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Page 39
This inventive genius has also given us rapid and cheap transportation.
In the old days a man had to make or raise most things for himself.
Manufactured articles that could be made very cheaply in one place
became exceedingly dear when they had to be carried long distances by
wagons over poor roads. Many delicate kinds of fruit would spoil on
such long journeys. Now, fruit can be sent from California to Maine in
fine condition. Cheap and rapid transportation is a great convenience.
Business men need not live in the cities near their offices,--the steam
or electric cars will carry them eight or ten miles in the time that it
would take to walk one mile. The postal service and the telegraph are
sure and rapid. So also is the telephone. No wonder, then, that our
commerce has reached the fabulous sum of one billion, five hundred
million dollars in one year.
What the United States will become tomorrow, will lie in the hands of
those who are the children of to-day.
LESSON LVII
PICTURES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY
On the southern bank of the James River in Virginia stand the ruins of
an old church. Its crumbling tower and broken arch are almost hidden
by the tangled vines which cover it. Within the walls of the
church-yard may be found a few ancient tombstones overgrown with ivy
and long grass.
This is all that remains of the first English settlement in
America,--the colony of Jamestown, Virginia.
This first permanent English settlement in the New World was made in
the year 1607, more than a hundred years after the discovery of America
by Columbus. Some attempts to colonize had been made by the English
before this time. The most important of these was undertaken by the
famous but unfortunate Sir Walter Raleigh.
Raleigh obtained from Queen Elizabeth a grant of a vast territory, to
be called Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth, the "virgin queen." It
extended from the Hudson River to the boundary of what is now Georgia.
In attempting to colonize Virginia, Raleigh spent a large fortune. But
his colonies never prospered. The settlers returned home disgusted
with the hardships of the wilderness. In 1589 Raleigh sold his rights
to a stock company.
Nevertheless the enterprise which proved too difficult for Raleigh was
carried out during Raleigh's lifetime, under the leadership of the
famous John Smith.
The idea of colonizing Virginia had been growing wonderfully. In 1606
a company of "noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants," called the London
Company, obtained from King James the First a charter for "planting and
ruling" South Virginia.
The company had gathered together a band of men willing to try their
fortunes in Virginia, and they were just about to embark when Smith
reached London. To Smith's bold and roving disposition the idea of a
New World was irresistible, and he joined the colonists.
In the last month of the year 1606, the party--in all, one hundred and
five men--set sail in a little fleet of three vessels commanded by
Captain Newport.
On the 23d of May, 1607, after a weary and distressing voyage, the
Virginia colonists landed. They commenced the settlement of Jamestown.
When the king's sealed instructions were opened, and the names of the
seven directors were made known, it was found that John Smith was to be
one of the seven. Through the jealousy of Wingfield, who was chosen
president, he was not allowed to take his place in the council.
But this did not prevent his being the ablest man among them, and the
colonists were soon glad to turn to him for guidance. For now their
condition was most deplorable. They were surrounded by hostile
Indians; the provisions they had brought from England were soon
consumed; and the diseases caused by the hot, moist climate in a short
time reduced their number by one-half.
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