Sketches of Our Heritage

By Jerry M. Young

Sketches of Our Heritage will make you think about the people and the price they paid to establish The United States of America. In 60 chapters author Jerry M. Young has condensed vital historic elements into a clear and understandable view of the development of our country. Spanning the timeframe from 1000 AD, when the first European is recorded to have sighted North America; to December 15, 1791 when the Bill of Rights was ratified by the required three-fourths of the states approving, Sketches traces the issues that had to be overcome early on. Some of them have become precursors of the problems we face today. All of them contribute to the strength of a new form of government and economic system established by brilliant statesmen back then. They fought against tyranny and in the end discovered freedom. Young leaves us with the question: "What will be the Sketch of Your Heritage, your family will tell about you?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jerry M. Young
• Release date: Oct 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310040870

Jerry M. Young

Jerry M. Young earned a Master's degree in communications from BYU and has served as press secretary to a U.S. Congressman, as the city editor of a mid-sized newspaper and has been a free lance writer for more than 30 years. Born in the back room of a private house in the East Mill Creek neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah, he has lived in Denver, Colorado; Sacramento, California; and Seattle, Washington. A Mormon, he served a mission to the Spanish-American people in Texas and New Mexico and speaks fluent Spanish. He is married to the former Suzanne Cannon and they are the parents of four daughters; the grandparents of 14 and the great-grandparents of 22 (soon to be 23).

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Title

Table of Contents

Welcome to Sketches of Our Heritage

SECTION_#1

Chapter 1 Bjarni Herjulfson

Chapter 2 Leif Erickson

Chapter 3 Christopher Columbus

Chapter 4 Beyond Columbus

Chapter . 5 Ponce de León

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Chapter 6 Alvar Núñes Cabesa de Vaca

Chapter 7 Roanoke

Chapter 8 The Lost Colony

Chapter 9 Jamestown

Chapter 10 Change of Command

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Chapter 11 From Starvation to Hope

Chapter 12 From Hope to Success

Chapter 13 The Undesirables

Chapter 14 The Mayflower Compact

Chapter 15 A Place to Live

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Chapter 16 William Bradford

Chapter 17 The Great Migration

Chapter 18 Division and Rights

Chapter 19 The Dutch

Chapter 20 The Swedes

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Chapter 21 Four More Colonies

Chapter 22 Maryland

Chapter 23 The Carolinas

Chapter 24 And Georgia Makes 13

Chapter 25 Indians

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Chapter 26 Indian Wars

Chapter 27 French Influence in Americas

Chapter 28 Novelle France

Chapter 29 The French and Indian War

Chapter 30 Defeating the French

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Chapter 31 First Thoughts

Chapter 32 Growing Embers

Chapter 33 Banding Together 

Chapter 34 Violence in the Streets

Chapter 35 Colonists Shoot Back

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Chapter 36 The Boston Tea party

Chapter 37 Preparations for War

Chapter 38 The Shot Heard Round the World

Chapter 39 The Siege of Boston

Chapter 40 Bunker Hill

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Chapter 41 Steps to the Declaration

Chapter 42 The Declaration of Independence

Chapter 43 The Confederation of American States

Chapter 44 Early Battles

Chapter 45 Valley Forge

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Chapter 46 Battles at Sea

Chapter 47 Southern Battles Begin

Chapter 48 Guerilla Leaders and Tactics

Chapter 49 From Disaster to Hope

Chapter 50 Strategic Retreats

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Chapter 51 Taking the Initiative

Chapter 52 Surrender and War’s End

Chapter 53 Looking Beyond Chaos

Chapter 54 Miracle at Philadelphia, Part I

Chapter 55 Miracle at Philadelphia, Part II

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Chapter 56 Miracle at Philadelphia, Part III

Chapter 57 Miracle at Philadelphia, Part IV

Chapter 58 The Campaign to Ratify

Chapter 59 The New Republic Comes to Life

Chapter 60 Balance and Rights

About the Author

Bibliography

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Welcome to

Sketches of Our Heritage

In art, a sketch is the likeness of reality where details are more often suggested than perfectly drawn or painted. Yet in a sketch we find truth that relates to the eye and the mind and the heart.

Sketches of Our Heritage is intended to supplement regular coursework in American History. Great care has been taken to carefully maintain the essence and character of the saga of our nation. Written by a journalist, it was a matter of selecting what should be included and what should be left for further investigation. The intent has been to encourage study and thought into the lives and actions of those who founded, pioneered, and created this incredible land.

