The above estimate was made by George Ernest Ravenstein, F.R.G.S., the geographer and statistician, and is for 1890.

An estimate of population of the earth made by Drs. Wagner and Supan, editors of "Bevölkerung der Erde" (Perthes, Gotha, 1891), is as follows: Europe, 357,379,000; Asia, 825,954,000; Africa, 163,953,000; America, 121,713,000; Australia, 3,230,000; Oceanic Islands, 7,420,000; polar regions, 80,400. Total, 1,479,729,400. The estimate of area of the continents and islands by the same authorities is 52,821,684.

Ravenstein's estimate of the earth's fertile region, in square miles, is 28,269,200; steppe, 13,901,000; desert, 4,180,000; polar regions, 4,888,800. .

The population of the earth at the death of the Emperor Augustus, estimated by Bodio, was 54,000,000. The population of Europe hardly exceeded 50,000,000 before the fifteenth century.-Mulhall.

The area and cubic contents of the earth, according to the data of Clark, given above, are: Surface, 196,971,984 square miles; cubic contents, 259,944,035,515 cubic miles.

Murray (Challenger expedition) states the greatest depth of the Atlantic Ocean at 27,366 feet; Pacific Ocean, 30,000 feet; Indian Ocean, 18,582 feet; Southern Ocean, 25,200 feet; Arctic Ocean, 9,000 feet. The Atlantic Ocean has an area, in square miles, of 24,536,000; Pacific Ocean, 50,309,000; Indian Ocean, 17,084,000; Arctic Ocean, 4,781,000; Southern Ocean, 30,592,000.

MERICA was

1492. known to the ancient Northmen as early as the tenth century, but its true discovery dates from the voyage of Columbus, in 1492.

Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, having enlisted the assistance of Isabella of Spain, sailed from the port of Palos, on the third day of August, 1492, on his voyage of discovery, with a fleet of three vessels, and a crew of one hundred and twenty men, and landed on the island of San Salvador on the twelfth of October of that year.

1493. Having returned to Spain, where he gave an account of his discoveries to their majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella, Columbus sailed on the twenty-fifth of September, 1493, on his second voyage, in which he discovered more of the West India Islands. 1497.-Sebastian Cabot, who claims with Columbus to have been the first discoverer of the Western Continent, was a son of John Cabot, a Venetian, and a native of Bristol. He sailed in the spring of 1497, in search of the northwest passage to India, and discovered land, which he called Prima Vista, or Newfoundland, after which he sailed along the coast of

America as far as Chesapeake Bay, and then returned to England.

1498. On the thirteenth day of May, 1498, Columbus set out on his third voyage from the Bay of St. Lucas, and, after sighting some new islands, on the first of August he discovered the continent, but imagining it to be an island, he termed it Isla Santa.

1499.-Americus Vespucius, or Vespucci, from whom the Western Continent derives its name, was a native of Florence, and made four voyages to the New World from 1499 to 1503. After returning to Spain he was appointed by King Ferdinand to draw sea charts descriptive of the New World, from which circumstance the continent became known as America.

1512. Ponce de Leon, a native of Spain, discovered Florida on Easter Sunday (Pascua Florida, in Spanish), April 6, 1512.

1513.-On September 29, 1513, Balboa, a Spaniard, crossed the Isthmus of Darien and discovered the Pacific Ocean. He took possession of all the lands it might touch in the name of the Spanish crown.

1524. Francis I., of France, ambitious of the glory of Charles V., supplied Verazzano, a noble Florentine, with four vessels to prosecute discoveries in America. After a severe voyage he came upon a coast supposed to be North Carolina. Sailing north he entered a spacious bay receiving a noble river— the Hudson-and following the coast he reached Martha's Vineyard and Boston. Proceeding further, first west and then north, he skirted Nova Scotia,

discovered Cape Breton Island, and finally reached the land discovered by the Cabots, Newfoundland and Labrador.

1535-Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of Canada, sailed from the port of St. Malo, France, and ascended the river St. Lawrence in 1535, as far as the site of the present city of Montreal.

1538.-The career of Hernando de Soto is one of the most adventurous episodes in the history of American discovery. He accompanied Pizarro to America, and distinguished himself in the severe battle that took place between his chief and Almagro. Having returned to Spain, he was created Captain-General of Cuba and Florida, and sailed in command of a brilliant armament from San Lucar de Barrameda, April 6th, 1538, to undertake the conquest of Florida. He arrived at Cuba on the 1st of May, sailed from Havara May 12, 1539, arrived at Espiritu Santo, Florida, on the 25th, and took formal possession of the country in the name of the Spanish Emperor. After being harassed by the Indians, he continued his route to the dominions of the caique Tuscaloosa, which comprised part of Alabama and Mississippi. Here he fought a disastrous battle on the site of the city of Mobile, and on the 1st of April, 1541, he came in sight of the Mississippi River, which he crossed. In the spring of 1542 De Soto returned to the Mississippi, where, after untold trials and disappointments, he succumbed to fever and fatigue. His body was sunk in the river, lest the Indians should desecrate it.

1542.-Cabrillo made the first voyage along the Pacific coast, sailing as far north as the boundaries of Oregon.

1562.-Admiral Coligni, one of the Huguenot leaders in France, conceived the design of establishing a trans-atlantic settlement for the purpose of affording an asylum to his Protestant brethren, and fitted out two vessels in 1562, which he placed under command of John Ribault, of Dieppe, a seaman of experience. The discoverers landed in Carolina, but the settlement did not prove successful.

1564. In 1564 Coligni fitted out three vessels, which he placed under the command of Laudonniere, an officer who had accompanied Ribault, which attempt, however, was no more successful than the first. In 1565 Ribault was sent with several ships to supersede Laudonniere, bringing with him large supplies, which induced the colonists to remain.

