2. The northern branch of the great English trading company was called the Plymouth Company. Of the many sea captains who came over to explore and sometimes to try and settle, Bartholomew Gosnold accomplished the most; he found Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, and made a short-lived colony. John Smith came also, and gave the country the name of New England.
At this point take up the subject of the Puritans in England, and what brought them to America. Read of the Speedwell and the Mayflower, the voyage of the latter and the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. Have a paper on the first winter with its hardships, and other papers on the great men of the colony, Governor Carver, Governor Bradford, John Winthrop, William Brewster, and Miles Standish. Study the topic of the founding of churches and schools, the relations with the Indians, and the establishment of new settlements, through Massachusetts and beyond. Read S. G. Fisher's Men, Women, and Manners in Colonial Times, Mrs. Austen's Standish of Standish, and Longfellow's Miles Standish.
The religious difficulties of the times deserve special notice, because of their results; read the stories of Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Thomas Hooker. The work of John Eliot for the Indians should not be forgotten, nor the rise and spread of witchcraft; on this last read Ye Little Salem Maid, by Hopkins. Close the period with King Philip's War, and notice how many colonies now existed.
3. The Dutch of the early seventeenth century were among the most famous navigators of the world, and the East India Company, founded by them, sent out ships all over the seas. One of these, the little Half Moon, commanded by an Englishman in their employ, Henry Hudson, sailed all along the northern coast, and up the Hudson River as far as Albany. Others followed him; the New Netherlands Company was organized for trading in furs, and little settlements were made by them. In 1626 Peter Minuit, the Governor, bought Manhattan Island from the Indians for less then twenty-five dollars in beads and ribbons, and founded New Amsterdam.
From the beginning this colony prospered. Peter Stuyvesant was its most famous figure, but the whole history of the life of the patroons is well worth reading. The colony passed into the hands of the English, and was renamed New York, but the people remained Dutch for many years. Irving's History of New York and Amelia Barr's Bow of Orange Ribbon give a good idea of the time.
4. The founding of New Jersey and Maryland come next in order, and the struggles between Catholics, Puritans, Episcopalians, and Quakers for supremacy, with the work of Lord Baltimore and Calvert, and the intervention of Oliver Cromwell.
The story of the peaceful founding of Pennsylvania by William Penn follows in 1681, and this, with the settling of the Carolinas and Georgia, may be taken up rather briefly. The coming of Germans, Scotch Highlanders, and Scotch-Irish to these southern colonies is to be mentioned. The war between England and Spain affected the relations between the Spanish settlers of Florida and the English of Georgia, and led to trouble. Under Governor Oglethorpe the power of Spain in America was overthrown.
The subject of the opening up of the Mississippi Valley should be studied by itself. The story of La Salle is as interesting as any novel; read Parkman's La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West.
III—THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
This began in Canada under the famous Governor Frontenac, who came down to conquer New York, and extended throughout the North, the middle colonies, and the Mississippi Valley. There might easily be a set of at least three meetings on this theme. The massacres of the Indians, especially that at Deerfield; the siege of Quebec; the capture of Louisburg; the taking of Fort Duquesne by men under George Washington; the coming of Braddock, and his campaign; the transportation of the Acadians from Nova Scotia to the South; the history of Sir William Johnson and the Indians; the fortifications of Fort William Henry and Ticonderoga; the struggle of Wolfe and Montcalm at Quebec, and the final overthrow of French power in our country should all be studied, for the importance of this period of our history cannot be over-estimated. Read Parkman's histories: Frontenac and New France Under Louis XIV.; a Half Century of Conflict; Montcalm and Wolfe; and the Conspiracy of Pontiac. Some of Cooper's novels are also good, Leather Stocking Tales especially; and Thackeray's Virginians may be read in part.