THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 117 



nent, quotations from Stanley and Drummond, illustrative 

 of its surface features, descriptions of its various products 

 and a statement of the obstacles with which colonization 

 and commerce must contend, with special reference to the 

 African fever, were given. 



Monday, April £, 1891.— Mr. W. A. Mowiy, of Dor- 

 chester read a paper on "Some Stepping Stones to Amer- 

 ican Greatness." In introducing his subject, he said it was 

 only recently we had discovered that we had any history. 

 It is not the length of time which makes history, but what 

 is accomplished. We made more history in a single cen- 

 tury than Methuselah saw in his long lifetime. 



The last century has made history that shall last while 

 the world endures :the freeing of the slaves between 1860 

 and 1865, the freeing of slaves in Cuba and the emanci- 

 pation of serfs in Russia. He went back to the beginning 

 of European knowledge of America, Columbus' discovery. 

 Three great nations held possession of sections of America 

 at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Spain the 

 southern portion of the continent, France along the St. 

 Lawrence valley and England the smallest possessions, a 

 few small colonies along the coast. 



The wonderful treaty at the close of the French and In- 

 dian War reshaped those possessions, but the result was the 

 taxation of the colonists and the Declaration of Indepen- 

 dence. The treaty of peace at the close of the Revolution- 

 ary War was considered by the lecturer the most remark- 

 able ; it involved three great questions the most serious of 

 which Avas the boundaries. The three men most instru- 

 mental in drawing it up were John Adams, John Jay and 

 Benjamin Franklin and it resulted in our gaining posses- 

 sion of the tract northwest of Ohio. 



Mr. Mowry dwelt at some length on the condition of 



ESSEX INST. BULLETIN, VOL. XXIII 8* 



