Popular History of America: From the Earliest Discoveries to the Present Time; Including a Complete Account of the Norsemen; The Mound-Builders; Voyages of Columbus; Hardships of Early Settlers (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from American History for Young Folks: Or Story of Our Great Country From the Earliest Discoveries to the Present TimeSays the old Roman, Cicero: "Not to know what has been transacted in former times, is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge." The same thought is well stated by an old English author: "History makes a young man to be old, without wrinkles or gray hairs, and gives him the experience of age, without the infirmities thereof."This is not placing too high a value upon history, as will be admitted by all intelligent persons. And what history can be more important and valuable than that of America? The very name awakens a thrill of patriotic emotion. Her story is the most captivating ever written, and is an exhaustless source of instruction and entertainment. It should be familiar to both old and young, and may become so by a perusal of the comprehensive volume prefaced by these lines.This work contains a full account of the Norsemen, the earliest discoverers of the Western world, and of the Mound-builders, the earliest inhabitants. It then takes up the story of Columbus - his long years of waiting and disappointment; his successful appeal at last to the King and Queen of Spain; his tempestuous voyage, attended by dangers of the deep and mutiny on board; his heroic courage, his splendid reception on his return, and then the dark days and sorrowful death of the great discoverer.It treats of the settlement of America, and narrates the fascinating story of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas; the attempts of the Indians to destroy the Colonies; the disasters and sufferings encountered by the settlers. It details the persecutions of the Puritans in England, and their flight to Holland; the storm-tossed "Mayflower" voyaging to the "wild New England coast;" King Philip's war; the history of witchcraft in Massachusetts - that strange craze …