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diff --git a/24990-8.txt b/24990-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1ae11f --- /dev/null +++ b/24990-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2973 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Thirteen Chapters of American History, by Theodore Sutro + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Thirteen Chapters of American History + represented by the Edward Moran series of Thirteen + Historical Marine Paintings + +Author: Theodore Sutro + +Release Date: April 4, 2008 [EBook #24990] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THIRTEEN CHAPTERS OF AMER. HISTORY *** + + + + +Produced by S. Drawehn, Stephen Hope and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + THIRTEEN + HISTORICAL + MARINE + PAINTINGS + + BY + + EDWARD MORAN + + REPRESENTING + THIRTEEN CHAPTERS + OF + AMERICAN HISTORY + + [Decoration] + + By THEODORE SUTRO + + 1905 + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1905, by Theodore Sutro. + + EDWARD MORAN + From a painting by Thomas Sidney Moran] + + + + + THIRTEEN CHAPTERS + OF + AMERICAN HISTORY + + REPRESENTED + BY THE + EDWARD MORAN + SERIES OF + THIRTEEN HISTORICAL + MARINE PAINTINGS + + [Decoration] + + _By_ THEODORE SUTRO + + 1905 + + NEW YORK: + + THEODORE SUTRO, 280 BROADWAY + + AND + + THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. + PUBLISHER'S AGENTS, + 33-37 EAST 17TH STREET. + + _$1.50 net._ + + Copyright, 1905, by Theodore Sutro + + + + + To + + _My Dear Wife_ + + FLORENCE + + THROUGH WHOSE STEADFAST FRIENDSHIP FOR + MR. AND MRS. EDWARD MORAN AND LOYAL DEVOTION + TO ME, I WAS LED TO CHAMPION, AND + ENCOURAGED TO PERSEVERE IN ESTABLISHING, + THE RIGHTS OF THE WIDOW TO THESE MASTERWORKS, + WITHOUT WHICH THE OCCASION FOR + PENNING THESE PAGES WOULD NOT HAVE ARISEN--THIS + LITTLE WORK IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED, + ON THE + TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR MARRIAGE, + October 1st, 1904. + + + + + TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + + PAGE. + + FRONTISPIECE--Portrait of Edward Moran, from a painting by + THOMAS SIDNEY MORAN + + INTRODUCTORY 7 + + BIOGRAPHICAL 15 + + PORTRAIT OF MRS. EDWARD MORAN, from a painting by + THOMAS SIDNEY MORAN Facing page 20 + + DESCRIPTIVE AND EXPLANATORY: + + I. THE OCEAN--THE HIGHWAY OF ALL NATIONS 27 + + II. LANDING OF LIEF ERICKSON IN THE NEW WORLD IN + THE YEAR 1001 33 + + III. THE SANTA MARIA, NIÑA AND PINTA (Evening of October + 11th, 1492) 39 + + IV. THE DEBARKATION OF COLUMBUS (Morning of October + 12th, 1492) 39 + + V. MIDNIGHT MASS ON THE MISSISSIPPI, OVER THE BODY OF + FERDINAND DE SOTO, 1542 47 + + VI. HENRY HUDSON ENTERING NEW YORK BAY, September + 11th, 1609 53 + + VII. EMBARKATION OF THE PILGRIMS FROM SOUTHAMPTON, + August 5th, 1620 59 + + VIII. FIRST RECOGNITION OF THE AMERICAN FLAG BY A + FOREIGN GOVERNMENT. In the Harbor of Quiberon, + France, February 13th, 1778 67 + + IX. BURNING OF THE FRIGATE PHILADELPHIA. In the Harbor + of Tripoli, February 16th, 1804 73 + + X. THE BRIG ARMSTRONG ENGAGING THE BRITISH FLEET. + In the Harbor of Fayal, September 26th, 1814 79 + + XI. IRON VERSUS WOOD--SINKING OF THE CUMBERLAND BY + THE MERRIMAC. In Hampton Roads, March 8th, 1862 87 + + XII. THE WHITE SQUADRON'S FAREWELL SALUTE TO THE + BODY OF CAPTAIN JOHN ERICSSON, New York Bay, + August 25th, 1890 95 + + XIII. RETURN OF THE CONQUERORS. Typifying Our Victory + in the late Spanish-American War, September 29th, 1899 105 + + INDEX 111 + + + + + INTRODUCTORY + + [Illustration: T. S. M.] + + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +The Thirteen Paintings, to a history and description of which (and +incidentally to a brief memoir of their creator, Edward Moran) these +pages are devoted, are monumental in their character and importance. Mr. +Moran designated them as representing the "Marine History of the United +States." I have somewhat changed this title; for even the untraversed +"Ocean" and the landing of Columbus in the new world represent periods +which necessarily affect the whole American Continent. + +The conception of these pictures was in itself a mark of genius, for no +more fitting subjects could have been chosen by the greatest marine +painter in the United States than the heroic and romantic incidents +connected with the sea, which are so splendidly depicted in these +thirteen grand paintings. That their execution required over fifteen +years of ceaseless labor and the closest historical study is not +surprising. The localities, the ships, the armament, the personages, the +costumes, the weapons and all the incidents connected with each epoch +are minutely and correctly represented, in so far as existing records +rendered that possible. And yet, interwoven with each canvas, is a tone +so poetic and imaginative that stamps it at once as the offspring of +genius and lifts it far above the merely photographic and realistic. The +series is the result of a life of prolific production, careful study, +unceasing industry and great experience. + +Mr. Moran himself regarded these pictures as his crowning work, and in +token of his many happy years of married life presented them, several +years before his death, to his wife, Annette Moran, herself an artist of +great merit, and whom he always mentioned as his best critic and the +inspirer of his greatest achievements. This loving act, strange to say, +gave rise to a protracted legal controversy, by reason of an adverse +claim to these paintings made by the executor of the estate of Edward +Moran, the final decision of which in favor of the widow, after three +years of litigation, lends additional interest to these remarkable works +of art. Proceedings to recover the pictures from the executor of the +estate, who had them in his possession and refused to deliver them to +her, were commenced on February 5, 1902, and after a trial in the +Supreme Court in the City of New York lasting several days, a jury +decided that the pictures were the property of the widow as claimed. On +a technical point of law raised by the executor this finding of the jury +was temporarily rendered ineffective, but, on an appeal to the Appellate +Division of the Supreme Court, this technicality was overruled and an +absolute judgment awarded in favor of the widow.[A] This was on January +23, 1903. Still not content, the executor appealed to the highest court +in the State, the Court of Appeals at Albany, which, on January 26, +1904, finally and absolutely affirmed the decision of the Appellate +Division.[B] But even then the widow was kept out of her property on +further applications made by the executor to the court. Also in this he +failed, and at last, on April 28, 1904, the judgment in her favor was +satisfied through the delivery of the pictures to her, as her absolute +property, beyond dispute, cavil or further question. + +I have deemed it proper to make this explanation, as it is through my +connection as counsel for Mrs. Moran throughout this litigation that the +occasion has presented itself for this publication, and of giving to +the public the opportunity to examine and enjoy, to the fullest extent, +these great pictures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. + +It may be added that although these paintings have occasionally been +viewed by artists, they have never before been publicly exhibited as a +series except for a very short period in the year 1900 in Philadelphia +and in Washington. During this time they received the highest encomiums +from critics and the press, and were pronounced the most notable series +of historic pictures ever painted in this country. While each one of the +series is a master work, it is as a group that the greatest interest +attaches to them, and it was Mr. Moran's desire, and it is also that of +the present owner, that they should, if possible, never be separated. + +With reference to the exhibition of these paintings at the Metropolitan +Museum of Art, I quote from a full page illustrated article which +appeared in the New York _Herald_ on Sunday, November 6, 1904, as +follows: + + "The exhibition of these pictures of scenes connected with the + history of the United States is not only an artistic but an + educational event. Edward Moran was probably the strongest marine + painter of the United States. * * * No more artistically valuable + and educationally instructive exhibit has been made in New York + than that of these paintings of Edward Moran. It is to be hoped + that the school children of the city will be taken to see and study + them. The public has already testified to its appreciation of the + exhibition by its large attendance." + +It may be asked why the artist limited or extended the series to the +number "13." This was done with a purpose. This number seems to have +been interwoven in many particulars with the history of our country. The +original colonies were thirteen, and also the first States; the first +order for the creation of a navy was for thirteen war ships; there were +and still are thirteen stripes, and there were originally thirteen +stars, on our flag; on our coat of arms a mailed hand grasps thirteen +arrows, as do also the left talons of the eagle, while in its right is +an olive branch with thirteen leaves; there were also thirteen rattles +on the snake on the first American flag, with the motto "Don't tread on +me." It was on February 13, 1778, in the harbor of Quiberon, that the +American flag received its first recognition by a foreign government, an +incident represented by one of these paintings; thirteen years elapsed +between the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the inauguration of +the first President, General Washington, in 1789; and the Louisiana +purchase from France includes the area prospectively covered by thirteen +States, as soon as Oklahoma and Indian Territories shall, as is now in +contemplation, be admitted as one State. + +This idea of thirteen is already foreshadowed in the introductory +painting "The Ocean," in which thirteen gulls are seen hovering over the +water, typical of the important events, linked with that number, which +would occur in the misty and unknown future. + +It is remarkable that although these paintings are by one man, and +virtually on the same subject, they should exhibit such unusual variety, +and be individually so exceptionally interesting. It has been said that +historic pictures may be considered as either representative, suggestive +or allegoric, but in this series of paintings all these elements are +combined. + +The American navy has been celebrated for its heroic achievements from +the beginning, and some of these pictures recall vividly to the mind the +episodes linked with the immortal names of such men as John Paul Jones, +Stephen Decatur, Samuel Chester Reid, George U. Morris, John L. Worden, +and the whole galaxy of heroes connected with these memorable events +down to Dewey, Sampson, Schley, Wainwright and Hobson. + +The production of these paintings was the result of a patriotic and +noble impulse on the part of the artist, through which he has +immortalized the maritime achievements of our country, and for which we, +as well as future generations, can hardly be sufficiently grateful! + + "If thou wouldst touch the universal heart, + Of thine own country, sing!" + + + + + BIOGRAPHICAL + + [Illustration: T. S. M.] + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL. + + +Edward Moran was almost seventy-two years of age when he died in the +City of New York on June 9, 1901, having been born at Bolton, +Lancashire, England, on August 19, 1829. He was the oldest son of a +large family of children, and when a mere child was put to work at the +loom, the humble vocation of his father who, the same as his ancestors +had been for several generations, was a hand-loom weaver. Already while +so employed the child was frequently caught sketching with charcoal on +the white fabric in his loom instead of continually plying the shuttle. +Whence and how he derived this inborn talent is one of those unsolvable +problems which seem to set at defiance all the accepted canons of +heredity. At all events, his talent was recognized by a local village +celebrity, a decorator, who guided the child, then only nine years of +age, in a crude way to a development of these artistic instincts, in +consequence of which it is related that he was soon able to "cut +marvellous figures from paper and afterwards draw their outlines on +walls and fences." + +The hardship of their pursuit, offering little hope of a brighter future +for their large family of growing children, induced the parents about +the year 1844 to join the tide of emigration to that land of golden +promise, the United States, in immortalizing whose history and in +furthering whose artistic development through his glorious marine +pictures, the little Edward was destined to play so important a part. +The family settled in Maryland, and in the struggle for existence soon +awakened from their golden dream of a new Eldorado and returned to +their old vocation. Edward again found employment at the loom, until the +spirit of adventure and the desire of following the artistic bent of his +mind impelled him one day, without a dollar in his pocket, to walk all +the way to Philadelphia, where the boy hoped to find better +opportunities. There also, however, he was disappointed, and after +employment in various capacities, first with a cabinetmaker, then in a +bronzing shop, and then at house painting, he finally returned to the +loom at the munificent salary of six dollars per week. While so employed +he attracted the attention of the proprietor, who one day surprised him +while engaged in a superb drawing, stealing time for this purpose from +his work. The intelligence of this man in recognizing young Moran's +exceptional talent, and, as a result, advising him to quit mechanical +labor, and introducing him to one of the then famous landscape painters +of Philadelphia, Mr. Paul Webber, was the turning point in his career. +Subsequently another artist, James Hamilton, guided him in his +particular bent of marine painting, and after the usual hardships and +struggle for recognition, the fate of all young artists, he finally was +enabled to open a little studio in a garret over a cigar store with an +entrance up a back alley. The works which emanated from there attracted +such wide attention that he gradually rose to fame and fortune. His +pictures were accepted by all the American academies, as well as the +London Royal Academy and the Paris Salon, and he received many medals +and awards. He was a member of the Water-Color Societies of this country +and of London, of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, an