to make it mellow, and afterwards to cover the seed. A plough here would be of no use, as it would soon be broken to pieces by the roots of the trees. In the same manner the planter proceeds to another field, and to another, until his farm is sufficiently cleared to satisfy

his wishes. and builds The first house which he builds is formed of logs . . . with a a house and stone chimney in the middle. His next labour is to procure a barn; a barn.

generally large, well framed, covered and roofed. Compared with his house, it is a palace. But for this a sawmill is necessary, and is

therefore built as early as possible. Isolation It will be easily believed that the labours already mentioned must handicaps be attended by fatigue and hardships, sufficient to discourage any the pioneer.

man who can live tolerably on his native soil. But the principal sufferings of these planters, in the early periods of their business, spring from quite other sources. The want of neighbors to assist them, the want of convenient implements, and universally the want of those means without which the necessary business of life cannot be carried on, even comfortably; is among their greatest difficulties. The first planters at Haverhill and Newbury, on the Connecticut river, were obliged to go to Charlestown, more than seventy miles, to get their corn ground ... and to obtain assistance to raise the frame of every building. At that time there was no road between these towns. The travelling was, of course, all done on

the river. .. Lack of In sickness, and other cases of suffering and danger, these planters medical aid.

are often without the aid either of a physician, or a surgeon. To accidents they are peculiarly exposed by the nature of their employ. ments, while to remedies, besides such as are supplied by their own

skill and patience, they can scarcely have any access. The problem As most of the first planters were poor, and as many of them had of getting food.

numerous families of small children, the burden of providing food for them was heavy, and discouraging. Some relief they found, at times, in the game with which the forests were formerly replenished. But supplies from that source were always precarious, and could never be relied on with safety. Fish, in the wild season, might often be caught in the streams, and in the lakes. In desperate cases the old settlements, though frequently distant, were always in possession

of abundance, and, in the mode either of commerce or of charity, would certainly prevent them and theirs from perishing with hunger.

To balance these evils, principally suffered by the earliest class The of planters, they had some important advantages. Their land,

Their land, advantages

of pioneer usually covered with a thick stratum of vegetable mould, was emi- life. nently productive. Seldom were their crops injured by the blast, or the mildew, and seldom were they devoured by insects. When the wheat was taken from the ground, a rich covering of grass was regularly spread over the surface, and furnished them with an ample supply of pasture and hay for their cattle.

Besides the abundance of their crops, they had the continual satisfaction of seeing their embarrassments daily decreasing, and their wealth and their comforts daily increasing. ... The planter is cheered by the continual sight of improvement in everything about him. His fields increase in number and beauty. His means of living are enlarged. The wearisome part of his labour is gradually lessened. His neighbors multiply, and his troubles annually recede.

Among the enjoyments of these people, health, and hardihood, The early ought never to be forgotten. The toils which they undergo, the pioneers were

healthy, difficulties which they surmount, and the hazards which they es- active, and cape, all increase their spirits and their firmness. ... The minds of optimistic. these settlers therefore possess the energy which results from health, as well as that which results from activity, and few persons taste the pleasures which fall to their lot, with a keener relish. The common troubles of life, often deeply felt by persons in easy circumstances, scarcely awaken in them the slightest emotion. Cold and heat, snow and rain, labour and fatigue, are regarded by them as trifles, deserving no attention. The coarsest food is pleasant to them, and the hardest bed refreshing. ...