Those great men began with the desire to be free from oppression. Their knowledge of the past and their vision and hope for a brighter future caused them to act in a bold and courageous way. Consider what it took for them to create this marvelous nation of ours — a nation that has provided more freedom, liberty and prosperity, to more people, for a longer period of time, than any other nation has ever done in the history of mankind.

And as those thoughts linger in your mind, ponder one thing more. Quietly ask yourself: What will be the sketch of their heritage my family will tell about me?

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Includes Chapters 1 to 5

Chapter_1:_

Bjarni_Herjulfson

While this story may not seem to be directly on point, don’t you think it’s important for us to know what may have been the very beginning of how our country came into being?

This is a story about a Viking. And we only know about him because his story was written down by three Catholic Monks who lived among the Northmen on an island called Flatey Island, just off the southwest coast of Iceland. The monks had listened to the sagas often repeated by the Northmen there and recognized them to be something to record and preserve. The book they wrote came to be known as the Flateyjarbuk or Flatey Island Book. And one section of it contained the sagas of Vikings from Iceland. That is where this information came from.

The reason it’s so important to us is that this just might be an account of the first European to have set eyes on the new world. And it’s this account that just might have been what Christopher Columbus came across 400 years later. We’ll talk about that at another time.

But for now, let’s see what happened to our Viking. His name was Bjarni Herjulfson, and since he owned his own ship, he was master of it. In Viking times they called ship captains sea konigs – or sea kings you see. And he had a loyal crew that had sailed with him for a long time.

It was Bjarni’s custom to spend the winter with his father every other year. His father’s name was Herjulf and several years before, he’d moved from Norway to Iceland. But in the year 986 A.D., Bjarni landed in Iceland only to find his father had sailed off with a group of settlers, led by Eric the Red, to a new land in the western sea.

Eric the Red had named it Greenland. Now everyone in Iceland knew that was a joke. It could not have been anymore green than Iceland. Greenland was too far to the north for it to be as green as the name implied.

But what had happened to those settlers was not a joke.

Word had come back from the expedition that while 35 ships filled with people, cattle and supplies had left Iceland to begin their new life in Greenland, only 15 ships had arrived there safely. Bjarni was relieved to hear that his father was among the survivors.

Now that left Bjarni with a hard decision. He could stay in Iceland and spend the winter with his men. Or he could take his ship on a journey into an unknown sea with unknown dangers. Remember, more than half of the initial group had been lost. There was no guarantee that he and his men would arrive safely – especially with winter closing in on them so fast.

But his desire to see his father and spend the winter with him – at least one more time – was too strong to ignore.

He made his decision and announced to his men – It is foolish for us to make such a voyage this late in the year, but I will spend the winter with my father.

Foolish or not, his men trusted him and agreed to sail with him to this new land. So, without even unloading their ship, they sailed on the next tide.

They sailed to the west and at a point where they expected to see land, their fair winds failed and they were becalmed. A thick fog settled around them and for days they drifted aimlessly in what we call the North Atlantic.

When finally the sun burned away the fog and the wind freshened, they had no idea where they were. As their leader, Bjarni was expected to decide which way they would go. Well, he ordered that they take a westerly course. And after just one day, the lookout shouted – Land!

From first sight they could see it was not Greenland. There were no mountains, only low wooded hillocks. And they were too far to the south. It was too warm.

When they sailed closer it only confirmed what they had thought in the beginning. So they changed course and sailed in a northerly direction.

Two days later they sighted land for a second time.

Again Bjarni was disappointed and said this looked no more like Greenland than the first. It was different than the first. There were no hills. It was flat and extensively wooded.

His men wanted to put ashore. Aside from being the adventurers they were, they also were low on water and firewood. After a great discussion it came down again to Bjarni’s decision. Well he ordered them to turn seaward and the report says they were taken by a gale from the Southwest.

Three days later they sighted land a third time. They could see high mountains and what appeared to be glaciers. But still Bjarni considered this land unprofitable. His men argued again that they should put ashore, but again he did not allow the ship to stop.

Leaving that land astern, a mighty wind came up and carried the ship for four days before they sighted a fourth landfall.

This time it was Greenland and they sailed along the coast until they saw a settlement. That evening Bjarni eased into a sheltered bay that had been named Herjulfsness. His father came down to the rocky beach and welcomed his son.