Associate of +the National Academy of Design, also Vice-President of the Lotos Club +and connected with many other artistic and social organizations and +societies. + +Why his artistic tastes should have been particularly directed to +marine painting can be demonstrated just as little as the possession of +his extraordinary talents at all; and yet for the former a possible +solution may be found in the fact that his childish imagination and +predilections may have been moulded through his sea-coast experiences in +old Lancashire, that picturesque maritime county of northwestern +England, which is bounded on the west by the Irish Sea. At all events +Edward Moran loved the sea, and this love guided every stroke of his +brush in depicting his favorite element. No artist in this country, or +perhaps in the world, has ever painted such water, and it was not many +years after his first successes in Philadelphia that his fame spread +throughout the United States, and he was easily recognized as its first +marine painter. Fame and prosperity, however, did not turn his head, as +they so frequently do with little men, but never with men of true +genius. On the contrary, he worked with redoubled zeal and industry as +he grew older, so that the number of works which he produced is +marvellous. + +Among his famous paintings, besides the thirteen herein described, may +be mentioned the following: + +"Virginia Sands." + +"A Squally Day off Newport." + +"Massachusetts Bay." + +"New York Harbor." + +"The Yacht Race." + +"The Battle of Svold." + +"Philadelphia from the New Park." + +"Minot's Ledge Light-House." + +"White Cliffs of Albion." + +"Off Block Island." + +"Return of the Fishers." + +"Outward Bound." + +"Low Tide." + +"The Gathering Storm." + +"Sentinel Rock, Maine." + +"Toilers of the Sea." + +"Launching of the Life-Boat." (1865.) + +"View on Delaware Bay." (1867.) + +"Evening on Vineyard Sound." (1867.) + +"Pinchyn Castle, North Wales." (1867.) + +"Moonrise at Nahant." (1867.) + +"The Lord Staying the Waters." (1867.) + +"Coast Scene Near Digby." (1868.) + +"Departure of the United States Fleet for Port Royal." (1868.) + +"After a Gale." (1869.) + +"On the Narrows." (1873.) + +"The Commerce of Nations Paying Homage to Liberty" (1877)--the great +picture which came into the possession of Mr. Joseph Drexel, the +banker--an allegory suggested by the then proposed Statue of Liberty in +New York Harbor. + +"Young Americans out on a Holiday." (1882.) + +"Life-Saving Patrol: New Jersey Coast." (1889.) + +"Melodies of the Sea." (1890.) + +"South Coast of England." (1900.) + +But space forbids the complete enumeration of even his more notable +works, which may be counted by the hundreds. + +Mr. Moran, like all men of genius, felt his own strength, though he +never overrated it; but as a result of this self-consciousness he would +not brook depreciation, and when, in May, 1868, the Philadelphia Academy +of Fine Arts, of which he was a member, had hung some of his pictures in +an inconspicuous and detrimental position in its gallery, he resorted to +a novel expedient for showing his displeasure. On "varnishing day," +prior to the opening of the exhibition to the public, he used a mixture +of beer and porter, combined with a dry light red, for the purpose of +"varnishing" his paintings, but the effect of which was that they were +all coated with a beautiful opaque red substance, so that none of them +could be recognized, and yet a substance which he could remove, when so +inclined, without injuring the pictures at all. This called forth a +storm of criticism from the "Hanging Committee" and the wiseacres of the +Academy, but he was fully sustained in his course by public opinion and +the press, and, instead of diminishing, it added to his fame as an +artist and certainly to his reputation for the courage of his +convictions. + +Mr. Moran was not only a great artist, but a man of genial and +companionable qualities, which endeared him to all with whom he came in +contact. He, furthermore, was not only an artist who used oil, +water-color and pastel with equal facility, and painted landscapes and +figure pieces as well as marines, but was versatile in his talents. His +musical instincts were marked, and, although self-taught, he played on a +number of instruments, and he had also, through years of industrious +reading and study, become thoroughly well-informed and an interesting +conversationalist. He was of a most generous nature, and was not only +ever ready to assist young artists with advice and material aid as well, +but also, when the occasion arose, to devote the fruit of his labors to +any meritorious charitable object. Thus, for example, in March, 1871, he +exhibited in Philadelphia seventy-five of his landscapes and marines, +all of which he used in illustrating a beautiful catalogue entitled +"Land and Sea," and not only gave the entire profits of this exhibition +and of the sale of the catalogue, but also the price obtained for one of +his important paintings, entitled "The Relief Ship Entering Havre," to +aid the sufferers of the Franco-Prussian war. + +He did not reach the culminating point of excellence in his work in +middle life or shortly thereafter, like so many other painters, but on +the contrary grew in breadth and power with advancing years, so that the +Thirteen Historical Paintings, described in this little book, although +he gave them the finishing touches only shortly before his death, +constitute his greatest achievement. + +About the year 1872 Mr. Moran sought a still wider field for his +activities in removing from Philadelphia to the City of New York, where +for thirty years he was a conspicuous and admired figure in metropolitan +life, and in his studios, surrounded by all the luxury and comfort that +prosperity could suggest, he and his talented and hospitable wife drew +around them a circle of artists, authors, musicians and notable men of +all classes, among whom may be mentioned actors like Joseph Jefferson, +F. F. Mackay (both pupils of Mr. Moran) and Charles W. Couldock, writers +like Richard Watson Gilder and John Clark Ridpath, lawyers like Col. +Edward C. James and Robert Ingersoll, art connoisseurs like Samuel P. +Avery and William Schaus, sculptors like Frederic A. Bartholdi and James +W. A. Macdonald, and of course a host of artists such as Edwin Abbey, +Albert Bierstadt, Edwin H. Blashfield, John C. Brown, Thomas B. Craig, +Hamilton Hamilton, Constant Meyer, Paul de Longpré, Henry W. Ranger, +Vasili Vereschagin and Napoleon Sarony. + +It may be added that Mrs. Moran's maiden name was Annette Parmentier, +and that she was a Southern girl of French descent from the noted +scientist Antoine Augustin Parmentier, who was the first to introduce +the potato into France, for which he was decorated by Louis XVI as a +public benefactor, and honored by a statue erected in his native town of +Bordeaux. Mr. Moran married Annette (his second wife) in the year 1869, +and under his instruction and guidance her own talent as an artist was +developed, and some of her paintings, among them landscapes entitled "A +Staten Island Study," "The Fisherman's Return," and other pictures, were +not only exhibited and greatly admired, but were deemed of sufficient +importance to be reproduced by prominent art publishers. She survived +her husband by about three and one-half years, having died, at an +advanced age, in the City of New York on November 7, 1904. + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1905, by Theodore Sutro. + + MRS. EDWARD MORAN + (NÉE ANNETTE PARMENTIER) + From a painting by Thomas Sidney Moran] + +In his art Mr. Moran followed mainly the bent of his own genius, though +if he was influenced by any other artists to any extent it was by +Clarkson Stanfield and Turner, whom he greatly admired and many of whose +pictures, for the sake of practice, he copied. He was undoubtedly also +influenced in a general way, as are all eminent artists, by studying the +master works of the world in Europe, where for that purpose he spent +some time in the year 1861 and again in 1878 and also in subsequent +years. + +Of Edward Moran it may be truly said that he is another notable example +of the fact that true genius is not baffled or impaired through adverse +circumstances or the most humble beginnings, but soars ever upward and +onward until it achieves its mission, and compels the recognition and +admiration of the world, to which it is entitled. + + + + + DESCRIPTIVE + AND + EXPLANATORY + + [Illustration: T. S. M.] + + + + + THE OCEAN + The Highway of All Nations + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.] + + + + +DESCRIPTIVE AND EXPLANATORY. + +I. + +THE OCEAN--THE HIGHWAY OF ALL NATIONS.[C] + + +This picture has already been briefly referred to, and is considered by +some critics the greatest of the thirteen. Probably no such sublime +ocean has ever been painted. How thoroughly it appeals to those who best +know the sea is illustrated by the blunt but expressive compliment +bestowed upon it by Admiral Hopkins of the English navy when, in 1892, +he saw it in the Union League Club of New York, where it was being +privately shown. After silently studying it for some minutes he turned +to Mr. Joseph H. Choate, whose guest he was, and said: "I have always +believed that only an Englishman could paint the sea, but it seems that +I had to come to America to look upon the most almighty sea that I have +ever beheld on canvas." + +Admiral Hopkins was not aware that, in this, he was in fact +complimenting one of his own fellow-countrymen, though, in truth, Mr. +Moran had become an American of Americans through his patriotic ardor +and long residence here. + +In this painting the powers of Mr. Moran as an artist were tested to the +utmost. For while others have attempted to paint the sea, among whom +Turner stands pre-eminent, few have ever succeeded in depicting it on so +large a scale, without a single other object to disturb the aspect +excepting only the thirteen sea-gulls hovering over its surface, which +through their number suggest the whole series of these paintings and the +interesting events connected with the marine history of the United +States. + +This picture is the largest of the series. Not only the water but the +sky in this painting is superb, with the faint shimmer of the sunlight +breaking through the clouds. The color is that peculiar green gray, +which is the most fascinating hue known to the sea, and only present +when the sky is overcast. The water and the motion of the waves are +grand beyond comparison--an actual living, moving, foaming mass and as +seen in mid-ocean. The conception of this painting as introductory to +the whole series is most poetic. It suggests the deep, dark, dreaded, +unknown waste of waters which was shrouded in mystery for thousands of +years until a few daring seamen, first the Norsemen, and then Columbus +with his little band, undertook the perilous task of lifting the veil. +Its unexplored expanse naturally and logically preceded every voyage of +discovery and is the keynote of all the marvellous achievements which +subsequently constituted it the link between America and the Eastern +world. It also typifies the greatest of all republics, which was to +spring up beyond its westernmost limits, for nothing is so free, +unfettered and seemingly conscious of its own strength and possibilities +as the mighty ocean. + +This painting may be likened to the opening stanzas of an epic poem, in +which the theme of the story is foreshadowed, and no grander epic was +ever written than is depicted in these thirteen mighty paintings, of all +those qualities of heroism and adventure which have ever been thought +worthy of commemoration in song or story. + +How well the famous stanzas of Lord Byron, in Childe Harold's +Pilgrimage, illustrate the thoughts suggested by this "Ocean" of Edward +Moran: + + "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll! + Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; + Man marks the earth with ruin--his control + Stops with the shore;--upon the watery plain + The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain + A shadow of man's ravage, save his own, + When, for a moment, like a drop of rain, + He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, + Without a grave, unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown. + + * * * * * * * * * + + "Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form + Glasses itself in tempests; in all time, + Calm or convulsed--in breeze, or gale, or storm, + Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime + Dark-heaving;--boundless, endless and sublime-- + The image of Eternity--the throne + Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime + The monsters of the deep are made; each zone + Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone." + + + + + LANDING OF LIEF ERICKSON + in the New World in 1001 + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.] + + + + +II. + +LANDING OF LIEF ERICKSON IN THE NEW WORLD, IN 1001.