French Forts

          The French had many forts in North America.  They were mostly established and destroyed in the 1600s and the 1700s. Some were permanent and some went on to cities we have today. Let’s look at 3 forts of the French men.

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Fort Crevecoeur

On January 5^th, 1680, the French explorers: La Salle and Henri De Tonti established Fort Crevecoeur, but it didn’t last long

In April 15^th, 1680, Tonti left Crevecoeur to begin a new settlement and left seven people at the fort. The next day the seven men took everything from the fort, blew it up, and fled back to Canada.  

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                   Fort Detroit

          This fort was built in 1701 by Officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. At present day it is in Detroit, Michigan.

 It was built to keep the English from moving west and to make more fur trade in America.

          On November 9^th, 1760 the fort was conquered by the British, but in 1796, it was captured by the Americans.

In the 1805 fire, it was burnt to smithereens. 

Fort Frontenac

          This fort was a trading post built by La sale.  At present day, it is in Kingston, Canada.

          In August 1758, it was destroyed in the Battle of Fort Frontenac but was later rebuilt and then destroyed again 1758. Later in 1783, it was partially rebuilt and is now a college.

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          The French still had many more forts in North America. They stopped having forts because they lost the French and Indian War. Over the years, some were rotted and collapsed and some went on to become modern day cities.

 

Mr. Explorer La Salle

          In 1643, Robert Cavalier (La Salle) was born in Rouen, France.  He loved adventure and asked the governor if he could start an expedition to find a river to the Pacific Ocean through America and the governor said ,"Yes."

          La Salle first began establishing forts and colonies near the great lakes. At the Niagara River, which is in New York he sailed on canoes up the river to Niagara Falls. At the top of it, he built fort Frontenac.

          In the spring, he came back to his camp near Frontenac and built a ship called the Griffin to sail the great lakes called. They established Fort Miami, which was just a log cabin. He was staying there because he was waiting for the Griffin to return from an expedition. It took months for him to realize that it was sunk in a storm.

           Despite his depression, he started canoeing on the Mississippi River and set camp at a very good spot with lots of game.

          Later in Texas, he sent a couple of men to hunt buffalo, but those men were plotting to kill Robert’s nephew. They killed the nephew. When Robert found his body, the traitors were watching and killed him.

          La Salle was a great explorer. Everyone Knew that but La Salle didn’t think that. La Salle helped France get a lot of land in America.

                    

Jamestown

In 1606, England decided that they wanted a colony in the New World, so they sent 3 ships: the Susan Constant, Discovery, and the Godspeed. Those ships’ captain was Christopher Newport. They chose the spot for their colony and named it Jamestown and the nearby James River after King James the 3^rd of England.

          Jamestown was the first permanent colony in America owned by the English. At present day, Jamestown is located at Williamsburg, Virginia

Jamestown was on a peninsula. It was surrounded by 2 swamps and the James River.  It was a problematic. It had many hostile Indians nearby. The people didn’t like to work. Many died of hunger because food was scarce, and plagues were killing many people.

 Captain John Smith was also one of the founders of Jamestown. When John Smith was in Jamestown, he worked on making people to work on the town more. Many people wouldn’t work, so he made a rule that if they don’t work, they don’t eat.

In 2007, Queen Elizabeth II of England came to the 400^th anniversary of Jamestown. As of

 2013, Jamestown is 406 years old. 

Mr. John Smith

 

          In 1580, Captain John Smith was born in Willoughby England. In 1593 he joined the army only 13 years old and became a captain.  In 1596, now 16 years old, a champion Turk challenged a captain to a jousting match where the loser has to give away his armor and his head. They couldn’t pick who to fight him so they took a draw. Smith himself turned out to be the winner.  Once it began, they started galloping at each other and the Turk was knocked off his horse. Next a big muscular Turk challenged Smith to a mounted duel. The Turk chose to use a sword, 2 battle axes, and some pistols. Once it began, Smith stabbed his sword through the Turk and became the champion.

          Later, he fought in a battle against the Turks and was forced to surrender. He became a slave to the Turks. One day, he was threshing the grain in an empty barn. His master Timor came to him. Timor hit Smith with the flat part of his sword. John’s temper went high. He took a bat and smashed it on Timor’s face. He fell dead. Quickly, John took Timor’s clothes and horse and rode off. A couple days of traveling later, he found a group of Russian Christians. The Christians treated him with much respect and filed his slave collar off. Once he was ready, he started to travel back to England. He had seen most of Europe, some of Africa and Asia and finally reached England.

