2. The "Nethermost World," or Continent of America
The "Nethermost World," or Continent of America Before describing what I saw on my arrival in the United States of America, and what its social conditions are like, it would be necessary to give a brief history of this country. My educated countrymen and -women would probably be acquainted with that extraordinary history. But there may be those who have not read about the discovery of America and the subsequent settlement of Western people there. If such people happen to read this book, they would not grasp how the foundation of the American political system and social conditions, described here, was laid. A brief account is therefore given of the discovery of America, its original inhabitants, and the creation of the nation of the United States.
Centuries ago, when people lacked adequate knowledge of the shape of the earth, they indulged in all sorts of speculations in this regard. The ancestors of the Hindu and other communities1 believed the earth to be ®at; as a result, they imagined the universe to be multi-storied, like the large multi-storied city houses, with the earth occupying the middle story. According to the Hindu Puranas, the universe is a fourteen-storied mansion, of which six stories or "worlds" are situated above the earth, and seven below; the lowest of these stories has been named the Nethermost World.2 Now that all these ideas have been disproved by new discoveries, everyone has understood that the universe is not like a fourteen-storied mansion, and that the earth is not ®at.
In the year 1435, a boy named Christopher Columbus was born in the city of Genoa in Italy, in the continent of Europe. No one realized his worth when he was young. His father was poor, and worked as a wool carder. But when Christopher was old enough to understand things, he expressed a desire to become a sailor and sail the seas. He made a thorough study of geography, mathematics, and navigation so as to be a good sailor, and embarked on his ¤rst voyage at the age of fourteen.
About seven or eight centuries ago, the Christians of Europe fought wars, known as "Crusades," with Turks and other Mohammedans. These wars brought
Europeans into contact with the Mohammedans, from whom they gathered a great deal of knowledge. From the Mohammedans they heard descriptions of our country, that is, India. The people of the olden times, especially the Mohammedans, had a habit of exaggerating a hundredfold the good and bad
qualities of whatever they described. It was not surprising, then, that in the accounts of India which they gave the Europeans, the Turks made a mountain out of a molehill and a bird out of a feather. They described India in a nutshell as "a golden goose," implying that the country was ¤lled with gold and was fabulously wealthy. From the end of the tenth century a.d., Mohammedans had started raiding India and looting the gold, silver, and jewelry of its people. The Mohammedan tales of these sumptuous loots made the European mouths water with greed for the riches of India; and the Europeans started searching for an easy route to India. The overland route from the north through Afghanistan was riddled with obstacles, so they looked for an independent sea route. Some had already thought of a sea route to India by sailing around the continent of Africa.
But Christopher, having become well versed in mathematics, geography, and navigation by the time he grew up, declared that, because the earth was round, he would sail westward and circumnavigate the globe to reach India directly.
Having vowed to prove his theory, Christopher sought help from the Kings of Italy, Portugal, England, and France; but they thought he was insane and refused.
He did not abandon his efforts even after such setbacks, but obtained an audience with the King of Spain and requested his help by promising to chart an easy route to the wealthy land of India. The King did not heed him, but the Queen, Isabella, took pity on him. She summoned him and promised to provide money for his expedition by selling her own jewelry. Thus Christopher Columbus started his voyage with three ships, a promising crew, and enough victuals to last a number of days, and sailed westward to capture the "golden goose" of India.
After many days' voyage, Columbus' ships reached the Canary Islands to the northwest of Africa. After leaving the islands, the crew saw only the endless stretch of ocean all around, without even a hint of land anywhere; and they were terror-stricken. But Columbus urged them not to be anxious or afraid, but to sail on. During the third month after leaving home, that is to say, on October 12,
1492, Columbus sighted an island. It was overgrown with jungle in which a number of savages were wandering about. When day broke, Columbus himself was the ¤rst to set foot on the island, Spanish ®ag in hand. With a naked sword in one hand and the Spanish ®ag in the other, Columbus claimed sovereignty over the island in the name of the King of Spain. In the belief that the island was somewhere close to India, he set the custom of calling its inhabitants "Indians."