Well this gave the whole community a good excuse to celebrate. You see, for northlanders, the arrival of a ship was a major event. It would be the first gathering of the winter – the beginning of their season to mingle in their longhouses and feast while telling sagas of adventures long past and creating new sagas of recent exploits. So there, in that first gathering Bjarni, had the opportunity to tell what he had done to reach his father that year.

But one of his men complained that Bjarni had not let them put ashore and explore those new lands. Not knowing any better, they referred to them as islands – three islands in the sea to the southwest. Another member of the crew said the same thing. And in the end a chorus of criticism came from the crusty old Vikings.

All winter long Bjarni Herjulfson was criticized for not exploring the three new islands.

It was hard for him to take such criticism.

By Spring Bjarni had heard enough. He boldly announced that he would sail again as soon as he could. Everything was made ready and he noticed the criticisms had stopped. But instead of sailing back to those new islands, he sailed across the North Sea, directly to Norway, so he could tell the King about them.

Now in those days, that was no easy task. Get a globe and trace his course – from the southern tip of Greenland, directly to Norway. It was an incredible feat of seamanship. No stops at all across the North Sea. He wanted nothing to interfere with his desired meeting with the King.

But once he was there he discovered an obstacle he had not expected. For several years some lesser officials in Norway prevented him from ever speaking with the King. And in the end, Bjarni was so discouraged he sailed back to Greenland, never to sail again.

And so it was that Bjarni sold his ship to none other than the son of Eric the Red. His name was Leif.

And what did Leif Erickson do about all of this? Well, that’s another story, for another day.

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Chapter 2:_

Leif_Erickson

Do you know who were the first Europeans to build a house in North America? They weren’t Spanish, they weren’t French; and they weren’t English.

They were the Vikings – Northmen who had sailed from Norway to Iceland and then from Iceland to Greenland and finally from Greenland to North America.

Here’s how it happened.

It all began when Bjarni Herjulfson was becalmed at sea and got lost on his way from Iceland to Greenland. When the fair winds came back, he made his way northward towards his father’s home in Greenland. But soon he and his men saw what they called islands in the sea to the south and west of Greenland. They sighted land three times.

Bjarni tried to tell the King of Norway about what he’d seen, but he was prevented from ever speaking with the King. So, one thing after another happened and finally Bjarni was so discouraged that he decided to sell his ship. That’s when Leif Erickson came into the picture. He bought Bjarni’s boat.

Leif was an energetic and enterprising man. His friends called him Lucky Leif because he had managed to survive many dangerous voyages in his life.

He was the son of Eric the Red, and had come to Greenland with his father. It was there that he heard the story of those three islands to the west of Greenland. And Leif took special note of the criticism heaped upon Bjarni for not putting ashore to explore those new places. He planted in his own mind the commitment to put ashore at any new place he might discover on his own voyages. He was anxious for the chance to seek out new places and to explore them and to profit by them.

Thus when the opportunity came to actually buy Bjarni’s boat, he jumped at the chance. But sailing west was not the first thing Leif Erickson finally did. Instead he made a point of sailing directly from Greenland to Norway without stopping. This was the same incredible feat Bjarni had done a few years earlier. But unlike Bjarni, when Leif got to Norway, he actually did have a visit with the King. In fact, while he was there in King Olaf’s court, Leif was converted to Christianity. So he had a lot to talk about when he got back to Greenland.

Well, shortly after returning from Norway, Leif did set out to retrace Bjarni’s voyage into the western sea. But by this time some 14 years had passed since Bjarni’s adventure.

What’s so remarkable about Leif’s voyage is that he was following the verbal instructions Bjarni had made about his trip. And if that wasn’t hard enough, he was about to follow Bjarni’s course against prevailing sea currents and tendencies of the wind.

In case you weren’t aware of it, Viking ships had only one sail – a square sail normally used to push the ship straight ahead, with very little ability to sail at an angle to the wind. When faced with a serious headwind and most crosswinds, all they could do was to row if they wanted to stay on course. You can imagine -- they did a lot of rowing.

But no matter how they did it, they sailed as best they could, following Bjarni’s instructions. And in roughly four days, they sighted the last of the three islands Bjarni said he’d seen.

Sure enough, there was a mountain – and it was capped with snow – maybe even a glacier.

As he had promised himself, Leif ordered a landing. When they sailed closer they thought the land looked like one great flat rock with not a whole lot of good qualities. Leif gave the new land a name. He called it Helluland – which means land of flat rock.

