he would describe the place. "Yes," says Dow, with entire ease. "Heaven is a wide and expansive region, a beautiful plain, something like our prairie country, without anything to obstruct the vision there is neither Root nor Branch there."

WILLIAM MEADE. 1789-1862.

From the "Old Churches, &c., of Virginia."

106. REVOLUTIONARY SERVICES OF RICHARD KIDDER MEADE.

He was soon taken into the family of General Washington as his aid, and was the most active in reconnoitring, being a good rider, and having a fine animal — the black mare so well known to the British as well as American armies. Nor did Washington disdain to consult with him as to the choice of officers, when, in the near prospect of a war with France, he was called on once more to head the armies of our country. The year before the death of Washington, my father paid him a visit at Mount Vernon. They had not met since the close of the war. The general was on his farm. They met in one of the fields near a pair of draw-bars. Each, recognizing the other, dismounted and shook hands over them, the general insisting that he would pull down his own bars, and my father that he would be his aid still.

1 A zealous divine and bishop of the Episcopal church. His reminiscences form a very interesting book.

107. DESTRUCTION OF OLD CHURCHES.

THE feeling of hostility to the church engendered by the establishment under the colonial government, and transmitted from generation to generation, was greatly increased in this vicinity by the imprisonment of some of the dissenting ministers a proceeding which was unjustly identified with the Episcopal church. This feeling, at its height when the influence of the church was at the lowest, joined with the stronger feeling of rapacity, led, as may be supposed, to wholesale plunder of the churches and church property. The destruction in this parish (South Farnham, Essex County) has been complete. Nothing is to be found but the durable materials of which the buildings were made. The bricks may be recognized where seen, but they are nowhere found except in other buildings. The flag-stones too, from the aisles, may be seen in walks and in hearths; but not a whole brick, much less one upon another, nor a piece of timber, is to be seen

where the temples of the living God stood. The monuments of the dead were not even spared in the general depredation. These were dragged from their resting-places, and made into grindstones, and may still be identified by parts of the original inscriptions.

JARED SPARKS. 1794-1866. (Manual, p. 490.)

From 'An Essay."

108. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AS AN HISTORICAL THEME. THE revolutionary period, thus defined, is rounded with epic exactness, having a beginning, a middle, and an end; a time for causes to operate, for the stir of action, and for the final results.

The machinery in motion is on the broadest scale of grandeur. We see the new world, young in age, but resolute in youth, lifting up the arm of defiance against the haughtiest power of the old; fleets and armies on one side, crossing the ocean in daring attitude and confiding strength; on the other, men rallying round the banner of Union, and fighting on their natal soil for freedom, rights, existence; the long struggle and successful issue; hope confirmed, justice triumphant. The passions are likewise here at work, in all the changing scenes of politics and war, in the deliberations of the senate, the popular mind, and the martial excitements of the field. We have eloquence and deep thought in council, alertness and bravery in action, self-sacrifice, fortitude, and patient suffering of hardship through toil and danger, to the last. If we search for the habiliments of dignity with which to clothe an historical subject, or the looser drapery of ornament with which to embellish a narrative, where shall we find them thronging more thickly, or in happier contrasts, than during this period?

WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 1796-1859. (Manual, p. 494.)

109.

From "The History of the Conquest of Mexico."

PICTURE-WRITING OF THE MEXICANS.

WHILE these things were passing, Cortés observed one of Teuhtlile's attendants busy with a pencil, apparently delineating some object. On looking at his work, he found that it was a sketch, on canvas, of the Spaniards, their costumes, arms, and, in short, different objects of interest, giving to each its appropriate form and color. This was the

celebrated picture-writing of the Aztecs, and as Teuhtlile informed him, this man was employed in portraying the various objects for the eye of Montezuma, who would thus gather a more vivid notion of their appearance than from any description by words. Cortés was pleased with the idea; and as he knew how much the effect would be heightened by converting still life into action, he ordered out the cavalry on the beach, the wet sands of which afforded a firm footing for the horses. The bold and rapid movements of the troops, as they went through their military exercises, the apparent ease with which they managed the fiery animals on which they were mounted, the glancing of their weapons, and the shrill cry of the trumpet, all filled the spectators with astonishment; but when they heard the thunders of the cannon, and witnessed the volumes of smoke and flame issuing from these terrible engines, and the rushing sound of the balls, as they dashed through the trees of the neighboring forest, shivering their branches into fragments, they were filled with consternation, from which the Aztec chief himself was not wholly free.

Nothing of all this was lost on the painters, who faithfully recorded, after their fashion, every particular, not omitting the ships—" the water-houses," as they called them — of the strangers, which, with their dark hulls and snow-white sails reflected from the water, were swinging lazily at anchor on the calm bosom of the bay. All was depicted with a fidelity that excited in their turn the admiration of the Spaniards, who, doubtless unprepared for this exhibition of skill, greatly overestimated the merits of the execution.