On sailing further, he sighted the island of Haiti. Columbus made four voyages to this new land; he sailed even further and discovered South America. In the strong belief that the land he had discovered was India, he started calling it the "Indies," that is, India. Subsequent discoveries revealed that the country was not India, so the Europeans gave it the name "America," because Amerigo Vespucci,
Columbus' friend, sailed to this newly discovered land after Columbus' death.
The "Nethermost World," or Continent of America 63
On his return voyage he described this new land in a number of letters; a German geographer who published these letters expressed a desire that the new land be known for Amerigo. Henceforth the continent of America came to be known for Amerigo (also pronounced Americo). In truth, the land discovered by Columbus should be known as "Columbia," but such is the way of the world that one man sows and another reaps the harvest. That is how the land discovered through the labors of Columbus became famous in the name of Amerigo. There are some islands to the east of Mexico and Central America which are still known as the "West Indies" or Western Indian Islands. The practice of calling the original inhabitants of America "Indians" has still not changed. In order to emphasize the distinction between them and our own countrymen, their name has the label "Red." Thus these "Red" brethren of ours and their land, the Nethermost World, were discovered in the ¤fteenth century a.d.
Charity at the Expense of Others The reader might feel a little surprised at this heading. There are some bluffs, cheats, and misers who practice charity and philanthropy only by words or by robbing others, without spending a single penny of their own; in our country it is customary to describe the acts of such people as "charity at the expense of others." An important and unparalleled example of such charity occurred in the course of European history, and must be narrated here because of its close connection with our Red brethren of the Nethermost World. It happened in the following manner:
Rome, the capital of Italy in the continent of Europe, rose to great fame during the rise of the Romans. Even during their decline, the city rose in stature because of the Popes. These days even the Popes are on the decline and hardly retain any of their former greatness. Even so, many scholars and admirers of antiquity still visit Rome because it is an ancient city. The above-mentioned Popes are the chief religious teachers of the Roman Catholic denomination among Christians. Just as in our country the disciples of Shri Shankaracharya3 have bestowed on him the title "Teacher of the World," similarly the Catholic Christians have given their principal teacher the title of "Pope," which means "Father." For about a thousand years, from the ¤fth to the ¤fteenth century a.d., the in®uence of the Popes increased enormously throughout Europe. Initially the Popes were the chief abbots of the monasteries of poor, devout Catholic monks, and had no connection with money or politics. From the time that the Roman Emperor
Constantine embraced Christianity in the fourth century a.d., the "honorable" abbots gained entry into political intrigues in a small way. Later the Popejis4 became so powerful that they would snatch one person's kingdom and give it to another without a thought. The Popejis then started to believe that they were the 64 The Peoples of the United States
real Teachers of the World—nay, even Masters of the World, next only to God; that God had given them the power to turn anyone into a prince or pauper; that they could never sin or do wrong; and that if they said the West was the East, so it was! Countless gullible people took their word to be the absolute truth, and started to worship and obey them. The Popejis excommunicated any obstinate person who refused to obey them. The Pope possessed the power to excommunicate such a person during his lifetime; he was believed to also possess the power to prevent such a person from going to heaven after death, which made all credulous people terribly afraid of the Pope. Even mighty and powerful kings and learned men would tremble in fear of the Pope, let alone the poor common people. However, not all the kings who honored the Pope did so out of piety; some hypocrites among them ®attered the Pope to win favors for themselves.
When knowledgeable and resolute men like Columbus started to traverse the globe by sea routes and discover new, rich lands, one Popeji of Rome practiced
"charity at the expense of others"! In the ¤fteenth century, the Kings of Spain and Portugal were the favorite disciples of the Pope. In 1493 a Popeji named Alexander VI was highly pleased with these two dear disciples of his, and rewarded them with two great endowments. The Pope published an order, known as a "bull," declaring that all the new countries or islands which had been discovered with the help of the states of Spain and Portugal should be regarded as possessions of their respective rulers. He prevented any possible dissension between the two by drawing an imaginary north-south line in the middle of the Atlantic
Ocean, and stipulating that all new islands and continents, such as America, which had already been discovered or which would be discovered in the future in the Western Hemisphere should belong to the King of Spain; and everything east of the line, such as Africa, India, and the islands around them, should pass to the King of Portugal.
