Excerpt from The New Complete History of the United States of America, Vol. 1 The discovery Of America, in the last decade of the fifteenth century, was the most important secular event in, the history of the world. The revelation of our continents, hitherto unknown to the races of Europe and the East, was destined to afiect not only the material enterprises, but also the intellectual conditions, and ultimately the moral estate, Of all mankind. More distinctlv and powerfully than any other enterprise of men or nations did the first knowledge and fame Of the Western hemisphere react on the genius and ambitions Of man, bearing him on to higher vision and nobler modes Of action. Nor has any subse quent achievement of human beings, however great and startling, equaled that marvelous and sublime leap of adventure whereby the vanguard of the Aryan race was first landed on the western shores Of the ocean of Atlas. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.