Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/424

 392 AMERICA visited Greenland as early as the 10th century, and planted a colony there, with which they maintained an almost continuous intercourse. They also sailed for some distance down the Atlantic coast ; but there is no evidence that they ever reached further south than New England, or penetrated a score of miles into the interior. But wherever Columbus and his followers went, they found the country peo- pled more or less densely by a race or races to whom they gave the general appellation of Indians. When and whence they came is unknown. The widely spread race which we group together as Esquimaux bear a strong resemblance to the inhabitants of Siberia on the one side and those of Lapland on the other. They may have reached America from one side by way of Iceland, or on the other by crossing Behring strait ; not impossibly by both. But in either case intercourse with their European and Asiatic kindred was early interrupted. There is little likelihood that any intercourse existed between the dwellers on Baffin bay and those on Behring strait. Both live mainly on the products of the sea salmon in the one case, and seals in the other ; consequently they never move far from the shore. There is no evidence that they have ever moved southward to more hospitable regions than those which they now inhabit. The name Esquimaux is of French origin. In the regions around Baffin bay they call them- selves Innuits, which means simply folks. In almost every respect they differ widely from the tribes who were found spread over the whole of what now constitutes the United States E. of the Rocky mountains. The early explorers found this whole region peopled by a race homogeneous in physical character and way of life. It is clear, however, that they had been preceded by another race of a higher type. This race, known as the mound-builders, certainly occupied the whole extent of the val- ley of the Mississippi, and penetrated as far north as the copper region of Lake Superior, where they have left behind them evidences that they had made no inconsiderable ad- vances in the art of working metals. Their principal memorials are found in the earthworks which they erected. Of these many thousands have been found in the single state of Ohio. Their number and magnitude prove them to have been the work of a numerous people organized into large communities. How and when this people disappeared is beyond even plausible conjecture. Passing southward, we come to Mexico, which was found occupied by a people more advanced in many respects than we can suppose the mound-builders to have been. The ruling race at the time of the con- quest were the Aztecs ; but they had occupied this place for only a few generations. They were apparently immigrants to the table land of Anahuac ; but it is still a disputed question whether they came from the north or the south. Their civilization was undoubtedly engrafted upon an earlier one, to which the name of Tol- tec has been given. In the southern Mexican states of Yucatan and Chiapas, and in Hondu- ras and Guatemala, are ruins of large cities which evince a still higher grade of culture. The existence of these great ruins shows that this region, where the present population is hardly ten to the square mile, was once dense- ly peopled. In the part of South America E. of the Andes, the aboriginal population never attained to any form of civilization. That portion of South America occupying the ele- vated valleys between the various ranges of the Andes, within the present states of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, was the seat of a civili- zation known as that of the incas. The time of its origin is variously stated ; some place it back three or four thousand years or more; but a more probable date is about A. D. 1000. It was at its height at the period of the Spanish conquest. Taken as a whole, the civilizations of the prehistoric races of America are generally regarded as purely indigenous, having no con- nection with and but slight resemblance to those of any other peoples. (See AMERICAN ANTIQUI- TIES.) The historical period of America as fairly written begins with the discovery of the West Indian islands by Columbus in 1492. In the course of different voyages he sailed for some distance along the shores of the continent. In 1497 the Cabots discovered Newfoundland, and coasted as far down as Florida. The Spaniards took the lead in conquest and partial coloniza- tion. Within half a century they took posses- sion of the islands ; Cortes conquered Mexico, Balboa and others Central America, and Pizar- ro and Almagro overran Peru. The Spaniards were adventurers rather than colonists ; their chief object was gold, and they pushed mainly into the regions where this was found. They reached New Mexico before 1537. Brazil was formally occupied by the Portuguese in 1549, fell successively under the dominion of Spain and Holland, and was finally recovered by Por- tugal in 1654. The French took formal posses- sion of Canada in 1534, and laid claim to the region westward and southward, including the valley of the Mississippi. The English were much later in colonizing. Their first permanent settlement at Jamestown was made in 1607. The Dutch and Swedes also, not long after, set- tled at a few points. In 1770 the American continent was divided among three European nations. England, having taken the French, Dutch, and Swedish possessions, held by claim the whole of North America, except Mexico. Spain held Mexico, Central America, and the whole of South America, except Brazil, which belonged to Portugal. Somewhat later, Rus- sia acquired an extensive territory in the ex- treme N. W. of the continent. In 1775 be- gan the series of revolts which in less than half a century almost entirely expelled the European governments, except Great Britain, from the continent of America. The thirteen British colonies rose in 1775, and proclaimed