CAESAR RULES ROME. The strife in the city had ceased for a time when Pompey, a famous general, who had once shared power with Caesar as a "triumvir," joined the senators in planning his ruin. Caesar led his army into Italy to the borders of the Rubicon. Exclaiming, "The die is cast,'" he crossed the sacred boundary and marched straight to Rome. Pompey and his party fled, and civil war divided the Roman world into those who followed Caesar and those who followed Pompey, Caesar was everywhere victorious, in Italy, Africa, Spain, and the East. He brought back order into the government of the city and of the provinces, but in the year 44 B.C. he was murdered in the senate-house by several senators, one of whom, Marcus Brutus, had been his friend.

ORIGIN OF THE TITLE "EMPEROR." Caesar had not been called "emperor," though the chief power had been his. One of his titles was "imperator," or commander of the army, a word from which our word "emperor" comes. He was really the first emperor of Rome. In later times the very word Caesar became an imperial title, not only in the Roman Empire, but also in modern Germany, for "Kaiser" is another form of the word "Caesar."

BEGINNINGS OF THE EMPIRE. Caesar's successor was his grandnephew Octavius, usually called Augustus, which was one of his titles. Augustus carried out many of Caesar's plans for improving the government in Rome and in the provinces. The people in the provinces were no longer robbed by Roman officers. Many of them became Roman citizens. After a time all children born within the empire were considered Romans, just as if they had been born in Rome.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE. The Roman Empire carried on the work which the republic had begun. It did some things better than the republic had done them. Within its frontiers there was peace for two or three hundred years. Many people had an opportunity to share in all the best that the Greeks and Romans had learned. Unfortunately the peoples imitated the bad as well as the good.

ROMAN ROADS. As builders the Romans taught much to those who lived after them. Their great roads leading out from Rome have never been excelled. In Gaul these roads served, centuries later, to mark out the present French system of highroads and showed many a route to the builders of railroads. They were made so solid that parts of them still remain after two thousand years.



HOW THESE ROADS WERE BUILT. In planning their roads the Romans did not hesitate before obstacles like hills or deep valleys or marshy lands. They often pierced the hills with tunnels and bridged the valleys or swamps. In building a road they dug a trench about fifteen feet wide and pounded the earth at the bottom until it was hard. Upon this bottom was placed a layer of rough stones, over which were put nine inches of broken stone mixed with lime to form a sort of concrete. This was covered by a layer six inches deep of broken bricks or broken tiles, which when pounded down offered a hard, smooth surface. On the top were laid large paving stones carefully fitted so that there need be no jar when a wagon rolled over the road.

Such roads were necessary for the traders who passed to and fro throughout the empire, but especially for troops or government messengers sent with all speed to regions where there was danger of revolt or where the frontiers were threatened by the barbarians.



AQUEDUCTS. Next to their roads the most remarkable Roman structures were the aqueducts which brought water to the city from rivers or springs, some of them many miles away. Had they known, as we do, how to make heavy iron pipes, their aqueducts would have been laid underground, except where they crossed deep valleys. The lead pipes which they used were not strong enough to endure the force of a great quantity of water, and so when the aqueducts reached the edge of the plain which stretches from the eastern hills to the walls of Rome, the streams of flowing water were carried in stone channels resting upon arches which sometimes reached the height of over ninety feet.

THE CLAUDIAN AQUEDUCT. The Claudian aqueduct, which is the most magnificent ever built, is carried on such arches for about seven miles and a half. Although broken in many places, and though the water has not flowed through its lofty channels for sixteen hundred years, it is one of the grandest sights in the neighborhood of Rome. If we add together the lengths of the aqueducts, underground or carried on arches, which provided Rome with her water supply, the total is over three hundred miles. They could furnish Rome with a hundred million gallons of water a day.



PUBLIC BATHS. The Romans used great quantities of water for their public baths, which were large buildings with rooms especially made for bathing in hot or cold water and for plunges. They were also, like the Greek gymnasiums, places for exercise, conversation, and reading. Many were built as monuments by wealthy men and by emperors. A very small fee was charged for entrance, and the money was used to pay for repairs and the wages of those who managed the baths.



TWO FAMOUS BUILDINGS. Many of the Roman temples, porticoes, and theaters were copied from Greek buildings, but the Romans used the arch more than did the Greeks, and in this the builders of later times imitated them. Among their greatest buildings were the amphitheaters, from the benches of which crowds watched gladiators fighting one another or struggling with wild beasts. The largest of these amphitheaters was the Colosseum, the ruins of which still exist. Its outer walls were one hundred and sixty feet high. In one direction it measured six hundred and seventeen feet and in another five hundred and twelve. There were seats enough for forty-five thousand persons. The lowest seats were raised fifteen feet above the arena or central space where men or wild beasts fought. Through an arrangement of underground pipes the arena could be flooded so that the spectators might enjoy the excitement of a real naval battle.

Another great building was the Circus Maximus, built to hold the crowds that watched the chariot-races, and at one time having seats for two hundred thousand persons. In their amusements the Romans became more and more vulgar, excitable, and cruel. Some equally splendid buildings were used for better things.



THE PANTHEON. One of these was the Pantheon, a temple which was afterward a Christian church. It still stands, and is now used as the burial-place of the Italian kings. The most remarkable part of it is the dome, which has a width of a little over one hundred and forty-two feet. No other dome in the world is so wide. The Romans were very successful in covering large spaces with arched or vaulted ceilings. All later builders of domes and arches are their pupils.



BASILICAS. The Romans had other large buildings called basilicas. These were porticoes or promenades, with the space in the center covered by a great roof. They were used as places for public meetings. One of them had one hundred and eight pillars arranged in a double row around the sides and ends of this central space. The name basilica is Greek and means "royal." Some of these basilicas were used as Christian churches when the Romans accepted the Christian religion. The central space was then called the "nave," and the spaces between the columns the aisles.

TRIUMPHAL ARCHES. The Romans built beautiful arches to celebrate their victories. Several of these still remain, with sentences cut into their stone tablets telling of the triumphs of their builders. Modern people have taken them as models for similar memorial arches.



ROMAN LAW. The Romans did much for the world by their laws. They showed little regard for the rights of men captured in war and were cruel in their treatment of slaves, but they considered carefully the rights of free men and women. Under the emperors the lawyers and judges worked to make the laws clearer and fairer to all. Finally the Emperor Justinian, who ruled at the time when the empire was already half ruined by the attacks of barbarian enemies, ordered the lawyer Tribonian to gather into a single code all the statutes and decrees. These laws lasted long after the empire was destroyed, and out of them grew many of the laws used in Europe to-day. They have also influenced our laws in America.



QUESTIONS

1. In the political strife at Rome what did the brothers Tiberius and Caius Gracchus try to do?

2. What did Julius Caesar do when a party of senators tried to ruin him? What was the result of his war with the other Roman leaders?

3. From what Roman word does "Emperor" come? What is the origin of the word "Kaiser"? How did Caesar die?

4. Who was Caesar's successor and the first one who organized the Roman Empire?

5. Why were the Romans such great builders of roads? How were their roads built? Do any traces of them still remain?

6. How did the Romans provide the city with a supply of pure water?

7. What was a Roman bath?

8. Were the Romans as famous as the Greeks for their buildings? Name the largest buildings in Rome. What was a basilica? Of what use were basilicas to the Christians later?

9. Do you remember the earliest form of the Roman law (Chapter V)? What did Justinian do with the laws in his day? Are these laws important to us?

EXERCISES

1. What emperors are there now? Are they like Caesar and Augustus?

2. Find out if our roads are built as carefully as the Roman roads and if they are likely to last as long. What different kinds of roads do we have? Can any one in the room construct a small model of a Roman road?

3. Find out how water is now carried to cities. Are cities provided with great public baths like those of the Romans?

4. Ask a librarian or a lawyer to show you a copy of the revised statutes of your state. This is a code somewhat like the code of Justinian, only not so brief.





CHAPTER IX

CHRISTIANITY AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

THE RELIGION OF THE JEWS. Among the cities captured by the Romans was Jerusalem, about which cluster so many stories from the Old Testament. There, hundreds of years before, lived David, the shepherd boy who, after wonderful adventures, became king of his people. There his son Solomon built a temple of dazzling splendor. Among this people had arisen great preachers,—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah,—who declared that religion did not consist in the sacrifice of bulls and goats, but in justice, in mercy, and in humility. They had a genius for religion, just as the Greeks had a genius for art, and the Romans a genius for government.

THE JEWS CONQUERED BY THE ROMANS. When the Jews first heard of the Romans they admired these citizens of a republic who made and unmade kings. In later years they learned that the Romans were hard masters and they feared and hated them. The Jewish kingdom was one of the last countries along the shores of the Mediterranean which the Romans conquered, but like all the others it finally became a Roman province.

JESUS OF NAZARETH. A few years before the Jewish kingdom became a Roman province there was born in a village near Jerusalem a child named Jesus. After he had grown to manhood in Nazareth he gathered about him followers or disciples whom he taught to live and act as is told in the books of the New Testament.



This was the beginning of the Christian religion. It was first held by a little band of Jews, but Paul, a Jew born in Tarsus, a city of Asia whose inhabitants had received the rights of Roman citizenship, believed that the message of the new religion was meant for all nations. He taught it in many cities of Asia Minor and Greece, and even went as far west as Rome. Several of the epistles or letters in the New Testament were written by Paul to churches which he had founded or where he had taught. So it happens that from Palestine came religious teachings which multitudes consider even more important than the art and literature of the Greeks or the laws and political methods of the Romans.

