Francis Parkman Quotes

In The Middle Of The Sixteenth Century, Spain Was The Incubus Of Europe. Gloomy And Portentous, She Chilled The World With Her Baneful Shadow.

The Young Nobles, Of Whom There Were Many, Were Volunteers, Who Had Paid Their Own Expenses In Expectation Of A Golden Harvest, And They Chafed In Impatience And Disgust. The Religious Element In The Colony-unlike The Former Huguenot Emigration To Brazil--was Evidently Subordinate. The Adventurers Thought More Of Their Fortunes Than Of Their Faith.

Many Of The Iroquois And Huron Houses Were Of Similar Construction, The Partitions Being At The Sides Only, Leaving A Wide Passage Down The Middle Of The House.

Fort Leavenworth Is In Fact No Fort, Being Without Defensive Works, Except Two Block-houses.

Our New England Climate Is Mild And Equable Compared With That Of The Platte.

France Built Its Best Colony On A Principle Of Exclusion, And Failed; England Reversed The System, And Succeeded.

The Monk, The Inquisitor, And The Jesuit Were Lords Of Spain,- Sovereigns Of Her Sovereign, For They Had Formed The Dark And Narrow Mind Of That Tyrannical Recluse. They Had Formed The Minds Of Her People, Quenched In Blood Every Spark Of Rising Heresy, And Given Over A Noble Nation To A Bigotry Blind And Inexorable As The Doom Of Fate. Linked With Pride, Ambition, Avarice, Every Passion Of A Rich, Strong Nature, Potent For Good And Ill, It Made The Spaniard Of That Day A Scourge As Dire As Ever Fell On Man.

The Growth Of New England Was A Result Of The Aggregate Efforts Of A Busy Multitude, Each In His Narrow Circle Toiling For Himself, To Gather Competence Or Wealth. The Expansion Of New France Was The Achievement Of A Gigantic Ambition Striving To Grasp A Continent. It Was A Vain Attempt.

We Were Now Arrived At The Close Of Our Solitary Journeyings Along The St. Joseph's Trail.

When America Was First Made Known To Europe, The Part Assumed By France On The Borders Of That New World Was Peculiar, And Is Little Recognized. While The Spaniard Roamed Sea And Land, Burning For Achievement, Red-hot With Bigotry And Avarice, And While England, With Soberer Steps And A Less Dazzling Result, Followed In The Path Of Discovery And Gold-hunting, It Was From France That Those Barbarous Shores First Learned To Serve The Ends Of Peaceful Commercial Industry.

We Were Now, As I Before Mentioned, Upon This St. Joseph's Trail. It Was Evident, By The Traces, That Large Parties Were A Few Days In Advance Of Us; And As We Too Supposed Them To Be Mormons, We Had Some Apprehension Of Interruption.

The Spanish Voyager, As His Caravel Ploughed The Adjacent Seas, Might Give Full Scope To His Imagination, And Dream That Beyond The Long, Low Margin Of Forest Which Bounded His Horizon Lay Hid A Rich Harvest For Some Future Conqueror; Perhaps A Second Mexico With Its Royal Palace And Sacred Pyramids, Or Another Cuzco With Its Temple Of The Sun, Encircled With A Frieze Of Gold. Haunted By Such Visions, The Ocean Chivalry Of Spain Could Not Long Stand Idle.