Days of the Discoverers

L. Lamprey, Florence [Illustrator] Choate, Elizabeth [Illustrator] Curtis

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• Publié par: shaed
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 19
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Days of the Discoverers, by L. Lamprey 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: Days of the Discoverers Author: L. Lamprey Illustrator: Florence Choate Elizabeth Curtis Release Date: March 23, 2006 [EBook #18038] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAYS OF THE DISCOVERERS *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, LN Yaddanapudi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustrations] [ii] "'I WILL TELL YOU WHERE THERE IS PLENTY OF IT'"—FRONTISPIECE [Contents] [iii] GREAT DAYS IN AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES DAYS OF THE DISCOVERERS BY L. LAMPREY Author of "In the Days of the Guild", "Masters of the Guild", etc. ILLUSTRATED BY FLORENCE CHOATE AND ELIZABETH CURTIS NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1921, by FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY [iv] All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages Made in the United States of America [Contents] TO FORESTA Upon the road to Faerie, O there are many sights to see,— Small woodland folk may one discern Housekeeping under leaf and fern, And little tunnels in the grass Where caravans of goblins pass, And airy corsair-craft that float On wings transparent as a mote,— All sorts of curious things can be Upon the road to Faerie! Along the wharves of Faerie— There all the winds of Christendie Are musical with hawk-bell chimes, Carillons rung to minstrels' rimes, And silver trumpets bravely blown From argosies of lands unknown, And the great war-drum's wakening roll— The reveillé of heart and soul— For news of all the ageless sea Comes to the quays of Faerie! Across the fields to Faerie There is no lack of company,— The world is real, the world is wide, But there be many things beside. Who once has known that crystal spring Shall not lose heart for anything. [v] The blessing of a faery wife Is love to sweeten all your life. To find the truth whatever it be— That is the luck of Faerie! [vi] Above the gates of Faerie There bends a wild witch-hazel tree. The fairies know its elfin powers. They wove a garland of the flowers, And on a misty autumn day They crowned their queen—and ran away! And by that gift they made you free Of all the roads of Faerie! CONTENTS To Foresta Contents List of Illustrations I ASGARD THE BEAUTIFUL (1348) PAGE v vii ix 1 17 II THE RUNES OF THE WIND-WIFE (1364) The Navigators (1415-1460) III SEA OF DARKNESS (1475) 18 34 35 48 IV PEDRO AND HIS ADMIRAL (1492) 50 65 V THE MAN WHO COULD NOT DIE (1493-1494) 66 80 VI LOCKED HARBORS (1497) 81 93 VII LITTLE VENICE (1500) 94 104 VIII THE DOG WITH TWO MASTERS (1512) Cold o' the Moon (1519) IX WAMPUM TOWN (1508-1524) 105 117 121 133 X THE GODS OF TAXMAR (1512-1519) 134 148 XI THE THUNDER BIRDS (1519-1520) 150 165 XII [vii] The Viking's Secret Sunset Song The Queen's Prayer The Escape Gray Sails The Gold Road [viii] The Drum The Legend of Malinche Moccasin Flower GIFTS FROM NORUMBEGA (1533-1535) The Mustangs XIII THE WHITE MEDICINE MAN (1528-1536) Lone Bayou (1542) XIV THE FACE OF THE TERROR (1564) 167 181 182 195 197 214 XV 215 237 XVI 238 250 XVII 252 269 XVIII 270 282 XIX 284 299 300 The Destroyers THE FLEECE OF GOLD (1561-1577) A Watch-dog of England (1583) LORDS OF ROANOKE (1584) The Changelings THE GARDENS OF HELÊNE (1607-1609) The Wooden Shoe THE FIRES THAT TALKED (1610) Imperialism ADMIRAL OF NEW ENGLAND (1600-1614) The Discoverers BIBLIOGRAPHY [Contents] LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "'I will tell you where there is plenty of it'" (in color) "'And Freya came from Asgard in her chariot drawn by two cats'" (in color) "Nils marked out an inscription in Runic letters" "The miniature globe took form as the children watched, fascinated" "He proposed that Caonaba should put on the gift the Spanish captain had brought" "A sapling, bent down, was attached to a noose ingeniously hidden" "The natives seemed prepared to traffic in all peace and friendliness" (in color) "Cortes flung about his shoulders his own cloak" "Moteczuma awaited them in the courtyard" (in color) "Cartier read from his service-book" "The creatures darkened the plain almost as far as the eye could see" "'Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?'" "Drake was silent, fingering the slender Milanese poniard" "If he had to wear her fetters, they should at least be golden" "The Grand Master of the day entered the dining hall" [ix] Frontispiece 4 30 44 78 86 132 146 162 176 190 204 226 244 266 [Contents] DAYS OF THE DISCOVERERS I ASGARD THE BEAUTIFUL [1] A red fox ran into the empty church. In the middle of the floor he sat up and looked around. Nothing stirred —not the painted figures on the wooden walls, nor the boy who now stood in the doorway. This boy was grayeyed and flaxen-haired, and might have been eleven or twelve years old. He was looking for the good old priest, Father Ansgar, and the wild shy animal eyeing him from the foot of the altar made it only too clear that the church, like the village, was deserted. Father Ansgar was dead of the strange swift pestilence that was called in 1348 the Black Death. So also were the sexton, the cooper, the shoemaker, and almost all the people of the valley. A ship had come into Bergen with the plague on board, and it spread through Norway like a grass-fire. Only last week Thorolf Erlandsson[1] had had a father and mother, a grandmother, two younger sisters and a brother. Now he was alone. In the night the dairy woman and the plowmen at Ormgard farm had run away. Other farms and houses were already closed and silent, or plundered and burned. Ormgard being remote had at first escaped the sickness. Thorolf turned away from the church door and began to climb the mountain. At the lane leading to his home he did not stop, but kept on into the woods. It was not so lonely there. Up and up he climbed, the thrilling scent of fir-balsam in his nostrils, the small friendly noises of the forest all about him. Only a few months ago he had come down this very road with his father, driving the cattle and goats home from the summer pasture. All the other farmers were doing the same, and the clear notes of the lure, the long curving horn, used for calling the cattle and signaling across valleys, soared from slope to slope. There was laughter and shouting and joking all the way down. Now the only persons abroad seemed to be thieving ruffians whose greed for plunder was more than their fear of