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HISTORY

OF THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

OF

THE UNITED STATES,

FROM THEIR

FIRST SETTLEMENT AS COLONIES

TO THE

CLOSE OF THE CAMPAIGN OF 1814.

BY SALMA HALE.

ABERDEEN:

PUBLISHED BY GEORGE CLARK AND SON.

LONDON :-W. BRITTAIN, 54, PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCXLVIII.

[blocks in formation]

2

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

MERICA is often denominated the New World.

That it

A emerged from the ocean at a later period than the eastern

continent, is an opinion to which the recent discoveries and discussions of geologists have given some degree of plausibility. The inhabitants of other regions first acquired a knowledge of its existence shortly before the year 1000 after Christ. Biarne, a native of Iceland, then left that island for Greenland; but, losing his reckoning in a fog, and sailing he knew not in what direction, he at length saw land, which, from the account he gave of his course on his return, is now supposed to have been some part of the coast of North America. He did not leave his ship, but continued his voyage, and arrived at length at Greenland.

Lief, a native of that country, having heard of Biarne's voyage, bought his ship, and in the year 1000, sailed towards the point from which Biarne returned. He soon discovered land, and went on shore, somewhere, it is supposed, on the coast of Labrador or Nova Scotia. Sailing thence, and passing between an island, probably Nantucket, and a promontory, he landed at a place supposed to be in Massachusetts or Rhode Island. Here he erected huts, or booths, and passed the winter; and, finding an abundance of grapes in the vicinity, he called the country Vinland, or Wineland.

In 1002, Lief having returned to Greenland, Thorwald, his brother, undertook a voyage in the same direction. He reached Vinland, discovered Lief's booths, there passed the winter, and continued some time in the country. In the summer of 1004, Thorwald was killed in a contest with the natives. In the spring of 1005, the remainder of the party returned to Greenland.

Two years afterwards, an expedition, consisting of three

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