as the column came on, the Americans,
from behind barns, trees, rocks, and walls, would pour a storm of shot
into the staggering ranks. So from right and left, behind and before,
came in showers the fatal balls of the minute-men. A British officer
afterwards said, "It seemed as if men dropped from the clouds."
You remember Longfellow's description:--
How the British regulars fired and fled,
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farm-yard wall,
Chasing the red-coats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again,
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And pausing only to fire and load.
The British suffered fearfully in this six-mile march. The weather was
as sultry as in midsummer, and the dust was suffocating. They had been
on the road without food or water from midnight to noon. They were worn
and exhausted, and the ceaseless shot of the Americans, who were all
trained to the use of the rifle, brought down some of the regulars at
almost every step. To go on was perilous, to pause long was fatal. Dead
and wounded men and horses lay all along the road.
Thus beset, the British pushed on, hurrying back over the dreadful
distance till they reached Lexington. Here they were rejoiced to find a
thousand soldiers sent out from Boston under Lord Percy to meet them.
These had marched out of Boston to the tune of Yankee Doodle! They were
formed in a hollow square, and into this shelter rushed the runaway
red-coats, falling upon the green grass from pure exhaustion, "with
their tongues hanging out of their mouths, like dogs after a chase."
Lord Percy allowed a rest of only about half an hour, knowing very well
that the longer he delayed the greater would be the increasing swarm of
armed men gathering around him.
=156. The Panic-Stricken British Regulars at last reach the Shelter of
the Men-of-War.=--The British commander had now in all nearly eighteen
hundred men, and he made straight for Charlestown, the nearest point of
safety. But in spite of this large force, the minute-men with their
unerring aim kept on his flanks, picking off the regulars, especially
the officers, all along the road. In vain the officers threatened; the
men ran like sheep. At sunset the British reached Charlestown and found
themselves safe under the shelter of their men-of-war.
If Percy's reinforcements had not come up, all the British soldiers that
started back from Concord would have been killed or taken prisoners. The
king's regulars had been driven in rout and almost panic before the
stout-hearted minute-men. Well might General Gage feel keenly the
disgrace.
The loss on both sides at Lexington and Concord was small. Most of the
fighting took place on the retreat, where the loss of the Americans was
about fifty killed and forty-three wounded, while the British lost in
all two hundred and seventy-three men.
=157. What the Eventful Day showed.=--Thus began and ended one of the most
eventful days in the history of our country. It witnessed the opening
conflict of the American Revolution.
When that sturdy patriot, Samuel Adams, heard the crackle of the
musketry, he exclaimed, "What a glorious morning is this!" He knew that
the time had come when the people must draw the sword.
The Americans had now shown that they could fight. They saw the
promptness with which they could assemble, and they felt that, if need
were, they could defend themselves. The British also learned that the
American farmers could fight, and that, too, on the spur of the moment.
They found that the colonies were not to be frightened into submission.
It became plain to each side that very serious work was near at hand.
The grim figure of WAR cast its long black shadow into the future.
The shots of these resolute farmers echoed far and wide. They told the
whole world that a people stood ready to give their lives in defense of
their rights; that they fought after their own fashion, and they fought
hard.
=158. The Minute-Men; the Work they did, and how they did it.=--The
minute-men were bands of enrolled patriots pledged to start at a
minute's notice to a call for their services. They had few good weapons,
mostly shotguns for hunting birds and squirrels. They were short of
powder and ball. In many of the families the women melted or pounded up
their pewter spoons and dishes into bullets and slugs.
The minute-men were numerous in every town, and when the alarm was
given, they would leave plow or shop, hurry home, take down the gun from
its hooks over the fireplace, bid good-by to wife and children, and be
off to help their country in its peril.
Israel Putnam, in leather frock and apron, was at work in a field on his
farm in Connecticut when he heard of Lexington. Leaving the plow in the
furrow, he jumped on his horse and rode the hundred or more miles to
Cambridge in eighteen hours. John Stark was at work in his sawmill in
New Hampshire when the news of Lexington came. He stopped the mill,
hurried home, took down his rifle, and rode on horseback to Cambridge.
In his haste he even forgot to put on his coat!
[Illustration: THE FIGHT AT CONCORD BRIDGE.]
Every town had a company or two of minute-men and of militia soldiers,
who regularly met and drilled. The soldiers and the officers of these
companies were usually the best citizens of the towns. Thirty-one towns
were represented among the patriots who hastened to the fight on the
nineteenth of April.
