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INTRODUCTORY

AMERICAN
HISTORY

BOURNE AND BENTON

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INTRODUCTORY
AMERICAN HISTORY

HENRY ELDRIDGE BOURNE

AND

ELBERT JAY BENTON

PROFESSORS OF HISTORY IN WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY

D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

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INTRODUCTION

This volume is the introductory part of a course in American
history embodying the plan of study recommended by the Com-
mittee of Eight of the American Historical Association.^ The
plan calls for a continuous course running through grades six,
seven, and eight. The events which have taken place within
the limits of what is now the United States must necessarily
furnish the most of the content of the lessons. But the Com-
mittee urge that enough other matter, of an introductory
character, be included to teach boys and girls of from twelve
to fourteen years of age that our civilization had its beginnuigs
far back in the history of the Old World. Such introductory
study will enable them to think of our country in its true
historical setting. The Committee recommend that about
two-thirds of one year's work be devoted to this prehminary
matter, and that the remainder of the year be given to the
period of discovery and exploration.

The plan of the Committee of Eight emphasizes three or
four lines of development in the world's history leading up to
American history proper.

First, there was a movement of conquest or colonization
by which the ancient civihzed world, originally made up of
communities like the Greeks and Phoenicians in the Aegean
and eastern Mediterranean Seas, spread to southern Italy
and adjacent lands. The Roman conquest of Italy and of
the barbarian tribes of western Europe expanded the civilized
world to the shores of the Atlantic. Within this greater
Roman world new nations grew up. The migration of
Europeans to the American continent was the final step.

^The Study of History in Elementary Schools. Scribner's, 1909.

iv INTRODUCTION

Second, accompanying the growth of the civihzed world in
extent was a growth of knowledge of the shape of the earth, or
of what we call geography. Columbus was a geographer as
well as the herald of an expanding world.

A third process was the creation and transmission of all
that we mean by civilization. Here, as the Committee remark,
the effort should be to ''show, in a very simple way, the civiUza-
tion which formed the heritage of those who were to go to
America, that is, to explain what America started with."

The Committee also suggest that it is necessary 'Ho associate
the three or four peoples of Europe which were to have a share
in American colonization with enough of their characteristic
incidents to give the child some feeling for the name ' England, '
'Spain,' 'Holland,' and 'France.'"

No attempt is made in this book to give a connected history
of Greece, Rome, England, or any other country of Europe.
Such an attempt would be utterly destructive of the plan.
Only those features of early civihzation and those incidents of
history have been selected which appear to have a vital relation
to the subsequent fortunes of mankind in America as well as
in Europe. They are treated in all cases as introductory.
Opinions may differ upon the question of what topics best
illustrate the relation. The Committee leaves a wide margin
of opportunity for the exercise of judgment in selection. In
the use of a textbook based on the plan the teacher should
use the same liberty of selection. For example, we have chosen
the story of Marathon to illustrate the idea of the heroic
memories of Greece. Others may prefer Thermopylae, because
this story seems to possess a simpler dramatic development.
In the same way teachers may desire to give more emphasis
to certain phases of ancient or mediaeval civilization or certain
heroic persons treated very briefly in this book. Exercises
similar to those inserted at the end of each chapter offer means
of supplementing work provided in the text.

The story of American discovery and exploration in the plan

INTRODUCTION v

of the Committee of Eight follows the introductory matter
as a natural culmination. In our textbook we have adhered
to the same plan of division. The work of the seventh grade
will, therefore, open with the study of the first permanent
English settlements.

The discoveries and explorations are told in more detail than
most of the earlier incidents, but whatever is referred to is
treated, we hope, with such simplicity and definiteness of
statement that it will be comprehensible and instructive to
pupils of the sixth grade.

At the close of the book will be found a list of references.
From this teachers may draw a rich variety of stories and
descriptions to illustrate any features of the subject which
especially interest their classes. In the index is given the
pronunciation of difficult names.

We wish to express gratitude to those who have aided us
with wise advice and criticism.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Scattered Children of Europe 1

II. Our Earliest Teachers 7

III. How THE Greeks Lived 18

IV. Greek Emigrants or Colonists 31

V. New Rivals of the Greeks . 40

VI. The Mediterranean a Roman Lake 49

VII. The Ancient World Extended to the Shores of the

Atlantic 58

VIII. The Civilization of the Roman World .... 69

IX. Christianity and the Roman Empire 80

X. Emigrants a Thousand Years Ago 86

XL How Englishmen Learned to Govern Themselves . 100

XII. The Civilization of the Middle Ages 110

XIII. Traders, Travelers, and Explorers in the Later

Middle Ages 132

XIV. The Discovery of a New World 146

XV. Others Help in the Discovery of the New World . 159

XVI. Early Spanish Explorers and Conquerors of the

Mainland 170

XVII. The Spanish Explorers of North America . . . 185

XVIII. Rivalry and Strife in Europe 204

XIX. First French Attempts to Settle America. . . . 216

XX. The English and the Dutch Triumph Over Spain . 226

XXI. The English People Attempt to Settle America . 240

References for Teachers 253

Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary 259

vii

INTRODUCTOEY
AMERICAN HISTORY

CHAPTER I
THE SCATTERED CHILDREN OF EUROPE

The Emigrant and what he brings to America. The

emigrant who lands at New York, Boston, Philadel-
phia, or any other seaport, brings with him something
which we do not |^e. He may have in his hands only
a small bundle of clothing and enough money to pay
his railroad fare to his new home, but he is carrying
another kind of baggage more valuable than bundles
or boxes or a pocket full of silver or gold. This other
baggage is the knowledge, the customs, and the mem-
ories he has brought from the fatherland.

He has already learned in Europe how to do the work
at which he hopes to labor in America. In his native
land he has been taught to obey the laws and to do his
duty as a citizen. This fits him to share in our self-
government. He also brings great memories, for he
likes to think of the brave and noble deeds done by men
of his race. If he is a religious man, he worships God
just as his forefathers have for hundreds of years. To
understand how the emigrant happens to know what
he does and to be what he is, we must study the history
of the country from which he comes.

2 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

All Americans are Emigrants. If this is true of the
newcomer, it is equally true of the rest of us, for we are
all emigrants. The Indians are the only native Ameri-
cans, and when we find out more about them we may
learn that they, too, are emigrants. If we follow the
history of our families far enough back, we shall come
upon the names of our forefathers who sailed from
Europe. They may have come to America in the early
days when there were only a few settlements scattered
along our Atlantic coast, or they may have come since
the Revolutionary War changed the Enghsh colonies into
the United States.

Like the Canadians, the South i#nericans, and the
Australians, we are simply Europeans who have moved
away. The story of the Europe in which our fore-
fathers hved is, therefore, part of our story. In order
to understand our own history we must know something
of the history of England, France, Germany, Italy, and
other European lands.

What the early Emigrants brought. If we read the
story of our forefathers before they left Europe, we
shall find answers to several important questions. Why,
we ask, did Columbus seek for new lands or for new
ways to lands already known? How did the people of
Europe live at the time he discovered America? What
did they know how to do? Were they skilful in all
sorts of work, or were they as rude and ignorant as the
Indians on the western shores of the Atlantic?

The answers which history will give to these ques-
tions will say that the first emigrants who landed on our

THE SCATTERED CHILDREN OF EUROPE 3

shores brought with them much of the same knowledge
and many of the same customs and memories which
emigrants bring nowadays and which we also have.
It is true that since the time the first settlers came men
have found out how to make many new things. The
most important of these are the steam-engine, the elec-
tric motor, the telegraph, and the telephone. But it is

A Modern Steamship and an Early Sailing Vessel

The early emigrants came in small sailing vessels and suffered great hardships

surprising how many important things, which we still
use, were made before Columbus saw America.

For one thing, men knew how to print books. This
art had been discovered during the boyhood of Colum-
bus. Another thing, men could make guns, while the
Indians had only bows and arrows. The ships in which
Columbus sailed across the ocean seemed very large
and wonderful to the Indians, who used canoes. The
ships were steered with the help of a compass, an instru-
ment which the Indians had never seen.

4 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Some of the things which the early emigrants knew
had been known hundreds or thousands of years before.
One of the oldest was the art of writing. The way to
write words or sounds was found out so long ago that
we shall never know the name of the man who first dis-
covered it. The historians tell us he lived in Egypt,
which was in northern Africa, exactly where Egypt is
now. Some men were afraid that the new art might

Cleopatra

Egyptian Phonetic Writing

do more harm than good. The king to whom the
secret was told thought that the children would be un-
wiUing to work hard and try to remember because every-
thing could be written down and they would not need
to use their memories. The Egyptians at first used
pictures to put their words upon rocks or paper, and
even after they made several letters of the alphabet
their writing seemed Uke a mixture of little pictures
and queer marks.

Old and New Inventions. Those who first discover
how to make things are called inventors, and what they
make are called inventions. Now if we should write
out a list of the most useful inventions, we could place
in one column the inventions which were made before
the days of Columbus and in another those which have
been made since. With this list before us we may ask

THE SCATTERED CHILDREN OF EUROPE

H O

irn

P
R
5

Growth of Letters of
THE Alphabet

which inventions we could hve without and which we
could not spare unless we were wilUng to become like the
savages. We should find that a |
large number of the inventions
which we use every day belong
to the set of things older than
Columbus. This is another rea-
son why, if we wish to under-
stand our ways of living and
working, we must ask about the
history of the countries where
our forefathers lived. It is the
beginning of our own history.

A Plan of Study. The discovery of America was
made in 1492, at the beginning of what we call Modern
Times. Before Modern Times were the Middle Ages,
lasting about a thousand years. These began three or
four hundred years after the time of Christ or what we
call the beginning of the Christian Era. All the events
that took place earlier we say happened in Ancient
Times. Much that we know was learned first by the
Greeks or Romans who lived in Ancient Times.

It is in the Middle Ages that we first hear of peoples
called Enghshmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Dutchmen,
Itahans, Spaniards, and many others now living in Great
Britam and on the Continent of Europe. We shall learn
first of the Greeks and Romans and of what they knew
and succeeded in doing, and then shall find out how
these things were learned by the peoples of the Middle
Ages and what they added to them. This will help us

6 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

to find out what our forefathers started with when they
came to hve in America.

QUESTIONS

1. What does the emigrant from Europe bring to America besides
his baggage?

2. Why are all Americans emigrants?

3. What did the earhest emigrants from Europe to America bring
with them?

4. Which do you think the more useful invention — the telephone
or the art of writing? Who invented this art? Find Egypt on the
map. How did Egyptian writing look?

5. Why was it a help to Columbus that gunpowder and guns were
invented before he discovered America?

6. When did the Christian Era begin? What is meant bj^ Ancient
Times? By the Middle Ages? By Modern Times? In what Times
was the art of writing invented? In what Times was the compass
invented? In what Times was the telephone invented?

EXERCISES

1 . Collect from illustrated papers, magazines, or advertising folders,
pictures of ocean steamships. Collect pictures of sailing ships, ships
used now and those used long ago.

2. Collect from persons who have recently come to this country
stories of how they traveled from Europe to America, and from ports
hke Boston, New York, and Philadelphia to where they now hve.

3. Let each boy and girl in the schoolroom point out on the map
the European country from which his parents or his grandparents
or his forefathers came.

4. Let each boy and girl make a list of the holidays which his fore-
fathers had in the "fatherland" or "mother country." Let each
find out the manner in which the holidays were kept. Let each tell
the most interesting hero story from among the stories of the mother
country or fatherland. Let each find out whether the tools used in
the old home were hke the tools his parents use here.

CHAPTER II
OUR EARLIEST TEACHERS

Ancient Cities that still exist. In Ancient Times the
most important peoples hved on the shores of the
Mediterranean. The northern shore turns and twists
around four peninsulas. The first is Spain, which sep-
arates the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean;
the second, shaped like a boot, is Italy; and the third,
the end of which looks Uke a mulberry leaf, is Greece.
Beyond Greece is Asia Minor, the part of Asia which
hes between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.
(See the map on page 33.)

The Italians now Hve in Italy, but the Romans
lived there in Ancient Times. The people who hve
in Greece are called Greeks, just as they were more
than two thousand years ago. Many of the cities
that the Greeks and Romans built are still stand-
ing. Alexandria was founded by the great conqueror
Alexander. Constantinople used to be the Greek
city of Byzantium. Another Greek city, Massiha, has
become the modern French city of Marseilles. Rome
had the same name in Ancient Times, except that it
was spelled Roma. The Romans called Paris by the
name of Lutetia, and London they called Lugdunum.

Ruins which show how the Ancients lived. In many
of these cities are ancient buildings or ruins of build-

8 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

ings, bits of carving, vases, mosaics, sometimes even
wall paintings, which we may see and from which we
may learn how the Greeks and Romans lived. Near
Naples are the ruins of Pompeii, a Roman city suddenly
destroyed during an eruption of the volcano Vesuvius.

For hundreds of years the city lay buried under fif-
teen or twenty feet of ashes. When these were taken
away, the old streets and the walls of the houses could
be seen. No roofs were left and the walls in many
places were only partly standing, but things which in
other ancient cities had entirely disappeared were kept
safe in Pompeii under the volcanic ashes.

The traveler who walks to-day along the ruined
streets can see how its inhabitants lived two thousand
years ago. He can visit their public buildings and their
private houses, can handle their dishes and can look at
the paintings on their walls or the mosaics in the floors.
But interesting as Pompeii is, we must not think that
its ruins teach us more than the ruins of Rome or Athens
or many other ancient cities. Each has something im-
portant to tell us of the people who lived long ago.

Ancient Words still in Use. The ancient Greeks and
Romans have left us some things more useful than the
ruins of their buildings. These are the words in our
language which once were theirs, and which we use with
slight changes in spelling. Most of our words came in
the beginning from Germany, where our Enghsh fore-
fathers lived before they settled in England. To the
words they took over from Germany they added words
borrowed from other peoples, just as we do now. We

OUR EARLIEST TEACHERS 9

have recently borrowed several words from the French,
such as tonneau and limousine, words used to describe
parts of an automobile, besides the name automobile
itself, which is made up of a Latin and a Greek word.

Ruins of a House at Pompeii

The houses of the better sort were built with an open court in the center

In this way, for hundreds of years, words have been
coming into our language from other languages. Sev-
eral thousand have come from Latin, the language of
the Romans; several hundred from Greek, either directly
or passed on to us by the Romans or the French. The
word school is Greek, and the word arithmetic was bor-
rowed from the French, who took it from the Greeks.
Geography is another word which came, through French
and Latin, from the Greeks, to whom it meant that which

10 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

is written about the earth. The word grammar came
in the same way. The word alphabet is made by join-
ing together the names of the first two Greek letters,
alpha and beta.

Many words about rehgion are borrowed from the
Greeks, and this is not strange, for the New Testa-
ment was written in Greek. Some of these are Bible,
church, bishop, choir, angel, devil, apostle, and martyr.
The Greeks have handed down to us many words about
government, including the word itself, which in the
beginning meant " to steer." Pohtics meant hav-
ing to do with a polis or city. Several of the words
most recently made up of Greek words are telegraph,
telephone, phonograph, and thermometer.

Many Words borrowed from the Romans. Nearly
ten times as many of our words are borrowed from the
Romans as from the Greeks, and it is not strange, because
at one time the Romans ruled over all the country now
occupied by the Italians, the French, the Spaniards,
a part of the Germans, and the Enghsh, so that these
peoples naturally learned the words used by their
conquerors and governors.

Interesting Ancient Stories. In the poems and tales
which we learn at home or at school are stories which
Greek and Roman parents and teachers taught their
children many hundred years ago. We learn them partly
because they are interesting, and because they please or
amuse us, and partly because they appear so often in our
books that it is necessary to know them if we would
understand our own books and language. Who has not

OUR EARLIEST TEACHERS

heard of Hercules and his Labors, of the Search for the
Golden Fleece, the Siege of Troy, or the Wanderings of
Ulysses? We love modern fairy stories and tales of
adventure, but they are not more pleasing than these
ancient stories.

The Story of the Greeks. Our language and our books
are full of memories of Greek and Roman deeds of cour-

The Plain of Marathon

age. The story of the Greeks comes before the story
of the Romans, for the Greeks were living in beautiful
cities, with temples and theaters, while the Romans
were still an almost unknown people dwelling on the
hills that border the river Tiber.

Memories of Greek Courage. The most heroic deeds
of the Greeks took place in a great war between the Greek
cities and the kingdom of Persia about five hundred
years before Christ. In those days there was no kingdom
called Greece, such as the geographies now describe.

12 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Instead there were cities, a few of which were ruled by
kings, others by the citizens themselves. These cities
banded together when any danger threatened them.
Sometimes one city turned traitor and helped the enemy
against the others. The most dangerous enemy the
Greeks had, until the Romans attacked them, was the
kingdom of Persia, which stretched from the Aegean
Sea far into Asia. In the war with the Persians the
Greeks fought three famous battles, at Marathon, Ther-
mopylae, and Salamis, the stories of which men have
always liked to hear and remember.

Preparing for Marathon, 490 B.C. To the Athenians
belong the glories of Marathon. They hved where the
modern city of Athens now stands. The ruins of their
temples and theaters still attract students and travel-
ers to Greece. The plain of Marathon lay more than
twenty miles to the northeast, and the roads to it led
through mountain passes. When the Athenians heard
that the hosts of the Great King of Persia were approach-
ing, they sent a runner, Pheidippides by name, to ask
aid of Sparta, a city one hundred and forty miles away,
in the peninsula now called the Morea, where dwelt the
sturdiest fighters of Greece. This runner reached Sparta
on the second day, but the Spartans said it would be
against their rehgious custom to march before the moon
was full. The Athenians saw that they must meet the
enemy alone — one small city against a mighty empire.
They called their ten thousand men together and set out.
On the way they were joined by a thousand more, the
whole army of the brave little town of Plataea.

OUR EARLIEST TEACHERS 13

How the Athenians were Armed. Although the Per-
sians had six times as many soldiers as the Athenians,
they were not so well armed for hand to hand fighting.
Their principal weapon was the bow and arrow, while
the Greeks used the lance and a short sword. The Greek
soldier was protected by his bronze helmet, solid across
the forehead and over the nose; by his breastplate, a
leathern or linen tunic covered with small metal scales,

Greek Soldiers in Arms

From a Greek vase of about the time of the battle of Marathon

with flaps hanging below his hips; and by greaves or
pieces of metal in front of his knees and shins. He was
also protected by a shield, often long enough to reach
from his face to his knees. According to a strange
custom the Athenians were led by ten generals, each
commanding one day in turn.

The Battle-ground. Marathon was a plain about
two miles wide, lying between the mountains and the
sea. From it two roads ran toward Athens, one along
the shore where the hills almost reached the sea, the
other up a narrow valley and over the mountains. The
Athenians were encamped in this valley, where they

14 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

could attack the Persians if they tried to follow the
shore road.

The Persians landed from their ships and filled
the plain near the shore. They wanted to fight in
the open plain because they had so many more sol-
diers than the Athenians and because they meant to
use their horsemen. For some time the Athenians
watched the Persians, not knowing what it was best to
do. Half the generals did not wish to risk a battle,
but Miltiades was eager to fight, for he feared that delay
would lead timid citizens or traitors to yield to the
Persians. He finally gained his wish, and on his day of
command the battle was ordered.

The Battle. The Persians by this time had decided
to sail around to the harbor of Athens and had taken
their horsemen on board their ships. When they saw
the Greeks coming they drew up their foot-soldiers
in deep masses. The Athenians and their comrades —
the Plataeans — soon began to move forward on the
run. The Persians thought this madness, because the
Greeks had no archers or horsemen. But the Greeks
saw that if they moved forward slowly the Persians
would have time to shoot arrows at them again and
again.

When the Greeks rushed upon the Persians the sol-
diers at the two ends of the Persian line gave way
and fled towards the shore. In the center, where the
best Persian soldiers stood, the Greeks were not at first
successful, and were forced to retreat. But those who
had been victorious came to their rescue, attacked the

OUR EARLIEST TEACHERS

Persians in the rear, and finally drove them off. The
Persians ran into the sea to reach the ships, and the
Athenians followed them. Some of the Greeks were so
eager in the fight that they seized the sides of the ships
and tried to keep them from being rowed away, but the
Persians cut at their hands and made them let go.
The News of the Victory. The Athenians had won a

7^T/A

The Straits of Salamis

Where a great sea-fight between Greeks and Persians took place

victory of which they were so proud that they meant
it never should be forgotten. Their city had suddenly
become great through the courage and self-sacrifice of
her citizens. One hundred and ninety-two Greeks had
fallen, and on the battle-field their comrades raised over
their bodies a mound of earth which still marks their
tomb. The victors sent the runner Pheidippides to
bear the news to Athens. Over the hills he ran until
he reached the market place, and there, with the
message of triumph on his lips, he fell dead.

16 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Other Victories of the Greeks. Marathon was only
the beginning of Greek victories over the Persians, only
the first struggle in the long wars between Europe and
Asia. Ten years after Marathon the Spartans won
everlasting glory by their heroic stand at the Pass of
Thermopylae — three hundred Greeks against the mighty
army of the Persian king Xerxes. The barbarian hordes
passed over their bodies, took the road to Athens, burned
the city, but were soon beaten in the sea-fight which
took place on the waters lying between the mainland
of Athenian territory and the island of Salamis. This
victory was also due to Athenian courage and leader-
ship, for the Athenians and their leader, Themistocles,
were resolved to stay and fight, although the other
Greeks wanted to sail away.

Why Marathon is remembered. The victories of
Marathon and Salamis were great not only because
small armies of Greeks put to flight the hosts of Persia,
they were great because they saved the independence of
Greece. If the Greeks had become the subjects and
slaves of Persia, they would not have built the wonderful
buildings, or carved the beautiful statues, or written the
books which we study and admire. When we think of
the Greeks as our first teachers we feel as proud of
their victories as if they were our own victories.

The Wars of the Greek Cities. The Athenians had
done the most in winning the victory over the Persians,
and therefore Athens was for many years the most
powerful city in Greece. The Spartans were always
jealous of the Athenians, and in less than a century after

OUR EARLIEST TEACHERS 17

the victory of Marathon they conquered and humbled
Athens. The worst faults of the Greeks were such jeal-
ousies and the desire to lord it over one another. Greek
history is full of wars of city against city, Sparta against
Athens, Corinth against Athens, and Thebes against
Sparta. In these wars many heroic deeds were done,
of which we like to read, but it is more important for
us to understand how the Greeks lived.

QUESTIONS

1. What ancient cities still exist? Find them on the map on
page 33. (For each difficult name find the pronunciation in the
index.)

2. What things do we find in the ruins of ancient cities which tell
us how the people lived?

3. From what country did most of our words come in the begin-
ning? W^hy are they now called Enghsh? What peoples used the
word geography before we did? About how many words do we
get from the Greeks, and how many from the Romans?

4. Which people became famous earher, the Greeks or the Romans?
Point out on the map the peninsula where each hved.

5. Why do we hke to remember the brave deeds of the Greeks?

6. Find the city of Athens on the map, page 33. Find Sparta.
Where was Marathon? What city won glory at Marathon?

7. What were the worst faults of the Greeks?

EXERCISES

1. Collect pictures of ruined cities in Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor,
from illustrated papers,, magazines, or advertising folders. Collect
postal cards giving such pictures.

2. Choose the best one of the Greek stories mentioned on page 11,
and tell it.

3. Find out how differently soldiers now are clothed and armed
from the way the Greek soldiers were.

4. Find out why a long distance run is now called a ''Marathon."

CHAPTER III
. HOW THE GREEKS LIVED

The Greek Cities. The Greeks lived in cities so much
of the time that we do not often think of them as ever
hving in the country. The reason for this was that
their government and everything else important was
carried on in the city. The cities were usually sur-
rounded by high, thick stone walls, which made them
safe from sudden attack. Within or beside the city there
was often a lofty hill, which we should call a fort or
citadel, but which they called the upper city or acrop-
olis. There the people hved at first when they were
few in number, and thither they fled if the walls of their
city were broken down by enemies.

In Athens such a hill rose two hundred feet above the
plain. Its top was a thousand feet long, and all the
sides except one were steep cliffs. On it the Athenians
built their most beautiful temples.

Private Houses. Unlike people nowadays the Greeks
did not spend much money on their dwelling-houses.
To us these houses would seem small, badly ventilated,
and very uncomfortable. But what their houses lacked
was more than made up by the beauty and' splendor of
the public buildings, halls, theaters, porticoes, and
especially the temples.

HOW THE GREEKS LIVED

Temples. The temples were not intended to hold
hundreds of worshipers hke the large churches of Europe
and America to-day. Religious ceremonies v/ere most
often carried on in the open air. The Parthenon, the
most famous temple of Ancient Times, was small. Its
principal room measured less than one hundred feet in

The Acropolis at Athens as it is To-day

length. Part of this room was used for an altar and for
the ivory and gold statue of the goddess Athena.

The Parthenon. In a picture of the Parthenon, or
of a similar temple, we notice the columns in front and
along the sides. The Parthenon had eight at each end
and seventeen on each side. They were thirty-four feet
high. A few feet within the columns on the sides was the
wall of the temple. Before the vestibule and entrances
at the front and at the rear stood six more columns.
The beauty of the marble from which stones and columns

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

were cut might have seemed enough, but the builders
carved groups of figures in the three-cornered space
(called the pediment) in front between the roof and the
stones resting upon the columns. The upper rows of
stones beneath the roof and above the columns were
also carved, and continuous carvings (called a frieze) ran

The Top of the Acropolis 2000 Years Ago

The Parthenon is the large temple on the right

around the top of the temple wall on the outside. The
temple was not left a glistening white, but parts of it
were painted in blue, or red, or gilt, or orange.

Other Greek Temples. This beautiful temple is now
partly ruined. Ruins of other temples are on the Acrop-
olis, and one better preserved, called the Theseum, stands
on a lower hill. There are also similar ruins in many
places along the shores of the Mediterranean. The most
interesting are at Psestum in Italy (see the picture
on page 35), and at Girgenti in Sicily. Long before

HOW THE GREEKS LIVED

these temples were ruined they had taught the Romans
how to construct one of the most beautiful kinds of
buildings, and this the Romans later taught the peoples
of western Europe.

Greek Methods of Building still used. If we look at
our large buildings, we shall see much to remind us
of the Greek buildings. Sometimes the exact form of

Doric Ionic Corinthian

Greek Orders of Architecture

the Greek building is imitated; sometimes this form is
changed as the Romans changed it, or as it was changed
by builders who lived after the time of the Romans.
If the model of the whole building is not used, there
are similar pillars, or gables, or the sculpture in the
pediment and the frieze is imitated. The Greeks had
three kinds of pillars, named Doric, Ionic, and Corin-
thian. The Doric is simple and sohd, the Ionic shows in
its capital, or top, delicate and beautiful curves, while

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

the Corinthian is adorned with leaves springing grace-
fully from the top of the pillar.

Theaters. The first Greek theater was only a smooth
open space near a hillside, with a tent, called a skene,
or scene, in which the actors dressed. Later an amphi-
theater of stone seats was constructed on the hillside,

Ruins of the Greek Theater at Epidaurus

and across the open end was placed the scene, which
had been changed into a stone building. On its front
sometimes a house or a palace was painted, just as nowa-
days theaters are furnished with painted scenery. In
these open-air theaters thousands of people gathered.
Plays were generally given as a part of religious festi-
vals, and there were contests between writers to see which
could produce the best play. Sometimes the plays fol-

HOW THE GREEKS LIVED

lowed one another for three days from morning until
night. Many of them are so interesting that people
still read them, after twenty-five hundred years. The
Romans studied them, and so do modern men who are
preparing themselves to wTite plays.

The Stadium. A building which somewhat resembled
the theater was the stadium, where races were run.

The Modern Stadium at Athens

The difference was that it was oblong instead of half
round. The most famous stadium, at Olympia, was
seven hundred and two feet long, with raised seats on
both sides and around one end of the running track.
The other end was open. About fifty thousand persons
used to gather there to watch the races.

Porticoes. There were other buildings, some for
meeting places, some for gymnasiums, and still others
called porticoes, where the judges held court or the

INTRODUCTORY. AMERICAN HISTORY

city officers carried on their business. The porticoes
were simply rows of columns, roofed over, with occa-
sionally a second story. As they stretched along the
sides of a square or market place they added much to
the beauty of a city.

Greek Sculpture. We know that the Greeks were
skilful sculptors because from the ruins of their cities

have been dug wonderful mar-
ble and bronze statues which
are now preserved in the great
museums of the world, in Paris,
London, Berlin, and Rome, and
here in America, in New York
and Boston. Museums which
cannot have the original statues
usually contain copies or casts
of them in plaster. The statues
are generally marred and
broken, but enough . remains to
show us the wonderful beauty
of the artist's work. Among
the most famous are the Venus
of Melos (or ''de Milo"), which
stands in a special room in a
museum called the Louvre in
Paris ; the Hermes in the museum of Olympia in Greece ;
and the figures from the Parthenon in the British
Museum in London.

Artists nowadays, like the Roman artists long ago,
study the Greek statues and the Greek sculpture, in

The Discus-thrower

(DiSCOBOLOS)

An ancient Greek statue now in the
Vatican

HOW THE GREEKS LIVED

order that they may learn how such beautiful things can
be made. They do not hope to excel the Greeks, but*
are content to remain their pupils.

Painting and Pottery. The Greeks were also paint-
ers, makers of pottery, and workers in gold and silver.
Many pieces of their workmanship have been discov-
ered by those who have dug in the ruins of ancient
buildings and tombs.

What the Boys were taught. The Greek boys were
not very good at arithmetic, and even grown men used
counting boards or their fingers to
help them in reckoning. In learn-
ing to write they smeared a thin
layer of wax over a board and
marked on that. There was a
kind of paper called papyrus,
made from a reed which grew
mostly in Egypt, but this was
expensive. Rolls were made of
sheets of it pasted together, and
these were their books. One of
the books the boys studied much
was the poems of Homer — the
Ihad and the Odyssey — which
tell about the siege of Troy and
the wanderings of Ulysses. Boys often learned these long
poems by heart. They also stored away in their mem-
ories the sayings of other poets and wise men, so that they
could generally know what to think, having with them so
many good and wise thoughts put in such excellent words.

</^iO I S A ^ O I

-'A ^ I SKA/n^N-i or

£"V(?D N A hi qma >

A Greek Book

The upper picture shows tho
book open

26 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Games and Exercises for Boys. It is not surprising
that Greek boys knew how to play, but it is surprising
that they played many of the games which boys play
now, such as hide-and-seek, tug of war, ducks and drakes,
and blind man's buff. They even '' pitched pennies."
In school the boys were taught not only to read and
write, but to be skilful athletes, and to play on the lyre,
accompanying this with singing. The gymnasium was
often an open space near a stream into which they could
plunge after their exercises were over. They were taught
to box, to wi'estle, to throw the discus, and to hurl the
spear. Military training was important for them, since
all might be called to fight for the safety of their city.

The Olympic Games. Boys and young men were
trained as runners, wrestlers, boxers, and discus throwers,
not only because they enjoyed these exercises and the
Greeks thought them an important part of education,
but also that they might bring back honors and prizes
to their city from the great games which all the Greeks
held every few years. The most famous of these games
were held at Olympia. There the Greeks went from all
parts of the country, carrying their tents and cooking
utensils with them, because there were not enough houses
iri Olympia to hold so many people. Wars even were
stopped for a time in order that the games might not
be postponed.

The Rewards of the Victors. The principal contest
was a dash for two hundred yards, although there were
longer races and many other kinds of contests. Unfor-
tunately the Greeks liked to see the most brutal sort of

HOW THE GREEKS LIVED 27

boxing, in which the boxer's hands and arms were cov-
ered with heavy strips of leather stiffened with pieces
of iron or lead. For the games men trained ten months,
part of the time at Olympia. The prize was a crown of
wild olive, and the winner returned in triumph to his
city, where poets sang his praises, a special seat at pub-
lic games was reserved for him, and often artists were
employed to make a bronze statue of him to be set up in
Olympia or in his own city.

Greek Games — Running

From an antique vase

The Government of Athens. The citizen of Athens,
and of other Greek cities, had more to do with his govern-
ment than do most Americans with theirs. As nearly
all w^ork was done by slaves, he had plenty of time to
attend meetings. All the citizens could attend the great
assembly, or ecclesia, where six thousand at least must
be present before anything could be decided. By this
assembly foreigners might be admitted to citizenship or
citizens might be expelled, or ostracized, from Athens
as hurtful to its welfare.

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

EAO ^ cN^C ' 8 Ol/F I KA I TO I i^L
7'^^0] aTai^ / -^.f^PP YtaNEYCHEok^

r I ||IEPEA'ir€<AOENAA^TE -rt/.^^/'
i ''- E ^-;^ P E N1 'r;-M" o n t a '^ .p a ^ /a /^:

Alio

A I f K '•^ /^ A K P ^T -^ '- I T r
MO:^MHNO^,TM I ' f
">T H^ tJ I K r. I

A Decree of the Council — about 450 b.c.

rPAAV^' f 'A:^ EMTH !CTH

There was a smaller council of five hundred which de-
cided less important questions without laying them
before the general assembly. This body was chosen by
lot just as our juries are, but members of the council

^..^— -S2a___^-^ - whose term had
.^sjp -^---'^-^-^^^zr^^ A ended had a right

to object to any
new member as
an unworthy citi-
zen. A tenth of
the council ruled
for a tenth of the
year, and they
chose their presi-
dent by lot every
day, so that any worthy man at Athens had a chance
to be president for a day and a night.

Many citizens also served in the courts, for there were
six thousand judges, and in deciding important cases as
many as a thousand and one, or even fifteen hundred and
one, took part. Before such large courts and assemblies
it was necessary to be a good speaker to be able to win
a case or persuade the citizens. Some of the greatest
orators of the world were Athenians, the best known
being Demosthenes.

Socrates. The Athenians were not always just,
although so many of them acted as judges. One court,
composed of five hundred and one judges, condemned
to death Socrates, the wisest man of the Greeks and one
of the wisest in the world. He did not make speeches,

HOW THE GREEKS LIVED

or write books, or teach in school. He went about, in
the market place, at the gymnasium, and on the streets,
asking men, young and old, questions about what inter-
ested him most, that is, WTiat is the true way to live?
If people did not give him an answer which seemed
good, he asked more ques-
tions, until sometimes they
went away angry. Many of
them thought because he
asked questions about every-
thing that he did not be-
lieve in anything, not even in
the religion of his city.

The Death of Socrates,
399 B.C. After a while the
enemies of Socrates accused
him of being a wicked man
who persuaded young men to
be wicked. He was tried by
an Athenian court, which made
the terrible blunder of finding
him guilty and condemning him to death. According to
the Athenian custom he was obhged to drink a cup of
poisonous hemlock. This he did, after talking to his
friends cheerily about how a good man should live. As
he wrote no books we have learned about him from his
friends. The most famous of these was Plato, who is
also counted among the wisest men that ever lived. The
story of the lives of these men is another gift which the
Greeks made to all who were to live after them, and it

Socrates

After the marble bust in the
Vatican

30 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

is quite as valuable as are the ways of building, artistic
skill, or great poems and plays.

QUESTIONS

1. Why do we wish to know how the Greeks hved?

2. What was an Acropolis? How does the Acropolis at Athens
look?

3. On the picture of the Parthenon point out the pediment. Show
where the frieze was placed. Find on a map (page 33) Paestum,

4. What did the Greeks first mean by a scene? Why do we still
study Greek plays? What is left of the Greek theaters?

5. What was a stadium, a portico, a gymnasium? Do we have
such buildings?

. 6. How do we know that the Greeks made beautiful statues?

7. What games for Greek boys were like our games? Tell about
the great public games of the Greeks.

8. How were the Greek rolls or books made?

9. Tell the story of Socrates.

EXERCISES

1. Are there any buildings in your town which are like Greek
buildings?

2. Find in your town Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns.

3. Get from a wall-paper dealer a sample of a frieze for a papered
room.

4. What is the difference between the government of Athens and
the government of your town?

5. What is the difference between the courts at Athens and the
courts in your town?

6. Are Olympic games held now? Where?

7. Which prizes would you prefer, the prizes given to winners at
Greek games or the prizes given to winners in our athletic games?

