in the island of Java;-about the same time they wrested the Japanese trade from the Portuguese. In 1650 they seized and colonized the Cape of Good Hope, which had previously been claimed by the English, and six years later they expelled the Portuguese from the island of Ceylon.' The Dutch adopted, in their colonial regulations, a more exclusive system of policy than other nations; and this, to gether with their harsh treatment of the natives, was the principal cause of the final ruin of their empire in the Indies.

17. The numerous colonies founded by Spain in the New World during the previous century had now become consolidated into one vast empire, embracing most of the islands of the West Indies, together with the extensive realms of Mexico and Peru, over which the Spanish monarch ruled with the most absolute despotism. The immense wealth derived from these possessions excited the envy and cupidity of all Europe; and frequently, during the wars of the sev enteenth century, the Spanish fleets, laden with the gold and silver of the New World, fell into the hands of the Dutch, French, or English cruisers; while bands of pirates, or Buccaneers, who had their coverts among the small islands of the West Indies, often plundered the coasts, and roamed at will, the terror of the Spanish

seas.

18. The materials for a history of the Spanish possessions in the New World, during nearly the centuries, are exceedingly meagre and uninteresting, treating of little but the same unvarying rule of arbitrary and avaricious viceroys or governors, of commercial re strictions the most odious and oppressive, and of the miseries of an aboriginal population, the most abject that could possibly be conceived.

19. The French colonization, in the New World, during the sev enteenth century, embraces only the founding of Quebec, and a few other feeble settlements in the Canadas; and, at the very close of the century, the landing of two hundred emigrants, and the erection of a rude fort, in Lower Louisiana. Nor was anything importan accomplished by the French, during this period, in the newly discov ered regions of the Old World. About the middle of the century they attempted to make Madagascar' one of their colonies, a scheme

1. Ceylon is a large island belonging to Great Britain, near the southern extremity of Hin dostan. The cinnamon tree, which was found only in Ceylon and Cochin-China, is its most valuable production. Extensive ruins of cities, canals, aqueducts, bridges, temples, &c., show that Ceylon was, at a remote period, a rich, populous, and comparatively civilized country. After Holland had been erected into the Batavian republic in 1795, the English took possession of Ceylon, and at the peace of Amiens, in 1802, it was formally ceded to them.

2. Madagascar is a large is.and off the eastern coast of South Africa, from which it is seps

which proved futile on account of the extreme unhealthiness of the island. In 1672 the French purchased the town of Pondicherry,' in Hindostan, from its native sovereign, and established there a colony with every reasonable prospect of success; but the place was several times taken from them by the Dutch and the English, until, finally, it was restored at the treaty of Paris in 1815, and is now the principal French settlement on the Asiatic continent.

20. In the latter part of the sixteenth century the English began to turn their attention to the commerce of the East Indies; and in the year 1600 a company of London merchants, known as the London East India Company, obtained a charter from queen Elizabeth, giving to them the exclusive right of trading with those distant countries. During the seventeenth century the London company made little progress in effecting settlements in the Indies; and at the close of that period, a small part of the island of Java,' Fort St. George at Madras, the island of Bombay, and Fort William erected at Calcutta' in 1699, rated by Mozambique Channel. Soon after the peace of 1815 the French formed several small colonies on the eastern coast of the island; and from 1818 to 1825 the English missionaries had some success in converting the natives; but since the latter period the missionaries have been forbidden to approach the island, and Madagascar may now be reckoned among the barbarous countries of eastern Africa.

1. Pondicherry is a town of Hindostan, on the south-eastern coast, eighty miles south-west from Madras. Population about fifty-five thousand. The French possessions in India, comprising Pondicherry, Chandernagore, Karical in the Carnatic, Mahé in Malibar, and Yanaon in Orissa, with the territory attached to each, have a total population of about one hundred and sixty-six thousand, of whom one thousand are whites.

2. Java is a large island of the Asiatic archipelago, south of Borneo, belonging principally to the Dutch, and the centre, as well as the most valuable, of their possessions in the East. Area, a little less than that of the State of New York. Population between five and six millions. The Portuguese reached Java in 1511, and the Dutch in 1595. The latter founded Batavia in 1619. In 1811 Java was taken by a British force, and held till 1816, when, in pursuance of the treaty of Paris, it was restored to the Dutch.

