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OF

THE UNITED STATES,

FROM THEIR

First Settlement as Colonies,

TO THE

CLOSE OF THE WAR WITH GREAT

BRITAIN, IN 1815.

BY

THE HON. SALMA HALE.

Second Edition.

"Civitas incredibile memoratu est, adeptâ libertate, quantum, brevi
creverit."- Sallust.

LONDON:

JOHN MILLER, 40, PALL MALL.

1827.

[blocks in formation]

SHACKELL AND BAYLIS, JOHNSON'S-COURT, FLEET-STREET.

HISTORY

OF THE

UNITED STATES.

INTRODUCTION.

THE continent of America was probably unknown to the ancients. If once known, as some have supposed, to the Carthaginians, the Scandinavians, and the Welsh, all knowledge of it was afterwards lost. The discovery of this extensive region, constituting nearly one half of the habitable globe, was the accidental result of the attempts, made in the fifteenth century, to find a passage by sea, from the ports of Europe to the East Indies, whose precious commodities were then transported, over land, by a long, dangerous, and expensive route.

This passage was universally sought by sailing south along the western coasts of Europe and Africa, in the hope of finding a termination of the continent, when the Indies it was supposed, might be attained by taking at first an easterly

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