sinews and haire, thread: of their hornes, mawes, and bladders, vessels: of their dung, fire: and of their calves-skinnes, budgets, wherein they drawe and keepe water. To bee short, they make so many things of them as they have need of, or as many as suffice them in the use of this life. "Quiuria is in fortie degrees: it is a temperate countrey, and hath very good waters, and much grasse, plummes, mulberries, nuts, melons, and grapes, which ripen very well. There is no cotton: and they apparell themselves with oxe-hides and deeres skinnes. They sawe shippes on the sea coast, which bare Alcatrarzes or Pellicanes of golde and silver in their prows, and were laden with merchandises, and they thought them to be of Cathaya, and China, because they shewed our men by signes that they had sayled thirtie days." -From General History of the West Indies, by Francis Lopez. Hakluyt's Voyages, III. 134, 136. "There is a great number of beasts or kine in the countrey of Cibola, which were never brought thither by the Spanyards, but breed naturally in the countrey. They are like unto our oxen, saving that they have long haire like a lion, and short hornes, and they have upon their shoulders a bunch like a camell, which is higher than the rest of their body. They are marvellous wild and swift in running. They call them the beasts or kine of Cibola."-[Written by Henry Hawkis, a merchant, in 1572. Mexico.] He had lived five years in AUTHORITIES AND BOOKS OF REFERENCE. 1. Coronado's Expedition. H. H. Bancroft's Works, Vols. XVII. and XXVII.: Arizona and New Mexico, pp. 33-72, History of the Northwest Coast, I., 44-46. In the former a long list of books concerning the subject is given in note 17, p. 37. Gen. J. H. Simpson, in Smithsonian Reports, 309-340. Judge Savage, in State Hist. Soc. Pub., I., 180–202. Magazine of Amer. Hist., XXIII., 288. Hist. of Neb. (Chicago, 1882), 33–38. Vol. 14, U. S. Ethnological Bureau Reports. 2. Other early explorations. State Hist. Soc. Pub., II, 114-131; III., 67–73. Hale, Kansas and Nebraska (Boston, 1854), 15, 16. Winsor, Narr. and Crit. Hist. of Amer., V., 55, note 2. Hist. of Neb. (Chicago, 1882), 43. 3. American Explorations. Lewis and Clark's Travels (London, 1815, 3 Vols.) I., 35-65. Hist. of Neb. (Chicago, 1882), 46–55. Journal of an Exploring Tour, by Rev. Samuel Fremont, Report of the Exploring Expedition 4. Fur Trading. F. J. Turner, Character and Influence of the Fur IV. Encyclopæ lias, under names John Jacob Astor, Fur Hist. of Neb. (Chicago, 1882), 98, 1361. Mag. of Amer. Hist., XII., 509. 5. Missionaries. State Hist. Soc. Pub., II., 133–166; III., 125–143; IV., 157-191. Hist. of Neb. (Chicago, 1882), 98, 1363. REVIEW. What is the earliest date of white men on our plains? Who was Coronado? Describe what he came northward for. What valuable information was preserved from this expedition? Who made the first map of our region? When? Who first traded in the region of Nebraska? Show about how long each nation traded here. Which was the first great expedition into the western country by Americans, and when was it? Name some of the more important expeditions, with dates. Name an early missionary, and tell when and to whom he came. Tell what connection the Mormons or Latter-Day Saints had with our territory. Who were the gold hunters? Read over the accounts of the expedition of Coronado at the end of the chapter, and tell what you get from them. What does that show about the condition of the plains at that time and what might be found here? IV. PURCHASE AND ORGANIZATION. I. THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. Before the organization of the country into territories can be discussed, it is necessary to know how the United States came to own it. When the thirteen original states banded themselves together into a nation in 1788, the people and their representatives in Congress did not look beyond the Mississippi River. This was the western boundary as mentioned in the treaty of 1783 between the United States and Great BritMISSIS- ain. Spain held the land west of this THE SIPPI AS A BOUND- river, which long before had been named tions hold opposite banks of a stream, it is under- THE CHASE European politics in 1800, Spain gave to France the whole country west of the Mississippi, as far as Spanish claims extended. Thomas Jefferson, just elected president, saw a chance for the United States to buy a portion from France. He therefore told Mr. Livingstone, minister at Paris, to try to make the purchase, and in May, 1803, Monroe also was sent to France to aid him. At PUR length Napoleon decided to cede the whole of Louisiana to the United States. This seems to have come about, not through the skill of the men trying to make the purchase, but because of the condition in which the affairs of France were at that time. The price of this whole country, from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of Mexico to British America, was $15,000,000. In the treaty there is nothing said about boundaries. To the northwest very little was known accurately about the extent of the claim, so that little could be said. A moment's thought makes plain how great a difference this purchase has made in the growth of the United States. What would the career of the Union have been, hemmed in by the Mississippi, with European nations on the west? What EFFECT great success this change has brought to THE NA- the idea of a Republic! How much more TION dignity and importance among the nations. of the world this growth to a land empire has given to the United States! Together with other additions to our domain, it has made the UPON |