Not wasting any time there, they continued on to the second landfall Bjarni had reported. Again they found Bjarni’s description to be accurate. It was a flat, wooded land with beaches of white sand. And as Leif walked on the shore, he named it Markland which meant forestland.

Putting to sea again they sailed for an expected two days before they saw the first land Bjarni had seen. They put ashore on an island before sailing north into a bay which was west of a cape. In the shallow water the ship went aground and while they waited for the tide to come in, they continued exploring in a small boat.

A few hours later, after they floated the great ship they sailed up a river and into a lake.

They landed on the shore of the lake and set up a temporary shelter. Later they would build a more appropriate house – a long house you see -- for this would be the place where they would stay the winter. And they called this place Leif’s shelters.

When they returned to Greenland and reported what they had discovered, the saga they told included a lot of interesting details about the new land.

To them they were the realities of their life in the new world. But to us they have become clues to the location of where they actually landed and lived. But because of the oral nature of the report, accuracy obviously was somewhat lost.

Scholars in recent times, who have been motivated to give to the Vikings their rightful credit in the discovery of North America, have tried in vain to pinpoint exactly where Leif set up his shelters. The best they have been able to do has been to say that Leif’s shelters had to be somewhere within the range of from Massachusetts in the north and Virginia on the south. But that doesn’t narrow it down much does it?

Here’s what they were thinking.

Leif reported that there was an abundance of salmon in the river and in the lake. The fact that salmon have a tendency of staying within certain geographical locations has given us one of the clues.

The other clue is the fact that Leif reported there was an abundance of vines with tasty grapes – suitable for making wine. And the vines also could be braided together to make fairly decent ropes for their ship. Grape bearing vines only grow in certain geographical locations in North America – part of which overlap the area where salmon are known to spawn.

They also reported that during the winter the cattle were able to forage through the snow. They did not have to store great amounts of fodder for them. In other words, it was not all that cold and snowy that winter.

And that coincides with what we know about the general climate conditions around that time – in the year 1000 A.D. Scientists have discovered there was a cycle of warm weather that lasted until about 1300 AD. And perhaps that’s why they were able to survive in Greenland during that particular time too.

But so far as Leif Erickson was concerned it was the vines or perhaps the wine that impressed him the most.

For they are the only clues we have of why Leif named this new land – Vinland. But it’s not clear whether it was because of the vines or because of the grapes and wine.

Leif and his men stayed the whole winter in Vinland and managed to take a full cargo of logs and vines and grapes with them back to Greenland. He also mounted another expedition to Vinland the next year. And his sister and brother-in-law followed with more visits to Vinland.

We don’t really know why they didn’t stay much longer. They reported several times that they were visited often by what they called Skraelings or aboriginal people. Actually the word skraeling is the lone surviving word from the Old Norse dialect spoken by the medieval Norse Greenlanders. The word skrá – s k r a – also refers to skin clothing instead of woven clothing. Greenlanders called neighboring Eskimos Skraelings because of their clothing. So it was natural for them to call our North American Indians Skraelings as well.

And there were incidents reported in the sagas where the Skraelings were not all that anxious for the Northmen to elbow in on their territory. A number of deadly skirmishes were reported, mainly during the latter voyages. Ironically it may well have been the ever-present threat from the Skraelings that caused the Viking explorers to abandon their claim on North America. We know that the Vikings had a fierce reputation for having a warlike disposition. But so did the Skraelings. Even so, for whatever reason, eventually the Vikings abandoned Vinland.

The only real evidence we have of a Viking presence in North America is the excavation of a Viking age settlement located on the north point of a peninsula in Newfoundland at a place known as L’Anse aux Meadows.

Some have speculated that this had to be Leif’s Shelters. But there is ample evidence that it was not. That it was a Viking settlement there is no doubt. But calling it Leif’s Shelters is a bit of a stretch. For one thing it was not on a lake. For another, it is too far north to support the vines Leif spoke about.

The fact that scientists have not found more evidence of where Leif’s Shelters might have been or of a Viking presence in North America isn’t really all that big a deal.

There are too many written references of a place west of Greenland called Vinland for the Viking presence there to be ignored.

We know about the Flateyjarbuk but Helleland, Markland and Vinland also are mentioned briefly in the report of an interview between the King of Denmark and a Catholic Bishop from Germany.

The point here is that Vinland was not a very well kept secret by anyone familiar with the goings and comings of sailors and ships working in the North Atlantic and the North Sea.