          On December 6^th, 1600, he started sailing on a ship called a pinnace to the West Indies. Once they reached Jamestown, they were at war with the Indians. Once the ship left, a terrible fever hit Jamestown killing 62 of the 100 settlers. James decided to make friends with the Indians, so he decided to trade. He brought copper, hatchets, and beads in exchange for food, but the Indians refused. So instead, John said, “Let’s go back to the boat and leave.” Instead, they shot their guns above the Indians and startled them. They came back to shore and forced them to trade.

          A few days after Christmas, they started sailing down the river and searching for the North-West Passage. They set camp near the river, but, while they were sleeping, their idiotic Indian guide decided to go hunting. When Smith woke up, he was surrounded by hostile Indians.

          Smith was tied to a tree and was about to be killed when Pocahontas came between the weapons and Smith. She saved his life. Later in 1631, he returned to England and died.  

                                                                                

      Mr. John Smith                                                       John Smith's trail

The Weapons of the Conquistadors in the 1500s

 

            There were 2 sorts of Spanish conquistadors, horse men and footmen. The horse men were paid much more than the foot men, so foot men would often save up for a horse. They used spears and swords. The swords were 3 feet long and had sharp edges on both sides. The Spanish city of Toledo was one of the best places in the world for making swords, muskets, and armor.

             Some foot men used a harquebus. A harquebus was an early musket. It was less effective at long range and more effective at close range. They were mainly used for terrorizing natives, who thought harquebuses created thunder. It was also dangerous to its user because the man has lots of gunpowder on himself and a match in one hand. Also when the gun gets clogged it may explode. For long range, professional archers had better accuracy than a harquebus.

             They mainly used a fine Toledo blade. The blades could cut down a dozen natives in a couple minutes. For a battle sometimes conquistadors would use a pack of blood hounds. Bloods hounds were a very dangerous type of war dog that could track an enemy far away by smell.

Hernando De Soto

 

          It was the year 1500 when Hernando De Soto was born in Spain. It was 1415 when he set sail for his first expedition to the New World. He knew he would miss Isabel but at least he could marry her once he got back. He made several expeditions to find gold. The Spanish liked gold. 

          He helped conquer Nicaragua and Honduras. The Spanish easily won because they used guns, cannons, armor, good swords, horses and blood hounds and the Indians only used swords and bows and arrows. 

          In 1519, he went back to Spain to ask Isabel’s father’s permission to marry Isabel, but he hated him so much that he challenged him to a duel. Once the duel began, De Soto struck the blade out of the dads hand and surprisingly spared his life.

          In November 15, 1532, he set out to conquer the Incas, who had much gold. Once he arrived, he met the ruler and he seemed friendly. However on the next day, the ruler was invited to dinner and was captured. De Soto would only let him go if he gave him gold. Now that he was rich, he asked Isabel to be his wife and she said  ,”Yes.”  

          Later in 1519, he discovered the Mississippi river. A year later, he sent camp on the river and Indians burned down the camp including De Soto.

The Man of Discovering

          Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451. He had dreamed of discovering a path to the Indies. He believed the world was round so he could travel west to get to the east. He became a good navigator and map maker in 1477. Later, he met a woman named Felipa and got married and had a son named Diego. He made plans to get to Asia and gave them to the king of Portugal. The king secretly sent a fleet to look for it before Christopher did but they couldn’t find anything. So instead, he went to the king of Spain and the king said” Yes.”

          On August 3^rd, 1492, Columbus set sail with 3 ships: the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. After about a month of sailing, the sailors began to complain and argue that there wasn’t any land and wanted turn back. Then, he made a final decision that if they didn’t find and land in 3 days they would turn back. On the next day at 2:00 am, someone from the Nina shouted, “Land ho!”

         Once he stepped foot on the land, he was greeted by natives that gave him spice, furs, and other goods. In 10 years, he made 4 more expeditions and helped colonies get established in the Americas. Although Columbus had thought that the land was India, it was actually the islands in the Caribbean Sea. A few years after Columbus’s death, which was in the year 1506, some people found out that it was North America. If it wasn’t for Columbus, we wouldn’t be in America right now.     

 

American History

Hello peeps. Welcome to the world of blogs. I am a human.  Are you? What you are about to read is a little bloggity blog about none other than Mr. Christopher Columbus and other American peeps.