[D] + + +While the most notable occurrence in its influence on America was +undoubtedly the landing of Columbus, as it resulted in the gradual +colonization and development of the whole continent, the actual +discovery of the new world was made ages prior to 1492. The landing of +Lief Erickson was made in 1001, but there is good reason to believe that +even long prior to that time either the shores or the islands of America +were reached by Ph[oe]nicians, Irish and Basques, and its western shores +by the Chinese. The earliest discovery, however, of which there is any +authenticated record is that by the Eirek (Erick) family of Iceland, and +these records are not only embraced in the Sagas or histories of the +Scandinavian chieftains, but more especially in the "Codex Flataeensis," +completed in 1387. According to these, Eirek the Red founded colonies in +Greenland about the year 985, which prospered for over four centuries. +Remains of buildings and contemporaneous writings establish this beyond +a doubt. These colonies became Christianized and established churches, +monasteries, and had bishops in regular succession for about two hundred +and fifty years. There is nothing marvellous about this account, as +Greenland was only about two hundred miles distant from Iceland, and +therefore nearer to that island than the latter was to Norway, whence +the Icelanders originally came. These colonies became practically +extinct in the fourteenth century, owing, it is believed, to enormous +accumulations of ice on the coast, which prevented intercommunication +between them and Iceland, and cut off their chief food supplies. They +may also have been decimated through the great pestilence called the +Black Death, which prevailed in 1349, especially in the northern +countries; while, if any remained, they are supposed to have been killed +by the Esquimos, or Skraelings, as they were then called, and who were a +far more powerful race than the Esquimos of to-day. + +The foothold thus gained by the Norsemen in Greenland led to voyages +southward. Some years after the establishment of these colonies one +Bjarne Herjulfson was on one of these voyages driven by a storm far +south of Greenland and saw the coast of the main continent of North +America, somewhere, it is supposed from his description, between +Newfoundland and Nantucket. Without landing, he returned to Greenland, +whence soon thereafter, induced by his accounts, Leif, the son of Eirek +the Red, undertook the same journey with a single ship and about +thirty-five men, for the purpose of obtaining possession of the newly +discovered country. He landed probably at Nantucket Island, and settled +in the vicinity of the present Fall River, and called the country +Vinland on account of the grape-vines which grew there in profusion. + +In confirmation of the claim that it was in this locality that Leif +Erickson first set foot, the Norse records are relied upon, which state +that, at the season when this discovery was made, the sun rose at 7:30 +A.M. and set at 4:30 P.M. This astronomical observation would locate the +place of landing on the southern coast of New England in the vicinity +mentioned. That the Norsemen made a settlement in this country, though +only of brief duration, is a fact in support of which many learned +treatises have been written, dealing, among other things, with what are +supposed to be Icelandic inscriptions discovered in that section of the +country, and the like, a consideration of which, however, would be +beyond the scope of this writing. + +Leif, the son of Eirek, or to preserve the nomenclature of the artist, +Lief Erickson, is described in the Sagas and other records as a large, +strong man, of imposing appearance. The ships in which voyages were made +by the Norsemen in those days were called drakkars, which were propelled +both by oar and sail; at the ends rose wooden apartments called kastals. +All the parts out of water were fashioned after the manner of monsters +or drakkars (dragons, _Drachen_). The prow of the ship represented the +terrible head, the sides, a continuation of the body, and the rear, the +tail of the monster bent upward; they bore a single sail covered with +warlike paintings, and to the mast were also frequently hoisted the +coats of arms of various chiefs. It was in ships of this character that +these bold seamen braved the perils of the ocean, and it was in similar +ships that William, the Conqueror, came to England; and yet even these +vessels, frail as they were, were superior, both in seaworthiness and +size, to the ships of Columbus. + +The costumes of the Norsemen consisted of trousers, belt, shirt, and +often a coat of mail, and over the shoulders they sometimes wore a cloak +with a fringe or border at the sides. They carried swords with most +elaborately carved and embossed hilts and scabbards of gilt bronze and +silver. + +To depict the first landing of Lief Erickson amid these surroundings was +the object of the painter. How well he has succeeded, a mere inspection +of this canvas will at once reveal. The heroic figure of Lief, himself, +dreamily and yet with wonderment, looking out upon the newly discovered +shore, while with uplifted sword his men are apparently consecrating +the new world with a solemn vow of loyalty, some standing on a small +boat which is being pushed towards the shore, while others stand +knee-deep in the shoal water--the form of the ship or drakkar in the +background, the costumes, swords and all the other accessories--constitute +a striking and fascinating group. It portrays vividly the solemnity of +the occasion when the first white men were about to set foot on the +American continent. + +The discovery of Vinland and its subsequent colonization by Thorfinn are +referred to in the beautiful verses of Bayard Taylor, written on the +occasion of his visit to Iceland to attend its millennial celebration, +in August, 1874. + + "We come, the children of thy Vinland, + The youngest of the world's high peers, + O land of steel, and song, and saga, + To greet thy glorious thousand years. + + "Across that sea the son of Erik + Dared with his venturous dragon's prow; + From shores where Thorfinn set thy banner + Their latest children seek thee now. + + * * * * * * * * * + + "What though thy native harps be silent? + The chord they struck shall ours prolong; + We claim thee kindred, call thee mother, + O land of saga, steel and song!" + + + + + THE SANTA MARIA, NIÑA AND PINTA + + (_Evening of October 11, 1492_) + + [Decoration] + + THE DEBARKATION OF COLUMBUS + + (_Morning of October 12, 1492_) + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.] + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.] + + + + +III. + +THE SANTA MARIA, NIÑA AND PINTA (EVENING OF OCTOBER 11, 1492)[E] + +AND + +IV. + +THE DEBARKATION OF COLUMBUS (MORNING OF OCTOBER 12, 1492).[F] + + +The landing of Columbus was an historical event of such importance in +its consequences that the artist wisely celebrates it in both of these +pictures. + +We little realize what it meant to brave the perils of the unexplored +ocean in the year 1492. We marvel when some adventurous navigator, even +now, when every current and wind of the ocean have been observed for +five hundred years, and are accurately known and precisely charted, +undertakes to cross it in a somewhat diminutive vessel. What, then, must +have been the courage of Columbus, when, at the advanced age of +fifty-seven, he ventured with his crew upon this perilous undertaking in +three frail barks or caravels, the largest of them equipped with a +single deck and a single bridge, with an awkward one-story compartment +at the prow and a two-story compartment at the stern, and the two others +without any deck at all, with their little masts carrying awkward, +unwieldy, partly square and partly lateen sails! + +The three crews consisted of only one hundred and four men combined, of +which fifty were on the little "Santa Maria," which was only about +sixty-three feet over all in length, with a fifty-one foot keel, twenty +foot beam, and a depth of ten and one-half feet, under the command of +the "Admiral" himself, as he was pompously called, and thirty on the +still smaller "Pinta," under the command of "Captain" Martin Alonso +Pinzon, while the still more diminutive cockle-shell "Niña" contained +the formidable crew of twenty-four under the command of the brother of +Martin Alonso, the redoubtable "Captain" Vincente Yanez Pinzon. And then +to think that, instead of being encouraged and lauded for his +enterprise, the prelude consisted of discouragement, derision and +persecution of the foolhardy seaman who dared to brave the superstitions +of the age and the unknown ocean which was supposed to be peopled with +demons and monsters, in quest of what was believed to be an absolutely +impossible pathway to China and the East Indies, and from which there +could not be any hope of return. A model of these caravels was exhibited +in the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in 1893, at the sight of which +wonder grew to incredulity that, under such circumstances as surrounded +this first voyage of Columbus, any one should have risked his life in +such a craft. + +Even assuming with John Fiske that the spherical form of the earth was +known long before Columbus, and that he derived his knowledge of the +existence of the westernmost shore of the Atlantic Ocean through +information which he received of the voyages of the Norsemen, on his +visit to Iceland in 1477, his opinion that the same shore might be +reached by crossing the Atlantic, where it had never been traversed +before, was based upon mere surmise. No wonder that his crew were +disheartened and on the verge of open mutiny when, under such +circumstances, after about sixty-nine days had elapsed since they had +sailed from Palos on August 3, 1492, they had still not reached the +longed-for land. What faith, almost inspired, must have been his, that +he should succeed in persuading his men to hold out only a few days +more, and how strange that on the very next day, the seventieth of his +voyage, on the evening of October 11, 1492, the long-wished-for goal +should be descried in the dim distance, and that on the following day +they should actually disembark from their floating prisons to stand once +more upon solid ground! + +The artist has chosen the inspiring moments of these two events to +immortalize them in these two pictures: in the one, the three tiny barks +in the shadow of the evening, still in the gloom and uncertainty of what +the morrow would bring forth--and then, in the other, the brilliant +spectacle of Columbus with cross uplifted, in magnificent regalia of +scarlet and gold and purple, and his officers with the standards of +Castile and Leon, and the white and green colors of the expedition, +disembarking with his men when his hopes had become a reality, for the +purpose of claiming the newly discovered land. + +I quote from Emilio Castelar the following description of the events +illustrated by these pictures: + + "Land! land! the cry fell as a joyous peal upon the ears of these + mariners who had given themselves up as lost and doomed to die in + the fathomless vast. + + "When Columbus heard the glad cry he knelt in rapture on the deck + and with clasped hands lifted his joy-filled eyes to Heaven and + intoned the 'Gloria in Excelsis' to the Author of all things. + + "The signs of land now made it high time to prepare for the + debarkation for which all measures had been wisely planned by the + admiral, who had never doubted the realization of his predictions. + + "Each moment brought a revelation. A solitary, half-tamed + turtle-dove flew near them and was followed by a floating, leafy + reed. + + "About two in the morning of October 12th, amid the sheen of the + stars and phosphorescence of the sea, one of the crew, with eyes + accustomed, like some nocturnal creature, to the darkness, cried + 'Land! land!' + + * * * * * * * * * + + "Columbus donned his richest apparel, upon his shoulders a cloak of + rosy purple, and grasped in one hand the sword of combat and in the + other the Redeemer's cross; then, disembarking, he knelt upon the + land, and, with uplifted arms, joined with his followers in the Te + Deum." + +In these paintings much is left to the imagination, which renders them +all the more beautiful and poetical, although also in them the artist +has accurately portrayed the caravels, costumes, figures and indications +of the nearby shore, so that the scenes are vividly brought to mind as +actually described in the journals of the great navigator himself and +his first biographer, his own son Ferdinand. + +It is not the purpose of the author to write history, and yet how +tempting, in the study of these pictures, is it to reflect upon and +recall the romance which surrounds the whole life of Columbus and his +period: the honors which he received on his return to Spain, his +subsequent two additional voyages of discovery, when, to those of the +first, consisting of San Salvador, Cuba, and the other islands, he added +that of the continent of South America; how he returned from his third +voyage in chains and afterwards died in poverty and forgotten at +Valladolid, on May 20, 1506, his name scarcely mentioned at the time in +the records of that town; how still stranger that Columbus never knew +that he had discovered a new continent, but believed that, as he had +originally intended, he had reached the shores of the Indies and China +or Cathay by a new route, and therefore gave them the name which has +ever since attached to the islands where he first landed, of the West +Indies, and called the natives, Indians; and, strangest of all, that +four hundred and six years after he first landed at San Salvador, the +remains of the great discoverer should have been transferred from the +cathedral at Havana to Spain, the scene of all his triumphs and all his +sorrows, on September 24, 1898, just about the close of the +Spanish-American war, which is celebrated in the last or thirteenth of +this remarkable series of paintings. + +The courage, faith and fortitude of Columbus in persisting in his +westward journey, in full confidence that he would eventually reach the +shore which must ever have been pictured in his mind, in spite of the +doubts and fears and protestations of his weary crew, are beautifully +and concisely expressed in the stanzas of Friedrich Schiller:[G] + + "Brave sailor, steer onward! Though the jester deride + And the hand of the pilot the helm drops in fear; + Sail on to the West, till that shore is descried + Which so clearly defined to thy mind doth appear. + + "Follow God's guiding hand and the great silent ocean! + For the shore, were it not, from the waves it would rise. + With genius is nature linked in such bonds of devotion + That what genius presages, nature never denies." + + + + + MIDNIGHT MASS ON THE MISSISSIPPI + Over the Body of Ferdinand de Soto + + 1542 + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.] + + + + +V. + +MIDNIGHT MASS ON THE MISSISSIPPI OVER THE BODY OF FERDINAND DE SOTO, +1542.[H] + + +As simple, gloomy and severe as were the circumstances surrounding the +departure of the expeditions of Lief Erickson and Columbus, and +subsequently of Henry Hudson and the Pilgrim Fathers, so brilliant, +hopeful and coveted was the journey of Fernando De Soto, when he set +sail from Spain in April, 1538, to conquer Florida and in search of a +new Eldorado. Having previously returned from the conquest of Peru, as +the chief lieutenant of Francisco Pizarro, possessed of great wealth, +and through his marriage with the beautiful Isabella Bobadilla +affiliated with the highest nobility, and having been appointed Governor +of Cuba by Charles V.