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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
tlbe IRomance of Colonlsatfom 
 
 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE 
 
 LANDING OF THE PILGRIM 
 
 FATHERS. 
 
 G. BAENETT SMITH, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT," BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, JOHN KNOX, SIR JOHN 
 
 FRANKLIN, ETC. 
 
 ^t»-ic 
 
 V ^ -^ 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY. 
 
 1897. 
 
Copyright, 1897, 
 By Dodd, Mead and Company. 
 
 :]553 
 
 En*?? 
 ,Sc-M 
 
 SEttibftsitg ^rrss: 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THERE is probably nothing more surprising in the 
 history of the British Empire than the enormous 
 expansion of its colonial possessions. Long before 
 Canning made his proud boast that he " had called 
 the. New World into existence to redress the balance 
 of the Old," England had been adding island after 
 island, and territory after territory, to that empire 
 upon which the sun never sets. 
 
 The work of colonization as it has been pursued by 
 various nations in all parts of the world is a study 
 of the deepest interest. Land migrations have had 
 much to do with the settlement of new districts ; but 
 the movement has been fostered still more by the 
 growth of merchant navies and the exchange of 
 produce between nations. The Roman Empire fur- 
 nished one of the most remarkable episodes in the 
 history of colonization ; but from that time forward 
 little was done until the extraordinary developments 
 of the colonizing spirit in the sixteenth century. 
 Spain and Portugal took the premier honours in the 
 work ; but in this case, as in many others, those who 
 were the pioneers of discovery have been surpassed 
 by their successors. 
 
 Mixed motives have formed the basis of nearly 
 all colonizing efforts. National glory and individual 
 
 5 
 
b PREFACE, 
 
 ambition have mingled with the love of adventure, 
 the quest after gold, and the missionary spirit. Spain 
 and Portugal desired the conversion of " heretics " 
 as well as the extension of their respective empires, 
 and the acquisition of the wealth of the Indies, in the 
 fitting out of their numerous expeditions. They have 
 long been left behind as colonizers by Holland, England, 
 and France ; and it would be a curious speculation 
 to enquii'e into the causes of the decadence of nations 
 like Spain and Portugal, which once led the vanguard 
 of civilization. 
 
 But our purpose in the series of works of which 
 the present forms the initial volume is to trace the 
 romance of colonization in special countries, and 
 chiefly as that colonization has been effected by Eng- 
 land, No colonial empire was ever raised of such vast 
 extent as that which acknowledges the sovereignty 
 of Queen Victoria in this Diamond Jubilee year of 
 grace. The great work of acquiring and building up 
 colonies began with us in the seventeenth century ; 
 and before the end of the eighteenth Great Britain 
 had become the first power in the world as regards 
 the extent and value of her colonies, and that not- 
 withstanding the serious loss of the United States. 
 The acquisitions during the nineteenth century may 
 not have been so numerous and important as they 
 were in the two preceding centuries, but a greater 
 work has been done in consolidating and strengthening 
 our hold upon the colonies. 
 
 A rapid survey of Anglo-Saxon colonization affords 
 much room for congratulation, if our satisfaction is 
 occasionally chastened by a remembrance of the 
 severities which have sometimes accompanied con- 
 quest. The premier British colony is Newfoundland, 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 which was annexed by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583 ; 
 then came the acliievements of the East India 
 Company, which was incorporated in 1600 ; and only 
 a few years later (1607) succeeds the earliest per- 
 manent settlement of Virginia. The Pilgrim Fathers 
 began their noble work in 1620 ; and West Indian 
 colonization was inaugurated with the occupation of 
 Barbadoes in 1625. For three-quarters of a century 
 the work proceeded apace in North America, colony 
 after colony being added to the British Crown. Then 
 other fields began to attract the British, and a new 
 period began with the capture of Gibraltar in 1704. 
 Before the century closed, France had yielded to us 
 in Canada, and also in India, where Clive was more 
 fortunate than Dupleix. The wars with Napoleon 
 succeeded, and Malta, Mauritius, and many West 
 India islands were captured from the French, as well 
 as Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch. 
 The triumphs of the nineteenth century include the 
 consolidation of India under the Crown ; the surprising 
 advance of Australia under the impetus of the gold 
 discoveries ; the pacification and opening up of New 
 Zealand ; the formation of Canada into a federated 
 dominion ; the great extension of British influence 
 through the whole of Africa ; the commercial growth 
 of the Chinese and other settlements ; and the raising 
 of the British flag over many new protectorates and 
 stations. It is calculated that the population of the 
 British colonies has increased more than fourfold since 
 the Queen came to the throne, while the trade to and 
 from those colonies has multiplied nine or tenfold. In 
 the brief period of fourteen years, 1872 to 1886, 
 although the value of many individual articles had 
 greatly decreased, the imports into the United King- 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 dom from the British colonies and India increased in 
 amount from £79,372,853 to X 81,884,043; and in the 
 same period the exports to British possessions in- 
 creased from £65,609,212 to £82,067,711. No figm-es 
 could be more eloquent of colonial progress than these. 
 
 Among all the stories of colonization, none possesses 
 a deeper or profounder interest for Englishmen than 
 that of the peopling of the United States. It seems 
 to contain within itself an epitome of all the incidents 
 which have marked the course of colonization else- 
 where. It will be the aim of this volume and its 
 successor to follow the course of North American 
 colonization from the earliest times, and all through 
 the chequered periods of development, until the various 
 colonies succeeded in achieving their independence, 
 and forming themselves into a union, as the United 
 States of America. In conclusion, some space will be 
 devoted to an explanation of the Constitution of the 
 United States, and to tracing briefly the later history 
 of the country. 
 
 In the preparation of such a work, a writer is 
 necessarily indebted to a great number of authorities ; 
 and the author of these volumes has endeavoured 
 always to acknowledge his sources of information in 
 the various chapters of his narrative. The second 
 volume, completing the work, will shortly appear. 
 
 At a later date, it is hoped that other volumes will 
 follow, dealing with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, 
 British India, British Africa, and other colonies. 
 Every year that passes only adds to the dignity and 
 importance of our colonial empire, and the record of 
 its manifold developments consequently becomes a 
 study of supreme interest. 
 
 G. B. S. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS .... H 
 
 II. THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS 32 
 
 III. THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY 87 
 
 IV. HOW AMERICA RECEIVED ITS NAME . . . 115 
 V. PORTUGUESE, FRENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLO- 
 RATIONS -(21 
 
 VI. JACQUES CARTIER AND FERDINAND DE SOTO 144 
 VII. ENGLISH ADVENTURERS — PROBISHER AND 
 
 GILBERT -^QA 
 
 VIII. THE EXPEDITIONS OP RALEIGH AND DRAKE. 177 
 
 IX. OPERATIONS OP THE VIRGINIA COMPANY . . 210 
 
 X. SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY . . 250 
 
 XI. COLONIZATION OP MARYLAND 262 
 
 XIT. SETTLEMENT OF NEW AMSTERDAM .... 279 
 Xin. THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM 
 
 FATHERS 289 
 
 9 
 
THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EAELY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 
 
 IN the future history of the human race the vast 
 American Continent is destined to play a con- 
 spicuous part. Its magnificent possibilities are almost 
 inconceivable. Limitless in its resources, its mighty 
 valleys and fruitful plains are already being opened 
 up by the industry and enterprise of its settlers, 
 while from the sides of its gigantic mountains mineral 
 wealth beyond conception is being extracted. In an 
 incredibly brief space of time splendid cities have 
 risen as by the spell of an enchanter, and civilization 
 already begins to count its teeming and thriving 
 millions of population. " Westward the course of 
 empire takes its way," wrote Bishop Berkeley a century 
 and a half ago, and his utterance now reads like a 
 prophecy of the greatness to which the New World 
 was subsequently to attain. 
 
 America is frequently regarded as two distinct 
 continents, connected by the Isthmus of Darien. 
 
 There is a strange resemblance in the configuration 
 
 11 
 
12 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 of the two parts : both are very wide in the north, 
 and both gradually taper off as they extend towards 
 the south. Each division has a lofty chain of moun- 
 tains on the west, and a great central plain declining 
 to the south and the north respectively. The southern 
 part is watered by two gigantic rivers, the La Plata 
 and the Amazon, which may be regarded as the 
 counterparts of the great rivers of the north, the 
 Mississippi and the St. Lawrence. There is little 
 difference between the superficial areas of the two 
 continents. North America embracing no less than 
 seven million four hundred thousand English square 
 miles, and South America six million five hundred 
 thousand English square miles. 
 
 It is with the North American Continent that this 
 volume is concerned, and chiefly with the colonization 
 of that portion of it which comes within the definition 
 of the United States territory. America is commonly 
 spoken of as the " New World," but as a matter of fact 
 it is quite as ancient as any other physical section of 
 the planet. Professor L. Agassiz, in his Creological 
 Sketches, claims indeed that it is older than any. 
 "First-born among the continents," he remarks, 
 " though so much later in culture and civilization than 
 some of more recent birth, America, so far as her phy- 
 sical history is concerned, has been falsely denominated 
 the New World. Hers was the first dry land lifted 
 out of the waters, hers the first shore washed by the 
 ocean tliat enveloped all the earth beside ; and while 
 Europe was represented only by islands rising here 
 and there above the sea, America already stretched 
 an unbroken line of land from Nova Scotia to the Far 
 
EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 13 
 
 West." With regard to the aboriginal inhabitants, 
 efforts have recently been made to connect their 
 earliest memorials with those of Asia. But while it 
 is within the bounds of possibility that means of 
 communication between the two continents existed in 
 ancient times, the whole question is of so speculative 
 a nature that it would be unprofitable to discuss it 
 here. Humboldt and other geological authorities 
 believed that the summits of the Madeira and the 
 Canary Islands were once the western extremity of 
 the chain of the Atlas Mountains ; and other writers 
 have gone so far as to affirm that these islands, and 
 those of the West Indies, are the summits of moun- 
 tain chains which once crowned an Atlantic continent 
 that was afterwards submerged and disintegrated by 
 some great cataclysm. Among other traditions is 
 that of Plato, who says that an Egyptian priest 
 described to Solon an island called Atlantis, which 
 lay far beyond the Pillars of Hercules. This island, 
 which was inhabited by a warlike and powerful people, 
 was destroyed, said the narrator, by earthquakes and 
 floods nine thousand years before his time. 
 
 The aboriginal population of America embraces a 
 great variety of peoples, differing in form, stature, 
 and complexion. Yet one of the eminent physio- 
 logists, Blumenbach, places them all under one class, 
 except the Esquimaux, who have close affinity with 
 the inhabitants of Northern Asia. Others, like Dr. 
 Prichard, have denied this; but when all has been 
 said against the theory, there is unquestionably more 
 of a common family character in the American Indians 
 than prevails amongst the indigenous populations of 
 
14 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Asia and Africa. Humboldt remarks that "the 
 Indians of New Spain bear a general resemblance to 
 those who inhabit Canada, Florida, Peru, and Brazil. 
 We have the same swarthy and copper colour, straight 
 and smooth hair, small beard, squat body, long eye, 
 with the corner directed upwards towards the temples, 
 prominent cheek-bones, thick lips, and an expression of 
 gentleness in the mouth, strongly contrasted with a 
 gloomy and severe look. Over a million and a half 
 of square leagues, from Cape Horn to the River St. 
 Lawrence and Behring's Straits, we are struck at the 
 first glance with the general resemblance in the fea- 
 tures of the inhabitants. We think we perceive them 
 all to be descended from the same stock, notwith- 
 standing the prodigious diversity of their languages. 
 In the portrait drawn by Yolney of the Canadian 
 Indians, we recognize the tribes scattered over the 
 Savannahs of the Apure and the Carony. The same 
 style of features exists in both Americas." 
 
 Historians have pointed out that the natives of 
 North America, when first visited by Europeans four 
 centuries ago, belonged as distinctly to the Stone Age 
 as the earliest inhabitants of Europe. Shell-heaps 
 have been discovered along the American coast from 
 Massachusetts to Georgia which Sir Charles Lyell 
 declared to be identical with the kitchen refuse-heaps 
 of ancient Denmark. Human remains pointing to a 
 hoary antiquity have been found at various places, 
 and at various periods, in the United States. The 
 discovery of earth-mounds and temple-mounds in the 
 Valley of the Mississippi and elsewhere points to 
 the existence of a race which peopled the North 
 
EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 15 
 
 American Continent even before the Indian ; but how- 
 ever interesting this may be from the ethnological 
 point of view, it does not come within our present 
 purpose to discuss it. Whatever may have been the 
 nature or character of the aboriginal tribes, one thing 
 is universally admitted, that the greater part of the 
 native tribes have never progressed beyond the savage 
 state in civilization. With respect to the vast number 
 of American languages, which amount to something 
 like six hundred, philologists have come to the con- 
 clusion that they can all be arranged under eight 
 or ten divisions, or into forty or fifty families, each 
 characterized by affinities sufficiently clear to prove 
 that its component members had sprung from a 
 common parent. 
 
 The number of Indians, and persons of partial 
 Indian descent, still remaining in North America, 
 is about six millions ; but probably half these consist 
 of Spanisli-speaking half-breeds and others in Mexico 
 and the Isthmian republics. The Indians in the 
 United States territory, including Alaska, number 
 about three hundred and fifteen thousand. For many 
 years they were decimated and forced out of existence 
 by very cruel methods ; but the American conscience 
 has recently been much disturbed on this painful 
 subject, so that now it is believed the Indians are 
 slowly increasing again in numbers. One-fourth of 
 the United States Indians live in the Indian territory, 
 and one cause of the arrested process of extinction 
 is to be found in the great diminution of inter-tribal 
 warfare. 
 
 America was visited by Europeans centuries before 
 
16 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 the time of Columbus. In fact, while King Alfred 
 was displaying his prowess and his enlightenment in 
 Britain, Icelanders settled themselves in Greenland. 
 There is some little difference about the exact date, 
 but it is a pretty well ascertained fact that this 
 settlement took place between 830 and 870 a.d. 
 How extraordinary it seems that such an event should 
 have attracted scarcely any attention ! The precise 
 locality of the Norwegian colonies in Greenland 
 cannot now be defined ; but Sir Charles Gieseke, 
 who devoted special study to the subject, states that 
 memorials of the settlement exist near the southern 
 point of the peninsula. A visit was likewise paid to 
 the western coast of Greenland ; and this fact has 
 been established by an inscription in Runic characters, 
 found on a stone four miles beyond Upernavik, at 
 the seventy-third parallel. This inscription is to the 
 effect that " Erling, the son of Sigvat, and Euride 
 Oddsoen, had cleared that place and raised a hillock 
 on the Friday after Rogation Day." The date on the 
 stone is indistinct ; but Professor Rask, the translator 
 of the inscription, fixes it at either 1135 or 1170. 
 In any event the Runic characters prove that the 
 date was anterior to the Reformation, because that 
 mode of writing was afterwards forbidden. In 1828 
 Professor C. C. Rafn, a Dane, who had been engaged 
 in researches respecting these early voyages, published 
 at Baltimore some interesting facts which he had 
 ascertained from original documents. For example, 
 he announced that America was first discovered in 
 985, and that it was repeatedly visited by the Ice- 
 landers in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteench cen- 
 
EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 17 
 
 turies ; that the embouchure of the St. Lawrence, and 
 in particular the Bay of Gaspe, was their principal 
 station ; that they had penetrated along the coast as 
 far south as Carolina ; and that they introduced a 
 knowledge of Christianity amongst the natives. Sub- 
 sequently, while not altering the general drift of his 
 views, M. Rafn changed his opinion as to the site 
 of the Icelandic colony, fixing it at the mouth of the 
 River Taunton, which falls into the sea in Narragansett 
 Bay, at the north end of Rhode Island. So far as 
 anything can be ascertained with certainty which 
 occurred a thousand years ago, it is now admitted 
 that it was the sons of Eric the Red, an Icelandic 
 rover of the seas, who were the first Europeans to set 
 foot upon the American Continent. 
 
 In the year 1001 Markland and Vinland, on the 
 American coast, were visited and named by Norse 
 adventurers. Professor Rafn, in his narrative relating 
 to American antiquities, published by the Antiquarian 
 Society of Copenhagen in 1837, has vividly described 
 this and later Norse voyages. It appears that during 
 the year 1000 Leif, the eldest son of Eric the Red, 
 bought a ship from a fellow-countryman named Bjorni, 
 who had already visited Greenland. Leif besought 
 his father to assume command of the expedition, and 
 at first the old viking consented ; but being thrown 
 from his horse on his way to the ship, he exclaimed, 
 " It is not ordained that I should discover any more 
 countries than that which we now inhabit, and we 
 should make no further attempt in company." With 
 that he remained at home, and Leif set forth with 
 a crew of thirty-five men, Bjorni probably acting as 
 
 2 
 
18 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 pilot. They first reached Newfoundland, which they 
 found to be a plain of flat stones, covered with snow 
 and ice. Leif called it Helluland, from hella, a fiat 
 stone. Next they visited Nova Scotia. They went on 
 shore, and found a country covered with woods, with 
 low and fiat beaches of white sand. Leif said, " This 
 land shall be named after its qualities, and called 
 Markland " — that is, woodland. Setting sail again, 
 they came to a place which must have been on the 
 mainland, and on the coast of New England, but the 
 precise point is unknown. 
 
 Some have thought that this landing of the Norse- 
 men was at the Island of Nantucket, but others read 
 it to mean an island and a cape on the outside of Cape 
 Cod. Now, however, it is generally accepted that the 
 voyage resulted in a veritable discovery of the coast 
 of Rhode Island by the Norsemen, and that they 
 landed at some point either in Mount Hope Bay or 
 Narragansett Bay. The narrative states that they 
 went up a river which came through a lake — the veiy 
 description of the waters in that region. They went 
 ashore, and built a house, in which they passed the 
 winter. By the Scandinavian calendar which they 
 kept, it seems that the shortest day gave the sun as 
 rising at 7.30 a.m. and setting at 4.30 p.m., thus fixing 
 the latitude at a little over 41°, which is equivalent 
 to that of Mount Hope Bay. They reported that 
 there was " no frost in winter, and little did the grass 
 wither there," while " the nature of the country was, 
 as they thought, so good, that cattle would not require 
 house feeding." 
 
 One day there was great excitement in Leif's camp. 
 
EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 19 
 
 A German named Tyrker, who was Leif s foster-father, 
 returned from an expedition, gesticulating wildly, and 
 almost beside himself. When he was able to give a 
 rational account of his proceedings, he said, " I have 
 not been much farther off, but still I have something 
 to tell of: I found vines and grapes ! " " But is that 
 true, my fosterer ? " enquired Leif. " Surely it is 
 true," replied he, " for I was bred up in a land where 
 there is no want of either vines or grapes." The 
 German's statements were veriiied, and the land was 
 named Vinland, or Vineland. With his vessel full 
 of grapes and timber, Leif returned home in the 
 spring ; and because of these discoveries, and his rescue 
 of a shipwrecked crew, the leader was known ever 
 afterwards as Leif tlie Lucky. 
 
 In the following year, 1002, Leif's brother Thorvald 
 set forth on a New England expedition. He pursued 
 his brother's tracks, spent the winter in the booths 
 which his brother had constructed, and in the spring 
 despatched some of his men on explorations to the 
 westward. According to the American historians 
 Messrs. Bryant and Gay, " they spent the summer in 
 tliis pleasant excursion, coasting along the shores 
 of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Long Island, the 
 whole length of the Sound, penetrating probably to 
 New York, and finding there another lake, through 
 which a river flowed to the sea. They landed on 
 many islands ; they beached their boat many times on 
 the broad, wide, shallow sands, down to the edge of 
 which grew the green grass and the great trees which 
 made this pleasant land seem a very garden to these 
 wanderers from a country all rocks and ice-mountains 
 
20 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 and fields of snow. But once only did they see any 
 sign of human habitation, and that was a corn-shed 
 built of wood. 
 
 "The next spring (1004) Thorvald started for a 
 more extended trip, as he went in his ship. Stand- 
 ing first eastward, he then sailed northward along 
 the sea-coast of Cape Cod, where a heavy storm 
 caught him off a ness (cape), and drove his ship 
 ashore, perhaps at Race Point. Here they remained 
 a long time to repair damages, putting in a new 
 keel ; the old one they set up in the sand, and 
 the place they called Kjalarness (Keelness or Kell- 
 cape), in commemoration of the disaster. Then they 
 cruised along the opposite shore of what is now 
 Plymouth County, Massachusetts, and sailed into its 
 bays till they came to ' a point of land which stretched 
 out and was covered with wood.' ' Here,' said 
 Thorvald, ' it is beautiful, and here I would like to raise 
 my dwelling.' 
 
 " Before the day was out he looked upon his words 
 as prophetic. 
 
 "For the first time the Northmen here met with 
 the natives — met them as Europeans so often did in 
 subsequent centuries. Looking about them at this 
 beautiful spot, they saw in a secluded nook three 
 skin-boats set up as tents, beneath which were nine 
 Skraellings, on whom they stole unawares, and cap- 
 tured eight of them. The ninth escaped ; the eight 
 they immediately killed in cold blood. This cruel 
 deed done, they lay down to sleep upon the grass 
 under the trees ; but it was not to pleasant dreams. 
 There came a shout over them, so that they all awoke. 
 
EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 21 
 
 " Thus said the shout, ' Wake thou, Thorvald ! and 
 all thy companions, if thou wilt preserve life, and 
 return to thy ship with all thy men, and leave the 
 land without delay.' It was the savage war-whoops 
 of the enraged Skraellings, come to avenge the murder 
 of their fellows. The Northmen fled to their ship to 
 defend themselves behind their battle-screen. 
 
 " ' Fight little against them,' was Thorvald's order, 
 mindful now of the mercy he should have shown 
 before. When the fight was over, and the Skraellings 
 had retired, the answer to Thorvald's enquiry as to 
 who was wounded was, ' None.' Then said he, ' I have 
 gotten a wound under the arm, for an arrow fled 
 between the edge of the ship and the shield, in under 
 my arm, and here is the arrow, and it will prove a 
 mortal wound to me. Now counsel I ye, that ye get 
 ready instantly to depart, but ye shall bear me to that 
 cape where I thought it best to dwell ; it may be that 
 a true word fell from my mouth, that I should dwell 
 there for a time ; there shall ye bury me, and set up 
 crosses at my head and feet, and call the place Krossa- 
 ness for ever in all time to come.' And it was as he 
 said ; he died, and they buried him on the pleasant 
 cape that looked out upon the shores and waters of 
 Massachusetts Bay. At his head and feet they planted 
 crosses, and then sailed back to Yinland to their 
 companions with the heavy tidings of the death of 
 their young commander. In the spring the colony, 
 with another load of grapes and timber, returned to 
 Greenland." 
 
 A third son of Eric the Red, Thorstein, sailed for 
 Vinland in 1005, but his expedition was unsuccessful. 
 
22 THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 and he returned to Greenland to die. Two years later 
 a more important venture was made by an Icelandic 
 merchant of much wealth and ancient lineage named 
 Thorfinn. He was surnamed Karlsefne, or the man 
 of promise destined to become great. He had married 
 Gudrid, the widow of Thorstein. An expedition was 
 formed, consisting of Karlsefne's own vessel, a second 
 Icelandic vessel fitted out by three other merchants, 
 and a third vessel commanded by a Greenlander 
 named Thorvard, who had married Freydis, a natural 
 daughter of Eric the Red, and one destined to play 
 a conspicuous part in colonization. The expedition, 
 which consisted of three ships and one hundred and 
 forty men and women, set sail in the spring of 1007, 
 with the evident intention of making a permanent 
 settlement in the new country. They visited Mark- 
 land and Helluland, and went beyond Cape Cod. 
 Two Scotch scouts were sent out — slaves, fleet of foot, 
 who had been given to Leif the Lucky by the King 
 of Norway — and these returned, bearing respectively 
 a bunch of grapes and an ear of corn. The fleet next 
 reached Nantucket, or Martha's Vineyard, where 
 eider-ducks were found in abundance. During the 
 following winter there was great scarcity of pro- 
 visions, and one Thorhall, " a bad Christian," who 
 had formerly been steward to Eric the Red, aban- 
 doned the expedition, and returned home, inducing 
 nine others to do the same. Thorhall and his com- 
 panions fared badly, however, for they were driven 
 ashore by a strong gale on the coast of Ireland, and 
 seized by the natives, and sold into slavery. Mean- 
 while Karlsefne and his companions proceeded to 
 
EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 23 
 
 explore the coast of Rhode Island, following in the 
 track of Leif. They spent a winter in Vinland, and 
 it was so mild that there was no snow upon the 
 ground, and the cattle were able to feed upon the 
 green and juicy grasses of the fields. In the spring 
 they went away ; but returning in 1009, they began to 
 trade with the natives, the Skraellings. Quarrels at 
 length ensued with the natives, and we read of one 
 great battle in which the wife of Thorvard exhibited 
 great bravery, and caused the Skraellings to flee to 
 their canoes. But the settlers grew weary of the 
 place, and in the spring of 1010 Karlsefne's efforts 
 at colonization were wholly abandoned. Two native 
 boys whom they took with them spoke of a country 
 south of Vinland known as the White Man's Land, 
 which was supposed to extend from Chesapeake Bay to 
 East Florida, and to be peopled by a colony of Irish. 
 
 The first European child born on the American con- 
 tinent was Snorri, the son of Karlsefne and Gudrid, 
 who first saw the light in Vinland 1007 a. d. As 
 predicted by Gudrid's former husband, a long line of 
 distinguished descendants sprang from him, and among 
 the later descendants of Snorri were Thorvaldsen, the 
 eminent Danish sculptor, and Finn Magnusson, the 
 distinguished Danish scholar. 
 
 In the year 1011 the savage and fearless Freydis, 
 who had long been determined to make another 
 expedition into Vinland, set forth upon a new 
 undertaking with two Icelanders named Helgi and 
 Finnbogi. There were two vessels, each bearing 
 thirty fighting men. The Icelanders first landed, 
 and stored their goods in Leif's booths ; but they 
 
24 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 were dispossessed by the crafty Freydis, who had 
 secreted five more fighting men in her vessel beyond 
 the number agreed upon. Still peace was kept for a 
 time ; but in the end the evil machinations of Freydis, 
 who was a kind of Lady Macbeth, led to a terrible 
 tragedy. She made her credulous husband believe 
 that she had been beaten and shamefully used by the 
 Icelanders when she went to negotiate for their vessel, 
 and she spurred Thorvard on to a frightful revenge. 
 He and his people slew Helgi and Finnbogi and all 
 their companions in cold blood. Five women indeed 
 they spared ; but when Freydis beheld this, she took 
 an axe and did not rest until she had slain all the 
 women by her own hand. She moreover threatened 
 to kill any of her own band who revealed what had 
 taken place after their return to Greenland. With 
 this ill-fated expedition the colonization by the North- 
 men in Vinland comes practically to an end. 
 
 There are cumulative proofs that the Northmen did 
 effect a settlement on the American coast. Among 
 these are the Icelandic Sagas, whose general drift 
 there is no reason to distrust. Also Adam of Bremen, 
 an ecclesiastical historian, writing about the middle of 
 the eleventh century, has a passage in which he avers 
 that the King of Denmark informed him " that a 
 region called Vinland had been found by many in that 
 ocean, because there vines grew spontaneously, making 
 the best wine ; for that fruits grow there which were 
 not planted, we know, not by mere rumour, but by 
 the positive report of the Danes." Further, there are 
 the narratives published by the Northern Antiquarian 
 Society of Denmark, which narratives were originally 
 
EARLY HISTOEY AND TRADITIONS. 25 
 
 written between the years 1387 and 1395. These 
 chronicles furnish unimpeachable evidence as to the 
 early discovery of portions of North America. 
 
 Of voyages westward before the time of Columbus 
 there are also various traditions in existence. When 
 Lisbon was still held by the Arabs, it is stated that 
 eight hardy and well-instructed Arabian sailors " de- 
 termined to explore that mighty and mysterious ocean 
 which stretched from the coast of Portugal to the 
 setting sun, on whose western horizon no sail ever 
 crept up against the sky, or disappeared from sight 
 beneath its waters." They navigated the ocean many 
 days, and at last landed upon an island, where they 
 were all made prisoners and taken before the king of 
 the country, who ridiculed their hazardous exploit. 
 Subsequently they were carried out to sea in a boat, 
 and abandoned. They drifted on to the coast of Africa, 
 and ultimately returned to Lisbon, where they became 
 known as " the strayed ones." It is conjectured that 
 these adventurous men must have landed first at the 
 Madeira group of islands, and afterwards on those of 
 Cape Verde. 
 
 Another tradition is to the effect that Madoc, a 
 Welsh prince, discovered America about the year 
 1170. The story rests upon the authority of two 
 Welsh bards, Guttun Owen and Cynfrig ab Gronow, 
 who copied the details from old chronicles of the 
 thirteenth century, which were kept in the Abbeys 
 of Conway and Strat Flur. The assertion that Madoc 
 visited America is not generally accepted as authentic, 
 though a careful writer like Humboldt says of similar 
 traditions, " I do not share the scorn with which 
 
26 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 national traditions are too often treated, and am of 
 the opinion that with more research the discovery of 
 facts, entirely unknown, would throw much light on 
 many historical problems." Various narratives have 
 been published claiming that traces exist of Welshmen 
 among the Doegs, Mandans, and Mound-builders of 
 North America. They are, however, inconclusive and 
 contradictory, and are partially due to the fact that 
 there was a resemblance between certain Welsh words 
 and others used by the Indians. Madoc is alleged to 
 have proceeded from Wales to the westward, leaving 
 Ireland to the north ; and if he really did make the 
 voyage attributed to him, and settled with his com- ^ 
 panions in a new land, it is probable that it was not 
 Florida — as supposed — but one of the Azores or the 
 West India Islands. 
 
 A story of more plausibility and of greater interest 
 is that associated with the names of two Venetians, 
 Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, who are stated to have 
 reached the New World upwards of a century before 
 Columbus. The Zeno family were of noble origin, and 
 had done much valorous service for the State. It is 
 strange, however, that no claim was put forward for 
 the brothers Zeno as American discoverers until the 
 middle of the sixteenth century, when the fame of 
 Columbus and his successors had become well assured. 
 It appears that there was published at Venice in 1558 
 a volume of letters, edited by one Nicolo Zeno, and 
 purporting to be letters written by his ancestors 
 Nicolo and Antonio Zeno between the years 1380 
 and 1404. These records were subsequently included 
 in Ramusio's History of Early Voyages, but not 
 
EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 27 
 
 until after his death, and Hakluyt further translated 
 and adopted them. The opinion of geographers has 
 been very much divided as to whether the story of 
 the brothers Zeno was a fraud or not. Among those 
 who believed the narrative to be genuine, however, was 
 Reinholdt Forster, author of the Northern Voyages, 
 and his view has been adopted by Mr. R. H. Major 
 in a work published by the Hakluyt Society. 
 
 The narrative is to the effect that in the year 1380 
 Nicolo Zeno, who was of an adventurous disposition, 
 and wealthy, fitted out a vessel at his own cost, and 
 sailed away northward towards England. He was 
 cast away upon an inhospitable island, where he and 
 his crew were attacked by the natives. They were 
 saved by the king of the neighbouring island of 
 Porland, who invited them to enter his service. This 
 they did, and Nicolo sent home for his brother Antonio. 
 The name of the king was Zichmui, and the island 
 was called Frisland. If it ever existed, it has long 
 ceased to do so ; but those who give credence to the 
 narrative suppose that it must have been one of the 
 Faroe Islands. Nicolo remained with Zichmui four 
 years, and then died ; but Antonio remained for ten 
 years. Nicolo assisted in subjugating several of the 
 islands in the Icelandic Archipelago, and he also 
 voyaged as far westward as Engroneland, which is 
 taken to refer to Greenland. There he found a 
 monastery of friars of the order of the Preachers, 
 and a church dedicated to St. Thomas. There were 
 also ingenious hot-water works, supplied from a geyser, 
 which provided heat both for cooking and warmth. 
 Strange to say, these facts were corroborated nearly 
 
28 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 two centuries later by two independent authorities — 
 Dethmar Blefkins, a German minister sent from Ice- 
 land to Hamburg in 1563, and an English sailor, 
 Jacob or James Hall, who was in the service of 
 Denmark, and who made several voyages to Iceland 
 and Greenland. 
 
 After the death of Nicolo, there arrived in Frisland 
 an ancient fisherman who related to the king mar- 
 vellous adventures in foreign lands. Many years 
 before, four fisher-boats from Frisland were driven 
 by a mighty tempest one thousand miles to tlie west- 
 ward, and one of them, bearing the narrator and 
 his companions, "was wrecked upon an island called 
 Estotiland, supposed to be Newfoundland. The ship- 
 wrecked crew lived amongst the natives for five years, 
 and found them to be highly civilized, while the land 
 was a goodly one. To the southward they discovered 
 another great and prosperous country, peopled by a 
 maritime race, who assisted the adventurers in going 
 still farther south to a land called Drogeo. Here, 
 however, the natives were dark, fierce, and cruel, and 
 they have been identified by some as the forerunners 
 of tiie later Indians in the United States. Farther 
 again to the south-west a more cultured race were 
 found, and these are supposed to have been the people 
 of Mexico, who enjoyed a high degree of civilization. 
 If these statements are to be relied upon, the 
 Norsemen would seem to have travelled down the 
 Atlantic coast, and along the whole of the northern 
 and part of the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico, 
 But such a pre-dating of Columbus and the other 
 great navigators can scarcely be accepted as genuine. 
 
EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 29 
 
 Still, fired by what he had heard, we are assured 
 that Zichinui fitted out a large expedition, which lie 
 commanded himself, and which set out for the west- 
 ward. First, they came to an island called Icaria, 
 the people being named Icari, after the first king of 
 the place, who was alleged to be the son of Daedalus, 
 a king of Scotland. The prince several times attempted 
 to effect a landing, but the people were extremely 
 hostile, and repulsed him. Zichmui consequently left 
 Icaria, and steered farther to the westward. After 
 some days they made a harbour, round a neck of land, 
 which they called Capo di Trin. Tlie people of the 
 land were small in stature, and dwelt in caves. There 
 was an active volcano in the centre of the island. 
 Zichmui determined to remain ; but he sent Antonio 
 Zeno back to Frisland, with most of the sailors who had 
 accompanied him. Here all knowledge of the prince 
 ends, and nothing is known as to what became of him. 
 
 The geographical objections to this story are regarded 
 as insurmountable. " It is difficult to believe," as 
 Messrs. Bryant and Gay justly remark, "that any actual 
 navigator should have described so many islands that 
 had no existence in the places where he put them, 
 both in the narrative and on a map ; and quite as hard 
 to believe that they have all been since sunk in the 
 sea, if they ever had an existence. If it is assumed 
 that the requisite number, and the conquest and dis- 
 covery of those referred to, may be found by looking 
 for them among the Faroe Islands, the Orkneys, or 
 the Hebrides, it is hard to reconcile such a suppo- 
 sition with the known facts of history : that Norway, 
 at the end of the fourteenth century, was governed, 
 
30 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 not by a king, but by a queen, Margaret ; that the 
 Orkneys and Shetland Isles were never wrested from 
 that crown, but belonged to it till late in the fifteenth 
 century ; that Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, held 
 possession of the islands of that name as a loyal 
 subject of Norway at the very time that Zichmui is 
 said to have conquered Frisland ; that the Hebrides 
 have been in continual possession of Scotland since 
 the latter part of the thirteenth century. While it 
 is exceedingly difficult to adjust the main statements 
 of the narrative to any reasonable theory consistent 
 with their truth, the meagre information it gives in 
 regard to the Western Continent was possibly accessible 
 from various sources when the letters were published. 
 The most rational conclusion, therefore, seems to be 
 that if the story were not a clumsy attempt to patch 
 up an account of a voyage, some record of which had 
 been retained in mutilated and unintelligible frag- 
 ments of old letters, then it was a bold, but still 
 clumsy, fabrication, whereby it was hoped that the 
 glory of the great discovery might be snatched from 
 Spain and Columbus. In nothing, in either case, is 
 that clumsiness so apparent as in the adaptation of 
 the Grecian names and fables of Daedalus and Icarus 
 to persons and places in the frozen North." 
 
 One more claim to early American exploration — and 
 that more ancient than any which have been discussed 
 — remains to be considered. The Chinese Year-books, 
 in whicli the events of many centuries are recorded, 
 affirm that a Buddhist priest named Hoei-shin voyaged 
 many thousands of miles in the year 499 a.d., and 
 came to a country which he called Fusang. Con- 
 
EARLY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS. 31 
 
 jectures have been raised whether the land referred 
 to was Alaska, Kamtchatka, or Siberia. The traveller 
 found a cultured people, who used as beasts of burden 
 horses, oxen, and stags, which were harnessed to 
 waggons. Copper, gold, and silver were plentiful, 
 but little valued. There was a king entitled Ichi, 
 and a nobility ; and the people were peaceable. They 
 were all Buddhists, for they had been converted by 
 five beggar-monks about thirty years before. 
 
