A History of the American People

Excerpt from A History of the American People

Among the great events that marked the world's revival from the sleep of the Dark Ages, none was more remarkable than the revelation of the American continent. From the moment when the ship of Columbus was sighted off the coast of Spain, bearing the proofs of his discovery, the mere mention of the marvellous land brought up visions of wealth, of adventure, of freedom. No tale was too romantic for belief, if its scenes were laid in the New World, and the popular enthusiasm of the Crusades was repeated in the stir and excitement that ensued when the early adventurers prepared to set out on their quests for the Terrestrial Paradise, the Fountain of Youth, and the treasures of gold which were supposed to be in the possession of the savages.

The story of the discovery and exploration of America presents to us, one after another, the deluded searchers after gold, the martyrs who paid for their knowledge of a new continent with their lives, and the devotees of religion, who earnestly endeavored to carry the Christian faith to a people whose blank heathenism they honestly commiserated. The records of the early settlers have furnished an unfailing source of romantic themes for the poet and the novelist, and now, as we close the fourth century in America's history as a factor in modern civilization, all past predictions of wealth and greatness sink into insignificance in the presence of accomplished facts, and the future of our country looms up before the world in grander proportions and with more commanding promise than ever before.

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