History for Young Readers
SPAIN
 | SPAIN |
| BY FREDERICK A. OBER | |
| AUTHOR OF PUERTO RICO AND ITS RESOURCES, CRUSOE’S ISLAND, TRAVELS IN MEXICO, IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS, CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES, A LIFE OF JOSEPHINE, ETC. |
NEW YORK AND LONDON
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1912
Copyright, 1899,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
Printed in the United States of America
PREFACE.
As I pause in my work to pass in reviewthe events of three thousand years, which Ihave tried to narrate in this little book, Iprobably anticipate my readers in wonderingat the audacity, not to say presumption, whichmoved me to this undertaking. It came aboutquite naturally, to be sure, as the result of aninterest awakened many years ago in a nationwhich had sent to America such discoverersas Columbus and Vespucci, such soldiers asCortes and Pizarro, De Soto, and Ponce deLeon. At first I became curious to visit thescenes of their adventures, then to journeythrough the country whence they had come;and the result has been that I have devoted[vi]a portion of my life to a study of both peopleand country.
I do not, of course, assume that an interestin a subject should warrant one inwriting about it, be he never so well equippedfor the purpose; but with me, the seeinggives birth to a desire to convey to othersthe pleasure I feel, or the lesson I may derive,from the object under contemplation.Thus, while I never intended more than tomake a few forays into the historic fields ofSpain, when I visited that country ten yearsago, it has eventuated that instead of skirmishingwith the outposts, I have attacked thevery citadel. That I have come off unscathed,and with spoil of some sort, is self-evident;but whether it might not have been to myreaders’ profit if I had not done so, is a questionfor them to decide. I feel it to be,indeed, as true to-day as it was a score ofyears ago that (in the words of a standardencyclopædia) “there is no good general historyof Spain!”
Without attempting to extenuate any possibleerrors, yet I would call attention to thefact that it is extremely difficult to clothe in[vii]picturesque language (and at the same timebe faithful to the verities of history) the detailsof a story extending over so vast arange, and bring that story within the compassof a single volume.
The best histories are those which treatof single episodes or periods, such as Prescott’sFerdinand and Isabella, Irving’s Conquest ofSpain, Spanish Voyages, and Conquest ofG