GEORGE BANCROFT. 1800-. (Manual, pp. 478, 491, 531.)

BUT already the hope of New France was gone. Born and educated in camps, Montcalm had been carefully instructed, and was skilled in the language of Homer as well as in the art of war. Greatly laborious, just, disinterested, hopeful even to rashness, sagacious in council, swift in action, his mind was a well-spring of bold designs; his career in Canada a wonderful struggle against inexorable destiny. Sustaining hunger and cold, vigils and incessant toil, anxious for his soldiers, unmindful of himself, he set, even to the forest-trained red men, an example of self-denial and endurance, and in the midst of corruption made the public good his aim. Struck by a musket ball, as he fought opposite Monckton, he continued in the engagement, till, in attempting

to rally a body of fugitive Canadians in a copse near St. John's gate, he was mortally wounded.

On hearing from the surgeon that death was certain, "I am glad of it," he cried; "how long shall I survive?" "Ten or twelve hours, perhaps less." "So much the better; I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." To the council of war he showed that in twelve hours all the troops near at hand might be concentrated and renew the attack before the English were intrenched. When De Ramsay, who commanded the garrison, asked his advice about defending the city, "To your keeping," he replied, "I commend the honor of France. As for me, I shall pass the night with God, and prepare myself for death." Having written a letter recommending the French prisoners to the generosity of the English, his last hours were given to the hope of endless life, and at five the next morning he expired.

111. EARLIER POLICY OF SPAIN IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

THE King of France, whilst he declared his wish to make no conquest whatever in the war, held out to the King of Spain, with the consent of the United States, the acquisition of Florida; but Florida had not power to allure Charles the Third, or his ministry, which was a truly Spanish ministry, and wished to pursue a truly Spanish policy. There was indeed one word which, if pronounced, would be a spell potent enough to alter their decision; a word that calls the blood into the cheek of a Spaniard as an insult to his pride, a brand of inferiority on his nation. That word was Gibraltar. Meantime, the King of Spain declared that he would not then, nor in the future, enter into the quarrel of France and England; that he wished to close his life in tranquillity, and valued peace too highly to sacrifice it to the interests or opinions of another.

So the flags of France and the United States went together into the field against Great Britain, unsupported by any other government, yet with the good wishes of all the peoples of Europe. The benefit then conferred on the United States was priceless. In return, the revolution in America came opportunely for France. For the blessing of that same France, America brought new life and hope; she superseded scepticism by a wise and prudent enthusiasm in action, and bade the nation that became her ally lift up its heart from the barrenness of doubt to the highest affirmation of God and liberty, to freedom and union with the good, the beautiful, and the true.

J. G. M. RAMSEY. About 1800-.

112.

From "The Annals of Tennessee."

SKETCH OF GENERAL JOHN SEVIER.

THE Etowah campaign was the last military service rendered by Sevier, and the only one for which he ever received compensation from the government. For nearly twenty years he had been constantly engaged in incessant and unremitted service. He was in thirtyfive battles, some of them hardly contested, and decisive. He was never wounded, and in all his campaigns and battles was successful and the victor. He was careful of the lives of his soldiery; and, although he always led them to the victory, he lost, in all his engagements with the enemy, but fifty-six men. The secret of his invariable success was the impetuosity and vigor of his charge. Himself an accomplished horseman, a graceful rider, passionately fond of a spirited charger, always well mounted, at the head of his dragoons, he was at once in the midst of the fight. His rapid movement, always unexpected and sudden, disconcerted the enemy, and, at the first onset, decided the victory. He was the first to introduce the Indian war-whoop in his battles with the savages, the tories, and the British. More harmless than the leaden missile, it was not less efficient, and was always the precursor and attendant of victory. The prisoners at King's Mountain said, "We could stand your fighting; but your cursed hallooing confused us. We thought the mountains had regiments, instead of companies." Sevier's enthusiasm was contagious; he imparted it to his men. He was the idol of the soldiery; and his orders were obeyed cheerfully, and executed with precision.

1 A native of Tennessee. His Annals contain much valuable material.

ALBERT JAMES PICKETT.' -1858. (Manual, p. 490.)

From "The History of Alabama."

113. THE INDIANS AND THE EARLY SETTLERS OF ALABAMA. DURING my youthful days, I was accustomed to be much with the Creek Indians, hundreds of whom came almost daily to the tradinghouse. For twenty years I frequently visited the Creek nation. Their green-corn dances, ball plays, war ceremonies, and manners and customs, are all fresh in my recollection. In my intercourse with

1 A native of North Carolina, but removed in early life to Alabama. His "History" abounds in interesting matter.