Wilbur Fisk Gordy
USA Leaders & Heroes
(Illustrated Edition)
Published by
Books
- Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -
2018 OK Publishing
ISBN 978-80-272-4671-7
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I: Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of America
CHAPTER II: Hernando De Soto and the Discovery of the Mississippi
CHAPTER III: Sir Walter Raleigh and the First English Attempts to Colonize America
CHAPTER IV: John Smith and the Settlement of Jamestown
CHAPTER V: Nathaniel Bacon and the Uprising of the People in Virginia in 1676
CHAPTER VI: Miles Standish and the Pilgrims
CHAPTER VII: Roger Williams and the Puritans
CHAPTER VIII: William Penn and the Settlement of Pennsylvania
CHAPTER IX: Cavelier De La Salle and the French in the Mississippi Valley
CHAPTER X: George Washington, the Boy Surveyor and Young Soldier
CHAPTER XI: James Wolfe, the Hero of Quebec
CHAPTER XII: Patrick Henry and the Stamp Act
CHAPTER XIII: Samuel Adams and the Boston Tea Party
CHAPTER XIV: Paul Revere and the Battle of Concord and Lexington
CHAPTER XIV: Paul Revere and the Battle of Concord and Lexington
CHAPTER XV: Benjamin Franklin and Aid from France
CHAPTER XVI: George Washington the Virginia Planter and the Revolutionary Soldier
CHAPTER XVII: Nathaniel Greene, the Hero of the South, and Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox"
CHAPTER XVIII: Daniel Boone, the Kentucky Pioneer
CHAPTER XIX: Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase
CHAPTER XX: Robert Fulton and the Steamboat
CHAPTER XXI: Andrew Jackson, the Upholder of the Union
CHAPTER XXII: Daniel Webster, the Defender and Expounder of the Constitution
CHAPTER XXIII: Samuel Finley Breese Morse and the Electric Telegraph
CHAPTER XXIV: Abraham Lincoln the Liberator of the Slaves
CHAPTER XXV: Ulysses Simpson Grant and the Civil War
CHAPTER XXVI: Some Leaders and Heroes in the War with Spain in 1676
Christopher Columbus.
CHAPTER I
Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of America
[1436-1506]
From very early times there existed overland routes of trade between Europe and Asia. During the Middle Ages traffic over these routes greatly increased, so that by the fifteenth century a large and profitable trade was carried on between the West and the East. Merchants in Western Europe grew rich through trade in the silks, spices, and precious stones that were brought by caravan and ship from India, China, and Japan. But in 1453 the Turks conquered Constantinople, and by frequent attacks upon Christian vessels in the Mediterranean made the old routes unsafe. A more practicable one became necessary.
Already in the early part of the fifteenth century Portuguese sea-captains had skirted the western coast of Africa, and by the close of the century others of their number had rounded the Cape of Good Hope, in their search for a water route to the Indies. But Spain, at that time the most powerful nation of Europe, adopted a plan quite different from that of the Portuguese. What this plan was and how it was carried out, we can best understand by an acquaintance with the life and work of the great sea-captain and navigator, Christopher Columbus.
More than four hundred and fifty years ago there lived in the city of Genoa a poor workingman, who made his living by preparing wool for the spinners. Of his four sons, the eldest was Christopher, born in 1436. Young Christopher was not, so far as we know, very different from most other boys in Genoa. He doubtless joined in their every-day sports, going with them to see the many vessels that sailed in and out of that famous sea-port, and listening for hours to the stories of sailors about distant lands.
But he did not spend all his time in playing and visiting the wharves, for we know that he learned his father's trade, and in school studied, among other things, reading, arithmetic, grammar, geography, and map-drawing. We can easily believe that he liked geography best of all, since it would carry his imagination far out over the sea and to lands beyond the sea. In map-drawing he acquired such skill that when he became a man he could earn his living, when occasion demanded, by making maps and charts.
Beyond