From "A Year in Spain."

87. HOUSES OF MADRID.

SOME of the palaces of the high nobility are built in a quadrangular form, with a square in the centre. The mass of the dwelling-houses, however, are built much in our own way. They are, in general, three or four stories high, with a door and small entry at one side. They have rather a prison look, for the windows of the first floor are grated with bars of iron. The upper windows have balconies, whilst the stout door of wood, well studded with spike-heads, has more the air of the gate of a fortified town than of the entrance to the dwelling of a peaceful citizen. The outer doors of the different suits of apartments indicate the same jealousy and suspicion, nor are they ever opened without a parley. These precautions are rendered necessary by the number and boldness of the robbers in Madrid, who sometimes enter a house, when left alone with the females, in the middle of the day, and having tied the occupants, who dare not utter a word of alarm, they help themselves, at leisure, and make off with their spoil. This is of no uncommon occurrence.

J. F. H. CLAIBORNE. About 1804-.

From "Life and Times of Generai Samuel Dale."

88. CHARACTER OF DALE.

He was a man of singular modesty, silent and reserved, and rarely alluded to his own adventures.

He was an uneducated, but by no means an ignorant man; a close observer of men and things, with a clear head, a tenacious memory, and always fond of the society of educated men. I venture to hope that his life, as here written, presents a fair exemplar of the genuine frontier man modest, truthful, patient, frugal, full of religious faith, proud of his country, remorseless in battle, yet prompt to forgive, and ever ready to jeopard his own safety for the helpless and oppressed — a race of men such as no other country has produced-wholly American.

1 Was born in Mississippi; by profession a lawyer, and for some years a member of Congress; author of several biographical works of interest, chiefly relating to the south-west.

89. TECUMSEH'S SPEECH TO THE CREEK INDIANS.

HAD I been deaf, the play of his countenance would have told me what he said. Its effect on that wild, superstitious, untutored,

and warlike assemblage may be conceived: not a word was said, but stern warriors, the "stoics of the woods,” shook with emotion, and a thousand tomahawks were brandished in the air. Even the Big Warrior, who had been true to the whites, and remained faithful during the war, was for the moment visibly affected, and more than once I saw his huge hand clutch, spasmodically, the handle of his knife.

When he resumed his seat, the northern pipe was again passed round in solemn silence. The Shawnees then simultaneously leaped up with one appalling yell, and danced their tribal war-dance, going through the evolutions of battle, the scout, the ambush, the final struggle, brandishing their war-clubs, and screaming, in terrific concert, an infernal harmony fit only for the regions of the damned.

JAMES PARTON. 1822-.

(Manual, pp. 490, 532.)

From "The Life of Andrew Jackson."

90. ESTIMATE OF HIS INFLUENCE.

I MUST avow explicitly the belief, that notwithstanding the good done by General Jackson during his presidency, his elevation to power was a mistake on the part of the people of the United States. The good which he effected has not continued, while the evil which he began remains, has grown more formidable, — has now attained such dimensions that the prevailing feeling of the country with regard to the corruption and inefficiency of the government, is despair. It is pleasant to justify the ways of man to man. The instinctive preferences of the people must be right. That is to say, the man preferred by the people must have more in him of what the people most want than any other of his generation. . . And if ever the time comes when the eminent contemporaries of Andrew Jackson shall be as intimately known to the people as Andrew Jackson now is, the invincible preference of the people for him will be far less astonishing than it now appears.

91.

From "The Life and Times of Aaron Burr."

BURR AND HAMILTON COMPARED.

To judge this man, to decide how far he was unfortunate, and how far guilty, how much we ought to pity, and how much to blame him, is a task beyond my powers.

His duel with Hamilton had the effect, finally, of rendering the practice of duelling entirely odious in the northern states. That was

a benefit. In suffering the consequences of that affair, he simply expiated the sins of his generation, and the expiation fell, not unjustly, upon him. He ought to have known better, had the fortitude to bear the scoffs of cowards. He was, upon the whole, I am inclined to think, a better man than Hamilton; and it was well ordered that by being the survivor, he should have had the worst of the encounter.

HISTORY, GENERAL AND SPECIAL.

JOHN HECKEWELDER.' 1743-1823.

From the "Narrative" of the Moravian Missions among the Indians.

92.

SETTLEMENTS OF THE CHRISTIAN INDIANS.