WHY THE CHRISTIANS WERE PERSECUTED. The Romans at first refused to permit any one in their empire to call himself a Christian. They disliked the Jews because the Jews denied that the Roman gods were real gods, asserting that these gods were mere images in wood and stone. The Christians did this also, but in the eyes of the Roman rulers the worst offense of the Christians was that they appeared to form a sort of secret society and held meetings to which other persons were not admitted. The emperor had forbidden such societies.

The Romans also disliked the Christians because of their refusal to join in the public ceremonies which honored the emperor as if he were a god who had given peace and order to the world and who was able to reward the good and punish the evil. The Christians believed it to be wrong to join in the worship of an emperor, whether he were alive or dead.

CHRISTIANS PUT TO DEATH. The Romans were cruel in their manner of punishing disobedience, and many Christians suffered death in its most horrible forms. Some were burned, others were tortured, others were torn to pieces by wild animals in the great amphitheaters to satisfy the fierce Roman crowd. Nero, the worst of the Roman emperors, who, many thought, set Rome on fire in order that he might enjoy the sight of the burning city, tried to turn suspicion from himself by accusing the Christians of the crime. He punished them by tying them to poles, smearing their bodies with pitch, and burning them at night as torches.

THE CHRISTIANS ALLOWED TO WORSHIP. The new religion spread rapidly from province to province in spite of these persecutions. At first the Christians worshiped secretly, but later they ventured to build churches. Finally, three centuries after the birth of Christ, the emperors promised that the persecutions should cease and that the Christians might worship undisturbed.



THE ROMAN EMPIRE BECOMES CHRISTIAN ABOUT 325 A.D. Constantine was the first emperor to become Christian. He was the one who made the Greek city Byzantium the capital of the empire and for whom it was renamed Constantinople. For a time both the old Roman religion and the Christian religion were favored by the emperors, but before the fourth century closed the old religion was forbidden. In later days worshipers of the Roman gods were mostly country people, called in Latin pagani, and therefore their religion was called "paganism."

HOW THE CHURCH WAS RULED. One of the reasons why the Christians had been successful in their struggle with the Roman emperors was that they were united under wise and brave leaders. The Christians in each large city were ruled by a bishop, and the bishops of several cities were directed by an archbishop. In the western part of the empire the bishop of Rome, who was called the pope, was honored as the chief of the bishops and archbishops, and the successor of the Apostle Peter. In the eastern part the archbishops or patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria and Jerusalem honored the pope, but claimed to be equal in authority with him.

There were also two kinds of clergy, parish priests and monks. The priests were pastors of ordinary parishes, but the monks lived in groups in buildings called monasteries. Sometimes their purpose was to dwell far from the bustle and wrongs of ordinary life and give themselves to prayer and fasting; sometimes they acted as a brotherhood of teachers in barbarous communities, teaching the people better methods of farming, and carrying the arts of civilized life beyond the borders of the empire.

QUESTIONS

1. Where did the Jews live in Ancient Times?

2. Do you remember any of the stories of David?

3. What finally became of the kingdom over which David ruled?

4. What era in the history of the world begins with the birth of Jesus Christ?

5. Why did the Romans forbid the Christians to worship? How did the Romans punish them? How long after the birth of Christ before the emperors allowed the Christians to worship undisturbed?



6. What is the name of the first Roman emperor who became a Christian? What name was soon given to the worshipers of the old Roman gods?

7. By what titles were the leaders of the Christians named? What two kinds of clergy were there?

Important date: 325 A.D., when the Roman Empire became Christian.



CHAPTER X

EMIGRANTS A THOUSAND YEARS AGO

THE MIDDLE AGES. It was more than a thousand years from the time of Constantine to the time of Columbus. This period is called "Mediaeval," or the "Middle Ages." During these long centuries the ancient civilized world of the Roman Empire was much changed. The Roman or Greek cities on the southern shores of the Mediterranean were captured by Arabs or Moors. The Moors conquered the larger part of Spain. The eastern lands of Palestine and Asia Minor fell into the hands of the Turks. The Turks, the Moors, and the Arabs were followers of the "prophet" Mohammed, who died in the year 632. The Mohammedans were enemies of the Christians.

WESTERN EUROPE. The other part of the European world was also changed. The countries on the shores of the Atlantic were now more important than those on the shores of the Mediterranean. The names of the different countries were changed. Instead of Gallia or Gaul, there was France; instead of Britannia, England; for Hispania, Spain; for Germania, Deutschland or Germany. Italy, the center of the old empire, was finally divided into several states—city republics like Genoa and Venice, provinces ruled by the pope, and other territories ruled by dukes, princes, or kings.

FATE OF CIVILIZATION. The most important question to ask is, How much of the manner of living or civilization of the Greeks and the Romans did the later Europeans still retain? The answer is found in the history of the Middle Ages. In this history is also found what men added to that which they had learned from the Greeks and the Romans. The emigrants to America were to carry with them knowledge which not even the wisest men of the ancient world had possessed.



MEDIAEVAL GERMAN EMIGRANTS. The first part of the history of the Middle Ages explains how the German peoples from whom most of our forefathers were descended began to move from the northern forests towards the borders of the Roman Empire. Many thousand men had already crossed the Rhine and the Danube to serve in the Roman armies. Sometimes an unusually strong and skilful warrior would be made a general. Germans had also crossed the Rhine to work as farmers on the estates of the rich Gallic nobles. Other Germans, called Goths, worked in Constantinople and the cities of the East as masons, porters, and water-carriers. The Romans had owned so many slaves that they had lost the habit of work and were glad to hire these foreigners.

STORY OF ULFILAS. Many of the Goths who lived north of the Danube had forsaken their old gods and become Christians. They were taught by Bishop Ulfilas, once a captive among them, afterward a missionary. He translated the Bible into the Gothic language, and this translation is the most ancient specimen of German that we possess. Many of the other German tribes learned about Christianity from the Goths, and although they might be enemies of the Roman government, they were not enemies of the Church.

THE GOTHS INVADE THE ROMAN EMPIRE. The Roman emperors tried to prevent the northern tribes from crossing the frontier in great numbers, because, once across, if they did not find work and food, they became plunderers. Not many years after Constantine's death, a million Goths had passed the Danube and had plundered the country almost to the walls of Constantinople. This was not like the invasion of a regular army, which comes to fight battles and to arrange terms of peace.

The Goths, and the Germans who soon followed their example, moved as a whole people, with their wives and children, their cattle, and the few household goods they owned. Wherever they wished to settle they demanded of the Romans one third, sometimes two thirds, of the land. They soon learned to be good neighbors of the older inhabitants, although at first they were little better than robbers. Alaric, one of the leaders of the Goths, led them into Italy and in the year 410 captured Rome. Alaric did not injure the buildings much, and he kept his men from robbing the churches. Some of the other barbarous tribes who roamed about plundering villages and attacking cities did far greater damage. The Roman government grew weaker and weaker, until one by one the provinces fell into the hands of German kings.

BEGINNINGS OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND GERMANY. Britain was attacked by the Angles and Saxons from the shores of Germany across the North Sea. They drove away the inhabitants or made slaves of them and settled upon the lands they had seized. The country was then called Angle-land or England, and the people Anglo-Saxons or Englishmen.

The Roman provinces in Gaul were gradually conquered by the Franks from the borders of the Rhine, and they gave the name France to the land.

At about the same time the other German tribes that had remained in Germany united under one king.

THE RESULT OF BARBARIAN ATTACKS. The part of the ancient world which lay about Constantinople was less changed than the rest during the Middle Ages. The walls of Constantinople were high and thick, and they withstood attack after attack until 1453. Within their shelter men continued to live much as they had lived in Ancient Times. A few delighted to study the writings of the ancient Greeks. In Italy and the other countries of western Europe most of the cities were in ruins. The ancient baths, amphitheaters, aqueducts, and palaces of Rome crumbled and fell. The mediaeval Romans also used huge buildings like the Colosseum as quarries of cut stone and burned the marble for lime. This was done in every country where Roman buildings existed.



The amphitheater at Arles in southern France had a still stranger fortune. It was used at one time as a citadel, at another as a prison and gradually became the home of hundreds of the criminals and the poor of the city. "Every archway held its nest of human outcasts. From stone to stone they cast their rotting beams and plaster and burrowed into the very entrails of the enormous building to seek a secure retreat from the pursuit of the officers of the law."

Few persons traveled from Constantinople to Italy or France, and few from western Europe visited Constantinople. The men of Italy and France and England did not know how to read Greek. Many of them also ceased to read the writings of the ancient Romans.



THE ENGLISH BECOME CHRISTIANS, 597 A.D. Christianity had spread throughout the Roman Empire, and it became the religion of all the tribes who founded kingdoms of their own upon the ruins of the Empire. The Angles and Saxons, when they invaded Britain, were still worshipers of the gods Wodan and Thor. They had never learned from the Goths of Ulfilas anything about Christianity.

One day in the slave market at Rome three fair-haired boys were offered for sale. Gregory, a noble Roman, who had become a monk and was the abbot of his monastery, happened to be passing and asked who they were. He was told they were Angles. "Angels," he cried, "yes, they have faces like angels, and should become companions of the angels in heaven." When this good abbot became pope, he sent missionaries to Angle-land and they established themselves at Canterbury.



MISSIONARIES TO THE GERMANS AND THE SLAVS. The conversion of the English helped in the spread of Christianity on the Continent, for Boniface, an English monk, was the greatest missionary to the Germans. He won thousands from the worship of their ancient gods and founded many churches. The Slavs, who lived east of the Germans, were taught by missionaries from Constantinople instead of from Rome.

