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Page 38
During the first century explorers from France, England, and Spain
visited the New World, each claiming for his own country the part that
he explored. Each hoped to find gold, but only the Spaniards, who went
to Mexico and Peru, were successful. There was little thought of
making settlements, and at the end of the first century the Spanish
colonies of St. Augustine and Santa Fe were the only ones on the
mainland of what is now the territory of the United States.
During the second century much colonizing was done. The French settled
chiefly along the Saint Lawrence River; the English settled along the
Atlantic coast of North America; the Spanish in Mexico and South
America; the Dutch by the Hudson River; the Swedes by the Delaware.
The European nations discovered that it was worth while to have
American colonies.
During the third century there was a long struggle to see which nation
should rule in America. England and France were far ahead of the
others, but which of them should it be? The French and Indian Wars
gave the answer, "England." Then another question arose; should it be
England or the Thirteen Colonies? The Revolutionary War answered, "The
Colonies." At the end of the third century the United States had been
established, and the land east of the Mississippi was under her rule.
In the last century there has been a great gain in people and in land.
To-day there are thirty times as many people in this country as there
were then.
USEFUL INFORMATION
It may not be generally known that we have in the nickel five-cent
piece of our American coinage a key to the tables of linear measures
and weights. The diameter of a nickel is exactly two centimeters, and
its weight is five grammes. Five nickels in a row will give the length
of the decimeter, and two of them will weigh a decagram. As the
kiloliter is a cubic meter, the key of the measure of length is also
that of capacity.
Among the North American Indians polished shells were used as currency.
This money was called _wampum_ and was recognized by the colonists.
Six white shells were exchanged for three purple beads, and these in
turn were equivalent to one English penny.
LESSON LVI
OUR COUNTRY TO-DAY
_PART II_
How has it come about that the number of people in the United States
has increased with such rapidity? It is partly because more have been
born than have died, and partly because so many have come from foreign
countries. Fifty years ago large villages were common in which there
were hardly any foreigners. Now one-sixth of the whole number of
inhabitants of the United States are people who were born in some other
country.
These people are glad to come because the workingmen of America receive
higher wages than those of any other country, and because in America a
man is free to rise to any position that he is fitted to hold. The
country is ready to give the education that will prepare her citizens
to rise to high positions. It is believed that an educated man is
likely to make a better citizen than an ignorant man, and therefore the
public schools of the United States are entirely free. Then, too,
there are public libraries not only in the cities but in many of the
little villages, so that men who are too old to go to school may
educate themselves by reading. There is opportunity to use all kinds
of knowledge in carrying on the manufactures of the country. Almost
everything that used to be made by hand is now made by machinery, and
the skill to invent a machine that will work a little better than the
one in use is always well rewarded. Knowledge is also needed to
develop the mineral wealth of the country. Within the limits of the
United States are metals, coal, natural gas, and petroleum, and it is
the skill and inventive genius of her citizens that have brought such
great wealth to the country from these products.
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