 While it is quite possible that Chinese navigators 
 may thus early have sailed across the Pacific Ocean, 
 the best Oriental scholars have come to the conclusion 
 that the author of this remarkable narrative was 
 neither more nor less than a Chinese Ananias. Yet 
 there are a few who think it possible that the traveller 
 reached Mexico, while others have fixed the territory 
 described as the Island of Saghalien or Japan. But 
 the whole story is so disjointed and imperfect that 
 it is the wisest policy to regard it as fictitious. 
 Certainly, history must be based upon sounder facts 
 and conclusions than we have here. 
 
 Thus far much of our information concerning the 
 exploration of the American Continent is speculative, 
 though there is undoubtedly mixed with it the element 
 of truth. That the Norsemen explored portions of 
 North America in the eleventh and twelfth centuries is 
 unquestionable, but no permanent result followed their 
 labours. The world soon forgot them and their voyages, 
 and nothing more was done until the Spanish Peninsula 
 took the lead by sending its citizens forth into unknown 
 seas, in quest of the El Dorado which was believed to 
 exist beyond the golden gate of the New World. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 IN Christopher Colnmbns we have one of the great 
 makers of the world's history. Unworthy at- 
 tempts have sometimes been made to deprive him of 
 the glory dne to his name, bnt they have all signally 
 failed ; and it may be assumed that his claims as 
 the first real discoverer of the American Continent 
 will now go down unchallenged till the end of time. 
 
 The birthplace of Homer has been warmly con- 
 tested, and it is a singular circumstance that neither 
 the place of Columbus's nativity nor the year of 
 his birth can be positively and absolutely assigned. 
 But the best authorities, mcluding his descendant 
 the Duke de Veragua, believe that his birth occurred 
 about the year 1436, though other investigators give 
 the date as about ten years later. To the city of 
 Genoa is generally awarded the honour of having 
 given birth to the great discoverer, and this conclusion 
 is supported by the discovery of the will in which 
 Columbus bequeathed part of his property to the 
 Bank of Genoa. " Thence I came, and there was I 
 born," he has himself said. 
 
 From the fact that his father was one Domenico 
 Colombo, a wool-comber, his humble origin has always 
 
 32 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 33 
 
 been inferred ; and the explorer's son Ferdinand, in 
 his biography of his father, gives very meagre details 
 of his early life. But Sir Arthur Helps has pointed 
 out that the family were not necessarily of very 
 humble origin, seeing that Genoa was a city of 
 traders ; and indeed two of Christopher's ancestors 
 were naval commanders of distinction in the maritime 
 service of Genoa and France. No doubt there was 
 but little wealth in the family, but it had honourable 
 traditions. The name of Christopher Columbus is 
 the Latinized form of the Italian Cristoforo Colombo, 
 and when the discoverer went to Spain he adopted the 
 Spanish form of it, Cristobal Colon. 
 
 In early life Christopher laboured at his father's 
 trade of wool-combing, but he also attended school 
 for a time, and was likewise for a brief period a 
 student at the University of Pavia, where he was 
 grounded in a knowledge of mathematics and natural 
 science. Bat the sea was from the first his great 
 object of ambition, and he entered upon his adven- 
 turous career when only in his fifteenth year. He 
 was doubtless fired by the deeds of Prince Henry, the 
 famous navigator. 
 
 Prince Henry was, up to the appearance of Columbus, 
 th-e most celebrated of modern explorers. He was 
 a son of John I. of Portugal and Philippa, the 
 daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. 
 He was born in 1394, and first distinguished himself 
 at the conquest of Ceuta in 1415. But from this 
 time forth his thoughts were taken up with maritime 
 discovery, and it was while prosecuting the war 
 against the Moors of Africa that his sailors reached 
 
34 THE UMTED STATES. 
 
 parts of the ocean heretofore nnvisitecl and unknown. 
 The Prince fixed his abode at Sagres, in Algarve, 
 near Cape St. Vincent, and here he erected an 
 observatory, to which he attached a school for the 
 instruction of sons of the nobility in the sciences 
 necessary to navigation. Many of his pnpils were 
 despatched on voyages of discovery, and these resulted 
 at last in the dis-covery of the Madeira Islands in 
 1418. But the discovery was not of much value 
 for a long time ; for the settlers, in clearing the 
 wood, kindled a fire which burned, it is said, for 
 seven years. The Prince's thoughts were next directed 
 towards the auriferous coasts of Guinea, of which 
 he had gained some knowledge from the Moors ; 
 and in 1433 one of his mariners sailed round Cape 
 Nun, until then regarded as the farthest point of 
 the earth, and took possession of the coasts as far 
 south as Cape Bojador. 
 
 In 1434 the Prince sent forth a larger vessel than 
 any which he had as yet fitted out. It first touched 
 a point one hundred and twenty miles beyond Cape 
 Bojador, and ultimately, in 1440, Cape Blanco was 
 reached. Henry had up to this period borne all 
 the expense of his undertakings himself; but hence- 
 forth self-supporting societies were formed under his 
 patronage and guidance, and the whole nation was 
 at last moved with enthusiasm in a cause which at 
 first was treated with studious neglect. At the same 
 time the Prince did not relax his own efforts, and 
 in 1446 one of his captains, Nuno Tristam, doubled 
 Cape Verde, in Senegambia, while two years later 
 Gonzalez Vallo discovered three of the Azores. The 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 35 
 
 Pope, Martin V., had already granted to the Por- 
 tuguese Crown all the possessions which should 
 be conquered from Cape Bojador to the Indies, 
 together with plenary indulgence for those who should 
 die while engaged in such conquests. The terms of 
 this grant, however, were modified after the Spanish 
 discoveries of Columbus and his successors. 
 
 Prince Henry always had the Indies in view, as a 
 land of unparalleled wealth and splendour. Visions 
 of it rose before him again and again, but he was not 
 destined to discover the far-famed Khubla Khan. He 
 died in 1460, after learning with satisfaction the news 
 that his mariners had reached as far south as Sierra 
 Leone. One writer remarks that Prince Henry was 
 "hardly a less personage than Columbus. They had 
 different elements to contend in. But the man whom 
 princely wealth and position, and the temptation to 
 intrigue which there must have been in the then state 
 of the Portuguese Court, never induced to swerve from 
 the one purpose which he maintained for forty years, 
 unshaken by popular clamour, however sorely vexed 
 he might be with inward doubts and misgivings ; who 
 passed laborious days and watchful nights in devotion 
 to this one purpose, enduring the occasional short- 
 comings of his agents with that forbearance which 
 springs from a care for the enterprise in hand, so deep 
 as to control private vexation (the very same motive 
 which made Columbus bear so mildly with insult and 
 contumely from his followers), — such a man is worthy 
 to be put in comparison with the other great discoverer 
 who worked out his enterprise through poverty, neglect, 
 sore travail, and the vicissitudes of courts. Moreover, 
 
36 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 it must not be forgotten that Prince Henry was 
 undoubtedly the father of modern geographical 
 discovery, and that the result of his exertions must 
 have given much impulse to Columbus, if it did not 
 first move him to his great undertaking. After the 
 above euloginm on Prince Henry, -which is not the 
 least more than he merited, his kinsmen, the con- 
 temporary Portuguese monarchs, should come in for 
 their share of honourable mention, as they seem to 
 have done their part in African discovery with much 
 vigour, without jealousy of Prince Henry, and with high 
 and noble aims. It would also be but just to include, 
 in some part of this praise, the many brave captains 
 who distinguished themselves in these enterprises." 
 
 Columbus was imbued by the same idea as Prince 
 Henry. From the first it was the gorgeous Eastern 
 empire which he had in view, and it was his main 
 object, even when his discoveries resulted in a wholly 
 different way from what he anticipated. Returning 
 to the period of his youth, we find that he was a 
 fighting adventurer, like most of the mariners of his 
 time, and among other expeditions he engaged in was 
 one against Naples while in the service of the good King 
 Ren6, Count of Provence. On one occasion he was 
 sent by Ren^ to Tunis to intercept a Venetian galley. 
 The crew were unwilling to hazard an engagement 
 when they learnt that the galley was convoyed by three 
 other vessels. Columbus feigned to acquiesce in their 
 view, but he so artfully altered his compass that 
 the vessel succeeded in its purpose, and arrived at 
 Carthagena the following morning, when the crew 
 expected to put in at Marseilles. 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 37 
 
 There are years in his life concerning which infor- 
 mation is scant ; but we know that a man of his 
 temperament could never remain idle. As he himself 
 said in middle life, " I have been seeking out the 
 secrets of nature for forty years, and wherever ship 
 has sailed there have I voyaged." In course of time 
 he traversed a large part of the known world, visiting 
 England, and making his way to Iceland and Friesland. 
 For a time Columbus was actually engaged in selling 
 books in Genoa, but about the year 1470 he arrived 
 at Lisbon. His son states that he had sailed with 
 Colombo el Mozo — nephew of the first admiral in the 
 Colon family — on a cruise to intercept some Venetian 
 merchantmen on their way home from Flanders. A 
 battle began at break of day, off Cape St. Vincent, 
 which lasted till nightfall. The vessel on which 
 Columbus held command engaged a huge Venetian 
 galley, which after a desperate struggle caught fire. 
 The flames spread to the privateer, and the combatants 
 on both sides sought safety in the sea. Columbus 
 managed to support himself on an oar, and though 
 almost exhausted he succeeded in gaining the land, 
 which was about six miles distant. As his son 
 remarked, God preserved him for greater things. 
 
 A few years after this he met and married Donna 
 Felij^a, daughter of an Italian named Parestrello, 
 who had been governor of Porto Santo under Prince 
 Henry. Columbus retired for awhile to this island 
 of Porto Santo, where his wife had inherited a small 
 property, and where their son Diego was born. He 
 studied the papers and maps left by his father- in-law, 
 and was constantly brought into association with 
 
38 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 persons interested in maritime discovery. The pre- 
 cise date when he conceived the design of discovering, 
 not a new continent, but a western route to Asia, 
 cannot be determined, but it was probably about 
 1474. We have now to picture him during a period 
 of ten years making proposals of discovery to Genoa, 
 Portugal, Venice, France, and England. His ideas 
 were regarded by several of these governments as 
 the extravagant demands of a mere adventurer. The 
 King of Portugal, however, did incline a favourable 
 ear to him. He referred the project to a maritime 
 junta and his committee of council on geographical 
 affairs ; and when both bodies reported it as visionary, 
 he sent out a caravel, under the pretext of taking 
 provisions to the Cape de Verde Islands, but with 
 secret instructions to try the route proposed by 
 Columbus. This act of treachery was due to the 
 Bishop of Ceuta, the chief opponent of Columbus in 
 the council. The pilots, after sailing several days, 
 lost courage, and returned with the report that no 
 indications of land had been seen. The King was 
 still not inclined to give up the scheme, although it 
 had been mercilessly ridiculed by his council and 
 other sceptics. 
 
 Columbus, however, perceiving at last that there 
 was no hope, and having lost his wife and jDrojJcrty, 
 left Lisbon for Spain, accompanied by his son Diego, 
 the only issue left by his wife Donna Felipa. He 
 applied to the rich and powerful Spanish Dukes of 
 Medina Sidonia and Medina Cell. The latter grandee 
 maintained Columbus for two years in his house, and 
 would have entertained his proposal himself but that 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 39 
 
 he thought it belonged to the Queen to do so. The 
 Duke accordingly gave Columbus a letter to the 
 Queen commending the enterprise, but the times were 
 uupropitious, for Spain was engaged in a deadly war 
 with the Moors. But the adventurer found a friend 
 in the Treasurer of the Household, Alouzo de Quin- 
 tanilla, who obtained a hearing for him from the 
 Spanish monarchs. Ferdinand and Isabella listened 
 with interest, and the matter was referred to the 
 Queen's Confessor, Fra Hernando de Talavera, who 
 was afterwards Archbishop of Granada. Fra Hernando 
 summoned a junta of cosmographers, which was con- 
 vened at Salamanca in the summer of 1487. So far 
 everything seemed promising, but the prejudices of 
 centuries were rooted in the breasts of the cosmo- 
 graphers. The members of the junta were chiefly 
 clerical, and they bombarded Columbus with theo- 
 logical objections. They cited Scripture to refute his 
 theory of the spherical nature of the earth, and 
 invoked the Fathers of the Church to overthrow the 
 " foolish idea of the existence of antipodes ; of people 
 who walk, opposite to us, with their heels upwards 
 and their heads hanging down ; where everything is 
 topsy-turvy, where the trees grow with their branches 
 downwards, and where it rains, hails, and snows 
 upwards." Finally, the bigoted junta decided that 
 the project was " vain and impossible, and tliat it 
 did not belong to the majesty of such great princes 
 to determine anything upon such weak grounds of 
 information." 
 
 Ferdinand and Isabella do not seem to have agreed 
 with the junta on the scientific aspect of the question ; 
 
40 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 and desiring to dismiss Columbus gently, "they 
 merely said that, with the wars at present on their 
 hands, and especially that of Granada, they could not 
 undertake any new expenses ; but when that war was 
 ended, they would examine his plan more carefully." 
 
 For five weary years, according to some authorities, 
 Columbus waited upon the Court of Spain. He was 
 treated with consideration, although he did not gain 
 his grand object, and he followed the sovereigns in 
 their war movements. He was regarded as a public 
 functionary, and received grants from the treasury 
 for his private expenses. But Las Casas, who knew 
 something of neglect and contumely, speaks of the 
 " terrible, continuous, painful, prolix battle " which 
 Columbus waged with adverse circumstances. His 
 heart, however, was cheered by the devotion of his 
 second wife, Beatriz Enriquez, whom he met and 
 married at Cordova. Their union appears to have 
 been an extremely happy one, and there is no evidence 
 that Beatriz ever attempted to dissuade her husband 
 from his great purpose. 
 
 Columbus further met with a powerful friend in 
 Juan Perez de la Marchena, Superior of the Monastery 
 of La Kabida, in Andalusia. This excellent man 
 became so deeply interested in his friend's glorious 
 project that he detained him as a guest, and sent 
 for the learned physician of Palos, Garcia Hernandez, 
 to discuss the scheme. Now, for the first time, it 
 was listened to with admiration, and it also seems to 
 have greatly impressed Alouzo Pinzon, the chief ship- 
 owner of Palos. Dr. Hernandez, who was skilled 
 in physical science, appears to have become a warm 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 41 
 
 admirer of Columbus and his project. Sir Arthur 
 Helps observes : 
 
 "It is worthy of notice that a person who appears 
 only once, as it were, in a sentence in history should 
 have exercised so much influence upon it as Garcia 
 Hernandez, who was probably a man of far superior 
 attainments to those around him, and was in the habit 
 of deploring, as such men do, his hard lot in being 
 placed where he could be so little understood. Now, 
 however, he was to do more at one stroke than many 
 a man who has been all his days before the world. 
 Columbus had abandoned his suit at Court in disgust, 
 and had arrived at the monastery before quitting Spain 
 to fetch his son Diego, whom he had left with Juan 
 Perez to be educated. All his griefs and struggles he 
 confided to Perez, who could not bear to hear of his 
 intention to leave the country for France or England, 
 and to make a foreign nation greater by allowing it 
 to adopt his project. The three friends — the monk, 
 the learned physician, and the skilled cosmographer 
 — discussed together the propositions so unhappily 
 familiar to the last-named member of their little 
 council. The affection of Juan Perez and the learning 
 of Hernandez were not slow to follow in the track 
 which the enthusiasm of the great adventurer made 
 out before them ; and they became, no doubt, as 
 convinced as Columbus himself of the feasibility of 
 his undertaking. The difficulty, however, was not 
 in becoming believers themselves, but in persuading 
 those to believe who would have power to further the 
 enterprise. Their discussions upon this point ended 
 in the conclusion that Juan Perez, who was known 
 
42 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 to the Queen, having acted as her confessor, should 
 write to her Highness. He did so, and the result 
 was favourable. The Queen sent for him, heard what 
 he had to say, and in consequence remitted money to 
 Columbus to enable him to come to Court and renew 
 his suit. He attended the Court again ; negotia- 
 tions were resumed, but were again broken off on the 
 ground of the largeness of the conditions which he 
 asked for. His opponents said that these conditions 
 were too large if he succeeded ; and if he should not 
 succeed, and the conditions should come to nothing, 
 they thought that there was an air of trifling in grant- 
 ing such conditions at all. And, indeed, they were very 
 large — namely, that he was to be made an admiral 
 at once, to be appointed viceroy of the countries he 
 should discover, and to have an eighth of the profits 
 of the expedition. The only probable way of ac- 
 counting for the extent of these demands, and his 
 perseverance in making them, even to the risk of total 
 failure, is that the discovering of the Indies was but 
 a step in his mind to greater undertakings, as they 
 seemed to him, which he had in view, of going to 
 Jerusalem with an army and making another crusade. 
 For Columbus carried the chivalrous ideas of the twelfth 
 century into the somewhat self-seeking fifteenth." 
 
 Again the negotiations failed, however, and Columbus 
 had resolved to set out for France, when Juan Perez 
 and Alonzo de Qaintanilla procured him a hearing 
 from Cardinal Mendoza. The Cardinal favoured the 
 scheme, and Columbus ofi'ered to pay an eighth part 
 of the expenses of the expedition, hoping this would 
 conciliate his opponents ; but all was in vain. It was 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 43 
 
 now Jannary, 1492 ; and the great adventnrer, seeing 
 his cause to be hopeless in Spain, actually started for 
 France. This at once determined Luis de Santaugel, 
 receiver of ecclesiastical revenues of the Crown of 
 Aragon, and one strongly on the side of Columbus, 
 to throw himself at the feet of Queen Isabella. This 
 he did, and addressed her with great fervour, lamenting 
 that her lofty desire for great things should be wanting 
 on this occasion, and hinting that the enterprise might 
 fall under the patronage of other princes. He made 
 light of the vaticinations of the cosmographers, and 
 extolled Columbus as a man of great ideas. Some 
 princes had already acquired lasting fame in this way. 
 Finally, he pointed out that the whole cost of the 
 expedition would only be a million of maravedis — 
 equal to about £308 of the current English coinage 
 — and the undertaking ought not to be abandoned 
 for so small a sum. Quintanilla supported these 
 arguments, and Isabella yielded, but she said that the 
 enterprise must wait until the war drain upon the 
 finances had ceased, or she would pledge her jewels 
 to raise the necessary funds if the scheme must be 
 carried out at once. 
 