THE EDUCATED MEN OF THE MIDDLE AGES. The missionaries and teachers of the Church had been educated like the older Romans. They read Roman books, and tried to preserve the knowledge which both Greeks and Romans had gathered. Influenced by them, the emigrants and conquerors from the north also tried to be like the Romans. Educated men, and especially the priests of the Church, used Latin as their language. In this way some parts of the old Roman and Greek civilization were preserved, although the Roman government had fallen and many beautiful cities were mere heaps of ruins.

THE VIKINGS. The emigration of whole peoples from one part of Europe to another did not stop when the Roman Empire was overrun. New peoples appeared and sought to plunder or crowd out the tribes which had already settled within its boundaries and were learning the ways of civilization.

One of these peoples came from the regions now known as Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. They were called Danes by the English, and Northmen or Normans by other Europeans. They had another name, Vikings, which was their word for sea-rovers.

It was their custom to sail the seas and rivers rather than march on the land. They were a hardy and daring people, who liked nothing better than to fight and conquer and rob in other countries. There was not a land in western Europe, even as far south as Sicily, that they did not visit. Wherever they went they plundered and burned and murdered, leaving a blackened trail.

THE DANES IN ENGLAND. The Danes ravaged the eastern and southern shores of England, and after they were tired of robbery, partly because there was little left to take, they began to settle in the land. Alfred, the greatest of the early English kings, was driven by them into the swamps for a while, but in the year 878 A.D. he conquered an army of them in battle and persuaded one of their kings to be baptized as a Christian. Alfred was obliged to allow them to keep the eastern portion of England, a region called Danelaw, because the law of the Danes was obeyed there.



THE DANES BECOME NORMANS. No more Danes or Northmen came to trouble England for a time, but instead they crossed the Channel to France and rowed up the Seine and tried to capture Paris. A few years later a Frankish king gave them the city of Rouen, further down the Seine, and the region about it which was called Normandy. These Normans also accepted Christianity.

THE VIKINGS BECOME DISCOVERERS. Before another hundred years had passed the Northmen performed a feat more difficult than sailing up rivers and burning towns. They were the first to venture far out of sight of land, though their ships were no larger than our fishing boats. These bold sailors visited the Orkney and the Shetland Islands, north of Scotland, and finally reached Iceland. In Iceland their sheep and cattle flourished, and a lively trade in fish, oil, butter, and skins sprang up with the old homeland and with the British islands.

Before long one of the settlers, named Eric the Red, led a colony to Greenland, the larger and more desolate island further west. He called it Greenland because, he said, men would be more easily persuaded to go there if the land had a good name. This was probably in the year 985.



DISCOVERY OF VINLAND. Eric had a son, called Leif Ericson, or Leif the Lucky, who visited Norway and was well received at the court of King Olaf. Not long before missionaries had persuaded Olaf and his people to give up their old gods and accept Christianity, and Leif followed their example. Leif set out in the early summer of the year 1000 to carry the new religion to his father, Eric the Red, to his father's people, and to his neighbors. The voyage was a long one, lasting all the summer, for on the way his ship was driven out of its course and came upon strange lands where wild rice and grape-vines and large trees grew. The milder climate and stories of large trees useful for building ships aroused the curiosity of the Greenlanders.

They sent exploring expeditions, and found the coast of North America at places which they called Helluland, that is, the land of flat stones; Markland, the land of forests; and Vinland, where the grape-vines grow. Helluland was probably on the coast of Labrador, Markland somewhere on the shores of Newfoundland, and Vinland in Nova Scotia.

THE SETTLEMENT IN VINLAND. Thornfinn Karlsefni, a successful trader between Iceland and Greenland, attempted to plant a colony in the new lands. Karlsefni and his friends, to the number of one hundred and sixty men and several women, set out in 1007 with three or four ships, loaded with supplies and many cattle. They built huts and remained three or four winters in Vinland, but all trace of any settlement disappeared long ago.

They found, their stories tell us, swarthy, rough-looking Indians, with coarse hair, large eyes, and broad cheeks, with whom they traded red cloth for furs. Trouble broke out between the Northmen and the Indians, who outnumbered them. So many Northmen were killed that the survivors became alarmed and returned to Greenland.



VINLAND FORGOTTEN. The voyages to Vinland soon ceased and the discoveries of Leif and his followers were only remembered in the songs or "sagas" of the people. They thought of Vinland mainly as a land of flat stones, great trees, and fierce natives. Nor did the wise men of Europe who heard the Northmen's story guess that a New World had been discovered. It was probably fortunate that five hundred years were to go by before Europeans settled in America, for within that time they were to learn a great deal and to find again many things which the Romans had left but which in the year 1000 were hidden away, either in the ruins of the ancient cities or in libraries and treasure-houses, where few knew of them. The more Europeans possessed before they set out, the more Americans would have to start with.



QUESTIONS

1. What is meant by the "Middle Ages" or the "Mediaeval" period?

2. Show on the map, what part of the Roman Empire was conquered by the Mohammedans.

3. Mention the Roman names of England, France, Germany, and Spain, Why were they changed to what they are now?

4. What people early in the Middle Ages began to emigrate from their homes to the Roman Empire? What did they do for a living?

5. Where did the Goths live? Who taught them the Christian religion? When the Goths entered the Roman Empire what did they ask of the inhabitants? Did they destroy much? How many years separated the capture of Rome by Alaric from its capture by the Gauls?

6. What tribes conquered England or Britain? What tribes conquered Roman Gaul or France? How long before Constantinople was captured?

7. What was the effect of these raids and wars upon many cities? Who tried to keep fresh the memory of what the Greeks and the Romans had done? Who used the language of the Romans?

8. Tell the story of the way the English became Christians. Who taught the Christian religion to many Germans? From what city did the Slavs receive missionaries?

9. What different names are given to the inhabitants of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden who became rovers over the seas? Where did they make settlements?

10. Tell the story of how Leif the Lucky discovered America. Why did the Northmen leave Vinland?



EXERCISES

1. Point out on the map all the places mentioned in this chapter.

2. On an outline map mark the names of the peoples mentioned in the chapter on the countries where they settled.

3. Ask children in school who know some other language than English what are their names for England, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.

Important dates:

Alaric's capture of Rome, 410 A.D.

Discovery of America by the Northmen, 1000 A.D.



CHAPTER XI

HOW ENGLISHMEN LEARNED TO GOVERN THEMSELVES

HEROES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. The Middle Ages, like Ancient Times, are recalled by many interesting tales. Some of them, such as the stories of King Arthur and his Knights, the story of Roland, and the Song of the Niebelungs, are only tales and not history. Others tell us about great kings, Charlemagne and St. Louis of France, Frederick the Redbeard of Germany, or St. Stephen of Hungary. The hero-king for England was Alfred, who fought bravely against the pirate Danes and finally conquered and persuaded many of them to live quietly under his rule.

KING ALFRED BEGAN TO REIGN IN 871. King Alfred was a skilful warrior, but he was also an excellent ruler in time of peace. When he was a boy he had shown his love of books. His mother once offered a beautifully written Saxon poem as a prize to the one of her sons who should be the first to learn it. Alfred could not yet read, but he had a ready memory, and with the aid of his teacher he learned the poem and won the prize.

At that time almost all books were written in Latin and few even of the clergy could read. During the long wars with the Danes many books had been destroyed. Men found battle-axes more useful than books and ceased to care about reading. King Alfred feared that the Saxons would soon become ignorant barbarians, and sent for priests and monks who were learned and were able to teach his clergy. He sent even into France for such men.

EARLY ENGLISH BOOKS. As it would be easier for people to learn to read books written in the language they spoke rather than in Latin, Alfred helped to translate several famous Latin books into English. Among these was a history written by a Roman before the Germans had overthrown the Roman Empire. This history told about the world of the Greeks and the Romans.

Alfred commanded some of his clergy to keep a record from year to year of things which happened in his kingdom. This record was called the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and was the first history written in the English language. It was carefully kept for many years after Alfred's death. Another wise thing Alfred did was to collect the laws or "dooms" of the earlier kings, so that every one might know what the law required.



THE BEGINNING OF A NAVY. Alfred has been called the creator of the English navy. He thought that the only way to keep the Danes from plundering his shores was to fight them on the sea. He built several ships which were bigger than the Danish ships, but they were not always victorious, for they could not follow the Danish ships into shallow water. Nevertheless, the Danes could not plunder England as easily as before.

THE NEW ARMY. Alfred organized his fighting men in a better way. In times past the men had been called upon to fight only when the Danes were near, but now he kept a third of his men ready all the time, and another third he placed in forts, so the rest were able to work in the fields in safety. There are good reasons why Englishmen regard Alfred as a hero.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR BEGAN TO RULE ENGLAND IN 1066. About a hundred and fifty years after Alfred died, William, duke of Normandy, crossed the Channel with an army, killed the English king in battle, and seized the throne. This was not altogether a misfortune to the English, for they came under the same ruler as the Normans and they shared in all that the men of the Continent were beginning to learn. For one thing, builders from the Continent taught the English to construct the great Norman churches or cathedrals which every traveler in England sees. Besides, William the Conqueror was a strong king and put down the chiefs or lords that were inclined to oppress the common people.

HENRY II. Henry II, one of William's successors, ruled over most of western France as well as over England. His officers and nobles were tired out by his endless traveling in his lands, which extended from the banks of the river Loire in France to the borders of Scotland. All Englishmen and Americans should remember him with gratitude because of the improvements he made in the ways of discovering the truth when disputes arose and were carried into courts.