Did Africa, America, India, and the islands in their vicinity form the Pope's patrimony? How did he get the right to bequeath them to the Kings of Spain and Portugal? But there is no saying what the hypocrites and the heterodox would do at any given time. That is why I think that this act of the Pope quali¤es for the epithet "charity at the expense of others."
Gold! Bring Home the Gold!
In 1492 Columbus returned from his westward voyage to America (or to India, as he believed) with help from the Queen of Spain. Later, in 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed to India around Africa, with the help of the Government of Portugal.5 The only reason why the people of Spain and Portugal discovered new lands was gold. The European strategy was to turn like a weathervane to deal with a situation. If the newly discovered countries were in strong hands, an apThe "Nethermost World," or Continent of America 65
peal was to be made to them for the freedom to trade. But if the inhabitants were ignorant savages and unable to offer resistance, their country was to be annexed forthwith, and the people were to be made slaves by force or by torture, to be sold like cattle in the market. That this was their strategy is evident from their conduct. When Columbus ¤rst came to San Salvador,i its original inhabitants were so impressed by him and his companions because of their skin color, build, and strange-looking ships as to think they were gods. So they began to serve these White gods with great devotion. The White gods, without even inquiring whether their Red devotees had a claim to the island, immediately annexed it to their own dominions in the name of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain!
They did not stop at that. Later, from the time of Columbus' second voyage, many more Spaniards (people of Spain) began to arrive there. They captured the poor harmless inhabitants of the Nethermost World and took them to Spain to be sold into slavery. And they forced many more into slavery right then and there, and made them work in gold mines. As a result, hundreds of Red people immediately died of overexertion and ill treatment. If a person was obstinate enough to refuse to work as a slave, the Spanish "gods" would beat him severely.
If this failed to cure him of his obstinacy, they would torture and kill him in full sight of his own people. So the fear that obstinacy would lead to this dire fate would make the Red devotees of the White devils do the bidding of their masters without a murmur. But, being unused to such incessant labor, they would die quickly. The Red inhabitants of the Nethermost World had been free from birth, and unused to slaving for any one. When the Spaniards and other
Europeans began to force them into slavery, they would kill themselves by starving to death or by hanging themselves, preferring death to lifelong torture through slaving for greedy and brutal people like the Spaniards.
Once it so happened that a number of Red people selected a speci¤c day on which they would all hang themselves together, in order to escape their cruel foreign masters. This plot came to the knowledge of a White man who supervised slave labor. He was extremely cruel by nature, and would torture with regular beatings the Red people forced into slavery. When they gathered together at their secret meeting place on the appointed day, carrying ropes to hang themselves with, this cruel man appeared in their midst, rope in hand. It is impossible to describe the fear and shock which the poor people felt at the sight of him. He then said to them: "Slaves, did you think I would not discover your plot? I can even read your minds. You can go ahead and hang yourselves. But do you see this rope I have in my hand? You can begin to hang yourselves. I too shall put this noose around my neck and die along with you, so that I can torture you a hundred times more in the next world!" The poor credulous people believed him and abandoned their plan to hang themselves out of fear that if he really died
66 The Peoples of the United States
along with them, he would in®ict much more misery on them in the next world; and they continued to slave to death under the White masters as before. This incident demonstrates that the Whites had mastered the art of controlling the foolish, credulous people by cunning and stratagem whenever they failed to do so by force.
Even great men like Columbus did not hesitate to practice deceit. Columbus had incurred a heavy debt from the exorbitant expense of his voyages. In order to repay the debt, he thought of the trick of luring or forcibly capturing about ¤ve hundred Red people of the West Indies on different occasions, loading them on board his ships and sending them to Spain to be sold into slavery. He used the money from their sale toward repaying part of his debt! What is well worth remembering in all this is that Columbus and those who followed him believed that they acted in accordance with the will of God. When Columbus wrenched the poor innocent people from their families, homes, motherland, the enjoyment of freedom, and other such invaluable things—things which make life worth living—and ruined their hopes of happiness; when he sold them as slaves in Spain and in®icted on them the indescribable agonies of slavery; he believed that he did them a great service. These people were idol worshippers. He was convinced that he had served God to the best of his ability by sending them to a Christian country like Spain and having them converted to Catholic Christianity! How sad that a great man's conduct should be tarnished by such an extraordinarily demonic deed!