 Santangel himself agreed to advance the money 
 required, and the Queen despatched a messenger to 
 bring back Columbus to the Court. He was overtaken 
 about two leagues from Granada, and returned to 
 Santa ¥6, where the sovereigns were encamped. He 
 was well received by Isabella, though not very warmly 
 by Ferdinand, and an agreement was drawn up by 
 the royal secretary Coloma. King Ferdinand seems to 
 have been imbued with the careful views of Henry VII., 
 
44 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 who temporized with Christopher's brother, Bartholo- 
 mew Cokimbus, when he endeavoured to enlist English 
 sympathy for the same project. Although Bartholomew 
 was unsuccessful, however, there was plenty of English 
 enterprise even before Columbus. A letter written 
 by the Spanish ambassador in London, in July, 1498, 
 stated that merchants of Bristol had for the past seven 
 years sent out annually ships in search of the Island of 
 Brazil and the Seven Cities. If true, this is extremely 
 interesting, for it would show that England was already 
 searching for the New World, though unsuccessfully, 
 before the first voyage of Columbus. 
 
 Matters being satisfactorily arranged between Fer- 
 dinand and Isabella and Columbus, an agreement to 
 the following effect was concluded : 
 
 "The favours which Christopher Columbus has 
 asked from the King and Queen of Spain, in recom- 
 pense of the discoveries which he has made in the 
 ocean seas, and as recompense for the voyage which 
 he is about to undertake, are the following : 
 
 " 1. He wishes to be made admiral of the seas and 
 countries which he is about to discover. He desires 
 to hold this dignity during his life, and that it should 
 descend to his heirs. 
 
 " This request is granted hy the King and Queen. 
 
 " 2. Christopher Columbus wishes to be made viceroy 
 of all the continents and islands. 
 
 " Granted by the King and Queen. 
 
 " 3. He wishes to have a share, amounting to a 
 tenth part, of the profits of all merchandise, be it 
 pearls, jewels, or any other things, that may be found, 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 45 
 
 gained, bonght, or exported from the countries which 
 he is to discover. 
 
 " Granted hy the King and Queen. 
 
 " 4. He wishes in his quality of admiral to be made 
 sole judge of all mercantile matters that may be the 
 occasion of dispute in the countries which he is to 
 discover. 
 
 " Granted by the King and Queen, on the condition, 
 however, that this jurisdiction should belong to the 
 office of admiral, as held by Don Enriquez and other 
 admirals. 
 
 " 5. Christopher Columbus wishes to have the right 
 to contribute the eighth part of the expenses of all 
 ships which traffic with the new countries, and in 
 return to earn the eighth part of the profits. 
 
 " Granted by the King and Queen. 
 
 " Santa Fb, in the Vega op Geanada, 
 '■'Api-il 17, 1492." 
 
 This agreement is signed by the secretary Coloma 
 and written by Almazan. 
 
 Then there is a sort of passport or commendatory 
 letter, intended for presentation to the Grand Khan, 
 Prester John, or any other Oriental potentate at whose 
 territories Columbus might arrive : 
 
 " Fekdinand and Isabella to King , 
 
 " The sovereigns have heard that he and his 
 subjects entertain great love for them and for Spain. 
 They are, moreover, informed that he and his subjects 
 very much wish to hear news from Spain ; and send, 
 
46 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 therefore, their admiral, Christopher Colnmhiis, who 
 will tell them that they are in good health and perfect 
 prosperity. 
 
 " Geanada, Ajml 30, 1492." 
 
 In redeeming his promise, Santangel, in May, 1492, 
 advanced one million one hundred and forty thousand 
 maravedis, "being the sum he lent for paying the 
 caravels which their Highnesses ordered to go as 
 the armada to the Indies, and for paying Christopher 
 Columbus, who goes in the said armada." The 
 municipality of Palos was requisitioned for two vessels, 
 being in disgrace with the council, and a proclamation 
 of immunity from civil and criminal process was issued 
 to persons taking part in the expedition. This addition 
 of criminals and runaway debtors to his crew formed 
 in itself a difficulty for Columbus. Then the mariners 
 of Palos of the better class held aloof, and it required 
 all the persuasion of Juan Perez and the Pinzons 
 before the undertaking was completed. At length 
 three vessels were manned with ninety mariners, and 
 provisioned for a year. The ships were small, probably 
 not exceeding one hundred tons burden each — light 
 craft with which to brave the dangers of the Atlantic. 
 Columbus commanded the Santa Maria, which was 
 the only vessel decked throughout ; and the others were 
 the Pinta, commanded by Martin Alonzo Pinzon, and 
 the Nina, commanded by Vicente Yanez Pinzon. 
 
 It must have been a memorable day when the crews, 
 having been confessed, set sail on the 3rd of August, 
 1492, from the Bar of Saltes, with the intention of 
 making for the Canary Islands. The ideas of the 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 47 
 
 commander were unfathomable to many of the men, 
 and distrusted by others. The convoy safely reached 
 the Canary Islands ; bnt here the admiral — for such 
 henceforth Columbus is styled — was obliged to remain 
 for some time, refitting the Finta, which had unshipped 
 her rudder, etc. But on the 6th of September the 
 squadron set sail from Gomera. In the course of 
 a week the variations of the needle began to cause 
 the crews much concern, and they were further dis- 
 turbed by having to cut their way through immense 
 plains of seaweed. Columbus was sometimes obliged 
 to use subterfuge to keep them on their course. Land 
 was occasionally seen ; but as the admiral believed it 
 to belong only to a group of islands, he determined 
 to press on for the Indies. Yet some of the sailors 
 had already come to the conclusion " that it would 
 be their best plan to throw him quietly into the sea, 
 and say he unfortunately fell in, while he stood 
 absorbed in looking at the stars." Las Casas reports 
 Columbus as saying, " Very needful for me was this 
 contrary wind, for the people were very much tormented 
 with the idea that there were no winds on these seas 
 that could take them back to Spain." 
 
 Then there came delusive signs of land, which the 
 presence of birds and fish served to intensify. But 
 no land appeared, and the mariners began to give 
 way to despair. Columbus is found saying on the 
 3rd of October, " that he did not choose to stop beating 
 about last week during those days that they had such 
 signs of land, although he had knowledge of there 
 being certain islands in that neighbourhood, because 
 he would not suffer any detention, since his object 
 
48 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 was to go to the Indies; and if he should stop on the 
 way, it would show a want of mind." It was a time 
 of severe trial for Columbus, who was surrounded 
 by a mocking baud on the vei'ge of mutiny. " At 
 last came the 11th of October, and with it indubitable 
 signs of land. The diary mentions their finding on 
 that day a table-board and a carved stick, the carving 
 apparently wrought by some iron instrnment. More- 
 over, the men in one of the vessels saw a branch of 
 a haw tree with fruit on it. Now, indeed, they must 
 be close to land. The sun went down upon the same 
 weary round of waters which for so long a time their 
 eyes had ached to see beyond, when, at ten o'clock, 
 Columbus, standing on the poop of his vessel, saw 
 a light, and called to him, privately, Pedro Gutierrez, 
 a groom of the King's Chamber, who saw it also. 
 Then they called Rodrigo Sanchez, who had been 
 sent by their Highnesses as overlooker. I imagine 
 him to have been a cold and cautions man, of the 
 kind that are sent by jealous states to accompany 
 and curb great generals, and who are not usually 
 much loved by them. Sanchez did not see the light 
 at first, because, as Columbus says, he did not stand 
 in the place where it could be seen ; but at last even 
 he sees it, and it may now be considered to have been 
 seen officially. It appeared like a candle that went 
 up and down, and Don Christopher did not doubt 
 that it was true light, and that it was on land; and 
 so it proved, as it came from people passing with 
 lights from one cottage to another." 
 
 A pension of ten thousand maravedis had been 
 promised by Ferdinand and Isabella to the man who 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 49 
 
 should first sight land. The Pinta being the foremost 
 vessel, it was from her deck, at two in the morning, 
 that one Rodrigo de Triana first saw land. For some 
 reason or other this poor fellow did not get the reward, 
 and it is said that he afterwards went to Africa in 
 a fever of disappointment, and became a Mahometan. 
 The pension was awarded to the admiral, and it was 
 religiously paid him to the day of his death. Herrera, 
 the historian, remarks that Columbus " saw light in 
 the midst of darkness, signifying the spiritual light 
 v/hich was introduced among these barbarous people, 
 God permitting that, the war being finished with the 
 Moors, seven hundred and twenty years after they 
 had set foot in Spain, this work (the conversion of 
 the Indians) should commence, so that the Princes 
 of Castile and Leon might always be occupied 
 in bringing infidels to the knowledge of the Holy 
 Catholic Faith." 
 
 This language is similar to that which Columbus 
 himself used in a general sense, in an address to 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, which prefaces his diary. 
 After referring to the conclusion of the Moorish 
 War, he reminded their Highnesses how that he had 
 given them information of the lands of India, and 
 of a prince called the Grand Khan, who had sent 
 ambassadors to Rome, praying for doctors to instruct 
 him in the faith, but that none had been sent, so 
 that people were perishing in idolatry. He added, 
 " Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and princes, 
 lovers and furtherers of the Christian Faith, and 
 enemies of the sect of Mahomet, and of all idolatries 
 and heresies, thought to send me, Christopher 
 
 4 
 
50 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Columbus, to the aforesaid provinces of India to see 
 the aforesaid princes, the cities and lands, and the 
 disposition of them, and of everything about them, 
 and the way that should be taken to convert them to 
 our holy Faith." The writer likewise referred to the 
 expulsion of the Jews from Spain as another evidence 
 of the zeal of the Queen for the Catholic Faith. Even 
 in the matter of slavery he perceived the same 
 religious spirit, which permeated all the actions of 
 Isabella. Sincere, but lamentably mistaken in some 
 things, must be the verdict passed upon her. 
 
 Friday, the 12th of October, 1492, was an epoch- 
 making day in the history of the human race. On 
 that day Columbus first set foot upon one of the 
 islands belonging to the New World. It was one of 
 the Bahama group of islands which was thus dis- 
 covered, bat as to which particular island there was 
 long great difference of opinion. Humboldt thought 
 it was Cat Island, called by the natives Guanahavi, 
 and by the Spaniards San Salvador. Other writers 
 have claimed that it was on that beautiful spot where 
 Columbus wished to be buried, and where his remains 
 reposed for centuries — the island of St. Domingo. 
 Later investigations certainly showed that Columbus 
 landed on Cat, Samana, or Watling's Island. These 
 investigations, pursued chiefly in the explorer's log- 
 book, indicated somewhat strongly that the admiral's 
 landing-place was the last-named island, which is 
 regarded as the true San Salvador. There is now 
 no reason to suppose that the world will ever arrive 
 at a more accurate knowledge of the landing of 
 Columbus on the American Continent. 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 51 
 
 The admiral, clad in complete armour, and carrying 
 in his hand the royal banner of Spain, was the first 
 to descend npon the shore of the island, which he 
 found to be very fruitful and like a garden full of 
 trees. The other captains closely followed him, each 
 also bearing a banner with a green cross depicted 
 upon it, and with the initials of Ferdinand and 
 Isabella surmounted by their respective crowns. The 
 islanders must have stood in silent amazement before 
 such a visitation. We are assured that, on touching 
 land, Columbus and all the Spaniards who were with 
 him fell upon their knees, and with tears expressive 
 of the deepest joy, poured forth their "immense 
 thanksgivings to Almighty God." Then the great- 
 hearted Columbus pardoned and comforted those who 
 had caused him such sorrow and suffering during the 
 voyage, and who were now filled with remorse for 
 their murmurings and reproaches. 
 
 With all due legal formalities, Columbus took 
 possession of the island in the name of the Spanish 
 monarchs, and called it San Salvador. The Indians 
 were astonished at the looks of the Spaniards and the 
 whiteness of their skins ; and more than all they 
 marvelled at the leader of the expedition, who formed 
 an imposing figure as he stood with a crimson scarf 
 thrown over his armour. In giving his impressions 
 afterwards of the islanders, Columbus wrote : " Be- 
 cause they had much friendship for us, and because 
 I knew they were people that would deliver themselves 
 better to the Christian Faith, and be converted more 
 through love than by force, I gave to some of them 
 some coloured caps, and some strings of glass beads 
 
52 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 for their necks, and many other things of little value, 
 with which they were delighted, and were so entirely 
 onrs that it was a marvel to see. The same after- 
 wards came swimming to the ships' boats where we 
 were, and brought us parrots, cotton threads in balls, 
 darts and many other things, and bartered them with 
 us for things which we gave them, such as bells and 
 small glass beads. In fine, they took and gave all of 
 whatever they had with goodwill. But it appeared 
 to me they were a people very poor in everything. 
 They went totally naked, as naked as their mothers 
 brought them into the world." The Indians were 
 well made, yellow in colour, and of good countenances, 
 but they painted themselves. They had no knowledge 
 of arms ; and when swords were shown to them, they 
 took hold of them by the blades and cut themselves. 
 Columbus came to the conclusion that "they ought 
 to make faithful servants, and of good understanding, 
 for I see that very quickly they repeat all that is said 
 to them, and I believe they would easily be converted 
 to Christianity, for it appeared to me that they had 
 no creed." 
 
 More tractable and intelligent still were the natives 
 found upon another island, and the admiral's scouts 
 reported that their houses were the best they had yet 
 seen. They were constructed like pavilions, " very 
 large, and appeared as royal tents, without an arrange- 
 ment of streets, except one here and there, and within 
 they were very clean, and well swept, and their 
 furniture very well arranged. All these houses were 
 made of i)alm branches, and were very beautiful. Our 
 men found in these houses many statues of women, 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 53 
 
 and several heads fashioned like masks, and very well 
 wrought. I do not know whether they have these for 
 the love of the beautiful, or for purposes of worship." 
 The Indians had excellent nets and fishing tackle, 
 and there were tame birds and dogs which did not 
 bark. Columbus adds that mermaids were found on 
 the coasts, but they were " not so like ladies as they 
 are painted." 
 
 This voyage resulted in a knowledge being acquired 
 of that weed which has ever since been a source of 
 delight to the individual and of profit to almost every 
 European nation. Since tobacco was introduced, 
 Europeans have cheerfully paid the taxation involved 
 by its consumption. It appears that two discoverers 
 whom the admiral sent out from the Puerto de Mares 
 found the natives indulging in a peculiar kind of 
 fumigation. They absorbed into the mouth through a 
 charred stick the fumes of certain herbs wrapped in 
 a dry leaf, which outer covering was called " tabaco." 
 The Indians told Las Casas that the process took away 
 fatigue, and he came across Spaniards addicted to the 
 same habit on the Island of Hispaniola, who told him 
 that they were not able to leave it off. This discovery 
 of tobacco proved eventually more productive to the 
 Spanish Crown than the gold discoveries of the Indies. 
 
 Columbus never lost sight of his idea of discovering 
 Khubla Khan, the Khan of Khans. When the Indians 
 told him of a king in the south who had much gold, 
 and kept repeating the word^Cubanacan, Cubanacan," 
 he concluded that they referred to the great Khan, 
 whereas they were only speaking of the middle of 
 Cuba. The fact is he was full of his Marco Polo and 
 
64 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 other travellers, and he determined to push his way 
 farther south in quest of India. First he discovered a 
 group of islands, to which he gave the name of Santa 
 Maria de la Concepcion ; then he discovered Cuba, 
 and coasted along its north-eastern shores ; and next 
 he came to Hispaniola, which the natives called 
 Hayti, and here he was cordially received by King 
 Guacanagari. Hispaniola formed a central point of 
 discovery, not only for the West Indies, bat for the 
 whole of the New World. 
 
 On one occasion, while the admiral was taking a 
 sound and much-needed sleep on board his own vessel, 
 the ship was allowed to drift until it grounded on a 
 shoal. Some of the cowardly crew left by the boat, 
 and Columbus did what he could in the emergency, 
 until assistance arrived from the king, who was moved 
 to tears by the misfortune. Every one was rescued, 
 and the natives behaved most honourably in taking 
 nothing. The admiral was much moved by the kind- 
 ness of the Indians, and said, " They are a loving, 
 uncovetous people, so docile in all things, that I assure 
 your Highnesses I believe in all the world there is 
 not a better people, or a better country ; they love 
 their neighbours as themselves, and they have the 
 sweetest and gentlest way of talking in the world, and 
 always with a smile." 
 
 Columbus determined on founding a colony in this 
 land, " having found such goodwill and such signs of 
 gold." The Santa Maria, being entirely disabled, 
 was broken up, and with her timbers the admiral built 
 a fort, calling it La Navidad, because he entered the 
 port close by on Christmas Day. But he could not 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 55 
 
 remain behind himself ; he was naturally anxious to 
 return to Spain, and to be the herald of his own 
 wonderful discoveries. He left a body of his followers, 
 to the number of forty, to guard the fort, and 
 he charged them to do no violence, but to act as 
 Christians. 
 
 On the 4th of January, 1493, he set sail for home 
 in the JS'iiia ; but he had not gone far before he was 
 joined by the Pinta, and the two vessels put into the 
 Bay of Monte Christo together. Pinzon explained that 
 he had been parted from Columbus by the bad weather, 
 which had driven the Pi7ita out of sight of its leader ; 
 and the admiral, not desiring a quarrel, accepted the 
 explanation. He was, liowever, convinced in his own 
 mind of Pinzon's bad faith. The wily Pinzon had 
 heard of an island where all the gold was, and he 
 wanted to secure the profits of this El Dorado on his 
 own account. He failed in his scheme, though he did 
 secure a considerable quantity of gold through barter. 
 
 When they had refitted, the vessels set out again, 
 coasting to the eastward of St. Domingo as far as 
 the Gulf of Samana. Here there was a brush with 
 the natives, which Columbus peacefully composed, 
 compelling Pinzon at the same time to set free six 
 natives whom he had seized for the purpose of selling 
 into slavery. On the 16th of January the vessels 
 resumed their course, Columbus hoping to find the 
 island which Marco Polo had described as being 
 peopled by Amazons. But this hope was abandoned, 
 for the crews were homesick, and in deference to the 
 universal wish the admiral was obliged to make for 
 Europe. The passage was very rough, and the vessels 
 
56 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 "were in danger, owing to want of ballast ; bnt the com-, 
 mander, by a happy thought, ordered all the empty 
 casks on board to be filled with water. As the 
 weather remained tempestuous, he first invoked the aid 
 of Heaven, and then lots were drawn as to who should 
 perform a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of 
 Guadaloupe if they reached land in safety. Twice the 
 lot fell upon the admiral, and he and all the crew 
 made a vow to go in a penitential procession to 
 the first church dedicated to the Virgin which they 
 should meet with after reaching land. So violent 
 were the gales that Columbus wrote a brief account 
 of his voyage on parchment, which he enclosed in 
 wax, and i)laced in a cask that was committed to the 
 waves. Happily he survived to tell his own story. 
 