ORDEALS AND TRIALS BY BATTLE. Before Henry's reign it was the custom when a man was accused of a crime to find out the truth by arranging a wager of battle or what were called ordeals. The two most common ordeals were the ordeal by fire and the ordeal by water. In the ordeal by fire an iron was heated red-hot, and after it had been blessed by a priest it was put into the hand of the man the truth of whose word was being tested, and he had to carry it a certain number of feet. His hand was then bound up and left for three days. If at the end of that time the wound was healing, men believed he was innocent, for they thought God would keep an innocent man from being punished.

In the ordeal by water the man was tied and thrown into water which had been blessed by the priest. If he was guilty, the people thought the water would not receive him. If he sank at once, he was pulled out and treated as if he had told the truth.



A wager of battle was a fight between the two men whose dispute was to be settled, or between a man and his accuser. Each was armed with a hammer or a small battle-axe, and the one who gave up lost his case.

TRIAL BY JURY. King Henry introduced a better way of finding out the truth. He called upon twelve men from a neighborhood to come before the judges, to promise solemnly to tell what they knew about a matter, and then to decide which person was in the right. They were supposed to know about the facts, and they were allowed to talk the matter over with one another before they made a decision.

Later these men from the neighborhood were divided into two groups, one to tell what they knew and the other to listen and decide what was true. Those who told what they knew were called the witnesses, and those who listened and decided were called jurors. The name jurors came from a Latin word meaning to take an oath.

RICHARD THE LIONHEARTED. King Henry had two sons, Richard and John. Richard was the boldest and most skilful fighter of his time. When the news was brought to England that Jerusalem had been captured by the Mohammedans, he led an army to Palestine to recapture it. He failed to take the city, but he became famous throughout the East as a fearless warrior and was ever afterwards called the "Lionhearted." At his death his brother John became king. He was as cowardly and wicked as Richard was brave and generous.

THE GREAT CHARTER. The leaders of the people, the nobles and the clergy, soon grew tired of John's wickedness. In 1215 they raised an army and threatened to take the kingdom from John and crown another prince as king. John was soon ready to promise anything in order to obtain power once more, and the nobles and bishops met him at Runnymede on the river Thames, a few miles west of London, and compelled him to sign a list of promises. As the list contained sixty-three separate promises, it was called the Great Charter or Magna Charta. If John did not keep these promises, the lords and clergy agreed to make war on him, and he even said that this would be their duty.

PROMISES OF THE CHARTER. Many of the articles of the Great Charter were important only to the men of King John's day, but others are as important to us as to them. In these the king promised that every one should be treated justly. He said he would not refuse to listen to the complaints of those who thought they were wronged. The king also promised that he would not decide in favor of a rich man just because the rich man might offer him money. He would put no one in prison who had not been tried and found guilty by a jury. By another important promise the king said he would not levy new taxes without the consent of the chief men of the kingdom. This opened the way for the people to have something to say about how their money should be spent. This right is a very important part of what we call self-government.



PROMISES OF THE GREAT CHARTER RENEWED. In after times whenever the English thought a king was doing them a wrong they reminded him of the promises made by King John in the Great Charter and demanded that the promises be solemnly renewed.

In 1265 a great noble named Simon de Montfort asked many towns to send a number of their chief men to meet with the nobles and clergy to talk over the conduct of the king. Others, even kings, soon followed Simon's example by asking the townsmen for advice about matters of government. After a while this became the custom. Occasionally the king wanted the advice of the clergy, the nobles, and the townsmen at the same time and called them together. The meeting was called a parliament, that is, an assembly in which talking or discussion goes on.



THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. Only the most important nobles or lords could go in person to the assemblies, otherwise the meeting would be too large to do any business. The other lords chose certain ones from their number to go in place of all the rest. We call such men representatives. In this way, besides the men who represented the towns, there were present these nobles who represented the landowners of the counties. Gradually these nobles and the townsmen formed an assembly of their own, while the greater lords, the bishops, and abbots sat together in another assembly. The two assemblies were called the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and the two made up the parliament.

AN ASSEMBLY OF REPRESENTATIVES. This parliament was a great invention. The English had discovered a better way of governing themselves than either the Greeks or the Romans. We call it the representative system. If a Roman citizen who lived far from Rome wanted to take part in the elections, he was obliged to leave his farm or his business and travel to Rome, for only the citizens who were at Rome could have a share in making the laws. It never occurred to the Romans that the citizens outside of Rome could send some of their number as representatives to Rome. The formation of the English parliament was an important step towards what we mean in America by "government of the people, for the people, and by the people."



QUESTIONS

1. Mention the names of heroes or hero-kings of the Middle Ages. What stories have you learned about these heroes?

2. Who was the hero-king of the English? How did he early show his love of books? What did he do to help his people to a knowledge of books?

3. How did he succeed better than other kings in driving back the Danes? Why has he been called the creator of the English navy?

4. What was the name of the Norman duke who conquered the English and ruled over them? Did this conquest hinder or help them?

5. Why should we remember Henry II gratefully? Explain an ordeal and a trial by battle. How were the first juries formed and what did they do? How were they afterwards divided?

6. For what was King Richard most celebrated? What sort of a king was his brother John?

7. Why was the Charter which John was forced to grant called "Great"? Repeat some of its promises. Did the English soon forget these promises?

8. Who asked the townsmen to send several of their number to talk over affairs with the clergy and the nobles? What was this body finally called? Into what two bodies was it divided?

9. What is a "representative system"? Why was it an invention? What did the Romans do when they lived in towns distant from Rome and wanted to take part in elections or help make the laws?



EXERCISES

1. Learn and tell one of the King Arthur stories and a part of the story of the Niebelungs. Find a story about Charlemagne, Frederick the Redbeard, St. Louis, or St. Stephen.

2. Collect pictures of war vessels, those of old times and those of to-day, and explain their differences.

3. Find out how men nowadays decide whether an accused man is guilty.

4. What is the name of the assembly in your state which makes the laws? What assembly at Washington makes the laws for the whole country?



CHAPTER XII

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES

WHAT THE ENGLISH OWED TO THEIR EUROPEAN NEIGHBORS. If the English succeeded better than other Europeans in learning how to govern themselves, one reason was that the Channel protected them from attack, and they could quarrel with their king without running much risk that their enemies in other countries would take advantage of the quarrel to seize their lands or attempt to conquer them.

The French were not so well placed. France also was not united like England, and whole districts called counties or duchies were almost independent of the king, being ruled by their counts and dukes. In France it would not have been wise for the people to quarrel with the king, for he was their natural protector against cruel lords. Germany and Italy were even more divided, with not only counties and duchies, but also cities nearly as independent as the ancient cities of Greece.

The Europeans on the Continent did many things which the English were doing, and some of these were so well done that the English were ready to accept these Europeans as their teachers. The memory of what the Greeks and the Romans had done remained longer in southern France and Italy because so many buildings were still standing which reminded Frenchmen and Italians of the people who built them.



CLASSES OF PEOPLE. The people of Europe, as well as of England, were divided into two classes, nobles and peasants. The clergy seemed to form another class because there were so many of them. Besides the parish priests and the bishops there were thousands of monks, who were persons who chose to dwell together in monasteries under the rule of an abbot or a prior, rather than live among ordinary people where men were so often tempted to do wrong or were so likely to be wronged by others. The monks worked on the farms of the monasteries, or studied in the libraries, or prayed and fasted. For a long time the men who knew how to read were nearly always monks or priests. Outside of the monasteries or the bishops' houses there were few books.

THE NOBLES. The nobles were either knights, barons, counts, or dukes. In England there were also earls. Many mediaeval nobles ruled like kings, but over a smaller territory. They gained their power because they were rich in land and could support many men who were ready to follow them in battle, or because in the constant wars they proved themselves able to keep anything they took, whether it was a hilltop or a town. Timid and peaceable people were often glad to put themselves under the protection of such a fighter, who saved them from being robbed by other fighting nobles.

In this way the nobles served a good purpose until the kings, who were at first only very successful nobles, were able to bring nobles as well as peasants under their own rule and to compel every one to obey the same laws. After this the nobles became what we call an aristocracy, proud of their family history, generally living in better houses and owning more land than their neighbors, but with little power over others.





CASTLES. For safety, kings and nobles in the Middle Ages were obliged to build strong stone forts or fortified houses called castles. They were often placed on a hilltop or on an island or in a spot where approach to the walls could be made difficult by a broad canal, or moat, filled with water. At different places along the walls were towers, and within the outer ring of walls a great tower, or keep, which was hard to capture even after the rest of the castle had been entered by the enemy. These castles were gloomy places to live in until, centuries later, their inner walls were pierced with windows. Many are still standing, others are interesting heaps of ruins.

KNIGHTHOOD. The lords of the castles were occupied mostly in hunting or fighting. They fought to keep other lords from interfering with them or to win for themselves more lands and power. They hunted that they might have meat for their tables. In later times, when it was not so necessary to kill animals for food, they hunted as a sport. Fighting also ceased to be the chief occupation, although the nobles were expected to accompany the king in his wars.

From boyhood the sons of nobles, unless they entered the Church as priests or monks, were taught the art of fighting. A boy was sent to the castle of another lord, where he served as a page, waiting on the lord at table or running errands. He was trained to ride a horse boldly and to be skilful with the sword and the lance. When his education was finished he was usually made a knight, an event which took place with many interesting ceremonies.

