This is History book. Among the various events recorded in the history of past ages, there are few more interesting and important than the discovery of the western world. By it a large field for adventures, and a new source of power, opulence and grandeur, opened to European nations. To obtain a share of the vast territories in the west became an object of ambition to many of them; but for this purpose, the maritime and commercial states possessed the greatest advantages. Having first discovered the country, with facility they transported people to it, settled colonies there, and in process of time shared among them the extensive wilderness.