ern Alps.-The Moravians.—Scotch__Highlanders.-The Wesleys. Whitefield; his Orphan House. -War with Spain, its Cause.-Failure to Capture St. Augustine.— NEW ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES II. AND JAMES II. The Restoration.-The Commissioners.-Progress of Trade.- Causes of King Philip's War.-Death of Wamsutta.- State of the Colony.-Attack at Swanzey.-Philip Among the Nipmucks.-Attacks on Northfield; on Hadley, Goffe. -Tragedy at Bloody Brook.-The Narraganset Fort De- stroyed. Philip Returns to Mount Hope to die.-The Disasters of the War.-James II.;His Intolerance.-The Charters in Danger. Andros Governor. - His Illegal Measures.-Charter of Rhode Island Taken Away.-An- COMMOTION IN NEW YORK-WITCHCRAFT IN MASSACHUSETTS. Leisler Acting Governor of New York.-The Old Council Re- fuses to Yield.-Sloughter, Governor.-Trial and Execu- tion of Leisler and Melbourne.-Benjamin Fletcher, Gov- ernor; His Failure at Hartford.-Yale College.-The Triumps of a Free Press.-Witchcraft; Belief in.-Cotton Mather. Various Persons Accused at Salem.-Stoughton The Emigrants Few in Number.-The Jesuits; their zeal as Teachers and Explorers.-Missions Among the Hurons.- Ahasistari. The Five Nations, or Irquois. Father Jogues.-The Abenakis; Dreuilettes.-The Dangers of the Missions.-French Settlers at Oswego.-James Marquette. A SKETCH OF THE History, Greatness and Dangers OF AMERICA By JOHN LORD, LL.D. A SKETCH OF THE History, Greatness and Dangers By JOHN LORD, LL.D. It would be difficult to point out an event in the history of the world followed by more important results, certainly in a material and political aspect, than the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus; and as centuries and years roll on, these results appear greater and grander, so that no human intellect can grasp the mighty issues which perpetually arise to view. How little did the great discoverer anticipate the consequences of his adventuresome voyages! How little conscious was he of the boon he rendered to civilization and the human race! It was too great to be measured by any ordinary human services. Nearly a century passed away before the European mind began to appreciate the true import of the discovery. Columbus himself did not imagine the blessings which he had almost unconsciously bestowed. He had no idea even that he had given a new world to Ferdinand and Isabella. He supposed at first that he had reached the eastern shores of Asia-the Zipango of Marco Polo; that he had solved a great geographical problem of vast commercial importance, and was entitled to high reward. Yet it had been the Old and not the New that he was seeking; while it was the New, that has made memorable the year of our Lord 1492. In taking this introductory glance at the history of four hundred years, which Prof. Patton has told in detail, we wish but to mark a few of the great events, the great men and the great elements that have contributed to make that history most notable in the life of the modern world. It was not long after Columbus, before the Spaniards, the Portuguese, the English, the Dutch and the French perceived that something strange had been discovered, and successive voyages made it clear that a new continent had really been opened to the enterprise of European nations; that it was rich in mines of gold and silver; that they had only to take possession of it by hoisting a national flag. They found, as their explorations extended, that this new continent was peopled by entirely unknown races, in various stages of barbarism or savagery, whose languages no one could understand-tribes inclined to be friendly and peaceable, but revengeful and treacherous if treated unjustly and unkindly. All the various tribes from Mexico to Canada had the same general peculiarities of feature and color, different from any known type in Asia or Africa. What was the origin of this strange race? Were they aborigines, or did their remote ancestors come from Asia? Their whole history is involved in hopeless mystery. Peaceful relations were not long kept up between the natives and the adventurers who sought the new world with the primary view of improving their fortunes. Hence the first century of American history is the record of conflicts with Indians, of injustice and cruelty, producing deadly animosities on both sides, until the natives were conquered and nearly exterminated. There were few permanent settlements, but there was great zeal in explorations, in which Vespuccius, Ponce de Leon, the Cabots, Cartier, De Soto and other |