warfare was to steal through the woods and come suddenly at night upon a camp of the enemy.

17. The Traits in Common. Though the tribes differed from one another, all the Indians were in some points alike. They were brave, but they were also treacherous. They never forgave an injury. They could bear hunger and torture in silence, but they were cruel in the treatment of their captives. They were a silent race, but often in their councils some of their number would be very eloquent. They had many legends about the world in which they lived, and they believed in spirits who lived around them in the water and the air. In each tribe there were "medicine men' so called, who were regarded as magicians. The brave Indian believed that after death he would go to the Happy Hunting Grounds. It is not possible to say how many Indians there were when Europeans first came to this continent. It is supposed that, through wars with one another and with the whites, the race has been fast disappearing; but it is known that during the past thirty years the number has increased.1

1 A comprehensive book on the Indians is The Red Man and the White Man, by George E. Ellis. Parkman's The Oregon Trail gives an interesting account of his life among the Indians. The best stories in which Indians figure largely are Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales. The most famous poem relating to the Indians is Longfellow's Hiawatha.

QUESTIONS.

Name the three classes of natives who have left monuments or other signs of partial civilization. What was the appearance of the Indians on the Atlantic coast? What was their food? How were they housed? Describe the uses to which the buffalo was put? What was their mode of life? Describe the tribal life. Locate the Iroquois; the Algonquins; the Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws. What were their religious ideas? Name some of the characteristics of the race.

SEARCH QUESTIONS.

Name some of the more considerable mounds. Name the rivers, mountains, lakes, and towns in your State which have Indian names.

Where are some of the tribes named in this chapter still to be found? Name some poems with Indian characters. Which of the States have Indian names?

SUGGESTIONS FOR LITERARY TREATMENT.

COMPOSITIONS:

An account of explorations in Central America.

An account of the Zuñis.

Description of a mound.

The story of an Indian from childhood till he becomes a warrior.

An account of some Indians I once saw.

Indian characteristics gathered from Hiawatha.

DEBATES:

Resolved, That the Indian was better off before the white man came to America.

Resolved, That Indian names are better for places in America than European names.

Resolved, That the mound builders were identical with the American Indians.

Resolved, That the settlers were justified in taking the land from the Indians without paying for it.

Resolved, That the Indian can be civilized.

CHAPTER III.

THE FRENCH, THE DUTCH, AND THE SWEDES.

18. The Breton Fishermen make their Way to America. - While the Spaniards were taking possession of the central and southern parts of America, other European peoples were making

acquaintance with the more northern parts. At this time, by the rules of the Church, nearly one third of the days in the year were fast days, on which no meat could be eaten; and in consequence the fisheries had become of great importance. On both sides of the English Channel, and on the western coast of France, a large part of the population was engaged in this business. The fishing grounds near at hand became so exhausted that the hardy fishermen ventured farther each year, until at last they came to the coasts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and fished on the Banks, which still furnish a yearly harvest to thousands of fishermen; but they troubled themselves very little about the land that lay near.

A few captains, indeed, explored the coast. Cape Breton owes its name to the fishermen from the Breton country in France. When the French king resolved to have a share in the New World, these fishermen became his best helpers. The explorers whom he sent out naturally gathered their crews in the Breton ports, and found that the men already knew something of the coast.

Verrazano, an

1524.

His

19. The Voyages of Verrazano and Cartier. Italian sailor, was sent out by Francis I., King of France. He reached the American coast near what is now called Cape Fear, and cruised northward, visiting probably the bay of New York and Narragansett Bay. Like other explorers, he was searching for a passage to India. voyage convinced him that the land which he had visited was a part of a great continent; and when he took into account the southern voyages of the Spaniards and Portuguese, he came to the belief that a short passage to India was impossible, since there must be land all the way from the Strait of Magellan to Labrador.

Cartier. - The French were eager to know more of the new country, but wars followed, and it was ten years before the king took further action. Then he sent two ships to America under

1 Verrazano's Voyage is the title of No. 17 of Old South Leaflets. It is a translation of his account.

the command of Jacques Cartier, to make further explorations, and still, if possible, to find a way to India. Cartier cruised about the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to which he gave that

1534. name. He entered a bay, which, on account of the heat, he named the Bay of Chaleur. There he landed and took possession of the country in the name of the King of France. This ceremony consisted in setting up a cross and fastening upon it the king's coat-of-arms. The next year he

returned and sailed up the St. Lawrence, saw the great rock on which Quebec now stands, and pushed on as far as to where is now the city of Montreal.

20. Champlain's Discoveries. - An attempt was made by the Huguenots, as those Frenchmen were called who rebelled against the authority of the Pope, to make a settlement in Florida, but it failed, and the seat of the most active French enterprise was upon the borders of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Cartier had taken possession of the country in the name of