3. After the discovery of America, the people of Europe were for a long time engaged in exploring the New World and in becoming familiar with its shape and character. For more than a hundred years, curiosity was the leading passion with the adventurers who came to our shores. Their disposition was to go everywhere and settle nowhere. These early times may be called the Period of Voyage and Discovery. 4. Next came the time of planting colonies. The adventurers, tired of wandering about, became anxious to found new States in the wilderness. Kings and queens turned their attention to the work of colonizing the New World. Thus arose a third period--the Period of Colonial History. 5. The colonies grew strong and multiplied. There were thirteen little seashore republics. The rulers of the mother-country began a system of oppression and tyranny. The colonies revolted, fought side by side, and won their freedom. Not satisfied with mere independence, they formed a Union destined to become strong and great. This is the Period of Revolution and Confederation. 6. Then the United States of America entered upon its career as a nation. Emigrants flocked to the Land of the Free. New States were formed and added to the Union in rapid succession. To protect itself from jealous neighbors, the nation pushed her boundaries across the continent. This Period may be called the Growth of the Union. 7. But the nation was not truly free. Human slavery existed in the South. This institution engendered sectional hatred and desires for disunion which finally developed into the dark and bloody Period of the Civil War. 8. Then the reunited nation laid aside its arms and entered upon a period of prosperity and material development which has not yet reached its culmination and with which History affords no parallel. 9. We thus find seven periods in the history of our country: I. PRIMITIVE AMERICA; prior to the coming of white men. II. VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY; A. D. 986-1607. III. THE COLONIES; A. D. 1607-1775. IV. REVOLUTION AND CONFEDERATION; A. D. 1775-1789. V. THE GROWTH OF THE UNION; A. D. 1789-1861. VI. THE CIVIL WAR; A. D. 1861-1865. VII. THE REUNITED NATION; A. D. 1865-1891. In this order the History of the United States will be presented in the following pages. [Illustration: G. Washington] HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. PART I. PRIMITIVE AMERICA. [Illustration: An Ancient Mound.] CHAPTER I. THE ABORIGINES. Before the times of the Red men, North America was inhabited by other races, of whom we know but little. Of these primitive peoples the Indians preserved many traditions. Vague stories of the wars, migrations, and cities of the nations that preceded them were recited by the red hunters at their camp-fires, and were repeated from generation to generation.