The Coming of the White Men: Stories of How Our Country Was DiscoveredWade, Mary Hazelton Blanchard
History
The Coming of the White Men: Stories of How Our Country Was Discovered
Wade, Mary Hazelton Blanchard
America -- Discovery and exploration -- Juvenile fiction; Discoveries in geography -- Juvenile fiction
"Tomachichi said: 'The skin of the buffalo is warm. The feathers of the
eagle are soft. These things therefore mean love and protection. The
English are swift as the eagle and strong as the buffalo.'
"Tomachichi afterwards visited England with General Oglethorpe. His
wife and nephew went with him. How strange the crowded streets and
large buildings of London must have seemed to these savages!
"Soon after Oglethorpe settled in Georgia, he invited the chiefs of
the near-by Indian tribes to meet together with him. At this meeting
he asked them to keep peace with him and his people. They were quite
willing to do as he asked.
"Then he gave each one of them a fine coat, a hat trimmed with lace,
and a shirt. They must have felt grand indeed when they put on such
elegant clothes.
"Oglethorpe noticed many mulberry trees growing in Georgia. He said:
"'Silkworms feed on mulberry leaves. It would be a good plan for the
next ship that comes from England to bring some silkworms. Then we can
make silk. We can sell it for a good price.'
"The silkworms were brought and silk was made. It was sent over to
England and the queen herself had a dress made of American silk. She
wore it on the king's birthday.
"After a while, however, the people gave up raising silkworms in
Georgia. It did not pay. They found they could get more money by
cutting lumber in the forests and trading for furs with the Indians.
They sent these things to other countries and were paid well for them.
"As long as General Oglethorpe was in Georgia the settlers had two good
laws. He would not allow rum or slaves to be brought into the country.
He was a kind and wise governor in every way.
"And now, children," said Uncle Sam, "don't you know enough about your
country to think the words of the old song are true? Can you see that
it is really the 'Land of the Free and the home of the Brave?'"
"Indeed yes, Uncle Sam," cried Joe and Lucy together.
"There is no country in the wide world like ours," added Joe with a
positive shake of his head.
"Very well, then. Let's sing 'America' with a heart and a will," said
Uncle Sam. "We can sit right here on the porch while we sing it. We
don't need the organ to help us out."
The birds had already gone to sleep. But several of them waked up in
the tree-top near by and added a cheerful chirp to the voices of the
three earnest singers.
THE END.
Transcriber's Note
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and
punctuation remains unchanged.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Coming of the White Men, by Mary Hazelton Wade
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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