And that brings us to the adventures of Christopher Columbus – an Italian who admitted having sailed with Portuguese merchants in the North Sea, and who ultimately convinced the Queen of Spain to sponsor his venture across the Atlantic in hopes of reaching the Orient by sea.

But that’s another story for another day.

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Chapter 3:

Christopher Columbus

So, how much do you know about the early life of Christopher Columbus?

You say you don’t know very much?

Well, that’s okay, neither does anyone else.

In fact, at one time people tried to make up stories about Columbus to explain what he was doing and why he did it. For instance, it used to be common to teach that people back then believed the world was flat and that he was trying to prove the world was round.

That’s nonsense. Maybe a few, uneducated people believed the world was flat – if they ever thought about it. But anyone with any education at all probably did not believe such a thing. People in his time were really quite well informed and highly scientific. Among other things they studied mathematics, astronomy, geography and cosmography. In case you didn’t know, cosmography is the science of mapping out the universe. So just looking into space scholars in those days could see that all the other planets were round. There wasn’t a single flat planet out there. Our world had to be round too.

Well we just have to accept the reality that the early years of Columbus are a mystery. According to his son, Fernando, Columbus was a student at the University of Pavia. But according to Columbus himself – in his autobiography – he was a sailor early on and learned all that was practical about the sea.

Maybe he was one – maybe he was the other –maybe he was both. We will never know.

We do know he was born in Genoa, Italy, the oldest son in a family of wool weavers. But no one seems to know exactly when he was born.

We finally catch up to him in 1474 – 18 years before his famous voyage across the Atlantic. It was then that he sailed into Chios – located on one of the many islands of Greece – where he lived for a couple of years before returning to Genoa.

There he joined a small fleet of four ships enroute to somewhere in the North Atlantic – perhaps even to England. But the fleet was attacked by pirates as it rounded the southwest corner of Portugal.

And while Columbus survived the attack, his ship did not. Somehow he made it to shore and found his way to Lisbon where he spent a year or so recuperating and helping his younger brother, Bartholomew. He was a chart maker and taught Christopher how to make them. That was a vital business for any seafaring community and both men were successful at it.

This might well be a clue to where Columbus got the idea that China could be reached by sailing west, across the Atlantic. He most certainly had to deal with many ship captains and pilots or navigators – they were his only customers. And some of them had to have known of what the Vikings had called Vinland. Remember, to them they were islands to the west of Iceland and Greenland. Those Northmen were really good story tellers, you see. And there always was the chance that those stories those sagas – carried some truth in them.

The next thing we hear of Columbus is that he was involved with another voyage – this one was heading to somewhere in the North Sea. It was a voyage everyone said they should not start because of approaching bad weather. But they shipped out anyway.

And here is where more mystery rises before us. For that ship managed to reach land at a place called Tile. No one seems to know what or where Tile was. Some scholars say it was Iceland. Others say it had to be a place beyond Iceland.

But no matter where exactly it was, there had to have been some Northlanders there. And there had to have been some time spent listening to those Northlanders boast about the exploits of their ancestors – including the Viking discovery of that land in the west they called Vinland. If that was the case, then the rest of Columbus’s story seems to fit together.

Unfortunately again we just don’t know the whole story. But we do know that immediately after that voyage he was highly motivated to promote an expedition to the Orient by sailing west -- across the Atlantic.

That would have been a big deal back then. Sea captains still didn’t like sailing into vast, open seas to unknown destinations. They knew of a lot of ships that left on such voyages – and knew just as well that many of them did not come back.

But there was always the curiosity to see beyond the horizon – to go there – to find wealth and adventure there. And besides, the idea of sailing west from Europe also meant sailing in the general direction of the Orient where gold and spices and exotic fabrics could be had.

Still, for us, the question remains, what was it that triggered in Columbus’s thoughts the idea that he could get to China by sailing west?

As we’ve said, he could have gotten such an idea by talking with ship captains and navigators in his chart making business, or by hearing the Viking sagas in Tile or Iceland or wherever that was. Or he could have gotten the idea when he was at the University of Pavia – if he ever went there.

Columbus could even have learned about Vinland from several other sources. We already know about the Flateyjarbuk, but there also is a one line entry in the Icelandic Annals for the year 1121 which reports that Bishop Erik Bnupsson went in search of Vinland that year. Other sources have shown that Bishop Adam of Bremen, Germany learned of Vinland from the Danish King Sven Estridsson.

