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ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

As the alterations and corrections in this edition refer chiefly to single words and dates, it will be found to contain nothing which will prevent its being conveniently used in the same class with the first edition. As the work is now stereotyped, its present form, paging, &c. will of course be permanently retained.

ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by
JOHN FROST,

the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the Eastern District

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PREFACE.

W. thearer '04

THE utility of history as a branch of school instruction is now so generally admitted, that it is hardly necessary to offer any arguments in its favour; and the necessity of giving the history of our own country the first place, is equally obvious to the reflecting reader. The manner in which this interesting subject should be presented to the mind of the young student, is the only point of inquiry with writers and teachers.

In preparing the following history, the author has pursued that course which appeared to him best adapted to unite sound and thorough instruction with entertainment. Beginning with the discovery of the New World, and endeavouring to present the series of events in a clear and connected narrative, rejecting whatever he deemed irrelevant or unimportant, and dwelling chiefly on those striking features of the subject which give it vividness and character, he has brought it down to the present day. Although the considerable period embraced, the multitude of characters and events delineated, and the extent of the field in which they figure, have rendered the preservation of historical unity no easy task, he has laboured to give the work such a degree of compactness as woula enable the student to perceive the relation of all its parts, and to grasp the whole without any very difficult exercise of comprehension.

Conway

6-23-52

Instead of dividing the history into periods, according to an arbitrary arrangement of events, he has chosen to adopt the ordinary system of chapters, founded on the natural divisions of the subject. The table of contemporary sovereigns, instead of being distributed in small portions at the end of each chapter, is thrown into the appendix for more convenient reference;

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PREFACE.

and a variety of illustrative matter, which could not be em bodied in the text, without disturbing the continuity of the narrative, and distracting the attention of the student, has also been placed at the end of the volume.

A leading title at the top of each page has been inserted, with a view to direct the attention of the young reader to the principal events, and to assist him in referring to them; and questions are placed at the bottom of every page, for those teachers who prefer the use of them to the practice of examining the student without any such auxiliary.

A number of illustrations, from original drawings, are given, from a conviction of their utility in fixing on the mind of the pupil a lasting impression of the events to which they relate. The aid which is thus afforded to the memory and the imagination, will be readily understood by any person who will take the trouble to compare the vivid impressions of historical characters and scenes, which he has been fortunate enough to receive from graphic illustrations, with the faint ones which he may have derived from mere narrative.

Nothing has been omitted in the adaptation of the volume to the purposes of school instruction, which was considered essential to its utility; and if any deficiencies in this respect should be found, they ought to be referred rather to an error of judgment in the author, than a willingness to spare himself the care and attention requisite for making the work complete.

The volume is submitted to the public with profound deference; and in the hope that it may meet with the same kind indulgence which has been awarded to previous productions of the author, which have cost a much smaller expenditure of labour, and whose destiny has been regarded with far less solicitude.

CONTENTS.

ENGLAND ATTEMPTS TO COLONISE THE UNITED STATES.

Drake, p. 31-Gilbert, 31-English in North Carolina, 32-First Settle-

ment of Roanoke, 32-Virginia Dare, 34-Gosnold, 34-Pring, Wey-

mouth, 35.

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