CHAPTER IV
GREEK EMIGRANTS OR COLONISTS

When the Atlantic was unknown. One of the most
important things done by the men of Ancient Times
was to explore the coasts and lands of Europe and to
make settlements wherever they went. At first they

EUROPE

IN/ Ro'm,'{\\ r;-

:\W

Map of the World as described by the Greek Historian
Herodotus

knew little of the western and northern parts of Europe.
Herodotus, a Greek whom we call the ''Father of His-
tory," and who was a great traveler, said, ''Though I
have taken vast pains, I have never been able to get an
assurance from any eye-witness that there is any sea
on the further side of Europe." By the "further side"

32 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

he meant ^'western," and his remark shows that he did
not know of the Atlantic Ocean. He understood that
tin and amber came from the ''Tin Islands," which he
called the ''ends of the earth." As tin came from Eng-
land, it is plain that he had heard a little of that island.

Greek Emigrants. Long before Athens became a
great and beautiful city the Greeks had begun to make
settlements on distant shores. Those who lived on the
western coast of Asia Minor, as well as those who lived
where the kingdom of Greece is now, sent out colonists
or emigrants. The Greek colonies were very important,
because by them the ancient civihzed world was made
larger, just as by the settlement of America the modern
world was doubled in size. The colonists sailed away
from home for the same reasons which led our fore-
fathers to leave England and Europe for America. They
either hoped to find it easier in a new land to make a
living and obtain property, or they did not like the way
their city was ruled, and being unable to change this,
resolved to build elsewhere a city which they could
manage as they pleased.

How they located a New City. There were several
different lands to which they could go, just as the Euro-
pean of to-day may sail for the United States or South
America or AustraUa. They could attempt to settle
on the shores of the Black Sea, or cross over to northern
Africa, or try to reach Italy and the more distant coasts
of what are now France and Spain. In order to choose
wisely, they generally asked the advice of the priests of
their god Apollo at his temple at Delphi. These priests

34 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

knew more about good places for settlements than most
other persons, because travelers from everywhere came
to Delphi and the priests were wise enough to inquire
about all parts of the world.

The story is told that one group of emigrants was
advised to locate their new colony opposite the ''city of
the blind." They discovered that these words meant
that an earlier band of emigrants had passed by the
wonderful harbor of the present city of Constantinople
and had settled instead on the other shore of the Bos-
phorus. Taught by the oracle they chose the better
place and began to build the city of Byzantium, which
later became Constantinople.

Mother and Daughter Cities. Solemn ceremonies
took place when colonists departed. They carried with
them fire from the hearth of the mother city in order to
light a similar fire on their new hearth, for every city
had its hearthstone and on it a fire that was never
quenched. The ties between the mother and the daughter
city were close, and the enemies of one were the enemies
of the other. He who wished to visit the colony usually
went to the mother city to find a ship bound thither.

Where the Settlements were made. When the Greek
sailors first entered the Black Sea, they thought it a
boundless ocean, and called it the Pontus, a word which
means ''The Main." Until that time they had been
accustomed t6 sail only from island to island in the
Aegean Sea. After a while they made settlements all
around the shores of the Black Sea, and in later times
Athens drew from this region her supply of grain. Still

GREEK EMIGRANTS OR COLONISTS

more important settlements were made in Sicily and
southern Italy, for it was through these settlements
that some of the things the Greeks knew, like the art of
writing, were taught to the Italian tribes and to the
Romans.

Dangers of the Voyage. At first Greek sailors feared
the dangers of the western Mediterranean as much as
those of the Black Sea. They imagined that the huge,
misshapen, and dreadful monsters Scylla and Charybdis

Greek Ruins at Paestum in Italy

lurked in the Straits of Messina waiting to seize and
swallow the unlucky passer-by. On the slopes of Mount
Aetna dwelt, they thought, hideous, one-eyed giants, the
Cyclops, who fed their fierce appetites with the quiver-
ing flesh of many captives.

Greeks in the West. The earliest settlement of the
Greeks in Italy was at Cumae, on a headland at the
entrance of the Bay of Naples. Later these colonists
entered the bay and founded the ''new city," or Neap-
olis, which we call Naples. Finally there were so many
Greek cities in southern Italy that it was named ''Great

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Greece." The Greeks also made settlements in what
is now southern France and eastern Spain. The prin-
cipal one was Massilia, or Marseilles. Through the
traders of this city the ancient world obtained a
supply of tin from Britain, a country which is now
called England.

Greek Colonies as Centers of Civilization. The Greeks
in these colonies traded with the natives whose villages
were near by, and many of the natives learned to live

A Greek Trireme

like the Greeks. In this way the Greeks became teachers
of civilization, and the Greek world, which at first was
made up of cities on the shores of the Aegean Sea, was
spread from place to place along the coasts of the Medi-
terranean Sea.

Greek Ships. The ships of the Greeks were very
different from modern vessels. Of course they were not
driven by steam, nor did they rely as much on sails as
modern sailing ships do. They had sails, but were driven
forward mostly by their oars. The trireme, or ordinary
war-ship, had its oars arranged in three banks, fifty men
rowing at once. After these had rowed several hours,
or a ''watch/' another fifty took their places, and finally

GREEK EMIGRANTS OR COLONISTS

a third fifty, so that the ships could be rowed at high
speed all the time. With the aid of its two sails a
trireme is said to have gone one hundred and fifty miles
in a day and a night. These boats
were about one hundred and twenty
feet long and fifteen feet wdde.
They could be rowed in shallow
water, but were not high enough to
ride heavy seas safely. They had a
sharp beak, which, driven against
an enemy's ship, would break in its
sides. The Greek grain ships and
freight boats were heavier and more
capable of enduring rough weather.
Alexander the Great, King of
Macedon from 336 to 323 B.C.

Greek ways of living were also carried eastward as well
as westward. The enlargement of the Greek world in
this direction was due to Alexander the Great, the most
skilful soldier and the ablest leader of men among all
the Greeks. Alexander w^as king of Macedon, and like
the earlier Greeks he regarded the Persians as his ene-
mies, and made war upon them. After conquering the
Persians he marched across western Asia until he had
reached the Indus River in India, He was a builder of
cities as well as a conqueror. He founded seventy cities,
and sixteen of them were named for him. The most
important was the Alexandria which is still the chief sea-
port of Egypt. Greek became the language commonly
spoken throughout the lands near the eastern Mediter-

Alexander the Great

After the bust in the Capi-
toline Museum, Rome

38 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

ranean. This is the reason why in later times the New
Testament was written in Greek.

Alexandria. Of this Greek world Athens ceased to
be the center and Alexandria took its place. At Alex-
andria there was a great library which contained over
five hundred thousand volumes or rolls. There also
was the museum or university, in which many learned
men were at work. The best known of these men was
Euclid, who perfected the mathematics which we call
geometry, and Ptolemy, whose ideas about geography
and the shape and size of the globe Columbus carefully
studied before he set out on his great voyage. Alex-
andria was also a center of trade and commerce. From
Alexandria, because its ships were the first foreign ships
to be admitted to a Roman port, the Romans gained
their liking for many of the beautiful things which the
Greeks made.

QUESTIONS

1. Why were the Greek colonies irjaportant? Why did the Greeks
emigrate to the colonies? '- '^^^

2. Point out on the map, page 33, the lands to which they might
go. Name several cities which they built.

3. What were the ties between the daughter and the mother city?

4. Why was a part of southern Italy called Great Greece?

5. Describe a Greek trireme and the way it was managed.

6. Of what country was Alexander the Great king? When did he
reign? How far east did he march? What did he do besides win-
ning victories?

7. Why was the city of Alexandria famous in Ancient Times?

8. Of what help was Ptolemy to Columbus?

GREEK EMIGRANTS OR COLONISTS 39

EXERCISES

1. Find out the colonies we have. For what purpose do Americans
go to these colonies? Is it as hard to reach them as it was for the
Greeks to reach their colonies?

2. What country now has the most colonies?

3. Learn and tell the story of Ulysses and the Cyclops.

4. Find out what is meant at Constantinople by "the Golden
Horn"? Who now live at Constantinople, at Naples, at Marseilles?

5. Collect pictures of these cities.

REVIEW

(Chapters II, III, and IV)

Ten things we owe to the Greeks :

1. Many useful words.

2. Many interesting tales.

3. Many examples of heroism.

4. Knowledge of how to construct beautiful buildings.

5. How to carve beautiful statues, reliefs, and friezes.

6. How to write great plays.

7. How to speak before large audiences.

8. Wise sayings of men like Socrates and Plato.

9. Knowledge of geography and mathematics.

10. Their work as colonists in teaching other peoples to live, and
think and act as they did.

Two important dates:

Battle of Marathon, 490 b.c.

Death of Alexander the Great, 323 B.C.

CHAPTER V
NEW RIVALS OF THE GREEKS

The Greek Colonies and the Carthaginians. The
Greek colonies were sometimes in danger of being at-
tacked by the native tribes whose lands they had seized
or by the wilder tribes that dwelt further from the coast.
In Sicily their most dangerous neighbors were the Car-
thaginians at the western end of the island. The chief
town of these people was Carthage, situated opposite
Sicily in northern Africa in what is now Tunis. The
Carthaginians were emigrants from Tyre and other
cities of Phoenicia on the eastern shore of the Mediter-
ranean, and because of their many ships held control
of a large part of the western Mediterranean. They had
colonies even in Spain, where in very early times Phoeni-
cian traders had gone to obtain gold and silver.

The Greeks and the Romans. In Italy the most
dangerous neighbors of the Greek colonists were the
Romans, who lived half-way up the western side of the
peninsula along the river Tiber. The history of the Ro-
mans, like the history of the Greeks, is full of interest-
ing and wonderful tales. Some of them are legends,
such as every people likes to tell about its early his-
tory. They relate how the city was founded by two
brothers, Romulus and Remus; how Horatius defended

RIVALS OF THE GREEKS

the bridge across the Tiber against the hosts of the
exiled Tarquin king; how the farmer Cincinnatus, hav-
ing been made leader or dictator, in sixteen days drove
off the neighboring tribes
which were attacking the
Romans and then went
back to his plough.

The Gauls bum Rome,
390 B.C. The Romans
told stories of their de-
feats as well as of their
victories. One of these
tells how hosts of Gauls,
a people of the same race
as the forefathers of the
French, streamed south-
w^ard from the valley of
the Po. The Romans
were alarmed by such
tall men, with fierce eyes,
and fair, flowing hair,

w^hose swords crashed through the frail Roman helmets.
They sent a large army to stop the invaders, but in the
battle, which was fought only twelve miles from Rome,
this army was destroyed.

The few defenders that were left withdrew to the Cap-
itoline, the steepest of the hills over which the city had
spread. Some of the older senators and several priests
scorned to seek a refuge from the fury of the barbarians,
and took their seats quietly in ivory chairs in the market

Cliff of the Capitoline Hill

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

place or Forum at the foot of the Capitohne hill. The
Gauls at first gazed in wonder at the strange sight of
the motionless figures. When one of them attempted
to stroke the white beard of a senator, the senator struck
him with his staff; then the Gauls fell upon senators and
priests and slew them.

The Region of the Caudine Forks

The sides of the Capitoline hill were so steep that for
a long time the Gauls were baffled in their attempts to
seize it. At last they discovered a path, and one dark
night were on the point of scaling the height when some
geese, sacred to the goddess Juno, cackled and flapped
their wings until the garrison was aroused and the Gauls
hurled headlong down the precipice. The garrison was
saved, but the city was burned. This happened in Rome
just one hundred years after the battle of Marathon in
Greece.

The Caudine Forks. Another adventure did not have

RIVALS OF THE GREEKS

so happy an ending. The Romans were at war with
the Samnites, a tribe hving on the slopes of the Apen-
nines, who were continually attacking the Greek cities
on the coast. The war was caused by the attempt of
the Romans to protect one of the Greek cities. The

ITALY

BEFORE THE (iROWTH
?>\ OK THE

KOMAN POWER

Roman generals, with a large army, in making their way
into the Samnite country attempted to march through
a narrow gorge which broadened out into a plain and then
was closed again at the farther end by another gorge.
When they reached this second gorge they found the
road blocked by fallen trees and heaps of stones. They

44 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAJST HISTORY

also saw Samnites on the heights above them. In alarm
they hastened to retrace their steps, only to find the
other entrance closed in the same way. After vain at-
tempts to force a passage or to scale the surrounding
heights they were obliged to surrender.

The Samnites compelled the Roman army, both gen-
erals and soldiers, each clad in a single garment, to pass
" under the yoke " made of two spears set upright with
one laid across, while they stood by and jeered. If any
Roman looked angry or sullen at his disgrace, they struck
or even killed him. This was called the disaster of the
Caudine Forks, from the pass where the Romans were
caught.

The Romans and the Greek Cities. Not many years
after this the Romans quarreled with the Greek cities
of southern Italy. The Greeks of Tarentum, situated
where Taranto is now, called to their aid Pyrrhus, who
ruled a part of Alexander's old kingdom. Pyrrhus was a
skilful general, and he had with him, besides his foot-sol-
diers and horsemen, many trained elephants. A charge
of these elephants was too much for the Romans, who
were already hard pressed by the long spears of the sol-
diers of Pyrrhus. But the Romans were ready for an-
other battle, and in this they fought so stubbornly and
killed so many of the Greek soldiers that Pyrrhus cried
out, '^ Another victory like this and we are ruined." In a
third battle, which took place 275 B.C., he was defeated,
and returned to Greece, leaving the Romans masters of
the Greek cities in Italy.

The Romans Conquerors of Italy. By this time there

RIVALS OF THE GREEKS

were few tribes south of the river Po which did not own
the Romans as their masters. All Italy was united
under their rule. This was the first step in the conquest
of the world that lay about the Mediterranean Sea and
in the extension of that ancient world
to the shores of the Atlantic and to
England. Before we read the story
of the other conquests we must inquire
who the Roman people were and how
they lived.

How the Romans lived. In early
times most of the Romans were farmers
or cattle raisers. A man's wealth was
reckoned according to the number of
cattle he oWned. Their manner of hv-
ing was simple and frugal. Like the
Greek, the Roman had his games. He
enjoyed chariot-races, but used slaves
or freedmen as drivers. He also went
to the theater, although he thought it
unworthy of a Roman to be an actor.
Such an occupation was for foreigners
or slaves.

Roman Boys at School. The boys at school did not
learn poems, as did the Greek boys, but studied the first
set of laws made by the Romans, called the Twelve
Tables. This they read, copied, and learned by heart.
Their interest in laws was the first sign that they were
to become the world's greatest lawmakers.

Roman Women. In their respect for women the

A Roman wearing
A Toga

46 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Romans were superior to the Greeks. The Roman
mother did not remain in the women's apartments of
the house, as she was expected to do at Athens, but was
her husband's companion, received his guests, directed
her household, and went in and out as she chose.

Patricians and Plebeians. The men of the families
which first ruled Rome were called patricians or nobles,
while the rest were plebeians or common people. There
were also many slaves, but they had no rights. At first
only the patricians knew exactly what the laws were,
because the laws were not written in a book. When
disputes arose between patricians and plebeians about
property, the plebeians believed the patricians changed
the laws in order to gain an advantage over their poorer
neighbors.

Thd story is told that twice the plebeians withdrew
from the city and refused to return until their wrongs
were removed. Then they compelled the nobles to draw
up the laws in a roll called the Twelve Tables. At this
time messengers were sent to Athens to examine the
laws of the Greeks. The richer plebeians were also grad-
ually admitted to all the offices of the Roman republic,
and so became nobles themselves.

Government at Rome. The Romans had once been
ruled by kings, but now their chief officers were consuls.
Two consuls were chosen each year because the Romans
feared that a single consul might make himself a king,
or, at least, gain too much power. The real rulers of
Rome, however, were the senators, the men who had
held the prominent offices. There were assemblies of the

RIVALS OF THE GREEKS

people, but these generally did what the senators or other
officers told them to do.

Among the interesting officers of Rome was the cen-
sor, who drew up a list or census of the
citizens and of their property. Another
officer was the tribune, chosen in the be-
ginning by the plebeians to protect them
against the patricians. » The tribune was
not at first a member of the senate, but
he was given a seat outside the door, and
if a law was proposed that would injure
the plebeians, he cried out, ''Veto," which
means '' I forbid," and the law had to be
dropped. This is the origin of our word
'' veto."

How the Romans treated the Italians.
The Romans were wise in their deaUngs
with the cities or tribes which they con-
quered. They not only sent out colonies
of their fellow-citizens to occupy a part of
the lands they had seized, but they also
gave the conquered peoples a share in
their government, and in some cases al-
lowed them to act as citizens of Rome.
These new Roman citizens helped the
older Romans in their wars with other
tribes. In this way Roman towns grad-
ually spread over Italy.

A Roman Mili-
tary Standard

48 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

QUESTIONS

1. What was the name of the dangerous neighbors of the Greeks
in Sicily? Find Carthage on the map, page 43. Where did the
Carthaginians come from originally? Find Phoenicia on the map,
page 33.

2. Who were the dangerous neighbors of the Greeks in Italy?
Find the Tiber and Rome on the map, page 43.

3. Tell the story of the capture of Rome by the Gauls. How long
was this after the battle of Marathon? How long after the death of
Socrates? How long before Alexander became king of Macedon?

4. Find the land of the Samnites on the map, page 43. Tell the
story of the Caudine Forks.

5. What Greek king did the people of Tarentum call to Italy to
help them against the Romans? What did he say after his first battle
with the Romans?

6. After the defeat of Pyrrhus how much of Italy owned the Romans
as masters? How did the Romans treat the Italians?

7. Explain how the early Roman ways of living differed from the
ways of the Greeks.

8. How differently did the Romans and the Greeks govern them-
selves?

EXERCISES

1. Read the story of Horatius in Macaulay's ''Lays of Ancient
Rome."

2. Collect pictures of Rome and Italy.

3. Is there a modern city of Carthage? What country rules over
Tunis? Are there now any Phoenicians?

4. Read the description of Tyre in the Bible, Ezekiel xxvii. 3-25,
and tell what is said there about the riches of the Tyrians. Find
out who destroyed Tyre.

An Early Roman Coin

CHAPTER VI
THE MEDITERRANEAN A ROMAN LAKE

Rome in Peril. The conquest of Italy by the Romans
took about two hundred and fifty years. The conquest
of the peoples living in the other lands on the shores of
the Mediterranean took nearly as long again. Only
twice in these four or five hundred years was Rome in
serious danger of destruction. Once it was by the Gauls,
as we have read, who captured all the city except the
citadel. The second time it was by the Carthaginians,
who lived on the northern coast of Africa. The Romans
were finally victorious over all their enemies because they
were patient and courageous in misfortune and refused
to believe that they could be conquered.

Cause of War with Carthage. The Carthaginians were
angry at the way the Romans treated them. They
watched with alarm the steady growth of the Roman
power, and feared that the Romans, if masters of Ital}^,
would attack their trade with the cities of the western
Mediterranean. A quarrel broke out over a city in
Sicily. At first the Carthaginians seemed to have the
best of it, because they had a strong war fleet while the
Romans had only a few small vessels. But the Romans
hurriedly built ships and placed upon each a kind of
drawbridge, fitted with great hooks called grappling-irons.

50 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

These they let down upon the enemy's decks as soon as
the ships came close enough, and over these drawbridges
the Roman soldiers rushed and captured the Cartha-
ginian ships.

When the Carthaginians asked for peace, the Romans
demanded a great sum of money and a promise that the
Carthaginians would leave the cities in Sicily which they
occupied. Soon afterward the Romans took advantage
of a mutiny in the Carthaginian army to demand more
money and to seize Sardinia and Corsica. No wonder
the Carthaginians were angry. The result was a new
and more terrible war.

Hannibal. The Carthaginians in the new war were
led by Hannibal, who understood how to fight battles
better than any of the generals whom the Romans sent
against him. The story is told that when he was a boy
his father made him promise, at the altar of his city's
gods, undying hatred to Rome. Even the Romans
thought him a wonderful man. Their historians said
that toil did not wear out his body or exhaust his energy.
Cold or heat were alike to him. He never ate or drank
more than he needed. He slept when he had time,
whether it was day or night, wrapping himself in a mil-
itary cloak and lying on the ground in the midst of his
soldiers. He did not dress better than the other officers,
but his weapons and his horses were the best in the army.

War carried into Italy, 218 B.C. Hannibal decided
that the war should be carried into Italy to the very
gates of Rome. He started from Spain, half of which
the Carthaginians ruled, marched across southern Gaul,

THE MEDITERRANEAN A ROMAN LAKE

and came to the foot-hills of the Alps. To climb the
Alps was the most difficult part of his long journey.

Crossing the Alps. There were no roads across the
mountains, only rough paths used by the mountaineers,
who constantly attacked Hannibal's soldiers, bursting
out suddenly upon them from behind a turn in the trail,
or rolling huge rocks upon them from above. The ele-

'/J

The Alps that Hannibal had to Cross

phants, the horses, and the baggage animals of the army
were frightened, and in the tumult many of them slipped
over the precipices and wxre dashed on the rocks below.
For five days the army toiled upward, and then rested
two days on the summit of the pass.

Although the road down into Italy was short, it was
steep, and the paths were slippery with ice and with
snow trodden into slush by thousands of men and animals.

52 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

In one place there had been a landsUde, and the road
along the rocky slope was cut away for a thousand feet.
In order to build a new road it was necessary to crack
the rocks. This the soldiers did by making huge fires
and pouring wine over the heated surface. At last,
worn out, ragged, and half starved, the army reached the
plains of Italy, but with a loss of half its men.

How Hannibal won a Victory. The first great battle
with the Romans was fought on the river Trebia in
northern Italy, and in it Hannibal showed how easil}^
he could outwit and destroy a Roman army. It was a
winter's day and the river was swollen by rains. The
two camps lay on opposite banks. In the early morning
Hannibal sent across the river a body of horsemen to
attack the Roman camp and draw the Romans into a
battle. At the same time he ordered his other soldiers
to eat breakfast, to build fires before their tents to warm
themselves, and to rub their bodies with oil, so that they
might be strong for the coming fight.

The Romans were suddenly roused by the attack of
the Carthaginian horsemen, and, without waiting for
food, moved out of camp, chasing the horsemen toward
the river. Into its icy waters the Romans waded breast-
high, and when they came up on the opposite bank they
were benumbed with cold. As soon as Hannibal knew
that the Romans had crossed the river he attacked them
fiercely with all his troops. Two thousand men whom he
had placed in ambush fell upon the rear of their line.
Their allies were frightened by a charge of elephants.
Seeing that destruction was certain, ten thousand of the

THE MEDITERRANEAN A ROMAN LAKE

A Roman Soldier

best soldiers broke through the Cathaginian Hue and
marched away. All the rest of the army was destroyed.

Roman Endurance. This was not the last of the
Roman defeats. Two other armies
were destroyed by Hannibal during
the next two years. In the battle
of Cannae nearly seventy thousand
Romans, including eighty senators,
were slain. The news filled the city
with weeping women, but the sen-
ate did not think of yielding. When
their allies deserted them, they be-
sieged the faithless cities, took them,
beheaded the rulers, and sold the
inhabitants into slavery.

They did not dare to fight Hannibal in the open field,
but tried to wear him out by cutting off all small bodies
of his troops and by making it difficult for him to get
food for his army. They carried the war into Spain and
finally into Africa, and when, with a weakened army,
Hannibal faced them there, they defeated him. His
defeat was the ruin of Carthage, for the unhappy city
was compelled to see her fleet destroyed, to pay the
Romans a huge sum of money, and to give up Spain to
them.

Other Roman Triumphs. The war with Carthage
ended two hundred and two years before the birth of
Christ. In the wars that followed, Roman armies
fought not only in Spain and Africa, but also in Greece
and Asia. Carthage was destroyed; as was also Corinth,

54 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

a Greek city. Roman generals enriched themselves and
sent great treasures back to Rome. Roman merchants
grew rich because their rivals in Carthage and Corinth
were ruined or because the conquered cities were for-
bidden to trade with any city but Rome. All this took
a long time and many wars, but in the end the Romans
became masters of every land along the shores of the
Mediterranean. This was not wholly a misfortune, for
the Romans had learned that the Greeks were superior
to them in some things and they took the Greeks as their
teachers in most of the arts of hving. The ancient
world became a sort of partnership, and we call its civi-
lization Graeco-Roman, that is, both Greek and Roman.

The Romans as Rulers. The Romans at first treated
the lands in Sicily, Spain, Africa, Greece, and Asia as
conquered territories, or provinces, sending to rule over
them officers who were to act both as governors and
judges. With these men went many tax-collectors or
'' pubhcans." The Romans were obliged to leave in
most provinces a large body of soldiers to put down
any attempt at rebellion. Often the officers and the
pubhcans robbed the country instead of ruling it justly.

Evil Results of Conquest. During the wars the
Romans had lost many of their simple ways of living.
Some had grown rich in the business of providing for the
armies and navies, and they were eager for new wars in
order to make still bigger fortunes. Hannibal's marches
up and down Italy had driven thousands of farmers
from their homes, and they had wandered to Rome for
safety and food. When the war was over many of them

THE MEDITERRANEAN A ROMAN LAKE

did not go back to their homes. Those who did found
that they could no longer get fair prices for their crops
because great quantities of wheat were shipped to Rome
from the conquered lands. Wealthy men bought the
little farms and joined them, making great estates
where slaves raised sheep and cattle or tended vineyards
and ohve groves. There was not much work for free
men in Rome, for slaves were very cheap. One army
of prisoners was sold at about eight cents apiece. In
this way the poor were made idle, while the rich sent
everywhere for new luxuries.

SvJWHVMO

Gladiators

After carvings on the tomb of Scaurus

Cruel Sports. To amuse the idle crowds, office-seekers
and victorious generals provided cruel sports. Savage
animals were turned loose to tear one another to pieces.
What was worse, human prisoners were compelled to
fight, armed with swords or spears. These men were
called gladiators, and often w^ere specially trained to fight
with one another or with wild beasts.

Some Things the Romans learned. But the successes
of the Romans brought them other things which were
good. They took the buildings of the Greeks as models
and built similar temples and porticoes in Rome, espe-

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

cially about the old market place or Forum. Their own
houses, which in earlier times were nothing but cabins,
they enlarged, and if they were rich enough, built pal-
aces, adorned with paintings and with statues. Unfor-
tunately many of
these came from
the plunder of
Greek cities, for
the Romans were
great robbers of
other peoples. The
poorer Romans
continued to live
in wretched hovels.
The Theater.
The Romans
learned more about
the theaters of the
Greeks. Their
plays were either translated into Latin from Greek or
retold in a different manner from the original Greek.
The Romans did not succeed in writing any plays of
their own which were as good as the plays of the Greeks.
The New Education of the Romans. The Greeks also
taught the Romans how to write poems and histories.
The first histories were written in Greek, but later the
Romans learned how to write in Latin prose and poetry
as good as much that had been written by the Greeks.
Greek became the second language of every educated
Roman, and thus he could enjoy the books of the

11 iii

ifilttJiiS^

Ruins of the Roman Theater at Orange,
France

THE MEDITERRANEAN A ROMAN LAKE 57

Greeks as well as those written by Romans. The educa-
tion of the Roman boy now began with the poems of
Homer, and the young man's education was not thought
to be finished until he had traveled in Greece and the
lands along the eastern Mediterranean.

QUESTIONS

1. How long did it take the Romans to conquer Italy? How long
to conquer the lands about the Mediterranean? In what "Times"
did all this happen?

2. Why did the Carthaginians and the Romans fight? What did
Hannibal promise his father? What sort of a leader was Hannibal?

3. How did Hannibal reach Italy? How did he win the battle of
the Trebia?

4. Why was he unable to force the Romans to yield?

5. How long before the beginning of the Christian Era did this war
with Hannibal close? How long after the battle of Marathon, and
after the death of Alexander the Great?

6. What other lands did the Romans conquer? How did they rule
these colonies?

7. Were they better for the wealth and power they gained? What
became of many of the Italian farmers? Where did the Romans get
their slaves?

8. What good things did they learn from the Greeks? What was
the Graeco-Roman world?

EXERCISES

1. On an outHne map of the lands around the Mediterranean mark
on each land, Spain, Greece, northern Africa, Asia Minor, and Egypt,
the dates at which the Romans conquered each, finding these dates
in any brief Roman or Ancient History — Botsford, Myers, Morey,
West, Wolfson.

CHAPTER VII

THE ANCIENT WORLD EXTENDED TO THE
SHORES OF THE ATLANTIC

New Conquests of the Romans. The Romans had
as yet conquered only civihzed peoples like themselves,
with the exception of the tribes in Spain and southern
Gaul. Now the Roman armies were to push northward
over the plains and through the forests of Gaul, across
the Rhine into unknown Germany, and over the Channel
into Britain, equally unknown. They were to be ex-
plorers as well as conquerors. In this way they were
to carry their civilization to the Rhine and the Atlan-
tic, and so increase greatly the part of the earth where
men lived and thought as the Romans did and as the
Greeks had before them. The ancient civilized world
was beginning to move from its older center, the Mediter-
ranean, toward the shore of the Atlantic.

Ancestors of the French and the Germans. The tribes
hving in Gaul were not at that time called French, but
Gallic. The Gauls were like the Britons who lived
across the Channel in Britain. The German ancestors
of the Enghsh had not yet crossed the North Sea to that
land. Beyond the Rhine lived the Germans, who had
but little to do with the Romans and the Greeks and
were still barbarians. The Gauls living farthest away

EXTENT OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

from the Roman settlements were not much more
civihzed.

The principal difference between the Germans and the
Gauls was that the Gauls lived in villages and towns and
cultivated the land or dug
in mines or traded along
the rivers, while the Ger-
mans had no towns and
dwelt in clearings of the
forest. Their wealth, like
that of the early Romans,
was their cattle. The land
they cultivated was di-
vided between them year
after year, so that a Ger-
man owned only his hut
and the plot of ground or garden about it. Some of the
towns of the Gauls were placed on high hills and were
protected by strong walls.

The Terrible Germans. The Romans had at first
been afraid of the Gauls, because they had never for-
gotten how terribly these people had once defeated them.
But since that time they had fought the Gauls so often
that they were losing this fear. They now dreaded more
to meet the Germans, who seemed like giants because they
were taller even than the Gauls.

Gallic and German Warriors. The leaders of the
Germans were sometimes kings and sometimes nobles
whom the Romans called duces, from which comes our
word duke. The Gallic chieftains were adorned with

Gallic Warriors

60 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

gold necklaces, bracelets, and rings. When they went
out to battle, they wore helmets shaped like the head of
some ravenous beast, and their bodies were protected
by coats of chain armor made of iron rings. Their prin-
cipal weapon was a long, heavy sword. Both German
and Gallic nobles were accompanied by bands of young
men, their devoted followers, who shared the joys of
victory or died with them in case of defeat. It was a
disgrace to lose one's sword or to survive if the leader
was killed.

How the Germans lived. When the Germans were
not fighting they were idle, for all work was done by
women and slaves. They were great drinkers and gam-
blers, and often in their games a man would stake his
freedom upon the result. If he lost, he became the slave
of the winner. The Germans respected their wives,
even if they compelled them to do the hard work. The
women sometimes went with the men to battle, and their
cries encouraged the warriors, or if the warriors wavered,
the fierce reproaches of the women drove them back to
the fight.

Religion of the Germans. We remember the reli-
gion of the Germans because four days of the week are
named for their gods or the gods of their neighbors
across the Baltic. Their principal god was Wodan, or
Odin, god of the sun and the tempest. Wodan's day is
Wednesday. Thursday is named for Thor, the North-
men's god of thunder. The god of war, Tiw, gave a
name to Tuesday, and Frigu, the goddess of love, to
Friday. The German, hke his northern neighbors,

EXTENT OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

thought of heaven as the place where brave warriors who
had died in battle spent their days in feasting.

Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was the great Roman
general who conquered the Gauls and led the first expe-
ditions across the Rhine into Germany
and over the Channel into Britain. He
was a wealthy noble who, like other
nobles, held one office after another un-
til he became consul. He was also a
great political leader, and with two other
men controlled Rome. We should call
them '' bosses," but the Romans called
them " triumvirs."

Caesar in Gaul. As soon as Caesar
became governor of the province of
southern Gaul, he showed that he was
a skilful general as well as a successful
politician. He interfered in the wars
between the Gauls, taking sides with the friends of the
Romans. When a large army of Germans entered Gaul,
he defeated it and drove it back across the Rhine. One
war led to another until all the tribes from the country
now called Belgium to the Mediterranean coast professed
to be friends of the Roman people. His campaigns lasted
from 58 B.C. for nine years. Two or three times Caesar
was very close to ruin, but by his courage and energy he
always succeeded in gaining the victory.

Vercingetorix, Gallic Hero. The great hero of the
Gauls in their struggle with the Romans was Vercin-
getorix. He was a young noble who lived in a mountain

Julius Caesar

After the bust in the
Museum at Naples

62 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

town of central Gaul. His father had been killed in an
attempt to make himself king of his native city. Ver-
cingetorix believed that if the Gauls did not unite against
the Romans they would soon see their lands become
Roman provinces. As he knew his army was no match
for the Romans in open fight, he persuaded the Gauls to
try to starve the Romans out of the country. He planned
to destroy all village stores of grain, and to cut off the
smaller bands of soldiers which wandered from the main
army in search of food.

Caesar and Vercingetorix. Vercingetorix found the
work of conquering Caesar in this way too difficult. He
was finally driven to take refuge in Alesia, on a hilltop
in eastern Gaul. Here the Romans prepared to starve
him into surrender. They dug miles of deep trenches
about the fortress so that the imprisoned Gauls could
not break through. They dug other trenches to protect
themselves from the attacks of a great army of Gauls
which came to rescue Vercingetorix. These trenches
were fifteen or twenty feet wide; they were strength-
ened by palisades and ramparts, and filled with water
where this was possible. Several times the Gauls nearly
succeeded in breaking through, but the quickness and
stubborn courage of Caesar always saved the day.

Death of Vercingetorix. Vercingetorix now proved
that he was a real hero. He offered to give himself up
to Caesar, if this would save the town. But Caesar
demanded the submission of all the chiefs. When they
had laid down their arms before the conqueror, Vercin-
getorix appeared on a gaily decorated horse. He rode

EXTENT OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

around the throne where Caesar sat, dismounted in front,
took off his armor, and bowed to the ground. His fate
was hard. He was sent to Rome a prisoner, was shown
in the triumphal procession of the victorious Caesar, and
was then put to death in a dungeon. On the site of
Alesia stands a monument erected by the French to the

The Bridge on which Caesar's Army Crossed the Rhine

memory of the brave Galhc hero. The defeat of Ver-
cingetorix ended the resistance of the Gauls, and not
many years afterward their country was added to the
long list of Roman provinces.

Caesar in Germany. Caesar crossed the Rhine into
Germany on a bridge which his engineers built in ten
days. He laid waste the fields of the tribes near the
river in order to make the name of Rome feared, and
then returned to Gaul and destroyed the bridge. Twice
he sailed over to Britain, the last time marching a few
miles north of where London now stands. His purpose

64 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

was to keep the Britons from stirring up the Gauls to
attack him. Other generals many years later conquered
Britain as far as the hills of Scotland.

The German Hero Hermann. The Romans were
not fortunate in their later attempts to conquer a part
of Germany. When Caesar's grandnephew Augustus
was master of Rome, he sent an army under Varus into
the forests far from the Rhine. Hermann, a leader of
the Germans, gathered the tribes together and utterly
destroyed the army of Varus. Whenever Augustus
thought of this dreadful disaster, he would cry out,
^^ O Varus, give me back my legions!'' The Rhine and
the Danube became the northern boundaries of the
Roman conquests.

Gauls and Britons become Roman. Although the
Gauls had fought stubbornly against Caesar they soon
became as Roman as the Italians themselves. They ceased
to speak their own language and began to use Latin.
They mastered Latin so thoroughly that their schools were
sometimes regarded as better than the schools in Italy,
and Roman youths were sent to Gaul to learn how best to
speak their own language. The Britons also became very
good Romans. Even the Germans frequently crossed
the Rhine and enhsted in the Roman armies. When they
returned to their own country they carried Roman ideas
and customs with them.

The Interest of Americans in Roman Successes. For
Americans the influence the Romans exerted in Spain,
Gaul, Germany, and Britain is more important than their
work in the eastern Mediterranean, because from those

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

countries came the early settlers of America. The civ-
ilization which the Romans taught the peoples of west-
ern Europe was to become a valuable part of the
civilization of our forefathers.

Size of the Roman World. We may realize how large
the world of the Romans was by observing on a modern
map that within its limits lay modern England, France,

Ruins of the Ancient Gauls at Carnac, in Brittany, France

Spain, Portugal, the southern part of Austria-Hungary,
Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, the Turkish Empire both in
Europe and Asia, Egypt, Tripoli, Tunis, Algeria, and
Morocco. For a time they also ruled north of the Dan-
ube, and the Rumanians boast that they are descended
from Roman colonists. The peoples in southern Russia
were influenced by the Greeks and by the Romans,
although the Romans did not try to bring them under
their rule.