--the flower of the Spanish and Portuguese +aristocracy flocked to his standard. The seven large and three small +ships, including his flag-ship, the "San Christoval," in which the +expedition set sail, were fitted out with great splendor. De Soto was +then forty-two years of age, having been born at Xeres, Spain, in 1496, +while his followers were mostly young men, and a more gorgeous or joyous +company cannot be imagined. With them went the wife of De Soto and many +other beautiful women, and the voyage was one round of pleasure and +festivities. After landing and wintering in Cuba he started from there +in May, 1539, with a following of one thousand men in nine ships, +leaving the administration of Cuba in the hands of his wife and the +Lieutenant-Governor. The original splendor was preserved, the leaders +being clad in gorgeous armor and, followed by a host of servants and +priests, they took with them all manner of live stock, cattle, horses, +mules, etc., and were provided with all sorts of weapons and trappings, +but also, significantly, with blood-hounds, handcuffs and iron +neck-collars. Thus they landed in Florida, in the neighborhood of Tampa +Bay, and began their march northward in the month of June, 1539, the +cavaliers to the number of one hundred and thirteen on horseback, and +the rest on foot. They passed the winter near the present Georgia +border, and in the spring of 1540 reached the location of the present +city of Savannah. Instead of pacifying, they alienated the natives +through many acts of hostility, in the exuberance of their youth and +prowess, in consequence of which many members of the expedition were +killed in battle and others died through sickness and deprivation. +Nevertheless, they pushed on still further westward towards the Rocky +Mountains, and in May, 1541, discovered and crossed the Mississippi +River near Lower Chickasaw Bluff, a little north of the thirty-fourth +parallel of latitude, in Tunica County, in what is now the State of +Mississippi. On again reaching the Mississippi on the return march, De +Soto, in consequence of the exposure and hardships to which he had been +subjected, sank down with a fever from which he died on May 21, 1542. +Owing to the awe which he had inspired in the minds of the natives it +was deemed wise by the remnant of his followers to conceal the fact of +his death. Accordingly at the dead of night he was wrapped in a flag, in +which sand had been sown, and taken in a boat to the middle of the +river, and amid the glare of torches, the chanting by the priests of the +midnight mass, and his sorrowing and silent companions, solemnly +consigned to the depths of the great river. + +It is this solemn moment which the artist has caught in the painting +bearing the above title. As in all the other pictures he has, also in +this, depicted all the important details of the occasion without +descending to such minute particularity that the painting would lose its +poetic character. The sad scene recalls vividly to the mind--in contrast +with the high hope and magnificent display of the expedition at its +start--the futility of human ambition. + +The tone of the picture is heightened through the mingling of the pale +moonlight with the lurid reflection from the torches, and the coloring +altogether is such that it is in perfect harmony with the occasion. + +It is unnecessary to dwell upon the subsequent fate of the remnant of +the expedition, except, perhaps, to say that the picture itself gains in +interest by contemplating that, after wandering through the pathless +forests, wading swamps, swimming rivers and fighting Indians all the +time, and deprived of their leader, and after four years of hardships +from the time that the expedition set out, those who were left made +their way to Mexico. In the meantime the beautiful wife of De Soto had +died brokenhearted, and never was there, all in all, a more tragic +ending to an expedition commenced amid so much pomp and glory and with +such sanguine expectations. His longed-for Eldorado was not found, and +yet De Soto, not unlike Columbus, gained immortality more surely than if +his expectations had been realized; for the Father of Waters, the +greatest river in the world, will always be associated with his name, +and the acquisition of the vast province of Louisiana by Spain led the +way for its subsequent transfer to the United States. It was on April +30, 1803, that through the negotiations conducted by James Monroe and +Robert Livingston the Province of Louisiana was purchased for the sum of +about $15,000,000 from France, which nation had prior thereto acquired +it from Spain. + +In view of the chapters of history which a contemplation of this picture +recalls, it is of particular interest during this year (1904), when +through the magnificent Louisiana Purchase Exposition we are celebrating +the centennial anniversary of the acquisition by the United States of +the vast territory, which before De Soto and his followers the foot of +white man had never trod. + + + + + HENRY HUDSON ENTERING NEW YORK BAY + + (_September 11, 1609_) + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.] + + + + +VI. + +HENRY HUDSON ENTERING NEW YORK BAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1609.[I] + + +Previous to his discovery of the Hudson River, Henry Hudson, an +Englishman, sometimes erroneously called Hendrick Hudson because the +ship in which he sailed was fitted out under the auspices of the Dutch +East India Company and the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce, had made three +voyages to find a northwest passage to China and India. To reach those +shores _via_ the Atlantic seems to have been the goal of all the early +discoverers, including Columbus and also De Soto, who, before his +Florida expedition, had explored the coast of Central America, on the +Pacific Ocean, in search of a passage through the American continent; +and even Hudson sailed up the Hudson River in the expectation that it +would lead on to the Pacific Ocean and thus to Asia. Hudson was not the +only Englishman who had received encouragement and assistance from +Holland when his own land had failed him, the same as did the Pilgrims +soon thereafter, when they sought refuge in that enlightened and +enterprising country. + +He sailed from Amsterdam on April 6, 1609, in a clumsy, two-masted craft +with square sails called the "Half Moon," a Dutch galiot of only ninety +tons, with a crew of twenty men, in an extreme northwesterly direction, +but being driven back by the ice, skirted along the Atlantic coast, +passing through Casco Bay, Maine, as far south as Chesapeake Bay, and +thence again northward, and entered Raritan Bay, south of Staten Island, +on September 11, 1609, into the present harbor of New York, and, on +September 14th, sailed up the Hudson River almost as far as Albany. + +The return voyage down the Hudson to its mouth, owing to adverse winds, +occupied eleven days, and on November 7, 1609, he landed at Dartmouth, +England, where, owing to the jealousy of the English Government, the +crew was detained and his ship seized, although she had borne the Dutch +flag and Hudson had claimed the sovereignty of the soil for that country +over that portion of the American continent which he had discovered. It +was to all intents and purposes a discovery, as the first definite +historic account of the existence of this part of the new world dated +from this voyage, of which he kept a careful journal, however probable +it may be that, before him, other Europeans had looked upon Manhattan +Island and the Hudson River, in view of the many expeditions to America +during the long period from the tenth to the seventeenth centuries. + +The discovery of Hudson led almost immediately to numerous trading +voyages, and thereafter to temporary, and then to regular and permanent +colonization, and finally to the foundation of the great City of New +York. Also with Hudson, the same as with Columbus and De Soto, is thus +linked a discovery far greater in its consequences than if he had +succeeded in reaching the goal which he originally set out to find. Like +theirs, also his ending was sad and tragic, for on a subsequent +northwestern voyage, his mutinous crew cast him, together with his son +and seven of his faithful men, adrift amid the ice of Hudson Bay, which +bears his name, thus like De Soto perishing in the very waters which he +had discovered. + +His life is wrapt in mystery; nothing is known of it except during the +four years occupied with his voyages (1607 to 1611), and that he was +probably the son of Christopher Hudson, one of the factors of the +Muscovy Company. There is not even an authentic portrait of him in +existence. + +The interest of this painting centers in the scene, which it vividly +depicts, of the effect upon the natives of this first sight of a ship. +Nothing could be more intense than the expression of mingled fear and +defiant surprise portrayed in the face and attitude of the young Indian +warrior, that so strange an object should dare to approach his hitherto +undisputed domain of the shore. This interest is heightened through the +grouping of the squaw and Indian dog, with the Indian hut or tepee in +the background on the edge of the forest, and the rocky shore in the +foreground. The ship itself is subordinated to the representation of +this idea, being only dimly seen in the distance. + +Through this conception, the artist was enabled to present a picture +which adds to the variety of the series, and at the same time +demonstrates his surpassing mastery of figure and landscape painting as +well. + + + + + EMBARKATION OF THE PILGRIMS + From Southampton + + (_August 5, 1620_) + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.] + + + + +VII. + +EMBARKATION OF THE PILGRIMS FROM SOUTHAMPTON, AUGUST 5, 1620.[J] + + +A sadder journey than that of the Pilgrims, both in its inception in +leaving home and kindred and fleeing from persecution, and in its ending +in the inconceivable hardships which they had to endure in the new +world, was probably never undertaken than when, on August 5, 1620, the +"Mayflower" sailed out of the harbor of Southampton. + +It must have been with heavy hearts and the gloomiest forebodings, and +yet buoyed up with the hope of finding a permanent refuge beyond the +ocean, for the exercise of that freedom of conscience for which they had +previously found only a temporary abode at Leyden, Holland, that the +hundred brave men and women, representing twenty-three different +families, consigned their lives and fortunes into the hands of the crew +of the little one hundred and sixty ton vessel that for almost five long +months was to battle with storm and winds across the dreaded Atlantic, +until on December 21, 1620, they anchored on the shores of +Massachusetts, and, with that spirit of loyalty, still, to the land from +which they had fled, named the spot where they first landed, Plymouth +Rock, to which they had been driven in the stress and storm, instead of +reaching the Virginia colony, for which they had set sail. + +What that departure of the Pilgrims from England meant to those left +behind on the shore at Southampton can hardly be conceived by those who, +in our day, at some magnificent steamship pier, amid the strains of +music and a shower of flowers, now and anon wave a farewell to their +friends, perhaps bound on a pleasure tour in some leviathan of the +ocean, of twenty thousand or more tons burden, and fitted up in more +regal splendor than the most gorgeous palaces of the age of the +Pilgrims. + +It is to the sadness of this departure that the artist, in this canvas, +has undertaken to give expression in the mournful group of friends on +the shore, waving a final farewell and wistfully gazing at the +"Mayflower," lying in mid-water and evidently waiting for the last +passengers to arrive before setting sail on its perilous voyage into the +mysterious darkness of the approaching night. There is a mellow gray +light of evening diffused throughout this painting which is almost +indescribable, with the moon casting its rays across the water, so +perfectly is it in harmony with the thread of the whole story which is +suggested by this inimitable picture. + +I can think of no more fitting words to accompany this canvas than those +of Edward Everett, in his oration at Plymouth, on December 22, 1824, on +"The Emigration of the Pilgrim Fathers": + + "Methinks I see it now, that one solitary, adventurous vessel, the + 'Mayflower' of a forlorn hope, freighted with the prospects of a + future State, and bound across the unknown sea. I behold it + pursuing, with a thousand misgivings, the uncertain, the tedious + voyage. Suns rise and set, and weeks and months pass, and winter + surprises them on the deep, but brings them not the sight of the + wished-for shore. I see them now scantily supplied with provisions, + crowded almost to suffocation in their ill-stored prison, delayed + by calms, pursuing a circuitous route; and now driven in fury + before the raging tempest, on the high and giddy waves. The awful + voice of the storm howls through the rigging. The laboring masts + seem straining from their base; the dismal sound of the pumps is + heard; the ship leaps, as it were, madly from billow to billow; the + ocean breaks, and settles with engulfing floods over the floating + deck, and beats with deadening weight against the staggered vessel. + I see them, escaped from these perils, pursuing their all but + desperate undertaking, and landed at last, after five months' + passage, on the ice-clad rocks of Plymouth,--weak and weary from + the voyage, poorly armed, scantily provisioned, depending on the + charity of their shipmaster for a draft of beer on board, drinking + nothing but water on shore, without shelter, without means, + surrounded by hostile tribes." + +What an extraordinary coincidence it is that a Dutch slaver, laden with +slaves for Virginia, should be on the ocean at the same time with the +"Mayflower," in whose cabin was written the first charter of +independence, the first American constitution, in the words following: + + "In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the + loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the + grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland king, defender + of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God, and + advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and + country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts + of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the + presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves + together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and + preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue + hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, + ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, + as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good + of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and + obedience." + +What but a reflection of these words is the memorable preamble to the +Constitution of the United States, framed by the convention of 1787: + + "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more + perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, + provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and + secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do + ordain this Constitution for the United States of America." + +What a debt of gratitude we owe to the leaders of that expedition, +Carver, Winslow, Bradford and Standish, who thus planted this colony in +the United States, practically the first after that in Virginia--but +also to the great artist who fortunately came from the shores of the +same England to immortalize, through this beautiful picture, the first +scene in the drama whose culmination is the establishment of the +greatest republic that the world has ever seen! + + "There were men with hoary hair + Amidst that pilgrim-band: + Why had they come to wither there, + Away from their childhood's land? + + "There was woman's fearless eye, + Lit by her deep love's truth; + There was manhood's brow serenely high, + And the fiery heart of youth. + + "What sought they thus afar? + Bright jewels of the mine? + The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?