The subject-matter may be divided into as many lessons as the teacher thinks best, and the oral method should be used. All the dates given are not intended to be memorized; they are used to show the historical sequence; only three or four of the most important need be committed to memory by the class at their present stage. The map should be used frequently. THE LESSON One of the results of the Crusades was to reveal to the European nations the wealth of the East. Trade between the East and West grew, and Venice became one of the wealthiest and most powerful of the states of Europe. In 1295, a Venetian traveller named Marco Polo returned from Cathay after an absence of twenty-five years. His stories of the wealth in silks, spices, pearls, etc., of those eastern countries intensified the desire of the West to trade with them. A great commerce soon grew up, carried on principally by the great Italian cities--Venice, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, Milan--and as these cities controlled the Mediterranean, the only route to Asia then known, they had a monopoly of the Eastern trade, and kept for a time the other western nations--Spain, Portugal, France, and England--from sharing in it. These nations, animated by the hope of gain and by the spirit of adventure and exploration, could not long be denied their share. This spirit was stimulated by the introduction of the mariner's compass, which afforded sailors a safer guide than landmarks and stars; by the invention of gunpowder and the use of cannon, which, through lessening the strength of the mediaeval castle, tended to increase the power of the middle classes; and by the invention of printing, which aided greatly in the diffusion of knowledge. The problem was to find a route by which to trade with India and China. Place the map of the world before the pupils and inquire how men travel to-day from Great Britain to India. Show that these routes were not feasible then. The route through the Mediterranean to Asia Minor and thence overland, or through the Red Sea to India, was closed by the Turks, who captured Constantinople in 1453. The Suez Canal was not opened till 1869. The way round the Cape of Good Hope was not discovered till 1497. The western route across the Atlantic and the Pacific was unknown. Not till the closing years of the fifteenth century were the attempts to solve this problem successful. The discovery of the route to India by Vasco de Gama in 1497 first opened the way to the East, though the still earlier discovery by Columbus was to afford, in later years, a much more complete solution.