The ability of the human mind to discriminate between good and bad is known as the conscience. A person's mind makes him feel guilty while doing a bad deed, or after he has done it. Therefore, he has to think of some way of making his act appear good, so as to ease this mental agony. Acting in the name of religion is one such measure. When the King of Spain sent Columbus and subsequent voyagers back to the Nethermost World with substantial assistance, he—and other kings who assisted similar expeditions—made three pacts with them. The ¤rst and foremost was that they should ¤nd gold and bring it back; the second was that they should convert the Red Indians to Christianity; and the third was that they should discover new lands and, if possible, annex them to their dominions. Their chief objective was to go to foreign countries and loot their wealth; but that would not have appeased their conscience, so the second objective, of propagating their religion, was pushed forth. The people who went in search of gold were accompanied by a number of good, benevolent people who went to the Nethermost World to evangelize in earnest, and who sincerely helped the Red people. On numerous occasions they intervened to save those poor people from oppression at the hands of the gold-hungry Europeans. Such good people are to be praised and lauded not only by us, but by people of all countries and races.
The "Nethermost World," or Continent of America 67
Our Red Brethren, and Their Customs and Manners The inhabitants of the Nethermost World have been labeled "Red," as mentioned above. Now I intend to brie®y explain how they acquired this label, and also describe their customs, manners, and conditions in different parts of the country. It helps greatly to understand accounts of a people or an object, if one grasps their nature and their good or bad attributes.
In our own country we see a variety of skin colors every day—some of our countrymen are fair-skinned, some shiny black, some are wheatish, some pale and hazel-eyed, and some present such a mixture as to defy all these categories, as we all know.
When the Spaniards discovered the Nethermost World, as mentioned above, they observed that the people there were of an ochre hue like red earth. At ¤rst they unknowingly called these Red people "Indians"; but after discovering their mistake they set the practice of calling these original inhabitants of the Nethermost World the "Red people" or "Red Indians" because of their color. No one knows how and when these people came to North America; many conjecture that they were preceded by another race of people, because the ¤nds in different parts of the country, such as the walls of old ruins, caves dug into mountainsides, large dams, and the pottery, arrowheads, and ornaments found through deep excavations show that they were not made during the era of the Red people.
The "Red Indians" are big-built, tall, strong, agile, and good-looking. The women are somewhat shorter than the men, and many of them are very pretty.
By nature these people are no different from the people of other countries. They do not unnecessarily bother anyone who leaves them alone; but they know very well how to retaliate if anyone harms them. And who does not? Some White people say that the Red people are knaves, cheats, untrustworthy, murderous, and cruel; but that is not true. Many good-natured White people have lived among the "Reds" and tested them. They say that the "Red Indians" are very respectable, grateful for services rendered, hospitable to strangers, and affectionate. Now, it is not that all of them are good; but nor are all the Whites good! In sum, whether people are good or bad does not depend on a particular race or country; good and bad people are found in all races and all countries, and so also among the "Red Indians."
In the ¤fteenth century a.d., almost all the Red people lived like savages. They painted their bodies in different colors, they fashioned tunics and blankets out of the skins of animals they had hunted, and they decorated them with colored feathers. This custom still prevails among them. Nowadays they have started wearing cotton and woolen clothes, and have acquired many other advanced practices, from contact with the Europeans. Earlier they were not familiar with the use of iron, but would make do with arrowheads, lance tips, knives, etc.,
68 The Peoples of the United States
made of sharpened quartz. They were expert archers and skilled in the use of clubs, but totally ignorant of the use of gunpowder, swords, guns, cannons, and the like. They did not know how to build houses with stones, bricks, and mortar.
