The Indian women were called squaws, and were the slaves of the men. They did all the labor for the family. They never took part in the games, but they and their children were allowed to look at the wardances. The men were allowed to take and dismiss wives whenever they pleased. The Indians taught their rude and simple arts to their children. Women and Children. The Indian money was called wampum, and was made of pieces of Money. shells in the form of strings and belts. Besides being used in trade, it was used between nations and tribes as tokens of alliance and affection. Sachems, or chief men, kept wampum-belts as records of public acts. The only written language of the Indians were rude picture-writings, Picture with which they recorded warlike actions, deeds of brave men, and Writing. treaties of peace and alliance. But these actions and deeds were generally preserved in memory, and transmitted from father to son, and from chief to chief. The Indians wrapped their dead in animal skins, and laid the body on sticks in the bottom of a shallow pit, or placed it in a sitting posture in the grave, or laid it on a high scaffold out of the reach of wild beasts. The trinkets, arms, tools, paints and food of the dead person were buried with the corpse, because it was thought that the soul would need them on its journey to the spirit-land. Mounds were raised over the graves, flowers were planted over them, and there the living friends mourned for many days. Cere Funeral monies. The Indians believed in a Great Good Spirit and a Great Evil Spirit. Religion. They considered the sun, the moon, the stars, meteors, fire, water, wind, thunder, and everything that they could not themselves control, as a kind of god. They also worshiped what they called Manitou, or the Great Master of Life. They sometimes killed animals as a sacrifice for sin. They also had some vague idea of a great flood that once covered the earth. The chief ruler of each Indian tribe, or nation, was called the sachem, and was chosen because of his worth. The chief was the leader of the warriors, and was chosen because of his brave deeds in battle. All questions debated in council were decided by the sachem, and the warriors. followed wherever the chief led. Good order always prevailed in the councils, and while one was speaking all the others listened with profound respect. Such were the savage inhabitants of the American continent when it was first found and occupied by white people from Europe. These socalled Indians were nearly all wanderers, and roamed over the lonely forests, free as the air they breathed, but did comparatively nothing to cultivate the rich soil beneath their feet. The white man at last found Government. The Indian and the White Man. Mexico and Peru. The Mound Builders. Indian Popula tion of the Present Eight Indian Nations. Algonquins. Huron this beautiful continent. He came here with the industry and arts of civilization, and changed the appearance of everything. Cities, towns, villages and farms now cover the country which a few centuries ago was one vast wilderness in which the Red Man hunted and fished. The Indians of Mexico and Peru were highly civilized, having flourishing cities and towns and a regular government, and practicing many of the useful arts of civilized life. From ruins and mounds found in various parts of the present United States, it is believed that the Indians displaced a highly civilized ancient race, who are known by the general name of Mound Builders. The entire Indian population of the territory embraced by what is now the United States at the time of the first settlement of this region is estimated to have been less than three hundred thousand, or probably not more than two hundred thousand. This Indian population was divided into eight distinct nations, each with its own language. These eight Indian nations were the Algonquins, the Huron-Iroquois, the Catawbas, the Cherokees, the Uchees, the Natchez, the Mobilians, and the Dakotas, or Sioux. The largest and most numerous of these eight Indian nations was the Algonquins, who occupied the whole northern and central portion of the domain of the present United States east of the Mississippi and the greater portion of the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, except the territory of the Huron-Iroquois, around Lakes Ontario and Erie, in both what is now the United States and Canada. The chief tribes of the Algonquins were the Abenakis of Maine, which embraced the Androscoggins, the Rorridgewocks, the Penobscots and the Passamaquoddies; the Pawtuckets of New Hampshire; the Massachusetts, the Nipmucs and the Wampanoags of Massachusetts; the Narragansetts of Rhode Island; the Pequods and the Mohegans of Connecticut; the Manhattans of southern New York; the Lenni-Lenapes, or Delawares, of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania; the Susquehannocks of the Susquehanna valley in Pennsylvania; the Nanticokes of Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland; the Powhatans of Virginia; the Corees, the Hatteras and the Cheraws of eastern North Carolina; the Shawanese of Kentucky; the Miamis and the Piankeshaws of Ohio and Indiana; the Pottawatomies and the Kickapoos of Indiana and Illinois; the Illinois of central Illinois; the Ottawas of the southern peninsula of Michigan; the Menominees and the Chippewas of the northern peninsula of Michigan and of northern Wisconsin; the Sacs and Foxes of Wisconsin, and others. The Huron-Iroquois, occupying the region around Lakes Erie and Iroquois, Ontario, consisted of two great divisions-the Hurons, occupying the Nations. whole southern