Peter Parley's Tales About America and Australia Part 10

Grand ridges of mountains, numerous volcanoes, some of them, though under the Equator, covered with perpetual snows. n.o.ble rivers, whose course, in several instances, exceeds three thousand miles.

Here are found the palm-tree, the cedar, the tamarind, the guaiac.u.m, the sa.s.safras, the hickory, the chestnut, the walnut of many different kinds, the wild cherry (sometimes a hundred feet high), and more than fifty different sorts of oak.

The plane, of which there are two kinds, one found in Asia, which is called the oriental plane: that found in America is called the occidental plane; but the Americans call it b.u.t.ton-wood, or sycamore.

Its foliage is richer, and its leaves of a more beautiful green than the oriental. It grows to a great size.

The cypress is perhaps the largest of the American trees; it is a more than a hundred and twenty feet high; and the diameter of the trunk at forty or fifty feet from the ground is sometimes eight or ten feet.

Another tree of gigantic magnitude is the wild cotton or Cuba tree. A canoe made from the single trunk of this tree has been know to contain a hundred persons.

Above all these in beauty is the majestic magnolia which shoots up to the height of more than a hundred feet; its trunk perfectly straight, surmounted by a thick expanded head of pale green foliage, in the form of a cone.

From the centre of the flowery crown which terminates each of its branches, a flower of the purest white arises, having the form of a rose, from six to nine inches in diameter.

To the flower succeeds a crimson cone; this, in opening, exhibits round seeds of the finest coral red, surrounded by delicate threads, six inches long.

Here, every plant and tree displays its most majestic form.

Upon the shady banks of the Madelina there grows a climbing plant which the botanists call Aristolochia, the flowers of which are four feet in circ.u.mference, and children amuse themselves with covering their heads with them as hats.

The Banana which grows in all the hot parts of America, and furnishes the Indians with the chief part of their daily food, producing more nutritious substance, in less s.p.a.ce, and with less trouble than any other known plant.

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It is here that the ground produces the sugar-cane, the coffee, and the cocoa-nut from which is produced the chocolate. The vanilla, the anana or pine apple, and many other delicious fruits.

The cacao, though generally p.r.o.nounced cocoa, must not be confounded with the Cocoa Palm which produces that largest of all nuts, the Cocoa-nut.

These trees and plants which I have mentioned, and many more equally beautiful, are all natives of the American woods.

But the European settlers, when they came, brought over to Europe many valuable kinds of fruit and plants, which they did not find here; and I never was more delighted than once on pa.s.sing through Virginia, to observe the dwellings of the settlers shaded by orange, lemon, and pomegranate trees, that fill the air with the perfume of their flowers, while their branches are loaded with fruit.

Strawberries of native growth, of the richest flavour, spring up beneath your feet; and when these are pa.s.sed away, every grove and field looks like a cherry orchard. Then follow the peaches, every hedge-row is planted with them. But it is the flowers and the flowering shrubs, that, beyond all else, render these regions so beautiful. No description can give an idea of the variety, the profusion, and the luxuriance of them.

The Dog-wood, whose lateral fan-like branches are dotted all over with star-like blossoms of splendid white, as large as those of the gumcistus.

The straight silvery column of the Papan fig, crowned with a canopy of large indented leaves; and the wild orange tree, mixed with the odoriferous and common laurel, form striking ornaments of this enchanting scene, with many other lovely flowers too numerous to describe.

There is another charm that enchants the wanderer in the American woods.

In a bright day in the summer months you walk through an atmosphere of b.u.t.terflies, so gaudy in hue, and so varied in form, that I often thought they looked like flowers on the wing.

Some of them are large, measuring three or four inches across the wing, but many, and those of the most beautiful, are small. Some have wings the most dainty lavender, and bodies of black; others are fawn and rose colour, and others are orange and bright blue: but pretty as they are, it is their numbers more than their beauty; and their gay, and noiseless movement through the air, crossing each other in chequered maze, that so delights the eye.

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That beautiful production, the humming bird, is also the sportive inhabitant of these warm climates, and I think they surpa.s.s all the works of nature in singularity of form, splendour of colour, and variety of species.

They are found in all the West India islands and in most parts of the American continent: the smallest species does not exceed the size of some of the bees.