They did not do much farming, although in some areas maize would grow plentifully without much labor. Their diet consisted of fruit gathered from the forest, the meat of hunted animals, ¤sh, etc. They did not have a script in which to write letters or books. They had many tribes, each with a language that was different from, but in some ways similar to, the others. There is an area known as Mexico at the southern tip of North America, where the people were not complete savages but fairly advanced.
The dwellings of these savages are tiny huts. A dozen long straight sticks would be pegged into the ground in a semicircle, their tips tied together, and the whole covered with animal skins, the bark of trees, or mats to make a small tent.
It would have a hole in the center of the roof to let out smoke, and a small door in front, not made of wood but consisting of a small curtain which could be lifted to go in or out. The chief daily activities of the men are hunting, ¤shing, making boats from tree trunks, making tools from quartz and ¤sh bones, etc.
Women have to do almost all the other chores, of which plowing, guarding the ¤elds, sowing, cooking, and such are the chief ones. Their ¤elds produce mainly corn, tobacco, pumpkins, squash, beans, and other crops. These people are very fond of smoking tobacco. Tobacco was quite unknown in the Eastern Hemisphere four centuries ago. This "gem"6 ¤rst came to Europe from the Nethermost
World, and the people of almost all the countries of the globe have become addicted to smoking ever since.
Although the Red savages did not give much importance to trade, those in the east sold strings of beads called "wampum," and those in the west sold copper which they mined themselves. "Wampum" consisted of necklaces of white, black, or blue shells threaded with a string, which were used instead of coins, like rupees, pice, or mohurs;7 moreover, belts made of such strings would serve as instruments of treaties between kings. In addition, many tribes had the custom of sealing a treaty by exchanging eagle feathers or smoking a pipe.
Their political system was also very simple, and comprised the unanimous selection of a strong man as a king who would be obeyed by the whole tribe.
Kingship was hereditary. If occasion arose to ¤ght a war with a neighboring tribe and if the king happened to be weak, he would have a brave and clever man of his tribe unanimously selected as his general. If the king was brave, he himself would serve as the general. They had many tribes which engaged in frequent
¤ghts and con®icts.
Their religion, in a nutshell, was the belief in a great, powerful divine spirit as the creator and protector of the world, who ruled over all and who was assisted by many minor gods and spirits—both good ones giving happiness and evil ones
The "Nethermost World," or Continent of America 69
causing unhappiness. The evil spirits were to be propitiated through sacri¤ces.
The future could be divined through dreams and omens. After death, good people attained immortality and spent an eternity in the enjoyment of sports like hunting, which, according to them, was the ultimate happiness.
Their custom was that a man captured in war would either be killed as a sacri¤ce in the temple, or tortured to death. His capacity to endure torture would indicate the extent of his courage. That it was their custom to torture people to death does not mean that they were cruel by nature. Savage and ignorant people have many strange customs. The people of England made human sacri¤ces when they lived in a savage state. Subsequently Christianity spread all over Europe and civilized the people, but the practice of burning alive or torturing to death a person found guilty of religious offenses or treason still continued.8 Recently, Burma was annexed and the "rebels" there were horribly tortured, as has become widely known.
The "Red Indians" of many tribes made human sacri¤ces before a god, and ate their ®esh as a sacred offering. It has been observed that, except for aquatic animals, no other creature in Nature eats the ®esh of its own kind. But man, being such a superior creature, still eats the ®esh of his own kind, which is sad indeed. Usually civilized people do not in reality eat the ®esh of fellow human beings; but they have mastered the art of "eating" others of their kind without actually eating their ®esh. The history of every country and every race is ¤lled with descriptions of such cannibalism. These days many new varieties of cannibalism are being discovered in Europe, the only difference being that one catches his neighbor and eats him raw, while another roasts, fries, or grinds him into a "chutney" before eating him! Otherwise the practice of cannibalism has not disappeared completely from any country. Take care that you yourselves do not eat one another!
Reasons for the Red People's Loss of Freedom and Annihilation Thus far I have brie®y described the customs and manners of our Red brethren. Now I shall conclude this part with a brief description of the reasons for their loss of independence and their almost total annihilation.
