History Books

THE PEREZ CODEX The Perez Codex was discovered just fifty years ago by Prof. Léon de Rosny, while searching through the Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris, in the hope of bringing to light some documents of interest for the then newly awakened study of Pre-Columbian America. It was found by him in a basket among a lot of old papers, black with dust and practically abandoned in a chimney corner. From a... more...

CHAPTER I. SKETCH OF SOCIAL HISTORY. The Importation of the Africans—Character of the Colored Population in 1860—Colored Population in British West Indian Possessions—Free Colored People of the South—Free Colored People of the North—Notes.   Professor DuBois, in his exhaustive work upon the "Suppression of the African Slave-Trade," has brought within comparatively narrow limits the... more...

Chapter XXX Of the first election of our father Fray Lorenzo de León With the fourth of May, 1596, all the capitular religious of this province of SantГѓ­simo Nombre de Jesús of Filipinas assembled, and without much debate cast their votes for father Fray Lorenzo de León,a native of the city of Granada, and son of the house at Méjico, whose learning, ability to preach, and other good... more...

LIBRARIES. A library may be considered from two very different points of view: as a workshop, or as a Museum.FEELINGS ABOUTThe former commends itself to the practical turn of mind characteristic of the present day; common sense urges that mechanical ingenuity, which has done so much in other directions, should be employed in making the acquisition of knowledge less cumbrous and less tedious; that as we... more...

CHAPTER I The White Man's Discovery of North America So far as our knowledge goes, it is almost a matter of certainty that Man originated in the Old World—in Asia possibly. Long after this wonderful event in the Earth's history, when the human species was spread over a good deal of Asia, Europe, and Africa, migration to the American continents began in attempts to find new feeding grounds... more...

NONOWIT'S HOME Long before New Hampshire found its name, the deep river at its southeast was known as the Piscataqua by the Indians who could stem its strong currents, even in bark canoes. Perhaps it was because of the fresh spring close to its salty shores, some three miles from the sea, that the red men made their encampment on the spot that was later equally attractive to men of white skins.... more...

HENRIE THE SECOND, The Second Sonne of Geffrey Plantagenet. An. Reg. 1. Henrie the second of that name, a French man borne, the second sonne of Geffrey Plantagenet earle of Aniou, begotten of Maud the empresse, daughter to Henrie the first, began his reigne ouer England the fiue and twentith of October, in the yeare after the creation of the world 5121. and in the yeare after the incarnation of our... more...

CHAPTER I FIRST STEPS IN WAR It is given to some regiments to spread their achievements over the quiet centuries, while to the lot of others it falls to live, for a generation or two, in an atmosphere of warlike strife and ever present danger. The Guides have been, from a soldier's point of view, somewhat fortunate in seeing much service during the past sixty years; and thus their history lends... more...

English writers have done more for the illustration of Spanish history, than for that of any other except their own. To say nothing of the recent general compendium, executed for the "Cabinet Cyclopaedia," a work of singular acuteness and information, we have particular narratives of the several reigns, in an unbroken series, from the emperor Charles the Fifth (the First of Spain) to Charles... more...

PREFACE The general documents contained in this volume cover the years 1601-03; they are followed by Chirino's Relacion, which was published in 1604, but the events related therein end in 1602. The two notable occurrences in this period are the great fire, and the Chinese revolt in Manila in the year 1603—the latter ending in the slaughter or expulsion of almost all the Chinese in the islands.... more...