6. Growth of the English colonies 1 Though she entered the field relatively late, England was destined Rapid to dominate the colonization of North America. In 1664 the Dutch

increase in

population. surrendered New Amsterdam to the English, and in 1763 France

Cheap land encourages the settler to marry early.

relinquished her claim to the eastern half of the Mississippi Valley. These concessions on the part of Holland and France left England in undisputed possession of the Atlantic seaboard. For a long time prior to 1763, moreover, the number of English subjects in America had been increasing rapidly, so rapidly, indeed, as to occasion frequent comment. In 1751, for example, Benjamin Franklin anticipated the growing power of the British in America in the following terms:

. . Land being thus plenty in America, and so cheap as that a labouring man, that understands husbandry, can in a short time save money enough to purchase a piece of new land sufficient for a plantation, whereon he may subsist a family, such are not afraid to marry

For if they even look far enough forward to consider how their children when grown up, are to be provided for, they see that more land is to be had at rates equally easy, all circumstances considered. Hence marriages in America are more general, and more generally early, than in Europe. And if it is reckoned there, that there is but one marriage per annum among one hundred persons, perhaps we may here reckon two, and if in Europe they have but four births to a marriage, we may here reckon eight, of which if one half grow up, and our marriages are made, people must at least be doubled every twenty years.

But notwithstanding this increase, so vast is the territory of North America, that it will require many ages to settle it fully. And till it is fully settled, labour will never be cheap here, where no man continues long a laborer for others, but gets a plantation of his own. No man continues long a journeyman to a trade, but goes among those new settlers and sets up for himself, etc. Hence labour is no cheaper now, in Pennsylvania, than it was thirty years ago, though so many thousand labouring people have been imported.

There is . . . no bound to the prolific nature of plants or animals, but what is made by their crowding and interfering with each other's means of subsistence. If the face of the earth were vacant of other plants, it might be gradually sowed and overspread with one kind only, as for instance, with fennel; and if it were empty of other inhabitants, it might in a few ages be replenished from one nation only, as for instance, with Englishmen.

our

Position of the laborer in America.

.

Franklin
speculates
as to the
effect of
the future
increase
in the
American
population.

a

Thus there are suposed to be now upwards of one million English souls in North America, . . . and yet perhaps there is not one the fewer in Britain, but rather many more, on account of the employment the colonies afford to manufacturers at home. This million doubling, suppose but once in twenty-five years, will in another century be more than the people of England, and the greatest number of Englishmen will be on this side of the water. What an accession of power to the British Empire by sea as well as land! What increase of trade and navigation! What numbers of ships and seamen! We have been here but little more than one hundred years, and yet the force of our privateers in the late war, united, was greater, both in men and guns, than that of the whole British navy in Queen Elizabeth's time. How important an affair then to Britain is the present treaty for settling the bounds between her colonies and the French, and how careful should she be to secure room enough, since on the room depends so much the increase of her people.

Questions on the foregoing Readings 1. On what date did Columbus leave Spain on his first voyage of

discovery? 2. Why do you suppose Columbus deceived his crew as to the actual

distance traversed? 3. What signs of land were encountered on October 11th? 4. Describe the first sight of land on the morning of October 12th. 5. What did Columbus do when he went ashore? 6. What two European powers preceded England in the coloniza

tion of the New World? 7. How did Captain John Smith explain the failure of the colony

at Jamestown to progress? 8. Why did the early settlers at Jamestown prefer growing tobacco

to growing corn? 9. What was Smith's suggestion as to the method of causing the

colonists to prefer corn culture to tobacco raising? 10. What did Smith give as the cause of the Jamestown massacre? 11. What, according to Smith, were the defects of government in

Virginia? 12. What is the significance of the Pilgrims? 13. When did the Pilgrims settle in Holland? 14. Describe the life of the Pilgrims in Holland.

15. Give several reasons why the Pilgrims resolved to remove from

Holland to America. 16. What did they do when they had made this resolve? 17. Describe the landing of the Pilgrims in New England. 18. Where did they find some corn which the Indians had hidden? 19. Describe the work of the early settler in clearing the forest and

preparing the soil for planting. 20. To what extent was isolation a handicap to the early settler? 21. Name some of the advantages of pioneer life. 22. What can be said as to the health and spirits of the early pioneers? 23. What was the relation between cheap land and early marriages in

Colonial America? 24. Why was labour well paid in early America? 25. What was Benjamin Franklin's prediction as to the future popu