When the Europeans went to the Nethermost World and began to mine gold and bring back captives, the Red people were living in an ignorant and savage state, as mentioned above. They had no knowledge whatever of the existence and use of the weapons of destruction, such as gunpowder, cannons, and guns. Besides, there were no horses in America; and the savages came to believe that these extremely bright, swift, and strong animals which obeyed human beings were not ordinary but divine beings. In our Puranas we hear of miraculous and un70 The Peoples of the United States
conquerable weapons such as missiles of Fire, Wind, and Thunderbolt, but we have no real knowledge of them, their appearance, use, and so on. This being the case, if someone brings such weapons to our country with a view to frightening and conquering us, he can do so with ease. Not even a hundred thousand9 people, ignorant of such weapons, would last before him; moreover, ignorant people would begin to believe that he is a superior—even a divine—being because of his marvelous knowledge, and would fear him without reason. These poor Red Indians were in the same plight. It is not that they were weaker than the Europeans, or that they did not value freedom and did not resist when the Europeans began to tamper with it. But they were ignorant, gullible, and overly scrupulous. Sometimes they refrained from resisting their foes because of omens or unfounded fears; at other times they were afraid of the enemies' horses and their guns, cannons, and other weapons. What could the poor people do? Even if you are thousands strong and in a state of readiness, you would not be able to withstand just one enemy who single-handedly showers you with ¤re and hot balls, because you lack the necessary weapons to ¤ght him. In such a situation it is hardly surprising that ¤ve or ten thousand Europeans destroyed hundreds of thousands of Indians. Their action can be compared to that of a strong, wellarmed man cutting off the heads of hundreds of thousands of unprotected, ignorant, unarmed babes. No one will call this act a truly brave deed. If these same
Europeans had discarded their ¤rearms and weapons, and defeated the Red Indians in wrestling or by ¤ghting them with their own weapons, such as bows and arrows, quartz knives, and bone-tipped lances, they would have proven themselves to be truly brave. But sad to say, those who called themselves pious and went forth to enlighten the ignorant, to rescue people from hell and lead them to heaven, ended up by utterly annihilating the poor innocent Indians through deceit, trickery, cruelty, and false speech.
Now, I do not claim that the Red Indians were always totally innocent; but they themselves never provoked the Europeans or employed deceit. On the contrary, when the Europeans ¤rst came to their country, the Indians regarded them as the descendants of the Sun and welcomed them most hospitably and respectfully, and tried to please them by offering them gold, fruit, and other gifts, according to their ability. Even so, these White deities were not satis¤ed; on the contrary, they tried to exploit the Indians as much as they could. Is there anyone on earth who would not offer resistance to such an omnivorous god? I cannot bring myself to blame them for trying to protect their rights in every possible way. Their misfortune was their ignorance. They possessed no means of dispelling that ignorance at the time. A man who does not attempt to overcome his ignorance even though he possesses the means to do so can undoubtedly be faulted. But what is the poor man's fault if he lacks the means? The history of The "Nethermost World," or Continent of America 71
the Indians shows very clearly that one of the chief reasons for their fall was ignorance (under which are subsumed gullibility, excessive scrupulousness, fear of omens, fear of ghosts and spirits, etc.).
A proverb says that when two persons ¤ght, it is a third who pro¤ts. Mutual spite is fatal to all families, large and small, and to society and country. In truth, its root cause is ignorance. Spite arises in people's minds out of a mutual prejudice stemming from some slight cause; and once that happens, there are quarrels aplenty. Quarrels turn people into enemies, and each makes every effort to destroy his enemy. Should one enemy be strong, the other ¤nds it necessary to seek help from a stranger; and once a third person enters a quarrel he turns both parties into puppets in his hands, and achieves his own ends. He is the one who gains, while the others lose. It is bad for the people of any family or country to have internal feuds. Our countrymen's feuds allowed foreigners to gain entry into our internal matters, and we lost our independence, as everyone familiar with the history of India knows. Our Red brethren ended up the same way.