BOTH these congregations, being supplied with missionaries and schoolmasters, were so prosperous that they became the admiration of visitors, some of whom thought it next, to a miracle, that, by the light of the gospel, a savage race should be brought to live together in peace and harmony, and above all devote themselves to religion. The people residing in the neighborhood of those places were also intimate with these Indians, and both were serviceable to each other; one instance of which is here inserted. In February of the year 1761, a white man, who had lost a child, came to Nain weeping, and begging that the Indian Brethren would assist him and his wife to search for his child, which had been missing since the day before. Several of the Indian Brethren immediately went to the house of the parents, and discovered the footsteps of the child, and tracing the same for the distance of two miles, found the child in the woods, wrapped up in its petticoat, and shivering with cold. The joy of the parents was so great that they reported the circumstance wherever they went. To some of the white people, who had been in dread of the near settlement of these Indians, this incident was the means of making them easy, and causing them to rejoice in having such good neighbors.

The war being over, the Indians who had been engaged in it freely confessed to their friends and relations, and to some white people they had heretofore been acquainted with, that "the Brethren's settlements had been as a stumbling-block to them; that had it not been for these, they would most assuredly have laid waste the whole country from the mountains to Philadelphia; and that many plans had been formed for destroying these settlements."

1 Prominent among the Moravian clergy for his experience of missionary life among the American Indians, and for his knowledge of their languages.

JEREMY BELKNAP. 1744-1798. (Manual, p. 490.)

93.

From "The History of New Hampshire."

DEFINITE ORIGIN OF THE NATION.

It is happy for America that its discovery and settlement by the Europeans happened at a time when they were emerging from a long * period of ignorance and darkness. The discovery of the magnetic needle, the invention of printing, the revival of literature, and the reformation of religion, had caused a vast alteration in their views, and taught them the true use of their rational and active powers. To this concurrence of favorable causes we are indebted for the precision with which we are able to fix the beginning of this great American empire an advantage of which the historians of other countries almost universally are destitute, their first eras being either disguised by fiction and romance, or involved in impenetrable obscurity.

94. THE MAST PINE.

ANOTHER thing worthy of observation is the aged and majestic appearance of the trees, of which the most noble is the mast pine. This tree often grows to the height of one hundred and fifty, and sometimes two hundred feet. It is straight as an arrow, and has no branches but very near the top. It is from twenty to forty inches in diameter at its base, and appears like a stately pillar, adorned with a verdant capital, in form of a cone. Interspersed among these are the common forest trees of various kinds.

DAVID RAMSAY. 1749-1815. (Manual, p. 491.)

From "The History of the Revolution in South Carolina."

95. FEELING OF THE PROVINCE TOWARDS THE MOTHER COUNTRY. IN South Carolina, an enemy to the Hanoverian succession, or to the British constitution, was scarcely known. The inhabitants were fond of British manners, even to excess. They, for the most part, sent their children to Great Britain for education, and spoke of that country under the endearing appellation of Home. They were enthusiasts for that sacred plan of civil and religious happiness under which they had grown up and flourished. . . Wealth poured in upon them from a thousand channels. The fertility of the soil generously repaid the labor of the husbandman, making the poor to sing,

None were

and industry to smile, through every corner of the land. indigent but the idle and unfortunate. Personal independence was fully within the reach of every man who was healthy and industrious. The inhabitants, at peace with all the world, enjoyed domestic tranquillity, and were secure in their persons and property. They were also completely satisfied with their government, and wished not for the smallest change in their political constitution.

In the midst of these enjoyments, and the most sincere attachment to the mother country, to their king and his government, the people of South Carolina, without any original design on their part, were step by step drawn into an extensive war, which involved them in every species of difficulty, and finally dissevered them from the parent state.

ISAIAH THOMAS. 1749-1831. (Manual, pp. 490, 510.)

From "The History of Printing."

96. ORIGIN OF PRINTING IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES. THAT art which is the preserver of all arts is worthy of the attention of the learned and the curious. An account of the first printing executed in the English colonies of America combines many of the important transactions of the settlement, as well as many incidents interesting in the revolutions of nations, and exhibits the pious and charitable efforts of our ancestors in New England to translate the sacred books into a language which, at this short distance of time, is probably not understood by an individual of the human race, and for the use of a nation' which is now extinct. Such is the fluctuation of human affairs.

Among the first settlers of New England were many pious as well as learned men. They emigrated from a country where the press had more license than in other parts of Europe, and they were acquainted with the usefulness of it. As soon as they had made those provisions that were necessary for their existence in this land, which was then a rude wilderness, their next objects were the establishment of schools, and a printing press; the latter of which was not tolerated till many years afterwards by the elder colony of Virginia.

The fathers of Massachusetts kept a watchful eye on the press; and in neither a religious or civil point of view were they disposed to give it much liberty. Both the civil and ecclesiastical rulers were fearful that if it was not under wholesome restraints, contentions and heresies would arise among the people.

1 The aborigines of the country.