people. All its officers are either chosen by the people or are appointed by others who are thus chosen.

15. That being the case, we see at once how important it is that everybody should understand what sort of laws we have and what officers are selected to attend to the public business. It is a common saying that "What is everybody's business is nobody's business." That ought not to be true in our republic, for with us it certainly is everybody's business to see to it that we have a good government. But nobody can do his share if he is ignorant. Ignorance may do in a monarchy. It has no place in a republic.

CHAPTER V

How the People of Europe Found America and Came to Live in It

1. Columbus.-Christopher Columbus was an Italian who lived some four hundred years ago, and who had what seemed to many people of his time a very queer notion. He believed that the earth was round, and that he could

1492

prove it by sailing around it. The common idea at that time was that the world was flat; and even those intelligent men who did not think so were not at all sure that it would be safe or possible to make the voyage. But Columbus was determined to try, and at last succeeded in

persuading the King and Queen of Spain to let him have three small vessels for the experiment. With these the daring Italian boldly steered west across the Atlantic.

2. What Columbus Wanted. It was not merely the shape of the earth which was in question. From the eastern part of Asia, known as India, very valuable articles came to Europe-silks and spices and precious stones. But the overland route across Asia was slow and expensive and infested with robbers. So if a direct water route could be found from Europe to India and China it would be a great thing for the European countries. Columbus knew nothing about the American continent, and thought that by sailing west he would come right to the Indian coast. Therefore when, on an October day in 1492, after sailing for many days, he found a number of islands, he at once thought them a part of India. The red men who came wondering to the beach to see the strange vessels and their yet more strange pale-faced crews, Columbus called Indians. And the islands which he found are called the West Indies to this day.

3. Excitement in Europe. This discovery by Columbus that there was land across the ocean caused great excitement in Europe. The King of Spain claimed all the " new world," as it was called, because it was in Spanish ships that the voyage of discovery had been made. But many eager voyagers of other nations-Portuguese, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Englishmen-paid no attention to the Spanish claim, and sailed away to see what they, too, could find. They found many things-unknown shores, great rivers and bays. Everywhere vast forests came down

to the beach. And everywhere the native people were the red men the "Indians."

4. Europeans Come to Live in America.—When it was found that the new world was a good place for homes, many people came over from Europe and settled along the coasts. The Spaniards had the West India Islands, and Mexico, and Central America, and nearly all of South America. The Portuguese had Brazil. The French made homes in Canada, along the great lakes and at New Orleans. The Dutch settled on what they called Manhattan Island; New Amsterdam was the name they gave their little town. It is now New York. The English came to live in many places on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. They took New Amsterdam away from the Dutch in one of their wars, and thus with that, and with Delaware, which was first settled by Swedes, the English had the thirteen colonies which afterwards broke away from under the British government and became the United States of America.

5. How the Colonists Lived. The early settlers in the American wilderness did not have an easy time. They could not bring many comforts with them, as the voyage across the Atlantic was slow, tedious, and expensive. In those times it took several weeks to cross the ocean. A living was made usually by farming. The trees had to be cleared away, and then Indian corn and other crops were planted. There was little money to be had, and few things to buy with it. At one time dried codfish were used as money in Massachusetts. The Indians were often unfriendly, and incessant Indian wars fill the history of the

times. An Indian war was very dreadful, as the savages killed with the greatest cruelty all whom they could. They would hide in the shelter of the woods, and when the attack was least expected would rush from their hiding places, set fire to the settler's house, and murder men, women, and children as they ran screaming from the flames. The Indian, too, had a hideous habit of cutting and tearing the scalp from the head of his victim, keeping it as a bloody trophy

of his success.

6. The Colonists Succeed. But the colonists were brave and persevering, and so, in spite of poverty and hard work and sickness and war, they succeeded in building up thriving settlements. It was more

than a hundred years

THE PINTA

after Columbus found the new world before the first Englishmen came to live in America, at Jamestown, in Virginia. And it was less than two hundred years after this settlement was made, that the thirteen English colonies became an independent republic.

7. Why the Colonies Were Separate. When the people of Europe came over to America to make their homes they came in companies at different times and settled at different places. Usually each settlement had