While they were ¤ghting among themselves, the White people entered the Nethermost World. The weaker among the Red Indians enlisted the aid of the White foreigners to destroy the strong enemies of their own race. They took the Whites to their own countries, and gave them whatever help they needed. As a result, although their enemies were defeated by the Whites, they themselves also incurred a heavy loss instead of gaining anything. The White gods defeated their enemies ¤rst, and then kicked their Red Indian allies out of the country—and became the sole sovereigns themselves! Thus, both the weak Indians who helped the Whites to defeat enemies of their own race, and the similarly despicable people in our own country, were guilty of joining the common enemy and helping him to injure their own people.
The Europeans, such as the Spaniards, Portuguese, French, English, and Dutch, made the best of the opportunities described above, and employed different means to wrest away the motherland of the [Red] Indians, made their own colonies there, and established their own kingdoms. Today the Indians are scattered all over America like fragments of a broken glass bowl. Their only aim in life now is to eat and drink whatever is provided by their White enemies and rulers, to be utterly dependent on them, to live out the lives they are born to, and to die like wild animals or birds hunted by the White people.
A Brief History of the United States After Columbus, a man named Cabot visited America in 1494 during the reign of Henry VII of England.10 Subsequently, a number of people, such as the French, Spaniards, Portuguese, and Dutch, settled their colonies in America. I shall not dwell on them here, because the subject matter of the present book is
72 The Peoples of the United States
unrelated to any but the English colonies. A man named Sir Walter Raleigh went to America in 1585 to settle a colony there. The people who accompanied him on that visit did not live there respectably, plowing and cultivating the land on which they had settled, but, instead, started searching for gold and oppressing the Indians. Therefore their colony in the new land was not a happy event, needless to say. Later on, one John Smith came to settle a colony in the province of Virginia, discovered by Raleigh. The people who accompanied him at the time included a number of women, so that the settlers lived in families. To John Smith goes the credit for having settled the ¤rst English colony in America. Afterwards some Puritans went to America and settled colonies known as New England.
Thus, one after another, English colonies sprang into existence in North America.
These settlers retained their ¤rm resolve even after enduring all kinds of adversities and misfortunes. They cultivated the land in America and built large cities and towns in what used to be jungles. Their arts and crafts ®ourished everywhere. They possessed the very praiseworthy qualities of adventurousness, valor, strong resolution, and hard work.
At the end of the eighteenth century, there were altogether thirteen English colonies in North America. The English people in England became very envious of the prosperity of their compatriot settlers, and began to feel that they themselves should derive a substantial bene¤t from the American colonies. Thinking that the English discovery of the new country should serve the prime objective of making England prosperous with its revenues, they employed various measures to extract wealth from the colonies. Chief among these were the barriers to the trade and advancement of the American colonies, erected by acts of Parliament. Parliament had resolved that the settlers in the English colonies should mine gold, silver, copper, iron, and other metals in America, but not use them for manufacture; that all the metal ores from the mines should be sent to England and to no other country; and that the colonies should not trade directly with any country but England. Through these and other similarly oppressive laws, England began to harass the settlers in America. But even such laws failed to satisfy the greed of the English. In order to repay the debt they had incurred during wars with the French and the Red Indians, they resolved to enforce a law known as the "Stamp Act" in the American colonies. This act stipulated that every American was to af¤x a stamp printed in England on all receipts, contracts, and other legal documents in order to prove them authentic and legal. It became impossible to write a legal document without buying stamp paper printed in England. Therefore the American colonists called it a very oppressive act, and appealed repeatedly to the English of¤cers responsible for enforcing it. Finally the matter was exacerbated to such an extent that the English Government realized that the Stamp Act was destroying the peace of the colonies. The act remained in effect in America for about a year, during which time the English
The "Nethermost World," or Continent of America 73
Government sold stamps worth 16,000 pounds sterling; and as much money was spent on forcing the Americans to buy the stamps. Also, the army maintained there to protect English rule began to cost the English Government ¤ve times as much, that is to say, 80,000 pounds sterling per year.