-- + They sought a faith's pure shrine! + + "Ay, call it holy ground, + The soil where first they trod; + They have left unstained what there they found-- + Freedom to worship God." + + FELICIA HEMANS. + + + + + FIRST RECOGNITION OF THE AMERICAN FLAG + By a Foreign Government + + (_In the Harbor of Quiberon, France, February 13, 1778_) + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.] + + + + +VIII. + +FIRST RECOGNITION OF THE AMERICAN FLAG BY A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT. + +_In the Harbor of Quiberon, France, February 13, 1778._[K] + + "When Freedom, from her mountain height, + Unfurled her standard to the air, + She tore the azure robe of night + And set the stars of glory there! + She mingled with its gorgeous dyes + The milky baldric of the skies, + And striped its pure, celestial white + With streakings of the morning light." + + DRAKE. + +Between the time of the landing of the Pilgrims and the event +represented in this picture one hundred and fifty-eight years had +elapsed. The hardy pioneers who had ventured across the ocean in +considerable numbers had increased to thirteen colonies, the Declaration +of Independence had been signed, the War of the Revolution was being +fought, a preliminary confederation had been formed among the thirteen +States, the first American Congress had met, and this, on June 14, 1777, +"Resolved that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen +stripes, alternate red and white; and the Union be thirteen white stars +on a blue field," and on the same day had appointed John Paul Jones, +usually known as Paul Jones, to the command of the "Ranger," who soon +thereafter hoisted the new flag on board that vessel at Portsmouth. The +"Ranger" set out to sea about November 1st, her battery consisting of +sixteen six-pounders, throwing only forty-eight pounds of shot from a +broadside, an armament which appears grotesquely lilliputian in +comparison with the thirteen-inch guns, firing projectiles of over half +a ton from our steel-armored battleships of to-day, which cost as much +as five million dollars and are of 16,000 tons burden. With this little +ship he sailed to Europe, capturing two prizes on the way, and, after +touching at Nantes, sailed to Quiberon Bay, east of Quiberon, on the Bay +of Biscay, a small town and peninsula about twenty-two miles south-east +of Lorient, convoying some American vessels, and placing them under the +protection of the French fleet commanded by Admiral La Motte Piquet. The +story represented in this picture he tells in his own language in a +letter to the Naval Committee, dated February 22, 1778: "I am happy to +have it in my power to congratulate on my having seen the American flag +for the first time recognized in the fullest and completest manner by +the flag of France." He then recounts how, after preliminary +communications with the Admiral, the latter thus honored the flag on +February 13th, which he characterized as "an acknowledgment of American +independence." + +This, as well as each of the five subsequent paintings, depicts an +important event in the history of our navy, and must be dear to every +American heart in the incident which is thus perpetuated. The American +flag is proudly displayed from the masthead and stern of the "Ranger," +and the coloring is so adjusted that the flag appears to wave in the +brightest light of the picture. The smoke of the booming cannon from the +French fleet, the motion of the water, and the row-boats evidently +plying in friendly intercourse among the ships, the sky effect--all +together combine to produce a piece of superb marine painting. + +Space forbids dwelling upon the exceptional, romantic, daring and +successful career of Paul Jones, who was born in Scotland on July 6, +1747, and died in Paris on July 18, 1792, the first of that long list of +heroic figures which have made the history of the American navy so +illustrious. + + "The man that is not moved at what he reads, + That takes not fire at their heroic deeds, + Unworthy of the blessings of the brave, + Is base in kind, and born to be a slave." + + COWPER. + +_Note._--Additional interest is lent to this canvas through the fact +that quite recently (April, 1905) the remains of John Paul Jones, the +hero of the occasion, were discovered in Paris, and are to be interred +in the United States. + + + + + BURNING OF THE FRIGATE PHILADELPHIA + + (_In the Harbor of Tripoli, February 16, 1804_) + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.] + + + + +IX. + +BURNING OF THE FRIGATE PHILADELPHIA. + +_In the Harbor of Tripoli, February 16, 1804._[L] + + +This canvas represents one of the most daring feats ever performed in +naval warfare, equalled only, perhaps, by the exploit of Lieutenant +Hobson in sinking the collier "Merrimac" in the harbor of Santiago +during the Spanish-American war of 1898. Lord Nelson characterized the +burning of the "Philadelphia" as the most daring act of the age. The +"Philadelphia" was the sister ship of the famous "Constitution," and +under the command of Captain Bainbridge had been despatched to Tripoli +to demand satisfaction for losses suffered by our merchant marine at the +hands of Algerian pirates, who had been preying upon the commerce of the +world for years. Arriving on the Algerian coast, she was led upon a reef +by pirates whom she was chasing, her officers and crew were taken +prisoners, her guns were thrown overboard, and she was taken into the +harbor by her captors, and there remanned, regunned and made ready to +defend the city against the other American ships which were blockading +the port. + +From his prison Captain Bainbridge managed to get into communication +with the American fleet, and to suggest the feasibility of destroying +the "Philadelphia." Acting upon this suggestion Lieutenant Decatur +undertook the perilous task. Decatur had sailed into the harbor of +Tripoli in the frigate "United States" in the Preble expedition and +captured a small Tripolitan vessel, which was renamed the "Intrepid." In +her, with a crew of seventy-four brave volunteers, and accompanied by +the "Siren," he sailed straight up to the "Philadelphia" in the evening, +sprang on board with his men, and after a furious struggle and under the +fire of the coast batteries, whose cannon swept the approach to the +"Philadelphia," the Americans either killed or drove into the sea all +the Tripolitans on board the "Philadelphia," which was set on fire, +while the "Intrepid," with the assistance of the "Siren," escaped +without the loss of a single man. It was a deed of marvellous bravery, +so much so that on November 15, 1804, Thomas Jefferson sent a special +message to Congress stating that Lieutenant Decatur had been advanced to +be a Captain, and it is not surprising that so brave a seaman gradually +rose to the rank of Commodore in the United States navy. He was the hero +of many subsequent brilliant exploits, principally in foreign waters, +and effectually showed the nations of Europe how to put an end to the +piracy and insolence of the Barbary States, which had lasted for nearly +three centuries. He was the recipient of many distinguished honors, and +was presented with a sword by Congress for his share in the destruction +of the "Philadelphia," and in 1812 with a gold medal for his capture of +the British frigate "Macedonian" by his own ship the "United States." +His patriotic devotion to his country is well exemplified in a toast +which he proposed in 1816 on the occasion of a banquet which was +tendered to him: "Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, +may she always be in the right; but our Country, right or wrong." + +Decatur was born in Maryland on January 5, 1779, and died on March 22, +1820, in a duel with Commodore Barron. + +Andrew Jackson, in his first annual message to Congress on December 8, +1829, referred to the heroic deed represented in this painting in the +following language: + + "I cannot close this communication without bringing to your view + the just claim of the representatives of Commodore Decatur, his + officers and crew, arising from the recapture of the frigate + 'Philadelphia' under the heavy batteries of Tripoli. Although + sensible, as a general rule, of the impropriety of Executive + interference under a Government like ours, where every individual + enjoys the right of directly petitioning Congress, yet, viewing + this case as one of very peculiar character, I deem it my duty to + recommend it to your favorable consideration. Besides the justice + of this claim, as corresponding to those which have been since + recognized and satisfied, it is the fruit of a deed of patriotic + and chivalrous daring which infused life and confidence into our + infant navy and contributed as much as any exploit in its history + to elevate our national character. Public gratitude, therefore, + stamps her seal upon it, and the meed should not be withheld which + may hereafter operate as a stimulus to our gallant tars." + +The burning of the "Philadelphia" is one of the most striking pictures +in the series. The effect of the mounting flames against the moonless +and midnight sky is impressive and spectacular, and their lurid +reflection in the water, with a glimpse of the Algerian fort and +batteries in the background to the right, and the little vessel of +Decatur, fittingly named the "Intrepid," skimming along the water away +from the burning ship, with swelling sail and powerful stroke of oar, +with the dense masses of smoke rising to the extreme height of the +painting and a shower of burning embers descending into the +water--produce an effect, so vivid and realistic, of a great +conflagration, that the eye is riveted to the scene with never-failing +interest. + + + + + THE BRIG ARMSTRONG ENGAGING THE BRITISH FLEET + + (_In the Harbor of Fayal, September 26, 1814_) + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.] + + + + +X. + +THE BRIG ARMSTRONG ENGAGING THE BRITISH FLEET. + +_In the Harbor of Fayal, September 26, 1814._[M] + + +It is difficult to discriminate, in awarding the meed of praise for +bravery, amid the many heroic deeds of the American navy. For fighting +qualities and success in repulsing overwhelming numbers the exploit of +Captain Samuel Chester Reid, in his battle with the British seamen which +this picture illustrates, has never been surpassed. It was on the 26th +of September, 1814, that the privateer, the brig "Armstrong," which had +been fitted out in New York, cast anchor in the harbor of Fayal, one of +the Azores, belonging to the neutral government of Portugal. About the +same time three British ships, the "Plantagenet," the "Carnation" and +the "Rota," under the command of Commodore Lloyd, appeared in the same +harbor, and without further ceremony sent out four boat loads of men +towards the brig "Armstrong," evidently with hostile intention. Captain +Reid, realizing the futility of relying upon the protection of the +impotent Portuguese authorities, prepared for the worst, and, on +receiving a threatening response to a challenge which he addressed to +the approaching boats, he unhesitatingly opened fire. As his crew +consisted of only ninety men, his armament of eight nine-pounders, with +only the famous "Long Tom," a twenty-four pounder (which was exhibited +at the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893) as a gun of any consequence to +rely upon, while the enemy numbered over two thousand men and had a +combined armament of one hundred and thirty-six guns, the hardihood of +this initial proceeding will be apparent. After having suffered some +loss in killed and wounded, three of the enemy's boats beat a hasty +retreat, the fourth having been sunk, but about midnight the attack was +renewed by fourteen boats, loaded to the guards with at least four +hundred men. Captain Reid with his men fought like tigers, and "Long +Tom," under the command of William Copeland, mowed down the enemy +without giving them a chance to carry out their evident intention of +capturing the ship. The battle lasted only forty minutes, but during +this time two boats of the enemy had been captured and two sunk, and +nearly three hundred of their men either killed or wounded, while Reid +achieved a complete victory with the loss of only two men killed and +seven wounded. A third attack was made by the enemy soon after daybreak, +this time directly with the guns of the brig "Carnation," but "Long +Tom," with its twenty-four pound shots, did so much damage to the hull +of the enemy's ship that she was forced to withdraw, thus leaving the +victory for the third time with Captain Reid. Having so far succeeded in +warding off the enemy, Captain Reid thereupon, however, realizing the +futility of continuing to fight against such odds, left the brig, after +having scuttled and set her on fire, and reached the shore in safety. +There the inhabitants of the town did all in their power to care for the +wounded and protect the brave little band, who had barricaded themselves +in a small stone church; and a demand made by the British commander for +their surrender, on the ground that there were deserters among them, +proved futile, as the charge could not be established. + +Subsequently the Portuguese Government raised "Long Tom," the historic +gun of the "Armstrong," and presented it to the United States +Government, and in January, 1887, Samuel C. Reid, the son and namesake +of the valiant Captain, offered through President Cleveland to the +United States the battle sword of his father--thus preserving these two +invaluable relics as mementos of one of the most remarkable sea-fights +in history. + +Years later, Louis Napoleon, then Emperor of France, undertook to +arbitrate the claims of the United States Government against the British +Government