part of the present Canadian province of Ontario and or Six the north-eastern part of Ohio, embracing the Wyandots and the Attioundirons of Ontario and the Eries and the Andastes of Ohio; and the Iroquois, or Six Nations, occupying the region comprised in all of the present northern, central and western New York, northern and western Pennsylvania and south-eastern Ohio. The Iroquois, or Six Nations, were the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, the Senecas and the Tuscaroras, the last of whom were located in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina before 1713. Cataw bas, Cher okees, Uchees, Natchez, and Mo The Catawbas occupied the central region of the Carolinas. The Cherokees held the district embraced in the western portion of the Carolinas, eastern and middle Tennessee, and northern Georgia and Alabama. The Uchees were located in central and eastern Georgia. The Natchez held south-western Mississippi. The Mobilian tribes occupied bilians. most of the southern region of the United States east of the Mississippi, and embraced the Chickasaws of western Tennessee, northern Mississippi and northern Alabama; the Choctaws of southern Mississippi and southern Alabama; the Creeks of eastern Alabama and southern Georgia; the Yamasees of eastern South Carolina, and the Seminoles of Florida. or Sioux. The Dakotas, or Sioux, held the region west of the Mississippi and Dakotas, north of the Arkansas, as far west as half-way between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, and embraced many tribes, such as the Assiniboines, along the Canadian frontier; the Minnetarees, the Mandans and the Riccarees of North Dakota; the Sioux proper of South Dakota; the Puncahs, the Omahas and the Otoes of eastern Nebraska; the Kansas and the Osages of eastern Kansas; the Missouris of Missouri, and the Iowas of Iowa. The Winnebagoes of south-eastern Wisconsin were the only Dakota tribe located east of the Mississippi. Western West of the eight Indian nations mentioned were many tribes, such Extreme as the Pawnees of western Nebraska; the Cheyennes and the Arapahoes of Colorado; the Comanches and the Kiowas of Texas; the Navajoes of New Mexico; the Apaches, the Pimas, the Mouaves and the Yampais of Arizona; the Utahs of northern Utah and southern Wyoming; the Bannacks and the Nez Perces of Oregon and Idaho; the Cayuses of Oregon; the Pendoreilles and the Spokanes of Washington and Idaho; the Blackfeet and the Crows of western Montana; the Flatheads of Idaho, and the Modocs of northern California and southern Oregon. Vast Such were the savage inhabitants of the greater portion of the Western Continent, or the New World, or America, when this continent was first Change. discovered, explored and settled by the Caucasian, or white race from Europe. A few centuries ago this vast continent, now dotted with cities, towns, villages and beautiful farms, was the home and huntingground of these copper-colored savages. Spanish quests and Colo nies in America. Early History of The SECTION V.-AZTEC EMPIRE IN MEXICO AND CONQUEST HAVING given an account of the discoveries by the Spaniards, Portuguese, English and French in America, we will now proceed to a view of the Spanish conquest and colonization in America. The Spaniards made settlements in various parts of North and South America; and their greatest exploits were the conquest of two civilized Indian empires-that of Mexico in North America and that of Peru in South America. Before proceeding with the Spanish conquest of these countries, we will give a brief historical sketch of Mexico. The history of Mexico goes back as far as the sixth century of the Christian era. The native Mexican traditions, and the remains of ancient structures which are still to be found in the country, make it evident that the primitive inhabitants were possessed of a civilization equal to that of the Aztecs, who occupied the country when it was conquered by the Spaniards; but those aborigines of Mexico are a wholly prehistoric race. The Toltecs entered the valley of Mexico early in the seventh cenToltecs. tury and built the city of Tollan, or Tula, and made it their capital. Some writers believe these people to have come from Central America, while others think them to have migrated from Asia by way of Behring Strait. The Toltecs are said to have been an agricultural people, and to have understood the mechanical arts. Their cities were of the cyclopæan character, and these people originated the system of astronomy which the Aztecs afterward adopted. Early in the eighth century a Toltec kingdom is said to have been founded by Icoatizin; and this kingdom lasted five centuries, at the end of which time it fell in consequence of a long period of pestilence and civil war, and the greater portion of the Toltecs migrated southward. The Chichimecs. The Tepanecs, In the thirteenth century, soon after the Toltecs had emigrated from Mexico, the Chichimecs, a fierce savage tribe who are said to have worshiped the sun as their father and the moon as their mother, migrated from the north into Mexico. The few Toltecs who remained in the country submitted to the invading Chichimecs, who settled peacefully in the country and became amalgamated with the Toltecs. From this amalgamation sprang the Colhuis, or Culhuas, who founded the kingdom of Colhuaca. After the immigration of the Chichimecs into Mexico a number of Techi- other tribes entered the country, the most powerful of whom were the chimecs, Tepanecs, who established their capital at Atzcapozalco, and founded Alcolhuis. one of the most powerful of the Mexican states. and the Another of these |