Topical Review. TOPICS FOR REVIEW. 49 BIOGRAPHICAL.-The numbers given refer to the pages of this book. If, in the estimation of the teacher, the information to be found on these pages is not sufficient, resort must be had to cyclopædias, biographies, and other works. The topics may be presented by the pupils as verbal narratives, or, at the will of the teacher, as written exercises-compositions. It is recommended that both methods be pursued in alternation. Columbus. The Cabots. De Leon. De Soto. Marquette. La Salle. (See Model following, p. 50. Irving's Life of (See Hayward's Life of Sebastian Cabot, also Bid- (See Irving's Companions of Columbus.) 18-24 30 32-34 Note 34, 37 34-36 40 (See Theodore Irving's Conquest of Florida.) 41-43 43-47 GEOGRAPHICAL.-1. Give the location of each place. 2. Give the HISTORICAL.-1. State when the event occurred. 2. Give the circumstances leading to it. 3. State the facts connected with it. 4. Describe the effects or consequences of it. When the nature of the topic will not admit of this, narrate the facts, giving them, as far as possible, in chronological order; or, as in the case of The Indians or The Mound Builders, give a description. The Northmen's Discoveries....15 Columbus's Discovery of America.... The Indians... The Mound Builders. Discovery of Florida.... .32 De Soto's Expedition.... .34 Discovery of the Pacific.....30, 31 French Explorations. MODEL FOR A WRITTEN EXERCISE. His early life. His great theory. His efforts for aid. His voyages and discoveries. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. While we know that Columbus was born in Italy, we are not quite certain as to the exact place of his birth. After his fame began to spread, several places in Italy claimed him as a native, but it is generally believed that to Genoa belongs the coveted honor. The year of his birth is also in doubt, nor has any writer been able to solve the uncertainty so as to leave no shadow upon the conclusion. Irving cautiously says he was born "about the year 1435." His father, who was a woolcomber, was poor, it is supposed, though the son was sent to good schools, and gained a knowledge of geometry, geography, astronomy, navigation, and the Latin language, besides the common branches. He soon began to love the sea, and at the early age of fourteen made his first voyage. This was followed by many others. Taking up his residence in Portugal, he there married the daughter of a man who had gained some reputation as a navigator and map-maker. India was a rich country even in those early days, but the merchants of Italy, who traded with it, had no way of reaching it except by the Red sea or overland through Asia. No other route was then known. Columbus believed there was a shorter way across the Atlantic Ocean. Of course, he had no idea that another coutinent was in the way and would therefore stop him, nor had he any idea that the earth was so large. He wanted to make an effort to reach India, according to his theory, by sailing westward from Europe, but he was too poor to build or buy the necessary vessels. So he applied for aid to Genoa; then, receiving no encouragement, to Portugal. Here, again, he was unsuccessful. Then he applied to Spain; and, after years of waiting, solicitation, anxiety, and poverty, the Spanish queen, Isabella, generously offered to sell her jewels in order to raise the money for the purchase of a fleet. This offer was the turning-point, for it shamed the public treasurer into advancing the needed funds. Three small vessels were fitted out, and in the summer of 1492 they sailed from the little port of Palos in Spain. At the Canary islands a brief stop was made. Again the vessels put to sea. It was difficult for Columbus to pro Topical Review. ceed, for he had no such excellent instruments to aid him as are now in use among navigators. He did not know how to account for the variation in the needle, and his sailors became alarmed. But he kept on with heroic resolution, and, on a bright morning in October, was rewarded with a sight of land. The island first seen is a little one north of Cuba. He called it San Salvador. His landing was effected with great ceremony, while the friendly natives, perfectly naked, looked on, believing that their visitors were from heaven. Other islands were discovered, among them the large ones of Cuba and Hayti. Leaving some men, as the beginning of a colony, at Hayti, he returned to Spain, where he was received amid great rejoicings. Columbus made three more voyages, and discovered other islands and even the main land of South America, but he never for a moment suspected that these lands belonged to a New World. He thought they were the outlying islands of Asia. We read of " Columbus in Irons" and wonder what it means. What had Columbus done that he should be so cruelly treated? Who put him in irons? It seems that while he was making his third visit to America his enemies were busy in Spain; for he, like many eminent men before his time and since, had incurred the envy of others. Even Washington, good and great as he was, had enemies. The enemies of Columbus made the king and queen of Spain believe that he was treating the Spaniards in America with great injustice and cruelty; and a person was consequently sent to inquire into the facts. This person was also clothed with certain authority, but, instead of doing as he was instructed, he made a prisoner of Columbus and sent him home in irons. When Columbus arrived in Spain and the people saw him-the great navigator who had opened the doors of wealth to them-saw him with iron chains fastened upon his arms, they were moved with sorrow and indignation. Queen Isabella ordered the chains to be removed, and she and the king gave Columbus a kind reception. So, ignorant to the last that "he had given a new continent to the world," and when his best friend, Isabella, was no more, and he was suffering neglect and poverty, Columbus died. This event took place in a little town in Spain, when he was about seventy years of age. His body was at first deposited in a convent, where it was allowed to rest seven years, then it was taken to a monastery in another town. Twenty-three years later it was transported to one of the great islands he had discovered that of Hayti; and here surely his remains would be permitted to rest forever! Not so. In 1796, nearly three hundred years after his death, they were conveyed, with imposing ceremonies, to the island of Cuba, and there, in the cathedral of Havana, they still repose. ENGLAND AND AMERICA. IN the fifteenth century came the revival of learning in Europe. This brought a rivalry in efforts to extend the knowledge of geography and increase the commerce of the world. The great problem of Henry VII. the age was to reach India by sea. In the age just fading 1485-1509. out those who sailed ships crept timidly along the coast, or, if they ventured out of sight