for the loss of the "Armstrong," but decided in favor of the +British on the ground that Captain Reid had opened fire on the British +ships and thereby had failed to respect the neutrality of the port and +must abide the result of his commencing hostilities. + +The owners of the "Armstrong" made repeated efforts to obtain redress +for the loss of their ship, but it was not until the year 1897 (about +the time that Mr. Moran finished this painting) that some money was +received, and, strange to say, paid over to the widow of the owner, Mr. +Havens, the old lady then being ninety-eight years of age. + +It may be interesting to recall that it was Captain Reid who, about the +year 1817, designed the present flag of the United States, which for a +time had been altered to fifteen stripes to designate the number of +States to which the country had increased. On the suggestion of Captain +Reid the number was again reduced to thirteen, and the addition of the +States designated by the number of stars in the blue field. This was +adopted by Act of Congress on April 4, 1818, and the first flag that was +flung to the breeze, under the new law, was made by Mrs. Reid, the wife +of the gallant Captain, the stars in the blue field being arranged at +that time in the shape of a constellation constituting one great star. + +Besides the glory which Captain Reid achieved through his wonderful +exploit at Fayal--all the more wonderful if it is remembered that he +and his men were volunteer seamen, untrained in the regular navy of the +United States--he had rendered his country a service far greater even +than this feat of arms. It so happened that the ships of Commodore Lloyd +were bound for the Gulf of Mexico to assist in the attack upon New +Orleans; but by reason of the injury and demoralization inflicted on +them by Captain Reid they were delayed long enough to prevent their +co-operating with the British General, Sir Edward Packenham, in an +earlier attack upon New Orleans, as originally contemplated, when +General Jackson was not prepared to meet and defeat the enemy; the +consequence of which might have been the loss to the United States of +the entire Province of Louisiana, which had only a decade before been +acquired from France. + +Captain Reid was born at Norwich, Connecticut, on August 25, 1783, and +died at the venerable age of seventy-eight at New York on January 28, +1861, on the very eve of our great Civil War, having enjoyed many +honors, among them an appointment as Warden of the Port of New York. + +Not only on account of the extraordinary character of the fight itself, +but also on account of its indirect consequences, in assisting to bring +the War of 1812 to a close, is this painting of the greatest interest. +It measures full up to the excellence of the other numbers of the +series, notwithstanding the immediate subject was not one which +presented the most graphic material for the brush of the painter. Mr. +Moran chose the most thrilling incident of the fight in depicting the +firing of the brig on the approaching row-boats of the enemy. This he +has accomplished with consummate skill. He has herein, as in all his +other battle scenes on the water, avoided the portrayal of carnage and +destruction of human life in lurid colors as is the custom with most +painters. He has left these abhorrent scenes to the imagination, and has +thereby rendered his pictures, while suggesting all the dreadful +accompaniments of warfare, chaste, and free from scenes which are +revolting to the feelings. + +The picture is perfect in itself, in its representation of the position +of the "Armstrong," swayed, as it evidently is, through the powerful +blasts from its own twenty-four pounder--the fire of the rifles from the +men in the British row-boats--the buildings on the shore in the +background on the left, with the suggestion of the hills on which the +town is built and the British ships in the offing on the right--with the +rising moon in the distance--and the shores of Fayal dimly defined upon +the horizon, extending, as they do in fact, with their two widening arms +around the harbor. + + + + + IRON VERSUS WOOD + Sinking of the Cumberland by the Merrimac + + (_In Hampton Roads, March 8, 1862_) + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.] + + + + +XI. + +IRON VERSUS WOOD--SINKING OF THE CUMBERLAND BY THE MERRIMAC. + +_In Hampton Roads, March 8, 1862._[N] + + +The title of this picture suggests not only the unequal character of the +fight which the wooden ship "Cumberland" fought against the iron-clad +"Merrimac," the first iron-clad that ever sailed in American waters, but +also recalls to mind the contrast between the steel-armored battleships +of the navies of the world of to-day and the wooden hulks which +prevailed up to that time. It is a long span of time from the battle of +brave Captain Reid in the harbor of Fayal in 1814 to the year 1861, but +during that half century little progress had been made in supplying the +ships of our navy with protecting devices, as there had likewise been +little occasion for naval warfare. In fact, outside of the Mexican War +and fights with the Indians, the country was at peace with itself as +well as with the outside world, and it was not until the great struggle +for the preservation of the Union called the whole country to arms, both +on sea and land, that the opportunity was again presented for the +shedding of additional lustre on our naval history. + +The most thrilling and startling of all the events on the sea, during +this sanguinary conflict, followed when, at noon on March 8, 1862, a +novel craft, such as had never been seen before, was cut loose from her +moorings in Norfolk, and, after having steamed down the Elizabeth River, +was seen to head boldly for Newport News, where lay the United States +frigate "Congress" of fifty guns, under the command of Lieutenant Joseph +B. Smith, and the twenty-four gun sloop of war "Cumberland," in charge +of Lieutenant George U. Morris during the temporary absence of its +commander, William Radford, two of the fleet of national ships, all +riding at anchor in fancied security, without a thought of the death and +destruction which the appearance of the stranger portended. It was an +odd-looking craft--the "Merrimac," as it is generally called--more like +a house afloat than a war ship, and the officers of the Federal ships +were at first inclined to belittle its importance. The undertaking of +the "Merrimac" itself (or "Virginia," as she was called by the +Confederates) was one of great courage, the vessel in its last stages +having but just been converted into an iron-clad, in great haste, out of +the hulk of a sunken old style man-of-war (the "Merrimac"), which had +been raised by the Confederates. The experiment was a new one; the men +had not been drilled; its armament had never been tested, and its +commander, Commodore Buchanan, had only recently arisen from a sick-bed. +He had been a Union officer in the regular navy, and as such had placed +the entire naval service under great obligations in being the first to +have located the Naval Academy at Annapolis under a commission from the +Secretary of the Navy. When it was realized by the commanders of the +American ships that the "Merrimac" was steaming towards them in dead +earnest there was hurried preparation for the impending conflict, and as +she approached the "Cumberland" and the "Congress" they opened fire on +the huge craft, but their heavy projectiles glanced from her as if they +were paper balls. About 2:30 P.M. the "Merrimac," then within easy +range, opened fire on the "Cumberland," doing much damage. The two +Federal ships, which were only about one hundred feet away, then gave +the "Merrimac" full broadsides, but without the slightest effect, and +the latter craft mercilessly sent four shells crashing into the +"Congress," notwithstanding that Commodore Buchanan had a brother, +McKean Buchanan, paymaster on the "Congress,"--a harrowing illustration +of the horrifying encounters among the closest kindred in civil warfare. +After disabling the "Congress," the "Merrimac" directed her attention to +the "Cumberland," and under a full head of steam her iron prow or ram, +which projected four feet, struck the Federal ship "nearly at right +angles under the fore rigging in the starboard fore channels." I quote +further from Maclay's "History of the Navy": "The shock was scarcely +felt in the iron-clad, but in the 'Cumberland' it was terrific. The ship +heeled over to port and trembled as if she had struck a rock under full +sail, while the iron prow of the 'Merrimac' crushed through her side and +left a yawning chasm. In backing out of the 'Cumberland,' the 'Merrimac' +left her iron prow inside the doomed ship. Following up the blow by the +discharge of her bow gun, she backed clear of the wreck. In response to +a demand for surrender, Lieutenant Morris defiantly answered, 'Never! +I'll sink alongside.' * * * * The scene in the 'Cumberland' soon became +awful. One shell, bursting in the sick bay, killed or wounded four men +in their cots. More than a hundred of the crew very soon were killed or +wounded; the cockpit was crowded; the decks were slippery with blood and +were strewn with the dead and dying, while the inrushing waters and the +rapid settling of the ship too plainly indicated that she would soon go +to the bottom. In order to prevent the helpless wounded on the berth +deck from being drowned, they were lifted up on racks and mess chests, +and as the ship settled more and more they were removed from this +temporary refuge and carried on deck and placed amidship. This was all +that their shipmates could do for them, and when the ship finally went +down they perished in her." + +After sinking the "Cumberland," the "Merrimac" again turned on the +"Congress" with her entire broadside and, owing to her own impervious +character, soon got the Federal ship into such condition, +notwithstanding the heroic defence of her men under Lieutenant Smith, +who soon was killed, that she had to surrender, and thereafter caught +fire from the hot shot of the enemy and was destroyed. The "Merrimac," +now under the command of Lieutenant Jones, a rifle ball having struck +both Commodore Buchanan and Flag-Lieutenant Minor, not yet satisfied +with the destruction which she had wrought, then turned her attention to +the remaining Federal ships, the "Minnesota," "St. Lawrence" and +"Roanoke," and after having, with the assistance of some accompanying +Confederate gunboats, played havoc especially with the "Minnesota," +about seven o'clock in the evening, owing to the ebbing tide, turned her +head towards Sewell's Point, where she anchored for the night, with the +intention of renewing her dread work on the following morning, after one +of the most disastrous days in the history of the Federal navy. + +In selecting the destruction of the "Cumberland" by the "Merrimac" as +the subject of this painting, the artist showed his usual good judgment. +It was one of the earliest as well as most startling incidents of the +entire war, and in its effect in revolutionizing the construction not +only of our ships, but those of the world, easily holds first place in +all naval history. The picture is wonderfully painted and dramatically +handled and is considered by some critics the most interesting of the +series. + +The huge, truncated bulk of the Confederate ram is shown in the act of +plunging her prow through the wooden hull of her opponent in the teeth +of a broadside of fire and shell. The contrast of colors and values is +forcibly expressed; the black soft coal smoke from the single stack of +the "Merrimac" drifts forward and envelopes her antagonist as the +cuttle-fish darkens the water that it may more easily destroy its +victim. + +An examination of this painting is its best description. It is almost +impossible to paint in words the scene which the great artist has here +perpetuated with his brush. The water is incomparable and the effect of +the shipping as a background, the bright afternoon sun, with the stars +and stripes on the "Cumberland," and the stars and bars, the emblem of +the Confederacy, on the stern of the death-dealing Southern monster, the +crowded deck of the "Cumberland," in contrast with the apparently +unmanned craft of the enemy, all add to the thrilling and vivid effect +of the extraordinary combat itself. + +When the news of the destruction wrought by the "Merrimac" reached the +North the general consternation was indescribable. At a hastily called +Cabinet meeting the then Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, is +reported to have said: "The 'Merrimac' will change the whole character +of the war; she will destroy every naval vessel; she will lay all +seaboard cities under contribution; not unlikely we may have a shell or +cannon ball from one of her guns in the White House before we leave this +room." But the fate of the "Merrimac" was sealed, for while she was +being moulded out of the old Federal hulk into the terrifying ram, with +great ingenuity, by Constructor John L. Porter, with the assistance of +Chief Engineer William P. Williamson, after some rough drawings prepared +by Lieutenant John N. Brook, who originated the idea of her +construction, all then of the Confederate navy--through a strange +coincidence a genius had been at work in the North perfecting the +world-renowned little "Monitor," which was soon to meet the formidable +Southern iron-clad in battle, the history of which is suggested by the +next painting of the series. It is also strange that in two of the most +noted dramas in the records of our navy, the one above recounted, and +that, already referred to, in which Lieutenant Hobson later bore so +heroic a part, the most conspicuous objects were vessels which were both +known as the "Merrimac." The valor of Lieutenant Morris, in the part +which he bore in the defence of the "Cumberland," has been immortalized +not only through this canvas, but also through a special message of +Abraham Lincoln to Congress under date of December 10, 1862, as follows: + + "In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially + recommend that Lieutenant-Commander George U. Morris, United States + Navy, receive a vote of thanks of Congress for the determined valor + and heroism displayed in his defence of the United States + ship-of-war 'Cumberland,' temporarily under his command, in the + naval engagement at Hampton Roads on the 8th March, 1862, with the + rebel iron-clad steam frigate 'Merrimac.'" + + + + + THE WHITE SQUADRON'S FAREWELL SALUTE + To the Body of + CAPTAIN JOHN ERICSSON + + (_New York Bay, August 25, 1890_) + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1891, by Edward