No modern empire has included so many important
countries. If we compare this vast territory with
the scattered colonies of the Greeks, we shall under-
stand how useful it was that the Romans adopted

EXTENT OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

much of the Greek civihzation, for they could carry it to
places that the Greeks never reached.

QUESTIONS

1. After the Romans had conquered the lands about the Mediter-
ranean, into what other countries did the}^ march?

2. Who once hved where the French now hve? Tell how the Gauls
lived.

3. How did the manner of living of the Germans differ from that
of the Gauls? Were the Britons similar to the Germans or to the
Gauls?

4. What names do we get from the names of the German gods?

5. Who was Juhus
Caesar? Why did he go
among the Gauls? What
was the result of his
wars with the Gauls?
Tell the story of Ver-
cingetorix.

6. After the conquest
of the Gauls, into what
countries did Caesar go?

7. What was the fate of the Roman army in Germany in the time
of Augustus?

8. In which of these countries did the peoples become much like
the Romans?

9. Why have Americans a special interest in the Roman conquest
of Gaul and Britain?

EXERCISES

1. Caesar and Alexander were two of the greatest generals who
ever lived. How many years after Alexander died did Caesar begin
his wars in Gaul? What difference was there between what these
two generals did? Whose work is the more important for us?

2. Plan a large map of the Graeco-Roman world, pasting on each
country a picture of some interesting Greek or Roman ruin. This
will take a long time, but many pictures may be found in advertising
folders of steamship lines and tourist agencies.

A Roman Coin with the Head of
Julius Caesar

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

REVIEW

(Chapters IV, V, VI, and VII)

How the Graeco-Roman world was built up:

1. The Greeks drive back the Persians.

2. The Greeks settle in many places on the shores of the Mediter-
ranean and Black Seas.

3. Alexander conquers the countries about the eastern Mediter-
ranean.

4. The Romans conquer the Greeks in Italy, but learn their ways
of living.

5. The Romans conquer the Carthaginians and seize their colonies.

6. The Romans conquer all the lands around the Mediterranean.

7. The Romans conquer Gaul and Britain.

Important dates in this work of building a Graeco-Romayi world :
Battle of Marathon, 490 B.C.
Work of Alexander ended, 323 B.C.
Romans become masters of Italy, 275 B.C.
Romans conquer Hannibal, 202 b.c.
Caesar's conquest of Gaul complete, 49 b.c.

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CHAPTER VIII
THE CIVILIZATION OF THE ROMAN WORLD

Strife at Rome. While the Romans were conquering
the ancient world they had begun to quarrel among them-
selves. Certain men resolved that Rome should not be
managed any longer by the noble senators for their own
benefit or for the benefit of rich contractors and mer-
chants. They wished to have the idle crowds of men
who packed the shows and circuses settled as free
farmers on the unused lands of Italy.

Among these new leaders were two brothers, Tibe-
rius and Caius Gracchus, sons of one of Rome's noblest
families. The other nobles looked upon them with ha-
tred and killed them, first Tiberius and afterward Caius.
These murders did not end the trouble. The leaders on
both sides armed their followers, and bloody battles were
fought in the streets. Generals led their armies to Rome,
although, according to the laws, to bring an army into Italy
south of the Rubicon River was to make war on the
repubUc and be guilty of treason. Once in the city these
generals put to death hundreds of their enemies.

Caesar rules Rome. The strife in the city had
ceased for a time when Pompey, a famous general, who
had once shared power with Caesar as a ^' triumvir,"
joined the senators in planning his ruin. Caesar led

70 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

his army into Italy to the borders of the Rubicon. Ex-
claiming, ^' The die is cast," he crossed the sacred bound-
ary and marched straight to Rome. Pompey and his
party fled, and civil war divided the Roman world into
those who followed Caesar and those who followed Pom-
pey. Caesar was everywhere victorious, in Italy, Africa,
Spain, and the East. He brought back order into the
government of the city and of the provinces, but in
the year 44 b.c. he was murdered in the senate-house
by several senators, one of whom, Marcus Brutus, had
been his friend.

Origin of the Title ** Emperor." Caesar had not been
called " emperor," though the chief power had been his.
One of his titles was '^ imperator," or commander of the
army, a word from which our word " emperor " comes.
He was really the first emperor of Rome. In later times
the very word Caesar became an imperial title, not only
in the Roman Empire, but also in modern Germany, for
'' Kaiser " is another form of the word ^' Caesar."

Beginnings of the Empire. Caesar's successor was his
grandnephew Octavius, usually called Augustus, which
was one of his titles. Augustus carried out many of
Caesar's plans for improving the government in Rome
and in the provinces. The people in the provinces were
no longer robbed by Roman officersi Many of them
became Roman citizens. After a time all children born
within the empire were considered Romans, just as if
they had been born in Rome.

The Roman Empire. The Roman Empire carried on
the work which the republic had begun. It did some

CIVILIZATION OF THE ROMAN WORLD

things better than the repubhc had done them. Within
its frontiers there was peace for two or three hundred
years. Many people had an opportunity to share in
all the best that the Greeks
and Romans had learned.
Unfortunately the peoples
imitated the bad as well as
the good.

Roman Roads. As builders the Ro-
mans taught much to those who hved
after them. Their great roads leading
out from Rome have never been ex-
celled. In Gaul these roads served,
centuries later, to mark out the pres-
ent French system of highroads and
showed many a route to the builders of
railroads. They were made so solid
that parts of them still remain after
two thousand years.

How these Roads were built. In
planning their roads the Romans did not hesitate before
obstacles like hills or deep valleys or marshy lands. They
often pierced the hills with tunnels and bridged the val-
leys or swamps. In building a road they dug a trench
about fifteen feet wide and pounded the earth at the
bottom until it was hard. Upon this bottom was placed
a layer of rough stones, over which were put nine inches
of broken stone mixed with lime to form a sort of con-
crete. This was covered by a layer six inches deep of
broken bricks or broken tiles, which when pounded down

Augustus Caesar

After the statue in the
Vatican

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

offered a hard, smooth surface. On the top were laid
large paving stones carefully fitted so that there need be
no jar when a wagon rolled over the road.

Such roads were necessary for the traders who passed
to and fro throughout the empire, but especially for
troops or government messengers sent with all speed to

Cross-Section of a Roman Road

regions where there was danger of revolt or where the
frontiers were threatened by the barbarians.

Aqueducts. Next to their roads the most remarkable
Roman structures were the aqueducts which brought
water to. the city from rivers or springs, some of them
many miles away. Had they known, as we do, how to
make heavy iron pipes, their aqueducts would have been
laid underground, except where they crossed deep valleys.
The lead pipes which they used were not strong enough
to endure the force of a great quantity of water, and so
when the aqueducts reached the edge of the plain which
stretches from the eastern hills to the walls of Rome, the
streams of flowing water were carried in stone channels
resting upon arches which sometimes reached the height
of over ninety feet.

The Claudian Aqueduct. The Claudian aqueduct,

CIVILIZATION OF THE ROMAN WORLD 73

which is the most magnificent ever built, is carried on
such arches for about seven miles and a half. Although
broken in many places, and though the water has not
flowed through its lofty channels for sixteen hundred
years, it is one of the grandest sights in the neighbor-
hood of Rome. If we add together the lengths of the

^|||i iijifi

Ruins of the Claudian Aqueduct

Completed by the Roman Emperor Claudian in 52 a.d. The structure was
nearly a hundred feet high

aqueducts, underground or carried on arches, which
provided Rome with her water supply, the total is over
three hundred miles. They could furnish Rome with a
hundred million gallons of water a day.

Public Baths. The Romans used great quantities of
water for their public baths, which were large buildings
with rooms especially made for bathing in hot or cold
water and for plunges. They were also, like the Greek
gymnasiums, places for exercise, conversation, and read-
ing. Many were built as monuments by wealthy men
and by emperors. A very small fee was charged for

74 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

entrance, and the money was used to pay for repairs
and the wages of those who managed the baths.

Two Famous Buildings. Many of the Roman temples,
porticoes, and theaters were copied from Greek build-
ings, but the Romans used the arch more than did the
Greeks, and in this the builders of later times imitated

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Ruins of the Colosseum

them. Among their greatest buildings were the amphi-
theaters, from the benches of which crowds watched
gladiators fighting one another or struggling with wild
beasts. The largest of these amphitheaters was the Col-
osseum, the ruins of which still exist. Its outer walls
were one hundred and sixty feet high. In one direction
it measured six hundred and seventeen feet and in
another five hundred and twelve. There were seats
enough for forty-five thousand persons. The lowest
seats were raised fifteen feet above the arena or central
space where men or wild beasts fought. Through an

CIVILIZATION OF THE ROMAN WORLD

arrangement of underground pipes the arena could be
flooded so that the spectators might enjoy the excite-
ment of a real naval battle.

Another great building was the Circus Maximus,
built to hold the crowds that watched the chariot-races,

The Pantheon

and at one time having seats for two hundred thousand
persons. In their amusements the Romans became more
and more vulgar, excitable, and cruel. Some equally
splendid buildings were used for better things.

The Pantheon. One of these was the Pantheon, a
temple which was afterward a Christian church. It
still stands, and is now used as the burial-place of the
Italian kings. The most remarkable part of it is the
dome, which has a width of a little over one hundred
and forty-two feet. No other dome in the world is so

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

wide. The Romans were very successful in covering
large spaces with arched or vaulted ceilings. All later
builders of domes and arches are their pupils.

Basilicas. The Romans had other large buildings
called basilicas. These were porticoes or promenades,

The Arch of Titus

with the space in the center covered by a great roof.
They were used as places for public meetings. One of
them had one hundred and eight pillars arranged in a
double row around the sides and ends of this central
space. The name basilica is Greek and means ''royal."
Some of these basilicas were used as Christian churches
when the Romans accepted the Christian religion. The
central space was then called the ''nave," and the spaces
between the columns the aisles.

CIVILIZATION OF THE ROMAN WORLD

Triumphal Arches. The Romans built beautiful
arches to celebrate their victories. Several of these
still remain, with sentences cut into their stone tablets
telhng of the triumphs of their builders. Modern people
have taken them as models for similar memorial arches.

.^\^- iff* *^

A Roman Aqueduct

Still in good repair, the Pont du Gard, near Nimes, France

Roman Law. The Romans did much for the world
by their laws. They showed little regard for the rights
of men captured in war and were cruel in their treatment
of slaves, but they considered carefully the rights of
free men and women. Under the emperors the lawyers
and judges worked to make the laws clearer and fairer
to all. Finally the Emperor Justinian, who ruled at
the time when the empire was already half ruined by
the attacks of barbarian enemies, ordered the lawyer
Tribonian to gather into a single code all the statutes

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

and decrees. These laws lasted long after the empire
was destroyed, and out of them grew many of the laws
used in Europe to-day. They have also influenced our
laws in America.

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Pavement of a Roman Villa in England

Unearthed not many years ago at Aldborough. Such stones laid in the form of
designs or pictures are called Mosaics

QUESTIONS

1. In the political strife at Rome what did the brothers Tiberius
and Caius Gracchus try to do?

2. What did Julius Caesar do when a party of senators tried to
ruin him? What was the result of his war with the other Roman
leaders?

3. From what Roman word does "Emperor" come? What is the
origin of the word "Kaiser"? How did Caesar die?

4. Who was Caesar's successor and the first one who organized the
Roman Empire?

5. Why were the Romans such great builders of roads? How were
their roads built? Do any traces of them still remain?

CIVILIZATION OF THE ROMAN WORLD 79

6. How did the Romans provide the city with a supply of pure
water?

7. What was a Roman bath?

8. Were the Romans as famous as the Greeks for their buildings?
Name the largest buildings in Rome. What was a basihca? Of
what use were basihcas to the Christians later?

9. Do you remember the earliest form of the Roman law (page
46)? What did Justinian do with the laws in his day? Are these
laws important to us?

EXERCISES

1. What emperors are there now? Are they hke Caesar and
Augustus?

2. Find out if our roads are built as carefully as the Roman roads
and if they are likely to last as long. What different kinds of roads
do we have? Can any one in the room construct a small model of a
Roman road?

3. Find out how water is now carried to cities. Are cities provided
with great public baths like those of the Romans?

4. Ask a librarian or a lawyer to show you a copy of the revised
statutes of your state. This is a code somewhat like the code of
Justinian, only not so brief.

Templum Jovis Capitolini

(Medallion)

CHAPTER IX
CHRISTIANITY AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The Religion of the Jews. Among the cities cap-
tured by the Romans was Jerusalem, about which clus-
ter so many stories from the Old Testament. There,
hundreds of years before, lived David, the shepherd
boy who, after wonderful adventures, became king of his
people. There his son Solomon built a temple of dazzling
splendor. Among this people had arisen great preachers,
— Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, — who declared that reli-
gion did not consist in the sacrifice of bulls and goats,
but in justice, in mercy, and in humility. They had a
genius for religion, just as the Greeks had a genius for
art, and the Romans a genius for government.

The Jews conquered by the Romans. When the Jews
first heard of the Romans they admired these citizens
of a republic who made and unmade kings. In later
years they learned that the Romans were hard masters
and they feared and hated them. The Jewish king-
dom was one of the last countries along the shores
of the Mediterranean which the Romans conquered, but
like all the others it finally became a Roman province.

Jesus of Nazareth. A few years before the Jewish
kingdom became a Roman province there was born in a
village near Jerusalem a child named Jesus. After he

CHRISTIANITY AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

had grown to manhood in Nazareth he gathered about
him followers or disciples whom he taught to Uve and act
as is told in the books of the New Testament.

This was the beginning of the Christian religion. It
was first held by a little band of Jews, but Paul, a Jew

A View of Jerusalem

Showing the Mount of Olives in the distance

born in Tarsus, a city of Asia whose inhabitants had
received the rights of Roman citizenship, believed that
the message of the new religion was meant for all nations.
He taught it in many cities of Asia Minor and Greece,
and even w^ent as far west as Rome. Several of the
epistles or letters in the New Testament were written
by Paul to churches which he had founded or where he

82 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

had taught. So it happens that from Palestine came
reUgious teachings which multitudes consider even more
important than the art and hterature of the Greeks or
the laws and political methods of the Romans.

Why the Christians were persecuted. The Romans
at first refused to permit any one in their empire to call
himself a Christian. They disliked the Jews because
the Jews denied that the Roman gods were real gods,
asserting that these gods were mere images in wood and
stone. The Christians did this also, but in the eyes of
the Roman rulers the worst offense of the Christians
was that they appeared to form a sort of secret society
and held meetings to which other persons were not
admitted. The emperor had forbidden such societies.

The Romans also disliked the Christians because of
their refusal to join in the public ceremonies which hon-
ored the emperor as if he were a god who had given peace
and order to the world and who was able to reward the
good and punish the evil. The Christians believed it
to be wrong to join in the worship of an emperor, whether
he were alive or dead.

Christians put to Death. The Romans were cruel in
their manner of punishing disobedience, and many Chris-
tians suffered death in its most horrible forms. Some
were burned, others were tortured, others were torn to
pieces by wild animals in the great amphitheaters to
satisfy the fierce Roman crowd. Nero, the worst of
the Roman emperors, who, many thought, set Rome on
fire in order that he might enjoy the sight of the burning
city, tried to turn suspicion from himself by accusing

CHRISTIANITY AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

the Christians of the crime. He punished them by tying
them to poles, smearing tlieir bodies with pitch, and burn-
ing them at night as torches.

The Christians allowed to Worship. The new reli-
gion spread rapidly from province to province in spite
of these persecutions. At first the Christians worshiped

ijnnifnip

A \ lEw OF Constantinople

secretly, but later they ventured to build churches.
Finally, three centuries after the birth of Christ, the
emperors promised that the persecutions should cease
and that the Christians might worship undisturbed.

The Roman Empire becomes Christian about 325 A.D.
Constantine w^as the first emperor to become Christian.
He was the one who made the Greek city Byzantium the
capital of the empire and for whom it was renamed
Constantinople. For a time both the old Roman religion

84 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

and the Christian rehgion were favored by the emperors,
but before the fourth century closed the old religion was
forbidden. In later days worshipers of the Roman gods
were mostly country people, called in Latin pagani, and
therefore their religion was called ^' paganism."

How the Church was ruled. One of the reasons why
the Christians had been successful in their struggle with
the Roman emperors was that they were united under
wise and brave leaders. The Christians in each large
city were ruled by a bishop, and the bishops of several
cities were directed by an archbishop. In the western
part of the empire the bishop of Rome, who was called
the pope, was honored as the chief of the bishops and
archbishops, and the successor of the Apostle Peter. In
the eastern part the archbishops or patriarchs of Con-
stantinople and Alexandria and Jerusalem honored the
pope, but claimed to be equal in authority with him.

There were also two kinds of clergy, parish priests and
monks. The priests were pastors of ordinary parishes,
but the monks lived in groups in buildings called mon-
asteries. Sometimes their purpose was to dwell far
from the bustle and wrongs of ordinary life and give
themselves to prayer and fasting; sometimes they acted
as a brotherhood of teachers in barbarous communi-
ties, teaching the people better methods of farming, and
carrying the arts of civilized life beyond the borders of
the empire.

QUESTIONS

1. Where did the Jews Hve in Ancient Times?

2. Do you remember any of the stories of David?

CHRISTIANITY AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

3. What finally became of the kingdom over which David ruled?

4. What era in the history of the world begins with the birth
of Jesus Christ?

5. Why did the Romans forbid the Christians to worship? How
did the Romans punish them? How long after the birth of Christ
before the emperors allowed the Christians to worship undisturbed?

A Monastery in the Middle Ages

Abbey of Saint-Germain des Pres as it appeared in 1361 with wall, towers, and
moat or ditch

6. What is the name of the first Roman emperor who became a
Christian? What name was soon given to the worshipers of the
old Roman gods?

7, By what titles were the leaders of the Christians named?
What two kinds of clergy were there?

Important date: 325 a.d., when the Roman Empire became
Christian.

CHAPTER X
EMIGRANTS A THOUSAND YEARS AGO

The Middle Ages. It was more than a thousand years
from the time of Constantine to the time of Columbus.
This period is called " Mediaeval," or the " Middle
Ages." During these long centuries the ancient civi-
lized world of the Roman Empire was much changed.
The Roman or Greek cities on the southern shores of the
Mediterranean were captured by Arabs or Moors. The
Moors conquered the larger part of Spain. The eastern
lands of Palestine and Asia Minor fell into the hands of
the Turks. The Turks, the Moors, and the Arabs were
followers of the '' prophet " Mohammed, who died in
the year 632. The Mohammedans were enemies of the
Christians.

Western Europe. The other part of the European
world was also changed. The countries on the shores
of the Atlantic were now more important than those on
the shores of the Mediterranean. The names of the
different countries were changed. Instead of Gallia or
Gaul, there was France; instead of Britannia, England;
for Hispania, Spain; for Germania, Deutschland or Ger-
many. Italy, the center of the old empire, was finally
divided into several states — city republics like Genoa

EMIGRANTS A THOUSAND YEARS AGO

and Venice, provinces ruled by the pope, and other
territories ruled by dukes, princes, or kings

Fate of Civilization. The most important question to
ask is. How much of the manner of living or civihzation
of the Greeks and the
Romans did the later
Europeans still retain?
The answer is found in
the history of the Mid-
dle Ages. In this his-
tory is also found what
men added to that
which they had learned
from the Greeks and the
Romans. The emi-
grants to America were
to carry with them
knowledge which not
even the wisest men of
the ancient world had
possessed.

Wall of Aurelian

This wall enclosed the ancient city of Rome.
It was about thirteen miles in circumference
fifty-five feet high, and had three hundred
towers

Mediaeval German Emigrants. The first part of the
history of the Middle Ages explains how the German
peoples from whom most of our forefathers were de-
scended began to move from the northern forests towards
he borders of the Roman Empire. Many thousand
L^nhal already crossed the Rhine and the Danube
to serve in the Roman armies. Sometimes an unusu-
ally strong and skilful warrior would be made a general.
Germans had also crossed the Rhine to work as farmers

88 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

on the estates of the rich GalUc nobles. Other Germans,
called Goths, worked in Constantinople and the cities
of the East as masons, porters, and water-carriers. The
Romans had owned so many slaves that they had lost
the habit of work and were glad to hire these foreigners.

Story of Ulfilas. Many of the Goths who lived north
of the Danube had forsaken their old gods and become
Christians. They were taught by Bishop Ulfilas, once
a captive among them, afterward a missionary. He
translated the Bible into the Gothic language, and this
translation is the most ancient specimen of German that
we possess. Many of the other German tribes learned
about Christianity from the Goths, and although they
might be enemies of the Roman government, they were
not enemies of the Church.

The Goths invade the Roman Empire. The Roman
emperors tried to prevent the northern tribes from cross-
ing the frontier in great numbers, because, once across,
if they did not find work and food, they became plun-
derers. Not many years after Constantine's death, a
million Goths had passed the Danube and had plundered
the country almost to the walls of Constantinople. This
was not like the invasion of a regular army, which comes
to fight battles and to arrange terms of peace.

The Goths, and the Germans who soon followed their
example, moved as a whole people, with their wives and
children, their cattle, and the few household goods they
owned. Wherever they wished to settle they demanded
of the Romans one third, sometimes two thirds, of the
land. They soon learned to be good neighbors of the

EMIGRANTS A THOUSAND YEARS AGO 89

older inhabitants, although at first they were little bet-
ter than robbers. Alaric, one of the leaders of the Goths,
led them into Italy and in the year 410 captured Rome.
Alaric did not injure the buildings much, and he kept
his men from robbing the churches. Some of the other
barbarous tribes who roamed about plundering villages
and attacking cities did far greater damage. The Roman
government grew weaker and weaker, until one by one
the provinces fell into the hands of German kings.

Beginnings of England, France, and Germany. Brit-
ain was attacked by the Angles and Saxons from the
shores of Germany across the North Sea. (See map,
page 65.) They drove away the inhabitants or made
slaves of them and settled upon the lands they had
seized. The country was then called Angle-land or
England, and the people Anglo-Saxons or Englishmen.

The Roman provinces in Gaul were gradually con-
quered by the Franks from the borders of the Rhine,
and they gave the name France to the land.

At about the same time the other German tribes
that had remained in Germany united under one king.

The Result of Barbarian Attacks. The part of the
ancient world which lay about Constantinople was less
changed than the rest during the Middle Ages. The
walls of Constantinople were high and thick, and they
withstood attack after attack until 1453. Within their
shelter men continued to live much as they had lived in
Ancient Times. A few delighted to study the writings
of the ancient Greeks. In Italy and the other countries
of western Europe most of the cities were in ruins. The

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

ancient baths, amphitheaters, aqueducts, and palaces of
Rome crumbled and fell. The mediaeval Romans also
used 'huge buildings like the Colosseum as quarries of
cut stone and burned the marble for lime. This was
done in every country where Roman buildings existed.

-^-^-r^-^^

The Amphitheater at Arles

The amphitheater at Aries in southern France had a still
stranger fortune. It was used at one time as a citadel,
at another as a prison and gradually became the home
of hundreds of the criminals and the poor of the city.
'^ Every archway held its nest of human outcasts. From
stone to stone they cast their rotting beams and plaster
and burrowed into the very entrails of the enormous
building to seek a secure retreat from the pursuit of the
officers of the law."

EMIGRANTS A THOUSAND YEARS AGO

Few persons traveled from Constantinople to Italy or
France, and few from western Europe visited Constan-
tinople. The men of Italy and France and England did
not know how to read Greek. Many of them also ceased
to read the writings of the ancient Romans.

St. Martin's Church, Canterbury, England

This church is on the site of a chapel built in the sixth century. Its walls show-
some of the bricks of the original chapel

The English become Christians, 597 A.D. Christian-
ity had spread throughout the Roman Empire, and it
became the religion of all the tribes who founded king-
doms of their own upon the ruins of the Empire. The
Angles and Saxons, when they invaded Britain, were
still worshipers of the gods Wodan and Thor. They
had never learned from the Goths of Ulfilas anything
about Christianity.

One day in the slave market at Rome three fair-haired
boys were offered for sale. Gregory, a noble Roman,

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

who had become a monk and was the abbot of his mon-
astery, happened to be passing and asked who they were.
He was told they were Angles. '^ Angels," he cried,
'' yes, they have faces like angels, and should become

l,iilllllllii(toiii(i(iiiiiliii(iiffli(iii

Gregory and the Little English Slaves

companions of the angels in heaven." When this good
abbot became pope, he sent missionaries to Angle-land
and they established themselves at Canterbury.

Missionaries to the Germans and the Slavs. The
conversion of the English helped in the spread of
Christianity on the Continent, for Boniface, an English
monk, was the greatest missionary to the Germans.
He won thousands from the worship of their ancient

EMIGRANTS A THOUSAND YEARS AGO 93

gods and founded many churches. The Slavs, who
lived east of the Germans, were taught by missionaries
from Constantinople instead of from Rome.

The Educated Men of the Middle Ages. The mission-
aries and teachers of the Church had been educated like
the older Romans. They read Roman books, and tried
to preserve the knowledge which both Greeks and Ro-
mans had gathered. Influenced by them, the emigrants
and conquerors from the north also tried to be like the
Romans. Educated men, and especially the priests of
the Church, used Latin as their language. In this way
some parts of the old Roman and Greek civilization
were preserved, although the Roman government had
fallen and many beautiful cities were mere heaps of
ruins.

The Vikings. The emigration of whole peoples from
one part of Europe to another did not stop when the
Roman Empire was overrun. New peoples appeared and
sought to plunder or crowd out the tribes which had
already settled within its boundaries and were learning
the ways of civilization.

One of these peoples came from the regions now
known as Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. They were
called Danes by the English, and Northmen or Normans
by other Europeans. They had another name, Vikings,
which was their word for sea-rovers.

It was their custom to sail the seas and rivers rather
than march on the land. They were a hardy and dar-
ing people, who liked nothing better than to fight and
conquer and rob in other countries. There was not a

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

land in western Europe, even as far south as Sicily, that
they did not visit. Wherever they went they plundered
and burned and murdered, leaving a blackened trail.

The Danes in England. The Danes ravaged the
eastern and southern shores of England, and after they
were tired of robbery, partly because there was little

A Viking Ship at Sea

left to take, they began to settle in the land. Alfred, the
greatest of the early English kings, was driven by them
into the swamps for a while, but in the year 878 a.d.
he conquered an army of them in battle and per-
suaded one of their kings to be baptized as a Christian.
Alfred was obliged to allow them to keep the eastern por-
tion of England, a region called Danelaw, because the law
of the Danes was obeyed there.

The Danes become Normans. No more Danes or
Northmen came to trouble England for a time, but instead
they crossed the Channel to France and rowed up the Seine

EMIGRANTS A THOUSAND YEARS AGO

and tried to capture Paris. A few years later a Frankish
king gave them the city of Rouen, further down the Seine,
and the region about it which was called Normandy.
These Normans also accepted Christianity.

The Vikings become Discoverers. Before another
hundred years had passed the North-
men performed a feat more difficult
than sailing up rivers and burning
towns. They were the first to venture
far out of sight of land, though their
ships were no larger than our fishing
boats. These bold sailors visited the
Orkney and the Shetland Islands, north
of Scotland, and finally reached Iceland.
In Iceland their sheep and cattle flour-
ished, and a lively trade in fish, oil,
butter, and skins sprang up with the old
homeland and with the British islands.

Before long one of the settlers, named Eric the Red,
led a colony to Greenland, the larger and more desolate
island further west. He called it Greenland because, he
said, men would be more easily persuaded to go there if
the land had a good name. This was probably in the
year 985.

Discovery of Vinland. Eric had a son, called Leif
Ericson, or Leif the Lucky, who visited Norway and
was well received at the court of King Olaf. Not long
before missionaries had persuaded Olaf and his people to
give up their old gods and accept Christianity, and Leif
followed their example. Leif set out in the early summer

Leif Ericson

From the statue ir
Boston

96 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

of the year 1000 to carry the new rehgion to his father,
Eric the Red, to his father's people, and to his neigh-
bors. The voyage was a long one, lasting all the summer,
for on the way his ship was driven out of its course and
came upon strange lands where wild rice and grape-vines
and large trees grew. The milder climate and stories of
large trees useful for building ships aroused the curiosity
of the Greenlanders.

They sent exploring expeditions, and found the coast
of North America at places which they called Helluland,
that is, the land of flat stones; Markland, the land of
forests; and Vinland, where the grape-vines grow. Hel-
luland was probably on the coast of Labrador, Markland
somewhere on the shores of Newfoundland, and Vinland
in Nova Scotia.

The Settlement in Vinland. Thornfinn Karlsefni, a
successful trader between Iceland and Greenland, at-
tempted to plant a colony in the new lands. Karlsefni
and his friends, to the number of one hundred and sixty
men and several women, set out in 1007 with three or
four ships, loaded with supplies and many cattle. They
built huts and remained three or four winters in Vinland,
but all trace of any settlement disappeared long ago.

They found, their stories tell us, swarthy, rough-looking
Indians, with coarse hair, large eyes, and broad cheeks,
with whom they traded red cloth for furs. Trouble
broke out between the Northmen and the Indians, who
outnumbered them. So many Northmen were killed
that the survivors became alarmed and returned to
Greenland.

EMIGRANTS A THOUSAND YEARS AGO

Vinland forgotten. The voyages to Vinland soon
ceased and the discoveries of Leif and his followers were
only remembered in the songs or ^^ sagas " of the people.
They thought of Vinland mainly as a land of flat stones,
great trees, and fierce natives. Nor did the wise men of

Discoveries of the Northmen

The American lands they found are marked with diagonal lines

Europe who heard the Northmen's story guess that a
New World had been discovered. It was probably
fortunate that five hundred years were to go by before
Europeans settled in America, for within that time they
were to learn a great deal and to find again many things
which the Romans had left but which in the year 1000
were hidden away, either in the ruins of the ancient

98 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

cities or in libraries and treasure-houses, where few
knew of them. The more Europeans possessed before
they set out, the more Americans would have to start with.

^"^ .eya fema vetr-u le^Petaks %xobw%,
tnair e ^ j:ja2rt(tSZ' fe^iOl^]^. h^t^xt)

Facsimile of a Bit of an Old Saga Manuscript

QUESTIONS

1. What is meant by the ''Middle Ages" or the "Mediaeval"
period?

2. Show on the map, page 65, what part of the Roman Empire
was conquered by the Mohammedans.

3. Mention the Roman names of England, France, Germany,
and Spain. Why were they changed to what they are now?

4. What people early in the Middle Ages began to emigrate from
their homes to the Roman Empire? What did they do for a living?

5. Where did the Goths live? Who taught them the Christian
religion? When the Goths entered the Roman Empire what did
they ask of the inhabitants? Did they destroy much? How many
years separated the capture of Rome by Alaric from its capture by
the Gauls?

6. What tribes conquered England or Britain? What tribes
conquered Roman Gaul or France? How long before Constantinople
was captured?

7. What was the effect of these raids and wars upon many cities?
Who tried to keep fresh the memory of what the Greeks and the
Romans had done? Who used the language of the Romans?

EMIGRANTS A THOUSAND YEARS AGO 99

8. Tell the story of the way the English became Christians. Who
taught the Christian religion to many Germans? From what city
did the Slavs receive missionaries?

9. What different names are given to the inhabitants of Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden who became rovers over the seas? Where did
they make settlements?

10. Tell the story of how Leif the Lucky discovered America.
Why did the Northmen leave Vinland?

EXERCISES

1. Point out on the map all the places mentioned in this chapter.

2. On an outhne map mark the names of the peoples mentioned
in the chapter on the countries where they settled.

3. Ask children in school who know some other language than
English what are their names for England, Germany, France, Spain,
and Italy.

Important dates:

Alaric's capture of Rome, 410 a.d.

Discovery of America by the Northmen, 1000 a.d.

CHAPTER XI

HOW ENGLISHMEN LEARNED TO GOVERN
THEMSELVES

Heroes of the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages, like
ADcient Times, are recalled by many interesting tales.
Some of them, such as the stories of King Arthur and his
Knights, the story of Roland, and the Song of the Nie-
belungs, are only tales and not history. Others tell us
about great kings, Charlemagne and St. Louis of France,
Frederick the Redbeard of Germany, or St. Stephen of
Hungary. The hero-king for England was Alfred, who
fought bravely against the pirate Danes and finally
conquered and persuaded many of them to live quietly
under his rule.

King Alfred began to reign in 871. King Alfred was
a skilful warrior, but he was also an excellent ruler in
time of peace. When he was a boy he had shown his love
of books. His mother once offered a beautifully written
Saxon poem as a prize to the one of her sons who should
be the first to learn it. Alfred could not yet read, but
he had a ready memory, and with the aid of his teacher
he learned the poem and won the prize.

At that time almost all books were written in Latin
and few even of the clergy could read. During the
long wars with the Danes m^.,ny books had been

100

HOW ENGLISHMEN LEARNED TO GOVERN 101

destroyed. Men found battle-axes more useful than
books and ceased to care about reading. King Alfred
feared that the Saxons would soon become ignorant
barbarians, and sent for priests and monks who were
learned and were able to teach his clergy. He sent even
into France for such men.

Early English Books. As it would be easier for people
to learn to read books written in the language they spoke

EIST p^SAdN

^^NyD^NINGAfVls^

tt^Tie f ttTreiv%C|ie]>eoienececeIirahaJ^u
ycafh^ya ]><i fylf att nvb p6c fiepnjeaf foleun

Extract from the Saxon Chronicle

From a copy in the British Museum

rather than in Latin, Alfred helped to translate several
famous Latin books into English. Among these was a
history written by a Roman before the Germans had
overthrown the Roman Empire. This history told about
the world of the Greeks and the Romans.

Alfred commanded some of his clergy to keep a record
from year to year of things which happened in his king-
dom. This record was called the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
and was the first history written in the English language.

102 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

It was carefully kept for many years after Alfred's death.
Another wise thing Alfred did was to collect the laws or
^^ dooms " of the earlier kings, so that every one might
know what the law required.

The Beginning of a Navy. Alfred has been called the
creator of the English navy. He thought that the only
way to keep the Danes from plundering his shores
was to fight them on the sea. He built several ships
which were bigger than the Danish ships, but they were
not always victorious, for they could not follow the Danish
ships into shallow water. Nevertheless, the Danes could
not plunder Engld-nd as easily as before.

The New Army. Alfred organized his fighting men
in a better way. In times past the men had been called
upon to fight only when the Danes were near, but now he
kept a third of his men ready all the time, and another
third he placed in forts, so the rest were able to work in
the fields in safety. There are good reasons why
Englishmen regard Alfred as a hero.

William the Conqueror began to rule England in 1066.
About a hundred and fifty years after Alfred died, William,
duke of Normandy, crossed the Channel with an army,
killed the English king in battle, and seized the throne.
This was not altogether a misfortune to the English, for
they came under the same ruler as the Normans and they
shared in all that the men of the Continent were begin-
ning to learn. For one thing, builders from the Continent
taught the English to construct the great Norman churches
or cathedrals which every traveler in England sees.
Besides, William the Conqueror was a strong king and put

HOW ENGLISHMEN LEARNED TO GOVERN 103

down the chiefs or lords that were incUned to oppress
the common people.

Henry II. Henry II, one of William's successors, ruled
over most of western France as well as over England.
His officers and nobles were tired out by his endless
traveling in his lands, which extended from the banks
of the river Loire in France to the borders of Scotland.

The Normans Crossing the English Channel

From the Bayeux Tapestry, embroidered in the time of William the Conqueror.
The figures are worked on a band of linen two hundred and thirty feet long, and
twenty inches wide. Worsteds of eight colors are used

All Englishmen and Americans should remember him with
gratitude because of the improvements he made in the
ways of discovering the truth when disputes arose and
were carried into courts.

Ordeals and Trials by Battle. Before Henry's reign
it was the custom when a man was accused of a crime to
find out the truth by arranging a wager of battle or what
were called ordeals. The two most common ordeals
were the ordeal by fire and the ordeal by water. In the
ordeal by fire an iron was heated red-hot, and after it had
been blessed by a priest it was put into the hand of the

104

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

man the truth of whose word was being tested, and he
had to carry it a certain number of feet. His hand was
then bound up and left for three days. If at the end of
that time the wound was heahng, men believed he was
innocent, for they thought God would keep an innocent
man from being punished.