The young man bathed, as a sign that he was pure. The weapons and arms for his use were blessed by a priest and laid on the altar of the church, and near them he knelt and prayed all night. In the final ceremony a sword was girded upon him and he received a slight blow on the neck from the sword of some knight, or perhaps of the king. His armor covered him from head to foot in metal, and sometimes his horse was also covered with metal plates. When he was fully armed, he was expected to show his skill to the lords and ladies who were present.

THE DUTIES OF A KNIGHT. The duties of the knight were to defend the weak, to protect women from wrong, to be faithful to his lord and king, and to be courteous even to an enemy. A knight true to these duties was called "chivalrous," a word which means very much what we mean by the word "gentlemanly." There were many wicked knights, but we must not forget that the good knights taught courtesy, faithfulness in keeping promises, respect for women, courage, self-sacrifice, and honor.



THE PEASANTS. Most of the people were peasants or townsmen. There were few towns, because many had been burned by the barbarian tribes which broke into the Roman Empire, or had been destroyed in the later wars. The peasants were crowded in villages close to the walls of some castle or monastery. They paid dearly for the protection which the lord of the castle or the abbot of the monastery gave them, for they were obliged to work on his lands three days or more each week, and to bring him eggs, chickens, and a little money several times a year. They also gave him a part of their harvest.

THE TOWNSMEN. At first the towns belonged to lords, or abbots, or bishops, but many towns drove out their lords and ruled themselves or received officers from the king. When they ruled themselves, their towns were called communes. The citizens agreed that whenever the town bell was rung they would gather together. Any one who was absent was fined. For them "eternal vigilance was the price of liberty." Some of the belfries of these mediaeval towns are still standing, and remind the citizens of to-day of the struggles of the early days.



The men of each occupation or trade were organized into societies or guilds, with masters, journeymen, and apprentices. There were guilds of goldsmiths, ironmongers, and fishmongers, that is, workers in gold and iron and sellers of fish. The merchants also had their guilds. In many towns no one was allowed to work at a trade or sell merchandise who was not a member of a guild.

OLD CITIES WHICH STILL EXIST. Many of the towns which grew up in the Middle Ages are now the great cities of England and Europe. Their citizens can look back a thousand years and more over the history of their city, can point to churches, to town halls, and sometimes to private houses, that have stood all this time. They can often show the remains of mediaeval walls or broad streets where once these walls stood, and the moats that surrounded them. The traveler in York or London, in Paris, in Nuremburg, in Florence, or in Rome eagerly searches for the relics about which so many interesting stories of the past are told.

VENICE AND GENOA. One of the most fascinating of these old cities is Venice, built upon low-lying islands two miles from the shore of Italy and protected by a sand bar from the waters of the Adriatic. Venice was founded by men and women who fled from a Roman city on the mainland which was ruined by the barbarians in the fifth century after Christ. In many places piles had to be driven into the loose sands to furnish a foundation for houses. The Venetians did not try to keep out the water but used it as streets, and instead of driving in wagons they went about in boats. They grew rich in trade on the sea, as the Greeks had done in those same waters hundreds of years before.

Farther down the coast of Italy were the cities Brindisi and Taranto, the Brundusium and Tarentum of the Romans. Across the peninsula to the west was another trading city called Genoa, which was the birthplace of Columbus.

MODERN LANGUAGES. While the people of mediaeval times were building city walls and towers to protect themselves they were also doing other things. Almost without knowing it they formed the languages which we now speak and write—English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish.

The English and German languages are closely related because the forefathers of the English emigrated to England from Germany, taking their language with them. This older language was gradually changed, but it still remained like German. Dutch is another language like both English and German.

There are many words in these languages borrowed from other peoples. Englishmen, because of their long union with western France, borrowed many words from the French. The French did not invent these words, for the French language grew out of the Latin language which the French learned from the Romans.

HOW MODERN LANGUAGES WERE FORMED. In English we have two sets of words and phrases: one is used in writing books or speeches, the other in conversation. When the Gauls learned Latin, the language of Rome, most of them learned the words used in conversation and did not learn the words of Roman books. Before long spoken words differed so much from the older written words that only scholars understood that the two had belonged to the same language. This new language was French. In the same way Italian and Spanish grew out of the ordinary Latin spoken in Italy and Spain.

When men began to write books in the new languages, the changes went on more slowly because the use of words in books kept the spelling the same. Men wrote less in Latin, but it was still used in the religious services of the Church and in the schools and universities.



SCHOOLS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. In the Middle Ages most boys and girls did not go to school. Education was principally for those who expected to become priests or monks. The schools were in the monasteries or in the houses or palaces of the bishops. The students were taught a little Latin grammar, to write or speak Latin, and to debate. They also learned arithmetic; enough astronomy to reckon the days on which the festivals of the Church should come; and music, so much as was then known of it. Printing had not been invented, so there were no text-books for them to study, and written books or manuscripts were too costly. Students listened to the teacher as he read from his manuscripts and copied the words or tried to remember them.

THE BEGINNING OF UNIVERSITIES. If students remained in the schools after these things had been learned, they studied the laws of the Romans, or the practise of medicine, or the religious questions which are called theology. Some teachers talked in such an interesting way about such questions that hundreds of students came to listen. Like other kinds of workers, who were organized in societies or guilds, the teachers and students formed a guild called a university. The teachers were the master-workmen, and the students were the apprentices.

WHERE THE STUDENTS LIVED. In the beginning the universities had no buildings of their own, and the teachers taught in hired halls, the students boarding wherever they could find lodgings. Partly to help students who were too poor to pay for good lodgings, and partly to bring the students under the direct rule of teachers, colleges were built. These were not separate institutions like the American colleges, but simply houses for residence, although later some teaching was done in them.

SOME FAMOUS UNIVERSITIES. The oldest university was in Bologna in Italy, and teachers began to explain the laws of the Romans to its students eight hundred years ago. The University of Paris was called the greatest university in the Middle Ages. Its students numbered sometimes between six and seven thousand. About the same time the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge were formed, and there, many years later, a large number of the men who settled in America were educated.

THE WISDOM OF THE ARABS. Students in these universities obtained several of the writings of the Greeks through the Arabs, the followers of Mohammed, who had conquered most of Spain. Long before Europeans thought of founding universities the Arabs had flourishing schools and universities in Spain. The capital of the Mohammedan Empire was first at Bagdad on the Euphrates, where once ruled Haroun-al-Raschid, the hero of the tales of the Arabian Nights.



WHAT EUROPEANS BORROWED FROM THE ARABS. The Arabs had learned much of geography and mathematics from the Greeks, and they also found out much for themselves. The numerals which we use are Arabic; and algebra, one of our principal studies in mathematics, was thought out by the Arabs. Their learned men were deeply interested in the books of Aristotle, an ancient Greek, who had been a teacher of Alexander the Great. They translated his books into Arabic, and Christian students in Spain translated the Arabic into Latin. The great scholars at the University of Paris believed that Aristotle reasoned better than other thinkers, and took as their model the methods of reasoning found in this Latin translation of an Arabic translation of what Aristotle had written in Greek.



BUILDERS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. The Greeks and the Romans had been great builders, but the men of the Middle Ages succeeded in building churches, town halls, and palaces or castles which equaled in grandeur and beauty the best that the ancient builders had made. The large churches or cathedrals seem wonderful because their builders were able to place masses of stone high in the air and to cover immense spaces with beautiful vaulted roofs. Builders nowadays imitate, but not often, if ever, equal them. Fortunately the original buildings are still standing in many English and European cities: in Canterbury, Durham, and Winchester; in Paris, Chartres, and Rheims; in Cologne, Erfurt, and Strasbourg; in Barcelona and Toledo; in Milan, Venice, and Rome.



CHURCH BUILDING. The Italians began by building churches like Roman basilicas. Roman arches and domes, supported by heavy walls, were also used north of the Alps, and the method of building was named Romanesque, or in England, Norman. The architects or builders of western France discovered a way of roofing over just as large spaces without using such heavy walls, so that the interior could be lighted by larger windows. Instead of having rounded arches they used pointed arches. The walls between the windows were strengthened by masses of stone called buttresses. The peak of the roof of these cathedrals was sometimes more than one hundred and fifty feet above the floor. The glass of the windows showed in beautiful colors scenes from the Bible or from lives of sainted men and women. The outer walls, especially the western front, the doorways and the towers, were richly carved and adorned with statues, and often with the figures of strange birds and beasts which lived only in the imagination of the builders. This method of building was named Gothic, and it was used not only for churches but for town halls and private houses. Architects use similar methods of building nowadays.



THE RENAISSANCE. Men who could build and adorn great churches and town halls and who were eager to study in the new universities should be called civilized. The barbarous days were gone, but men still had much to learn from the ancient Greeks and Romans. Many of the ancient buildings were in ruins, the statues half buried or broken, the paintings destroyed, and the books lost. Men began to search for what was left of these things and to study them carefully to learn what the Graeco-Roman world had been like. After a while students could think of nothing else, and tried to imitate, if they could not surpass, what the Romans and the Greeks had done. The age in which men were first interested in these things is called the Renaissance or "rebirth," because men were so unlike what they had been that they seemed born again. With the beginning of the Renaissance the Middle Ages came to an end.



PETRARCH. One of the earliest of these "new" men was Petrarch, an Italian poet who lived in the fourteenth century, a hundred years before Columbus. He wished above all things to read, copy, and possess the writings of the Romans, and especially of Cicero, an orator and writer who lived in the days of Julius Caesar. Petrarch and his friends searched for the manuscripts of Roman authors which had been preserved, hidden away in monastery libraries.

