3. THE MAN WHO FIRST SAILED AROUND THE WORLD
Columbus said, “Give me money to buy ships, and I will prove that the earth is round by sailing around it.” But he never did sail around the earth, after all. Nor did Americus Vespucius. This was left for another sailor, named Fernando Magellan. In 1519, twelve years after the death of Columbus, he started from Spain with a large fleet of ships, hoping to find, through this new land, a way by which he might sail around the world. He sailed directly across the Atlantic Ocean to America, looking up and down the coast for an opening to the other ocean which a sailor one day had seen. Finding no opening, he sailed down to the most southern point of South America, and after sailing around Cape Horn, he came out into the great ocean. When he saw it first it looked smiling and peaceful. So on account of its calm, sunny appearance, he named it the “Pacific,” which means “peaceful.” Sailing over the Pacific Ocean he came at last to the Indies, to India, and to Spain. Then he knew that he had sailed around the world. So what Columbus had said and believed so earnestly, Fernando Magellan proved at last to be true—the earth is round!
4. THE LOST COLONY
After Columbus discovered America many ships from Spain, France, and England sailed across the sea, bringing settlers to plant new homes here. Spain took possession of Florida; France of Canada; and England claimed all the land lying between Canada and Florida, and called it “Virginia.” The English sent over a shipload of one hundred and fifty settlers, who landed on the beautiful island of Roanoke. When their rough houses were built and the people had planted their fields and the colony seemed prosperous, Governor John White resolved to return home to report their success and to bring new provisions for them. He did not like to leave because unfriendly Indians roamed about, and besides, there was a little baby girl, his granddaughter, named Virginia (who was the first English child ever born in America), whom he did not like to leave. But the people needed provisions, and so the brave man sailed back to England. It was three years before his ship returned and he again drew near the island. Eagerly he looked up and down the shore for signs of a welcome from his people. But only the washing of the waves on the beach and the stillness and gloom of the dense forest greeted him. Not a person was to be found. His little granddaughter, her parents, and all the colonists had disappeared. The huts were deserted. Not a sound was to be heard but the cry of the birds and the moaning of the trees. On a tree were cut a few letters. Was it the name of some place to which the people had moved? Poor John White! He never found out. Heart-broken, he turned his ship back to England. Not a trace of this lost colony, not a trace of the little babe, Virginia Dare, has ever been found.
5. POCAHONTAS
Captain John Smith was a brave and wise man who came from England and settled in Virginia. One day some of his men disobeyed orders and got into a quarrel with the Indians. John Smith was taken prisoner and led into their camp. He showed them his compass, and told them how the needle always turned to the north, which so amused the Indians that, instead of killing him, they took him to their chief, Powhatan, who said, “The white man must die.” He was bound hand and foot, and an Indian was just raising his war-club to kill him, when up rushed Pocahontas, a bright Indian girl, the chief’s daughter, who threw her arms around John Smith’s neck and begged her father to spare him. Powhatan loved Pocahontas, so the prisoner was released, and even allowed to return to his own people. Pocahontas became a good friend of the white men. She was beautiful, and John Rolfe fell in love with her. After their marriage they went to England, where Pocahontas was everywhere received with great honor. The king and queen invited her to their palace, and all loved the gentle Indian princess. They intended to return to America, but Pocahontas died in England. Her little son, Thomas Rolfe, was well educated in England. When he grew up he settled in Virginia.
6. THE INDIANS’ GUNPOWDER HARVEST
At first the Indians were very kind to the white men; but after the white men began to be cruel and hard to them, they too grew hard and cruel, and nothing was too terrible for the Indians to do in revenge. They had very strange ways of carrying on their battles. They never came out and met their enemy face to face, but would skulk around behind trees in swamps or in the high grass. When the white men used guns and gunpowder, the Indians were terribly frightened, but it was not long before they themselves learned to use them. One day an old Indian chief begged some gunpowder from a white man, and ran away to his wigwam with it. The white man watched to see what he would do with it. When he reached his wigwam he called some of his friends about him, and, after a long council together, they began to plant the powder. They thought it would grow like corn and beans. Later a French trader persuaded some Indians living near the Missouri River to give him skins and furs in exchange for gunpowder, telling them it was a seed, which would grow if sown in the ground. The innocent Indians sowed all they bought, and placed a guard to protect the fields from wild beasts, going out to the field from time to time to see if the powder was growing. When they found out the trick that had been played on them they waited until the trader’s partner came to exchange more goods. Then the Indians who had been tricked into sowing gunpowder gathered, went into his tent, and each helped himself to what goods he wanted. Soon the whole stock disappeared. The Frenchman, in anger, went to the chief, who said, “Yes, you shall have justice as soon as the gunpowder harvest is gathered.” The Frenchman said, “Gunpowder grows in France, but your Missouri land is not good to produce it.”
All his arguments were in vain. The Indians said, “When the gunpowder harvest is reaped then the Frenchman shall have back his goods.”
So the French trader returned with less goods and less money than he went, finding out, when too late, that Indians, like some other men, can be deceived but once.