In the ordeal by water the man was tied and thrown
into water which had been blessed by the priest. If he

Trial by Battle

After a drawing in an old manuscript

was guilty, the people thought the water would not receive
him. If he sank at once, he was pulled out and treated
as if he had told the truth.

A wager of battle was a fight between the two men
whose dispute was to be settled, or between a man and
his accuser. Each was armed with a hammer or a
small battle-axe, and the one who gave up lost his case.

Trial by Jury. King Henry introduced a better way
of finding out the truth. He called upon twelve men from
a neighborhood to come before the judges, to promise
solemnly to tell what they knew about a matter, and then
to decide which person was in the right. They were

HOW ENGLISHMEN LEARNED TO GOVERN 105

supposed to know about the facts, and they were allowed
to talk the matter over with one another before they
made a decision.

Later these men from the neighborhood were divided
into two groups, one to tell what they knew and the
other to listen and decide what was true. Those who
told what they knew were called the witnesses, and those
who listened and decided were called jurors. The name
jurors came from a Latin word meaning to take an oath.

Richard the Lionhearted. King Henry had two sons,
Richard and John. Richard was the boldest and most
skilful fighter of his time. When the news was brought
to England that Jerusalem had been captured by the
Mohammedans, he led an army to Palestine to recap-
ture it. He failed to take the city, but he became
famous throughout the East as a fearless warrior and
was ever afterwards called the " Lionhearted." At his
death his brother John became king. He was as cowardly
and wicked as Richard was brave and generous.

The Great Charter. The leaders of the people, the
nobles and the clergy, soon grew tired of John's wicked-
ness. In 1215 they raised an army and threatened to
take the kingdom from John and crown another prince
as king. John was soon ready to promise anything in
order to obtain power once more, and the nobles and
bishops met him at Runnymede on the river Thames, a
few miles west of London, and compelled him to sign a
list of promises. As the list contained sixty- three separate
promises, it was called the Great Charter or Magna
Charta. If John did not keep these promises, the lords

106 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

and clergy agreed to make war on him, and he even said
that this would be their duty.

Promises of the Charter. Many of the articles of
the Great Charter were important only to the men of
King John's day, but others are as important to us
as to them. In these the king promised that every one
should be treated justly. He said he would not refuse

x^xBtt Ici^uJ'^u^Li^nJI,

eoftxit.

5f)<meJ6#t fllw^#t- 'M>riyp\ & 6!K)XTvi\^%r.i«^j

A Portion of the Great Charter

to listen to the complaints of those who thought they
were wronged. The king also promised that he would
not decide in favor of a rich man just because the rich
man might offer him money. He would put no one in
prison who had not been tried and found guilty by
a jury. By another important promise the king said
he would not levy new taxes without the consent
of the chief men of the kingdom. This opened the way
for the people to have something to say about how their
money should be spent. This right is a very important
part of what we call self-government.

Promises of the Great Charter renewed. In after-

HOW ENGLISHMEN LEARNED TO GOVERN 107

times whenever the Enghsh thought a king was doing
them a wrong they reminded him of the promises made
by King John in the Great Charter and demanded that
the promises be solemnly renewed.

In 1265 a great noble named Simon de Montfort asked
many towns to send a number of their chief men to meet
with the nobles and clergy to talk over the conduct of
the king. Others, even kings, soon followed Simon's
example by asking the townsmen for advice about mat-

Parliament House Westminster Hall Westminster Abbey

Where Parliament Met in London in the Fifteenth Century

ters of government. After a while this became the cus-
tom. Occasionally the king wanted the advice of the
clergy, the nobles, and the townsmen at the same time
and called them together. The meeting was called a
parliament, that is, an assembly in which talking or
discussion goes on.

The English Parliament. Only the most important
nobles or lords could go in person to the assembhes, other-
wise the meeting would be too large to do any business.
The other lords chose certain ones from their number to
go in place of all the rest. We call such men representa-

108 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

tives. In this way, besides the men who represented the
towns, there were present these nobles who represented
the landowners of the counties. Gradually these nobles
and the townsmen formed an assembly of their own,
while the greater lords, the bishops, and abbots sat
together in another assembly. The two assemblies were
called the House of Commons and the House of Lords,
and the two made up the parliament.

An Assembly of Representatives. This parliament
was a great invention. The English had discovered a
better way of governing themselves than either the
Greeks or the Romans. We call it the representative
system. If a Roman citizen who lived far from Rome
wanted to take part in the elections, he was obliged to
leave his farm or his business and travel to Rome, for
only the citizens who were at Rome could have a share in
making the laws. It never occurred to the Romans that
the citizens outside of Rome could send some of their
number as representatives to Rome. The formation of
the English parliament was an important step towards
what we mean in America by '' government of the people,
for the people, and by the people."

QUESTIONS

1. Mention the names of heroes or hero-kings of the Middle Ages.
What stories have you learned about these heroes?

2. Who was the hero-king of the English? How did he early
show his love of books? What did he do to help his people to a knowl-
edge of books?

3. How did he succeed better than other kings in driving back the
Danes? Why has he been called the creator of the Enghsh navy?

HOW ENGLISHMEN LEARNED TO GOVERN 109

4. What was the name of the Norman duke who conquered
the EngHsh and ruled over them? Did this conquest hinder or
help them?

5. Why should we remember Henry II gratefuhy? Explain an
ordeal and a trial by battle. How were the first juries formed and
what did they do? How were they afterwards divided?

6. For what was King Richard most celebrated? What sort of a
king was his brother John?

7. Why was the Charter which John was forced to grant called
''Great"? Repeat some of its promises. Did the English soon
forget these promises?

8. Who asked the townsmen to send several of their number to
talk over affairs with the clergy and the nobles? What was this body
finally called? Into what two bodies was it divided?

9. What is a "representative system"? Why was it an invention?
What did the Romans do when they lived in towns distant from Rome
and wanted to take part in elections or help make the laws?

EXERCISES

1. Learn and tell one of the King Arthur stories and a part of the
story of the Niebelungs. Find a story about Charlemagne, Frederick
the Redbeard, St. Louis, or St. Stephen.

2. Collect pictures of war vessels, those of old times and those of
to-day, and explain their differences.

3. Find out how men nowadays decide whether an accused man is
guilty.

4. What is the name of the assembly in your state which makes
the laws? What assembly at Washington makes the laws for the
whole country?

CHAPTER XII
THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES

What the English owed to their European Neighbors.
If the English succeeded better than other Europeans in
learning how to govern themselves, one reason was that
the Channel protected them from attack, and they could
quarrel with their king without running much risk that
their enemies in other countries would take advantage
of the quarrel to seize their lands or attempt to conquer
them.

The French were not so well placed. France also
was not united like England, and whole districts called
counties or duchies were almost independent of the king,
being ruled by their counts and dukes. In France it
would not have been wise for the people to quarrel with
the king, for he was their natural protector against cruel
lords. Germany and Italy were even more divided, with
not only counties and duchies, but also cities nearly as
independent as the ancient cities of Greece.

The Europeans on the Continent did many things
which the English were doing, and some of these were
so well done that the English were ready to accept these
Europeans as their teachers. The memory of what the
Greeks and the Romans had done remained longer in
southern France and Italy because so many buildings

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 111

were still standing which reminded Frenchmen and
Italians of the people who built them,.

Classes of People. The people of Europe, as well as
of England, were divided into two classes, nobles and
peasants. The clergy seemed to form another class

A Monk Copying Manuscript Books

because there were so many of them. Besides the parish
priests and the bishops there were thousands of monks,
who were persons who chose to dwell together in mon-
asteries under the rule of an abbot or a prior, rather than
hve among ordinary people where men were so often
tempted to do wrong or were so likely to be wronged by

112

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

others. The monks worked on the farms of the monas-
teries, or studied in the Ubraries, or prayed and fasted.
For a long time the men who knew how to read were
nearly always monks or priests. Outside of the monas-
teries or the bishops' houses there were few books.
The Nobles. The nobles were either knights, barons,

counts, or dukes. In
England there were
also earls. Many
mediaeval nobles
ruled like kings, but
over a smaller terri-
tory. They gained
their power because
they were rich in
land and could sup-
port many men who
were ready to follow
them in battle, or be-
cause in the constant
wars they proved
themselves able to
keep anything they
took, whether it was
a hilltop or a town.
Timid and peaceable
people were often
glad to put them-
selves under the protection of such a fighter, who saved
them from being robbed by other fighting nobles.

Plan of a Mediaeval Castle

1. The Donjon-keep. 2. Chapel. 3. Stables. 4. In-
ner Court. 5. Outer Court. 6. Outworks. 7.
Mount, where justice was executed. 8. Soldiers'
Lodgings

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES

113

In this way the nobles served a good purpose until
the kings, who were at first only very successful nobles,
were able to bring nobles as well as peasants under their
own rule and to compel every one to obey the same laws.
After this the nobles became what we call an aristocracy,

^1 ■%.iV^IWi'§-

PlERREFONDS OnE OF THE GrEAT CaSTLES OF FrANCE

proud of their family history, generally living in better
houses and owning more land than their neighbors, but
with little power over others.

Castles. For safety, kings and nobles in the Middle
Ages were obliged to build strong stone forts or fortified
houses called castles. They were often placed on a hilltop
or on an island or in a spot where approach to the walls
could be made difficult by a broad canal, or moat, filled
with water. At different places along the walls were
towers, and within the outer ring of walls a great tower^

114 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

or keep, which was hard to capture even after the rest
of the castle had been entered by the enemy. These
castles were gloomy places to live in until, centuries later,
their inner walls were pierced with windows. Many are
still standing, others are interesting heaps of ruins.

Knighthood. The lords of the castles were occupied
mostly in hunting or fighting. They fought to keep
other lords from interfering with them or to win for them-
selves more lands and power. They hunted that they
might have meat for their tables. In later times, when
it was not so necessary to kill animals for food, they
hunted as a sport. Fighting also ceased to be the chief
occupation, although the nobles were expected to accom-
pany the king in his wars.

From boyhood the sons of nobles, unless they entered
the Church as priests or monks, were taught the art of
fighting. A boy was sent to the castle of another lord,
where he served as a page, waiting on the lord at table
or running errands. He was trained to ride a horse
boldly and to be skilful with the sword and the lance.
When his education was finished he was usually made
a knight, an event which took place with many interesting
ceremonies.

The young man bathed, as a sign that he was pure.
The weapons and arms for his use were blessed by a
priest and laid on the altar of the church, and near them
he knelt and prayed all night. In the final ceremony a
sword was girded upon him and he received a slight blow
on the neck from the sword of some knight, or perhaps
of the king. His armor covered him from head to foot

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 115

in metal, and sometimes his horse was also covered with
metal plates. When he was fully armed, he was expected
to show his skill to the lords and ladies who were present.

The Duties of a Knight. The duties of the knight were
to defend the weak, to protect women from wrong, to
be faithful to his lord and king,
and to be courteous even to an
enemy. A knight true to these
duties was called '^ chivalrous,"
a word which means very much
what we mean by the word '^ gen-
tlemanly." There were many
wicked knights, but we must
not forget that the good knights
taught courtesy, faithfulness in
keeping promises, respect for
women, courage, self-sacrifice,
and honor.

The Peasants. Most of the
people were peasants or townsmen. There were few
towns, because many had been burned by the barbarian
tribes which broke into the Roman Empire, or had been
destroyed in the later wars. The peasants were crowded
in villages close to the walls of some castle or monastery.
They paid dearly for the protection which the lord of
the castle or the abbot of the monastery gave them, for
they were obliged to work on his lands three days or
more each week, and to bring him eggs, chickens, and a
little money several times a year. They also gave him
a part of their harvest.

A Knight in Armor

Thirteenth century

116

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

The Townsmen. At first the towns belonged to lords,
or abbots, or bishops, but many towns drove out their
lords and ruled themselves or received officers from the
king. When they ruled themselves, their towns were
called communes. The citizens agreed that whenever
the town bell was rung they would gather together.

'^c:^!

^niT''*''^-^

^^'^^^^^^^.^^^^^^

View of Carcassonne

This is an ancient city in France founded bv the Romans

Any one who was absent was fined. For them " eternal
vigilance was the price of liberty." Some of the belfries
of these mediaeval towns are still standing, and remind
the citizens of to-day of the struggles of the early days.

The men of each occupation or trade were organized
into societies or guilds, with masters, journeymen, and
apprentices. There were guilds of goldsmiths, ironmong-
ers, and fishmongers, that is, workers in gold and iron
and sellers of fish. The merchants also had their guilds.
In many towns no one was allowed to work at a trade
or sell merchandise who was not a member of a guild.

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 117

Old Cities which still exist. Many of the towns which
grew up in the Middle Ages are now the great cities of
England and Europe. Their citizens can look back a
thousand years and more over the history of their city,
can point to churches, to town halls, and sometimes to
private houses, that have stood all this time. They
can often show the remains of mediaeval walls or broad
streets where once these walls stood, and the moats that
surrounded them. The traveler in York or London,
in Paris, in Nuremberg, in Florence, or in Rome eagerly
searches for the rehcs about which so many interesting
stories of the past are told.

Venice and Genoa. One of the most fascinating of
these old cities is Venice, built upon low-lying islands two
miles from the shore of Italy and protected by a sand bar
from the waters of the Adriatic. Venice was founded
by men and women who fled from a Roman city on the
mainland which was ruined by the barbarians in the
fifth century after Christ. In many places piles had to
be driven into the loose sands to furnish a foundation
for houses. The Venetians did not try to keep out the
water but used it as streets, and instead of driving' in
wagons they went about in boats. They grew rich in
trade on the sea, as the Greeks had done in those same
waters hundreds of years before.

Farther down the coast of Italy were the cities Brin-
disi and Taranto, the Brundusium and Tarentum of the
Romans. Across the peninsula to the west was another
trading city called Genoa, which was the birthplace of
Columbus.

118 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Modern Languages. While the people of mediaeval
times were building city walls and towers to protect
themselves they were also doing other things. Almost
without knowing it they formed the languages which we
now speak and write — English, German, French, Itahan,
and Spanish.

The English and German languages are closely related
because the forefathers of the English emigrated to Eng-
land from Germany, taking their language with them.
This older language was gradually changed, but it still
remained like German. Dutch is another language like
both English and Gerrrian.

There are many words in these languages borrowed
from other peoples. Englishmen, because of their long
union with western France, borrowed many words from
the French. The French did not invent these words,
for the French language grew out of the Latin language
which the French learned from the Romans.

How Modern Languages were formed. In English
we have two sets of words and phrases: one is used in
writing books or speeches, the other in conversation.
When the Gauls learned Latin, the language of Rome,
most of them learned the words used in conversation and
did not learn the words of Roman books. Before long
spoken words differed so much from the older written
words that only scholars understood that the two had
belonged to the same language. This new language was
French. In the same way Italian and Spanish grew out
of the ordinary Latin spoken in Italy and Spain.

When men began to write books in the new languages.

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES

119

the changes went on more slowly because the use of words
in books kept the spelling the same. Men wrote less in
Latin, but it was still used in the religious services of the
Church and in the schools and universities.

2^^i

.^M

Venice and the Grand Canal

Schools in the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages most
boys and girls did not go to school. Education was
principally for those who expected to become priests or
monks. The schools were in the monasteries or in the
houses or palaces of the bishops. The students were
taught a little Latin grammar, to write or speak Latin,
and to debate. They also learned arithmetic; enough
astronomy to reckon the days on which the festivals of
the Church should come; and music, so much as was
then known of it. Printing had not been invented, so

120 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

there were no text-books for them to study, and written
books or manuscripts were too costly. Students Hstened
to the teacher as he read from his manuscripts and copied
the words or tried to remember them.

The Beginning of Universities. If students remained
in the schools after these things had been learned, they
studied the laws of the Romans, or the practise of medi-
cine, or the religious questions which are called theology.
Some teachers talked in such an interesting way about
such questions that hundreds of students came to listen.
Like other kinds of workers, who were organized in soci-
eties or guilds, the teachers and students formed a guild
called a university. The teachers were the master-work-
men, and the students were the apprentices.

Where the Students lived. In the beginning the uni-
versities had no buildings of their own, and the teachers
taught in hired halls, the students boarding wherever
they could find lodgings. Partly to help students who
were too poor to pay for good lodgings, and partly to bring
the students under the direct rule of teachers, colleges
were built. These were not separate institutions like
the American colleges, but simply houses for residence,
although later some teaching was done in them.

Some Famous Universities. The oldest university was
in Bologna in Italy, and teachers began to explain the
laws of the Romans to its students eight hundred years
ago. The University of Paris was called the greatest
university in the Middle Ages. Its students numbered
sometimes between six and seven thousand. About the
same time the English universities of Oxford and Cam-

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES

121

bridge were formed, and there, many years later, a large
number of the men who settled m America were educated.
The Wisdom of the Arabs. Students in these univer-
sities obtained several of the writings of the Greeks
through the Arabs, the followers of Mohammed, who
had conquered most of Spain. Long before Europeans

View of New College, Oxford

Built in the fourteenth century

thought of founding universities the Arabs had flourishing
schools and universities in Spain. The capital of the
Mohammedan Empire was first at Bagdad on the
Euphrates, where once ruled Haroun-al-Raschid, the
hero of the tales of the Arabian Nights.

What Europeans borrowed from the Arabs. The
Arabs had learned much of geography and mathematics
from the Greeks, and they also found out much for them-
selves. The numerals which we use are Arabic; and
algebra, one of our principal studies in mathematics,

122

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

was thought out by the Arabs. Their learned men were
deeply mterested in the books of Aristotle, an ancient

Greek, who had been a
teacher of Alexander the
Great. They translated
his books into Arabic,
and Christian students in
Spain translated the Ara-
bic into Latin. The great
scholars at the University
of Paris believed that
Aristotle reasoned better
than other thinkers, and
took as their model the
methods of reasoning
found in this Latin trans-
lation of an Arabic trans-
lation of what Aristotle
had written in Greek.
Builders in the Middle Ages. The Greeks and the
Romans had been great builders, but the men of the
Middle Ages succeeded in building churches, town halls,
and palaces or castles which equaled in grandeur and
beauty the best that the ancient builders had made.
The large churches or cathedrals seem wonderful because
their builders were able to place masses of stone high in
the air and to cover immense spaces with beautiful
vaulted roofs. Builders nowadays imitate, but not often,
if ever, equal them. Fortunately the original buildings
are still standing in many English and European cities:

The Alcazar at Seville

Built by the Moors in the twelfth cen-
tury. Note the elaborate decoration of the
Moorish architecture

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 123

in Canterbury, Durham, and Winchester; in Paris, Char-
tres, and Rheims; in Cologne, Erfurt, and Strasbourg;
in Barcelona and Toledo; in Milan, Venice, and Rome.
Church Building. The Italians began by building
churches like Roman basilicas. Roman arches and

Notre Dame in Paris

View from the rear, showing the arches and buttresses

domes, supported by heavy walls, were also used north
of the Alps, and the method of building was named
Romanesque, or in England, Norman. The architects
or builders of western France discovered a way of roofing
over just as large spaces without using such heavy walls,
so that the interior could be lighted by larger win-
dows. Instead of having rounded arches they used
pointed arches. The walls between the windows were
strengthened by masses of stone called buttresses. The

124

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

peak of the roof of these cathedrals was sometimes more
than one hundred and fifty feet above the floor. The
glass of the windows showed in beautiful colors scenes
from the Bible or from lives of sainted men and women.
The outer walls, especially the western front, the door-
ways, and the
towers, were richly
carved and
adorned with stat-
ues, and often
with the figures of
strange birds and
beasts which lived
only in the imagi-
nation of the
builders. This
method of build-
ing was named
Gothic, and it was
used not only for
churches but for

town halls and
The Cathedral at Amiens .

A typical Gothic interior priVate U O U S e S .

Architects use similar methods of building nowadays.

The Renaissance. Men who could build and adorn
great churches and town halls and who were eager to
study in the new universities should be called civihzed.
The barbarous days were gone, but men still had much
to learn from the ancient Greeks and Romans. Many
of the ancient buildings were in ruins, the statues half

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 125

buried or broken, the paintings destroyed, and the books
lost. Men began to search for what was left of these
things and to study them carefully to learn what the
Graeco-Roman world had been like. After a while stu-
dents could think of nothing else, and tried to imitate, if
they could not surpass, what the Romans and the Greeks

i ! vU -4 ^^'\ i ' ^^ d\ th fci.^i^^*i-M4r

ifJiUMX'^^^

St. Peter's at Rome

had done. The age in which men were first interested
in these things is called the Renaissance or '' rebirth,''
because men were so unlike what they had been that
they seemed born again. With the beginning of the
Renaissance the Middle Ages came to an end.

Petrarch. One of the earliest of these •' new " men was
Petrarch, an Italian poet who lived in the fourteenth
century, a hundred years before Columbus. He wished
above all things to read, copy, and possess the writings

126 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

of the Romans, and especially of Cicero, an orator and
writer who lived in the days of Julius Caesar. Petrarch
and his friends searched for the manuscripts of Roman
authors which had been preserved, hidden away in
monastery libraries.

The same love of Roman books seized others, and princes
spent large sums of money in collecting and copying
ancient writings. At this time a beginning of the great
libraries of Europe was made. Petrarch tried to learn
Greek, but could find no one in Italy able to teach him.

Greek Books brought again to Italy. Shortly after
Petrarch died some Greeks came from Constantinople
seeking the aid of the pope and the kings of the West in
an attempt to drive back the Turks, who had already
crossed into Europe and settled in the lands which they
now occupy. Unless help should be sent to Constanti-
nople, the city would certainly fall into their hands.
With these Greeks was one of those men who still loved
to read the writings of the ancient authors. He was
persuaded to remain a few years in Florence and other
Italian cities and teach Greek to the eager Italian scholars.
He was also persuaded to write a grammar of the Greek
language, in order that after he had returned to Constanti-
nople others might be able to continue his teaching.

Collectors of books now searched for Greek writings as
eagerly as they had searched for Latin writings. Mer-
chants sent their agents to Constantinople to buy books.
One traveler and scholar brought back to Italy over two
hundred. Soon Italy was the land to which students
from Germany, France, and England went to learn

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 127

Greek and to obtain copies of Greek books. It was
fortunate that so many books had been brought from
Constantinople, for at last, in 1453, the Turks captured
that city and no place in the East was left where the
books of the Greeks were studied as they had been at
Constantinople.

A Printing Office in the Fifteenth Century

The Invention of Printing. After collectors of Greek
and Roman writings had made several good hbraries,
partly by purchase, partly by copying manuscripts
belonging to others, a great invention was made which
enabled these writings to be spread far and wide and
placed in the hands of every student. This invention
was the method of printing with movable types. It is
not quite certain who made the invention, although John
Gutenberg, of Mainz, in Germany, has generally been
called the inventor. Probably several men thought of
the method at about the same time, that is, about 1450.

128 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Different Kinds of Type. In forming their type the
German printers imitated the lettering made by copyists
with a quill. Their type is called Gothic, and it is still
widely used in German books. The Italian printers
made their letters more round and simple in shape,
imitating the handwriting of the best Italian copyists.
This is the Roman type, in which many European peo-
ples, as also the English and the Americans, print their
books. The Italians also prepared a kind of lettering
which, because they were the inventors, is named italic.

The Aldine Press. One of the most famous printers
of this early time was a Venetian named Aldus Manutius
or Manucci. He gathered about him a number of Greeks
and planned to print all the Greek manuscripts that had
been discovered. This he did in beautiful type, imitated
from the handwriting of one of his Greek friends. He
sold the books for a price per volume about equal to our
fifty cents, so that few scholars were too poor to buy.

Some Early Printed Books. Another great printer
was the Englishman William Caxton, who learned the art
in the Netherlands. Among the books he printed was
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The first book printed by
Gutenberg was the Bible in Latin. Early in the sixteenth
century, through the labors of a Dutch scholar, Erasmus,
and of his printer, the German Froben, the New Testa-
ment in Greek was printed.

Architecture and Sculpture. The artists and the
architects of this time began to imitate the buildings they
found or that they unearthed. They used round arches
and domes more than the pointed arches and vaulted

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 129

roofs of the Gothic builders. Sculptors pictured in stone
the stories of the Greek and Roman gods and heroes.
Statues long buried in ancient ruins were dug up, and
great artists like the Italian Michel Angelo studied them
and rivaled them in the beautiful statues they cut. On
every hand men's minds were awakened by what they
saw of the work of the founders of the civiUzed world.

t^m3 ^Btm t^mxi Sismt^ htH^ of t^ ont pat

Thenne beganne agayne the bataylle of the one parte / And of th
other Eneas ascryed to theym and sayd. hordes why doo ye f>ghte/
Ye knowe well that the couuenante ys deuysed and made / That Turnus
and I shall fyghte for you alle /

Facsimile of Part of Caxton's Aeneid (reduced)

With the same in modern type

QUESTIONS

1. Why did the memory of the Greeks and Romans remain longer
in France and Italy than in Germany and England?

2. What different classes of people were there m the Middle Agesr
What was the difference between a parish priest and a monk?

3 How did the nobles gain a living? Were they useful? In what
sorts of houses did they live? Describe a castle. What was the

' ' keeo

4 How were the sons of nobles trained? What was a page? How
was a voung man made a knight? What were the duties of a kmght.^

5 Were the farmers or peasants prosperous and happy m the
Middle Ages? How did the townsmen learn to protect themselves.
What was a guild? Why are many Europeans proud of their cities .

6. Why is Venice especially interesting? Why do we remember
Genoa?

130 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

7. From what language did French, Itahan, and Spanish grow?
How were the changes made in the old language? Where did the
English get their language? Was it just like the English we speak?

8. What did the boys study in the Middle Ages? What did the
word *' university" mean then? Name two or three universities
founded then which still exist. What did the Arabs teach Christian
students?

9. What sort of buildings did men in the Middle Ages especially
hke to build? Are these buildings still standing? Why do we admire
these great churches?

10. What do we call the time when men began to study once more
Roman and Greek books, and began to imitate the ways of living and
thinking common in the Graeco-Roman world? Who was the first
of these ''new" men? Where especially did men search for Greek
books?

11. What invention helped men spread far and wide this new
knowledge? How do the Germans come to have ''Gothic" type?
Where do we get our Roman and italic type? What books cUd the
Venetian printer Aldus print? Name a famous English and a famous
German printer.

12. What besides ancient books did the men of the Renaissance
like to study and imitate?

EXERCISES

1. Find out what titles of noblemen are used now in different
European countries. In what country are men often knighted?
Why are they knighted? What title shows that a man is a knight?

2. Collect pictures of armor and of castles, especially of castles
still standing. Collect pictures of old town walls.

3. Collect pictures of Venice and Genoa, especially from adver-
tising folders.

4. Find the names of several large American universities. Do the
students live in "colleges" as students did in the Middle Ages?

5. Tell one or two stories from the Arabian Nights. Collect
pictures of Arabian costumes and of Arabian buildings in Spain, or
Africa, or Asia.

6. Collect pictures of English and European cathedrals. Find
pictures of churches in America which resemble them.

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 131

REVIEW

Hoiv ancient civilization was preserved

1. What ruined so many ancient cities?

'2. Wlio tried to preserve the memory of what the Greeks and the
Romans had done?

3. What language did the churchmen continue to use?

4. How did the missionaries help?

5. How did Alfred teach the English some of the things the Romans
had known?

6. What did the Arabs teach the Christians which the Greeks had
known?

7. What was studied at Bologna? How did the universities help
in preserving the ancient knowledge?

8. What did Petrarch do to find lost books? What did other men
of Petrarch's time do?

9. What help came from the invention of printing?

10. From what besides books did the men of the Renaissance
learn about the Greeks and the Romans?

Husbandman and Country Woman
OF Fifteenth Century

CHAPTER XIII

TRADERS, TRAVELERS, AND EXPLORERS IN
THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

The Perils of Traders. There was a time in the Middle
Ages when merchants scarcely dared to travel from one
town to another for fear of being plundered by some
robber lord or common thief. If they traveled by sea
they might also be attacked by robbers. Some of these
robbers, like the Northmen, came from afar, but others
were ordinary sailors who put out from near-by ports
when there seemed nothing better to do.

This state of things gradually changed. The kings or
great lords succeeded in protecting merchants on land, and
the merchants armed vessels of their own to drive the
pirates from the sea. As trade grew greater the towns
became richer and stronger and the robbers and pirates
fewer, so that the number of merchant ships increased
rapidly and long voyages were attempted.

Fairs. At first trade was carried on at great fairs,
held in places convenient for the merchants of England
and western Europe. The fairs lasted about six weeks,
and one fair followed another. As soon as the first was
over the merchants packed their unsold wares and
journeyed to the next. At the fairs were found drugs and
spices, cottons and silks from the East, skins and furs

132

TRADERS, TRAVELERS AND EXPLORERS 133

from the North, wool from England, and other products
from Germany, Italy, France, and Spain.

The Treasures of the East. Men in the Middle Ages
were dependent for luxuries upon the lands of Asia which
are commonly called the East. By this name we may
mean Persia, Arabia, India, China, or the Molucca Islands,
where the choicest spices still grow. Spices were a great
luxury, and were needed to flavor the food, because the

Trader's Caravan Crossing the Desert

manner of cooking was poor and there was little variety
in the kinds of food. Most of the cotton cloth, the silks,
the drugs, and the dyes were also procured from the East.
Routes to the East. No one knew that it was possible
to reach Asia by sailing around the southern point of
Africa or through what is called the Strait of Magellan.
The products of the East were brought to Europe by
several routes, two reaching the Mediterranean at Alex-

134

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

andria, in Egypt, a third at Antioch, in Syria, and a
fourth on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea.

The loads were carried by camels in long caravans
across the deserts from the Red Sea, or the Persian Gulf,
or from northern India. Ships from the Italian cities
of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice struggled with one another

MAP OF TRADE K(H Ti:S
L\ THE MIUOLK AGES

LAND ROUTES TO THE EAST. _-H-+ -t
LAND ROUTES IN EUROPE.
VENETIAN WATER ROUTE..
GENOESE WATER ROUTE..

for the right to bring back these precious wares and sell
them to the merchants of Europe, who were ready to pay
high prices.

Venetian Traders. Merchants from Germany came to
Venice to trade the products of the North for spices,
drugs, dyes, and silks, which they carried back across
the Alps. Once a year the Venetians sent a fleet of vessels
westward through the straits of Gibraltar and along the
Atlantic shore as far as Bruges and London. The voy-
age was long and dangerous, and the Venetians traded

TRADERS, TRAVELERS AND EXPLORERS 135

in ports on the way. Spices in Bruges sold for two or
three times what they cost in Venice.

The Crusades. One event that brought to the Vene-
tians an opportunity to enrich themselves was the Cru-
sades. The Mohammedans had long held a large part
of Spain, and towards the end of the eleventh century
they threatened France and Italy. They also attacked
what was left of the Roman Empire in the East, and the
emperors sent to the pope and the western kings frantic
appeals for help. Thousands of Frenchmen, Germans,
Englishmen, and Italians were suddenly seized with the
desire to go to Palestine and drive the Mohammedans
from Jerusalem, the Holy City, and from the tomb of
Christ. For the next two centuries large armies were
sent there, sometimes gaining victories, sometimes being
defeated in battle or overcome by disease.

What the Venetians gained from the Crusades. Most
of the Crusaders went to the Holy Land by sea, and when
they had no ships of their own they often took passage in
Venetian ships. The Venetians asked large sums for
this, and also succeeded in obtaining all the rights of trade
in many of the seaports which were captured. Sometimes -
the Venetians undertook to govern islands like Cyprus
and Crete, or territories along the coasts, but their main
aim was to increase their trade rather than to build up an
empire.

The new Venetian Ships. The Crusaders w^ho returned
to Europe brought back a liking for the luxuries of the
East, and their tales made other men eager for them. For
this reason more ships were built to sail in the Mediterra-

136

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

nean. The shipowners attempted to make their ships
larger and stronger. They were larger than those built
by the English or by other peoples along the Atlantic
coast, but they would seem small to us. There is an
account of Venetian ships in the thirteenth century which
tells us that they were one hundred and ten feet long
and carried crews of one thousand men. They relied
mainly upon the use of oars, but had a mast, sometimes
two masts, rigged with sails, which they could use if the
wind was favorable.

'Y,

Venetian Ships

Dangers of the Sea. One difficulty about sailing was
the lack of any means in cloudy weather, and especially
at night, of telling the direction in which they were going.
The sailors did not like to venture far from shore, although
the open sea is safer during a storm than a wind-swept
and rocky coast. At the time when the sailors of the
Mediterranean were building up their trade to Alexandria,
Antioch, and the Black Sea, two instruments came into
use which enabled them to tell just where they were.

TRADERS, TRAVELERS AND EXPLORERS

137

Mariner's Compass

The Compass. One of these instruments was the com-
pass, which the Chinese had long used, and which was
known to the Arabs before the Europeans heard of it.
If a boy will take a needle, rub its
point with a magnet, and lay the
needle on a cork floating in water, he
will have a rough sort of compass.
The point of the needle wherever it
may be turned will swing back towards
the north, thus guiding the sailors.

The compass was known in Europe about 1200. There
is a story that at first sailors thought its action due to
magic and refused to sail under a captain who used it.
But a century later it was in general use, and had been

so much improved that even in
the severest storms the needle re-
mained level and pointed steadily
towards the north.

The Astrolabe. The other in-
strument, called the astrolabe, was
a brass circle marked off into 360
degrees. To this circle were fas-
tened two movable bars, at the
ends of which were sights, or pro-
jecting pieces pierced by a hole.
The astrolabe was hung on a mast
in such a way that one bar was
horizontal and the other could be moved until through
its sights some known star could be seen. The number
of degrees marked on the circle between the two bars told

An Astrolabe

138 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

how high the star was above the horizon, and the sailors
could reckon the latitude of the place where they were.
In a similar way their longitude could be found out.

The astrolabe was not so useful as the compass, for
it could be used only on clear days or nights. With these
two instruments it was possible to sail far out into the
Atlantic. By the middle of the fourteenth century ships
from Genoa and Portugal had visited the Madeira and
the Canary Islands, and even the Azores which are a
thousand miles from the mainland.

What Men thought about a Sea Route to the East.
Men learned more about other strange lands through a
Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, who wrote an account of
his wonderful journey to the court of the Grand Khan,
or Emperor of the Mongols, of his travels through China,
and of his return to Persia by sea.

Many men in the Middle Ages had believed that east
of Asia was a great marsh, and that because of it even
if they succeeded in sailing around Africa it would be
impossible to reach the region of the spices and silks and
jewels which they so much desired. They also thought
that the heat in the tropics was so intense that at a certain
distance down the coast of Africa they would find the
water of the ocean boiling. These things and the tales
of strange monsters that inhabited the deep sea had terri-
fied them. The news which Marco Polo brought changed
this feeling.

The Mongols. The way Marco Polo happened to visit
the court of the Mongol emperor was this. The Mongol
Tartars were great conquerors, and they not only subdued

TRADERS, TRAVELERS AND EXPLORERS 139

the Chinese but marched westward, overrunning most of
Russia and stopping only when they were on the frontiers
of Italy. For a long time southern Russia remained under
their rule. Their capital was just north of the Great
Wall of China.

The Mongol emperor did not hate Europeans, and even
sent to the pope for missionaries to teach his people.
Marco Polo's father and uncle
while on a trading expedition
had found their way to his court,
and on a second journey, in 1271,
they took with them Marco, a
lad of seventeen years. The
emperor was much interested in
his western visitors and took
young Marco into his service.

Marco Polo's Travels. Marco
Polo traveled over China on offi-
cial errands, while his father and

uncle were gathering wealth by trade. After many years
they desired to return to Italy, but the emperor was
unwilling to lose such able servants. It happened, how-
ever, that the emperor wished to send a princess as a
bride to the Khan or Emperor of Persia, also a Mongol
sovereign, and the three Polos, who were known to be
trustworthy seamen, were selected to escort the princess
to her royal husband. After doing this they did not
return to China, but went on to Italy.

They had been absent twenty-four years, and they
found that their relatives had given them up for dead and

The Mongol Emperor of
Marco Polo's Time

After an old Chinese manuscript

140

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

did not recognize them. It was like the old story of
Ulysses, who, when he returned to his native Ithaca after
his wanderings, was recognized by nobody. The Polos
proved the truth of what they said by showing the great
treasures which they had sewed into the dresses of coarse

Map of Marco Polo's Travels

The known world is in white, the undiscovered in black, and that first described
by Marco Polo is dotted

stuff of a Tartar pattern which they wore. They dis-
played jewels of the greatest value, diamonds, emeralds,
rubies, and sapphires.

