principal objects of nature had special names, but abstract ideas could hardly be expressed. Indian words had a very intense meaning. There was, for instance, no word signifying to hunt or to fish; but one word signified "to-kill-a-deer-with-an-arrow;" another, "to-take-fish-by-striking-the-ice." Among some of the tribes, the meaning of words was so restricted that the warrior would use one term and the squaw another to express the same idea.

13. The Indians were generally serious in manners and behavior. Sometimes, however, they gave themselves up to merry-making and hilarity. The dance was universal-not the social dance of civilized nations, but the solemn dance of religion and of war. Gaming was much practiced among all the tribes. Other amusements were common, such as running, wrestling, shooting at a mark, and racing in

canoes.

14. In personal appearance the Indians were strongly marked. In stature they were below the average of Europeans. The Esquimaux are rarely five feet high. The Algonquins are taller and lighter in build; straight and agile; lean and swift of foot. The eyes are jet-black and sunken; hair black and straight; skin copper-colored or brown; hands and feet small; body lithe, but not strong; expression sinister, or sometimes dignified and noble.

15. The best hopes of the Indian race seem now to center in the Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Chickasaws of the Indian Territory. These nations have attained a considerable degree of civilization. Most of the other tribes are declining in numbers and influence. Whether the Indians have been justly deprived of the New World will remain a subject of debate; that they have been deprived can be none. The White races have taken possession of the vast domain. To the prairies and forests, the hunting-grounds of his fathers, the Red man says farewell.

RECAPITULATION.

The name Indian.-Origin of the race considered.-Not Israelites.-Not Europeans.-Devotion of the Indians to the chase.-The Esquimaux.-Their position and habits.-The Algonquins.-Their character.-The Huron-Iroquois.Cherokees and Mobilians.-The Dakotas.-Races of the West.-Indian principles of war.-Disposition in peace.-Indian arts.-Implements.-Writing.--Language. -Manners and customs.-Personal appearance.-Decline of the race.

PART II.

VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY.

A. D. 986-1607.

CHAPTER II.

THE ICELANDERS AND NORWEGIANS IN AMERICA.

THE

HE western continent was first seen by white men in A. D. 986. A Norse navigator by the name of HERJULFSON, sailing from Iceland to Greenland, was caught in a storm and driven westward to Newfoundland or Labrador. Two or three times the shores were seen, but no landing was made or attempted. The coast was low, abounding in forests, and so different from the wellknown cliffs of Greenland as to make it certain that another shore hitherto unknown was in sight. On reaching Greenland, Herjulfson and his companions told wonderful stories of the new lands seen in the west.

2. Fourteen years later, the actual discovery of America was made by LEIF ERICKSON. Resolving to know the truth about the country which Herjulfson had seen, he sailed westward from Greenland, and in the spring of the year 1001 reached Labrador. Landing with his companions, he made explorations for a considerable distance along the coast. The country was milder and more attractive than his own, and he was in no haste to return. Southward he went as far as Massachusetts, where the company remained for more than a year. Rhode Island was also visited;

and it is alleged that the adventurers found their way into New York harbor.

3. In the years that followed Leif Erickson's discovery, other companies of Norsemen came to the shores of America. THORWALD, Leif's brother, made a voyage to Maine and Massachusetts in 1002, and is said to have died at Fall River in the latter State. Then another brother, THORSTEIN by name, arrived with a band of followers in 1005; and in the year 1007, THORFINN KARLSEFNE, the most distinguished mariner of his day, came with a crew of a hundred and fifty men, and made explorations along the coast of

Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, and perhaps

as far south as the
capes of Virginia.
4. Other compa-
nies of Icelanders and
Norwegians visited.
the countries farther
north, and planted
colonies in Newfound-
land and Nova Scotia.
Little, however, was
known or imagined by
these rude sailors of the
extent of the country
which they had discov-
ered. They supposed
that it was only a por-
tion of Western Green-
land which, bending to
the north around an
arm of the ocean, had
reäppeared in the west.

The settlements which were made were feeble and soon broken up. Commerce was an impossibility in a country where there were only a few wretched savages with no disposition to buy and nothing at all to sell. The spirit of adventure was soon appeased, and the

restless Northmen returned to their own country. To this undefined line of coast, now vaguely known to them, the Norse sailors gave the name of VINLAND.

5. During the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries occasional voyages were made; and as late as A. D. 1347, a Norwegian ship visited Labrador and the north-eastern parts of the United States. In 1350 Greenland and Vinland were depopulated by a great plague which had spread thither from Norway. From that time forth communication with the New World ceased, and the history of the Northmen in America was at an end. The Norse remains which have been found at Newport, at Fall River, and several other places, point clearly to the events here narrated; and the Icelandic historians give a consistent account of these early exploits of their countrymen. When the word America is mentioned in the hearing of the schoolboys of Iceland, they will at once answer with enthusiasm, "Oh, yes; Leif Erickson discovered that country in the year 1001."

6. An event is to be weighed by its consequences. From the discovery of America by the Norsemen, nothing whatever resulted. The world was neither wiser nor better. Among the Icelanders themselves the place and the very name of Vinland were forgotten. Europe never heard of such a country or such a discovery. Historians have until late years been incredulous on the subject, and the fact is as though it had never been. The curtain which had been lifted for a moment was stretched again from sky to sea, and the New World still lay hidden in the shadows.

RECAPITULATION.

Herjulfson is driven by a storm to the American coast.-Leif Erickson discovers America.-Thorwald and Thorstein Erickson make voyages.-Thorfinn Karlsefne explores the shores of Maine and Massachusetts.-Other voyages are made by the Norsemen.-Communication with the New World is broken off by the plague.-Nothing practical results from the Icelandic discoveries.

IT

CHAPTER III.

SPANISH DISCOVERIES IN AMERICA.

T was reserved for the people of a sunnier clime than Iceland first to make known to the European nations the existence of a Western continent. Spain was the happy country under whose patronage a new world was to be added to the old; but the man who was destined to make the revelation was not himself a Spaniard: he was to come from Italy, the land of valor and the home of greatCHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS was the name of that man whom after ages have rewarded with imperishable fame.

ness.

2. The idea that the world is round was not original with Columbus. The English traveler, Sir John Mandeville, had declared in the first English book ever written (A. D. 1356) that the world is a sphere; that he himself, when traveling northward, had seen the polar star approach the zenith, and that on going southward, the antarctic constellations had risen overhead; and that it was both possible and practicable for a man to sail around the world and return to the place of starting. But Columbus was the first practical believer in the theory of circumnavigation; and although he never sailed around the world himself, he demonstrated the possibility of doing so.

3. The great mistake with Columbus was not concerning the figure of the earth, but in regard to its size. He believed the world to be no more than ten thousand or twelve thousand miles in circumference. He therefore confidently expected that after sailing about three thousand miles to the westward, he should arrive at the East Indies; and to do that was the one great purpose of his life.

4. Christopher Columbus was born at Genoa, Italy, in A. D. 1435. He was carefully educated, and then devoted himself to the