Peter Parley's Tales About America and Australia   By: Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold) Goodrich (1793-1860)

by

PETER PARLEY.

A New Edition,

Brought Down to the Present Time.

Revised by The Rev. T. Wilson.

With Illustrations by S. Williams.

London: Darton and Hodge, Holborn Hill. 1862.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

PARLEY TELLS HOW AMERICA WAS FIRST DISCOVERED, AND ABOUT COLUMBUS 1

PARLEY DESCRIBES THE INHABITANTS 12

COLUMBUS SETS SAIL TO RETURN TO SPAIN; ENCOUNTERS A DREADFUL STORM 21

COLUMBUS PREPARES FOR ANOTHER VOYAGE 35

PARLEY TELLS HOW COLUMBUS DISCOVERED THE CONTINENT OF AMERICA 45

PARLEY TELLS HOW COLUMBUS WAS ROBBED OF THE HONOUR OF GIVING HIS NAME TO AMERICA 59

PARLEY TELLS HOW COLUMBUS WAS SHIPWRECKED, AND OF HIS DEATH 65

PARLEY TELLS OF OVANDO'S CRUEL TREATMENT OF ANACAONA, THE PRINCESS OF HAYTI 73

PARLEY DESCRIBES THE TREES, THE PLANTS, AND FLOWERS OF THE NEW WORLD 79

PARLEY TELLS OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO 96

PARLEY RELATES HOW PIZARRO DISCOVERED AND CONQUERED PERU 121

PARLEY DESCRIBES THE BEAUTIES OF AMERICA 133

PARLEY TELLS OF THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY IN AMERICA 141

PARLEY TELLS OF THE ORIGINAL NATIVE AMERICANS 150

PARLEY SHOWS HOW THE UNITED STATES AROSE, AND WHAT FOLLOWED THEIR ESTABLISHMENT 165

PARLEY TELLS ABOUT NEW SOUTH WALES 176

PARLEY DESCRIBES THE INHABITANTS OF AUSTRALIA THE BRITISH SETTLEMENTS THE GOLD REGIONS RECENT EXPLORATIONS 183

CONCLUSION 205

CHAPTER I.

PARLEY TELLS HOW AMERICA WAS FIRST DISCOVERED, AND ABOUT COLUMBUS THE DISCOVERER.

Now that I have given you an account of European cities in my "Tales about Europe," I shall now furnish you with some description of America, with its flourishing cities, and its multitude of ships, its fertile fields, its mighty rivers, its vast forests, and its millions of happy and industrious inhabitants, of which I am quite certain you must be very curious to know something, when you are told that though the world has been created nearly six thousand years, and many powerful nations have flourished and decayed, and are now scarcely remembered, yet it is only three hundred and seventy years ago since it was known that such a country as America existed.

It was in the year 1492, which you know is only 370 years since, on the third of August, a little before sunrise, that Christopher Columbus, undertaking the boldest enterprise that human genius ever conceived, or human talent and fortitude ever accomplished, set sail from Spain, for the discovery of the Western World.

I will now give you a short account of Columbus, who was one of the greatest men the world ever produced. He was born in the city of Genoa, in Italy; his family were almost all sailors, and he was brought up for a sailor also, and after being taught geography and various other things necessary for a sea captain to know, he was sent on board ship at the age of fourteen. Columbus was tall, muscular, and of a commanding aspect; his hair, light in youth, turned prematurely grey, and ere he reached the age of thirty was white as snow.