What Marco Polo told. In the account Marco Polo
wrote of his travels and of the countries he had visited
he described a wonderful palace of the Great Emperor.

TRADERS, TRAVELERS AND EXPLORERS 141

Its walls were covered with gold and silver, the dining hall
seated six thousand people, and its ceiling was inlaid with
gold. This palace seemed to Marco Polo so large, so
rich, and so beautiful that no man on earth could design
anything to equal it. ' The robes of the emperor and his
twelve thousand nobles and knights were of silk and
beaten gold, each having a girdle of gold decorated with
precious stones.

Marco Polo told of great cities in China where men
traded in the costly wares of the East, and where silk
was abundant and cheap. He described from hearsay
Japan as an island fifteen hundred miles from the main-
land. Its people, he said, were white, civilized, and
wondrously rich. The palace of the emperor of Japan
was roofed with gold, its pavements and floors were of
solid gold, laid in plates two fingers thick.

Reasons for finding a Sea Route to the East. Tales
of such great wealth made Europeans more eager than
ever to reach the East. Marco Polo had shown that it
was possible to sail past India, through the islands, to the
eastern coast of Asia. When priitting was invented his
account was printed, and the copy of that book which
Columbus owned is still preserved. Upon its margins
Columbus wrote his own opinions about geography.

Other travelers besides the Polos returned with similar
tales of the East. Soon, however, all chance to go there
by way of the land was lost, because the Mongol emperors
were driven out of China and the new rulers would not
permit Europeans to enter the country. The ordinary
caravan routes to the East were also closed not long

142

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

afterwards. In 1453 the Turks captured Constantinople,
drove away the Italian merchants, and prevented Euro-
pean sailors from reaching the Black Sea. Fifty years
later the Turks seized Egypt and closed that route also.
Fortunately before this happened a better route had been
discovered.

The Portuguese Sailors. During the Middle Ages
the Portuguese princes fought to recover Portugal from
the Moors. When this was done they were eager to cross

the straits and attack
the Moors in Africa.
Prince Henry of Portu-
gal made an expedition
to Africa and returned
with the desire to know
more about the coast
south of the point be-
yond which European
sailors dared not ven-
ture. Sailors were afraid of being lost in the Sea of
Darkness or killed by the heat of the boiling tropics.

From his love of exploring the seas Prince Henry has
been called ''The Navigator." He took up his residence
on a lonely promontory in southern Portugal, and gathered
about him learned men of all peoples, Arabian and Jew-
ish mathematicians, and Italian mapmakers. Captains
trained in this new school of seamanship were sent into
the southern seas. Each was to sail farther down the
western coast of Africa than other captains had gone.
Before Prince Henry died in 1460 his captains had passed

Dangers of the Sea of Darkness

From an old picture

TRADERS, TRAVELERS AND EXPLORERS 143

Cape Verde, and ten years later they crossed the equator
without suffering the fate which men had once feared.
But they were discouraged when they found that beyond
the Gulf of Guinea the coast turned southward again, for
they had hoped to sail eastward to Asia.

The Portuguese Route to India

The broken lines show the old trade routes to the East. The solid line shows the
new Portuguese route

Cape of Good Hope discovered. At last in 1487 the
end of what seemed to be an endless coast was reached.
The fortunate captain who accomplished this was Bar-
tholomew Diaz, who came of a family of daring seamen.
He had been sailing southward along the coast for nearly
eight months, when a northerly gale drove him before

144 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

it for thirteen days. The weather cleared and Diaz
turned eastward to find the coast. As he did not see land
he turned northward and soon discovered land to the west.
This showed that he had passed the southern point of
Africa. His crew were unwilling to go farther and he
followed the coast around to the western side again. The
southern point he called the Cape of Storms, but the king
of Portugal, when the voyagers returned, named it the
Cape of Good Hope, for now he knew that an expedition
could be sent directly to the Indies.

Diaz had sailed thirteen thousand miles, and his voyage
was the most wonderful that Europeans had ever heard
about.

The Sea Route to India. Eleven years later the Por-
tuguese king sent Vasco da Gama, another captain, to
attempt to reach the coast of India by sailing around
the Cape of Good Hope which Diaz had discovered. Da
Gama was successful and landed at Calicut on the south-
western coast of India. He returned to Portugal in 1499,
and his cargo was worth sixty times the cost of the voyage.
This was the beginning of a trade with the East which
enriched Portugal and especially the merchants of Lisbon.

QUESTIONS

1 . What dangers threatened traders in the Middle Ages who trav-
eled by sea or land ? What was a fair ?

2. What products were brought from the East ? By what routes ?
Point these out on a map. What rival trading cities were in Italy?
How did the Venetians get their wares to London ?

3. Who were the Crusaders ? Why did they attack the Moham-
medans ? What did the Venetian traders gain by these wars ? De-
scribe a large Venetian ship of this time.

TRADERS, TRAVELERS AND EXPLORERS 145

4. When was the compass invented ? Why was it dangerous to
sail great seas and oceans without a compass ? Tell how an astrolabe
was made.

5. What at first kept men from attempting to sail to eastern Asia ?
Who was Marco Polo ? Describe his adventures. How did he return
to Venice ? How did people learn about the lands he had visited ?

6. Why after 1453 was it necessary to find a sea route to Asia?
What did Prince Henry the Navigator succeed in doing ? How was the
Cape of Good Hope discovered ? Who went with Diaz on this voyage ?

7. Who first sailed to India by the Cape of Good Hope? Was
the voyage profitable ? What city was made rich by the new trade ?

EXERCISES

1. Find from a map in the geography how many miles goods must
have been carried to reach Venice from Persia, India, the Moluccas,
or China. How far is it from Venice by sea to Bruges or London ?

2. Where and how do we now" obtain cinnamon, nutmeg, and
cloves ?

3. What line of emperors has been recently ruling over China?
Where has been their capital ? Find out about the present Mongols.
Collect pictures of China and Japan.

4. Read a longer account of Marco Polo.

5. Study the geography of Portugal. Collect pictures of Portu-
gal. Find out if many Portuguese are living in the United States.

REVIEW

Steps Towards the Discovery of America

Greek colonies in Italy, Gaul, and Spain.

Roman conquest of Gaul, Spain, and Britain.

Viking voyages to Greenland and Vinland.

Venetian trade in spices with the East, and Venetian voyages to
London and Bruges.

Marco Polo's travels in China and the East.

Portuguese voyages down the coast of Africa and about the Cape
of Good Hope.

CHAPTER XIV
THE DISCOVERY OF A NEW WORLD

Christopher Columbus. Six years before Vasco da
Gama made his famous voyage to India around Africa
and opened a new trade route for the Portuguese mer-
chants, another seaman had formed and carried out a
much bolder plan. This was Christopher Columbus,
and his plan was to sail directly west from Europe into
the unknown ocean in search of new islands and the
coast of Asia. Columbus, who was a native of Genoa
in Italy, had followed his younger brother to Portugal.
Both were probably led there by the fame of Prince
Henry's explorations.

The brothers became very skilful in making maps and
charts for the Portuguese. They also frequently sailed
with them on their expeditions along the coast of Africa.
All the early associations of Columbus were with men
interested in voyages of discovery, and particularly with
those engaged in the daring search for a sea route to India.

How Columbus formed his Plan. Columbus gathered
all the information on geography which he could from
ancient writers and from modern discoverers. Many of
them believed that the world was shaped like a ball. If
such were its shape, Columbus reasoned, why might not
a ship sail around it from east to west? Or, better, why

146

THE DISCOVERY OF A NEW WORLD

147

not sail directly west to India, and perhaps find many
wonderful islands between Europe and Asia? His imagi-
nation was also fired by
Marco Polo's description of
the marvelous riches of
China, Japan, and the Spice
Islands. But the idea of
going directly west into the
midst of the unknown and
seemingly boundless waste
of water, and on and on to
Asia, appeared to most men
of the fifteenth century to be
madness.

His Notion of the Distance
to Asia. Columbus made
two fortunate errors in reck-
oning the distance to the

Indies. He imagined that Asia extended much farther
eastward than it actually does, making it nearer Europe,
and estimated the earth to be smaller than it is. His
figures placed Japan less than 3,000 miles west of the
Canary Islands, instead of the 12,000 miles which is the
real distance. He accordingly thought Japan would be
found about where Mexico or Florida is situated.

How he secured Help. Even so, many years passed
before Columbus was able to undertake a voyage. He
was too poor himself, and needed the help of some govern-
ment to fit out such an expedition. He may have tried
to get his native city, Genoa, to help him. There is

Christopher Columbus

The oldest known picture of Columbus,
in the National Library, Madrid

148 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

such a story. If he did, it was without success. He
tried to obtain the help of Portugal, where he lived a
long time, and whose princes were greatly interested in
the discovery of new trade routes. His brother visited
England in the same cause. Neither of these countries,
however, was willing to undertake this expensive and
doubtful enterprise.

The King and Queen of Spain, to whom Columbus
turned, kept him waiting many years for an answer.
They thought that they had more important work in
hand. There was another king in Spain at the time, the
king of the Moors. Ferdinand and Isabella, the Christian
king and queen, were trying to conquer the Moors, and
thus to end the struggle between Christians and Mo-
hammedans for the possession of Spain, which had lasted
nearly eight centuries. This war required all the strength
and revenue of Spain.

Fortunately, just as Columbus was becoming thor-
oughly discouraged, the war with the Moors came to
an end. Granada, the seat of their former power, was
finally taken in January, 1492. Now was a good time
to ask favors of the sovereigns of Spain, and to plan
large enterprises for the future. Powerful friends aided
Columbus to renew his petition, and Queen Isabella was
persuaded to promise him all the help that he needed.

The Ships of Columbus. Three ships, or caravels as
they were called, were fitted out. The Santa Maria was
the largest of the three, but it was not much larger than
the small sailing yachts which we see to-day. It was
about ninety feet long by twenty feet broad, and had a

150 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

single deck. This was Columbus's principal ship or flag-
ship. The second caravel, the Pinta, was much swifter,
built high at the prow and stern, and furnished with a
forecastle for the crew and a cabin for the officers, but
without a deck in the center. The third and smallest
caravel, called the Nina, the Spanish word for baby,
was built much like the Pinta. Ninety persons made
up the three crews.

The ships were the usual size of those which coasted
along the shores of Europe in the fifteenth century.
Expeditions had never gone far out into the ocean.
Columbus preferred the smaller vessels in a voyage of
discovery, because they would be able to run close to the
shores and into the smaller harbors and up the rivers.

Beginning of the Voyage. The expedition set sail from
Palos in Spain, August 3, 1492. It went directly to the
Canary Islands. These were owned by Spain, and were
selected by Columbus as the most convenient starting-
point. The little fleet was delayed three weeks at the
islands making repairs. On September 6 Columbus was
off again. He struck due west from the Canaries.

The Terrors of the Voyage. While the little fleet was
still in sight of the Canary Islands a volcanic eruption
nearly frightened the sailors out of their wits. They
deemed such an event an omen of evil. But the expedi-
tion had fine weather day after day. Steady, gentle,
easterly winds, the trade winds of the tropics, wafted
them slowly westward. But the timid sailors began to
wonder how they would ever be able to return against
winds which seemed never to change from the east.

THE DISCOVERY OF A NEW WORLD

151

Then they came to an immense field of seaweed,
larger in area than the whole of Spain. This terrified the
sailors, who feared they might be driven on hidden rocks
or be engulfed in quicksands. They imagined, too, that
great sea-monsters were lurking beyond the seaweed
waiting to devour them.

A Caravel of Columbus

After the reconstructed model exhibited at the Columbian
Exposition, Chicago, 1893

The first Signs of a New Land. In spite of fears and
complaints, and threats of resistance, Columbus kept a
westward course for more than four weeks. Then as he
began to see so many birds flying to the southwest,
he concluded that land must be nearer in that direction.
He had heard that most of the islands held by the Portu-
guese were discovered by following the flight of birds.
So on October 7 the westward course was changed to
one slightly southwest.

From this time on the signs of land grew frequent.

152 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Floating branches, occasionally covered with berries,
pieces of wood, bits of cane, were encouraging signs.
Birds like ducks and sandpipers became common sights.
The Queen had promised a small pension to the one who
should first see land. Columbus had offered to give a
silken doublet in addition. With what eagerness the
sailors must have kept on the lookout!

The great Discovery. At last as the fleet was sailing
onward in the bright moonlight Columbus saw a light
moving as if carried by hand along a shore. A few hours
later, about two o'clock on the morning of October 12, a
sailor on the Pinta saw land distinctly, and soon all be-
held, a few miles away, a long, low beach. The vessels
hove to and waited for daylight. Early the same day,
Friday, October 12, 1492, they approached the land,
which proved to be a small island. Columbus named it
San Salvador, which means Holy Saviour. We do not
know which one of the Bahama islands he first saw, but
we believe it was the one now called Watling Island.
Columbus went ashore with the royal standard and ban-
ners flying to take possession of the land in the name of
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

Where Columbus thought he was. The astonished
inhabitants of the island soon gathered to see the strange
sight — the landing of white men in the West Indies.
They looked upon the ships as sea-monsters, and the
white men as gods. Nor was Columbus less puzzled by
what he saw. The people were a strange race — cinna-
mon colored, naked, greased, and painted to suit each
one's fancy. They had only the rudest means of self-

THE DISCOVERY OF A NEW WORLD

153

defense, and were almost as poor as the parrots that
chattered in the trees above them. Such savages bore
Httle resemblance to the people whom Marco Polo said
inhabited the Spice Islands.

Columbus thought that he had reached some outlying
island not far from Japan. A cruise of a few days
among the Bahamas satisfied him that he was in the
ocean near the coast of Asia, for had not Marco Polo

described it as studded with thousands of spice-bearing
islands? He had not found any spices, but the air was
full of fragrance and the trees and herbs were strange in
appearance. Of course if the islands were the Indies,
the people must be Indians. Columbus called them
Indians, and this name clung to the red men, although
their islands were not the true Indies.

The Search for the Golden East. Columbus thought
that the natives meant to tell him in their sign language
of a great land to the south where gold abounded. He set
off in search of this, and came upon a land the natives
called Cuba. Its large size convinced him that he had
at last found the Asiatic mainland, and he sent two

154 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

messengers, one a Jew knowing many languages, in search
of the Emperor of China. They found neither cities nor
kingdoms, neither gold nor spices. This was a great
disappointment to Columbus, but he patiently kept up
his search for the riches which he expected to find.

The Misfortunes of Columbus. While on the coast of
Cuba, Pinzon, the commander of the Pinta, deserted him.
Pinzon, whose ship was swifter than the others, probably
wished to be the first to get home, in order to tell a story
which would gain him the credit of the discovery of the
Indies. A few days later Columbus discovered a large
island which the natives called Hayti, and which he
called Espafiola or ''Spanish Land." At every island he
searched for the spices and gold which Marco Polo had
given him reason to expect. In a storm off Espafiola
Columbus's own ship, the Santa Maria, was totally
wrecked. Such disasters convinced him that it was
high time to return to Spain with the news of his dis-
covery.

Preparations for Return to Spain. As there was not
room for both crews on the tiny Nina, his one remaining
ship, it became necessary to leave about forty sailors in
Espafiola. A fort was built, and supplies were left for a
year. Columbus with the rest set off on the return to
Spain. Ten Indians were captured and taken with them
to show to his friends in Europe. Besides, Columbus
hoped that they would learn the language of Spain, and
carry Christianity back to their people.

The Search for China renewed. There was rejoicing
in Palos when the voyagers returned. Great honors

THE DISCOVERY OF A NEW WORLD 155

ATLANTIC

SAN SALVADOR

^/ OCEAN

PORTO RICO

{SOUTH SEA)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Scale of Miles
Lands discovered by Columbus are in solid black

Map of Lands Discovered by Columbus

were bestowed upon Columbus. It was now easy to get
men and money for another voyage. In September,
1493, Columbus started to return to his islands, this
time with seventeen ships and fifteen hundred men,

156 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

all confident that they would soon see the marble
palaces of China, and secure a share in the wealth
of the Spice Islands. No one yet realized that a
new world — two great continents — lay between them
and their coveted goal in Asia. Columbus went di-
rectly to Espafiola, where he found that his colony of
the previous year had been murdered by the Indians.
A new settlement was quickly started. A little town
called Isabella was built, with a fort, a church, a market
place, pubhc granary, and dwelling-houses. Isabella
was the first real settlement in the New Worjd.

Other Voyages to the New World. Columbus made
two other voyages. He continued to search for the coast
of Asia, which he believed to be near. He made a third
voyage from Spain to the West Indies in 1498. He sailed
farther south, and came upon the mainland which later
was called South America. A fourth expedition in 1502
touched on the coast that we call Central America. He
died soon after this voyage, still beheving that he had
discovered a new route to the Indies and new lands on
the coast of Asia.

The sad End of Columbus's Life. The close of his life
was a sad one. The lands he had found did not yield
the riches which he had expected. The colonists whom
he had sent out to the islands had rebelled, and jealous
enemies had accused him falsely before the king and queen
of misgovernment in his territories. Once his opponents
had him carried to Spain chained like a common prisoner.
He was given his liberty on reaching Spain, but the
people had become prejudiced against him.

THE DISCOVERY OF A NEW WORLD

157

Ferdinand, the son of Columbus, tells us that as he
and his brother Diego, who were pages in the queen's
service, happened to
pass a crowd of his
father's enemies, the
latter greeted them
with hoots: ^' There
go the sons of the
Admiral of Mosqui-
toland, the man who
has discovered a
land of vanity and
deceit, the grave of
Spanish gentlemen. ' '
Hardships and dis-
appointments broke
down the great dis-
coverer, and he died
neglected and almost _j:;^
forgotten by the
people 01 fepam. The Columbus Monument at Genoa

QUESTIONS

1. What plan did Columbus form ? Why was it bolder than the
plan Diaz had carried out in 1487, or even than that Da Gama
carried out a few years later ? Why did men like Columbus and Diaz
desire to find a sea route to India ? Had anybody before Columbus
believed the earth round ?

2. What mistake did Columbus make in estimating the size of the
earth ? Why was this a fortunate error ?

158 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

3. From what countries did Columbus try to obtain help ? Why-
did he find it so hard to secure this ? What event in Spain finally
favored his cause ? Who were the Moors ?

4. Why was Columbus surprised when he saw the natives in the
West Indies ? Why were the Indians on their side surprised ?

5. What islands did Columbus find and claim for Spain on his first
voyage ? How many other voyages did he make ? What new lands
did he find on his later voyages ? What did he think he had found ?

6. Why did the enemies of Columbus in Spain call him the Admiral
of Mosquitoland, the man who discovered a land of vanity and deceit,
the grave of Spanish gentlemen ? What did they mean by this ?

EXERCISES

1. Find pictures of the ships of Columbus or of the sailing ships of
other explorers of that day. How does the deck arrangement on those
differ from the ocean steamships of to-day ? What advantage would
ships like those of Columbus have over present steamships in exploring
strange coasts ? What disadvantages ?

2. Draw up a list of reasons why Columbus's sailors were afraid
to go on and wished to turn back to Spain.

3. Trace on an outline map the voyage of Columbus. Mark
where Columbus found land, and where he expected to find Japan and
China. What great mass of land was really very near the island he
first discovered ? (See map, page 149.)

4. Find from the maps on page 33 (Greek World) , page 65 (Roman
World), page 140 (The world after Polo's journey), and page 155 (The
world as known after Columbus), how much more the Romans knew
of the world than the Greeks had known, the Europeans after Marco
Polo's journey than the Romans, and the Europeans after Columbus's
voyage than after Marco Polo's journey.

Important Date — 1492. The discovery of America by Columbus.

CHAPTER XV

OTHERS HELP IN THE DISCOVERY
OF THE NEW WORLD

The Race to the Indies. The discovery of all the lands
which make what we call the New World came very
slowly. It was the work of many different explorers.
Most of the expeditions sent out to the new islands went
in search of a passage to India. It was a fine race.
Each nation was eager to see its ships the first to reach
India by the westward route. All were disappointed at
finding so much land between Europe and Asia. It
seemed to them to be of little value and to block the
way to the richer countries of the East. Gradually, how-
ever, they discovered the great continents which we know
as North and South America. Columbus had done more
than he dreamed, and his discovery was a turning-point
in history.

John Cabot. John Cabot, an Italian mariner at this
time in the service of England, left Bristol in 1497 on a
voyage of discovery. This was five years after Columbus
discovered the West Indies. Cabot had heard that the
sailors of Portugal and of Spain had occupied unknown
islands. He planned to do the same for King Henry VII
of England. For his voyage he had a single vessel no
larger than the Nina, the smallest ship in the fleet of

159

160

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Columbus. Eighteen men made up his crew. He passed
around the southern end of Ireland, and sailed north and
west until he came to land, which proved to be the coast
of North America somewhere between the northern part
of Labrador and the southern end of Nova Scotia.

Cabot's Discovery. John Cabot saw no inhabitants,
but he found notched trees, snares for game, and needles

for making nets, which showed
plainly that the land was in-
habited by human beings.
Like Columbus, Cabot thought
he was off the coast of China.
The Cabot Voyages forgot-
ten. Before the end of 1497
John Cabot was back in Bris-
tol. It is almost certain that
he and his son, Sebastian Cabot,
made a second voyage to the
new found lands in the follow-
ing year. The Cabot voyages,
however, were soon almost forgotten by the people of
England.

The Naming of the New Lands. Why was our country
named America rather than Columbia or New India?
Both the southern and northern continents which we
call the Americas were named for Americus Vespucius
rather than for Christopher Columbus. This seems the
more strange since we know so little about the life of
Americus. Americus Vespucius was born in Florence,
Italy, and like many other young Italians of that day

Sebastian Cabot

After the picture ascribed to Holbein

OTHER DISCOVERERS 161

entered the service of neighboring countries. He went
to Spain and accompanied several Spanish expeditions
sent to explore the new continent which Columbus had
discovered on his third voyage.

Perhaps Americus went as a pilot; he certainly was
not the leader in any expedition. But he seems to have
written to his friends interesting accounts of what he had
seen. In one of these letters Americus seems to have
written boastfully of how he had found lands which might
be called a new world. He said that the new continent
was more populous and more full of animals than Europe,
or Asia, or Africa, and that the climate was even more
temperate and pleasant than any other region. This
was clearly a new world.

Why Americus was regarded as the Discoverer of
America. The statement of Americus was scattered
widely by the help of the newly invented printing press.
It was written in Latin, and so could be read by the
learned of all countries. They were impressed by the
belief of Americus that he had seen a new world and
not simply the Indies. This was especially true of men
living outside of Spain who had heard little of Columbus
or his discovery.

Columbus for his part had written as if his great dis-
covery was a way to the Indies and the finding of islands
on the way thither less important. Besides, when he saw
what we call South America he had no idea that it was a
new world. The people of Europe either never knew
that he had discovered the mainland or had forgotten it
altogether. But they heard a great deal about Americus

162 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

and his doings. It is not strange that Americas rather
than Columbus was long regarded as the true discoverer
of America.

Two Names for the New Lands. Even then the new
continent might not have been called America but for
the suggestion of a young scholar of the time. Martin
Waldseemiiller, a professor of geography at the college

Nunc vcro & hef partes Cintlatius luftrata?/ 8C

alia quarta pars per AmcricS Vefpuriumc vt iafc^

>[^jg quentibus audietur)inucnta eibqua non. video cut

Amc^ quis iurc vetet ab Amcrico inucntore fagads inge

nco nfj viro Amcrigcn quaG Amend terram/fiue Amc

ricam dicendamtcuin 8C Europa 8C Afia a mulienV

bus fuaibrtita (int nomina.Eius fitu Sc gentis mo^

les exLbisBims.Amendnauigadonibus quf (eqaS

turliquideintelligLdatun

Facsimile

Of the passage in the Cosmographioe Introductio (1507), by Martin Waldseemiiller,
in which the name of America is proposed for the New World

of St. Die, now in eastern France, wrote a book on geog-
raphy. In his description of the parts of the world
unknown to the ancients, he suggested naming the
continent stretching to the south for Americus.

Waldseemiiller thought Americus had been the real
discoverer of this continent. He said, ^'Now, indeed,
as these regions are more widely explored, and another
fourth part has been discovered by Americus Vespucius,
I do not see why any one may justly forbid it to be named
Amerige — that is, Americ's Land, from Americus, the
discoverer. ^^

OTHER DISCOVERERS

163

Others adopted Waldseemiiller's suggestion and the
name America came into general use outside of Spain.
But the Spaniards continued to call all the new lands by
the name which Columbus had given them — the Indies.
America was at first the name for South America only,
but later was also used by writers for the other continent
which was soon found to the north. It was natural to
distinguish the two continents as South and North
America.

Balboa. The successors of Columbus kept up a cease-
less search for the real Indies, but the more they explored
the more they saw that a great
continental barrier was lying
across the sea passage to Asia.
A few began to suspect that
after all America was not a part
of Asia. Vasco Nunez Balboa
was one of these. Balboa was
a planter who had settled in
Espanola. He fell deeply into
debt, and to escape his credi-
tors had himself nailed up in
a barrel and put aboard a vessel
bound for the northern coast of

South America. From there he went to the eastern
border of Panama with a party of gold seekers. The
Indians told him of a great sea and of an abundance of
gold on its shores to be found a short distance across the
isthmus. It is probable that the Indians wished to get
rid of the Spaniards as neighbors.

Vasco Nunez Balboa

164

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Balboa's Discovery of the Pacific. Balboa resolved
to make a name for himself and to be the discoverer of
the other sea. He set off in 1513. The land is not more
than forty-five miles wide at Panama, but it is almost im-
passable even to this day. For twenty-two days the
hardy adventurers advanced through a forest, dense with
thickets and tangled swamps and interlacing vines — so
thick that for days the sun could not be seen — and over
rough and slippery mountain-sides until they came to
an open sea stretching off to the south and west. Balboa
called it the South Sea, but it is usually called the
Pacific Ocean, the name given it afterward.

Balboa had made the important discovery that the
barrier of land was comparatively narrow. This gave the
impression that North America, too, was narrower than
it proved to be, and the search for the passage to the
Indies was pushed with greater vigor.

Magellan. A Portuguese
explorer, Vasco da Gama,
had really won the race
begun by Prince Henry's
navigators and Columbus
for India, the land of
cloves, pepper, and nut-
megs. He had won in 1497
by going around the Cape
of Good Hope. Another

Ferdinand Magellan _ , .

explorer, Ferdmand Ma-
gellan, finally reached the Indies in a long westward
voyage lasting two years, from 1519 to 1521.

OTHER DISCOVERERS

165

The Beginning of Magellan's Voyage. Magellan, him-
self a Portuguese, tried in vain like Columbus to per-
suade the king of Portugal to aid him in his project.
He succeeded better in Spain, and sailed from there in
1519 with a small fleet given him by the young king

The Strait of Magellan

Charles. The five ships in his fleet were old and in bad
repair, and the crews had been brought together from
every nation. They sailed directly to South America,
and spent the first year searching every inlet along the
coast for a passage.

They found that the natives of South America used for
food vegetables that ''looked like turnips and tasted like
chestnuts." The Indians called them ''patatas." In

166 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

this way the potato, one of the great foods of to-day, was
found by Europeans. A whole winter was passed on
the cold and barren coast of Patagonia. Magellan called
the natives ''Patagones," the word in his language
meaning big feet, from the large foot-prints which they
left on the sand.

The Strait of Magellan. Magellan finally found a
strait, since' named for him the Strait of Magellan, and
sailed his ships through it amid the greatest dangers.
The change from the rough waters of the strait to the
calm sea beyond made the word Pacific or Peaceful Sea
seem the most suitable name for the vast body of water
which they had entered.

The First Voyage across the Pacific. From the western
coast of South America Magellan struck boldly out into
the Pacific Ocean on his way to Asia. The crews suffered
untold hardships. The very rats which overran the
rotten ships became a luxurious article of food which
only the more fortunate members of the crews could
afford. The poorer seamen lived for days on the ox-hide
strips which protected the masts. These were soaked
in sea-water and roasted over the fire.

Magellan was fortunate enough to chance upon the
Isle of Guam, where plentiful supphes were obtained. He
called the group of small islands, of which Guam is one,
the Ladrones. This was his word for robbers, used be-
cause the natives were such robbers. The expedition
discovered a group of islands afterwards called the
Philippines. There Magellan fell in with traders from
the Indies and knew that the remainder of the voyage

OTHER DISCOVERERS

167

would be through well-known seas and over a route fre-
quently followed. Poor Magellan did not live to complete
his remarkable voyage. He was killed in the Philippine
Islands in a battle with the natives.

An Old Map of the New World — 1523

After Magellan's voyage, but before the exploration of North America
had gone far

Only one of the five ships found its way through the
Spice Islands, across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape
of Good Hope, and so back to Spain; but this one carried
home twenty-six tons of cloves, worth more than enough
to pay the whole cost of the expedition. Such was the
value of the trade Europe was so eagerly seeking.

168 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

What Magellan had shown the People of Europe.

Magellan's voyage had, however, been a great event.
Historians are agreed that it was the greatest voyage in
the history of mankind. It had shown in a practical
way that the earth is a globe, just as Columbus and
other wise men had long taught, for a ship had sailed
completely around it.

But Magellan had also proved some things that they
had not dreamed. He had shown that two great oceans
instead of one lay between Europe and Asia ; he had made
clear that the Indies which the Spanish explorers had
found, and which other people were beginning to call
the Americas, were really a new world entirely separate
from Asia, and not a part of Asia as Columbus had
thought.

QUESTIONS

1. Why were the early American explorers disappointed at finding
two continents between Europe and Asia ?

2. What land did John Cabot discover ? Where did he think this
land was ? Why did the English people take little interest in this
voyage ?

3. Why was our country named America ? Do you think that
Americus Vespucius deserved so great an honor ? By what name did
the Spaniards continue to call the new region ? Why did the Span-
iards have one name and the other Europeans another name for a long
time?

4. How did Balboa come to find the Pacific Ocean ? Why did men
search for a passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific more
vigorously after Balboa's expedition ?

5. Why has Magellan's voyage been called the greatest one in
history ? What three things had Magellan shown the European
world ?

OTHER DISCOVERERS 169

EXERCISES

1. Make out a list of the explorers mentioned in this chapter who
helped in the discovery of the New World, and place opposite the
name of each the name of the land he discovered.

2. Trace Magellan's voyage on the map, page 167, and make a
list of the lands or countries he passed. Look at the map of North
America on this old map, and at the one on page 223. How do you
account for the queer shape of North America on the old map ?

Important date — 1519-21. Magellan's ship made the first voyage
around the world.

CHAPTER XVI

EARLY SPANISH EXPLORERS AND CONQUERORS
ON THE MAINLAND

The Civilization of the Mexican Indians. Early Spanish
explorers on the coast of Mexico found the Indians of
the mainland more highly civilized than the natives of
the West Indies. Some of these, especially the Aztecs,
lived in large villages or cities and were ruled by powerful
chiefs or kings. They built to their gods huge stone
temples with towers several stories in height.

Their houses, quite unlike those of the other Indians the
Spanish had seen, were made of stone or sun-dried brick
and coated with hard white plaster. Some of them were
of immense size and could hold many famihes. Doors
had not been invented, but hangings of woven grass or
matting of cotton served instead. Strings of shells which
a visitor could rattle answered for door-bells.

The streets of the towns were narrow, but were often
paved with a sort of cement. Aqueducts in solid masonry
somewhat like the old Roman aqueducts, although not
so large, carried water from the neighboring hills for
fountains and rude public baths.

The women wove cotton and prepared clothing for
their families. Workmen made ornaments of gold and
copper, and utengils and dishes of pottery for every-day

170

EARLY SPANISH EXPLORERS

171

use. The people cultivated the fields around the cities,
raising a great variety of foods, and even built ditches
to carry water for irrigating the fields. All this was in
striking contrast with the simple habits of the West
Indians.

Cruel Customs of the Aztecs. With all the good
features of Mexican hfe, with all the superiority of the
Mexicans over the other Indians, there was much that

A\ T

.^-^^^

^W4i'^

llii(miiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiliiifliiri(ii(«MiniiHn)iiim)»iiimiimHii)n»)«

Aztec Sacrificial Stone

Now in the square before the cathedral in the City of Mexico

was hideous and cruel. The Aztecs, the most powerful
tribes, wxre continually at war with their neighbors.
They lived mainly. upon the plunder of their enemies and
tribute taken from those they had conquered. The
victor in battle offered his captives, when they had been
w^ell fattened, as sacrifices to his gods, and he and his
followers devoured the victims at horrible feasts.

Spanish Ideas of Mexico. The reports of the Aztec
civilization and of the treasures of gold, mostly untrue,
excited the interest and greed of the Spaniards. Mexico

172

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

seemed like the China which Marco Polo had described,
and might offer a chance of immense wealth for those
who should conquer it. In truth, Mexican civilization

did resemble that of Asia
more than anything that
the Spaniards had seen.
Montezuma, a powerful
chief or king of the Aztecs,
lived somewhat like a
Mongol Emperor of Persia
or China.

Cortes. In 1519 the
governor of Cuba sent
Hernando Cortes to ex-
plore and conquer Mexico.
The expedition landed
where Vera Cruz is now
situated. The ships were
then sunk in order to cut
off all hope of retreat for the soldiers. ^'For whom
but cowards," said Cortes, ''were means of retreat
necessary!" The small army marched slowly inland
towards the City of Mexico, which was the capital of
Montezuma's kingdom.

The Spanish priests worked up the zeal of the soldiers
to the frenzy of a crusade for the Cross. The, invaders,
priests and soldiers, thought it a duty to destroy the
practice of human sacrifices and to force the Christian
religion upon the natives. The Mexican priests on their
part, dressed in dark cotton robes and with their hair

Montezuma, the last King of
Mexico

After Montanus and Ogilby

EARLY SPANISH EXPLORERS

173

tangled and matted with blood from horrible human
sacrifices, went among the Indians exhorting them to
defend their temples and their gods.

How the Spaniards and the Aztecs fought. The Mexi-
can warriors, though they fought fiercely, were no match
for the Spaniards. The
Mexicans were experts
with the bow and arrow,
using arrows pointed with
a hard kind of stone.
They carried for hand-to-
hand fighting a narrow
club set with a double
edge of razor-like stones,
and wore a crude kind of
armor made from quilted
cotton. But such things
were useless against
Spanish bullets shot from
afar.

The roaring cannon, the
glittering steel swords, the
thick armor and shining
helmets, the prancing

horses on which the Spanish leaders were mounted, gave
the whole a strange, unearthly appearance to the simple-
minded Indians. The story is told that the Mexicans
believed that one of their gods had once floated out to
sea, saying that, in the fulness of time, he would return
with fair-skinned companions to begin again his rule

The Armor of Cortes

After an engraving of the original in the
National Museum, Madrid

174 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

over his people. Many Aztecs looked upon the coming
of the white men as the return of this god and thought
that resistance would be useless. Such natives sent
presents, made their peace with Cortes, and so weakened
the opposition to the conquerors.

Cortes in Peril. Cortes easily entered the City of
Mexico, and forced Montezuma to resign. But here the
natives attacked his army in such numbers that he had

Cannon of the Time of Cortes

After Van Menken. There are in the naval museum
at Annapolis guns captured in the Mexican War supposed
to be those used by Cortes

to retreat to escape capture. The Spaniards fled from
the city at night amid the onslaught of the inhabitants
fighting for their religion and their homes.

The retreat cost the Spaniards terrible losses. Cortes
started in the evening on the retreat with 1,250 soldiers,
6,000 Indian allies, and 80 horses. There were left in the
morning 500 soldiers, 2,000 allies, and 20 horses. Cortes is
said to have buried his face in his hands and wept for his
lost followers, but he never wavered in his purpose of tak-
ing Mexico. He was able to defeat the Indians in the open
country, and to return to the attack on the capital city.

EARLY SPANISH EXPLORERS

175

Capture of the City of Mexico. The siege which fol-
lowed, lasting nearly three months, has rarely been
matched in history for the bravery and sufTering of the
natives. The fighting was constant and terrible. The
fresh water supply was cut off from the inhabitants in
the city, and famine aided the invaders. At length the
defenders were exhausted and Cortes entered. It had

The City of Mexico under the Conquerors

From the engraving in the " Niewe Wereld " of Montanus

taken him two years to conquer the Aztecs. A greater
task remained for him to do. He was to cleanse and
rebuild the City of Mexico, make it a center of Spanish
civilization, and Mexico a New Spain. By such work
Cortes showed that he could be not only a great conqueror,
but also an able ruler in time of peace.