 On the 18th of February the vessels cast anchor 
 off the Island of St. Mary, one of the Azores, belong- 
 ing to the Portuguese. In fulfilment of their vow, 
 the crew went barefooted and in their shirts on a 
 pilgrimage to the Chapel of St. Mary. The governor, 
 thinking such a seizure would gratify the Portuguese 
 monarch, captured the whole band. Great difficulties 
 ensued, but in the end the governor gave up his 
 prisoners, and on the 24th the Nina again steered for 
 Spain. Boisterous weather once more ensued, and 
 the violence of the gale was such that Columbus said, 
 " I escaped by the greatest miracle in the world." 
 However, on the 4th of March he succeeded in anchor- 
 ing in the Tagus ; and having received an invitation to 
 visit the Portuguese Court, he was received by the 
 King with the highest honours. The latter put in a 
 claim to the newly found countries, on the strength 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 57 
 
 of the old Papal Bull, but Columbns repudiated it. 
 A few days later the admiral left the Tagus for the 
 Bar of Saltes, and reached his original starting-point 
 at Palos on the 15th of March. 
 
 Great was the enthusiasm manifested by the in- 
 habitants of Palos, who regarded even the humblest 
 of the adventurers as a hero. Columbus sent a letter 
 to Ferdinand and Isabella, who were then at Barcelona, 
 announcing the success of his mission, and stating 
 that he should soon present himself in person to their 
 Highnesses. But Pinzon, the commander of the 
 Pinta — which had been separated from the Nina — 
 had already despatched a letter from Bayonne to the 
 sovereigns, announcing his discoveries, and ignoring 
 Columbus, whom he probably believed to have been 
 lost at sea. The monarchs, however, sent a reply, 
 commanding him not to appear at Court without the 
 admiral, and this so preyed on his mind that he took 
 to his bed and died of a broken heart. 
 
 The details furnished by the historian Herrera 
 show what a magnificent reception was accorded to 
 Columbus, who now " entered into the greatest reputa- 
 tion." Nothing could be talked of or thought about 
 save the admiral's wonderful success. One of his 
 biographers thus describes the memorable scene of 
 his appearance before the Spanish monarchs : 
 
 " The Court prepared a solemn reception for the 
 admiral at Barcelona, where the people poured out in 
 such numbers to see him that the streets could not 
 contain them. A triumphal procession like his tlie 
 world had not yet seen ; it was a thing to make the 
 most incurious alert, and even the sad and solitary 
 
68 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 student content to come out and mingle with the mob. 
 The captives that accompanied a Roman general's car 
 might be strange barbarians of a tribe from which 
 Rome had not before had slaves. But barbarians 
 were not unknown creatures. H^re, with Columbus, 
 were beings of a new world. Here was the conqueror, 
 not of man, but of nature, not of flesh and blood, but 
 of the fearful unknown, of the elements, and, more 
 than all, of the prejudices of centuries. We may 
 imagine the rumours that must have gone before 
 his coming. And now he was there. Ferdinand and 
 Isabella had their thrones placed in the presence 
 of the assembled Court. Columbus approached the 
 monarchs, and then, ' his countenance beaming with 
 modest satisfaction,' knelt at the King's feet, and 
 begged leave to kiss their Highnesses' hands. 
 
 " They gave their hands ; then they bade him rise 
 and be seated before them. He recounted briefly the 
 events of his voyage — a story more interesting than 
 the tale told in the Court of Dido by Jllneas, like 
 whom he had almost perished close to home — and he 
 concluded his unpretending narrative by showing what 
 new things and creatures he had brought with him. 
 
 " Ferdinand and Isabella fell on their knees, giving 
 thanks to God with many tears, and then the choristers 
 of the Royal Chapel closed the grand ceremonial 
 by singing the Te Deum, Afterwards men walked 
 home grave and yet happy, having seen the symbol 
 of a great work, something to be thought over for 
 many a generation. 
 
 " Other marks of approbation for Columbus were 
 not wanting. The agreement between him and the 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 59 
 
 sovereigns was confirmed. An appropriate coat of 
 arms, then a thing of much significance, was granted 
 to him in augmentation of his own. In the shield 
 were conspicuously emblazoned the Royal Arms of 
 Castile and Leon. Nothing can better serve to show 
 the immense favour which Columbus had obtained 
 at Court by his discovery than such a grant ; and it 
 is but a trifling addition to make, in recounting his 
 new. honours, that the title of Don was given to him 
 and his descendants, and also to his brothers. He 
 rode by the King's side ; was served at table as a 
 grandee ; ' All hail ! ' was said to him on state 
 occasions ; and the men of his age, happy in the fact, 
 had found out another great man to honour. 
 
 " The more prosaic part of the business had then to 
 be attended to. The sovereigns applied to the Pope, 
 Alexander VI., to confer on the Crowns of Castile 
 and Leon the lands discovered and to be discovered 
 in the Indies. To this application they soon received 
 a favourable answer. The Pope granted to the Princes 
 of Castile and Leon, and to their successors, the 
 sovereign empire and principality of the Indies, and 
 of the navigation there, with high and royal jurisdiction 
 and imperial dignity and lordship over all that hemi- 
 sphere. To preserve the peace between Spain and 
 Portugal, the Pontiff divided the Spanish and Portu- 
 guese Indian sovereignties by an imaginary line drawn 
 from pole to pole, one hundred leagues west of the 
 Azores and the Cape de Verde Islands." 
 
 The nine Indians brought by Columbus were baptized 
 at Barcelona ; and as one of them died immediately 
 afterwards, he was spoken .-^f as the first of the Indian 
 
60 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 nation to enter heaven. A special department for the 
 control of colonial affairs was constituted, with an 
 eminent ecclesiastic, Juan de Fonseca, as director ; but 
 Fonseca was ill-fitted to take charge of a Christian 
 office of this kind. He was hard, worldly, and un- 
 scrupulous, and inflicted great miseries upon the 
 Indian race, instead of reconciling them to the 
 sovereignty of their new masters. 
 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, moved partially by jealousy 
 of Portugal, now hastened forward the preparations for 
 Columbus's second voyage. On the 29th of May, 1493, 
 he received his instructions, which ordered him to 
 labour in all possible ways to bring the dwellers in 
 the Indies to a knowledge of the Holy Catholic Faith. 
 Gentleness and forbearance were to be exercised ; and 
 if any person or persons were found treating the 
 natives harshly, they were to be severely chastised. 
 
 The new expedition was a very imposing one, for it 
 consisted of seventeen ships and seventeen hundred men. 
 With this armada under his command, Columbus 
 sailed from Cadiz on the 25th of September, 1493. The 
 ships had a fair and prosperous voyage, and sighted 
 land on the 3rd of November, having accomplished 
 the passage " by the goodness of God, and the wise 
 management of the admiral, in as straight a track as 
 if they had sailed by a well-known and frequented 
 route." As it was Sunday, the name of Dominica was 
 given to this first island touched at. A second island 
 to the northward was named Maria Galante, after the 
 admiral's flag-ship ; while a third and much larger one 
 was called Guadaloupe, after a monastery in Estrema- 
 dura. This island was thickly wooded, and peopled 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 61 
 
 by cannibals. Sailing then to the north-westward, 
 Columbus passed and named in succession Montserrat, 
 Antigua, St. Martin, and Santa Cruz. Arriving later 
 at a lovely and fruitful island, he called it St. John, 
 but it afterwards became known as Porto Rico. On 
 reaching La Navidad, he was profoundly moved on 
 discovering that the colony which he had planted 
 had entirely disappeared. King Guacanagari told 
 him that the Spaniards had fallen into evil courses, 
 and quarrelled amongst themselves, so that they fell 
 an easy prey to a neighbouring Indian chief named 
 Caonabo, who had destroyed the fort and slain the 
 garrison. Guacanagari was willing for another settle- 
 ment to be effected, but Columbus decided upon finding 
 another site, as the Indians, who had at first hailed 
 the white men as angels from heaven, came to look 
 upon them as debased profligates and disturbers of 
 the peace. 
 
 It was on the coast of Hayti, and about forty miles 
 to the east of Cape Haytieu, that Columbus planted 
 his new settlement, which he called Isabella, after 
 his royal mistress. Unfortunately it was now that 
 his troubles and anxieties began, and it was written 
 by the finger of fate that they were only to end with 
 his life. Disease and fatigue began to tell upon the 
 colonists ; provisions and medicines began to fail ; 
 while there was no prospect of that golden harvest 
 which they were promised on leaving Spain. The 
 admiral himself was made ill by his anxieties. He 
 sent home an account of the state of the colony in 
 January, 1494, It was placed in charge of Antonio 
 de Torres, the Receiver of the Colony, who was to 
 
62 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 lay it before the Court of Spain and explain its details. 
 Many of the suggestions which Columbus made were 
 excellent, and these were at once approved by Ferdinand 
 and Isabella. But when he went on to recommend 
 the initiation of a slave traffic, to the eternal honour 
 of the sovereigns they declined to accede to it. 
 Columbus desired no doubt to improve the health 
 and morals of the natives by capturing them and send- 
 ing them abroad. " The Catholic sovereigns would 
 have been very glad to have received some money 
 from the Indies : money was always welcome to King 
 Ferdinand. The purchase of wine, seeds, and cattle 
 for the colonists had hitherto proved anything but 
 a profitable outlay ; the prospect of conversion was 
 probably dear to the hearts of both these princes, 
 certainly to one of them ; but still this proposition 
 for the establishment of slavery was wisely and 
 magnanimously set aside," 
 
 Meantime the new colony soon fell into a deplorable 
 condition. What with illness, hard work, and poor 
 living, complaints developed into open mutiny, and 
 Columbus was in sore straits. A rising under Bernal 
 Diaz, a man in high authority, was summarily quelled, 
 and Diaz was sent prisoner to Spain, there to undergo 
 his trial. The admiral now founded a mining settle- 
 ment in the district of Cibao, which he named the 
 Fort of St. Thomas ; but the mines were inefficiently 
 worked, and proved disappointing. Knowing that the 
 Spanish monarchs were eager for further discoveries, 
 Columbus determined to go still farther afield. He 
 therefore appointed a Council of Government, with 
 his brother Don Diego as President, and Don Pedro 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 63 
 
 Margarite as Captain-General ; and having done this, 
 he sailed from Hispaniola on the 24th of April, 1494. 
 
 During this new voyage Col ambus made the im- 
 portant discovery of Jamaica, and a number of other 
 islands. Navigation was so dangerous that he is 
 reported never to have slept for a whole month. 
 Then, after leaving an island named La Mona, he 
 fell into what his biographers call a pestilential 
 drowsiness, which completely dej^rived him of his 
 senses for a time. It was no doubt jjartly the result 
 of anxiety, privation, and sickness. As the admiral's 
 chief object in making for the Island of San Juan 
 was to capture cannibals. Las Casas regards this 
 lethargical attack as a judgment upon him for his 
 arbitrary efforts in introducing Christianity. Ill and 
 helpless, the admiral returned to Isabella on the 29th 
 of September, and here he remained for five months, 
 unable to move. He appears to have found consola- 
 tion in the presence of his brother Bartholomew. His 
 family affections generally indeed were very strong; 
 and in a letter to his son Diego, exhorting him to 
 make much of his half-brother Ferdinand, he re- 
 marked, " Ten brothers would not be too many for 
 you. I have never found better friends, on my right 
 hand and on my left, than my brothers." 
 
 Things looked a little brighter at Isabella when 
 Antonio de Torres returned from Spain with pro- 
 visions and other necessaries for the colony, as well 
 as with despatches for Columbus. But this agreeable 
 change did not last long, for the internal affairs of 
 the colony were disorganized, and the Indians were 
 at war with the Spaniards. Don Pedro Margarite, 
 
64 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 wlio had been appointed captain-general in the 
 admiral's absence, bad devastated the country in 
 filibustering expeditions. He bad been commissioned 
 to explore the islands with four hundred men, but told 
 to treat the Indians kindly and yet justly, and to 
 capture Caonabo the chief, and his brothers, either by 
 force or artifice. Margarite interpreted his instruc- 
 tions in the worst sense ; and rapine and injustice 
 marked his footsteps, until the Indians passed from 
 terror to despair, and became strongly hostile to- 
 wards the colonists. Having done all this mischief, 
 Margarite had now returned to Spain, with Father 
 Buil and other prominent men, in the same vessel 
 which took back Bartholomew Columbus. 
 
 But difficulties only kindled the energies of Chris- 
 topher Columbus. Learning that a hostile chief named 
 Guatiguana was besieging the Fort of Magdalena, 
 within only two days' march of Isabella, Columbus at 
 once went out, and defeated him. The whole of the 
 province was reduced to order, and the admiral took 
 a large number of the inhabitants as slaves. These were 
 despatched to Spain in four vessels, which sailed from 
 Isabella in February, 1495. At a later period, on the 
 broad plains of the Vega Real, Columbus defeated 
 with great slaughter an immense body of Indians, 
 whose numbers are placed by some historians at one 
 hundred thousand. There was a fearful carnage, and 
 many of those who escaped death were condemned to 
 slavery. Caonabo, the formidable hostile chief, was 
 amongst those who escaped, and stratagem was now 
 resorted to in order to entrap him. He fell into the 
 snare, and was conveyed manacled to Columbus, 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 65 
 
 who sent liim to Spain for trial, but tie died on the 
 voyage. 
 
 These events were of great significance; for, as Sir 
 Arthur Helps has observed, they must be loolced upon 
 as the origin of West Indian slavery. " We have 
 seen," he says, " that the admiral, after his first 
 victory, sent ofi" four ships with slaves to Spain. He 
 now took occasion to impose a tribute upon the whole 
 population of Hispaniola. 
 
 " It was thus arranged. Every Indian above fourteen 
 years old, who was in the provinces of the mines, or 
 near to these provinces, was to pay every three months 
 a little bellful of gold ; all other persons in the island 
 were to pay at the same time an arroba of cotton 
 for each person. Certain brass or copper tokens were 
 made — different ones for each tribute time — and were 
 given to the Indians when they paid tribute ; and 
 these tokens, being worn about their necks, were to 
 show who had paid tribute. A remarkable proposal 
 was made upon this occasion to the admiral by Guario- 
 neux, cacique of the Vega Real — namely, that he 
 would institute a huge farm for the growth of corn 
 and the manufacture of bread, stretching from Isabella 
 to St. Domingo (i.e. from sea to sea), which would 
 suffice to maintain all Castile with bread. The cacique 
 would do this on condition that his vassals were not 
 to pay tribute in gold, as they did not know how to 
 collect that. But this proposal was not accepted, 
 because Columbus wished to have tribute in such 
 things as he could send over to Spain. 
 
 "This tribute is considered to have been a most 
 unreasonable one in point of amount, and Columbus 
 
 5 
 
66 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 was obliged to modify his demands upon these poor 
 Indians, and in some instances to change the nature 
 of them. It appears that, in 1496, service instead of 
 tribute was demanded of certain Indian villages ; and 
 as the villages were ordered to make (and work) the 
 farms in the Spanish settlements, this may be con- 
 sidered as the beginning of the system oi repartimientos, 
 or encomieodas, as they were afterwards called. 
 
 " We must not, however, suppose that Indian slavery 
 would not have taken place by means of Columbus, 
 even if these uprisings and defeats of the Indians in 
 the course of the year 1495 had never occurred. Very 
 early indeed we see what the admiral's views were 
 with regard to the Indians. In the diary which he 
 kept of his first voyage, on the 14th of October, three 
 days after discovering the New World, he describes 
 a position which he thinks would be a very good one 
 for a fort ; and he goes on to say, ' I do not think 
 that it (the fort) will be necessary, for this people is 
 very simple in the use of arms (as your Highnesses 
 will see from seven of them that I have taken in 
 order to bring them to you, to learn our language and 
 afterwards to take them back) ; so that when your 
 Highnesses command, you can have them all taken to 
 Castile, or kept in the island as captives.' 
 
 "Columbus was not an avaricious nor a cruel man; 
 and certainly he was a very pious one ; but early in 
 life he had made voyages along the coast of Africa, 
 and he was accustomed to a slave trade. Moreover, 
 he was anxious to reduce the expenses of these 
 Indian possessions to the Catholic sovereigns, to prove 
 himself in the right as to all he had said respecting 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 67 
 
 the advantages that would flow to Spain from the 
 Indies, and to confute his enemies at Court." 
 
 When the slaves reached Spain, Ferdinand and 
 Isabella were anxious to have it decided whether 
 they were prisoners of war, for they were opposed 
 to slavery, as we have seen. They consequently 
 referred the matter to Bishop Fonseca, who had 
 charge of Indian affairs, instructing him to withhold 
 receiving the money for the sale of these Indians, until 
 their Highnesses should be able to inform them- 
 selves from men learned in the law, theologians and 
 canonists, whether with a good conscience the Indians 
 could be sold or not. It seems doubtful whether 
 the point was ever decided. The Indians who re- 
 mained in Hispaniola, and who were supposed to 
 be free, had a worse fate even than those who were 
 deported. They thought by refusing to till the soil 
 that they should starve the Spaniards out; but 
 this policy only reacted upon themselves, and they 
 perished of hunger, sickness, and misery in great 
 numbers. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Conrt of Spain was being moved 
 against Columbus by the representations of Margarite, 
 Father Buil, and others. The result was that a 
 royal commissioner was sent out to Hispaniola in 
 the person of Juan Aguado, a Gentleman of the 
 Chamber, who arrived at Isabella in October, 1495. 
 His action in the colony, coupled with the fear of 
 a hostile report, quickened the admiral in his desire 
 to return to Spain to defend himself. Aguado had 
 obtained a good deal of evidence from the Spaniards 
 touching the despotic rule of Columbus, his harsh 
 
68 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 treatment of the hidalgoes, his expensive mania for 
 discovering new lands, and other matters; and the 
 Indians, hoping to reap benefit from a change, like- 
 wise turned against him. Accordingly, he left Isabella 
 on the 10th of March, 1496, in the Nina, Aguado 
 himself returning in another caravel. A number 
 of the colonists returned with them. The voyage 
 was a wretched one, and the greatest privations 
 were endured before the vessels safely entered the 
 Bay of Cadiz, on the 11th of June. A month later 
 the admiral obeyed a summons from the Court to 
 proceed to Burgos. His journey was not so much 
 of a triumphal procession as his first one, although 
 he displayed gold and natives as before. But the 
 sovereigns received him kindly, and listened sym- 
 pathetically to the story of his troubles, and his 
 defence from the charges levelled against him by his 
 enemies. His defence was practically accepted by the 
 sovereigns. 
 