1565.-Melendez, a Spanish explorer, landed in Florida in 1565, and laid the foundations of a colony. It was named St. Augustine, and is the oldest town in the United States.

1576.-Frobisher, an English navigator, tried to find a northwest passage, entered Baffin Bay, and twice endeavored to found a colony in Labrador, but was unsuccessful.

1578. Sir Francis Drake, a famous English captain, from 1578 to '80 sailed through the Straits of Magellan and along the Pacific coast as far as Oregon, wintered in San Francisco harbor, and circumnavigated the globe.

1582.-In 1582 New Mexico was explored and named by the Spaniard Espejo, who founded Santa Fé, the second oldest city in the United States.

1584. Sir Walter Raleigh is distinguished for having projected and established permanent British settlements in America. In April, 1584, he fitted out two ships, fully equipped and provisioned, under the command of Captain Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow. Having arrived on the American coast, they entered into trade with the natives, and after a hasty examination of the country, returned to England, where they arrived in September. The country which they discovered was named Virginia, by order of Queen Elizabeth, in allusion to her unmarried state of life. Sir Walter soon fitted out another fleet for America, under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, Mr. Ralph Lane having been appointed Chief Governor of the colony. The Governor returned to England for supplies shortly afterward. Raleigh dispatched another colony under John White, who was appointed Governor. Governor White returned to England, and when he came back, three years later, he found that the entire colony had perished. It is asserted by Camden that tobacco was now for the first time introduced into England, and the potato into Ireland, from America.

1605.-De Monts, a native of France, received a grant of all the land lying between the fortieth and forty-sixth parallels of latitude. The tract was termed Acadia. With Champlain, he founded Port Royal, the first permanent French possession in America.

1606.—James I. of England granted the London Company a colony in Virginia in 1606. The expedition reached America in 1607, and, ascending the James River, chose for their colony a spot which they called Jamestown. The colonists and their

posterity were declared English subjects, though they were invested with no political rights. The colonists suffered many severe hardships, and were saved from destruction mainly through the energy and sagacity of Captain John Smith, who had been installed as president. This was the first permanent English settlement in America.

1608.-The first permanent French settlement in Canada was established by Samuel de Champlain, who founded the city of Quebec in 1608. In the following year he discovered the beautiful lake which bears his name. He has been justly termed "The Father of New France," as the French possessions in America were named.

1609-10. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Dutch and English directed their attention to the discovery of a northwest passage to India. After the failure of several navigators in this endeavor, it was resumed by Henry Hudson, a navigator in the Dutch service. Not succeeding, he proceeded to explore the American coast, and sailed up the river that now bears his name.

In 1610 he was sent by a Dutch company on another voyage, when he explored the great bay to which his name is attached.

In virtue of Hudson's voyage, the Dutch claimed the country from the Delaware River to Cape Cod, and in 1610 several stations were formed on the Island of Manhattan, the name then given to New York. In 1613, a settlement was founded. The country was called New Netherlands, and a cluster of cottages, where New York now stands, was named New Amsterdam.

1619. The "first legislative body that ever assembled in America" was called at Jamestown by Governor Yeardly, July 30, 1619. Its laws were ratified by the company in England, but possessed no binding force unless subsequently ratified by the colonial assembly. These privileges were in 1621 embodied in a written constitution, "the first of its kind in America."

1619.-Slavery was introduced into the United States in 1619, by the captain of a Dutch trading vessel, who bought twenty negroes which he sold to the tobacco planters. Their labor being found profitable, a traffic in slaves soon sprung up.

1620.-After various abortive attempts to colonize New England, a tide of population poured into it from an unexpected quarter. The "Pilgrim Fa

thers "-Puritans who had fled from England to Holland to escape the persecution of the established church-sailed for America in September, 1620, and arrived on the 9th of November, in view of Cape Cod. They settled on a spot which they named New Plymouth. After suffering untold privations, which reduced their numbers in the spring of 1621 to fifty or sixty persons, they persevered, and in the spring of 1624 they counted one hundred and eighty. Their numbers were increased in 1629, and in 1630, fifteen hundred settlers having arrived from England in the latter year. They soon became involved in war with the Indians, which checked the progress of the colony, but the natives were finally subdued and dispersed. In 1692, Plymouth was united with Massachusetts Bay Colony, under the name of Massachusetts.

1622. On the 22d of March, 1622, occurred the Indian Massacre of Virginia, when over three hundred men, women and children fell victims in a single day. 1630. The first house erected in Boston, under Governor Winthrop, in July, 1630.

Connecticut was settled at Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield, in 1633-6.

Sir

1633. Sir George Calvert, Secretary of State under James I., obtained from King Charles I. a large grant of land in America, which was named Maryland, in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria. George, now created Lord Baltimore, died before the completion of the charter, and the establishment of the colony devolved accordingly on his son Cecil. The first emigrants, consisting of about two hundred persons, arrived in 1633. The colonists acted justly toward the natives, and the Maryland government was distinguished for proclaiming religious toleration. to all. The Protestants having obtained a majority, deprived Catholics of their rights, and declared. them outside the protection of the law. In 1691, Lord Baltimore was deprived of his proprietary rights, and Maryland became a royal province. In 1715, under the fourth Lord Baltimore, the government was recovered and religious toleration was restored.

1636.-Rhode Island was settled at Providence in 1636, by Roger Williams, who stamped upon the colonies the idea of religious toleration. In 1647, a set of laws guaranteeing freedom of worship were enacted—" the first legal declaration of liberty of conscience ever adopted in Europe or America." 1638.-The first permanent settlement in Delaware was made in 1638 by the Swedes, on a tract