Pizarro. A few years after Cortes conquered Mexico
a second army conquered another famous Indian king-
dom. Francisco Pizarro commanded this expedition,
which set out from Panama in 153L Pizarro had been
with Balboa at the discovery of the South Sea or Pacific

176

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Ocean, and, like his master, had become interested in the
stories the Indians told of a rich kingdom far to the south.
The golden kingdom which the Indians described was

that of the Incas, who hved
much as the Aztecs. The Span-
iards called the region of the
Incas the Biru country or, by
softening the first letter, the
Peru country, from Biru, who
was a native Indian chieftain.

Conquest of Peru. Pizarro
found the Incas divided as usual
by civil wars and incapable of
much resistance. One of their
rival chiefs was outwitted when
he tried to capture Pizarro by a
trick, and was himself made a
prisoner instead. He offered to
give Pizarro in return for his
freedom as much gold as would
fill his prison room as high as he
could reach. The offer was accepted, and gold, mainly
in the shape of vases, plates, images, and other orna-
ments from the temples for the Indian idols, was
gathered together.

The Spaniards soon found themselves in possession of
almost $7,000,000 worth of gold, besides a vast quantity
of silver. As much more was taken from the Indians by
force. The whole was divided among the conquerors.
Pizarro's share was worth nearly a million dollars. But

A Stone Idol of the Aztecs

It is more than eight feet high
and five feet across, and was dug
up in the central square of the
City of Mexico more than ono
hundred years ago

EARLY SPANISH EXPLORERS 177

the poor chief who had made them suddenly rich was
suspected of plotting to have his warriors ambush them
as they left the country, was tried by his conquerors, and
put to death. The bloody work of conquest was soon
over. Peru, like Mexico, rapidly became a center of
Spanish settlement. Emigrants, instead of stopping in
the West Indies, had the choice of going on into the newer
regions which Cortes and Pizarro had won.

Emigrants to Spanish America. It was much harder
in the sixteenth century to leave Spain and settle in
America than it is to-day. The first and sometimes the
greatest difficulty was in getting permission to leave
Spain. No one could go who had not secured the king's
consent. The emigrant must show that neither he nor
his father nor his grandfather had ever been guilty of
heresy, that is, that he and his forefathers had been
steadfast Catholic Christians. His wife, if he had one,
must give her consent. His debts must all be paid. The
Moors and the Jews of Spain could not secure permits to
move to the New World. Foreigners of whatever nation
were not wanted in the colonies and were usually kept
out. Spain tried to keep its colonies wholly for Spaniards.

Hardships of the Sea Voyage. Those who did go to
the colonies found the voyage dangerous and costly.
One traveler has related that it cost him about one
hundred and eighty dollars for the passage, and that he
provided his own chickens and bread. The danger to
sailing ships from storms was much greater than it is
to-day for steamships. The voyage required three or
four weeks and not uncommonly as many months.

178 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

The Need of Laborers. The hardships and dangers
of the voyage and the reports of suffering from famine
and disease kept most people from going to the New World.
Emigration was slow, amounting to about a thousand
a year. There were always fewer capable white laborers
than the landowners in the colonies needed for their
work, for there was much to do in clearing the land
and preparing it for use. The landowners were usually
well-to-do Spaniards who did not like to work in the
fields themselves. A great many of the laborers who
migrated to America served in the army or went to the
gold and silver mines of Mexico and Peru. The craze
for gold constantly robbed the older colonies of their
farm laborers. The landowners in the islands of the
West Indies, during the early history of the colonies, made
slaves of the Indians and compelled them to take the
place of the laborers they needed and could not obtain.

Indian Slavery. The people of Europe thought that
the whole world belonged to the followers of Christ. Non-
Christians, whether Indian or negro, had the choice of
accepting Christianity or of being made slaves. The
choice of Christianity did not always save them from the
fate of slavery. In this the Spaniards were no more
cruel than their neighbors the English or the French.
The Spanish planters from the beginning forced the
Indians to work their farms. The gold seekers made
them work in their mines.

The labor in every case was hard, and specially hard
for the Indian unused to work. The overseers were
brutal when the slaves did not do the tasks set for them.

EARLY SPANISH EXPLORERS

179

Hard usage and the unhealthful quarters rapidly broke
down the natives. The white men also brought into
the island diseases which they, with their greater experi-
ence, could resist, but from which, one writer says, the
Indians died like sheep with a distemper.

A Spanish Galleon

Ships like this carried the Spanish emigrants to America

Slavery destroys the West Indians. When the number
of the Indians in Espafiola and Cuba had decreased so
much that there were not enough left to meet the needs
of the planters, slave-hunters searched the neighboring
islands for others. Finally, when the Indians were nearly
gone, and the planters began to look to the mainland for
their slaves, the king of Spain forbade making slaves of

180 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

the Indians. Unfortunately he did not forbid them to
capture negroes in Africa for the same purpose, and the
change merely meant that negroes took the place of
Indians as slaves. The story of the change is in great
part the story of the life of Bartholomew de Las Casas.

Las Casas. The father of Las Casas was a companion
of Columbus on his second voyage in 1493. He returned
to Spain, taking with him a young Indian slave whom he
gave to his son. This youth became greatly interested
in the race to which his young slave belonged. In 1502
he went to Espaiiola to take possession of his father's
estate. The planter's life did not long satisfy him and
finally he became a priest. He moved from Espanola to
Cuba, the newer colony.

Las Casas became convinced that Indian slavery was
wrong, and gave his own slaves their freedom. In his
sermons he attacked the abuses of slavery. He visited
Spain in order to help the slaves, and secured many re-
forms which lessened the hardships of their lot. Since
the planters demanded more laborers and Las Casas
thought the negro would be hardier than the Indian, he
advocated negro slavery in place of Indian slavery as
the less of two evils. Finally, in 1542, Las Casas per-
suaded his king, Charles V, to put an end to Indian
slavery of every form.

His success came too late to benefit the natives of the
West Indies. They had decreased until almost none
were left. It is said that there were two hundred thou-
sand Indians in Espanola in 1492, and that in 1548
there were barely five hundred survivors. The same

EARLY SPANISH EXPLORERS

181

i;=.^^

decrease had taken place in the other islands. But the
work of Las Casas came in time to save the Indians on
the mainland from the fate of the luckless islanders.

Negro Slavery. Las Casas later regretted that he had
advised the planters to obtain negroes to take the place
of the Indians. Some
negroes had been cap-
tured by the Portu-
guese on the coast of
Africa during their
explorations and
taken to Europe as .f
slaves. Columbus car-
ried a few of these to
the West Indies with
him, and others had
followed his example,
but negro slavery had
grown very slowly un-
til after Las Casas
stopped Indian
slavery, when it in-
creased rapidly in
Spanish America.

The Missions of the ,,, ,, ., Y^?-""^^^ ■ u . .

After the picture by Felix Parra in the Academy,

lVIa.inla.nd. Las Casas ^^^^^<^o- Las Casas is supposed to be imploring

Providence to shield the natives from Spanish

became at one time a cruelty

missionary to a tribe of the most desperate warriors lo-
cated on the southern border of Mexico, in a region called
by the Spaniards the ''Land of War." Three times a

182 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Spanish army had invaded the country, and three times
it had been driven back by the native defenders. Las
Casas wished to show the Spaniards that more could be
accompHshed by treating the Indians kindly than by
bloody warfare and conquest.

He and the monks whom he took with him learned
the language of the Indians, and went among them not
as conquerors but as Christian teachers. Their gentle
manners and endless patience won the friendship of the
Indians in time and changed the land of constant warfare
into one of peace. They led the natives to destroy their
idols and to give up cannibalism. The mission estab-
lished among them and kept up by the monks who were
attracted to it was only one of a great number which
sprang up on the mainland.

The Work of the Missions. Influenced by the work of
Las Casas against Indian slavery and for Indian missions,
the Spaniards bent their efforts to preserve and Christ-
ianize the natives wherever they came upon them in
America. Catholic priests gathered the Indians into
permanent villages, which were called missions. Within
about one hundred years after the death of Columbus,
or by 1600, there were more then 5,000,000 Indians in
such villages under Spanish rule. Priests taught them
to build better houses, checked their native vices, and
suppressed heathen practices.

Every mission became a little industrial school for
children and parents alike, where all might learn the
simpler arts and trades and the customs and language of
their teachers. Each Indian cultivated his own plot

EARLY SPANISH EXPLORERS

183

of land and worked two hours a day on the farm belong-
ing to the village. The produce of the village farm sup-
ported the church. The monks or friars who had charge
of the mission cared for the poor, taught in the schools,
preserved the peace and order of the village, and looked
after the religious welfare of all.

Ruins of a Spanish Mission House

Gradually Spanish emigrants settled in the mission
stations, and planters established farms around them,
and they became Spanish villages in every respect like
those in the islands or in the Old World, except that many
inhabitants in the towns on the mainland were Indians.
The emigrants freely intermarried with the Indians and
a mixed race took the place of the old inhabitants. The
customs, language, religion, and rule of Spain prevailed
in this New Spain, though in some ways the new civiliza-
tion was not so good as that of the Old World.

184 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

QUESTIONS

1. In what ways did the Aztecs resemble the Europeans? How
did they differ from them? Why were the Spaniards particularly
anxious to conquer Mexico?

2. Why did many of the Mexicans refuse to fight the Spaniards?
How many soldiers and Indian allies did Cortes lose in one battle?
How long did it take Cortes to conquer Mexico?

3. What other Indian people was conquered a few years later?
By whom? What seemed to be the main object of these conquerors,
Cortes and Pizarro, in their expeditions?

4. Why did the Spaniards make slaves of the Indians in the West
Indies? Why did they later cease making slaves of Indians and begin
making slaves of negroes? What share had Las Casas in this change?

5. What good work did the priests and monks in the Spanish Mis-
sions accomplish? What became of the Aztecs or other Indian
tribes in Mexico?

EXERCISES

1. Find all you can about the houses, food, clothing, and occupa-
tions of any Indians living in your part of the United States, or if
none are there now, learn this from your parents or from some neigh-
bor who knew the Indians. Did they resemble the Aztecs in these
respects or the West Indians?

2. Review the account of emigrating to Spanish America four hun-
dred years ago. Who could not go to Spanish America then? Find
out who may not come into the United States to-day. What did it
cost one traveler to get to America in the sixteenth century? Find
out the cost of a voyage from Europe to America to-day. How long
did it take to make such a voyage? Find out the usual length of a
voyage from Europe to-day.

CHAPTER XVII

THE SPANISH EXPLORERS OF NORTH AMERICA

Ponce de Leon. While men like Cortes were exploring
and conquering the countries on the west shore of the
Gulf of Mexico, others began to search the vast regions
to the north. One of these ex-
plorers w^as Ponce de Leon, who
had come to Espanola wdth Co-
lumbus in 1493. He afterwards
spent many years in the West
Indies capturing Indians, and
understood from something they
said that a magic fountain could
be found beyond the Bahamas
which would restore an old man '|^||' Jl ?®/«^ Si ^

to youth and vigor, if he bathed "^''''''' ^ 'f ' ■ "■'

Ponce de Leon
m it.

As Ponce de Leon was beginning to feel aged he went in
search of this wondrous fountain, but he found instead a
coast where flowers grew in great abundance. It w^as the
Easter season in 1513. Since the Spanish call this season
Pascua Florida or Flowery Easter, Ponce called the new
flowery country Florida. He w^ent ashore near the pres-
ent site of St. Augustine, and later, while trying to estab-
lish a settlement, lost his life in a battle with the Indians.

185

186

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Explorations of North American Coast. Other Spanish
explorers between 1513 and 1525 followed the whole
Gulf coast from Florida to Vera Cruz, and the Atlantic
coast from Florida to Labrador. They sought con-
tinually for a passage to India. Every large inlet was

entered, for it might prove to
be the long-looked-for strait.
Slowly the coast of North
America took shape on the
maps of that time. Two fa-
mous expeditions into the inte-
rior of the country did much to
enlarge this knowledge. One
was made by De Soto through
the region which now forms
seven southern states of the
Hernando de Soto United States, and the other

was by Coronado through the great southwest.

De Soto. Hernando de Soto, a noble from Seville in
Spain, had won fame and fortune with Pizarro in Peru.
The King of Spain, to reward his bravery and skill in
conquering Indians, made him Governor of Cuba. In
those days the Governor of Cuba controlled Florida. It
was a larger Florida than the present state of that name,
for Spanish Florida included the whole north coast of
the Gulf of Mexico running back into the continent
without any definite boundary.

The Story of the Gilded Man. De Soto had heard a
fanciful story of a country so rich in gold that its king
was smeared every morning with gum and then thickly

SPANISH EXPLORERS OF NORTH AMERICA 187

sprinkled with powdered gold, which was washed off at
night. De Soto thought this country might be some-
where in Florida, and prepared to search for the Gilded
Man, or in the Spanish language El Dorado.

The Comrades of De Soto. More than six hundred
men, some of them from the oldest families of the nobility
of Spain and Portugal, flocked to De
Soto's banner. They sold their pos-
sessions at home and ventured all their
wealth in the hope of obtaining great
riches in Florida.

De Soto's Route through the South
of North America. De Soto crossed
from Cuba to the west coast of Florida
in 1539, and advanced northward by
land to an Indian village near Apa-
lachee Bay. Here he spent the first

winter. A white man, whom the Spanish Knight of

Indians had taken captive twelve years ^^^^ Century
before and finally adopted, joined De Soto and became
very useful as an interpreter.

In the spring De Soto renewed his explorations. It was
like a journey into the interior of Africa. The expedition
passed northeasterly through the country now within
Georgia and South Carolina, as far, perhaps, as the border
of North Carohna. From here it passed through the
mountains, and turned southwesterly through Tennessee
and Alabama until a large Indian village called Mauvilla
was reached. This was near the head of Mobile Bay.
Mobile was named from the Indian village Mauvilla.

188

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

The Alabama Indians, whose name means ''the thicket
clearers," were near by. Here again De Soto changed
his course to the northwest into the unknown interior.

The Hardships of the Journey. His army was almost
exhausted by the difficulties of the journey. A road had
to be cut and broken through thickets and forest, paths

Indians Broiling Fish

had to be made through the many swamps, and fords
found across the rivers. It frequently became necessary
to stop for months at a time, to let the horses, worn out
from travel and starving because of the scarcity of fodder,
fatten on the grass. The stores which the army brought
with them soon gave out. The men were forced to live
like Indians, and were often reduced to using the roots
of wild plants for food. Where they could, they robbed
the Indians of their scanty stores of corn and beans.

Cruel Treatment of the Indians. De Soto was cruel
in his treatment of the conquered natives along his route.
Many of his officers came with him really for the purpose

SPANISH EXPLORERS OF NORTH AMERICA 189

of obtaining Indian slaves for their plantations in Cuba.
Indian women were made to do the work of the camp.
Indian men were chained together and forced to carry
the baggage. The chiefs were held as hostages for the

r' NORTH
y CAROLINA

GULF OF MEXICO

0 50 100 200

De Soto's Route— ^ ' ' ^ '

Map of De Soto's Route — 1539-1542

good behavior of the whole tribe. The Indians who tried
to shirk work or offered resistance were killed without
mercy.

De Soto's cruelties made the Indian of the South hate
the white men, and left him the enemy of any who should
come to those regions in after-years. More than once
De Soto narrowly escaped destruction at the hands of
the enraged savages. They attacked the Spaniards with

190 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

all their strength at Mauvilla, and again while they
were in camp in northern Mississippi for the winter of
1540-1541. These two battles with the Indians cost the
Spaniards their baggage, which was destroyed in the
burning villages. New clothing, however, was soon made
from the skins of wild animals. Deerskins and bear-
skins served for cloaks, jackets, shirts, stockings, and even
for shoes. The great army must have looked much like
a band of Robinson Crusoes.

The Discovery of the Mississippi. De Soto marched
on northwesterly until May 8, 1541, when he was some-
where near the site of the present city of Memphis.
There he came upon a great river. One of his officers
tells us that the river was so wide at this point that if a
man on the other side stood still, it could not be known
whether he were a man or not ; that the river was of great
depth, and of a strong current; and that the water was
always muddy.

De Soto called it, in his own language, the Rio Grande
or Great River, but the Indians called it the Mississippi.
Americans have adopted the Indian name. Other Spanish
explorers had probably passed the mouth of the Mississippi
River before De Soto, and wondered at its mighty size,
but De Soto was the first white man to approach it from
the land and to appreciate the importance of his dis-
covery.

Wanderings west of the Mississippi. The Spaniards
cut down trees, made them into planks and built barges
on which they crossed the Mississippi. Then they wan-
dered for another year through the endless woods and

SPANISH EXPLORERS OF NORTH AMERICA 191

marshes of the low-lying lands now within the state of
Arkansas. They probably went as far west as the open
plains of Oklahoma or Texas. In these border regions
between the forests and the prairies they met Indians
who used the skins of the buffalo for clothing.

Death and Burial of De Soto. The severe winter of
1541-1542 discouraged the hardy travelers, who had now

Burial of De Soto in the Mississippi

spent nearly three years in a vain search. The natives
whom they had found made clothing from the fiber in
the bark of mulberry trees and from the hides of buffaloes,
and stored beans and corn for food, but such things seemed
of httle value to the seekers for the Gilded Man.

De Soto returned to the Mississippi and prepared to
establish a colony somewhere near the mouth of the Red
River. It was his purpose to send to Cuba for supplies,
and, with this settlement as a base, make a farther search

192 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

in the plains of the great West. He did not hve to carry-
out his plan. Long exposure and anxiety had weakened
him. The malaria of the swamps attacked him, and he
died within a few days. His body was wrapped in mantles
weighted with sand, carried in a canoe, and secretly
lowered in the midst of the great river he had discovered.

His successor tried to conceal De Soto's death from the
Indians. The Spaniards had called their leader the
Child of the Sun, and now he had died like any other
mortal. They were afraid if the Indians found his body
they would cease to believe that the strangers were
immortal and would massacre them all. The Indians
were told that the great leader had gone to Heaven, as
he had often done before, and that he would return in
a few days.

Results of De Soto's Journey. The weary survivors
built boats, floated down the Mississippi into the Gulf,
and sailed cautiously along the coasts to Mexico. They
had been gone four years and three months, and half of
the army which set out had perished. However, the ex-
pedition of De Soto will always remain one of the most
remarkable journeys in the history of North America.
It had extended the Spanish claims far into the interior.
With it had begun the written history of the country
now composing at least eight states in the United States,
Florida, Georgia, South Carohna, North Carolina,
Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas. It had
perhaps reached the present Oklahoma and Texas, and
had certainly passed down the Mississippi River through
Louisiana.

SPANISH EXPLORERS OF NORTH AMERICA 193

The Story of the Seven Cities. While De Soto was
exploring the southeastern part of North America a
second expedition searched the southwest. Both were
looking for rich Indian kingdoms
like Mexico and Peru. The second
expedition came about in this man-
ner. Some of the Indians from
northern Mexico told the Spaniards
a strange tale of how in the distant
past their ancestors came forth from
seven caves.

The Spaniards, however, confused
the tale with a story of their own
about Seven Cities. They believed
that at the time Spain was overrun
by the Moors in the eighth century,
seven bishops, flying from persecu-
tion, had taken refuge, with a great
company of followers, on an island
or group of islands far out in the Atlantic Ocean, and
that they had built Seven Cities. Wonderful stories
were told in Spain of these cities, of their wealth and
splendor, though nobody ever pretended to have actually
seen them. The Spaniards thought the Indians meant
to tell them of these Seven Cities instead of seven caves.

The mistake was natural, as the Spanish explorers had
much trouble in understanding the Indian languages.
They had long expected to find the Seven Cities in
America. Indeed there was rumor that white travelers
had seen them north of Mexico.

An Indian op North-
ern Mexico

194 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

The Journey of Friar Marcos. In 1539 the Viceroy of
Mexico sent a frontier missionary, Friar Marcos by name,
together with a negro, Stephen, and some Christianized
Indians to look for them. Friar Marcos traveled far
to the north. He inquired his way of the Indians, always
asking them about Seven Cities. He described them as
large cities with houses made of stone and mortar. The
Indians, half-understanding him, directed him to seven
Zufii villages or pueblos. The first of these they called
Cibola. Friar Marcos henceforth spoke of them as the
Seven Cities of Cibola.

The good friar himself never entered even the first of
them. His negro, Stephen, had been sent on in advance
to prepare the way, but this rough, greedy fellow ofTended
the Indians, who promptly murdered him. When the
friar approached he found the Indians so excited and
hostile that he dared not enter their village. He did,
however, venture to climb a hill at a distance, from which
he had a view of one of the cities of Cibola. The houses,
built of light stone and whitish adobe, glistened in the
wonderfully clear air and bright sunlight of that region,
and gave him the idea of a much larger and richer
city than really existed. Friar Marcos, by this time
thoroughly frightened, hurriedly retraced his steps.

Coronado. There was great excitement in Mexico
over the story Friar Marcos told. The account of what
had been seen grew, as such stories always do, in the telling
and retelling. Nothing else was thought of in all New
Spain. The Viceroy of Mexico made ready a great army
for the conquest of the Seven Cities of Cibola. He gave

SPANISH EXPLORERS OF NORTH AMERICA 195

the command to his intimate friend, Francisco de Coro-
nado. Everybody wanted to accompany him, but it was
necessary to have the consent of the viceroy. Sons of
nobles, eager to go, traded with their more fortunate neigh-
bors for the viceroy's permit. Some men who secured
these sold them as special favors to their friends. Who-
ever obtained one of them counted it as good as a title of

A ZuNi Pueblo from a Distance

nobility. So high were the expectations of great wealth
when the Seven Cities should be discovered!

The Army of Coronado. In the early part of 1540,
Coronado set forth from his home in western Mexico
near the Gulf of California. He had an army of three
hundred Spaniards, nearly all the younger sons of nobles.
They were fitted out with polished coats of mail and gilded
armor, carried lances and swords, and were mounted on
the choicest horses from the large stock-farms of the
viceroy. There were in the army a few footmen armed
with crossbows and harquebuses. A thousand negroes
and Indians were taken along, mainly as servants for

196

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

the white masters. Some led the spare horses. Others
carried the baggage, or drove the oxen and cows, the sheep
and swine which would be needed on the journey. A

Coronado's Route

The Route of Coronado

small fleet carried part of the baggage by way of the Gulf
of California, prepared also to help Coronado in other
ways, and to explore the Gulf to its head.

SPANISH EXPLORERS OF NORTH AMERICA

197

The Route of Coronado to Cibola. The large army
marched slowly through the wild regions of the Gulf coast.
Coronado soon became impatient and pushed ahead of
the main body with a small following of picked horsemen.
They went through the mountainous wilderness of
northern Mexico and across the desert plains of south-
eastern Arizona. After a march lasting five months,

over a distance equal to that from New York to Omaha,
Coronado came upon the Seven Cities of Cibola; but the
real Seven Cities of Cibola as Coronado found them bore
little resemblance to what he had expected.

The real Seven Cities of Cibola. The first city of
Cibola was an Indian pueblo of about two hundred flat-
roofed houses, built of stone and sun-dried clay. The
houses were entered by climbing ladders to the top and
then passing down into the rooms as we enter ships
through hatches. The people wore only such clothes as
could be woven from the coarse fiber of native plants, or

198

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

patched together from the tanned skins of the cat or the
deer. They cultivated certain plants for food, but only
small and poor varieties of corn, beans, and melons. They
had some skill in making small things for house and

personal decoration,
mainly in the form of
pottery and simple
ornaments of green
stone.

The kingdom of
rich cities dwindled to
a small province of
poor villages inhab-
ited by an unwarlike
people. We know
now that Coronado
had found the Zufii
pueblos in the western
part of New Mexico.
The conquest of these
was a wofully small
thing for so grand and
costly an expedition.
No gold or silver or precious jewels had been found.

The Canyon of the Colorado. Yet the wonders of the
natural world about them astonished and interested the
Spaniards. Some of their number found the Grand
Canyon of the Colorado River and vividly described it
to their comrades. As they looked into its depths it
seemed as if the water was six feet across, although in

Canyon of the Colorado

SPANISH EXPLORERS OF NORTH AMERICA 199

reality it was many hundred feet wide. Some tried with-
out success to descend the steep chff to the stream below
or to discover a means of crossing to the opposite side.
Those who staid above estimated that some huge rocks
on the side of the cliff were about as tall as a man, but
those who went down as far as they could swore that
when they reached these rocks they found them bigger
than the great tower of Seville, which is two hundred and
seventy-five feet high.

Coronado in New Mexico. Coronado marched from
the Cities of Cibola eastward to the valley of the Rio
Grande River, and settled for the winter in an Indian
village a short distance south of the present city of
Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Spaniards drove the
natives out, only allowing them to take the clothes they
wore.

A Winter in an Indian Village. The soldiers passed the
severe winter of 1540-1541 comfortably quartered in the
best houses of the Indian village. A plentiful supply of
corn and beans had been left by the unfortunate owners.
The live stock brought from Mexico furnished an abun-
dance of fresh meat. Coronado required the Indians to
furnish three hundred pieces of cloth for cloaks and
blankets for his men, to take the place of their own, now
worn out. Nor did the officers give the Indians time to
secure the cloth that was demanded, but forced them to
take their own cloaks and blankets off their backs. When
a soldier came upon an Indian whose blanket was better
than his, he compelled the unlucky fellow to exchange
with him without more ado.

200 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Coronado's strenuous efforts to provide well for the
comforts of his men made him much loved by them, but
much hated by the Indians. It is no wonder that such
treatment drove the Indians into rebellion, and that
Coronado was obliged to carry on a cruel war of reconquest
and revenge.

The Tale of Quivira. An Indian slave in one of the
villages cheered Coronado and his followers with a fabu-
lous tale about a wonderful city, many days' journey
across the plains to the northeast, which he called Quivira.
The king of Quivira, he said, took his nap under a large
tree, on which were hung little gold bells, which put him
to sleep as they swung in the air. Every one in the city
had jugs and bowls made of wrought gold. The slave
was probably tempted by the eagerness of his hearers to
make his tale bigger. He perhaps made it as enticing as
he could in order to lead the strangers away to perish in
the pathless plains where water would be scarce and corn
unknown.

The Search for Quivira. The slave's story deceived
the Spaniards. Coronado grasped eagerly at the only
hope left of finding a rich country and marched away in
search of Quivira. He traveled to the northeast for
seventy-seven days. There were no guiding land marks.
Soldiers measured the distance traveled each day by
counting the footsteps. The plains were flat, save for
an occasional channel cut by some river half buried in
the sand; they were barren, except for a short wiry grass
and a small rim of shrubs and stunted trees along the
watercourses.

SPANISH EXPLORERS OF NORTH AMERICA 201

Quivira. The most marvelous sight of the long journey
was the herds of buffaloes in countless numbers. The
Indians guided Coronado in the end to a cluster of Indian
villages which they called Quivira. This was somewhere
in what is now central Kansas near Junction City. The
Indians were in all probability the Wichitas. Here again
the great explorer met with a bitter disappointment.

Indian Tepees

Instead of a fine city of stone and mortar, he found scat-
tered Indian villages with mere tent-like houses formed
by fastening grass or straw or buffalo skins to poles.
The people were the poorest and most barbarous which he
had met. Coronado was, however, fortunate in securing
a supply of corn and buffalo meat in Quivira for his long
return journey.

Coronado's Opinion of the West. A year later a crest-
fallen army of half-starved men clad in the skins of
animals stumbled back homeward through Mexico in
straggling groups. Great sadness prevailed in Mexico,

202 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

for many had lost their fortunes besides friends and rela-
tives in the enterprise. Coronado seemed to the people
of the time to have led a costly army on a wild-goose
chase. He himself thought that the regions he had
crossed were valueless. He said they were cold and too
far away from the sea to furnish a good site for a colony,
and the country was neither rich enough nor populous
enough to make it worth keeping.

Results of Coronado's Explorations. We know better
to-day the value of Coronado's great discoveries. He
had solved the age-long mystery of the Seven Cities, and
explored the southwest of the United States of our
day. The rich region now included in the great states
of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas
had been seen, and it was soon after described for the
European world. His men had explored the Gulf of
CaHfornia to its head, and the Colorado River toward its
source for two hundred miles. They had proved that
lower California was not an island but a part of the main-
land. Others soon explored the entire coast of California
to the limits of the present state of Oregon.

How De Soto and Coronado came near meeting. De
Soto and Coronado together pushed the Spanish frontier
far northward to the center of North America. A story
which was told by De Soto's men shows how close to-
gether the two great explorers were at one time. While
Coronado was in Quivira, De Soto was wandering along
the borders of the plains west of the Mississippi River,
though neither knew of the nearness of the other. An
Indian woman who ran away, from Coronado's army fell

SPANISH EXPLORERS OF NORTH AMERICA 203

in with De Soto's, nine days later. If De Soto and
Coronado had met on the plains there would have been
a finer story to tell, almost as dramatic as the meeting
of Stanley and Livingstone in central Africa. One can-
not refrain from wondering how different would have
been the ending with the two great armies united and
encouraged to continue their explorations.

QUESTIONS

1. What story had Ponce de Leon heard in the West Indies?
What did he find? Why did he call the new country which he dis-
covered Florida? What was included in Florida as the Spaniards
understood it?

2. What was De Soto looking for in North America? How long
did he search? What did he find? Was he disappointed? What
was he planning to do when he died? Why was his journey very
remarkable? Through what present states of the United States did
he pass?

3. Where did the Spaniards expect to find the Seven Cities?
Why did he expect to find them there? What was the story of
the Seven Cities? Of the Seven Caves?

4. What did Coronado expect to find at the Seven Cities of
Cibola? What did he find there? Why did he go far on into
North America in search of Quivira? What did he find on the
way to Quivira? What did he find Quivira to be?

5. What did Coronado think of his own discoveries? What had
he found out of interest or value to the rest of the world? Which
of the present states of the United States did his route touch?

REVIEW

1. Review the effect of the discoveries of Columbus (map, page
L55), Magellan (map, page 169), De Soto (map, page 189), Coronado
(map, page 196), on the knowledge of the new world.

Important date — 1541. The discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto.

CHAPTER XVIII
RIVALRY AND STRIFE IN EUROPE

The Rivals of Spain. When the early voyages to
America and Asia were ended, the French, the English,
and the other northern peoples of Europe seemed to be
beaten in the race for new lands and for new routes to
old lands. The French had sent a few fishermen to the
Banks of Newfoundland, and that was all. The Enghsh
had made one or two voyages and appeared to be no
longer interested. (See page 160.) The Dutch seemed to
be only sturdy fishermen, thrifty farmers, or keen traders,
occupied much of the time in the struggle against the
North Sea, which threatened to burst the dikes and flood
farms and cities.

The Trade- Winds. The Portuguese and the Spaniards
had a great advantage in living nearer the natural starting-
point for such voyages. To go to Asia ships went by
way of the Cape of Good Hope. To go to America a
southern route was taken, for in the North Atlantic the
prevailing winds are from the southwest, while south of
Spain the trade-winds blow towards the southwest, mak-
ing it easy to sail to America. To take the northern
route, which was the natural one for French and English
sailors, would be to battle against head winds and heavy
seas.

204

RIVALRY AND STRIFE IN EUROPE

205

The Spaniards and the Portuguese divide the World.
The Spaniards and the Portuguese believed that their
discoveries gave them the right to all new lands which
should be found and to all trade by sea with the Golden
East. Two years after the first
voyage of Columbus the Spaniards
agreed with the Portuguese that
a line running 370 leagues west
of the Cape Verde Islands should
separate the regions claimed by
each. The Spaniards were to hold
all lands discovered west of that
line, and the Portuguese all east
of it. This left Brazil within the
region claimed by the Portuguese.
The rest of North and South
America lay within the Spanish
claims. It is the future history of
this region that especially interests
us as students of American history.

The Main Question. Were
the Spaniards to keep what they
claimed and continue to outstrip
their northern rivals? The answer
to this question is found in the history of Europe
during the sixteenth century. Unfortunately for the
Spaniards they were drawn into quarrels in Europe
which cost them many men and much money. The con-
sequence was that they were unable to make full use of
their discoveries, even if they had known how. Before

Cabot Memorial Tower

Erected at Bristol, England,
in memory of the first sailor
from England to visit America

206 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

the century was ended their rivals, the EngUsh and the
French, were stronger than they; and the Dutch, their
own subjects, had rebelled against them.

The English and the French desire a Share. Men
had such great ideas of the immense wealth of the
Indies that the successes of one nation made the other
nations eager for some part of the spoil. Englishmen
and Frenchmen were not likely to allow the Portuguese
to take all they could find by sailing eastward around
the Cape of Good Hope, and the Spaniards to keep
whatever they discovered by sailing directly westward
or by following the route marked out by Magellan.
Both would search for new routes to the East, and
both would lay claim to lands they saw by the way,
regardless of any other nation. Many quarrels came
from this rivalry, but quarrels arose also from other
causes.

King Charles and King Francis. About the time
Cortes conquered Mexico, his master. King Charles of
Spain, began a war against Francis, the king of France.
As long as these two kings hved they were either fight-
ing or preparing to fight. Had Charles been king of
Spain only, there might have been no trouble, but he
ruled lands in Italy and claimed others which the French
king ruled. He also ruled all the region north of France
which is now Belgium and Holland, and he owned a dis-
trict which forms part of eastern France near Switzer-
land. As he was the German emperor besides, the
French king thought him too dangerous to be left in
peace. These wars have httle to do with American

RIVALRY AND STRIFE IN EUROPE

207

history, except that they helped to weaken the king of
Spain and to prevent the Spaniards from making the
most of their early successes in colonizing.

Religion a Cause of Strife. Religion was the most
serious cause of quarrel in the sixteenth century, and the
king of Spain was the prince most injured by the struggle.
At the time of Prince Henry of
Portugal and of Columbus all
peoples in western Europe wor-
shiped in the same manner,
taught their children the same
beliefs, and in rehgious matters
they all obeyed the pope. But
by 1521 this had changed. The
troubles began in Germany when
Charles V was emperor. Before
they were over Philip II, son
of Charles, lost control of the
Dutch, who rebelled and founded
a republic of their own. The English finally became
the principal enemies of Spain. The French, most of
whom were of the same religion as the Spaniards, came
to hate Spanish methods of defending religion, especially
after the Spaniards had massacred a band of French
settlers in America.

The ** Reformers." Many men became discontented
at the way the Church was managed. At first all were
agreed that the evils of which they complained could
be removed if priests, bishops, and pope worked to-
gether to that end. After a while some teachers in

Emperor Charles V

208 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

different countries not only complained of evils, but
refused to believe as the Church had taught and as
most people still believed. They did not mean to divide
the Christian Church into several churches, but they
thought they understood the words of the Bible better
than the teachers. of the Church.

Heretics. Those who continued to believe as the
Church taught declared that the new teachers and their
followers should be punished as evil-doers. They called
such persons heretics, and thought they would do more
harm than ordinary criminals. The princes who were
faithful to the Church ordered that those who were
convicted of heresy should be punished with death.

The Reformation. Other princes accepted the views
of the '^Reformers." In Germany they were called
^'Protestants," because they protested against the efforts
of the Emperor Charles and his advisers to stop the spread
of the new religion. This name was afterwards given
to all who refused to remain in the older Church, subject
to the bishops and the pope.

Catholic and Protestant Leaders. The most famous
leaders of the Roman Catholics at this time were Igna-
tius Loyola, a Spaniard, Reginald Pole, an Englishman,
and Carlo Borromeo, an Italian. Loyola had been a
soldier in his youth, but while recovering from a seri-
ous wound, resolved to be a missionary. With several
other young men of the same purpose he founded the
Society of Jesus or the Jesuit Order. Of the Protes-
tants the greatest leaders were Martin Luther, a German,
and John Calvin, a Frenchman. Luther was a professor

RIVALRY AND STRIFE IN EUROPE 209

in the university at Wittenberg in Saxony, which was
ruled by the Elector Frederick the Wise. Calvin had
lived as a student in Paris, but when King Francis
resolved to allow no Protestants in his kingdom, Calvin
was obliged to leave the country. He settled in the
Swiss city of Geneva.

The Lutheran Church. Luther's teachings were ac-
cepted by many Germans, especially in northern Ger-
many. He translated the Bible into German. After
a while his followers formed a Church of their own which
was called Lutheran. It differed from the Roman
Cathohc Church in the way it was governed as well as
in what it taught.