The same love of Roman books seized others, and princes spent large sums of money in collecting and copying ancient writings. At this time a beginning of the great libraries of Europe was made, Petrarch tried to learn Greek, but could find no one in Italy able to teach him.

GREEK BOOKS BROUGHT AGAIN TO ITALY. Shortly after Petrarch died some Greeks came from Constantinople seeking the aid of the pope and the kings of the West in an attempt to drive back the Turks, who had already crossed into Europe and settled in the lands which they now occupy. Unless help should be sent to Constantinople, the city would certainly fall into their hands. With these Greeks was one of those men who still loved to read the writings of the ancient authors. He was persuaded to remain a few years in Florence and other Italian cities and teach Greek to the eager Italian scholars. He was also persuaded to write a grammar of the Greek language, in order that after he had returned to Constantinople others might be able to continue his teaching.

Collectors of books now searched for Greek writings as eagerly as they had searched for Latin writings. Merchants sent their agents to Constantinople to buy books. One traveler and scholar brought back to Italy over two hundred. Soon Italy was the land to which students from Germany, France, and England went to learn Greek and to obtain copies of Greek books. It was fortunate that so many books had been brought from Constantinople, for at last, in 1453, the Turks captured that city and no place in the East was left where the books of the Greeks were studied as they had been at Constantinople.



THE INVENTION OF PRINTING. After collectors of Greek and Roman writings had made several good libraries, partly by purchase, partly by copying manuscripts belonging to others, a great invention was made which enabled these writings to be spread far and wide and placed in the hands of every student. This invention was the method of printing with movable types. It is not quite certain who made the invention, although John Gutenberg, of Mainz, in Germany, has generally been called the inventor. Probably several men thought of the method at about the same time, that is, about 1450.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF TYPE. In forming their type the German printers imitated the lettering made by copyists with a quill. Their type is called Gothic, and it is still widely used in German books. The Italian printers made their letters more round and simple in shape, imitating the handwriting of the best Italian copyists. This is the Roman type, in which many European peoples, as also the English and the Americans, print their books. The Italians also prepared a kind of lettering which, because they were the inventors, is named italic.

THE ALDINE PRESS. One of the most famous printers of this early time was a Venetian named Aldus Manutius or Manucci. He gathered about him a number of Greeks and planned to print all the Greek manuscripts that had been discovered. This he did in beautiful type, imitated from the handwriting of one of his Greek friends. He sold the books for a price per volume about equal to our fifty cents, so that few scholars were too poor to buy.

SOME EARLY PRINTED BOOKS. Another great printer was the Englishman William Caxton, who learned the art in the Netherlands. Among the books he printed was Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The first book printed by Gutenberg was the Bible in Latin. Early in the sixteenth century, through the labors of a Dutch scholar, Erasmus, and of his printer, the German Froben, the New Testament in Greek was printed.

ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE. The artists and the architects of this time began to imitate the buildings they found or that they unearthed. They used round arches and domes more than the pointed arches and vaulted roofs of the Gothic builders. Sculptors pictured in stone the stories of the Greek and Roman gods and heroes. Statues long buried in ancient ruins were dug up, and great artists like the Italian Michel Angelo studied them and rivaled them in the beautiful statues they cut. On every hand men's minds were awakened by what they saw of the work of the founders of the civilized world.





QUESTIONS

1. Why did the memory of the Greeks and Romans remain longer in France and Italy than in Germany and England?

2. What different classes of people were there in the Middle Ages? What was the difference between a parish priest and a monk?

3. How did the nobles gain a living? Were they useful? In what sorts of houses did they live? Describe a castle. What was the "keep"?

4. How were the sons of nobles trained? What was a page? How was a young man made a knight? What were the duties of a knight?

5. Were the farmers or peasants prosperous and happy in the Middle Ages? How did the townsmen learn to protect themselves? What was a guild? Why are many Europeans proud of their cities?

6. Why is Venice especially interesting? Why do we remember Genoa?

7. From what language did French, Italian, and Spanish grow? How were the changes made in the old language? Where did the English get their language? Was it just like the English we speak?

8. What did the boys study in the Middle Ages? What did the word "university" mean then? Name two or three universities founded then which still exist. What did the Arabs teach Christian students?

9. What sort of buildings did men in the Middle Ages especially like to build? Are these buildings still standing? Why do we admire these great churches?

10. What do we call the time when men began to study once more Roman and Greek books, and began to imitate the ways of living and thinking common in the Graeco-Roman world? Who was the first of these "new" men? Where especially did men search for Greek books?

11. What invention helped men spread far and wide this new knowledge? How do the Germans come to have "Gothic" type? Where do we get our Roman and italic type? What books did the Venetian printer Aldus print? Name a famous English and a famous German printer.

12. What besides ancient books did the men of the Renaissance like to study and imitate?



EXERCISES

1. Find out what titles of noblemen are used now in different European countries. In what country are men often knighted? Why are they knighted? What title shows that a man is a knight?

2. Collect pictures of armor and of castles, especially of castles still standing. Collect pictures of old town walls.

3. Collect pictures of Venice and Genoa, especially from advertising folders.

4. Find the names of several large American universities. Do the students live in "colleges" as students did in the Middle Ages?

5. Tell one or two stories from the Arabian Nights. Collect pictures of Arabian costumes and of Arabian buildings in Spain, or Africa, or Asia.

6. Collect pictures of English and European cathedrals. Find pictures of churches in America which resemble them.

REVIEW

How ancient civilization was preserved

1. What ruined so many ancient cities?

2. Who tried to preserve the memory of what the Greeks and the Romans had done?

3. What language did the churchmen continue to use?

4. How did the missionaries help?

5. How did Alfred teach the English some of the things the Romans had known?

6. What did the Arabs teach the Christians which the Greeks had known?

7. What was studied at Bologna? How did the universities help in preserving the ancient knowledge?

8. What did Petrarch do to find lost books? What did other men of Petrarch's time do?

9. What help came from the invention of printing?

10. From what besides books did the men of the Renaissance learn about the Greeks and the Romans?





CHAPTER XIII

TRADERS, TRAVELERS, AND EXPLORERS IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

THE PERILS OF TRADERS. There was a time in the Middle Ages when merchants scarcely dared to travel from one town to another for fear of being plundered by some robber lord or common thief. If they traveled by sea they might also be attacked by robbers. Some of these robbers, like the Northmen, came from afar, but others were ordinary sailors who put out from near-by ports when there seemed nothing better to do.

This state of things gradually changed. The kings or great lords succeeded in protecting merchants on land, and the merchants armed vessels of their own to drive the pirates from the sea. As trade grew greater the towns became richer and stronger and the robbers and pirates fewer, so that the number of merchant ships increased rapidly and long voyages were attempted.

FAIRS. At first trade was carried on at great fairs, held in places convenient for the merchants of England and western Europe. The fairs lasted about six weeks, and one fair followed another. As soon as the first was over the merchants packed their unsold wares and journeyed to the next. At the fairs were found drugs and spices, cottons and silks from the East, skins and furs from the North, wool from England, and other products from Germany, Italy, France, and Spain.

THE TREASURES OF THE EAST. Men in the Middle Ages were dependent for luxuries upon the lands of Asia which are commonly called the East. By this name we may mean Persia, Arabia, India, China, or the Molucca Islands, where the choicest spices still grow. Spices were a great luxury, and were needed to flavor the food, because the manner of cooking was poor and there was little variety in the kinds of food. Most of the cotton cloth, the silks, the drugs, and the dyes were also procured from the East.



ROUTES TO THE EAST. No one knew that it was possible to reach Asia by sailing around the southern point of Africa or through what is called the Strait of Magellan. The products of the East were brought to Europe by several routes, two reaching the Mediterranean at Alexandria, in Egypt, a third at Antioch, in Syria, and a fourth on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea.

The loads were carried by camels in long caravans across the deserts from the Red Sea, or the Persian Gulf, or from northern India. Ships from the Italian cities of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice struggled with one another for the right to bring back these precious wares and sell them to the merchants of Europe, who were ready to pay high prices.



VENETIAN TRADERS. Merchants from Germany came to Venice to trade the products of the North for spices, drugs, dyes, and silks, which they carried back across the Alps. Once a year the Venetians sent a fleet of vessels westward through the straits of Gibraltar and along the Atlantic shore as far as Bruges and London. The voyage was long and dangerous, and the Venetians traded in ports on the way. Spices in Bruges sold for two or three times what they cost in Venice.

THE CRUSADES. One event that brought to the Venetians an opportunity to enrich themselves was the Crusades. The Mohammedans had long held a large part of Spain, and towards the end of the eleventh century they threatened France and Italy. They also attacked what was left of the Roman Empire in the East, and the emperors sent to the pope and the western kings frantic appeals for help. Thousands of Frenchmen, Germans, Englishmen, and Italians were suddenly seized with the desire to go to Palestine and drive the Mohammedans from Jerusalem, the Holy City, and from the tomb of Christ. For the next two centuries large armies were sent there, sometimes gaining victories, sometimes being defeated in battle or overcome by disease.

WHAT THE VENETIANS GAINED FROM THE CRUSADES. Most of the Crusaders went to the Holy Land by sea, and when they had no ships of their own they often took passage in Venetian ships. The Venetians asked large sums for this, and also succeeded in obtaining all the rights of trade in many of the seaports which were captured. Sometimes the Venetians undertook to govern islands like Cyprus and Crete, or territories along the coasts, but their main aim was to increase their trade rather than to build up an empire.