3. Madras is a large city on the south-eastern coast of Hindostan, eight hundred and seventy miles south-west from Calcutta. Population upwards of four hundred thousand. Madras is badly situated, has no harbor, and is almost wholly unapproachable by sea. It was the first acquisition made in India by the British, who obtained it by grant from the rajah of Bijnagur, in 1639, with permission to erect a fort there. The fort was besieged in 1702 by one of Aurungzebe's generals; and in 1744 by the French, to whom it surrendered after a bombardment of three days. It was restored to the English at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and successfully sus tained a memorable siege by the French under Lally in 1758-9; since which it has experienced no bostile attack. Madras is the capital of the British presidency of the same name, which embraces the whole of South Hindostan, extending about five hundred miles north from Cape Comorin. 4. Bombay is built on an island of the same name, on the western coast of Hindostan, ten hundred and fifty miles south-west from Calcutta. Population about two hundred and forty thousand. In 1530 Bombay was obtained by the Portuguese from a Hindoo chief: by them it was ceded to Charles II., in 1661, as part of queen Catherine's dowry; and in 1668 it was transferred, by the king, to the East India Company, at an annual rent of ten pounds sterling. Soon after it realized to the company a revenue of three thousand pounds a year. Bombay is the capital of the presidency of the same name.

5. Caleutta, the capital of the British dominions in the East, is situated on the eastern side

the whole inhabited by only a few hundred Europeans, formed the extent of their East India possessions. Such was the feeble be ginning, and slow progress, of an association of merchants that "now rules over an empire containing a hundred millions of subjects, raises a tribute of more than three millions annually, possesses an army of more than two hundred thousand men, has princes for its servants, and emperors pensioners on its bounty."

21. The first successful attempt at American colonization by the English was the settlement of Jamestown, in Virginia, in the year 1607. This was followed by the settlement of Plymouth in New England, in 1620, by a band of Puritans, who had resolved to seek, in the wilderness of America, that freedom of worship which their native country denied them. During the same century the English formed settlements in all the Atlantic States from Maine to Georgia, the latter only excepted, which was not colonized until the year 1733 the Dutch, who had settled New Amsterdam, now New York, were conquered by the English in 1644; and at the same time the Swedes, who had settled Delaware, and had subsequently been reduced by the Dutch, shared the fate of their masters. The history of the British American colonies, during the seventeenth century, is marked no less by the struggles of the colonists against the natural difficulties of their situation, and by the Indian wars in which they were often involved, than by their noble resistance to the arbitrary and oppressive rule of the mother country. The early colonists, those of New England especially, had left their homes on the other side of the Atlantic, to seek, in the wilds of America, an asylum where they might enjoy unmolested their religious faith and worship; and they brought with them to the land of their adoption, that spirit of independence, and those principles of freedom, which laid the foundation of American liberty.

22. The early history of these colonies is full of instruction to all,— in its lessons of patient endurance, and unyielding perseverance, exalted heroism, individual piety, and public virtue; but to American citizens it possesses a peculiar interest, as the history of the development and growth of those principles of free government which suc

of the river Hoogly, the most western arm of the Ganges, about one hundred miles from its entrance into the Bay of Bengal. Resident population about two hundred and thirty thousand. The English first made a settlement here in 1690, when Calcutta was but a small village, inhabited chiefly by husbandmen. In 1756 a Bengal chief dispossessed the English of their settlement, but it was retaken by Colonel Clive in the following year, since which it has been quietly retained by the British, and risen to its present degree of importance.

ceeding time has perfected to the happiness and glory of our country, and the advancement of the cause of freedom throughout the world, In a work of general history like the present we cannot hope to do such a subject justice; and instead of attempting here a brief and separate compend of our early annals, it will be more satisfactory and useful to refer the student to some of the numerous standard works on Amercan history which are at all times accessible to him, and with some one of which it is presumable every American youth will early make himself familiar, before he enters upon the study of the general history of nations.

