Historic Tales, Vol. 1

Historic Tales, Vol. 1

Project Gutenberg's Historic Tales, Vol. 1 (of 15), by Charles Morris
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.net
Title: Historic Tales, Vol. 1 (of 15) The Romance of Reality
Author: Charles Morris
Release Date: July 15, 2005 [EBook #16298]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORIC
TALES, VOL. 1 (OF 15) ***

Produced by David Kline, David Cortesi and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Édition d'Élite
Historical Tales
The Romance of Reality

By
CHARLES MORRIS
Author of "Half-Hours with the Best American Authors," "Tales from
the Dramatists," etc.
IN FIFTEEN VOLUMES
Volume I
American
I
J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON
Copyright, 1893, by J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. Copyright, 1904,
by J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. Copyright, 1908, by J.B.
LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
[Illustration: WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE.]

PREFACE.
It has become a commonplace remark that fact is often stranger than
fiction. It may be said, as a variant of this, that history is often more
romantic than romance. The pages of the record of man's doings are
frequently illustrated by entertaining and striking incidents, relief
points in the dull monotony of every-day events, stories fitted to rouse
the reader from languid weariness and stir anew in his veins the pulse
of interest in human life. There are many such,--dramas on the stage of
history, life scenes that are pictures in action, tales pathetic, stirring,
enlivening, full of the element of the unusual, of the stuff the novel and
the romance are made of, yet with the advantage of being actual fact.
Incidents of this kind have proved as attractive to writers as to readers.
They have dwelt upon them lovingly, embellished them with the

charms of rhetoric and occasionally with the inventions of fancy, until
what began as fact has often entered far into the domains of legend and
fiction. It may well be that some of the narratives in the present work
have gone through this process. If so, it is simply indicative of the
interest they have awakened in generations of readers and writers. But
the bulk of them are fact, so far as history in general can be called fact,
it having been our design to cull from the annals of the nations some of
their more stirring and romantic incidents, and present them as a gallery
of pictures that might serve to adorn the entrance to the temple of
history, of which this work is offered as in some sense an illuminated
ante-chamber. As such, it is hoped that some pilgrims from the world
of readers may find it a pleasant halting-place on their way into the
far-extending aisles of the great temple beyond.

CONTENTS
VINELAND AND THE VIKINGS 9 FROBISHER AND THE
NORTHWEST PASSAGE 26 CHAMPLAIN AND THE IROQUOIS
34 SIR WILLIAM PHIPS AND THE SILVER-SHIP 53 THE STORY
OF THE REGICIDES 69 HOW THE CHARTER WAS SAVED 80
HOW FRANKLIN CAME TO PHILADELPHIA 90 THE PERILS OF
THE WILDERNESS 98 SOME ADVENTURES OF MAJOR
PUTNAM 111 A GALLANT DEFENCE 128 DANIEL BOONE, THE
PIONEER OF KENTUCKY 138 PAUL'S REVERE'S RIDE 157 THE
GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 172 THE BRITISH AT NEW YORK
180 A QUAKERESS PATRIOT 189 THE SIEGE OF FORT
SCHUYLER 195 ON THE TRACK OF A TRAITOR 211 MARION,
THE SWAMP-FOX 223 THE FATE OF THE PHILADELPHIA 237
THE VICTIM OF A TRAITOR 249 HOW THE ELECTRIC
TELEGRAPH WAS INVENTED 259 THE MONITOR AND THE
MERRIMAC 275 STEALING A LOCOMOTIVE 285 AN ESCAPE
FROM LIBBY PRISON 298 THE SINKING OF THE ALBEMARLE
314 ALASKA, A TREASURE HOUSE OF GOLD, FURS, AND
FISHES 327 HOW HAWAII LOST ITS QUEEN AND ENTERED
THE UNITED STATES 338

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
AMERICAN. VOLUME I.
WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE. _Frontispiece._
VIKING SHIPS AT SEA. 11 LAKE CHAMPLAIN AND ITS
SURROUNDINGS. 41 POND ISLAND, MOUTH OF THE
KENNEBEC. 54 THE CAVE OF THE REGICIDES. 76 THE
CHARTER OAK, HARTFORD. 85 PRINTING-PRESS AT WHICH
FRANKLIN WORKED WHEN A BOY. 90 WASHINGTON'S HOME
AT MT. VERNON. 98 SHORE OF LAKE GEORGE. 118 INDIAN
ATTACK AND GALLANT DEFENCE. 128 THE OLD NORTH
CHURCH, BOSTON. 158 THE SPIRIT OF '76. 166 ETHAN
ALLEN'S ENTRANCE, TICONDEROGA. 172 THE OLD STATE
HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA. 191 THE BENEDICT ARNOLD
MANSION. 220 THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC. 280
LIBBY PRISON, RICHMOND. 298 SINKING OF THE
ALBEMARLE. 319 MUIR GLACIER IN ALASKA. 328 A NATIVE
GRASS HUT, HAWAII. 340

VINELAND AND THE VIKINGS.
The year 1000 A.D. was one of strange history. Its advent threw the
people of Europe into a state of mortal terror. Ten centuries had passed