to reservations in the West. He is now being educated, admitted to citizenship, and gradually assimilated.

The distribution of the Indian population in colonial times was, of course, quite different from what it is to-day. First in importance were the Algonquins, who extended from Canada to Virginia and from the Atlantic to the upper Mississippi. In the heart of the Algonquin territory, extending through the Mohawk Valley in New York, were the "five nations" of the Iroquois, the most cruel and formidable warriors on the continent.

In the Southern States the most important tribes were embraced in the famous Creek Confederacy, the principal tribes being the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. West of the Mississippi the principal tribes were the Sioux, who extended from the Mississippi to the Rockies and from Arkansas to Canada.

Indian life

As a rule the Indians lived in villages that were permanent in location. Their life was not nomadic, though at certain seasons of the year they ranged over wide areas in quest of food. Outside of New Mexico and Arizona, where the walls of the pueblos, were built of rough stone or sun-dried brick, they made little progress in house building. As a rule they lived in wigwams made of brush, bark, or skins, though the "long houses" of the Iroquois were more elaborate and the Cherokee constructed houses of logs.

In all parts of the country they depended largely for subsistence on hunting and fishing. This was supplemented by berries, roots, and wild fruits, especially in the North, and by the cultivation of corn and tobacco. Agriculture was more advanced in the South, where, in addition to corn and tobacco, beans and squash were raised. With the exception of a few articles of copper and gold, the Indians were unacquainted with the metals. Their weapons and implements were made of wood, stone, or bone. Skill in skin

dressing was almost universal; the art of weaving was widely known; and pottery reached a high state of development in the South and Southwest. Canoes of bark and skin were used in some parts of the country, and in others the more clumsy dugout. The main weapons both for fighting and hunting were the bow and arrow, the tomahawk, the knife, and less commonly the javelin. Light shields were made of rawhide. Traps for catching fish and animals were constructed with no little ingenuity.

As a hunter the Indian has never had a superior, and as a warrior he was stealthy, aggressive, formidable, and cruel. When forced to a hand-to-hand encounter he would fight to a finish, but as a rule he depended upon a sudden surprise rather than an open attack, and was incapable of carrying on sustained military operations against the white man.

TOPICAL REFERENCES

1. Limits of Geographical Knowledge in the Fifteenth Century: John Fiske, Discovery of America, Vol. I, Chap. II; E. G. Bourne, Spain in America, Chap. I; J. Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. I, Chap. I.

2. Oriental Trade: Fiske, Vol. I, Chap. III; E. P. Cheyney, European Background of American History, Chaps. I, II.

3. Portuguese Discoveries: Fiske, Vol. I, Chap. IV; Cheyney, Chap. IV.

4. The Voyages of Columbus: Fiske, Vol. I, Chaps. V-VI; Edw. Channing, History of the United States, Vol. I, Chap. I; Bourne, Chaps. II-IV; C. R. Markham, Life of Christopher Columbus.

5. Exploration of the Coast: Fiske, Vol. II, Chap. VII; Channing, Vol. I, Chaps. II, III; Bourne, Chaps. V-X; F. Parkman, Pioneers of France in the New World, pp. 28–162.

6. Exploration of the Interior of the Continent: Bourne, Chaps. XI-XIII; L. Farrand, Basis of American History, Chaps. I, II; Fiske, Vol. II, Chaps. VIII, XII; Parkman, La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West.

7. The North American Indian: Fiske, Vol. I, Chap. I; Farrand, Chaps. V-XVI.

CHAPTER II

THE FOUNDATIONS OF ENGLISH COLONIZATION, 1584-1660

English seamen of the

age

WHEN Cabot discovered the coast of North America in 1497 English commerce and seamanship were still in their infancy, and three quarters of a century elapsed before the nation took the first steps toward Elizabethan colonization. Under Elizabeth England aspired to commercial rivalry with Spain, whose industries had been paralyzed by the wealth of gold that the mines of Mexico and Peru had poured into her lap. Protestantism became the ruling principle of Elizabeth's foreign policy and direct aid was extended to the struggling Netherlands in their revolt against Spain. Thus rivalry developed into open hostility and the religious motive lent its aid in producing that great group of seamen who laid the foundations of the British sea power and prepared the way for the colonization of America.

and Drake

In 1562 Sir John Hawkins carried a cargo of slaves from Guinea to the West Indies, where he found a ready sale for Hawkins them despite the law of Spain which limited the trade to her own subjects. On his third voyage in 1567 he was caught by a Spanish fleet in the harbor of Vera Cruz on the coast of Mexico and escaped with only two of his ships. One of these was commanded by his young kinsman Francis Drake, who became the greatest seaman of his age, plundered many a richly laden Spanish galleon, and, first of his nation, circumnavigated the globe. Such was the terror of Drake's name that for a hundred years he was known

in Spanish annals as "the Dragon." To intercept Spanish treasure-ships was a quick road to wealth and there soon sprang up a whole navy of privateers manned by men who were willing to serve God and their sovereign in this way. Still patriotism was the dominant motive with the great maritime adventurers of Elizabeth's reign, as is clearly seen when we recall the deeds of Thomas Cavendish, Martin Frobisher, Richard Grenville, Lord Charles Howard, Sir

SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT.

Humphrey Gilbert, and Sir
Walter Raleigh.

Gilbert and Raleigh conceived the plan of contesting Spain's advance in

The attempt the New World by to form a

on Roanoke

planting an English settlement colony across the Island, seas. In 1583, after 1585-1591 an unsuccessful attempt to establish a colony in Newfoundland, the gentle and heroic Sir Humphrey perished on the homeward voyage. The work was taken up by his halfbrother Raleigh, a born courtier, who by the grace and dignity of his bearing had won the heart of the queen. Raleigh sent out an exploring expedition to the coast of North Carolina in 1584, naming the new realm Virginia in honor of the queen, and the following year nearly two hundred colonists were landed on Roanoke Island under Captain Ralph Lane as governor. The next spring, when Drake came by on his way home from a cruise in the West Indies, he found them so helpless and disheartened by the experiences of the winter that he took them back to England. A few days later Grenville arrived with supplies sent by Raleigh, but finding none of the settlers

he left fifteen men on the island to retain possession and returned to England.

Failure of the enterprise

In May, 1587, Raleigh sent out another body of one hundred and fifty colonists, including twenty-five women and children, under the painter John White as governor, with instructions to proceed to Chesapeake Bay; but when they arrived at Roanoke, although none of the men left the year before could be found, they decided for some reason to remain there. Here the daughter of the governor gave birth to a child, Virginia Dare, the first English subject born in America.

In November Governor White returned to England for supplies. He found his countrymen in a state of turmoil and excitement, bending every effort to defend their religion and their firesides against the formidable armada which Spain was preparing for their conquest. The following summer the armada was defeated in the channel, but after the crisis was passed Raleigh found himself broken in fortune. Two expeditions fitted out by him were thwarted in their efforts to bear relief to the little settlement and hence it was not until 1591 that Governor White returned to Roanoke Island. To his dismay he found the fort deserted, and he was compelled to return to England with no clew as to the nature of the tragedy that had overtaken his daughter and granddaughter. The fate of the colony was never known.

Gilbert had sacrificed his life, and Raleigh his fortune, in the patriotic effort to found a new dominion across the The Virginia seas, but the task was too great for individual Company enterprise. In order to provide the means for White's last voyage Raleigh had been compelled to assign part of his rights to others. With the accession of James I he was thrown into the Tower, but the project which he had so nobly fathered was not allowed to die.

In April, 1606, a charter was granted by King James incorporating the Virginia Company in two divisions, one