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There are so many different kinds, and each so beautiful, that it is impossible to describe them. They are constantly on the wing, collecting insects from the blossoms of the tamarind, the orange, or any other tree that happens to be in flower: and the humming noise proceeds from the surprising velocity with which they move their wings.

CHAPTER XIII.

PARLEY TELLS OF THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY IN AMERICA.

In the beginning of the reign of James the First, who you know succeeded Elizabeth, the first successful attempt was made by the English to found a colony in America.

Three small vessels, of which the largest did not exceed one hundred tons burden, under the command of Captain Newport, formed the first squadron that was to execute what had been so long, and so vainly attempted; and sailed with a hundred and five men destined to remain in America.

Several of these emigrants were members of distinguished families--particularly George Percy, a brother of the Earl of Northumberland; and several were officers of reputation, of whom we may notice Bartholomew Gosnald, the navigator, and Captain John Smith, one of the most distinguished ornaments of an age that abounded with memorable men.

Thus, after the lapse of a hundred and ten years from the discovery of the continent by Cabot, and twenty-two years after its first occupation by Raleigh, was the number of the English colonists limited to a hundred and five; and this handful of men undertook the arduous task of peopling a remote and uncultivated land, covered with woods and marshes, and inhabited only by savages and beasts of prey.

Newport and his squadron did not accomplish their voyage in less than four months; but its termination was rendered particularly fortunate by the effect of a storm, which defeated their purpose of landing and settling at Roanoak, and carried them into the bay of Chesapeak; and coasting along its southern sh.o.r.e, they entered a river which the natives called Powhatan, and explored its banks for more than forty miles from its mouth.

The adventurers, impressed with the superior advantages of the coast and region to which they had been thus happily conducted, determined to make this the place of their abode.

They gave to their infant settlement, as well as to the neighbouring river, the name of their king; and James Town retains the distinction of being the oldest of existing habitations of the English in America.

Newport having landed the colonists, with what supplies of provisions were destined for their support, set sail with his s.h.i.+ps to return to England, in the month of June, 1607.

The colonists soon found themselves limited to a scanty supply of unwholesome provisions; and the heat and moisture of the climate combining with the effect of their diet, brought on diseases that raged with fatal violence.

Before the month of September, one half of their number had miserably perished, and among these victims was Bartholomew Gosnald, who had planned the expedition, and greatly contributed to its success.

This scene of suffering was embittered by dissensions among themselves.

At length, in the extremity of their distress, when ruin seemed to threaten them, as well from famine as the fury of the savages, the colonists obtained a complete and unexpected deliverance, which the piety of Smith ascribed to the influence of G.o.d in their behalf.

The savages, actuated by a sudden change of feeling, not only refrained from molesting them, but brought them, without being asked, a supply of provisions so liberal, as at once to remove their apprehensions of famine and hostility.

The colonists were now instructed by their misfortunes, and the sense of urgent danger, led them to submit to the advice of the man, whose talents were most likely to extricate them from the difficulties with which they were surrounded.

Every eye was now turned on Captain Smith, whose superior talents and experience, had so far excited the envy and jealousy of his colleagues, that he had been excluded from a seat in the council.

Under Captain Smith's directions, James Town was fortified, so as to repel the attacks of the savages, and its inhabitants were provided with dwellings that afforded shelter from the weather, and contributed to restore and preserve their health.

Finding the supplies of the savages discontinued, he took with him some of his people and penetrated into the interior of the country, where by courtesy and kindness to the tribes whom he found well disposed, he succeeded in procuring a plentiful supply of provisions. In the midst of his successes he was surprised during an expedition by a hostile body of savages, who having made him prisoner, after a gallant and nearly successful defence, prepared to inflict on him the usual fate of their captives.

His genius and presence of mind did not desert him on this trying occasion. He desired to speak with the sachem or chief of the tribe to which he was a prisoner, and, presenting him with a mariner's compa.s.s, expatiated on the wonderful discoveries to which this little instrument had led, described the shape of the earth, the vastness of its land and oceans, the course of the sun and the varieties of nations, wisely forbearing to express any solicitude for his life.

The savages listened to him with amazement and admiration. They handled the compa.s.s, viewing with surprise the play of the needle, which they plainly saw, but were unable to touch; and he appeared to have gained some ascendancy over their minds.

For an hour afterwards they seemed undecided; but their habitual disposition returning, they bound him to a tree, and were preparing to despatch him with their arrows.