Moran.] + + + + +XII. + +THE WHITE SQUADRON'S FAREWELL SALUTE TO THE BODY OF CAPTAIN JOHN +ERICSSON. + +_New York Bay, August 25, 1890._[O] + + +No more fitting funeral cortege could have been devised than the one +which, on August 25, 1890, conveyed to Sweden, to their last +resting-place, the remains of the great engineer, John Ericsson, whose +inventive genius had clad the wooden navies of the world in armor of +impenetrable iron and steel. Little had he dreamt when, in 1839, at the +age of thirty-six (he was born at Vermland, Sweden, on July 31, 1803) he +came to the United States in one of the old wooden ships of that day +after a weary journey of many weeks--as yet comparatively unknown to +fame--that at the time of his death, on March 8, 1889, in the city of +New York, almost twenty-seven years to a day after the epoch-making +battle of his "Monitor" with the "Merrimac," his name would be on every +tongue in every land, and that the Government of the United States would +deem it an honor to place the magnificent protected cruiser "Baltimore" +of the United States Navy at the disposal of his native country on his +farewell journey from our shores to his long home, amid the salutes, to +their flag-ship, of the other giants of the White Squadron and the +reverent tokens of grief and respect displayed on all the shipping in +the harbor, as the funeral convoy slowly plied her way towards the +ocean, with the flags of Sweden and the United States waving at half +mast over her decks. + +It is this impressive panorama which the artist spreads before us in +this canvas, which was the sensation of the Spring exhibition of 1891 at +the National Academy of Design in New York. In this picture he has +delineated details of the shipping from sketches made by himself at the +time and a careful study of our war vessels, as holds likewise true of +the next succeeding and last picture of this series. There is something +impressively grand and solemn about this painting, associated as it is +with the story of the great inventor. The sky is superb, and the water +has that realistic motion without turbulence which only Edward Moran +could depict, while the white gleaming sister ships of the "Baltimore" +in the background on the right, the shipping in the harbor of all +descriptions and sizes in more sombre hue on the left, and the Statue of +Liberty looming up in the rear, stand like sentinels on guard as the +great white cruiser, with its flags at half mast and its stacks sending +forth, like a veil of mourning, a cloud of black smoke--ploughs with +foam encircled prow majestically through the water, like a great living, +breathing, moving thing. + +As this creation of the artist perpetuates the tribute of national +gratitude to the great inventor of the first "Monitor," so, it may be +said, a fitting tribute has been paid to the picture itself through its +reproduction in a superb etching by another great American artist, his +own brother, Thomas Moran. + +That the United States Navy should take so deep an interest in paying +the last honors to John Ericsson, with an Admiral of the Navy, Daniel L. +Braine, superintending the ceremonies, and a future Admiral, Winfield +Scott Schley, commanding the funeral convoy, is not surprising, for to +Ericsson it owed not only the bomb-proof floating fortresses of the +ocean, but the screw propeller, first applied in the construction of the +United States man-of-war "Princeton," with propelling machinery under +the water line out of the reach of shot. The first steam fire-engine +ever constructed in the United States was also the work of Ericsson in +1841, and many and varied were the other inventions of his creative +brain. But the greatest service rendered by Ericsson was in the +construction of the "Monitor," not only on account of the immediate, +almost inestimable benefit which it conferred in saving the United +States Navy from destruction by the Confederate iron-clad "Merrimac," in +1862, but also, still more, in view of the impetus which it gave to the +development of marine craft to their present perfection and in almost +revolutionizing the entire science of naval warfare. + +When, at 8 o'clock on March 9, 1862, the "Merrimac," after the havoc +which she had wrought with the Federal ships on the evening before, +including the burning of the "Congress" and the sinking of the +"Cumberland," steamed out from the shore in order to continue her work +of destruction--which contemplated successively the annihilation of the +"Minnesota," the "Roanoke" and the "St. Lawrence," and would thus clear +the way for her intended attack on the capital of the nation--she was +surprised to discover a diminutive craft of peculiar construction, +almost sunk beneath the water line, with a strange-looking iron turret +in the centre, steaming boldly towards her from out the shadow of the +powerful frigate "Minnesota." The "Monitor" had sailed from New York +Harbor on March 6th, in tow of a tugboat, to brave the waters of the +Atlantic, although she was originally designed only for smooth inland +waters. Before she had passed Sandy Hook she received urgent despatches +to hurry to Washington and, after inconceivable hardships in the +towering seas of the Atlantic coast, arrived off Fortress Monroe about 9 +o'clock in the evening of March 8th, where she heard for the first time +of the depredations of the "Merrimac" and witnessed the final +destruction of the "Congress" amid lurid flames and the bursting of her +own shells. Though worn out and disheartened in their own struggle for +life with the tempestuous billows of the ocean on this, her first trial +trip of thirty-six hours from New York until she reached the side of the +"Minnesota," the crew of the "Monitor," encouraged and reassured by its +heroic commander, Lieutenant John L. Worden, prepared for the expected +combat with their redoubtable opponent. + +The eyes not only of the men in the shipping and on shore, both Union +and Confederate, but of the whole country, were anxiously centred on the +two iron-clads as they approached each other, and the little "Monitor" +hardly seemed a match for the huge craft of the Confederates, who looked +with contempt upon the diminutive "cheese box," as they called it, which +dared to take up the gage of battle with their formidable "Merrimac." +Soon, however, it became apparent that the prowess of the little Union +craft had been entirely underestimated, and in the combat which ensued +the very smallness of the "Monitor" gave her a great advantage, in the +swiftness of her movements, over her gigantic opponent, not unlike an +undersized but agile and skilful athlete in encounter with a large and +lumbering, though more powerful, antagonist. Lieutenant Worden was the +hero of the occasion in the rapidity of his man[oe]uvring, while +Lieutenant Jones, now in command of the "Merrimac," was surprised to +find that his shot made no impression on the "Monitor." After more than +two hours of incessant fighting, Lieutenant Worden having been +temporarily blinded through the powder from an exploding shell which +struck a sight-hole in the pilot-house of the "Monitor," through which +he was watching the enemy, its command devolved upon Lieutenant Greene. +As in the ensuing confusion the "Monitor" had drifted into shoal water, +where the "Merrimac" could not follow, the latter ship retired to the +shore, and although refitted and repaired for further combat she did not +again meet the "Monitor" in battle, and, on the evacuation of Norfolk by +the Confederates on the 10th of May following, they consigned her to +destruction. + +The courage of Lieutenant Worden in the handling of the novel and +untested craft under his command, and his brave words--even when blinded +and wounded by the powder and particles from the shells of the enemy and +suffering intense pain--when he was told that the "Minnesota" had been +saved: "Then I can die happy,"--stamp him as worthy of a place in the +long list of our naval heroes. + +It is not surprising that Abraham Lincoln, with his quick perception of +genuine merit, caused the following communication to be sent to +Lieutenant Worden: + + "NAVY DEPARTMENT, _March 15, 1862_. + + "_Lieutenant John L. Worden, United States Navy, + Commanding United States Steamer 'Monitor,' + Washington._ + + "_Sir_: + + "The naval action which took place on the 10th[P] inst. between the + 'Monitor' and 'Merrimac' at Hampton Roads, when your vessel, with + two guns, engaged a powerful armored steamer of at least eight + guns, and after a few hours' conflict repelled her formidable + antagonist, has excited general admiration and received the + applause of the whole country. + + "The President directs me, while earnestly and deeply sympathizing + with you in the injuries which you have sustained, but which it is + believed are but temporary, to thank you and your command for the + heroism you have displayed and the great service you have rendered. + + "The action of the 10th and the performance, power, and + capabilities of the 'Monitor' must effect a radical change in naval + warfare. + + "Flag-Officer Goldsborough, in your absence, will be furnished by + the Department with a copy of this letter of thanks and instructed + to cause it to be read to the officers and crew of the 'Monitor.' + + "I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, + + "GIDEON WELLES." + +The President followed this up with a special message to Congress on +December 8, 1862, as follows: + + "_To the Senate and House of Representatives_: + + "In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially + recommend that Commander John L. Worden, United States Navy, + receive a vote of thanks of Congress for the eminent skill and + gallantry exhibited by him in the late remarkable battle between + the United States iron-clad steamer 'Monitor,' under his command, + and the rebel iron-clad steamer 'Merrimac,' in March last. + + "The thanks of Congress for his services on the occasion referred + to were tendered by a resolution approved July 11, 1862, but the + recommendation is now specially made in order to comply with the + requirements of the ninth section of the act of July 16, 1862, + which is in the following words, viz.: + + "'That any line officer of the Navy or Marine Corps may be advanced + one grade if upon recommendation of the President by name he + receives the thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in + conflict with the enemy or for extraordinary heroism in the line of + his profession.' + + "ABRAHAM LINCOLN." + +In this fight the "Monitor" had been struck twenty-two times without +appreciable effect, the deepest indentation having been made by a shot +that penetrated the iron on her side to the depth of four inches. On the +"Merrimac" ninety-seven indentations of shot were found, twenty of which +were from the 11-inch guns of the "Monitor," which had shattered six of +the top layers of her iron plates. + +On the 29th of December following, the "Monitor" herself was lost, +having been foundered and sunk with sixteen of her crew, in a heavy +gale, a few miles south of Cape Hatteras. But the test to which the +"Monitor" had been subjected in her battle with the "Merrimac" proved +beyond doubt that iron was destined to take the place of wood in the +construction of our men-of-war thereafter, and the confidence of John +Ericsson in the ultimate success of his experiment, after many +discouragements and rebuffs on the part of the naval authorities, was +fully justified in its final results, and the honors which the nation +showered upon him in the evening of his life, and the tribute which it +paid to his genius after his death, were merited by him quite as much as +the perpetuation of his memory through this stirring canvas of the great +artist, as is also the memory, in the second painting of this series, of +that other Erickson, his ancestor, who, almost a thousand years before, +was the first white man known to have set foot on American soil. + + + + + RETURN OF THE CONQUERORS + Typifying Our Victory in the Late Spanish-American War + + (_September 29, 1899_) + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.] + + + + +XIII. + +RETURN OF THE CONQUERORS. TYPIFYING OUR VICTORY IN THE LATE +SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, SEPTEMBER 29, 1899.[Q] + + +As a fitting close to the grand pictorial illustration of our marine +history, this canvas represents one of the most magnificent pageants +ever seen on our waters, in commemoration of the victorious close of the +last great war, in which our navy added fresh leaves to its laurel +wreath of heroic achievement. It, at the same time, depicts the +culminating stage in the evolution of naval construction from the time +when the Norsemen in their drakkars, and Columbus in his caravels, +braved the perils of the ocean, until the steel-clad battleships of +Dewey and Schley and Sampson met in conflict the no less formidable +floating fortresses of Cervera and Montojo. It is a picture of to-day, +with the well-defined outlines of the Statue of Liberty in allegorical +suggestion at the mouth of the great river up which the little "Half +Moon" first sailed, also on a September day, just two hundred and ninety +years before. It suggests--in the great, grim, steel-clad leviathans of +the ocean steaming up the river, with their powerful armament and each +representing millions of dollars in its construction, along the shores +of the second largest city in the world, and with flags and banners +flying proudly from every mast and spar--not only the victory of our +arms but the growth of the nation, from the sparse settlements in the +days of the Pilgrim Fathers to a population of 80,000,000 souls, and +from the thirteen little struggling provinces, at the outbreak of the +Revolution, to the forty-five great States and four Territories of the +Union, with its possessions even beyond the confines of the +continent--imperial in its power and greatness, not dreamt of even when, +only about a century before, Paul Jones and Decatur and Captain Reid +performed the feats of daring which are immortalized in the earlier of +these paintings. + +It typifies, as the artist himself points out in his title, our +conquering arms--in the very motion of the proud battleships, as in +majestic array, representing both the Pacific and North Atlantic +squadrons, they seem to sweep gradually forward and onward within full +view. If Mr. Moran had never painted anything else, this picture would +stamp him as a surpassing genius. The grouping of the great vessels and +the indication of their vast number, the brilliancy of the water and the +whole coloring are matchless. It suggests in the proud procession of the +ships-of-war, in perspective, as