description of Cortez's capture of the city of Mexico; while the elder
historian has nothing to compare with Motley's vivid personal sketches
of Queen Elizabeth, Philip the Second, Henry of Navarre, and William
the Silent. The _Life of John of Barneveld_, 1874, completed this
series of studies upon the history of the Netherlands, a theme to which
Motley was attracted because the heroic struggle of the Dutch for
liberty offered, in some respects, a parallel to the growth of
political independence in Anglo-Saxon communities, and especially in
his own America.

The last of these Massachusetts historical writers whom we shall
mention is Francis Parkman (1823- ), whose subject has the advantage
of being thoroughly American. His _Oregon Trail_, 1847, a series of
sketches of prairie and Rocky Mountain life, originally contributed to
the _Knickerbocker Magazine_, displays his early interest in the
American Indians. In 1851 appeared his first historical work, the
_Conspiracy of Pontiac_. This has been followed by the series entitled
_France and England in North America_, the six successive parts of
which are as follows: the _Pioneers of France in the New World_, the
_Jesuits in North America_; _La Salle and the Discovery of the Great
West_; the _Old Régime in Canada_; _Count Frontenac and New France_;
and _Montcalm and Wolfe_. These narratives have a wonderful vividness,
and a romantic interest not inferior to Cooper's novels. Parkman made
himself personally familiar with the scenes which he described, and
some of the best descriptions of American woods and waters are to be
found in his histories. If any fault is to be found with his books,
indeed, it is that their picturesqueness and "fine writing" are a
little in excess.

The political literature of the years from 1837 to 1861 hinged upon the