=159. Tablets now shown along this Historic Road.=--If some day we should
take a ride over this very road, we should notice along the way numerous
landmarks of that famous contest--carved monuments, houses with bullet
holes carefully preserved, bronze tablets on houses, marking some spot
of special interest. At Fiske's Hill, in Lexington, an inscription
records that at a well near by two soldiers met to drink. The British
grenadier raised his gun and said to James Hayward, "You are a dead
man!" "And so are you!" replied the minute-man. Both fired; one was
instantly killed, and the other mortally wounded.
On Lexington Common we should see a stately monument with a long
inscription reciting the event.
At Concord Bridge would be seen a noble statue of the Minute-Man,
beneath which on the pedestal are Emerson's famous verses:--
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
CHAPTER XII.
THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL.
=160. More Regulars sent to Boston.=--The battle of Lexington, fought as
we have read, on the nineteenth of April, 1775, was a most momentous
event, since it showed for the first time the resolute purpose of the
Americans to draw the sword and defend themselves from British
oppression. The news reached England near the end of May. Those
Lexington muskets said plainer than words that the colonies would not
submit to unjust taxation.
Fully aware that the situation was becoming serious, the British
government sent a large number of fresh troops to reinforce the garrison
in Boston. These came under the command of Generals Howe, Clinton, and
Burgoyne, and made in all an army of about ten thousand men.
=161. A Patriot Army is gathered around Boston.=--The patriots, too, were
gathering in large numbers around Boston. They came by hundreds from all
directions. Quite a large body was from Connecticut under Colonel
(afterwards General) Israel Putnam. General Ward was commander of these
forces until Washington arrived at Cambridge on July 3, 1775, and first
took command of the American army under the old elm.
On the twelfth of June, General Gage issued a proclamation declaring all
those in arms to be rebels and traitors, but offering pardon to all who
would lay down their weapons and obey the British governor. Two, John
Hancock and Samuel Adams, were excepted. Their patriotism had been too
intense and outspoken to be forgiven.
[Illustration: WASHINGTON TAKING COMMAND OF THE PATRIOT ARMY.]
The American army, now nearly twenty thousand strong, formed a line of
encampments in a great semicircle of sixteen miles, halfway around the
city from Roxbury Neck to the Mystic River. They soon learned that Gage
intended to break through the American lines into the country for a
supply of provisions.
=162. Plans to checkmate the British.=--General Ward, having discovered
that the British were planning to sally forth through Charlestown,
determined to strike first and so defeat their project. It was decided
to seize and fortify some suitable hill in Charlestown. Colonel William
Prescott, a well-tried soldier of the French-Indian wars, and
grandfather of Prescott, the famous historian, was ordered, on the
sixteenth of June, to march that night with nearly a thousand men to
Bunker Hill and throw up breastworks.
Soon after sunset the soldiers were formed in a hollow square on
Cambridge Common, and President Langdon of Harvard College offered
prayer. The good man then gave them his blessing and bade them
"Godspeed." At nine o'clock they started on their silent march. At
Charlestown Neck they met General Putnam with more soldiers and
wagon-loads of picks and shovels.
=163. Entrenched on Bunker Hill.=--Prescott led them to the top of Bunker
Hill. After consultation with his officers, he moved on through the
darkness to Breed's Hill, which had a better command of the city and the
shipping. The lines were soon staked out, and at midnight the farmer
soldiers began their entrenchments. So rapidly did they work that the
dim morning twilight disclosed a large square of fresh trenches
crowning the hill, with long wings stretching right and left. They had
made a fort in a single night.
How surprised the British were at the sight, as the sun rose on a
beautiful summer morning! They could scarcely believe their eyes. It
seemed like a work of magic. A thousand men had shoveled as they never
shoveled before, and not a British sentry had heard the click of their
spades. They saw at once that the Americans, if they only had time
enough to plant a battery of cannon there, could very soon drive them
out of Boston. So the only thing for them to do was to drive the
Americans from that hill, and that too without delay. Accordingly, the
British men-of-war, Lively and Falcon, and then the forts on Copp's Hill
in Boston immediately opened fire.
Meanwhile some hundreds of fresh soldiers arrived to help the Americans,
hungry and weary with their hard night's work. The shot and shell from
ships and fort dropped around and among them, but they worked bravely on
in the hot sunshine till nearly noon. At the left, on the northern slope
of the hill, they moved some rail fences so as to build long double
lines close together, and stuffed the space between with new-mown hay,
making an excellent breastwork.
=164. The British prepare to storm the Entrenchments.=--Things are now
looking serious. The Americans can see and hear the British in Boston
preparing for an attack. Prescott sends hurrying messengers to General
Ward at the Cambridge headquarters for more soldiers. During the
forenoon General Stark arrives with five hundred fresh New Hampshire
troops, who were posted behind the rail fence on the extreme left. Next
General Warren comes, and, laying aside his rank, takes a place of
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