THE NEW VENETIAN SHIPS. The Crusaders who returned to Europe brought back a liking for the luxuries of the East, and their tales made other men eager for them. For this reason more ships were built to sail in the Mediterranean. The shipowners attempted to make their ships larger and stronger. They were larger than those built by the English or by other peoples along the Atlantic coast, but they would seem small to us. There is an account of Venetian ships in the thirteenth century which tells us that they were one hundred and ten feet long and carried crews of one thousand men. They relied mainly upon the use of oars, but had a mast, sometimes two masts, rigged with sails, which they could use if the wind was favorable.



DANGERS OF THE SEA. One difficulty about sailing was the lack of any means in cloudy weather, and especially at night, of telling the direction in which they were going. The sailors did not like to venture far from shore, although the open sea is safer during a storm than a wind-swept and rocky coast. At the time when the sailors of the Mediterranean were building up their trade to Alexandria, Antioch, and the Black Sea, two instruments came into use which enabled them to tell just where they were.

THE COMPASS. One of these instruments was the compass, which the Chinese had long used, and which was known to the Arabs before the Europeans heard of it. If a boy will take a needle, rub its point with a magnet, and lay the needle on a cork floating in water, he will have a rough sort of compass. The point of the needle wherever it may be turned will swing back towards the north, thus guiding the sailors.



The compass was known in Europe about 1200. There is a story that at first sailors thought its action due to magic and refused to sail under a captain who used it. But a century later it was in general use, and had been so much improved that even in the severest storms the needle remained level and pointed steadily towards the north.



THE ASTROLABE. The other instrument, called the astrolabe, was a brass circle marked off into 360 degrees. To this circle were fastened two movable bars, at the ends of which were sights, or projecting pieces pierced by a hole. The astrolabe was hung on a mast in such a way that one bar was horizontal and the other could be moved until through its sights some known star could be seen. The number of degrees marked on the circle between the two bars told how high the star was above the horizon, and the sailors could reckon the latitude of the place where they were. In a similar way their longitude could be found out.

The astrolabe was not so useful as the compass, for it could be used only on clear days or nights. With these two instruments it was possible to sail far out into the Atlantic. By the middle of the fourteenth century ships from Genoa and Portugal had visited the Madeira and the Canary Islands, and even the Azores which are a thousand miles from the mainland.

WHAT MEN THOUGHT ABOUT A SEA ROUTE TO THE EAST. Men learned more about other strange lands through a Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, who wrote an account of his wonderful journey to the court of the Grand Khan, or Emperor of the Mongols, of his travels through China, and of his return to Persia by sea.

Many men in the Middle Ages had believed that east of Asia was a great marsh, and that because of it even if they succeeded in sailing around Africa it would be impossible to reach the region of the spices and silks and jewels which they so much desired. They also thought that the heat in the tropics was so intense that at a certain distance down the coast of Africa they would find the water of the ocean boiling. These things and the tales of strange monsters that inhabited the deep sea had terrified them. The news which Marco Polo brought changed this feeling.

THE MONGOLS. The way Marco Polo happened to visit the court of the Mongol emperor was this. The Mongol Tartars were great conquerors, and they not only subdued the Chinese but marched westward, overrunning most of Russia and stopping only when they were on the frontiers of Italy. For a long time southern Russia remained under their rule. Their capital was just north of the Great Wall of China.

The Mongol emperor did not hate Europeans, and even sent to the pope for missionaries to teach his people. Marco Polo's father and uncle while on a trading expedition had found their way to his court, and on a second journey, in 1271, they took with them Marco, a lad of seventeen years. The emperor was much interested in his western visitors and took young Marco into his service.



MARCO POLO'S TRAVELS. Marco Polo traveled over China on official errands, while his father and uncle were gathering wealth by trade. After many years they desired to return to Italy, but the emperor was unwilling to lose such able servants. It happened, however, that the emperor wished to send a princess as a bride to the Khan or Emperor of Persia, also a Mongol sovereign, and the three Polos, who were known to be trustworthy seamen, were selected to escort the princess to her royal husband. After doing this they did not return to China, but went on to Italy.

They had been absent twenty-four years, and they found that their relatives had given them up for dead and did not recognize them. It was like the old story of Ulysses, who, when he returned to his native Ithaca after his wanderings, was recognized by nobody. The Polos proved the truth of what they said by showing the great treasures which they had sewed into the dresses of coarse stuff of a Tartar pattern which they wore. They displayed jewels of the greatest value, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.



WHAT MARCO POLO TOLD. In the account Marco Polo wrote of his travels and of the countries he had visited he described a wonderful palace of the Great Emperor. Its walls were covered with gold and silver, the dining hall seated six thousand people, and its ceiling was inlaid with gold. This palace seemed to Marco Polo so large, so rich, and so beautiful that no man on earth could design anything to equal it. The robes of the emperor and his twelve thousand nobles and knights were of silk and beaten gold, each having a girdle of gold decorated with precious stones.

Marco Polo told of great cities in China where men traded in the costly wares of the East, and where silk was abundant and cheap. He described from hearsay Japan as an island fifteen hundred miles from the mainland. Its people, he said, were white, civilized, and wondrously rich. The palace of the emperor of Japan was roofed with gold, its pavements and floors were of solid gold, laid in plates two fingers thick.

REASONS FOR FINDING A SEA ROUTE TO THE EAST. Tales of such great wealth made Europeans more eager than ever to reach the East. Marco Polo had shown that it was possible to sail past India, through the islands, to the eastern coast of Asia. When printing was invented his account was printed, and the copy of that book which Columbus owned is still preserved. Upon its margins Columbus wrote his own opinions about geography.

Other travelers besides the Polos returned with similar tales of the East. Soon, however, all chance to go there by way of the land was lost, because the Mongol emperors were driven out of China and the new rulers would not permit Europeans to enter the country. The ordinary caravan routes to the East were also closed not long afterwards. In 1453 the Turks captured Constantinople, drove away the Italian merchants, and prevented European sailors from reaching the Black Sea. Fifty years later the Turks seized Egypt and closed that route also. Fortunately before this happened a better route had been discovered.

THE PORTUGUESE SAILORS. During the Middle Ages the Portuguese princes fought to recover Portugal from the Moors. When this was done they were eager to cross the straits and attack the Moors in Africa. Prince Henry of Portugal made an expedition to Africa and returned with the desire to know more about the coast south of the point beyond which European sailors dared not venture. Sailors were afraid of being lost in the Sea of Darkness or killed by the heat of the boiling tropics.



From his love of exploring the seas Prince Henry has been called "The Navigator." He took up his residence on a lonely promontory in southern Portugal, and gathered about him learned men of all peoples, Arabian and Jewish mathematicians, and Italian mapmakers. Captains trained in this new school of seamanship were sent into the southern seas. Each was to sail farther down the western coast of Africa than other captains had gone. Before Prince Henry died in 1460 his captains had passed Cape Verde, and ten years later they crossed the equator without suffering the fate which men had once feared. But they were discouraged when they found that beyond the Gulf of Guinea the coast turned southward again, for they had hoped to sail eastward to Asia.



CAPE OF GOOD HOPE DISCOVERED. At last in 1487 the end of what seemed to be an endless coast was reached. The fortunate captain who accomplished this was Bartholomew Diaz, who came of a family of daring seamen. He had been sailing southward along the coast for nearly eight months, when a northerly gale drove him before it for thirteen days. The weather cleared and Diaz turned eastward to find the coast. As he did not see land he turned northward and soon discovered land to the west. This showed that he had passed the southern point of Africa. His crew were unwilling to go farther and he followed the coast around to the western side again. The southern point he called the Cape of Storms, but the king of Portugal, when the voyagers returned, named it the Cape of Good Hope, for now he knew that an expedition could be sent directly to the Indies.

Diaz had sailed thirteen thousand miles, and his voyage was the most wonderful that Europeans had ever heard about.

THE SEA ROUTE TO INDIA. Eleven years later the Portuguese king sent Vasco da Gama, another captain, to attempt to reach the coast of India by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope which Diaz had discovered. Da Gama was successful and landed at Calicut on the south-western coast of India. He returned to Portugal in 1499, and his cargo was worth sixty times the cost of the voyage. This was the beginning of a trade with the East which enriched Portugal and especially the merchants of Lisbon.



QUESTIONS

1. What dangers threatened traders in the Middle Ages who traveled by sea or land? What was a fair?

2. What products were brought from the East? By what routes? Point these out on a map. What rival trading cities were in Italy? How did the Venetians get their wares to London?

3. Who were the Crusaders? Why did they attack the Mohammedans? What did the Venetian traders gain by these wars? Describe a large Venetian ship of this time.

4. When was the compass invented? Why was it dangerous to sail great seas and oceans without a compass? Tell how an astrolabe was made.

5. What at first kept men from attempting to sail to eastern Asia? Who was Marco Polo? Describe his adventures. How did he return to Venice? How did people learn about the lands he had visited?

6. Why after 1453 was it necessary to find a sea route to Asia? What did Prince Henry the Navigator succeed in doing? How was the Cape of Good Hope discovered? Who went with Diaz on this voyage?

7. Who first sailed to India by the Cape of Good Hope? Was the voyage profitable? What city was made rich by the new trade?



EXERCISES

1. Find from a map in the geography how many miles goods must have been carried to reach Venice from Persia, India, the Moluccas, or China. How far is it from Venice by sea to Bruges or London?

2. Where and how do we now obtain cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves?

3. What line of emperors has been recently ruling over China? Where has been their capital? Find out about the present Mongols. Collect pictures of China and Japan.

4. Read a longer account of Marco Polo.

5. Study the geography of Portugal. Collect pictures of Portugal. Find out if many Portuguese are living in the United States.