CHAPTER V.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

I. WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION, AND CLOSE OF THE
REIGN OF LOUIS XIV.

ANALYSIS. 1. Pride and ambition of Louis XIV. Events that led to the “war of the Spanish Succession." ENGLAND, GERMANY, AND HOLLAND, DECLARE WAR AGAINST FRANCE, 1702.-2. Causes that induced England to engage in the war. The opposing powers. Death of king William. Queen Anne.-3. Opening of the campaign by Austria and England. The French generals.-4. The CAMPAIGN OF 1702. Naval events. [Cadiz. Vigo Bay.] EVENTS OF 1703.-5. EVENTS OF 1704. [Blenheim. Gibraltar.]-6. EVENTS of 1705 AND 1706. French losses. [Ramillies. Mons. Barcelona. Madrid.]-7. Overtures of peace. CAMPAIGN OF 1707. [Almanza. Toulon.] EVENTS OF 1708. [Oudenarde. Brussels.]-8. Sufferings of the French in the year 1709. Haughtiness of the monarch.-9. Louis in vain seeks peace with Holland. Battle of Malplaquet. [Malplaquet.] Successes of Louis in Spain. His domestic misfortunes.-10. Death of the Austrian emperor. Importance of that event. Decline of the war.-11. TREATY OF UTRECHT, April 11th, 1713. [Minorca. Newfoundland. Hudson's Bay territory. St. Christopher. Radstadt. Lisle. Alsace.]—12. Death of Louis XIV. CHARACTER OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV.

II. PETER THE GREAT OF RUSSIA, AND CHARLES XII. OF SWEDEN.

1. THE NORTH AND EAST OF EUROPE during the war of the Spanish succession. Beginning of the reign of the Russian monarch.-2. Leading object with the Czar. He is induced to engage in a war with Sweden. His allies. [Livonia. Riga.]-3. Sweden. Reported character of Charles XII. The Swedish council, and declarations of Charles. Change in the king's character.-4. BEGINNING OF HOSTILITIES AGAINST SWEDEN, in the year 1700. [Sleswick. Holstein. Narva.] Charles humbles Denmark. [Copenhagen.]-5. The Polish king. Charles marches against Narva.-6. Signal DEFEAT OF THE RUSSIANS AT NARVA. Remark of the Czar. Superstition of the Russians.-7. The course pursued by Peter. Resolution of Charles. -8. VICTORIES OF CHARLES IN THE YEAR 1702. [Courland. Warsaw. Cracow.] The Polish king deposed. [Pultusk.] Charles declines the sovereignty of Poland.-9. Increase of his power and influence. [Borysthenes.] His views, and plans, for the future.-10. Policy, and gradual successes, of the Czar. [Neva. Ingria.]-11. MARCH OF CHARLES INTO RUSSIA, 1707-8. [Smolensko.]-12. Passage of the Desna. [Desna.] Misfortunes of Charles.-13. Situation of the Swedish army in the winter of 1708-9. Advance of Charles in the Spring. [Pultowa.]—14. Siege and BATTLE OF PULTOWA. Escape of Charles. [Bender. Campbell's description of the catastrophe at Pultowa.]-15. Important effects of the battle of Pultowa.-16. Warlike views still entertained by Charles. He enlists THE TURKS in his favor. Treaty between the Russians and Turks. [Pruth.]-17. Lengthened stay of Charles in Turkey. RETURN OF CHARLES.-18 Situation of Sweden on his return. Warlike projects of Charles. EVENTS OF 1715. [Stockholm.] Siege of Stralsund. Irruption into Norway. Project of a union with Russia. DEATH OF CHARLES, 1718. [Frederickshall.]-19. Change in Swedish affairs. Peace with Russia. [Nystad.]-20. CHARACTER OF CHARLES THE TWELFTH. [Dr. Johnson's description of him.] -21. DEATH AND CHARACTER OF PETER THE GREAT.

III. SPANISH WARS, AND WARS OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION.

1. Effects of the treaty of Utrecht. EUROPEAN ALLIANCE for guaranteeing the fulfilment of the treaty Spain finally compelled to accede to it.-2. WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SPAIN