 Columbus now remained in Spain for two years, 
 and the course of events during that period must 
 be briefly traced. Don Bartholomew Columbus, who 
 was still conducting affairs in Hispaniola, sent home 
 in 1496 three hundred slaves, who were supposed 
 to be rebels. In 1497 the sovereigns, on the advice 
 of Columbus, issued two objectionable edicts — one 
 authorizing the judges to transport criminals to the 
 Indies, and the other giving an indulgence to all 
 those who had committed any crimes (with the excep- 
 tion of heresy, treason, and a few others) to go 
 out at their own expense to Hispaniola, there to 
 serve for a time under the orders of the admiral. 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 69 
 
 Columbns had reason to repent giving tliis advice, 
 for only three years afterwards we find him writing, 
 " I swear that numbers of men have gone to the 
 Indies who did not deserve water, from God or 
 man." Yet Las Casas, speaking of these same 
 colonists, said, " I have known some of them in these 
 islands, even of those who had lost their ears, whom 
 I always found sufficiently honest men," 
 
 Letters patent were next issued by the sovereigns, 
 authorizing the admiral to grant repartimietitos of the 
 lands in the Indies to the Spaniards. No mention 
 was made of the Indians themselves at this time : 
 the Spaniard who received a grant of land was "to 
 have, and to hold, and to possess," etc., and he was 
 empowered " to sell, and to give, and to present, and 
 to traffic with, and to exchange, and to pledge, and 
 to alienate, and to do with it and in it all that he 
 likes or may think good." This oppressive legislation 
 was supplemented by the equally oppressive deeds 
 of Don Bartholomew, the adelantado^ or deputy, of 
 Hispaniola, He traversed many of the islands, sub- 
 duing the chiefs and people either by force or 
 stratagem, and compelling them to pay tribute. His 
 activity was such that the Spaniards began to com- 
 plain of the labours imposed upon them, while the 
 Indians constantly rose against their masters. An 
 insurrection broke out among the Spaniards, headed 
 by Eoldan, Chief Justice of Hispaniola, who was 
 anxious to return to Spain as Margarite had done. 
 He and his adherents left Isabella in a body, and it 
 was with great difficulty that Don Bartholomew could 
 keep a sufficient number of men faithfal to him. 
 
70 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Guarionex, one of the disaffected Indian chiefs or 
 caciques, fled to the territories of Maiobanex, the chief 
 of a hardy hill tribe near Cabron. Don Bartholomew 
 pnrsned the fugitive, and demanded his surrender, but 
 Maiobanex refused to give him up. Even when his 
 own people counselled the surrender, the chief made 
 the noble reply that " Guarionex was a good man, 
 and deserved well at his hands, for he had given him 
 many royal gifts when he came to him. . . . Where- 
 fore he would be party to no treaty to desert Guarionex, 
 since he had fled to him, and he had pledged himself 
 to take care of the fugitive, and would rather suffer 
 all extremities than give detractors a cause for speak- 
 ing ill, to say that he had delivered up his guest." 
 Loyally and manfully he stood by his brother chief 
 to the last, for both were ultimately captured and 
 thrown into prison. 
 
 We now come to the third memorable voyage of 
 Columbus. His instructions on this occasion were to 
 bring the Indians into peace and quietude, their sub- 
 jection being accomplished amicably or" benignantly." 
 They were also to be converted to the Holy Catholic 
 Faith, and have the sacraments administered to them. 
 The expedition set sail from the port of San Lucar on 
 the 30th of May, 1498. It consisted of six vessels 
 and two hundred men, in addition to the sailors who 
 were necessary to navigate the ships. On reaching 
 the Canary Isles, Columbus sent three of his ships 
 direct to Hispaniola, telling their commanders that 
 he was going to the Cape Verde Islands, and thence 
 " in the name of the Sacred Trinity " to the south, until 
 he should arrive under the equinoctial line, in the 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 71 
 
 hope of being " guided by God to discover sometbing 
 wbicb may be to His service, and to that of our 
 Lords, the King and Queen, and to the honour of 
 Christendom ; for I believe," he added, " that no one 
 has ever traversed this way, and that this sea is 
 nearly unknown." 
 
 This declaration shows that Columbus had a clear 
 and definite object in view in going south, and that 
 he expected to come upon a greater land than any he 
 had hitherto encountered. On the 27th of June he 
 reached the Cape Verde Islands. Leaving them on the 
 4th of July, after experiencing dense fogs, he steered 
 for the south-west. He sailed for upwards of one 
 hundred and twenty leagues, and then experienced 
 eight days of such intolerable heat that if the 
 remaining seven had been clear and cloudless like 
 the first not a man would have been left alive. Not 
 until Thursday, the 31st of July, was land observed. 
 On that day Alonzo Perez, a mariner of Huelva, and 
 a follower of the admiral, chanced to go aloft upon 
 the maintop-sail of the admiral's ship, and suddenly 
 saw land towards the south-west, about fifteen leagues 
 away. Columbus named the land Trinidad, and the 
 sailors sang the Salve Regiua and other pious hymns 
 in honour of God and in thankfulness for the new 
 discovery. From the shores of the island, Columbus 
 saw the South American Continent for the first time ; 
 but imagining it to be only a large island, he gave 
 it the name of Zeta. He next came to the Gulf 
 of Paria, and wherever he went he found the coasts 
 fruitful and well cultivated. In coasting up the gulf, 
 the admiral invariably met with friendly treatment 
 
i2 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 from the natives. From the immense amount of 
 fresh water which was brought down by the rivers 
 into the Gulf of Paria, he came to the conclusion that 
 a tract of land which he had named Gracia was not 
 an island, but a continent, and this supposition was 
 correct. He thought he had reached the gates of 
 the earthly Paradise, and that this was the beginning 
 of that golden continent of the East which had for 
 years been a settled conviction with him. 
 
 One of his biographers writes : " Columbus did not 
 forget to claim, with all due formalities, the posses- 
 sion of this approach to Paradise for his employers, 
 the Catholic sovereigns. Accordingly, when at Paria, 
 he had landed and taken possession of the coast in 
 their names, erecting a great cross upon the shore, 
 which, he tells Ferdinand and Isabella, he was in the 
 habit of doing at every headland, the religious aspect 
 of the conquest being one which always had great 
 influence with the admiral, as he believed it to have 
 with the Catholic monarchs. In communicating 
 this discovery, he reminds them how they bade him 
 go on with the enterprise, if he should discover only 
 stones and rocks, and had told him that they 
 counted the cost for nothing, considering that 
 the Faith would be increased, and their dominions 
 widened. 
 
 " It was, however, no poor discovery of mere ' rocks 
 and stones ' which the admiral had now made. It 
 will be interesting to see his first impressions of the 
 men and the scenery of this continent which he had 
 now, unconsciously, for the first time, discovered. He 
 says, ' I found some lands, the most beautiful in the 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 73 
 
 world, and very populous.' The lands in the Island 
 of Trinidad he had previously compared to Valencia, 
 in Spain, during the month of March. It is also 
 noticeable that he had observed that the fields were 
 cultivated. Of the people he says, ' They are all 
 of good stature, well made, and of very graceful 
 bearing, with much and smooth hair ' ; and he 
 mentions that on their heads they wore the beautiful 
 Arab head-dress (called keffeK), made of worked and 
 coloured handkerchiefs, which appeared in the distance 
 as if they were silken." 
 
 Columbus said nothing to the Spanish monarchs 
 of his discovery of pearls. It is conjectured that he 
 wished to keep this secret for awhile, lest the fruits 
 of his enterprise should be snatched from him ; but 
 of course the knowledge could not long be suppressed, 
 and the Pearl Coast soon became a favourite field for 
 adventurers. 
 
 The admiral himself had not the time to push 
 to the utmost the advantages to be derived from his 
 discoveries, for he was anxious to return to Hispaniola. 
 He arrived there on the 30th of August, and found the 
 colony in a deplorable condition. He sent off five ships 
 from St. Domingo laden with six hundred slaves. 
 In his letters to the Spanish Court, he spoke of the 
 intended adoption, on behalf of private individuals, 
 of a system of exchange of slaves for goods wanted 
 from the mother country. This plan, which was a 
 new kind of repartimiento^ he proceeded to carry into 
 effect without waiting for the necessary authority. 
 After a long series of negotiations with Roldan, he 
 confirmed him in his chief-justiceship, and rewarded 
 
74 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 liis friends with lands and slaves, making the Indians 
 till the lands for the new possessors. Those adherents 
 of Roldan who preferred to return to Spain he per- 
 mitted to do so, giving each of them a certain number 
 of slaves. 
 
 Queen Isabella was very angry when she learnt 
 that Columbus had thus been giving her new vassals 
 away. She therefore ordered proclamations to be 
 made at Seville, Granada, and elsewhere, command- 
 ing all persons who were in possession of Indians, 
 given to them by the admiral, to send back those 
 Indians to Hispaniola, under pain of death — "and 
 that particularly they should send back those Indians, 
 and not the others who had been brought before, 
 because she was informed that the others had been 
 taken in just war." The Spanish sovereigns appear 
 to have eased their consciences by accepting the dictum 
 that Indians taken in open warfare could be justifiably 
 made slaves of ; yet there was practically no differ- 
 ence between these slaves and those ordered to be 
 returned. 
 
 Fate now began to press heavily against Columbus. 
 His enemies increased in numbers and bitterness, and 
 Don Ferdinand thus graphically describes the attitude 
 of his father's foes : " When I was at Granada, at 
 the time the most serene Prince Don Miguel died, 
 more than fifty of them (Spaniards who had returned 
 from the Indies), as men without shame, bought a 
 great quantity of grapes, and sat themselves down in 
 the court of the Alhambra, uttering loud cries, saying 
 that their Highnesses and the admiral made them 
 live in this poor fashion on account of the bad pay 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 75 
 
 they received, with many other dishonest and un- 
 seemly things, which they kept repeating. Such was 
 their effrontery, that when the Catholic King came 
 forth they all surrounded him, and got him into the 
 midst of them, saying, ' Pay ! pay ! ' and if by chance 
 I and my brother, who were pages to the most serene 
 Queen, happened to pass where they were, they 
 shouted to the very heavens, saying, ' Look at the sons 
 of the admiral of Mosquitoland, of that man who 
 has discovered the lands of deceit and disaj)pointment, 
 a place of sepulchre and wretchedness to Spanish 
 hidalgoes ' : adding many other insulting expressions, 
 on which account we excused ourselves from passing 
 by them." 
 
 Ferdinand and Isabella now began to consider the 
 question of the suspension of Columbus. But before 
 doing this they resolved to send out to Hispaniola an 
 official with full civil and judicial authority. Accord- 
 ingly, on the 21st of March, 1499, they authorized 
 Francis de Bobadilla " to ascertain what persons have 
 raised themselves against justice in the Island of 
 Hispaniola, and to proceed against them according to 
 law." Two months later they conferred upon him the 
 government, and signed an order that all arms and 
 fortresses in the Indies should be given up to him. 
 Then, on the 26th of May, they entrusted him with 
 this letter to Columbus : 
 
 " Don Cheistophek Columbus, our Admiral of the 
 Ocean : We have commanded the Comendador Francis 
 de Bobadilla, the bearer of this, that he speak to you 
 on our part some things which he will tell yon : we 
 
/b THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 pray you give him faith and credence, and act accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 " I THE King, I the Queen. 
 " By their command, 
 
 " Miguel Pekez de Almazan." 
 
 Bobadilla did not arrive in Hispaniola until the 
 23rd of August, 1500 ; but he at once began to act 
 in an arbitrary spirit, and one which could not have 
 commended itself to the sovereigns. He took posses- 
 sion of the admiral's house at St. Domingo, and 
 summoned the admiral, who was then at La Concep- 
 cion, to appear before him. The accusers of Columbus 
 gained courage at Bobadilla's coming, and charges 
 multii)lied in a manner that was equally rapid and 
 contemptible. Bobadilla put Columbus and his 
 brothers in chains, and sent them to Spain. When 
 the captain of the ship offered to free Columbus from 
 his fetters, he proudly replied, " No, I will wear 
 them as a memento of the gratitude of princes." He 
 declared that he would never have them taken off, 
 except by royal command, and he ordered them to be 
 buried with him. There was great indignation through- 
 out Spain at the outrage ; and when the sovereigns 
 heard of it, they disclaimed the proceeding, and ordered 
 him to be immediately liberated. He was directed 
 to proceed to the Court at Granada, and money was 
 forwarded to enable him to make the journey in a 
 style befitting his rank. On his arrival, he was 
 received with every mark of distinction : their High- 
 nesses dismissed the charges against him as unworthy 
 of investigation, and promised him redress and com- 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 77 
 
 pensation. Yet Ferdinand was jealous of his power 
 over the colonies, and the wealth that might possibly 
 accrue to him, and he was resolved not to reinstate 
 him in his viceroyalty. 
 
 The Queen granted Columbus a private audience, 
 and received him very graciously. The admiral told 
 the story of his difficulties and grievances with much 
 eloquence, and showed that he was obliged to strike 
 out a path for himself under the untoward circum- 
 stances which presented themselves. Isabella made 
 full allowance for this, and expressed her appreciation 
 of his services ; but then she went on to say : " Com- 
 mon report accuses you of acting with a degree of 
 severity quite unsuitable for an infant colony, and 
 likely to excite rebellion there. But the matter as to 
 which I find it hardest to give you my pardon is your 
 conduct in reducing to slavery a number of Indians 
 who had done nothing to deserve such a fate. This 
 was contrary to my express orders. As your ill fortune 
 willed it, just at the time when I heard of this breach 
 of my instructions everybody was complaining of you, 
 and no one spoke a word in your favour. And I felt 
 obliged to send to the Indies a commissioner to in- 
 vestigate matters, and give me a true report ; and, 
 if necessary, to put limits to the authority which 
 you were accused of overstepping. If you were 
 found guilty of the charges, he was to relieve you of 
 the government and to send you to Spain to give an 
 account of your stewardship. This was the extent of 
 his commission. I find that I have made a bad choice 
 in my agent ; and I will take care to make an ex- 
 ample of Bobadilla, which shall serve as a warning 
 
78 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 to others not to exceed their powers. I cannot, 
 however, promise to reinstate you at once in your 
 government. People are too much inflamed against 
 you, and must have time to cool. As to your rank of 
 admiral, I never intended to deprive you of it. But 
 you must bide your time and trust in me." 
 
 Bobadilla was superseded, and a new governor 
 named Ovando appointed, who was to hold his post 
 at their Highnesses' will and pleasure. His instruc- 
 tions stated that " all the Indians in Hispaniola should 
 be free from servitude and be unmolested by any one, 
 and that they should live as free vassals, governed 
 and protected by justice, as were the vassals of Castile." 
 They were to pay tribute, but they were to receive 
 daily wages for their assistance in getting gold. No 
 Jews, Moors, or new converts were permitted to go 
 out to the colonies ; but " negro slaves born in the 
 power of Christians were to be allowed to pass to the 
 Indies, and the officers of the royal revenue were to 
 receive the money to be paid for their permits." These 
 instructions, issued in 1501, thus give the first in- 
 timation with regard to negroes going to the Indies. 
 Ovando proved to be a cruel and tyrannical deputy, 
 who thought nothing of devastating provinces and 
 massacring the inhabitants. 
 
 Having been to a considerable extent restored to 
 favour, Columbus conceived a scheme for a passage 
 from the neighbourhood of St. Domingo to those 
 regions in Asia from which the Portuguese were now 
 beginning to reap profit, and which he believed must 
 be near the El Dorado of his dreams. He appealed 
 to the sovereigns to allow him to go forth once more, 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 79 
 
 and Ferdinand granted his request, at the same time 
 reiterating his confidence in him. So on the 9th of 
 May, 1502, Columbus set sail from Cadiz with his 
 brother Bartholomew and his second son Fernando. 
 There were four caravels, and it was the admiral's 
 intention to explore the Gulf of Mexico. Martinique 
 was reached on the 13th of June. The largest vessel 
 was in a dangerous state, and he desired to run into 
 St. Domingo to refit; but as he had been forbidden 
 in his instructions to visit St. Domingo, Ovando would 
 not permit him to land. He therefore went forward, 
 passing Jamaica on the 14th of July, and afterwards 
 coasting Honduras. To one place, touched at on the 
 12th of September, he gave the name of Cape Gracias 
 a Dios. Some weeks later he explored several bays 
 on the Isthmus of Panama, but he could learn nothing 
 of the kingdom of the Khan or of the strait which 
 he believed led to it. 
 
 In December the little expedition encountered 
 terrible storms ; but after eight days' tossing about, a 
 small harbour was made at the mouth of a river, 
 which the admiral named Bethlehem, because he 
 entered it on the day of the Epiphany. Here he 
 found much gold, and formed a little settlement for 
 collecting it. But the natives were very hostile, and 
 threatened the extinction of the settlers, so Columbus 
 was obliged to take them all on board again. Pie had 
 now lost one of his worm-eaten vessels, and the others 
 were in a crazy condition. With great difficulty he 
 managed to steer for Jamaica, however, and in the 
 harbour of Santa Gloria his voyage came to a con- 
 clusion. As his vessels could float no longer they 
 
80 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 were run ashore, and he constructed huts on the decks 
 for his men, forbidding them to go on shore, so as to 
 avoid all quarrel with the natives. 
 