At that time the American people had two political parties: those belonging to the Tory party were favorable to England, but the supporters of the Whig party were opposed to the acts of Parliament. Realizing that the Stamp Act did not bring any pro¤ts, the English Government repealed it and levied a tax on many essential commodities, such as tea. Even this was resented by the Americans. The English Parliament had representatives of the English people; but the American colonists did not have a similar right to send their representatives. The Americans began to regard it as a terrible humiliation that they should have to submit quietly to the laws made by the people of England for their own convenience. They declared that they would boycott all goods which were taxed. After the Stamp Act, almost all Americans had resolved not to use those goods manufactured in England which would adversely affect the trade of their own country.
This resolution dealt a serious blow to English trade. As a result, the English Government acceded to their request and abolished the tax on all goods except tea.
This tax was not very pro¤table but was merely symbolic of England's domination; even so the Americans could not tolerate it. In order to test its power over the Americans, the English Government sent some East India Company ships laden with tea to America. In 1773 the ships reached the principal ports, like
Philadelphia. Their captains, seeing that no one bought their cargo in New York and Philadelphia, headed for New England. In the city of Charleston the tea was unloaded, but not bought by the local people; it was stored in warehouses, where it rotted. When three ships laden with English tea came into Boston harbor, several young men of Boston boarded the ships, broke open three hundred boxes of tea, and dumped their contents into the ocean. This group is humorously known even today in the United States as the "Boston Tea Party," that is to say, the group of people in Boston who went to drink tea.
When the news of this rebellion at Boston reached England, the English Government was furious with the Bostonians, and passed a law known as the "Boston Port Bill" to prohibit any English merchant from trading with that city. This caused a great deal of hardship to the residents, but the people in other parts of the country helped the Bostonians a great deal by supplying them with essential commodities. After this incident, the oppressiveness of the English Government became notorious throughout the American colonies. In 1774 the English army camped in Massachusetts to punish the Bostonians. Later the matter was greatly aggravated. The American colonists began to complain that they had no representation in the English Parliament. They demanded that they should be con74 The Peoples of the United States
sulted while laws were being made which would affect them, and they asserted that it would be unjust of the English Government to impose arbitrary taxes on them without consulting them. Not only did the English Government not accept this logical and legitimate argument, but it also arranged to send the army there to control them, at the Americans' expense. On this occasion the American people unanimously attempted to protect their rights. The different colonies sent their elected representatives to Philadelphia, where the Congress of the American people was established. The Americans conducted the work of their national administration and legislation through the principal of¤ceholders of the Congress. Subsequently, many wars were fought between the English and the Americans. At the end of the year 1775, the American Congress appointed George
Washington to be the general of its army. Since that time, the Americans gained con¤dence that they could hold their own against the English. On the 4th of July
1776, the people of America declared to the world that they had severed all connections with the English Government and become totally independent. At that time, the States of America had a total population of 3,000,000 people, including all men, women, and children. They did not possess much wealth, or superior arms such as those possessed by the English Government. But so strong was their desire for independence that it made them regard as mere molehills the mountains of obstacles which repeatedly confronted them. For eight years they fought the English. Finally, in 1781 they won a victory over the English and gained independence for their nation of the United States. Until 1783 the English Government continued to ¤ght intermittent wars with them, but was unable to affect the independent States of America.11
The nation was reduced to poverty because of the war; and it faced all the problems which a newly created nation is likely to face. But all these problems were solved through the intelligence and diplomacy of Washington, Franklin,
Jefferson, and other learned, farsighted men devoted to the national welfare. In 1787 the United States Congress created and implemented a federal system of government, which facilitated excellent administration and general stability. Let us now brie®y consider the federal system of government in the United States, which has led to great happiness among the people of these States and made this nation the wealthiest and most advanced among all the nations on earth.
Note in the Orginal Text i. This was the island on which Columbus ¤rst set foot. It is one of the islands in the West Indies and belongs to the group known as the Bahamas. Its original name was Guanahani; its new name, "San Salvador," given by Columbus, means "The Holy Savior."
The "Nethermost World," or Continent of America 75