One or all of those sources may have been what Christopher Columbus needed to formulate the idea that China could be reached by sailing west from Europe. About that, we can only speculate.

What we are certain of is that after Columbus had gained a significant reputation and status as a master mariner, he approached King John the Second of Portugal with all the data he’d gathered. To his disappointment the King turned him away.

Ironically it turns out that Columbus was not the only one with the idea that land could be reached by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean. You see after Columbus approached King John, the King took all the calculations and other data Columbus had given him and promptly dispatched a flotilla of four Caravelles to follow the course Columbus had mapped out.

But the ships came back because of some violent storms. And when Columbus heard about what the King had done, he was so angry that he fled out of Portugal as fast as he could go.

Then he immediately tried to get an audience with King Ferdinand of Spain, but the King was too preoccupied with his war with the Saracens in the South of Spain to grant Columbus an audience.

So he headed off to seek an audience with the King of France. But on the way he stopped at a monastery where he found a friend who encouraged him to go back and speak with the Queen of Spain.

That he did. And Queen Isabella believed him. It so happened that this time he was lucky. Spain had just had military success in driving the Muslims out of Granada and so King Ferdinand agreed to finance Columbus’s venture.

Three ships were made ready for the voyage – The Niña, The Pinta, and the Santa Maria. But even after all he’d been through to get permission to sail and to make the ships ready, there was a struggle for power and authority. All three ship captains wanted to be the leader of the expedition.

After much discussion and debate, Columbus was given the title of Admiral and was placed in command of the flotilla. They set sail on August 3rd, 1492, from the Rio Tinto at Palos de la Frontera.

Three days out to sea the Pinta’s rudder was lost and they had to put ashore for repairs. The flotilla sailed then to the Canary Islands where they waited for the most favorable conditions. They began again on September 6th.

Through the next month Columbus not only had problems keeping his crew cheered up, but he also had trouble keeping the three ship captains convinced of his authority and the validity of their mission.

By October 10th the captains rebelled and tried to force Columbus to turn back. But Columbus got them to agree to sail on for three more days.

As it turned out, the very next day, with the ships on a west-southwest course, the sailors saw sandpipers and a green reed floating near the ship. Now sandpipers never fly very far from land. It was a significant turning point. Furthermore, men on the Pinta saw two cane poles. One of the poles looked like it had been worked on one end with iron.

That night, two hours after midnight, just 22 and a half leagues from where they spotted the signs of land, a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana aboard the Pinta, first sighted land.

Finally, for Christopher Columbus, all the speculation and doubts were over. They had sighted land after a lengthy voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.

But they had no idea what they had found. They wanted easy access to China.

But they got something else instead. It would take them a great deal of time to figure out what a major discovery they had made. It wasn’t China. But it was land and in the excitement they had to wonder –what kind of treasure could they find here? Could there be gold here?

Well that’s another story for another day.

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Chapter 4:

Beyond Columbus

Do you know what happened to Columbus after his flotilla of 3 ships sighted land on October 12th 1492?

There are some very interesting lessons we can learn from what he did, what his men did, and what the Spanish royalty did – all after they sighted land.

Remember, that first sighting came a little after 2 in the morning and it was just a faint silhouette on the horizon. So they decided to heave to – meaning that they turned their ships into the wind and just drifted for awhile.

First thing in the morning they approached land, lowered a boat, and a few of them rowed ashore. Columbus with two of the three ship captains and a few armed men rowed through the surf toward the beach.

It was a flat island with beautiful trees and shrubs, the shoreline edged by white sand. As they drew closer they could see a few men emerge from the tree line, and stand there as if they were waiting for them.

Can you imagine what those natives were thinking right then? They had never before seen a sailing ship, moving across the sea. And they had never before seen a small boat like that. Long, dugout canoes they had seen – and had made with their own hands. But that boat was much different. And the men inside the boat were different. Some wore caps on their heads and others wore something shiny like the shell they had around their chests.

Where did they come from? Did they come from heaven?

They carried long poles with cloth fixed at the top, and the cloth waved in the wind and as the boat was tossed by the waves.

The strangers looked awkward as they climbed out of the boat, carrying their long sticks with the cloth. But they soon steadied themselves on the sand and formed into a group.

Before the strange men came toward the natives, they said something that had to be important. And then they turned themselves so they all faced the natives.

Now can you imagine what the Spaniards were thinking, standing for the first time on that beach, knowing they were being watched by those natives – the permanent residents