The French Huguenots. Calvin lived in Geneva, but
most of those who accepted his teachings continued to
live in France. The nickname Huguenots, or confeder-
ates, was given to them. They were not permitted by
the French king to worship as Calvin taught, but by
1562 so many nobles had joined them that it was no
longer possible to treat them as criminals. They were
permitted to hold their meetings outside the walled
towns. The leader whom they most honored was Admiral
Gaspard de Coligny. Both he and they, as we shall see,
soon had reason to fear and hate the Spaniards. But we
must first understand the difficulties which the king of
Spain had in dealing with his Dutch subjects.

The King of Spain and the Netherlands. Philip II in-
herited from his father Charles seventeen duchies, counties,
and other districts north of France in what is now Belgium
and Holland. Charles had known how to manage these

210

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

people, because he was brought up among them. The
task of managing them was not easy. Each district or
city had its own special rights and its people demanded
that these should be respected by the ruling prince.
Charles had remembered this, but Philip wished to rule

, .L^aS^ fHfx-^

•^^^^m,i> t -^^fe-^^^t^i^

The Dikes along the Yssel in the Netherlands

the Netherlander s, as these people were called, just as
he ruled the people of Spain.

Protestants in the Netherlands. The matter was made
worse by the effort of Philip to carry out his father's
commands about the punishment of heretics. Any one
who had books written by Luther or Calvin or their
followers was punished with death. Those who were
arrested for such offenses were burned at the stake un-
less they said they were sorry for what they had done.

RIVALRY AND STRIFE IN EUROPE

211

Saying this would not save them, however, for the men
were condemned to have their heads cut off and the
women were buried aUve. After a while most of the
Lutherans were driven out of the country, but the Cal-
vinists kept coming in over the border from France.

The Netherlands. The Netherlands, or Low Countries,
are well named, especially the northern part where the
Dutch live, because
much of the land is
below the level of
the sea at high tide,
and some of it at
low tide. For sev-
eral hundred years
the Dutch built
dikes to keep back
the sea, or pumped
it out where it flowed
in and covered the
lower lands. Occa-
sionally great storms
broke through the
dikes and caused the
Dutch months or
years of labor. A
people so brave and
industrious were not likely to submit to the will of
Philip II. The chances that they would rebel were
increased by the spread of the new religious views,
which the Dutch accepted more readily than their neigh-

FRANCE

Map of the Netherlands

212 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

bors, the southern Netherlanders. The southern Nether-
landers who became Calvinists generally emigrated to the
northern cities, like Amsterdam, where they were safer.

William of Orange. WiUiam, Prince of Orange, was
the leader of the Dutch against Philip II. He had been
trusted by Charles, Phihp's father, who had leaned on
his shoulder at the great ceremony held in Brussels
when Charles gave up his throne to Philip. William
was called the ''Silent," because he was careful not to
tell his plans to any except his nearest friends. When
Phihp returned to Spain, William was made governor
or stadtholder of three of the Dutch provinces — Hol-
land, Zealand, and Utrecht. Philip was angry because
William and other great nobles in the Netherlands
opposed his way of dealing with the heretics and of
ruling the Netherlands. In this both the southern
Netherlanders and the northern Netherlanders were
united, although the southern Netherlanders remained
faithful to the Roman Catholic religion.

Spain and England. The English at first had no
reason to quarrel with the king of Spain. They were
friendly to the Netherlanders, who were his subjects.
During the Middle Ages they sold great quantities of
wool to the Netherland cities of Bruges, Brussels, and
Ghent, and bought fine cloth woven in those towns. The
friendship of the ruler of the Netherlands seemed neces-
sary, if this trade was to prosper. It was the trouble
about religion which finally made the English and the
Spaniards enemies.

Henry VIII. During the reign of Henry VIII, King

RIVALRY AND STRIFE IN EUROPE

213

of England, the king, the parhament, and the clergy
decided to refuse obedience to the pope. The king
called himself the head of the Church in England.
Lutheran views crept into the country as they had
done into the Netherlands, but King Henry at first dis-
liked the Luther-
ans quite as much
as he grew to dis-
like the pope.

The English
Church. So long
as Henry lived not
much change was
made in the be-
liefs or the man-
ner of worship in
the Church. Dur-
ing the short reign
of his son, the
English Church
became more like
the Protestant
Churches on the Continent, except that in England
there were still archbishops and bishops, and the govern-
ment of the Church went on much as before. When
Henry's daughter Mary was made queen she tried to
stop these changes and had many Protestants burned at
the stake, but she died in 1558 and her half-sister,
Ehzabeth, became queen.

The English Church and the Catholics. In rehgious

Queen Elizabeth

214

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

matters Queen Elizabeth did much as her father and her
brother had done. All persons were forced to attend the
rehgious services carried on in the manner ordered in the
prayer-book. Roman Catholics could not hold any
government office. They were punished if they tried to
persuade others to remain faithful to the older Church.

Costumes at the Time of Elizabeth

Philip did not like this, but for a time he preferred to be
on friendly terms with the English.

Queen Elizabeth. Queen Ehzabeth ruled England for
forty-five years. The English regard her reign as the
most glorious in their history. Before it was over they
proved themselves more than a match for the Spaniards
on the sea. They also began to seek for routes to the
East and to attempt settlements in America. Their trade
was increasing. The Greek and Roman writers were
studied by Enghsh scholars at Oxford and Cambridge.

RIVALRY AND STRIFE IN EUROPE 215

Books and poems and plays were written which were to
make the EngUsh language the rival of the languages of
Greece and Rome. This was the time when Shakespeare
wrote his first plays.

QUESTIONS

1. Why was it easier to sail toward America from Spain or Portu-
gal than from England?

2. What peoples divided the new world between them? Where
did they draw the line of division?

3. Why were the kings of France and Spain rivals? Over what
countries did King Charles rule?

4. When did religion become a cause of strife? What king was
chiefly injured by such struggles?

5. Who were called "reformers?" By what other names were
they called?

6. Who were the leaders of the Catholics? of the Protestants?
Who were the Huguenots? What was their leader's name?

7. Why did Philip II and his subjects in the Netherlands quarrel?

8. What was strange about the land in which the Dutch lived?
Who was the hero of the Dutch?

9. Why were the English and the Spaniards at first friendly?
What king of England refused to obey the pope?

10. Why do Englishmen think Queen Elizabeth a great ruler?
How did Elizabeth settle the question of religion?

EXERCISE

Collect pictures of the Dutch, of their canals, dikes, and towns.

CHAPTER XIX
FIRST FRENCH ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE AMERICA

Cartier. During the reign of Francis I, the French
made the first serious attempts to find a westward route
to the Far East and to settle the new lands that seemed
to lie directly across the pathway. In 1534 Jacques
Cartier was sent with two ships in search of a strait
beyond the regions controlled by Spain or Portugal which
would lead into the Pacific Ocean. Cartier passed
around the northern side of Newfoundland and into the
broad expanse of water west of it. This he called the
Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Cartier at Montreal. Cartier made a second voyage
in the following year, exploring the great river which he
called the St. Lawrence. He went up the river until the
heights of Mount Royal or Montreal, as he called them,
appeared on his right hand, and swift rapids in the river
blocked his way in front. The name Lachine rapids, or
the China rapids, which was afterwards given to these,
remains to remind us that Cartier was searching for a
passage to China.

The First Winter in Canada. Cartier spent the severe
winter which followed at the foot of the cliffs which
mark the site of the modern city of Quebec. The expedi-
tion returned to France with the coming of spring.

216

FRENCH ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE AMERICA 217

Attempts to plant a Colony at Quebec. Several years
later, in 1541, Cartier and others attempted to establish
a permanent settlement on the St. Lawrence. As it was
hard to get good colonists to settle in the cold climate so
far north, the leaders were allowed to ransack the prisons
for debtors and criminals to make up the necessary num-

Map Showing Jacques Cartier' s Voyages

Thus; 1st Voyage —— 2d Voyage Sd Voyage — ♦— ►

bers. They selected the neighborhood of the cliffs where
Cartier had wintered in 1535, where Quebec now stands,
as the most suitable place for their colony. But the
settlers were ill-fitted for the hardships of a new settle-
ment in so cold and barren a country. Diseases and the
hostihty of the Indians completely discouraged them,
and all gladly returned to France.

The zeal of the French for American discovery and

218 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

settlement on the St. Lawrence ceased with Cartier. His
hope that the St. Lawrence would prove the long-sought
passage to China had to be given up, but the river which
he had discovered and so thoroughly explored proved to
be a great highway into the center of North America.

Coligny^s Plan for a Huguenot Colony. Nearly thirty
years later the French Protestant leader, Coligny, formed
the plan of establishing a colony in America, which would
be a refuge for the Huguenots if their enemies got the
upper hand in France. An expedition left France in
1564, and selected a site for a settlement near the mouth
of the St. Johns river in Florida. It seemed a good place.
A fort, called Fort Caroline, was quickly built. But
the first colonists were not well chosen. They were
chiefly younger nobles, soldiers unused to labor, or dis-
contented tradesmen and artisans. There were few
farmers among them.

The Misdeeds of the Colonists. They spent their time
visiting distant Indian tribes in a vain search for gold
and silver, or plundering Spanish villages and ships in
the West Indies. No one thought of preparing the
soil and planting seeds for a food supply. It seemed
easier to rob neighbors. The provisions which they
had brought with them gave out. Game and fish
abounded in the woods and rivers about them, but
they were without skill in hunting and fishing. Before
the first year had passed the miserable inhabitants of
Fort Caroline were reduced to digging roots in the
forest for food. Starvation and the revenge of angry
Indians confronted them.

FRENCH ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE AMERICA 219

Relief sent to the Colony. In August, 1565, just as
the half-starved colonists were preparing to leave the
country, an expedition with fresh settlers — mostly dis-
charged soldiers, a few young nobles, and some mechanics
with their families, three hundred in all — arrived in

Fort Caroline, the French Settlement in Florida

From De Bry's Voyages

the harbor. It brought an abundance of supplies and
other things needed by a colony in a new country. It
looked then as though these Frenchmen would suc-
ceed in their plan and establish a permanent colony
in America.

Fort Caroline and the Spaniards. The French had,
however, settled in Florida. Indeed, it would have been
difficult to settle in America at any place along the Atlan-
tic coast without doing so. The Spaniards regarded all
North America from Mexico to Labrador as lying within

220 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Florida. The attempt of the French to settle on the
lands claimed by the king of Spain was sure to bring on
a war, sooner or later. The conduct of the French at
Fort Caroline in plundering the Spanish colonies in the
West Indies made all Spaniards anxious to drive out such
a nest of robbers and murderers. Besides, the Spaniards
hated Coligny's followers more than ordinary Frenchmen,
because they were heretics.

Menendez. When the king of Spain heard about
Coligny's settlement at Fort CaroHne he made ready a
large force to destroy it. Pedro Menendez was placed
in command. Menendez was one of the fiercest of the
Spanish captains in those bloody days. Somebody has
called him an admirable soldier and a matchless liar,
brave as a mastiff and savage as a wolf. Menendez was
to do three things — drive the French out, conquer and
Christianize the Indians, and establish Spanish settle-
ments in Florida.

The Defeat of the French Fleet. Menendez with a part
of his fleet arrived before Fort Caroline just one week
g^fter the relief expedition which Coligny had sent over
came into harbor. His ships attacked and scattered those
of the French. The vessels of the French for the most
part sought refuge on the high seas. They were too swift
to be overtaken, but no match for the Spanish in battle.
Menendez decided to wait for the rest of his ships before
making another attack on Fort Caroline. Meanwhile
he sailed southward along the coast for fifty miles till he
came to an inlet. He called the place St. Augustine.

St. Augustine founded. The Spaniards landed here

FRENCH ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE AMERICA

221

and established themselves in a large dwellmg of an
Indian chief. It was a huge, barn-like structure made
of the entire trunks of trees, and thatched with palmetto
leaves. Five hundred negro slaves were set to work
building entrenchments. Such was the begmnmg of the
Spanish town of St. Augustine, founded m 156o, and
the oldest town in the United States.

St Augustine, Florida, as founded by Menendez

Pagus Hispanorum as given in Montanus and Og.lby

French sail to attack St. Augustine. Both sides pre-
pared for a terrible struggle, the French at For Carolme
^d the Spaniards in their new quarters at St. Augustme
The French struck the first blow. A few o the weaker
Id the sick soldiers were left at Fort Carolme o stand
guard with the women and children. The mam body
aboard the ships advanced by sea to attack St. Angus me^
but a furious tempest scattered and wrecked the French
fleet before it arrived.

222 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Menendez destroys Fort Caroline. Menendez now
took advantage of the storm to march overland to Fort
Caroline, wading through swamps and fording streams
amid a fearful rain and gale. His drenched and hungry
followers fell like wild beasts upon the few French left
in the fort. About fifty of the women and children were
spared to become captives. As many men escaped in the
forests around the fort, but the greater part were killed.

Capture of the shipwrecked French. The French
fleet had been wrecked off the coast of Florida a dozen
miles south of St. Augustine. A few days later Menendez
discovered some survivors wandering along the coast,
half starved, trying to live on the shell-fish they found on
the beach, and slowly and painfully working their way
back toward Fort Caroline. The Frenchmen begged
Menendez to be allowed to remain in the country till
ships could be sent to take them off, since now there was
peace between the two nations, whose kings were friends.
Menendez replied, '^ All CathoHcs I will befriend; but you
are of the new sect. I hold you as enemies and wage
deadly war against you; and this I will do with all cruelty."

Murder of the Captives. Menendez was as good as
his word. The unhappy Frenchmen were taken prisoners,
and we will allow Menendez himself to tell us what was
then done. This is what he told his own king: ^'I had
their hands tied behind their backs, and themselves put
to the knife. It appeared to me that, by chastising them,
God our Lord and your Majesty were served; whereby
in future this evil sect will leave us more free to plant
the Gospel in these parts." Ever since the place of the

FRENCH ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE AMERICA 223

De Soto's Route:
Coronado's Route:
Cartier's Route:

The shaded portions
represent the known re-
gions; the white, the
unknown

North America as known after the Explorations of De Soto,

CORONADO and CaRTIER

awful massacre has borne the Spanish name — Matanzas
— which means ''Slaughters."

King Philip's Message to Menendez. Other unfortu-

224

INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Scale of Miles

those he has saved they shall be sent to

nate French-
men, taken a
few days later,
suffered the
same fate.
Nearly three
hundred ship-
wrecked cap-
tives perished
in this cold-
blooded man-
ner. Nor did
the king of
Spain think
Menendez un-
duly cruel, for
when he heard
the story of the
fate of the
Frenchmen of
Fort Caroline
he sent this
message to
Menendez,
'^Say to him
that as to those
he has killed,
he has done
well; and as to
the galleys. '^

FRENCH ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE AMERICA 225

QUESTIONS

1. Who was the leader in the first French efforts to explore and
settle in North America? Find as many reasons as possible why
France had not tried to settle in America before. What parts of
the continent did Cartier become interested in? Why was he
specially interested in St. Lawrence region?

2. How did Montreal get its name? Why was the name,
Lachine rapids, given to the rapids above Montreal on the St.
Lawrence river?

3. Why did Cartier fail in his attempts to plant a French colony
in North America? How much had he and his friends accomplished
for France in North America?

4. Why did Coligny later wish to establish a colony in America?
Where did his people try to settle? Find the place on the map on
page 224. Give several reasons why they soon got into trouble with
the Spaniards.

5. What did the king of Spain send Menendez to Florida to do?
What things did he accomplish? Why do we specially remember
St. Augustine? Find it on the map, page 224.

EXERCISES

L Examine the map of North America in 1541 on page 223.
What parts of North America were known? What parts were
unknown? Can you see why the explorers would search each bay
or inlet or great river?

2. Find how far into the continent of North America the French
explored the St. Lawrence river, that is, the distance from New-
foundland to Montreal by using the scale of miles on a map in one
of your geographies.

Important Date : 1565. The founding of St. Augustine.

CHAPTER XX

THE ENGLISH AND THE DUTCH TRIUMPH OVER

SPAIN

Cruel Treatment of the Netherlanders. Two years
after the cruel massacre of the Huguenot colony in
Florida, PhiHp II, the King of Spain, decided to put an
end to the obstinacy of the Netherlanders, and sent an
army from Spain commanded by the Duke of Alva, who
was as pitiless as Menendez. Alva began by seizing promi-
nent nobles, and he would have arrested the Prince of
Orange, but he escaped into Germany. A court was set
up which condemned many persons to death, including
the greatest nobles of the land. The people nicknamed
it the Council of Blood. Alva also turned the merchants
against him by compelling them to pay the '' tenth penny,"
that is, one tenth of the price of the goods every time
these were either bought or sold. Alva made himself so
thoroughly hated that even Phihp decided to call him
back to Spain.

The Beggars of the Sea. Just then something happened
which gave Coligny and the Huguenots their chance for
vengeance. The men who were resisting the king's
officers in the Netherlands had been nicknamed the
''Beggars." When they were driven from the cities they
took to the sea. The ''Beggars of the Sea " sometimes

226

ENGLISH AND DUTCH TRIUMPH

227

found a port of refuge in La Rochelle, a Huguenot town
on the western coast of France, and sometimes they put
into friendly Enghsh harbors. From these places they
would sail out and attack Spanish
vessels. When Queen Ehzabeth
in 1572 ordered a fleet of these
''Beggars" to leave, they crossed
over to their own shores and
drove the Spanish garrison out
of Brille. This success encour-
aged the Dutch and many of
the southern Netherlanders to
rise and expel the Spanish sol-
diers from their towns.

The French promise Aid. As
soon as Coligny heard the news
he urged the French king to send
an army into the Netherlands and take vengeance not
only for the massacre at Fort Caroline, but also for all the
wrongs that he and his father and his grandfather had
ever received at the hands of the Spaniards. The French
king agreed and wrote a letter to the Netherlanders
promising aid.

Massacre of Huguenots in Paris. The plan was never
carried out. While Coligny and many other Huguenots
were in Paris, his enemies attempted to kill him. When
the attempt failed these enemies, including the king's
mother, persuaded the king that Cohgny and the Hugue-
nots were plotting against him, and goaded the king into
ordering the murder of all the Huguenots in Paris and the

Gaspard de Coligny

After the portrait in the Public
Library, Geneva

228 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

other cities of France. Thousands of Huguenots per-
ished. When the Netherlander s heard of what had
befallen Coligny and his followers, they were crushed
with grief. Coligny had missed the chance of ven-
geance. But the Spanish king was soon to have other
enemies besides the Huguenots who were ready to help
the Dutch. These new enemies were the English.

The English drawn into the Conflict. The religious
troubles in England had been growing more serious.
Some of the Catholics planned to assassinate Elizabeth
in order to bring to the throne a Catholic princess who
was the next heir. Philip began to encourage these
plotters, especially after the pope in 1570 had excommuni-
cated Ehzabeth and forbidden her subjects to obey her
as queen. She was sure to be dragged into the struggle
in the Netherlands sooner or later. We have seen that
she had once sheltered the ''Beggars of the Sea." The
murder of Coligny and his followers frightened the
English and made many of them anxious to join in the con-
flict before their friends on the Continent, the French
Huguenots and the Dutch Calvinists, were utterly
destroyed.

Growth of EngUsh Trade. If England should be drawn
into war, her safety would depend mainly upon her ships.
Englishmen had always taken to the sea, as was natural
for men whose shores were washed by the Atlantic, the
Channel and the North Sea, but they were slow in build-
ing fleets of ships either for trade or for war. The trade
of the country with other peoples in the Middle Ages was
carried on mostly by foreigners. Yet since the days of

ENGLISH AND DUTCH TRIUMPH

229

Elizabeth's father and grandfather a change had taken
place. English merchants found their way to all markets.
They also made new things to sell. Refugees driven by
the religious troubles from France and the Netherlands
brought their skill to England and taught the English
how to weave fine woolens and silks.

The new English Navy. The English navy was grow-
ing. One of the new ships, The Triumph, carried 450
seamen, 50 gunners, and 200 soldiers. Besides harque-
buses for the soldiers, there were many kinds of cannon
with strange names, such as culverins, falconets, sakers,
serpentines, and rabinets.
Four of the cannon were
large enough to shoot a
cannon-ball eight inches
in diameter. But it was
on the skill and courage of
her men rather than upon
the size of her ships that
England relied for victory.

Sir Francis Drake. One
of these men was Francis
Drake. He was son of a
chaplain in the navy and
as a boy played in the
rigging of the great ships-of-war, as other boys play
in the streets. In time young Drake was apprenticed
to the skipper of a small trading vessel. Fortune
smiled on the lad early in life. His master died, and
out of love for the apprentice who had served him so

Sir Francis Drake

After the painting at Buckland Abbey,
England

230 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

well, left him the vessel. Francis Drake became thus
a shipmaster on his own account, and in time the most
popular of Queen Elizabeth's sea-captains.

Slave-Traders. He often went with his cousin, John
Hawkins, on voyages to Africa. They bought negro
slaves from slave-traders along the coast, or kidnaped
negroes whom they found, and carried them to the Spanish
planters of the West Indies. Hawkins and Drake were
as devout and humane as other men of their time. They
simply could not see any wrong in enslaving the heathen
black men in Africa. Besides, they enjoyed the wild life
of the slave-trader with its dangers and rich rewards.

Why Drake hated the Spaniards. The king of Spain
tried to keep the trade in slaves for his own merchants,
and attempted to prevent the trade of the English slavers
with the West Indies. Spanish ships-of-war ruined one
of the voyages from which Hawkins and Drake hoped
for large profits. The Spaniards won thereby the undying
hatred of Drake.

The Dragon of the Seas. It was a time, too, when
Drake's countrymen at home shared his intense hatred
of the Spaniard. While England and Spain were not at
war with one another, English and Spanish traders fought
whenever they met on the high seas. The English made
the Spanish settlements in America their special prey.
At certain times of the year Spanish ships, called govern-
ment ships, carried to Spain gold and silver — the royal
share of the products of America. Drake, like many
another of his countrymen, lay in wait to rob these ships
of their precious cargoes. He managed to gather a

ENGLISH AND DUTCH TRIUMPH

231

fortune by his cunning and courage. More than once he
was forced to bury his treasures in the sand to Hghten
his ships that they might sail the faster, and escape his
pursuers. The Spaniards came to know and to fear
Drake as the Dragon of the Seas.

Drake's Venture. Drake once formed the plan to
take a fleet into the Pacific Ocean in order to plunder the
treasure ships
where they would
be less on their
guard. A fleet of
five ships was
made ready. Con-
tributions from
wealthy merchants
and powerful no-
bles, perhaps a gift
from Queen Eliza-
beth herself, gave
him the means for
unusual luxuries in the equipment of his fleet. Skilful
musicians and rich furniture were taken on board
Drake's own ship, the Pelican, or the Golden Hind as
he afterwards christened it. The brilliant little fleet
left Plymouth in 1577. One after another of the ships
turned back or was destroyed on the long voyage of
twelve months across the Atlantic and through the
Strait of Magellan.

Beyond the Strait of Magellan. The Golden Hind
alone remained to carry out the original project. As it

Spanish Tre\sure ,Ship

232 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

entered the Pacific Ocean a furious storm drove the httle
vessel southward beyc^nd Cape Horn to the regions where
the oceans meet. No one before had sailed so far south.

The first Prizes. Drake regained control of his ship
when the storm had passed, and sailed northward along
the coast, plundering and robbing as he went. Once, as
a land-party was searching along the shore for fresh water,
it came upon a Spaniard asleep with thirteen bars of
silver beside him. His nap was disturbed long enough to
take away his burden. Further on they met another
Spaniard and an Indian boy driving a train of Peruvian
sheep laden with eight hundred pounds of silver. The
Englishmen took their place, and merrily drove the sheep
to their boats. A treasure ship, nicknamed the Spitfire,
on the way to Panama, was captured after a long chase of
nearly eight hundred miles. Drake obtained from it un-
known quantities of gold and silver. With such a rich
load, his thoughts turned to the homeward voyage.

Drake's Voyage around the World. By this time a
host of Spanish war-ships were on Drake's track. They
expected to capture him on his return through the Strait
of Magellan. Drake, now confronted with real danger,
cunningly outwitted his enemies. He and many other
Englishmen of his day were sure a passage would be
found somewhere through North America between the
Atlantic and the Pacific. Spanish, French, and English
explorers had all carried on the search for this passage.
Drake decided to return by such a route, if it were possible.
He followed the coast of California, and probably passed
that of Oregon and Washington as far as Vancouver.

234 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

When it grew colder and the coast turned to the west-
ward, he gave up the search.

After making some needed repairs in a small harbor
a few miles above the modern San Francisco, Drake set
out boldly across the Pacific to return home, as Magellan's
men had done before him, by going around the world.
He touched at the Philippines, visited the Spice Islands,
and slowly worked his way around the Cape of Good
Hope. The Golden Hind, long since given up as lost,
reached England in the fall of 1580, after nearly three
years' absence. For a second time a ship had sailed
around the world. Drake was the first Englishman to
gain the honor.

Drake's Reward. Queen Elizabeth liked the story
Drake told of outwitting and plundering Spaniards.
Arrayed in her most gorgeous robes she visited his ship,
where a banquet had been prepared. While Drake knelt
at her feet she made him a knight. And so it was that
the man whom the Spaniards called with good reason the
Master Thief of the Seas, the English called by a new
title. Sir Francis Drake, and praised as the greatest sea-
captain of the age. His ship, the Golden Hind, was
ordered to be preserved forever.

The Dutch Struggle against Spain. A few years after
Drake returned the English took a deeper interest in the
struggle between Phihp and the Dutch. Although the
Dutch had lost hope of help from the French Huguenots,
they resisted Philip's generals more boldly than ever.
The Spanish soldiers treated the towns which surren-
dered so savagely that the other towns decided it was

ENGLISH AND DUTCH TRIUMPH

235

better to die fighting than to yield The «iege of Ley-
den became famous because, after food had given out
and the inhabitants were starving their friends cut the
great dikes in order that the boats of the Beggars
of the Sea" loaded
with provisions
might be floated up
to the very walls of
the city. This unex-
pected flood also
drove away the
Spaniards. Fortu-
nately after the res-
cue of the city a
strong wind arose
and drove back the
waves so that the
dikes could again be
replaced.

The Death of
WiUiam of Orange.
King Philip had

Queen Elizabeth making Drake a
Knight

come to the conclusion that unless William of Orange
were killed the Dutch could not be conquered, and so
:: put a price on Prince WiUiam's head offering a la^g^
sum of money to any one who should kill him The first
attempts failed, but finally in 1584 he was shot.

Sir Philip Sidney. The murder of WiUiana alarmed
the EngUsh for Elizabeth's life, especially as Philip had
already aided men who were plotting against her. She

236 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

sent an army into the Netherlands to aid the Dutch,
although she had not made up her mind to attack Philip
directly. The army did not give much help to the Dutch,
but it is remembered because a noble English poet, Sir
Philip Sidney, was mortally wounded in one of the battles.
The story is told that while Sidney was riding back, tor-
tured by his wound, he became very thirsty, as wounded
men always do, and begged for a drink of water. Looking
up when it was brought to him he saw on the ground a
common soldier more sorely wounded than he. He
immediately sent the water to the soldier saying, ''Thy
necessity is greater than mine."

The Invincible Armada. The king of Spain now
decided that he could not subdue the Dutch until he had
thoroughly punished the English. He even planned to
put himself upon the English throne, claiming that he
was the heir of one of the early kings of England. Months
were spent in preparing a great fleet, an 'Invincible
Armada" which was to sail up the Channel, take on board
the Spanish army in the Netherlands, and cross over to
England. While these preparations were being made
with Philip's usual care, Sir Francis Drake swooped down
on Cadiz and burnt so much shipping and destroyed so
many supplies that the voyage had to be postponed a
year. This Drake called "singeing the king of Spain's
beard."

The Armada in the Channel. It was July, 1588, before
the "Invincible Armada" appeared off Plymouth in the
Enghsh Channel. Many of the Spanish ships were larger
than the English ships, but they were so clumsy that the

ENGLISH AND DUTCH TRIUMPH

237

English could outsail them and attack them from any
direction they chose. Moreover, the Spaniards needed
to fight close at hand in order that the soldiers armed
with ordinary guns might join in the fray. The English
kept out of range of these guns and used their heavy
cannon.

Destruction of the Armada. With the English ships

The Spanish Armada in the English Channel

After an engraving by the Society of Antiquarians following a tapestry in the
House of Lords

clinging to the flanks and rear of the Armada, the
Spaniards moved heavily up the Channel. In the nar-
rower waters between Dover and Calais the English
attacked more fiercely, and sank several Spanish vessels.
Soon the others were fleeing into the North Sea, driven
by a furious gale. Many sought to reach Spain by sail-
ing around Scotland and Ireland, and some of these ships

238 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

were dashed on the rocky shores. Only a third of Phihp's
proud fleet returned to Spain.

Effect of the Defeat of the Armada on Spain. This
was the last attempt Philip made to attack the English,
because Spain had been exhausted in the effort to collect
money and supplies for the Invincible Armada. The
war dragged on for many years, and the English attacked
and plundered Spanish vessels wherever they found them.

The Independence of the Dutch. The ruin of the
Armada also meant that the Dutch would succeed in
becoming independent of the Spanish king. Seven of
the northern provinces had already formed a union and
had begun to call themselves the United Netherlands.
They were growing richer while their neighboring prov-
inces on the south, which had decided to return to their
allegiance to Spain, grew poorer.

First Voyage of the Dutch to the East. Even while the
fight was going on the Dutch traded in places where Philip
had not permitted them to trade while he could control
them. One of these places was Lisbon, the capital of
Portugal. Here the Dutch obtained spices which the
Portuguese brought from the East Indies. But in 1580
Philip seized Portugal, and the Dutch could no longer go
to Lisbon. This made them anxious to find their way
to the East. In 1595 the first fleet set out. This
voyage was unsuccessful, but other fleets followed, until
soon the Dutch had almost driven the Portuguese, now
subjects of the king of Spain, from the Spice Islands.
Soon also Dutch sailors ventured across the Atlantic to
the shores of America.

ENGLISH AND DUTCH TRIUMPH 239

QUESTIONS

1. What country in northern Europe did Spain rule? What
name was given to those who resisted the Spanish officers in the
Netherlands? Why were they given this name?

2. What promise did Coligny make to the people of the Nether-
lands? Why was he unable to carry it out? What other people
were ready to help the Dutch? Can you give one reason at least
why the English were wilhng to help the Dutch against Spain ?

3. Why had English trade grown important? Did this help to
make a navy?

4. Why did English sailors like Drake specially hate the Spaniards?
What was Drake's method of making a living? How did he come
to go around the world in 1577-1580? How long was it since
Magellan made his voyage?

5. What did the English think of Drake ? What did the Spaniards
think of him? Why did each people think as it did?

6. Why did Philip of Spain have William of Orange killed ? Why
did this make the conquest of the Dutch even harder?

7. Why did Philip, king of Spain, try to conquer England and
make himself king of that country ? How did he try to carry out
his plan ? Why were the English victorious in the great battle with
the Armada? Where was the battle fought?

8. How did the defeat of the Armada affect Spain's war in the
Netherlands? Did all of the Netherlands become independent of
Spain?

9. What trade did the Dutch begin to carry on before their war
with Spain ended?

10. What new people became rivals of the Spaniards and French
for trade and settlements in America?

EXERCISES

1. What parts of North America did Drake visit on his famous
voyage around the world? See the map on page 233.

2. What effect did the quarrels in Europe described in Chapters
19 and 20 have upon the progress in exploring and settling America?

3. Find out whether the people of the northern Netherlands and
the southern Netherlands are still separate countries to-day.

CHAPTER XXI

THE ENGLISH PEOPLE ATTEMPT TO SETTLE

AMERICA

English Interest in America Awakened. Voyages like
those made by Sir Francis Drake awakened a desire
throughout England to learn more about the New World.
Until this time even the great discoveries of Columbus
and the Cabots had failed to stir the English people to
take part in the exploration and settlement of the Ameri-
cas. The principal teason was because their attention was
occupied by the struggle between their monarchs and the
popes to decide whether king or pope should govern the
English Church. This continued until Queen Elizabeth
had been on the throne some years.

Other sea-captains, hearing of Drake's success, now
turned their ships toward the Americas. Many went to
the West Indies, as he had done, mainly to seize the rich
plunder to be found on board the ships of Spain bound
homeward. Some of them explored the coast of North
America, hoping to find valuable regions that had not
fallen into the possession of the Spaniards .

The Northwest Passage. Martin Frobisher made
three voyages, the last in 1578, in search of a passage
through North America to China. He entered the bay
which bears his name, and the strait which was later

240

ENGLISH ATTEMPT TO SETTLE AMERICA 241
called after Hudson, but failed to find a passage Drake
attempted to find the western entrance to such a pas-
sage in 1579 as a short cut homeward when he tned to
flvoid his Spanish pursuers.

Onbert A grander scheme was planned by Humphrey
Gilbert He wished to build up another England across
the sea just as the people of Spain were buildmg up
Itther Spain. He planned to do this by estabhshmg

Charlcote Hall

An English Manor House of the time of Queen Elizabeth

farms to which he and others might -nd laborers who
could not find work at home. Queen Elizabeth hked
this plan, and to encourage him, and to repay hnn for
the expense of carrying the emigrants over, she promised
him the land for six hundred miles on each side of his

^trfof OUberfs Expedition. Gilbert tried twic.
to plant a colony in the neighborhood of the Gulf of St
Lawrence. Sir Walter Raleigh, his half-brother^ was one
of his captains in the expedition of 1578 He would
have been in the disastrous second attempt m 1583 had

242 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

not Queen Elizabeth, full of forebodings of danger to her
favorite, refused to let him go. As it was he sent a ship
at his own cost. Gilbert took a large supply of hobby-
horses and other toys with which to please the savages.
Mishap, desertion, and shipwreck pursued the luckless
commander.

The second expedition left Plymouth with five vessels
in 1583. The ship that Raleigh sent, the best in the
fleet, deserted before they were out of sight of England.
One was left in Newfoundland. The wreck of the largest
ship, with most of the provisions, off Cape Breton,
so discouraged the crews that they prevailed upon
Gilbert to abandon the plan to settle on such barren
and stormy shores. Gilbert attempted to return on
the Squirrel, the smaller of the two remaining vessels.
This was a tiny vessel of scarcely ten tons burden.
What was left of the httle fleet voyaged homeward
by the southern way, and ran into a fearful storm as it
approached the Azores.

Although Gilbert was urged to go aboard the larger
vessel, he refused to desert his companions, with whom
he had passed through so many storms and perils, and
tried to calm the fears of all by his reply, ''Do not fear.
Heaven is as near by water as by land." One night
the Squirrel suddenly sank. All on board were lost.
Such was the sad ending of the first efforts to establish
an English colony in North America.

Raleigh. Sir Walter Raleigh took up the interesting
plan which his kinsman, Gilbert, had at heart. Raleigh
was now at the height of his favor with Queen Elizabeth.

ENGLISH ATTEMPT TO SETTLE AMERICA 243

She had made him wealthy, especially by the gift of
large estates which she had taken from others. She read-
ily promised him the same privileges in America which
she had offered to Gil-
bert. Raleigh doubtless
thought that he might
increase his fortune and
win glory for himself
and for his country by
planting English colonies
in the New World. No
man of the age was bet-
ter fitted for the under-
taking. He had shown
himself a fearless soldier
and an able commander
in the war against Spain
in the Netherlands. He
had fortune, skill, and
powerful friends. Like
Gilbert, he was a friend
of poets and scholars
and a student of books; like Drake, he was a natural
leader of men.

Virginia. Raleigh began in 1584 by sending an expedi-
tion to explore the coast for a suitable site for a colony.
His men sailed by way of the Canaries, and came upon
North America in the neighborhood of Pamlico Sound,
avoiding the stormy route directly across the Atlantic
which Gilbert had followed. They found, therefore,

Sir Walter Raleigh and his Son

244 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

instead of the bleak shore of Newfoundland and Prince
Edward Island, the genial climate of North Carolina
and Virginia.

They carried home glowing reports of the country.
They were particularly pleased with an island in Pamlico
Sound called by the Indians Roanoke Island. They
noted with wonder the overhanging grape-vines loaded
with fruit, the fine cedar trees which seemed to them the
highest and reddest in the world, the great flocks of noisy
white cranes, and the numberless deer in the forests. The
Indians appeared gentle and friendly. Elizabeth was so
pleased with the accounts of the country that she allowed
it to be called Virginia after herself, the Virgin Queen,
and made Raleigh a knight.