REVIEW

Steps Towards the Discovery of America

Greek colonies in Italy, Gaul, and Spain.

Roman conquest of Gaul, Spain, and Britain.

Viking voyages to Greenland and Vinland.

Venetian trade in spices with the East, and Venetian voyages to London and Bruges.

Marco Polo's travels in China and the East.

Portuguese voyages down the coast of Africa and about the Cape of Good Hope.



CHAPTER XIV

THE DISCOVERY OF A NEW WORLD

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. Six years before Vasco da Gama made his famous voyage to India around Africa and opened a new trade route for the Portuguese merchants, another seaman had formed and carried out a much bolder plan. This was Christopher Columbus, and his plan was to sail directly west from Europe into the unknown ocean in search of new islands and the coast of Asia. Columbus, who was a native of Genoa in Italy, had followed his younger brother to Portugal. Both were probably led there by the fame of Prince Henry's explorations.

The brothers became very skilful in making maps and charts for the Portuguese. They also frequently sailed with them on their expeditions along the coast of Africa. All the early associations of Columbus were with men interested in voyages of discovery, and particularly with those engaged in the daring search for a sea route to India.

HOW COLUMBUS FORMED HIS PLAN. Columbus gathered all the information on geography which he could from ancient writers and from modern discoverers. Many of them believed that the world was shaped like a ball. If such were its shape, Columbus reasoned, why might not a ship sail around it from east to west? Or, better, why not sail directly west to India, and perhaps find many wonderful islands between Europe and Asia? His imagination was also fired by Marco Polo's description of the marvelous riches of China, Japan, and the Spice Islands. But the idea of going directly west into the midst of the unknown and seemingly boundless waste of water, and on and on to Asia, appeared to most men of the fifteenth century to be madness.



HIS NOTION OF THE DISTANCE TO ASIA. Columbus made two fortunate errors in reckoning the distance to the Indies. He imagined that Asia extended much farther eastward than it actually does, making it nearer Europe, and estimated the earth to be smaller than it is. His figures placed Japan less than 3,000 miles west of the Canary Islands, instead of the 12,000 miles which is the real distance. He accordingly thought Japan would be found about where Mexico or Florida is situated.

HOW HE SECURED HELP. Even so, many years passed before Columbus was able to undertake a voyage. He was too poor himself, and needed the help of some government to fit out such an expedition. He may have tried to get his native city, Genoa, to help him. There is such a story. If he did, it was without success. He tried to obtain the help of Portugal, where he lived a long time, and whose princes were greatly interested in the discovery of new trade routes. His brother visited England in the same cause. Neither of these countries, however, was willing to undertake this expensive and doubtful enterprise.

The King and Queen of Spain, to whom Columbus turned, kept him waiting many years for an answer. They thought that they had more important work in hand. There was another king in Spain at the time, the king of the Moors. Ferdinand and Isabella, the Christian king and queen, were trying to conquer the Moors, and thus to end the struggle between Christians and Mohammedans for the possession of Spain, which had lasted nearly eight centuries. This war required all the strength and revenue of Spain.

Fortunately, just as Columbus was becoming thoroughly discouraged, the war with the Moors came to an end. Granada, the seat of their former power, was finally taken in January, 1492. Now was a good time to ask favors of the sovereigns of Spain, and to plan large enterprises for the future. Powerful friends aided Columbus to renew his petition, and Queen Isabella was persuaded to promise him all the help that he needed.

THE SHIPS OF COLUMBUS. Three ships, or caravels as they were called, were fitted out. The Santa Maria was the largest of the three, but it was not much larger than the small sailing yachts which we see to-day. It was about ninety feet long by twenty feet broad, and had a single deck. This was Columbus's principal ship or flagship. The second caravel, the Pinta, was much swifter, built high at the prow and stern, and furnished with a forecastle for the crew and a cabin for the officers, but without a deck in the center. The third and smallest caravel, called the Nina, the Spanish word for baby, was built much like the Pinta. Ninety persons made up the three crews.



The ships were the usual size of those which coasted along the shores of Europe in the fifteenth century. Expeditions had never gone far out into the ocean. Columbus preferred the smaller vessels in a voyage of discovery, because they would be able to run close to the shores and into the smaller harbors and up the rivers.

BEGINNING OF THE VOYAGE. The expedition set sail from Palos in Spain, August 3, 1492. It went directly to the Canary Islands. These were owned by Spain, and were selected by Columbus as the most convenient starting-point. The little fleet was delayed three weeks at the islands making repairs. On September 6 Columbus was off again. He struck due west from the Canaries.

THE TERRORS OF THE VOYAGE. While the little fleet was still in sight of the Canary Islands a volcanic eruption nearly frightened the sailors out of their wits. They deemed such an event an omen of evil. But the expedition had fine weather day after day. Steady, gentle, easterly winds, the trade winds of the tropics, wafted them slowly westward. But the timid sailors began to wonder how they would ever be able to return against winds which seemed never to change from the east.

Then they came to an immense field of seaweed, larger in area than the whole of Spain. This terrified the sailors, who feared they might be driven on hidden rocks or be engulfed in quicksands. They imagined, too, that great sea-monsters were lurking beyond the seaweed waiting to devour them.



THE FIRST SIGNS OF A NEW LAND. In spite of fears and complaints, and threats of resistance, Columbus kept a westward course for more than four weeks. Then as he began to see so many birds flying to the southwest, he concluded that land must be nearer in that direction. He had heard that most of the islands held by the Portuguese were discovered by following the flight of birds. So on October 7 the westward course was changed to one slightly southwest.

From this time on the signs of land grew frequent. Floating branches, occasionally covered with berries, pieces of wood, bits of cane, were encouraging signs. Birds like ducks and sandpipers became common sights. The Queen had promised a small pension to the one who should first see land. Columbus had offered to give a silken doublet in addition. With what eagerness the sailors must have kept on the lookout!

THE GREAT DISCOVERY. At last as the fleet was sailing onward in the bright moonlight Columbus saw a light moving as if carried by hand along a shore. A few hours later, about two o'clock on the morning of October 12, a sailor on the Pinta saw land distinctly, and soon all beheld, a few miles away, a long, low beach. The vessels hove to and waited for daylight. Early the same day, Friday, October 12, 1492, they approached the land, which proved to be a small island. Columbus named it San Salvador, which means Holy Saviour. We do not know which one of the Bahama islands he first saw, but we believe it was the one now called Watling Island. Columbus went ashore with the royal standard and banners flying to take possession of the land in the name of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

WHERE COLUMBUS THOUGHT HE WAS. The astonished inhabitants of the island soon gathered to see the strange sight—the landing of white men in the West Indies. They looked upon the ships as sea-monsters, and the white men as gods. Nor was Columbus less puzzled by what he saw. The people were a strange race—cinnamon colored, naked, greased, and painted to suit each one's fancy. They had only the rudest means of self-defense, and were almost as poor as the parrots that chattered in the trees above them. Such savages bore little resemblance to the people whom Marco Polo said inhabited the Spice Islands.

Columbus thought that he had reached some outlying island not far from Japan. A cruise of a few days among the Bahamas satisfied him that he was in the ocean near the coast of Asia, for had not Marco Polo described it as studded with thousands of spice-bearing islands? He had not found any spices, but the air was full of fragrance and the trees and herbs were strange in appearance. Of course if the islands were the Indies, the people must be Indians. Columbus called them Indians, and this name clung to the red men, although their islands were not the true Indies.



THE SEARCH FOR THE GOLDEN EAST. Columbus thought that the natives meant to tell him in their sign language of a great land to the south where gold abounded. He set off in search of this, and came upon a land the natives called Cuba. Its large size convinced him that he had at last found the Asiatic mainland, and he sent two messengers, one a Jew knowing many languages, in search of the Emperor of China. They found neither cities nor kingdoms, neither gold nor spices. This was a great disappointment to Columbus, but he patiently kept up his search for the riches which he expected to find.

THE MISFORTUNES OF COLUMBUS. While on the coast of Cuba, Pinzon, the commander of the Pinta, deserted him. Pinzon, whose ship was swifter than the others, probably wished to be the first to get home, in order to tell a story which would gain him the credit of the discovery of the Indies. A few days later Columbus discovered a large island which the natives called Hayti, and which he called Espanola or "Spanish Land." At every island he searched for the spices and gold which Marco Polo had given him reason to expect. In a storm off Espanola Columbus's own ship, the Santa Maria, was totally wrecked. Such disasters convinced him that it was high time to return to Spain with the news of his discovery.

PREPARATIONS FOR RETURN TO SPAIN. As there was not room for both crews on the tiny Nina, his one remaining ship, it became necessary to leave about forty sailors in Espanola. A fort was built, and supplies were left for a year. Columbus with the rest set off on the return to Spain. Ten Indians were captured and taken with them to show to his friends in Europe. Besides, Columbus hoped that they would learn the language of Spain, and carry Christianity back to their people.

THE SEARCH FOR CHINA RENEWED. There was rejoicing in Palos when the voyagers returned. Great honors were bestowed upon Columbus. It was now easy to get men and money for another voyage. In September, 1493, Columbus started to return to his islands, this time with seventeen ships and fifteen hundred men, all confident that they would soon see the marble palaces of China, and secure a share in the wealth of the Spice Islands. No one yet realized that a new world—two great continents—lay between them and their coveted goal in Asia. Columbus went directly to Espanola, where he found that his colony of the previous year had been murdered by the Indians. A new settlement was quickly started. A little town called Isabella was built, with a fort, a church, a market place, public granary, and dwelling-houses. Isabella was the first real settlement in the New World.