of land, had only the sun by day and the stars by night to steer by. The period in which Columbus lived showed great improvements in navigation. In the new mariner's compass the magnetic needle was beginning to be depended upon, better sea-charts were prepared, and valuable additions were made to the instrument for reckoning latitude. It was now possible for the navigator losing sight of land to ascertain the position of his ship and tell the direction in which she should be steered. When Columbus made his great discovery, Henry had been on the throne of England seven years and had yet eighteen years of kingly life to live. Scotland was not yet a part of the British realm. It was still an independent power with James IV. at its head. None of the vast domain in France known as Normandy, except a small strip of land on which Calais stood, was any longer an English possession. It had passed to the control of France more than forty years before. It has been asserted that Columbus, long before Isabella of Spain consented to aid him, had sent one of his brothers to Henry VII. of England with an offer similar to the one made to Spain, but our information on this point is very meagre. We know, however, that Henry wrote to Columbus in 1488, inviting him to England and holding out promises of encouragement. The news of the great discovery made by Columbus produced among the English people a feeling of deep regret that the great navigator had not made his voyage under their flag. This feeling prevailing, it was no difficult for Henry to encourage navigation and discovery if such encouragement should be without expense to himself. John Cabot's petition therefore met with favor, and to him and his three sons the king issued a commission to sail at their own cost and charge with five ships, upon condition that the king should have one fifth part of their gains. John Cabot's discovery of the mainland of the New World precedes that of Columbus more than a year, and Amerigo Vespucci's more than two years (p. 30). The year 1498 stands out conspicuously in the annals of navigation: Da Gama, for Portugal, sailing around the southern point of Africa reached India by sea, thus solving the problem of the age; Columbus discovered South America; and one of John Cabot's sons explored a large part of the North American coast. This king, the second but only surviving son of Henry VII., was a Catholic when he began to reign, and he so gained the approbation of the pope (Lee X.) by writing a book against the doctrines of Henry VIII. Luther that he was awarded the title of "Defender of the Faith." He afterwards, however, quarrelled with the pope (Clement VII.) because the latter would not sanction his divorce from his wife Catharine. Henry then threw off his allegiance to the pope, and, by acts of Parliament, the English Church was established. Beyond an attempt to find a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific (in 1527), no westward expeditions were made by the English. Their foreign commerce was mostly confined to the Netherlands. Their first merchant ship reached India the same year in which Parliament for the first time favored the fisheries of Newfoundland, and the Spaniards under De Soto discovered the Mississippi (1541). Eminent men.-Cardinal 1509-1547. England and America. Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, Henry Howard (Earl of Surrey), William Tyndall, and Sir Thomas Wyatt. The son of Henry VIII. by his third wife, Jane Seymour, succeeded to the throne. During his reign the first attempt was made to find a northeast passage (that is, around the northern part of Europe Edward VI. and Asia) to China. The farthest point reached was Archangel, a port in Russia. Spitzbergen was discovered, but was then supposed to be a part of Greenland. 1547-1553. Mary I. 1553-1558. Mary was the daughter of Henry VIII. by his first wife, Catharine. She was a Catholic, and one of the first acts of her reign was to restore the religion of that church. She married Philip II. of Spain, and having engaged in a war with France to please her husband, lost Calais, "the brighest jewel in her crown,' the last English possession on the Continent. The port of Archangel having been discovered, a trade with Russia was begun. Elizabeth. This queen was the daughter of Henry VIII. by his second wife, Anne Boleyn. The laws for the establishment of the English Church, which had been enacted during Edward's reign but abro1558-1603. gated during Mary's, were again enacted. The Puritans, largely composed of English Protestants, who had been in exile in Switzerland and Germany during Mary's reign, contended for greater changes in religious forms and doctrines. The Pilgrims (p. 61) formed their first church organization under the preaching and teaching of Robert Brown (1581). John Knox completed what is known in history as the 'Reformation in Scotland." Mary Queen of Scots, whose subjects had rebelled against her, fled to England, where, after being held a captive by Elizabeth more than eighteen years, she was executed. In the contest between the Netherlands and Spain, Elizabeth espoused the cause of the former; in consequence Philip, of Spain, sent an immense fleet, known as the "Invincible Armada," to invade England. It was attacked and defeated with terrible destruction by a fleet under Lord Howard, assisted by the renowned captains Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins, and Raleigh (1588). Trade with the west coast of Africa was begun; from thirty to fifty English fishing ships came annually to the bays and banks of Newfoundland; tobacco and potatoes were introduced into England from America; Drake, while making a voyage around the world, explored the coast of New Albion (California and Oregon); and Frobisher and Davis endeavored to find a northwest passage to the Pacific. The attempts to provide an asylum in Carolina and Florida for the persecuted Huguenots (p. 96) were followed by the efforts of Gilbert to plant a settlement on Newfoundland, and by Raleigh's to plant a colony in Carolina (pp. 40, 98). Gosnold was the first Englishman to tread upon the soil of New England (p. 60); and though the French, under Huguenot leaders, and the English, under Raleigh, Gilbert, and Gosnold, had made great exertions to establish colonies in America, at the close of Elizabeth's reign-more than a hundred years after Columbus first crossed the Atlantic-there was not so much as one European family between Florida and Hudson's Bay. The few Spaniards who had driven the Huguenots from Florida and were in turn driven by Sir Francis Drake out of the small fort at St. Augustine, into which they had crowded (1586), but were still lingering in Florida, were, besides their countrymen in Mexico, the only people not Indians in all the continent of North America. The eminent men were Sir Edward Coke, Bacon, Shakspeare, Spenser, and Raleigh, |