History Books

Philadelphia, December 13th, 1781. Dear Sir, My last letter of the 28th of November, sent by the Marquis de Lafayette, must for the most part have been unintelligible to you, owing to an unfortunate mistake of Mr Thompson, who delivered me a cypher sent by Mr Palfrey, which you never received, instead of that sent by Major Franks. The duplicate enclosed is in the last, so that you will no longer be at... more...

FOREWORD. IN the year 1770, a bright little girl ten years of age, Anna Green Winslow, was sent from her far away home in Nova Scotia to Boston, the birthplace of her parents, to be "finished" at Boston schools by Boston teachers. She wrote, with evident eagerness and loving care, for the edification of her parents and her own practice in penmanship, this interesting and quaint diary, which... more...

Major General J. G. Foster commenced a movement of his army from New Berne this morning. At 3 p. m. we came upon the enemy's pickets (near our present camping ground), when three prisoners were taken by the advance guard of the Third New York Cavalry. In attempting to press forward we found the road densely blockaded by felled trees; this blockade extended for several hundred yards, being situated... more...

"Behold!The Sphinx is Africa. The bondOf Silence is upon her. OldAnd white with tombs, and rent and shorn;With raiment wet with tears and torn,And trampled on, yet all untamed."MILLER Africa is at once the most romantic and the most tragic of continents. Its very names reveal its mystery and wide-reaching influence. It is the "Ethiopia" of the Greek, the "Kush" and "Punt"... more...

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. Whether the unexplored part of the Southern Hemisphere be only an immense mass of water, or contain another continent, as speculative geography seemed to suggest, was a question which had long engaged the attention, not only of learned men, but of most of the maritime powers of Europe. To put an end to all diversity of opinion about a matter so curious and important, was his... more...

Preface The present volume covers the seven years from 1609 to 1616, the leading subjects in the documents therein being commerce and navigation, missions, and ecclesiastical affairs. The commercial and navigation laws covering a quarter of a century previous to this period give incidentally much curious information on social and economic conditions in the islands. The outflow of silver from Nueva... more...

A few months ago, as I was leaving Baltimore for a summer sojourn on the coast of Maine, two old soldiers of the war between the States took their seats immediately behind me in the car, and began a lively conversation about the various battles in which they had faced each other more than a quarter of a century ago, when a trip to New England would have been no holiday jaunt for one of their... more...

INTRODUCTION AMONG the numerous works on Canada that have been published within the last ten years, with emigration for their leading theme, there are few, if any, that give information regarding the domestic economy of a settler's life, sufficiently minute to prove a faithful guide to the person on whose responsibility the whole comfort of a family depends— the mistress, whose department it is... more...

DEGRADATION The first things seen by Francisco de Bobadilla when he entered the harbour of San Domingo on the morning of the 23rd of August 1500 were the bodies of several Spaniards, hanging from a gibbet near the water-side —a grim confirmation of what he had heard about the troubled state of the island. While he was waiting for the tide so that he might enter the harbour a boat put off from shore... more...

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of the 94th Congress, and distinguished guests: Twenty-six years ago, a freshman Congressman, a young fellow with lots of idealism who was out to change the world, stood before Sam Rayburn in the well of the House and solemnly swore to the same oath that all of you took yesterday—an unforgettable experience, and I congratulate you all. Two days later, that... more...