Benson John Lossing 
Lossing’s History of the United States of America [PDF ebook] 
From the Aboriginal Times to the Present Day

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. It is only yesterday, as it were, in the calendar of the earth’s existence, when the fact was first made known to modern men, that our planet was a globe, and that in the waters between the western coasts of Europe and Africa and the eastern coasts of Asia, there lay a vast continent teeming with life, wealth, and beauty. For generations after that discovery, the Continent was wrapped in profound mystery, the subject of wild conjecture and tales of wonder. Then newly-awakened moral forces impelled brave and earnest men and women to venture across the Atlantic Ocean and establish homes in the virgin wilderness. So began the heroic age of our Republic, at which period were planted the germs of the great commonwealths that compose the United States nation.