The Progress of America from the Discovery by Columbus to the Year 1846 (Volume 1, PT. 1) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: In negotiations they used collars or belts of wampum, about three feet in length and six inches in breadth, and ornamented with small shells. No transaction could be entered into without the intervention of these belts, which served, in the absence of writing, the place of contracts or obligations. They preserved them for many years, and their distinctive marks were well known to their sachems or elders. To raise the hatchet was to proclaim war; to bury it was to enter on terms of, or to conclude, peace. Such were the leading characteristics of the original inhabitants of North America; and such are they in many aspects in the countries west of the Mississippi and the great lakes, except where the fur traders have corrupted them by increasing their wants, and teaching them the tricks of bargain-making; and by persuasion and example, have made them more sensual, immodest, and unchaste. We shall, in another part of this work, appropriate a chapter to the present state of the Aborigines of America, after a collision of nearly two hundred and fifty years with Europeans. CHAPTER XII. SETTLEMENT OF ACADIA, OR NOVA SCOTIA, BY FRANCE. In 1603, M. de Monts, a French protestant, and a gentleman of enterprising resolute spirit, obtained a commission from Henry IV., constituting him governor of all the countries of America, from 40 to 46 degrees north, under the name of New France, which included Nova Scotia (then called Acadia). Several French adventurers, who had previously visited Acadia and Canada, realised large profits by bartering European goods for furs. De Monts having secured by his charter a monopoly of the fur trade, associated with him several wealthy men. In March, 1604, De Monts, accompanied by Champlain, afterwards the celebrated founder of Quebec, Potrincou...