1848 Discovery of gold in California. 1850 Compromise of 1850. 1850 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. 1852 Rise of Know-Nothing party. 1853 Gadsden Purchase. 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Bill. 1854 Republican party formed. 1855 Struggle in Kansas. 1857 Dred Scott Decision. 1858 First Atlantic cable. 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates. 1859 John Brown’s raid. 1860 Election of Lincoln. Secession of South Carolina. 1861–1865 The Civil War. 1862 Fight between _Merrimac_ and _Monitor_. 1863 Proclamation of Emancipation. 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. Capture of Vicksburg. 1864 Battle of the Wilderness. 1865 Surrender of Lee and Johnson. 1865 Assassination of Lincoln. 1866 Successful laying of the Atlantic cable. 1867 Congressional system of reconstruction. 1867 Purchase of Alaska. 1868 Impeachment of President Johnson. 1869 Completion of the Pacific Railroad. 1871 Treaty of Washington. 1876 Electoral Commission. 1877 Troops withdrawn from the South. 1879 Resumption of specie payments. 1883 Civil Service Reform Commission. 1892 Rise of People’s Party. 1898 War declared with Spain. Treaty of Paris. Acquisition of the Philippines. 1898 Annexation of Hawaii. 1901 Hay-Pauncefote Treaty. 1902 Panama Canal authorized. 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth. 1907 Financial crisis. [Illustration: =Distribution of the Barbarous Tribes East of the Mississippi=] PART I. PERIOD OF DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT, 1492–1765. * * * * * CHAPTER I. =DISCOVERY.= THE AMERICAN INDIANS. [Illustration: SPECIMEN OF INDIAN POTTERY, from a mound near Pecan Point, Arkansas. Now in the National Museum at Washington.] [Illustration: DIEGO DE LANDA’S MAYA ALPHABET.] =1. The Aborigines.=—When America became known to Europe at the end of the fifteenth century, it was by no means an uninhabited country. Wherever the discoverers effected a landing, and however far they pushed inland, they found themselves confronted by native inhabitants of varying degrees of savagery. Hence the settlement of both Americas, from first to last, has been dependent upon the supplanting of one race by another or upon their intermixture.