The first English Colonists. Raleigh made several
attempts to plant a colony in Virginia. The most famous
one was led by John White in 1587. White had visited
Virginia on an earlier voyage, and painted more than
seventy pictures of Indian life, representing their dress
and their manner of living. These may still be seen in
the British Museum in London. His interest in the
country and its Indian population made his appointment
as governor seem a wise choice. Care was taken in the
selection of colonists in order to secure farmers rather
than gold-seekers. Twenty-five women and children
were included in the colony of about one hundred and
fifty persons.

Roanoke. White and his followers settled on Roanoke
Island. They found that the fort, which one of Raleigh's
officers had built some years earlier, was leveled to the

ENGLISH ATTEMPT TO SETTLE AMERICA 245

ground. Several huts were still standing, but they were
falling to pieces. The first task was to rebuild the huts
and move into them from their ships. A baby girl was
born a few days after the landing, the first child born of
English parents in
the New World.
Her father, Ana-
nias Dare, was one
of White's coun-
cilors ; her mother,
Eleanor Dare, was
the daughter of
Governor White.
The baby was
given the name
Virginia, the name
of the country
which was to be
her home.

The Colonists in
Danger. The little
colony must have foreseen the hostility of the Indians
and a scarcity of food, for before Governor White had
been in America two months, he was sent back to
England to obtain more provisions. White, from his
own account, did not wish to leave his daughter and
granddaughter.

White's Search for Aid. White returned to England
in the fall of L587 at the wrong moment to ask for aid.
All England was alarmed by the rumor that a great

Map of Raleigh's Colonies

246 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Spanish fleet was about to land an invading army. The
friends of Virginia in England were too busy protecting
their own homes from the invader to give heed to the
needs of the farmer colonists across the sea. White
traveled through England, seeking aid for his friends and
family, but was disappointed everywhere.

Why Raleigh gave no Help. Raleigh had by no means
forgotten his colonists, but his queen and his country had
the first claim on him through the long war with Spain.
Twice during this period, he found time and means to
prepare relief expeditions for Virginia. The queen
stopped the first one just as it was ready to sail, because
all the ships were needed at that moment for service in
the war. A second expedition was attacked by the
Spaniards and forced to return.

The lost Colony. White finally secured passage for
himself on a fleet going to the West Indies, not with a
fleet and relief supplies of his own, but as a passenger on
another man's ship. It was the summer of 1591 when he
arrived at Roanoke, four years after his departure. The
colonists were not to be found. Their houses were torn
down. The chests which they had evidently buried in
order to hide them from the Indians had been dug up and
ransacked of everything of value. White's own papers
which he had left behind were strewn about. His pictures
and maps were torn and rotten with the rain. His
armor was almost eaten through with rust.

One trace of the fate of the settlers was left. The large
letters CROATOAN were carved on a tree near the
entrance to the old fort. White recalled the agreement

ENGLISH ATTEMPT TO SETTLE AMERICA 247

made when he left four years before. If the colonists
should find it necessary to leave Roanoke, they were to
carve on a tree the name of the place to which they were
going. If they were in danger or distress when they left,
they were to carve a

cross over the name

of the place. White

found no cross. The

word Croatoan was

the name of a small

island lying south

of Cape Hatteras,

where Indians lived

who were known to

be friendly. White

believed his friends

to be safe among the

Indians at Croatoan,

but he could not go

farther in search for

them because the

captains of the ships

which brought him

over refused to delay longer. They gave many excuses,

but were evidently more eager to attack the Spaniards

than to find a few luckless emigrants.

The fate of Raleigh's colony is one of the puzzles of
history. It is believed that they took refuge with friendly
Indians, and lived with them until they lost their lives
in war or had adopted the ways of their protectors.

An Indian Village in 1589

After a drawing by John White, now in the British
Museum

248 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

Value of the Efforts of the English and the French.

Raleigh had failed to carry out his great plan to plant a
new England in America, but he had awakened in his
countrymen an interest in America, and made known the
advantages of its soil and climate. The French had
apparently made no greater headway. Cartier's colony
on the St. Lawrence had broken up, and the Spaniards
had driven the French colony from Florida. The history
of Coligny's colony at Fort Caroline, Cartier's at Quebec,
Gilbert's on the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and
Raleigh's at Roanoke, had shown how useless were
attempts to settle in America which were not strongly
supported by friends or by the home government. These
attempts to plant colonies in America were not, however,
as bad failures as they appeared. Both nations had
learned much about the country and about the prepara-
tions needed for permanent settlements.

What the Spanish had accomplished. In 1600 Spain
seemed to have achieved much more than either of her
rivals. The map of that time shows Spain in possession
of vast territories in North and South America. The
Enghsh had a small tract, Virginia, in which they had
some interest but no colonists. The French regarded
the St. Lawrence valley as theirs by right of discovery,
but they could point to no settlements to clinch that
claim.

The Spaniards, on the other hand, counted more
than two hundred cities and towns which they had
planted in their territories. About two hundred thou-
sand Spaniards, farmers, miners, traders, soldiers, and

250 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

nobles, had either migrated from Spain to America or
had been born there of emigrants since Columbus's
discovery. Five million Indians had come under their
rule, and most of them were living as civilized men, and
called themselves Christians. One hundred and forty
thousand negro slaves had been carried from Africa to
the plantations and mines in Spanish America.

The City of Mexico, the largest in all America, was
much like the cities of Spain. Well-built houses of wood,
stone, and mason-work abounded. Churches, monas-
teries, a university, higher schools for boys and girls,
four hospitals, of which one was for Indians, and public
buildings, similar to those in the cities of old Spain,
already existed. Spanish life and Spanish culture had
spread over a large area in the New World, and the most
remarkable fact was that the Old World civilization had
been bestowed on the Indian population. As Roman
culture went into Spain and Gaul, so Spanish culture
went into a New Spain in a new world.

The Prospects of the Spanish Colonies. But the out-
look for Spain in America was not wholly bright. Her
struggle with her Dutch subjects and the war with Eng-
land, which grew out of that quarrel, left her completely
worn out. She no longer had the people to spare for
American settlements. These ceased to grow as they
once had. Negroes and Indians outnumbered the Span-
iards in most of them. The three races mingled together
and intermarried until a new people, the Spanish Ameri-
can, differing in color and blood from either of the old
races, was formed.

ENGLISH ATTEMPT TO SETTLE AMERICA 251

The later Story of Colonization. Spain's rivals — the
Dutch, the English, and the French — were just reaching
the height of their power. They had settled their most
serious religious differences. Their merchants were eagerly
looking about for commercial opportunities. A con-
siderable population in each of them, but more especially
in England, was discontented and ready to try its fortunes
in a new world. . The Spaniards had passed by the best
parts of North America as worthless. The people and
the unoccupied land were both ready for the formation of
colonies on a larger scale. In many ways a greater story
of American colonization remains to be told. This will
be the story of the Dutch, the French, and the EngUsh
colonization of North America.

QUESTIONS

1. Why had the English people not taken more interest in
America before Drake's time? What finally made the English sea-
captains turn to American adventure and exploration?

2. What did Gilbert attempt to do? How many reasons can you
find for his failure?

3. Why was Raleigh specially fitted to begin the task of planting
English colonies in America? What part of North America did his
men select for a settlement? Why did it seem a suitable place?
What name was given to the country?

4. Why did Raleigh fail to help his colony at Roanoke? What
did White think had happened to them? Why didn't he go in
search of them?

5. Why had the French and the English been unsuccessful in
their efforts to settle North America? Had they really gained any-
thing from all their efforts?

6. What had Spain accomplished since the voyage by Columbus?
Why were the prospects of Spain not so bright as they had been?
What rivals were ready to begin colonies in America?

252 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

EXERCISES

1. How much territory was Queen Elizabeth wiUing to give
Gilbert for his plan in North America? Was there this much
(twelve hundred miles) of the Atlantic coast of North America
unclaimed by the French and the Spaniards?

2. Find Roanoke Island on the map, page 245.

3. Name the regions in the New World and the East claimed by
the Enghsh, French, Portuguese, and Spaniards after a century of
discovery and exploration (1492-1600). See the map, page 249.
What parts of North America were still unknown? With the use
of some map of the world to-day make a list of the colonies of the
same countries now.

REVIEW

1. Prepare a list of the men who took the chief part in discover-
ing the New World, and give for each the name of the region he
found.

2. What had the Greeks learned to do, the knowledge of which
they carried into Italy? What more had the Romans learned to
do, the knowledge of which they carried into Spain and Gaul and
Britain? What more had the Spaniards, the French, and the Eng-
lish learned to do, the knowledge of which they either were already,
as in the case of Spain, carrying into Spanish America, or, in the
case of England and France, were prepared to carry into North
America?

REFERENCES FOR TEACHERS

The following references are given in the hope that they will be helpful
to the teacher. The list is by no means exhaustive, but enough are given
so that one or more books for each subject should be found in any fairly
equipped school or public library. Some of these books may be assigned
to the brighter or more ambitious members of the class for home read-
ings. Extracts from others may be read to the class directly. Still
others will furnish the teacher a variety of stories or fuller statements of
fact upon matters treated briefly in the text. A Bibliography of History
for Schools and Libraries by Andrews, Gambrill and Tall (Longmans,
1911), will give many more references and further information regarding
those that are given here.

A. ANCIENT TIMES. The Greek People. (For use with chapters
ii, iii, and iv.)

(a) Histories of the Greeks.

Holm, History of the Greeks, 4 volumes, is the most trustworthy
history of the Greeks. Bury, A History of Greece, 2 volumes;
Botsford, History of the Ancient. World; Goodspeed, History of
the Ancient World; Myers, Ancient History; Wolfson, Essentials
in Ancient History; and West, Ancient World, have brief accounts
of the Greeks.

(6) Versions of some famous old Greek stories, especially the story of
Hercules and his Labors, the Search for the Golden Fleece, the
Trojan War, and the Wanderings of Ulysses.

A. J. Church, Stories from Homer; C. M. Gayley, Classical
Myths; H. A. Guerber, Myths of Greece and Rome; and the same
author's The Story of the Greeks; Haaren and Poland, Famous
Men of Greece; C. H. and S. B. Harding, Stories of Greek Gods,
Heroes and Men; Charles Kingsley, Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales.
Hawthorne, in Tanglewood Tales, has retold the story of the Search
for the Golden Fleece in a specially interesting manner. Bryant's
translation of the Odyssey is one of the best known versions
of that story and may generally be found in public libraries.

(c) Short Biographies of some Greek Heroes. Short accounts of the
lives of such heroes as Miltiades, Themistocles, Socrates, Alexander,
253

254 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

and Demosthenes will be found in Cox, Lives of Greek Statesmen;
Haaren and Poland, Famous Men of Greece; Jennie Hall, Men of
Old Greece; Harding, Stories of Greek Gods, Heroes and Men; E.
M. Tappan, The Story of the Greek People; and Plutarch's Lives.
There are several abridged editions of the latter, but those by
C. E. Byles, Greek I-iives from Plutarch, and Edwin Ginn,
Plutarch's Lives, are best adapted to the iise of schools.

(d) Various features of Greek Life, as the home, the schools, food,
clothing, occupations, amusements, or government have been de-
scribed in the books on Greek Life.

Among these are Bliimner, Home Life of the Ancient Greeks
(translated by Alice Zimmern); C. B. Guhck, The Life of the
Ancient Greeks; Mahaffy, Social Life in Greece; and T. G.
Tucker, Life in Ancient Athens.

(e) Descriptions of Athens and Alexandria. Descriptions of these
great centers of Greek civilization will be found in any history of
Greece; that in Gulick, Life of the Ancient Greeks, ch. 2, or Tucker,
Life in Ancient Athens, for Athens, and in Draper, Intellectual
Development of Europe, I, pp. 187-204, for Alexandria, will serve
the purpose.

(/) A description of the battle of Marathon, abridged from the His-
tory of the World by Herodotus, will be found in F. M. Fling's
Source Book of Greek History. This little book gives many
incidents in Greek History as the Greek writers told them.

(g) A description of the materials, methods of building, decoration
of public buildings, and the uses of the temples, theaters, gymnasia,
and stadia in Fowler and Wheeler's Greek Archaeology, ch. 2; and
Tarbell's History of Greek Art.

(/i) Some may wish to read the careful statement in Holm's History
of the Greeks, Vol. I, pp. 103-121, on the Truth about the Old
Greek Legends, or the same author's account. Vol. I, pp. 272-295,
of Emigration to the Colonies in the Olden Day.

B. ANCIENT TIMES. The Roman People. (For use with chap-
ters V, vi, vii, viii and ix.)
(a) Histories of the Romans.

Either Botsford, History of Rome; Pelham, Outlines of Roman
History; How and Leigh, History of Rome; or Schuckburgh,
History of Rome; though the last two do not cover the entire
period of Roman history. Duruy, History of Rome, 8 volumes,
is attractive in style and supplied with a great variety of pictures
and other illustrative matter.

REFERENCES FOR TEACHERS 255

Botsford, History of the Ancient World; Goodspeed, History of
the Ancient World; Myers, Ancient History; Wolf son, Essentials
in Ancient History; and West, Ancient World, give short accounts
of the chief events in Roman history.
(6) Versions of famous old Roman stories, especially the wanderings
of Aeneas, the Story of Romulus and Remus, of the Sabine
Women, Horatius at the Bridge, and Cincinnatus.

A. J. Church, Stories from Virgil; C. M. Gayley, Classical
Myths; H. A. Guerber, Myths of Greece and Rome; the same
author's Story of the Romans; Haaren and Poland, Famous Men
of Rome; and Harding, City of Seven Hills. Macaulay, Lays of
Ancient Rome, gives the story of Horatius at the Bridge, together
with several other stories from early Roman history.

(c) Versions of the Gennan myths about Odin {Wodan), Thor, Freya,
and Tyr (Tiw). CM. Gayley, Classical Myths; Guerber, Myths of
Northern Lands; Haaren and Poland, Famous Men of the Middle
Ages; Mary E. Litchfield, The Nine Worlds; H. W. Mabie, Norse
Stories; Eva March Tappan, European Hero Stories; Alice Zim-
mern, Gods and Heroes of the North.

(d) The Story of Hermann (or the struggle between the Romans and
Germans) is told by Arthur Gilman, Magna Charta Stories, pp.
139-155; and by Maude B. Button, Little Stories of Germany.

(e) Short Biographies of some famous Romans. Short accounts of
the lives of Romulus, the Gracchi, Caesar, Cicero, and Constantine
are given in Haaren and Poland, Famous Men of Rome; Harding,
The City of Seven Hills; and several of them in Plutarch's Lives.
A simple account of the Life of Hannibal, the Carthaginian enemy
of Rome, will also be found in these books.

(J) Interesting phases of Roman Life : for example, the Roman boy,
country life in Italy, the Roman house, traveling, amusements, etc.
See W. W. Fowler, Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero; H. W.
Johnston, The Private Life of the Romans; S. B. Platner, To-
pography and Monuments of Ancient Rome; T. G. Tucker, Life in
the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul. Many phases of Roman
life are described in F. M. Crawford's Ave Roma.

(g) For descriptions of incidents in Roman history and phases of
Roman life as the Greek and Roman writers told them, see Bots-
ford, Story of Rome, and Munro, Source Book of Roman History.

C. THE MIDDLE AGES. (For use with chapters x, xi, xii, and xiii.)

(a) Histories of the people of Europe in the Middle Ages. G. B.. Adams,

Growth of the French Nation; U. R. Burke, A History of Spain

256 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

from the Earliest Times to the Death of Ferdinand the Catholic; J. R.
Green, Short History of the English people; E. F. Henderson,
A Short History of Germany ; H. D. Sedgwick, A Short ^History
of Italy.
(6) Collection of stories adapted to children of the grades: The Story of
Beowulf, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the
Treasure of the Niebelungs, and of Roland. These stories have all
been written many times, and any librarian can give the reader
copies of them as told by several writers. The following is a partial
list only:

A. J. Church, Heroes and Romances; E. G. Crommelin, Famous
Legends Adapted for Children; H. A. Guerber, Legends of the
Middle Ages; Louise Maitland, Heroes of Chivalry; and Eva March
Tappan, European Hero Stories; James Baldwin, The Story of
Roland; Frances N. Greene, Legends of King Arthur and His
Court; Florence Holbrook, Northland Heroes (Beowulf); Sidney
Lanier, The Boy's King Arthur; Stevens and Allen, King Ai-thur
Stories from Malory,
(c) Famous Men of the Middle Ages; for example, Charlemagne,
King Alfred, Rollo the Viking, William the Conqueror, Frederick
Barbarossa, Richard the Lion-Hearted, King John, Saint Louis of
France, Marco Polo, and Gutenberg.

See A. F. Blaisdell, Stories from English History; Louise Creigh-
ton. Stories from English History; Maude B. Dutton, Little Stories
of Germany; H. A. Guerber, The Story of the English; Haaren
and Poland, Famous Men of the Middle Ages; Harding, The
Story of the Middle Ages; S. B. Harding and W. F. Harding, The
Story of England; M. F. Lansing, Barbarian and Noble; A. M.
Mowry, First Steps in the History of England; L. N. Pitman, Stories
of Old France; Eva March Tappan, European Hero Stories; H. P.
Warren, Stories from English History; Bates and Coman, English
History as told by the Poets. Edward Atherton, The Adventures
of Marco Polo, the Great Traveler, is a convenient modernized
version of Polo's own story of his travels. Marco Polo's descrip-
tion of Japan and Java has been reprinted in Old South Leaflets,
Vol. II, No. 32.
{d) Viking Tales. The interesting stories of the Northern discoveries
and explorations have been told many times. Jennie Hall, Viking
Tales, includes the story of Eric the Red, Leif the Lucky, and the
attempt to settle in Vinland (Wineland).
(e) The Trial of Criminals in the Middle Ages — Ordeals. Other
kinds of Ordeals than those described in this book will be obtained

REFERENCES FOR TEACHERS 257

in Ogg, Source Book of Mediaeval History, pp. 196-202; Pennsylvania
Translations and Reprints, Vol. IV, No. 4. pp. 7-16; or in Thatcher
and McNeal, Source Book, pp. 401-412. See Emerton, Introduc-
tion to the Middle Ages, pp. 79-81, for excellent explanation of
mediaeval methods of trial.

(/) Famous accounts of how the People of England won the Magna Charta.

Use either Cheyney, Readings in English History, pp. 179-181;

Kendall, Source Book of English History, pp. 72-78; Robinson,

Readings in European History, Vol. I, pp. 231-333; or Ogg, Source

Book of Mediaeval History, pp. 297-303.

(g) Simple descriptions of Mediaeval Life. Maude B. Dutton, Little
Stories of Germany; for example, the chapters on How a Page be-
came a Knight, and A Mediaeval Town. S. B. Harding, The Story
of the Middle Ages, especially the chapters describing life in castle,
life in village, and life in monastery. Eva March Tappan, Euro-
pean Hero Stories, especially the topic. Life in Middle Ages, p.
118, the Crusades, p. 136, and Winning the Magna Charta, p. 111.

D. THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN TIMES. The Discovery
OF America. (For use with chapters xiv to xxi inclusive.)

(a) Histories of American Discoveries and Explorations. E. G. Bourne,
Spain in America; Fiske, Discovery of America, 2 volumes; and
Parkman, Pioneers of France in the New World.

(6) Short, easy biographies of famous explorers. (Da Gama, Columbus,
Magellan, De Soto, Coronado, Cartier, Drake, and Raleigh.)

Foote and Skinner, Explorers and Founders of America; W. F.
Gordy, Stories of American Explorers; W. E. Griffis, The Romance
of Discovery; Haaren and Poland, Famous Men of Modern Times;
Higginson, Young Folks' Book of American Explorers; Jeannette
B. Hodgdon, A First Course in American History, Book I; W. H.
Johnson, The World's Discoverers, 2 volumes; Lawyer, The Story
of Columbus and Magellan; Lummis, The Spanish Pioneers; Mara
L. Pratt, America's Story for America's Children, Book 2; Gertrude
V. D. Southworth, Builders of our Country, Book I; Rosa V.
Winterburn, The Spanish in the Southwest.

Columbus' own account of his discovery of America is in Hart,
Source Readers in American History, No. 1, pp. 4-7. Early
accounts of John Cabot's discovery and of Drake's Voyage in Hart,
Source Readers, No. I, pp. 7-10, 23-25. The Death and Burial of De
Soto as described by one of his followers, in Hart, Source Readers, pp.
16-19. The Old South Leaflets, No. 20, Coronado; Nos. 29 and

258 INTRODUCTORY AMERICAN HISTORY

31, Columbus; No. 31, the Voyages to Vinland; No. 35, Cortes'
Account of the City of Mexico; No. 36, The Death of De Soto;
Nos. 37 and 115, the Voyages of the Cabots; No. 89, The Found-
ing of St. Augustine; No. 92, The First Voyage to Roanoke; No. 102,
Columbus' Account of Cuba; No. 116, Sir Francis Drake on the
Coast of California; No. 118, Gilbert's Expedition; No. 119,
Raleigh's Colony at Roanoke.
{d) The Stories of Indian Life in Spanish America, of Cortes, Coronado,
and the Seven Cities of Cibola, and of the Missions. (See Rosa
V. Winterburn, The Spanish in the Southwest.)

INDEX

Acropolis, 18, 20.

Africa, explored, 142-144.

Aldine Press, 128.

Alexander the Great, 7, 37.

Alexandria, founded, 7, 37, 38;

end of trade route, 133.
Alfred, King, 94, 100-102.
Alps, Hannibal crosses, 51-52.
Alva, in Netherlands, 226.
America, discovered by Columbus,

156; origin of name, 160-162.
Amphitheatre, at Rome, 74; Aries,

90.
Anglo-Saxons, 89, 91-92.
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 101-102.
Apollo, 32.
Aqueducts, Roman, 72-73; Aztec,

170.
Arabic numerals, 121.
Arabs, 86, 121-122; see Moham-
medans.
Arches, Roman, 74, 76; triumphal,

77; Gothic, 123; in Renaissance,

128.
Architecture, Greek, 18-24, 55;

Roman, 74-77; early Church,

76; Mediaeval, 102, 122-125;

Renaissance, 128-129.
Aristocracy, origin of, 113.
Armada (ar-ma'da), expedition of,

236.
Arms, Athenian, 13; GalUc, 60;

Mediaeval, 114-115; Aztec, 171.
Arthur, King, 100.

Astrolabe, 137-138.

Athena, 19.

Athens, 12, 16, 17, 18, 27-29, 34, 37.

Augustus, Emperor, 64, 70.

Azores, 138.

Aztecs, 170, 173.

Bahama Islands, 152.

Balbo'a, 163-164.

BasiUcas, 76.

Bayeux tgtpestry (ba-yu), 103.

Beggars of the Sea, 226, 235.

Black Sea, 34, 134.

Bologna (bo-lon'ya). University of,

120.
Boniface, 92-93.
Books, Greek, 25; carried to Italy,

126; see printing, 127-128.
Borromeo (bor-ro-m6'o), 208.
Boxing, Greek, 26.
Britain, 36, 58, 63-64; name

changed to England, 86, 89, 91.
Byzantium (bl-zan'shi-um) , founded,

7, 34; named Constantinople, 83.
Cabot, John, voyage to New

World, 159.
Cabot, Sebastian, 160.
Cffisar, Juhus, 61-64, 69-70.
Calvin, John, 208-209.
Cambridge, University of, 120.
Canary Islands, 138, 148.
Cannae, battle of, 53.
Canterbury, 92.
Cape of Good Hope, 143, 144, 168,

234.

259

260

INDEX

Cape Horn, 232.

Caroline, Fort, settlement, 218;

destroyed, 222.
Carthaginians, 40, 49-53.
Cartier, Jacques (kar"tya'), 216-218.
Castles, 110-114.
Cathedrals, 102, 123-124.
Caudine Forks, 42-44.
Caxton, Wilham, 128.
Census, Roman, 47.
Charles V of Germany (Charles I

of Spain), 166, 180, 206-207,

208.
Charybdis (ka-rib'dis), 35.
China, 137-140, 154-156.
Christianity, 81-84, 91-93.
Cibola, see Seven Cities.
Cincinnatus, 41.
Clergy, 110-111.
Cohgny (ko'len'ye"), 218, 227.
Colonies, Greek, 32-36, 40, 44, 66;

Roman, 47, 54; Spanish, 177-

182, 220, 248-250; French, 216-

224; English, 243-248.
Colorado, Canyon of, 198.
Colosseum, 74-75, 90.
Columbus, Christopher, 38, 117,

141; discoveries of, 146-158;

161-164, 168.
Compass, origin of, 137.
Constantine, 83.
Constantinople, founded, 7, 34, 83;

renamed, 89; educated men of,

91, 93; taken by Turks, 126, 127.
Consuls, at Rome, 46.
Corinth, 17.

Corinthian pillars, 21-22.
Coronado, Francisco, 194-203.
Cortes, Hernando, conquest of

Mexico, 172-175.
Courts, Greek, 28-29; English,

103-105.

Crusades, 135.

Cuba, 153-154, 180, 186.

Cumse, 35.

Danes, 93-94, 100, 102; see North-
men, Normans.

Dare, Virginia, 245.

Delphi, 32, 34.

Demosthenes (de-mos'the-nez), 28.

De Soto, Fernando, 186-193.

Diaz, Bartholomew, 143-144.

Discus thrower, 24, 26.

Doric pillars, 21.

Drake, Sir Francis, adventures in
America, 229-232; voyage around
world, 232-234; attack on Spain,
236.

Duke, origin of word, 59.

Dutch, 211-212; war for inde-
pendence, 226-227, 234-236, 238.

East, The, defined, 133; search for
sea routes, 141-142, 146-157.

Education, Greek, 25-26; Roman,
45, 56; Mediaeval, 93, 114, 119-
122.

Egyptians, 4.

Ehzabeth, Queen, 213-214, 228,
231, 241.

Emigrants, Americans as, 1-3;
Spanish, 177, 178, 183.

England, first known, 36; inhabited
by Britons, 58; conquered by
Romans, 63-64; name, 86, 89;
christianized, 91-92; Danes in,
94; in Middle Ages, 100-108,
110, 111; aids Dutch, 228; navy,
229; war with Spain, 236-238.

English explorations and colonies,
159, 240-248.

English language, origin, 8-9, 100,
118.

Erasmus, 128.

Eric the Red, 95-96.

INDEX

261

Espaiiola (es-pan-yo'la), 154, 155,
156, 180.

Euclid, 38.

Fairs, Mediaeval, 132-133.

Ferdinand, King, 148.

Florida, origin of name, 185; ex-
ploration, 186-187; St. Augus-
tine in, 220-221.

France, see Gauls, 36, 41; name,
86, 89; Danes in, 94-95; in
Middle Ages, 110, 123; sailors
of, 204; colonies in America,
216-224.

Francis I, King, 206.

French language, 9-10, 118.

Friar Marcos, 194.

Friday, origin of name, 60

Frieze, 20.

Frobisher, Martin, 240.

Gama, Vasco da, 144.

Games, Greek, 26; Roman, 45, 55.

Gauls, 41-42, 58-64, 89.

Genoa, 117, 134, 138, 147.

Germany, language, 8, 118; early,
58-61, 63-64; name, 86; early
emigrants from, 87-89; mission-
aries to, 92-93.

Gilbert, Humphrey, 241-242.

Girgenti (jer-jen'te), temple at, 20.

Gladiators, 55.

Gothic architecture, 123-124.

Gothic type, 128.

Goths, 88-89, 91.

Government, at Athens, 27-28;
at Rome, 46-47, 69-70, 108; in
England, 107-108.

Gracchi, Tiberius and Caius, 69.

Great Charter, 105-106.

Greece, language of, 8-10, 37-38,
56-57, 89-91, 122-127; early
history, 11-17; manner of living
in, 18-29; colonies, 31-38; rivals.

40; conquered by Rome, 54; and

the Renaissance, 126-129.
Greenland, 95-96.
Gregory, Pope, 91-92.
Guam, 166.
Guilds, 116.
Gutenberg (goo't6n-b6rk), John,

127, 128.
Gymnasium, Greek, 23, 26.
Hannibal, 50-53.
Hawkins, John, 230.
Hayti, see Espanola.
Henry, Prince, the Navigator,

142.
Henry II, of England, 103-105.
Henry VIII, of England, 212-

213.
Hercules, 11.
Hermann, 64.
Hermes, 24.
Herod'otus, 31.
Homer, 25, 57.
Horatius, 40.
House of Commons, 108.
House of Lords, 108.
Houses, Greek, 18; Roman, 56;

Aztec, 170; in Cibola, 197; in

Quivira, 201.
Huguenots (hu-ge-nots), origin of,

209; in America, 218-224; and

Dutch, 227.
Iceland, 95-96.
Incas, 176-177.
India, 37, 144, 153, 167.
Indians, discovered by Columbus,

152; origin of name, 153; of

Mexico, 170-175; of Peru, 176-

177; as slaves, 154, 178-180;

missions to, 182-3; and De Soto,

188-190, 192; in Cibola, 197;

in Quivira, 201; at Roanoke,

246-248.

262

INDEX

Indies, 149, 153, 159, 164.

Ionic pillars, 21.

Isabella, Queen of Spain, 148.

Isabella, town in Espanola, 156.

Italic type, 128.

Italy, 35, 44-45, 47, 49, 54, 86-87,
110-111; Greeks in, 35; Romans
masters of, 44-45, 47; farmers
in, 54; Goths invade, 89; Medi-
aeval, 110-111; Renaissance in,
125-129.

Japan, 141, 147, 153.

Jerusalem, 105.

Jews, 80-82.

John, King of England, 105-106.

Jury, origin of, 104-105.

Justice, Greek, 28; English, 103-
105.

Justinian, 77.

Karlsefni (karl'sef-ne), 96.

Knights, 114-115.

Las Ca'sas, 180-182.

Latin, words, 9, 10; hterature, 56;
learned by the Gauls, 64; in
Middle Ages, 93, 101, 118, 119;
in Renaissance, 126, 127.

Law, Roman, 45, 46, 77-78; Eng-
lish, 102-104.

Leif Ericson, 95-97.

London, 7, 24.

Loyola, Ignatius (lo-yo'lii), 208.

Luther, Martin, 208-209.

Madei'ra Islands, 138.

Magellan, 165-168.

Magellan, Strait of, 166, 232

Magna Charta, 105-106.

Marathon, 11-15.

Marco Polo, 138-140.

Marseilles (mar-salz'), 7, 36.

Mary, Queen of England, 213.

Menendez, Pedro, (ma-nen'dath),
220-224.

Mexico, conquest of, 170-175, 178,

181-183, 193, 195, 202, 250.
Michel Angelo (mi"kel-an'je-lo),

129.
Middle Ages, defined, 5, 86; close,

125.
Miltiades (mil-tl'a-dez), 14.
Missionaries, 88, 91-93, 95.
Missions, Spanish, 181-183, 250.
Mississippi River, discovery of, 190.
Modern Times, defined, 5.
Mohammedans, 86, 105, 121-122,

135.
Moluccas, 133.
Monasteries, 84, 110-111.
Mongol Tartars, 138-139.
Montezuma, King of Aztecs, 172-

174.
Montreal, 216.
Moors, 86, 142, 148.
Mosaics, 78.
Naples, 35.
Navy, English, 102, 229; in battle

against the Armada, 236-237.
Netherlands, revolt of, 209-212,

226-227, 234-236, 238.
New Testament, Greek, 37; first

printed, 128.
Nobles, 110-115.
Norman architecture, 123.
Norman Conquest, 102-103.
Normans, 95, 102.
Northmen, 60, 93-97.
Notre Dame (no'tr' dam'), in Paris,

123.
Odin, 60..

Olympia, 23, 24, 26, 27.
Olympic games, 26-27.
Ordeals, 103-104.
Oxford, University of, 120.
Pacific Ocean, 163, 166, 232-234.
Paestum (pes'ttim), 20, 35.

INDEX

263

Paintings, Greek, 25.

Panama, 163, 175.

Pan'theon, 75.

Papyrus (pa-pi 'rus), 25.

Paris, 7, 24, 120.

Parliament, English, origin of, 107-
108. .

Par'thenon, 19-20, 24.

Patagonia, 166.

Patricians, 46.

Paul, the Apostle, 81.

Peasants, 110-115.

Pediment, 20.

Persia, 11-16, 37.

Peru, conquest of, 175-177.

Petrarch (pe'trark), 125-126.

Pheidippides (fi-dip'e-dez), 12, 15.

Philip II, 209-212, 226, 238.

Philippines, 166, 234.

Phoenicia, 40.

Pizarro, Francisco (pi-thar'ro), con-
quest of Peru, 175-177.

Plata^ans, 12, 14.

Plato, 27.

Plebeians, 46, 47.

Pompeii (pom-pa'ye), 8.

Pompey, 69.

Ponce de Leon (pon'tha da la-on'),
185-186.

Pope, the Bishop of Rome, 84.

Porticoes, 23-24.

Portugal, sailors of, 138, 142-144,
146, 148, 165; and the New
World, 205.

Potato, found by Magellan, 166.

Pottery, Greek, 13, 25, 27; Aztec,
170; Zuiii, 198.

Printing, invented, 127-128.

Ptolemy (tol'e-mi), 38.

Pyrrhus (pirTis), 44.

Quebec, 216-217.

Quivira, 200-201.

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 241-248.

Renaissance (ren"e-sans'), 124-129.

Richard, the Lionhearted, 105.

Roads, Roman, 71-72.

Roanoke, 243-248.

Roman Empire, size, 66; origin, 70.

Roman type, 128.

Romans, language, see Latin; early,
11; contact with Greeks, 35, 37,
40; wars in Italy, 41-45; early
manner of living, 45-47, 55-56;
war with Carthage, 49-54; con-
quer Gaul and Britain, 59-66;
Empire of, 69-70; civihzation of,
70-78; Christianized, 82-83;
empire ruined, 86, 88-89; litera-
ture of, influence, 125-127.

Romanesque architecture, 123.

Romulus, 40.

Salamis, 16.

Samnites, 43-44.

San Salvador, 152.

St. Augustine, 220-221.

Sardinia, 50.

Saxons, 101.

Sculpture, Greek, 24.

Scylla (sil'a), 35.

Senators, at Rome, 46, 69.

Seven Cities of Cibola, 193-198.

Shakespeare, 215.

Ships, Greek, 36; early English,
102; Venetian, 135-136; of Co-
lumbus, 148-150; of English
navy, 229.

Sicily, 35, 40, 49, 54.

Sidney, Sir Philip, 235-236.

Simon de Montfort, 107.

Slaves, Greek, 27; Roriian, 45, 46,
55; Indians as, 178-181; Negroes
as, 180, 181.

Slave-trade, Spanish, 181; Enghsh,
230.

INDEX

264

Socrates (s6k'ra-tez), 28-29
Spain, early settlements m 36, 40,
50- Romans capture, b6, t)4,
name, 86; Arabs in, 121-122,
148- Columbus and, 146-it)/,
claim to New World, 20^205;
colonies of, 154, 156, 177-179
220-224 248-251; war with
Netherlands, 226-227, 238; war
with England, 236-238.

Spice trade, 133, 135, 147, 168, 234.

Stadium, 23.
Statues, Greek, 24, 129.
Temples, Greek, 19.
Theater, Greek, 22; early Roman,
45; later, 56.

Thebes, 17. ,^-^^r

Themistocles (the-mis'to-klez) , 16.
Thermopylae (ther-mop'i-le), 16.
These'um, 20.
Thor, 60.

Thursday, origin of name, 60.

"Tin Islands," 32,36.

Towns, in Middle Ages, 116-11/.

Trade, Mediaeval, 132-135.

Trade-winds, 204.

Trebia, battle of, 52-53.

Trial by battle, 104.

Tribune, Roman, 47.

Trireme, 36.

Troy, 11, 25.

Turks, 86, 126, 127, 142.

"Twelve Tables," 45, 46.

Tyre, 40.

Ulfilas, 88, 91.

Ulysses, 11, 25.

Universities, 120-122.

Venice, 117, 119, 134-136.

Venus of Melos, 24.

Vercinget'orix, 61-63.

Vespucius, Americus, 161-164.

Veto, at Rome, 47.

Vikings, 93-97.

Vinland, 96-97.

Virginia, origm of name, 24d ^44,
colony in, 244-248.

Watling Island, 152.

Wednesday, origin of ^ame 60_
West Indies, 153-156, 160, 164, 170,

178, 180, 218, 230.
White, John, 244-248.
William the Conqueror,
WiUiam of Orange,

235.
Wodan, 60.
Women, Roman, 45-46.

Words, 8-10.

Writing, art of, 4.

Xerxes (zurk'zez), 16.

Zuni, 198.

102.
212,

226,

JUN 1 1312

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