 But Columbus could not rest here, and he sent a 
 letter to Ovando — which was taken by Diego Mendez 
 in a canoe — asking him to forward a relief vessel to 
 take off the crews. He also forwarded a despatch to 
 the sovereigns, giving a detailed account of his voyage 
 and a glowing description of the riches of Veragua. 
 This despatch was a strange commingling of faith 
 and enthusiasm. The passage in which he described 
 his emotions during the storm at the mouth of the 
 River Bethlehem was most extraordinary, and ran as 
 follows : " Wearied and sighing, I fell into a slumber, 
 when I heard a piteous voice saying to me, ' fool 
 and slow to believe and serve thy God, who is the 
 God of all ! What did He more for Moses, or for His 
 servant David, than He has done for thee ? From 
 the time of thy birth He has ever had thee under His 
 peculiar care. When He saw thee of a fitting age, 
 He made thy name to resound marvellously throughout 
 the earth, and thou wert obeyed in many lauds, and 
 didst acquire honourable fame among Christians. Of 
 the gates of the ocean sea, shut up with such mighty 
 chains, He delivered to thee the keys ; the Indies, 
 those wealthy regions of the world, He gave thee for 
 thine own, and empowered thee to dispose of them 
 to others, according to thy pleasure. What did He 
 more for the great people of Israel, when He led 
 them forth from Egypt ? Or for David, whom, from 
 being a shepherd, He made a king in Judaea ? Turn 
 to Him, then, and acknowledge thine error : His 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 81 
 
 mercy is infinite. He has many and vast inheritances 
 yet in reserve. Fear not to seek them. Thine age 
 shall be no impediment to any great undertaking. 
 Abraham was above a hundred years when he begat 
 Isaac : and was Sarah youthful ? Thou urgest de- 
 spondingly for succour. Answer ! Who hath afilicted 
 thee so much and so many times — God, or the world ? 
 The privileges and promises which God hath made 
 to thee He hath never broken, neither hath He said, 
 after having received thy services, that His meaning 
 was different, and to be understood in a different 
 sense. He fulfils all that He promises, aud with 
 increase. Such is His custom. I have shown thee 
 what thy Creator hath done for thee, and what He 
 doeth for all. The present is the reward of the toils 
 and perils thou hast endured in serving others.' I 
 heard this," adds Columbus, " as one almost dead, 
 and had no power to reply to words so true, excepting 
 to weep for my errors. Whoever it was that spoke to 
 me finished by saying, ' Fear not ! All these tribula- 
 tions are written in marble, and not without cause.' " 
 
 No doubt this exordium was intended to rouse the 
 sympathies of the sovereigns. Twice did Mendez 
 make efforts to reach Hispaniola and invoke the 
 succour of Ovando, and at length the latter authorized 
 him to proceed to St. Domingo to purchase a caravel 
 on behalf of Columbus. In the interim the admiral 
 was having a bad time of it at Santa Gloria, and in 
 January, 1504, his men broke out into open mutiny. 
 The disaffected, finding that they were unable to 
 return to Spain in canoes, roamed over the Island of 
 Jamaica, committing excesses wherever they went. 
 
 6 
 
82 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 The natives retorted, but Columbus regained liis power 
 over them by predicting that the moon would change 
 her colour in testimony of the evils which would fall 
 upon the i)eople. It was fortunate that Columbus 
 knew of an eclipse at this time, for it brought the 
 natives in terror and submission to his feet. The 
 mutiny among the admiral's own men was quelled at 
 last by a sharp and sanguinary action. 
 
 On the 28th of June, 1504, two relief caravels 
 arrived at Santa Gloria, one sent by Mendez and the 
 other by Ovando. Columbus and his men at once 
 embarked, but they did not reach St. Domingo until 
 the 13th of August. A month after that the admiral 
 set sail for Spain ; and after suffering great hardship 
 and famine, as well as being prostrated by sickness, 
 he reached San Lucar on the 7th of November, 1504. 
 Here he lay sick for many months, during which 
 period his truest friend, Queen Isabella, passed away. 
 On his recovery Columbus proceeded to the capital, 
 but it was only to have his claim finally rejected by 
 the King. 
 
 Columbus died at Valladolid on the 20th of May, 
 1506, his last words being, " Into Thy hands, Lord, 
 I commit my spirit." Infirm of body, but in full 
 possession of all his faculties, and yet so poor that 
 he could not frequently pay for his sustenance, the 
 discoverer of a new world expired in a small apart- 
 ment of a modest house, with a few faithful friends 
 and followers standing by his bedside. A small tablet 
 has been placed on the front of the building — now 
 some six hundred years old — which briefly states, 
 " Here died Columbus." 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 83 
 
 The remains of the great discoverer were buried 
 at Valladolid, but afterwards removed to Seville. 
 Here they were not allowed to remain, however, for 
 in 1536 they were taken with great pomp to St. 
 Domingo, and interred in the Cathedral, In 1796 
 they were once more removed, and buried in the 
 Cathedral of Havana with imposing ceremonies, 
 though some authorities assert that the remains were 
 not those of Columbus, but of his son Diego. But the 
 Duke of Veragua, the only remaining descendant of 
 Columbus in the female line, on being appealed to on 
 this point, and also as to whether the discoverer was 
 a native of Calvi, in Corsica, wrote, " I do not think 
 any of the historians or writers have been successful 
 in their attempts to deprive Genoa of the honour of 
 being the birthplace of Columbus, or in taking from 
 Havana the glory of possessing his ashes." The last 
 legitimate descendant of Columbus in the male line 
 died in 1578. 
 
 A remarkable letter by Columbus, never before pub- 
 lished, appears in the sketch of the explorer written 
 by General J. Grant Wilson for The Cyclopcedia of 
 American Biogrcqihj. It was written in Spanish, and 
 addressed to Agostino Barberigo, Doge of Venice, to 
 whom Columbus had previously made unsuccessful 
 proposals of exploration. Penned two days before 
 the admiral set sail from Saltes on his first great 
 expedition, it lay for nearly four hundred years in the 
 Venetian Archives undiscovered. The letter runs as 
 follows : 
 
 "Magnificent Sir, — Since your Republic has not 
 deemed it convenient to accept my offers, and all the 
 
84 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 spite of my many enemies lias been bronght in force 
 to oppose my petition, I have thrown myself in the 
 arms of God, my Maker, and He, by the intercession 
 of the Saints, has caused the most clement King of 
 Castile not to refuse to generously assist my project 
 toward the discovery of a new world. And praising - 
 thereby the good God, I obtained the placing under 
 my command of men and ships, and am about to 
 start on a voyage to that famous laud, grace to 
 which intent God has been pleased to bestow upon 
 me." 
 
 The four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of 
 America by Columbus was celebrated in Europe and 
 the United States with great rejoiciogs in 1892. At 
 Huelva the festivals began on the 3 1st of July, and 
 vessels were sent by Great Britain, France, the United 
 States, Austria, Greece, Portugal, the Argentine Re- 
 public, and Mexico. The caravel Santa Marna, con- 
 structed as an exact reproduction of the vessel in which 
 Columbus sailed, set sail over the Bay of Cadiz, bound 
 for Huelva, where she was moored off Palos, on the 
 very spot where her great original was anchored. On 
 the 2nd of August she went out to sea, and returned 
 amidst salutes from the lines of ships in the bay. A 
 congratulatory telegram from the Alcalde of Huelva 
 was despatched to President Harrison, who suitably 
 responded. In October the Queen Regent of Spain 
 and the young King visited Cadiz, when the most 
 brilliant celebrations occurred. At Huelva the Nina 
 and Pinta were received by the Spanish and foreign 
 war-shijjs, twenty-three in number. The town and 
 shipping were brilliantly illuminated on the evening 
 
THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. 85 
 
 of the 10th. The 12th of October being the anni- 
 versary of the day when America was first seen 
 from the ships of Columbus, the day was observed 
 throughout the principal cities of Spain, and espe- 
 cially at Yalladolid, where the great explorer died. 
 
 At Genoa, the birthplace of Columbus, two gold 
 medals were struck, one for the Queen of Spain 
 and one for the King of Italy. The Municipal 
 Palace was thronged by a brilliant assemblage in 
 the evening, including the King and Queen of Italy, 
 the ministers, ambassadors, officers of the fleet, etc. 
 In the port of Genoa were war-ships representing 
 fifteen nations. At a later date there was a Columbus 
 Exhibition and a historical procession representing 
 the return of Columbus. There was also an Exhibi- 
 tion at Madrid, and one of its most interesting features 
 was a facsimile reproduction of the first chart on 
 which the American Continent was delineated. The 
 original was traced by Juan de la Cosa, the pilot 
 of CoUimbus, in 1500. A grand historical cavalcade 
 was subsequently witnessed by the royal family and 
 their guests, the King and Queen of Portugal. 
 
 At New York there was a grand naval parade 
 in the harbour, by vessels of all nations, early in 
 October. The 12th was observed as a general 
 holiday; and the Columbus statue, sent as a present 
 from Italy to America, was unveiled. A noble statue 
 by a Spanish sculptor was also unveiled in the Central 
 Park. Reproductions of the three vessels with which 
 Columbus first went out were exhibited; and after 
 being taken first to Havana and then to the 
 Chicago Exhibition, they were formally presented 
 
86 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 to the United States Government, to be preserved 
 as relics. 
 
 Accounts differ as to the details of the personal 
 appearance of Columbus, but all agree in stating 
 that he had a commanding presence. He was above 
 the middle height, with a long countenance, rather 
 full cheeks, an aquiline nose, and light grey eyes full 
 of expression. His hair, naturally of a light colour, 
 turned white when he was quite a young man. 
 
 He had many fine qualities of character, and was 
 magnanimous and benevolent, though also impetuous 
 and irritable. While practical in action, he was a 
 man of ardent impulses and strong imagination. 
 Sometimes he lacked the iron nerve of a leader; and 
 although he was sincerely and earnestly religious, 
 his conduct in the capture and sale of slaves can 
 never be inherently justified, though it was counte- 
 nanced by the jurists and divines of his time. He 
 desired to obtain revenues for the Crown by his new 
 discoveries, and to Christianize the slaves ; but it is 
 the worst way in the world to attempt to convert 
 a man by first taking his freedom from him. The 
 full value of his discovery he never lived to realize, 
 and at his death he believed that the land which 
 he had discovered was the long-sought-for Indies. 
 But with all his failings and limitations, he was 
 one of the world's truly great men ; and as such his 
 glory can never fade. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 
 
 THE first discoverer of the mainland of North 
 America was John Cabot, and it is to his remark- 
 able adventures, as well as to tliose of his more 
 celebrated son Sebastian Cabot, that we must now 
 direct attention. 
 
 Neither the time nor the place of John Cabot's 
 birth can be definitely fixed. The first authentic 
 information concerning him appears in the Venetian 
 Archives, where it is stated that he was accorded the 
 rights of a citizen on the 28th of March, 1476, after 
 the required fifteen years' residence. Yet, according 
 to other authorities, some time before the latter year 
 Cabot had left Venice for London, there to follow 
 the trade of merchandise. Instead of staying in 
 London, however, he made his way to Bristol, then 
 the second city in the kingdom. As, being a foreigner, 
 he was not permitted to settle in the city itself, he 
 took up his abode in one of the suburbs. This was 
 probably a district now known as Cathay, so-called 
 after the Indies, and a large Indian trade is still 
 carried on in its midst. Here at least two of John 
 Cabot's sons were born, Sebastian and Sanctus. 
 
 Sebastian told a contemporary of his that he was 
 
 87 
 
88 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 born in Bristol, and that when he was four years old 
 he was taken by his father to Venice. After remain- 
 ing there for some years, he was again conveyed to 
 England, and these facts gave rise to the impression 
 that he was born in Venice. The date of his birth 
 has been placed between 1474 and 1477. Both father 
 and son seem to have been fired with an adventurous 
 zeal, to which they were stimulated by the deeds of 
 Columbus, a man whom they warmly and reverently 
 admired. 
 
 In the year 1495 John Cabot was residing at Bristol, 
 and doubtless had been for some years. Under date of 
 March 5, 1495 (Old Style), Henry VII. granted a patent 
 licensing Cabot and his three sons — Lewis, Sebastian, 
 and Sanctus — or either of them, their heirs or assigns, 
 to search for islands, provinces, or regions, in the 
 eastern, western, or northern seas ; and, as vassals 
 of the King, to occupy the territories that might be 
 found, with an exclusive right to their commerce, on 
 paying the King a fifth part of all the profits. This 
 interesting document runs thus : 
 
 " Henry, by the grace of God, etc., etc. 
 
 "Be it known to all, that we have given and granted, 
 and by these presents do give and grant, to our 
 well-beloved John Cabot, citizen of Venice, to Lewis, 
 Sebastian, and Sanctus, sons of the said John, and 
 to their heirs and deputies, full and free authority, 
 leave, and power to sail to all parts, countries, and seas 
 of the East, of the West, and of the North, under our 
 banners and ensigns, with five ships, of what burthen 
 or quality soever they be, and as many mariners and 
 men as they will take with them in the said ships, 
 
THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 89 
 
 u])on their own proper costs and charges^ to seek out, 
 discover, and find whatsoever Isles, Countries, Regions, 
 or Provinces of the Heathen and Infidels, whatsoever 
 they be, and in whatsoever part of the world, which 
 before this time have been unknown to all Christians. 
 We have granted to them and every of them and 
 their deputies, and have given them our licence, to set 
 up our banners and ensigns in every village, town, 
 castle, isle, or mainland of them newly found ; and 
 that the said John and his sons and their heirs may 
 subdue, occupy, and possess all such towns, cities, etc., 
 by them found, which they can subdue, occupy, and 
 possess as our vassals and lieutenants, getting to ns 
 the rale, title, and jurisdiction of the said villages, 
 towns, etc. 
 
 " Yet so that the said John and his sons and their 
 heirs, of all the fruits, profits, and commodities grow- 
 ing from such navigation, shall be held and bound to 
 pay to us, in wares or money, the fifth jmrt of the 
 capital gain so gotten for every their voyage, as often 
 as they shall arrive at our port of Bristol (at which 
 port they shall be obliged only to arrive), deducting 
 all manner of necessary costs and charges by them 
 made ; we giving and granting unto them and their 
 heirs and deputies that they shall be free from all 
 payments of customs on all such merchandise they 
 shall bring with them from the places so newly found. 
 And, moreover, we have given and granted to them 
 and their heirs and deputies that all the firm land, 
 islands, villages, towns, etc., they shall chance to find, 
 may not, without licence of the said John Cabot and 
 his sons, be so frequented and visited, under pain of 
 
90 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 losing tbeir ships and all the goods of them who shall 
 presume to sail to the places so found. 
 
 " Willing and commanding strictly all and singular 
 our subjects, as well on land as on sea, to give good 
 assistance to the said John and his sons and deputies, 
 and that as well in arming and furnishing their ships 
 and vessels as in provision of food and buying victuals 
 for their money, and all other things by them to be 
 provided necessary for the said navigation, they do 
 give them all their favours and assistance. 
 
 " Witness myself at Westminster, 5th March, in 
 the eleventh year of our reign, or 1495 a.d," 
 
 There are accounts of a hypothetical voyage said 
 to have been made by the Cabots in 1474 — that is, 
 long before Henry VII.'s first charter. This idea 
 would seem to be supported by Sebastian Cabot's map 
 now in the Biblioth^que Imp^riale, Paris. Barrow, 
 in his History of Voyages, and other writers, also 
 support the view. Yet there would certainly be some 
 more definite information on the subject if such a 
 voyage had actually been made, and it had resulted 
 in important consequences. As facts remain, however, 
 historians and biographers begin their dating of the 
 Cabot discoveries with Henry's charter of 1495. 
 
 For some reason or other, although the King's 
 patent was granted in March, 1495, John Cabot and 
 his son Sebastian did not set sail from Bristol until 
 May, 1497. The adventurers held a westward course 
 for an estimated distance of seven hundred leagues. On 
 the 24th of June land was sighted, which John Cabot 
 believed to be part of the dominions of the Grand Cham, 
 or Khan, but which was really Cape Breton Island and 
 
THE CABOTS AND THE FIEST ENGLISH COLONY. 91 
 
 Nova Scotia. This shore he coasted for three hundred 
 leagues, finding no traces of human habitation, and 
 then he set sail for home, reaching Bristol in August. 
 
 A letter written by one Lorenzo Pasc[ualigo to his 
 brother, and dated London, August 23, 1497, thus 
 describes the voyage and John Cabot's return and 
 reception in England : 
 
 " The Venetian, our countryman, who went with 
 a ship from Bristol in quest of new islands, is re- 
 turned, and says that seven hundred leagues hence 
 he discovered land, the territory of the Grand Cham ; 
 he coasted for three hundred leagues and landed ; 
 saw no human beings, but he has brought hither 
 to the King certain snares which had been set to 
 catch game, and a needle for making nets ; he also 
 found some felled trees, wherefore he supposed there 
 were inhabitants, and returned to his ship in alarm. 
 
 " He was three months on the voyage, and on his 
 return he saw two islands to starboard, but would not 
 land, time being precious, as he was short of provisions. 
 
 " He says that the tides are slack, and do not flow 
 as they do here. The King of England is much 
 pleased with this intelligence. 
 
 " The King has promised that in the spring our 
 countryman shall have ten ships armed to his order, 
 and at his request has conceded him all the prisoners, 
 except such as are confined for high treason, to man 
 his fleet. 
 
 " The King has also given him money wherewith to 
 amuse himself till then, and he is now at Bristol 
 with his wife, who is also a Venetian, and with his 
 sons. 
 
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 " His name is Jiian Cabot, and lie is styled the Great 
 Admiral ; vast hononr is paid him ; lie dresses in silk ; 
 and these English run after him like mad people, so 
 that he can enlist as many of them as he pleases, and 
 a number of our own. The discoverer of these places 
 planted on his new-found lands a large cross, with one 
 flag of England and another of St. Mark, by reason of 
 his being a Venetian, so that our banner has floated 
 very far afield. August 23, 1497." 
 
 Sebastian Cabot is entitled to be honoured as well 
 as his father for this first successful expedition to 
 the North American Continent. The recent scholarly 
 researches by Mr. Kawdon Brown among the Vene- 
 tian Archives have furnished irrefragable proof that 
 this expedition of the Cabots, under the auspices of 
 Henry VII., in 1497, resulted in the discovery of 
 the continent, and its being taken possession of for 
 England. 
 
 Owing mainly to the discoveries of Columbus, the 
 theory that the earth is a sphere had been generally 
 accepted by advanced thinkers, and it was believed 
 that the shortest route to the Indies lay westward. 
 Cabot's discovery, therefore, created great excitement 
 in England and Europe. A portrait of Sebastian 
 Cabot was subsequently painted by Holbein, and 
 Cabot's map was reproduced by Clement Adams. 
 Several other maps and charts are suj^posed to have 
 been given up by a friend of Cabot, after the latter's 
 death, to Philip of Spain. The portrait by Holbein 
 was painted at a time when Sebastian was the Worship- 
 ful Governor of the Merchant Adventurers' Company, 
 and when he had under him in his of&cial capacity 
 
THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 93 
 
 the Lord High Admiral, the Lord Steward, the Lord 
 Treasurer, and other State dignitaries. 
 
 One report alleges that John Cabot was knighted, 
 but the matter is very doubtful. If it took place, it 
 must have been on the admiral's return from his great 
 voyage. It is further possible that his death ensued 
 close upon his knighthood, which would account for 
 the lack of definite information on the subject. He 
 probably died in the year 1498, and it is known that 
 he left his son Sebastian very rich, and full of 
 ambition. 
 
