Gold founded colonies in Pennsylvania. sus. CHAPTER II. EUROPEAN MIGRATION-FRENCH AND GERMAN-NEW TRADE. The returns gave the number from Great Britain in many cases without distinguishing the particular divisions where all the passengers were born. A very large portion of the whole, however, came from Ireland. The return shows, then, that Ireland and Germany furnish the largest proportion of the emigrants. Other nations have supplied a greater or less number, but irregularly. Since 1850, or the era of gold discovery, Asia-mainly China and Japan-have sent about 80.000 emigrants to California. Those do not, however, as a general thing, intend remaining. They are for the most part fitted out with small sums borrowed of friends and neighbors, who share in the profits of the adventurer on his return. Numbers of those who come from other countries, as France, West Indies, and Southern Europe, as well as to some extent from England, are merchants and travelers, who are not to be embraced in the aggregate of settlers in new homes. The great sources of migration are, then. British and German, and the latter are confined mostly to the valley of the Rhine. The people of the north of Europe except the Norse folk seem to have lost the nomadic character of their ancestors. It is true that then they were led by chiefs and tempt- THE peace of 1815, in re-establishing the ed by plunder to overrun the richer countries liberty of the seas, so long suppressed, of the west, while at the present day migra- opened new countries to European comtion has no object but to seek an honest liv-merce. On the other hand, many interests ing in countries where labor is in demand, underwent adverse changes; numerous ar and where hospitality and protection await the worker. The Russian peasants while surfs were not allowed to leave their country, and the Russians in the table are mostly merchants and travelers. The Swede and the Norwegian are more free in their choice, and since 1860, have emigrated to this country in large numbers, settling mainly in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska. Many of them also enter into domestic service in our large cities. The Swiss are to a considerable extent free and thrifty in their mountain homes, but great divisions exist in respect of religion as well as politics, and there is among them a want of nationality. The cantons of Vaud and Geneva are mostly French, and threaten to become quite so. On the side of the Tyrol the Swiss become Italians. The German Swiss are mostly connected with Baden, and are embraced in the German movement. The Hollanders migrate to some extent, and often from motives of religion. The Moravian Brethren thus mies were newly disbanded, and great num. bers of men were forced to leave home in search of a useful application of their talents and energies. America was to them the chief point of attraction; those who knew only the trade of arms, offered their swords to the Spanish colonies then fighting for emancipation. Of these a majority found early graves from excess, fatigue, and misery; many turned their attention to agriculture, and the wisest sought refuge in the United States, where services were well requited, and the broad territories offered a limitless field for activity. At first the emigrants were isolated individuals; soon entire families went in quest of new homes, and their success was a tempting example to other families, each of whom drew others in their train, until a continuous movement was established from the valley of the Rhine to America. This developed a new era in the international commerce. The cotton of the southern states had up to that time found a limited |