far back as the eye can reach, a +gathering of almost the entire navy, and is in that respect far more +than a mere photographic representation of the actual occurrence. In +this picture he represents the "Olympia" as the principal object, the +nearest in the foreground, her hull in gleaming white, with the +suggestion of the figure of Admiral Dewey standing on the bridge, with +her sister ships of like hue following in her wake; while another line, +on the left of the picture, headed by the "New York" and "Brooklyn," and +with Admirals Sampson and Schley on board, appears in more sombre hue, +only second in importance, however, to the "Olympia." Such a picture +could only be produced by an artist of the most poetic and imaginative +instincts as well as a close student of the actualities; for while it is +to a certain extent allegoric of the event which it records and the +memories connected with it, nothing could be more real or faithful than +the reproduction of our iron-clads, with all the detail of armament, +turret, tackle, anchor, port-holes and even the national coat of arms on +the prow. Even the signal of the "Olympia," "Remember the Maine," and +the answering signal of the "Brooklyn," "The Maine is avenged and Cuba +is free," can be seen flying from their yards. + +The events which are recalled by this painting are so recent that it +would seem superfluous to refer to them at all, and yet, in continuation +of the historic outline presented in these pages, it may be of interest +to record that the battle of Manila was fought on May 1, 1898; that not +a single life was lost on the American side and only a few men wounded, +without any material injury to the American ships, consisting of four +cruisers and two gunboats, while the whole Spanish fleet, under the +command of Admiral Montojo, consisting of seven cruisers and five +gunboats, was destroyed, with the exception of two, and these were +captured, and that our ships, in addition, silenced and captured the +formidable shore batteries on Cavite Point. Furthermore, that our naval +operations came to a close off Santiago Harbor on July 3, 1898, through +the destruction or capture by our fleet--under the command of Admirals +Schley and Sampson, consisting of four battleships, one armored cruiser +and two converted yachts, one of them the "Gloucester," under the +command of the intrepid Richard Wainwright--of the entire Spanish fleet, +consisting of four powerful armored cruisers of the highest class and +two torpedo boat destroyers, under the command of Admiral Cervera. + +Space forbids even a passing reference to the instances of individual +heroism displayed during this war by the officers and men of our ships, +as for example that of Lieutenant Richmond P. Hobson, all of which are +conjured up by a contemplation of this painting. It is also impossible +to refer at length to the reception itself to Admiral Dewey and the +other officers and men of our fleets, of which the naval procession +constituted only one feature; but no eye-witness can ever forget the +march of the returning victors in the land parade on September 30, 1899, +as it passed under that masterpiece of American sculpture, the arch +located at Madison Square. + +There were also some touching incidents connected with this celebration. +Among them, and as suggested by this picture, should be mentioned the +fact that a sailor by the name of Bartholomew Diggins presented Admiral +Dewey with the blue flag of Admiral Farragut, which had been in the +possession of Diggins, who had served with Dewey under Farragut in the +Civil War, and this flag flew from one of the mast-heads of the +"Olympia" as she steamed up the river in the van of the magnificent +array. + +How doubly glorious will appear this splendid ovation to our heroes +immortalized in this picture, if the war, from which they are shown +returning as conquerors, shall result in a full realization of the noble +motive, which inspired it, of liberation and not of conquest, and we may +in patriotic pride address Columbia in the words of Timothy Dwight: + + "To conquest and slaughter let Europe aspire; + Whelm nations in blood, and wrap cities in fire; + Thy heroes the rights of mankind shall defend, + And triumph pursue them, and glory attend!" + + * * * * * + +With this picture the artist closes the commemoration of our naval +achievements in the four great periods of our history, the War of the +Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War +of 1898, to which the last six pictures of the series are devoted, as +the preceding six illustrate the dawn of our history from the first +landing of the white man to the settlement of the Pilgrim +Fathers--preceding all of which is the mysterious and unfathomable past +symbolized by the trackless "Ocean," the first of these paintings. + +From the time that Eirek the Red sailed to the bleak shores of Greenland +down to the brilliant exploit of Admiral Dewey in the Philippine +Islands, how true it is, in view of each and every one of the events +immortalized in this unequalled series of paintings, that, in the words +of Bishop Berkeley, + + "Westward the course of empire takes its way!" + +[Illustration] + + + + +INDEX. + + + Agreement of Confederation, written on board "Mayflower," 61, 62 + + America, Early Discoveries of, 33, 34 + + American Flag, First Recognition of, painting, description of, 68; + Designing and Adoption of Present Form, 81. + + Armaments: + "Armstrong," 79; + Modern Battleships, 68; + "Ranger," 68 + + "Armstrong," Brig, Engaging the British Fleet, painting, description of, + 82, 83 + + + Bainbridge, Captain, 73 + + "Baltimore," Cruiser, 95 + + Braine, Admiral, 96 + + Brig "Armstrong" Engaging the British Fleet, painting, description of, + 82, 83 + + "Brooklyn," Cruiser, 106, 107 + + Buchanan, Commodore, 88, 89 + + Burning of Frigate "Philadelphia," painting, description of, 75, 76 + + Byron, Lord, quotation from, 29 + + + Caravels, 40, 105 + + Castelar, Emilio, quotation from, 41, 42 + + Cervera, Admiral, 105, 107 + + Chicago, Columbian Exposition, 40, 80 + + Columbus, Christopher, 39 to 43; + Death, 42; + Transfer of Remains, 43 + + Columbus, Debarkation of, painting, description of, 41, 42; + "Santa Maria," "Niña" and "Pinta," painting, description of, 41, 42 + + Compact of Pilgrim Fathers, 61, 62 + + "Congress," Frigate, 88, 89, 90 + + Constitution of United States, Preamble, 62 + + Cowper, quotation from, 69 + + "Cumberland," The, 87 to 92, 95, 97; + Sinking of, by the "Merrimac," painting, description of, 90, 91 + + + Debarkation of Columbus, painting, description of, 41, 42 + + Decatur, Stephen, 10, 74, 106; + Birth, Death, 75; + Sword, 74; + Toast to our Country, 74 + + De Soto, Ferdinand, 47 to 49; + Birth, Death, 47; + Expedition of, 47 to 49; + Midnight Mass over the Body of, painting, description of, 48, 49 + + Dewey, George, Admiral, 10, 105, 106, 107, 109 + + Drake, quotation from, 67 + + Drakkars, 35, 105 + + + Eirek the Red, 33, 34, 109 + + Embarkation of Pilgrims, painting, description of, 60 + + Ericsson, John, Birth, Death, 95; + "Monitor," 92, 97 to 101; + White Squadron's Farewell Salute to body of, painting, description + of, 95, 96 + + Erickson, Lief, Landing in New World, 33, 34; + painting, description of, 35, 36, 101 + + Esquimos, 34 + + Everett, Edward, quotation from oration on the Pilgrims, 60, 61 + + Exhibition of Paintings of Edward Moran, 9, 18, 19 + + + Farewell Salute to John Ericsson, painting, description of, 95, 96 + + Farragut, Admiral, 108 + + Fayal, 79, 81, 83 + + First Recognition of American Flag, painting, description of, 68, 69 + + Fiske, John, 40 + + Flag, United States, 67, 68; + First Recognition of, painting, description of, 68, 69; + Captain Reid, 81; + Resolutions of Congress authorizing, 67, 81 + + Florida, 47, 48 + + + Greenland, Settlement of, 33, 34 + + + "Half-Moon," ship of Hudson, 53, 105 + + Hamilton, James, 16 + + Hemans, Felicia, quotation from, 62, 63 + + _Herald_, New York, quotation from, 9 + + Hobson, Richmond Pearson, 10, 73, 92 + + Holland, 53, 54, 59 + + Hopkins, Admiral, 27 + + Hudson, Henry, 53 to 55; + Entering New York Bay, painting, description of, 55 + + Hudson River, Discovery of, 54 + + + Iceland, 33, 34, 36 + + Iron _versus_ Wood, Sinking of "Cumberland" by "Merrimac," painting, + description of, 90, 91 + + + Jackson, Andrew, Defence of New Orleans, 82; + Special Message to Congress about burning of frigate "Philadelphia," + 75 + + Jefferson, Thomas, Special Message to Congress about Lieutenant Decatur, + 74 + + Jones, John Paul, 10, 68, 106; + Birth and Death, 69; + Letter to Naval Committee, 68 + + + La Motte Piquet, Admiral, 68 + + Landing of Lief Erickson in the New World, painting, description of, 35, + 36, 101 + + Lincoln, Abraham, Special Message to Congress about Lieutenant George U. + Morris, 92; + about Lieutenant John Worden, 100; + Commendation of Lieutenant John L. Worden, 99, 100 + + Litigation about thirteen paintings, 8 + + Lloyd, Commodore, 79, 82 + + Louisiana Purchase, 10, 49, 82; Exposition, 50 + + + Manila Bay, Battle of, 107 + + "Mayflower," 59, 60, 61 + + "Merrimac," The, Confederate Ram, 87 to 92, 95, 97 to 101; + of Spanish-American War, 92 + + Metropolitan Museum of Art, 9 + + Midnight Mass over the Body of Ferdinand De Soto, painting, description + of, 48, 49 + + Mississippi River, Discovery of, 48, 49 + + "Monitor," The, 92, 95, 97 to 101 + + Montojo, Admiral, 105, 107 + + Moran, Annette, 8, 20; + Death, 21; + Paintings, 20 + + Moran, Edward, 15 to 21; + Academies, Clubs, Societies, 16, 17; + Birth, Death, 15; + Marriage, 8, 20; + Paintings of, 17, 18 + + Moran, Thomas, etching by, 96 + + Morris, George U., 10, 88, 89, 92 + + + Nantucket, 34 + + Napoleon, Louis, Arbitration about Brig "Armstrong," 81 + + Navy, Ships of, 68, 73, 74, 79, 82, 88, 90, 97; + Improvement, 87, 97, 105 + + New Orleans, 82 + + New York, City of, 54 + + "New York," Cruiser, 106 + + Norse Costumes, 35 + + Norsemen, 33, 34, 40, 105 + + Norse ships, 35 + + Norway, 33 + + + Ocean, The, painting, description of, 10, 27, 28, 109 + + "Olympia," The, 106, 107, 108 + + + Paintings of Edward Moran, partial list of, 17, 18 + + Parmentier, Antoine Augustin, 20 + + "Philadelphia," Frigate, Burning of, painting, description of, 75, 76 + + Pilgrims, 59 to 63, 109; + Compact in "Mayflower," 61; + Embarkation of, painting, description of, 60 + + Plymouth Rock, 59 + + Portuguese Government, 79, 80 + + + Quiberon, 10, 68 + + + "Ranger," 68 + + Reid, Capt. Samuel Chester, 10, 79, 106; + Birth, Death, 82; + Long Tom, 79, 80, 81; + Sword, 81; + United States Flag, 81 + + Return of the Conquerors, painting, description of, 105, 106, 107 + + + Sampson, William T., 10, 105, 106 + + "Santa Maria," "Niña" and "Pinta," painting, description of, 41, 42 + + Santiago Harbor, Battle of, 107 + + Schiller, Friedrich, quotation from, 43 + + Schley, Winfield Scott, 10, 96, 105, 106 + + Ships of Captain Bainbridge, 73; + Columbus, 39, 40; + Commodore Decatur, 74; + De Soto, 47; + Dewey, 106, 107; + Henry Hudson, 53; + Paul Jones, 68; + Commodore Lloyd, 79; + Commander George U. Morris, 88; + Norsemen, 35; + Pilgrim Fathers, 59; + Captain Samuel C. Reid, 79; + Sampson, Schley, 106, 107; + Lieutenant Worden, 98 + + Sinking of the "Cumberland" by the "Merrimac," painting, description of, + 90, 91 + + Southampton, 60 + + Spanish-American War, 105 to 109; + Return of Conquerors, painting, description of, 105, 106, 107 + + Statue of Liberty, 18, 96, 105 + + + Taylor, Bayard, quotation from, 36 + + Thirteen, number connected with events in history of the United States, + 9, 10, 67 + + Thirteen Paintings, Exhibition of, 9, 27; + General Description, 7 to 11, 68; + Litigation about, 8; + Sizes of, 27, 33, 39, 47, 53, 59, 67, 73, 79, 87, 95, 105 + + Tripoli, 73, 74 + + + United States, Constitution of, 62; Number of States, 9, 67, 81, 106; + Population, 106 + + + Vinland, 34, 36 + + Virginia, Colony of, 59 + + + Wainwright, Richard, 10, 107 + + Wars: + Civil, 82, 87, 108; + 1812, 82, 108; + Revolution, 67, 108; + Spanish-American, 43, 108 + + Webber, Paul, 16 + + Welles, Gideon, Alarm about "Merrimac," 91; + Letter to Lieutenant John L. Worden, 99, 100 + + West Indies, origin of name, 43 + + White Squadron's Farewell Salute to the Body of Capt. John Ericsson, + painting, description of, 95, 96 + + Worden, John L., 10, 98, 99 + + World's Fair, Chicago, 40, 80 + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] Moran _v._ Morrill, 78 Appellate Division Reports, 440. + +[B] Moran _v._ Morrill, 177 New York Reports, 563. + +[C] Size of canvas: nine and one-half feet in length by six and +one-quarter feet in height. + +[D] About six feet long by about three and one-half feet high. + +[E] Eight feet long by four and one-half feet high. + +[F] Four and one-half feet long by three feet high. + +[G] It is difficult to preserve the full beauty of the original of these +concise verses in a translation; but in attempting this I have found it +quite as easy to rhyme them as to reproduce them simply in the blank +verse of the original, in which rhymes occur in only two lines. + +[H] About four feet long by two and one-half feet high. + +[I] About eight feet long by four and one-half feet high. + +[J] About four feet long by about two and one-half feet high. + +[K] About six feet long by about three and one-third feet high. + +[L] This is the only upright canvas of the series, being about five feet +in height by about three and one-half feet in width. + +[M] About five and one-half feet long by about three feet high. + +[N] About four and one-quarter feet long by about three feet high. + +[O] About four and one-half feet long by about three feet high. + +[P] This, it would seem, ought to be March 9th. + +[Q] Four and one-half feet long by about three feet high. + + + +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: Italics are indicated with _underscores_, and | + | oe ligatures are rendered as [oe]. In the original book, omitted | + | text within quotations was indicated with a series of asterisks | + | rather than ellipses. These have been retained as printed. The | + | spelling of "Niña" has been regularized. Hyphenation has been | + | regularized in the words gunboat(s) and northwestern. One spelling | + | error was corrected: Acording to According (p. 33, "According to | + | these, Eirek the Red...") | + +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Thirteen Chapters of American History, by +Theodore Sutro + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THIRTEEN CHAPTERS OF AMER. HISTORY *** + +***** This file should be named 24990-8.txt or 24990-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/9/9/24990/ + +Produced by S. 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