now considered as part of France, and is usually called Belgium. Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, and Ostend, in Flanders; and Antwerp in Brabant, are the principal cities and towns. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the people of Flanders, who are called Flemings, invented and improved a variety of ornamental as well as useful arts; and paintings by the Flemish artists are still highly valued.

ELIZABETH.

The Flemings were the people who gave to the different points of the mariner's compass the names by which they are now generally known.

MOTHER.

The country from the north of Belgium to the North Sea, was, not very long ago, called the Seven United Provinces, but it is now sometimes named Batavia. The names of the provinces are North and South Holland, West Friesland, Guelderland, Utrecht, Overyssel, and Groningen. Nearly the whole of this district is one continued marsh, and all the cities and towns are connected by canals, which are as common there

as roads in other parts of Europe, and serve for the same purposes. The people of Holland are called the Dutch, and are remarkable for their patient industry, and the neatness of their habits. The city of Amsterdam is a strong proof of their industry, for the ground on which it stands being entirely a swamp, it was necessary to build the whole city upon piles of wood, or trunks of large trees, forced down endways into the boggy soil; and in this manner, a situation fit only for frogs, was made the foundation of splendid houses. Rotterdam, Middleburgh, Leyden, Haerlem, the Hague, and Utrecht, are all celebrated cities, and have been remarkable for trade. The principal manufactures of the United Provinces, are linen, pottery, painted tiles, snuff, starch, and paper. The best pottery is made at Delft, near Rotterdam.

No; we have heard nothing yet of England.

MOTHER.

You will find England, Scotland, and Ireland, to the north-west of France. But we will leave them till we can think of them more particularly, by themselves.

214

CHAPTER THE TWELFTH.

AMERICA.-THE WEST INDIES.-AUSTRALASIA.

-POLYNESIA.

ELIZABETH.

WE are now come to AMERICA, which is by far the largest division of the globe.

MOTHER.

This great continent was discovered in the beginning of the sixteenth century by Christopher Columbus, a Genoese adventurer, who was a man of extraordinary patience and perseverance.

The Pope's authority over the whole world, was at that time acknowledged throughout Europe; and as he had granted to the Portuguese all the land they had already discovered, or might discover to the eastward of the Azores, the other nations of Europe were deprived of the advantage of trading to the East Indies; for the Portuguese

held exclusive possession of the Cape of Good Hope, which they had but lately discovered.

WILLIAM.

But how did they manage before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope.

ELIZABETH.

Until that time the productions of the East Indies were brought to Europe through the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

MOTHER.

Columbus saw and regretted the great loss his country had sustained, and proposed to sail to India by a western course.

His own countrymen, however, considered it a wild scheme to venture upon so great an undertaking, and he applied in vain to some of the other courts of Europe. But he was not disheartened, and at last Isabella, Queen of Spain, supported his cause, and even sold her own jewels to fit him out for the expedition. He sailed from Spain on the third of August, 1492, and discovered the island of San Salvador, on the eleventh of October in the same year. It was not till his fourth voyage, in the year 1502, that Columbus