History of the United States in Words of One SyllablePierson, Helen Wall
History
History of the United States in Words of One Syllable
Pierson, Helen Wall
United States -- History -- Juvenile literature
When the sun rose they all saw a green strip of shore some five
miles long. The men fell at the feet of Co-lum-bus and shed
tears of joy. Then they sang a hymn of praise to God, who had
kept them and brought them safe and sound to this new place.
They got out the small boats and put men and arms in them, with
flags, and a band to play a march of joy, and the crews made
their way to the shore. Co-lum-bus, in a rich dress with his
drawn sword in his hand, sprang on the beach, and then the crew
came next. They set up a cross, and all knelt at its foot and
gave thanks for their safe trip. Then Co-lum-bus set up the
flag of Cas-tile and Le-on, and took the new land for the crown
of Spain.
While they stood there with shouts of joy and songs, some strange
dark shapes stole up with soft steps to their side. The crew
thought these men must have come from a new world, as they saw
their dark skins and the gay paint and plumes they wore. Co-lum-bus
gave them the name of In-di-ans, for he thought the new coast
was part of In-dia. He did not know that he had found a new
land. These men with red skins were glad to kiss the feet of
the Span-iards, and change their gold chains and rude rings
for the beads and pins the crew gave to them.
Co-lum-bus spent some time in the new land he had found, and
then he set sail for home to take his friends and the Queen
the great news. A wild storm came on the way home, and Co-lum-bus
thought that all was lost, so he wrote his tale on a cake of
wax and put the cake in a cask and threw it in the sea; so that
if he had gone down in the storm, all that he had found would
not be lost to the world.
But God took care of Co-lum-bus and his crew. They got back
to their homes once more and had a grand time. The King and
Queen gave them a new and fine fleet; and in time they came
back and saw new points of land on which to build homes, and
they found, too, South A-mer-i-ca.
There were some in Spain who did not like Co-lum-bus, for he
had won gold and fame, while they had none. So they told false
tales of him; and when his friend, Queen Is-a-bel-la, died,
he was once brought back from the land he had found in chains.
How sad that was!--was it not? At last he had to die old and
poor, and this land did not have his name. It had no name for
some time; but at last an I-tal-ian, who made a few trips there,
and wrote of what he saw, gave his name to the new world. His
name was A-mer-i-cus Ves-pu-ci-us. That is a hard name for you
to say, but you can all say A-mer-i-ca, and that is the name
of our land.
CHAPTER II.
THE NEW WORLD.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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