 A second charter was granted by Henry in February, 
 1498, not long before the death of John, and Sebastian 
 Cabot went forth upon this expedition alone. This 
 new charter was really only an extension of the first, 
 which it did not in any way set aside, and which still 
 remained valid. The suj^plementary charter gave 
 Cabot extra powers to press ships at the same rate 
 of payment which the King gave for his own service, 
 and to enlist men for the venture ; there was in it 
 no bar to his trading or granting licences, no em- 
 powering other persons to trade independently of the 
 Cabot family, and no release from the one-fifth tribute 
 which, under the first charter, they were to pay to 
 the King out of their profits. 
 
 It was in May, 1498, that Sebastian Cabot sailed 
 from Bristol in command of two ships, manned by 
 volunteers, in search of a north-west passage. He 
 went so far north that in the early part of July day- 
 light was almost continuous. The sea, nevertheless, 
 was so full of icebergs that he worked southward, and 
 discovered what is generally believed to have been 
 
94 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Newfonnclland. Proceeding farther, he reached the 
 mainland, made several landings, dealt with the 
 natives, and followed the coast southward as far as 
 Chesapeake Bay. Yet notwithstanding this discovery 
 of a wide domain nnder the Temperate Zone, the 
 voyage was not successful in its original object — that 
 of opening up the passage to the Indies. But we are 
 struck with admiration at what Cabot did achieve ; 
 for from the 68° N. latitude to the 30°, or from the 
 northernmost part of Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of 
 Mexico, he was the first European who surveyed its 
 coasts, or attempted to colonize its deserted shores. 
 
 It is thought that Cabot landed a portion of his 
 men at about Davis's Inlet or Port Manvers, and they 
 were to colonize the country ; but the settlement 
 proved abortive. In Stoid's Annals, 1498, there is a 
 passage which shows that, among other objects in this 
 voyage, Cabot had in view trade and colonization as 
 well as discovery ; that the King shared in the expense, 
 probably fitting out one ship and giving help to the 
 men ; that the coast, inhabitants, beasts, fishes, and 
 birds observed prove that the scene of their principal 
 operations was the country now known as Labrador, 
 but then called by Cabot " the land of the baccalaos " 
 (cod-fish) ; and that Cabot was the first man who 
 discovered Hudson's Bay, which he afterwards more 
 thoroughly explored. 
 
 Cabot tendered his services to Henry VII. in 1499 
 for another voyage ; but as the English sovereign was 
 at this time fully occupied with threatening domestic 
 troubles, his offer failed to meet with a favourable 
 reception. Nevertheless, Seyer, the historian of 
 
THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 95 
 
 Bristol, states that Cabot set forth from that western 
 port aud made great discoveries. One Hojeda, a 
 Spanish navigator, found an Englishman and his 
 crew at Caqnibaco at the close of 1499, and it is 
 conjectured that the traveller was Cabot. He had 
 probably taken up his explorations where he had 
 suspended them before, on the coast of Florida, and 
 proceeded southwards, arriving at the place where 
 Hojeda met the English. There is a further tradition 
 to the effect that Cabot afterwards went north, and 
 was engaged in . colonizing Newfoundland and the 
 neighbourhood. On the other hand, Rymer considers 
 that it was the Portuguese and certain other merchants 
 who sailed in 1.502 and visited Newfoundland. 
 
 At this time the contemporary achievements of 
 Vasco di Gama were so much more brilliant that the 
 exploits of the Cabots were outshone, and they were 
 so careless of their chartered rights that the patent 
 giving them exclusive privileges was lost or mislaid. 
 
 After the death of Henry YII., Ferdinand V. of 
 Spain wrote to Lord Willoughby, Captain-General of 
 the King of England, to send over Sebastian Cabot, 
 he having heard of his ability as a seaman. In 
 September, 1512, accordingly, Cabot went to Spain ; 
 and after being appointed one of the " Council of the 
 New Indies," Ferdinand's successor named him pilot- 
 major of the kingdom, a liberal salary was apportioned 
 him, and his residence was fixed at the city of Seville. 
 Peter Martyr saw much of him there, and states that 
 his first voyage was arranged to take place in March, 
 1516. Unfortunately, the King died in January 
 of that year, and the order for the expedition was 
 
96 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 countermanded, owing to the jealousy of the Spaniards 
 against foreigners. Cabot thereupon returned to 
 England, and found immediate employment under 
 Henry VIII. 
 
 In 1517 he set forth on a voyage the object of which 
 was to find an opening through Hudson's Bay to 
 the back of Newfoundland. Hakluyt states that 
 Cabot " sailed very far westward, with a quarter of 
 the north, on the north side of Labrador, on the 11th 
 of June, until he came to the septentrional latitude of 
 67^° ; and finding the sea still open, might and would 
 have gone to Cathay, if the mutiny of the master and 
 mariners had not been." Another report says that it 
 was one of his captains, Sir Thomas Pert, whose faint 
 heart was the cause that the voyage took none effect. 
 There seems to be no question that Cabot was on the 
 very verge ot a great discovery, having attained to the 
 straits which lead to the magnetic pole, and within a 
 short distance of the passage whose existence McClure, 
 McClintock, and others have verified in the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 Although this voyage produced excellent scientific 
 results, cowardice robbed it of what might have been 
 its greatest glory. Cabot returned dispirited to 
 England, only to find the country being ravaged by 
 that terrible scourge, the sweating sickness. All com- 
 merce was at a standstill ; so when Charles V. visited 
 England in 1520, he took Cabot back with him, and 
 the latter now entered upon his duties as pilot-major. 
 But Cabot desired more active work ; and as Spain 
 was at this time very jealous of England, he now 
 opened up negotiations with Venice with a view to 
 
THE CABOTS AND THE FIEST ENGLISH COLONY. 97 
 
 employment. It is to be regretted that Cabot swerved 
 from the truth in conducting these negotiations, which 
 after all seem to have come to nothing. 
 
 In April, 1524, a conference of geographers assembled 
 at Badajoz. Cabot was president, and the son of 
 Columbus had a seat at the board. Portugal retired 
 from the conference in high dudgeon, when it was de- 
 cided that the coveted Spice Islands were declared to be 
 within Spanish waters by twenty degrees. Portugal 
 prepared a fleet to enforce her claims ; and Spain, 
 anxious to secure the treasures of the East, formed an 
 exploring company in the ensuing September. The 
 Council of the Indies gave permission to Cabot to take 
 the command, and he entered into a bond for the faith- 
 ful execution of his trust. The Emperor Charles sanc- 
 tioned a squadron of three vessels, of not less than one 
 hundred tons, and one hundred and fifty men. A small 
 caravel was added by a private individual — probably 
 Robert Thorne, merchant of Bristol, who was then at 
 Seville — and the title of captain-general was conferred 
 on Cabot. The Emperor was to receive four thousand 
 ducats and a share of the profits. The object of the 
 expedition was to find a direct south-west passage to 
 Asia, by way of the Straits of Magellan. 
 
 Owing to Portuguese intrigues, the expedition did 
 not set sail until April, 1526, and even then the rival 
 power sent out a spying squadron after it. Cabot 
 made for the Brazils, by way of the Canaries, Cape de 
 Verde, and Cape Augustine ; but he was soon ham- 
 pered by difficulties. Mendez, the second in command, 
 was inefficient, and sealed orders had been given to 
 each ship as to the succession in command, which 
 
 7 
 
98 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 practically put a preminm upon the murder of tlie 
 commanders. Provisions ran short, and there was a 
 mutiny ; but Cabot, who stood almost alone, courage- 
 ously seized the mutineers, and landed them at the 
 first point touched at, where they were afterwards 
 taken up by the Portuguese commander Garcia. Cabot 
 sent home two of his friends, who made satisfactory 
 explanations to the Emperor. Still, calumnies were 
 circulated to his disadvantage; but their value may 
 be gauged from the fact that when Cabot returned to 
 Spain Charles V. at once reinstated him in his high 
 and honourable office of pilot-major. 
 
 After quelling the mutiny, Cabot proceeded to the 
 great river La Plata, which had been previously dis- 
 covered by his immediate predecessor as pilot-major, 
 De Solis, who lost his life on one of the islands at the 
 mouth of the river. Cabot had now only two ships 
 and a caravel, one vessel having been lost on the 
 voyage. He pushed up the inlet of the La Plata, and 
 came to an island which he named St. Gabriel, a name 
 it still bears. Leaving his ships here for the boats, 
 he explored seven leagues up the stream until he 
 reached another river, and a port which he named 
 St. Salvador. 
 
 The stream he was now exploring was the Rio 
 Navanjos, or the lower branch of the mouth of the 
 Parana, near its confluence with the Uruguay. He 
 sent for his vessels, and erected a fort upon one 
 of the islands. Avoiding the Uruguay, he now pro- 
 ceeded westward up the Parana, and built another fort 
 at Terceiro. In both the forts he left garrisons. He 
 ultimately reached the Parana's junction with the 
 
THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 99 
 
 Paraguay, and pursued the conrse of the latter for 
 thirty-four leagues. In describing this voyage, he 
 said, " I found an exceedingly large and great river, 
 named at this present time the Rio de la Plata — that 
 is, the river of silver — into which I sailed, and followed 
 it into the firme land more than one hundred and 
 twenty leagues, finding it everywhere very faire, and 
 inhabited with infinite people, which, with admiration, 
 came running daily to our ships. Into this river run 
 so many other rivers that it is in manner incredible." 
 
 The natives were of a superior class, who cultivated 
 the soil. But they were also lawless, and seized three 
 Spaniards who had strayed to gather the fruit of the 
 palm tree. Cabot hastened to their succour, and a 
 severe battle ensued. Three hundred natives were 
 slain, and Cabot had the misfortune to lose twenty- 
 five out of his small forces. He sent down his 
 wounded, and apprised his faithful adherent Caro, 
 governor of one of the constructed forts, of his loss 
 and their danger. Garcia soon afterwards arrived at 
 Fort Sanctus Spiritus, and summoned Caro to surrender 
 in the name of the Emperor. Caro nobly replied that 
 he held the fort in the name of the Emperor and 
 Sebastian Cabot, and would never surrender it, though 
 he was quite willing to give Garcia a welcome. He 
 begged Garcia to look out for wounded Spaniards on 
 his way up the river ; but the latter heartlessly 
 neglected to do so, and pursued his own course. 
 Cabot and Garcia eventually met, but no record 
 exists of their interview. 
 
 Cabot had now reached a point where he was in 
 sight of the mountains of Peru, and he was hoping 
 
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 to reap the fruit of Ms labours, when once more the 
 cruel hand of Fate was against him. The events 
 which succeeded are thus described by Mr. Nicholls in 
 his sketch of Cabot : 
 
 " Charles V. had outrun his exchequer, and was 
 afflicted with a disease very prevalent in modern days, 
 impecuniosity. His Cortes refused him money. He 
 had mortgaged the Moluccas to Portugal, and his 
 treasury was empty. 
 
 " Just then Pizarro, overflowing with ambition, well 
 known at Court, personally importunate, but asking 
 for no money, only for the government of the 
 countries which he might conquer, assailed the 
 Emperor continually. 
 
 " Cabot was shelved ; Pizarro succeeded. Of his 
 successful but infamous career we need say no more 
 than this, that if Cabot had achieved the conquest of 
 Peru, the blackest page in the history of Spanish 
 America would never have been written. 
 
 " Whilst waiting, sick at heart, with hope deferred, 
 Cabot erected forts, administered justice, and reduced 
 all the surrounding natives to obedience to the 
 Emperor. Ever active, when no supplies came from 
 Spain, he set the whole party to work, rapidly raised 
 sufficient food, made experiments on the fertility of 
 the soil, carefully noting the results, which, with 
 great minuteness, he afterwards reported to the 
 Emperor. 
 
 " He classified also the various productions of the 
 country, and graphically describes the marvellous 
 fecundity of the swine, and also of the horses, both 
 of which they had imported from Spain : these latter 
 
THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 101 
 
 became the parent stock whence sprang the vast wild 
 hordes which scour the Pampas to this day. 
 
 "A clever wit of the last generation said of a 
 certain nobleman that he was ready to take the helm 
 of the State or the command of the Channel fleet 
 at an hour's notice. It was witty, but not new ; for 
 here we actually have the greatest commander and 
 navigator of his age organizing a nation from the most 
 discordant elements, and developing its powers under 
 manifest disadvantages. 
 
 " We are naturally proud of the Bristol mariner 
 whose personal agency gave to England and her sturdy 
 oifspring their valuable possessions in the north, and 
 to Spain the rich and well- watered regions in the 
 south of the American Continent ; and if any one 
 should be at all curious to see his monument in his 
 native city, let them know that it lies with Sir Thomas 
 Lawrence's, in the vast limits of futurity. 
 
 " In the midst of his labours — and, remember, they 
 extended over five years in this region — the same evil 
 genius which had followed him across the Atlantic 
 was constantly marring his efforts, and finally struck 
 a well-nigh fatal blow to the expedition. 
 
 " Garcia had swept the country, and sailed with his 
 spoil ; but he had left behind him a party of his 
 followers, who held themselves amenable to no law. 
 These men, located at Sanctus Spiritus, were guilty 
 of some acts of atrocity towards the natives, which 
 roused their wildest resentment. 
 
 " It is expressly stated that with this act, whatever 
 it was, Cabot had nothing at all to do ; but the fierce 
 and sanguinary Indians made no distinction. 
 
102 TEE UNITED STATES. 
 
 " Secret meetings were held, a plan of action was 
 decided upon, and it was determined to cut o£f every 
 white man in the country. 
 
 " A little before daybreak the enraged nation burst, 
 with one fell swoop, down on and carried the en- 
 trenchments of Sanctus Spiritusj putting the feeble 
 garrison to the sword. 
 
 " Here Caro, the faithful, probably perished in 
 command, for we henceforth lose sight of him. 
 
 " Maddened with success, they rapidly traverse the 
 intervening country, and try the same tactics at Fort 
 Salvador. 
 
 " But better watch and ward is kept here. ' Defence, 
 not Defiance,' is the Bristol man's motto, or rather, as 
 on his portrait, ' Spes una in Deo est ' ; but he watches 
 as well as hopes, fights as well as prays, and beats 
 the enemy off. 
 
 " Sad faces come down the river a few days after- 
 wards ; reinforcements, sent to alarm and put the 
 advance garrison on their guard, return dispirited ; 
 they had found Sanctus Spiritus desolate, a ruin, and 
 their friends and companions slain to a man. So 
 Cabot ships the rec^uisite supplies, dismantles the fort, 
 embarks the remnant of his people, and quits for ever 
 the ill-omened shore." 
 
 Cabot returned to Spain in 1531, and resumed the 
 functions of his high office ; but after some years 
 he longed to return to Bristol, which he regarded as 
 his home. Strype tells us that in pursuance of this 
 desire he came to England, and settled in Bristol 
 in 1548, the first year of Edward VL, and the 
 beginning of a reign of toleration in religion. Cabot 
 
THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. 103 
 
 seems to have been a man of deep piety, for we 
 find him eschewing the vices and follies of the 
 time, advising morning and evening prayers daily, 
 and recommending that " the Bible be daily read 
 devoutly and Christianly to God's honour, and for 
 His grace to be obtained by humble and hearty 
 prayer." 
 
 Not long had Cabot been resident in Bristol when 
 the Spanish Ambassador preferred a demand before 
 the English Council for his return to Spain, on the 
 ground that he was a servant of the Emperor and 
 received a pension from him. Cabot had no quarrel 
 with the Emperor, but he refused to go either into 
 Spain or Flanders, though he was willing to give the 
 Emperor all the information he desired. When the 
 Emperor learnt his decision, he struck off his pension ; 
 but Edward VI. immediately gave him another one 
 of two hundred and fifty marks, or £166 13s. 4:d. — 
 a considerable sum in those days. 
 
 The nature of Cabot's employment under the English 
 Government seems to have been as a kind of super- 
 intendent of the naval affairs of the kingdom. He 
 examined and licensed pilots, etc., and he assisted the 
 King in his studies in navigation, explaining to him 
 the variation of the compass and other matters. He 
 also constructed a number of invaluable charts and 
 maps, which have unfortunately been destroyed. An 
 edition of Ptolemy's GeograpJiia^ published at Rome 
 in 1508, shows that Cabot had ascertained exactly the 
 position of the magnetic pole, and pointed out the 
 spot where the ship's comjiass lost its specific property. 
 The adventurer was thoroughly practical in his plans 
 
104 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 and aims, and tanglit others to follow in his train and 
 continue his investigations. 
 
 In the year 1551 Cabot brought to fruition an 
 important project which had long occuj)ied his thoughts ; 
 it at the same time crushed an extensive monopoly, 
 and established Cabot's title to be regarded as one of 
 the fathers of free trade. Letters of incorporation 
 were issued on the 13th of December, 1551, dechiring 
 that, " in consideration of his being the chiefest setter 
 forth of this journey or voyage, therefore we make, 
 ordain, and constitute him, the said Sebastian Cabot, 
 to be the first and present governor during his natural 
 life, without removal." The company thus founded was 
 that of the Merchant Adventurers, and in December, 
 1552, the Bristol branch of it was incorporated under 
 a separate charter. 
 
 We read that, "at the very outset of the society, 
 it was to encounter a difficulty which would have 
 appalled a man of small mental calibre, and led him 
 to give it up in despair. 
 
 " The German cities, Antwerp and Hamburg, held 
 exclusive possession of the trade of Northern and 
 Central Europe. By gifts or bribes they had obtained 
 large concessions in the duties and customs of England. 
 
 " They paid much less, for instance, when they 
 exported English cloth, than the native manufacturer, 
 if he chose to export, had to pay. 
 
 " In importing goods at a favoured and lower rate 
 for themselves, they also furtively introduced large 
 quantities, as their own (for a consideration), at the 
 low rate of duty. 
 
 " Having thus secured the command of the English 
 
THE CABOT S AND THE FIEST ENGLISH COLONY. 105 
 
 market, as well as the monopoly of the foreign, they 
 set their own value on goods, and actually brought 
 English wool down to eighteenpence per stone ; 
 employed no English ships; and with their joint stocks 
 playing into each other's hands, crushed the English 
 merchants. They were called the Stilliard (Steelyard) 
 merchants. 
 
 " Cabot's genius rose to the occasion. He saw no 
 reason why, these impediments once removed, England 
 should not become the manufactory of the world, and 
 her ships the carriers of its produce. 
 
 " The father of free trade, he set himself against 
 this monopoly, and manfully did he battle with it. 
 
 " By the King's entries in his private journal, we 
 see the deep interest that Edward felt in a matter 
 that so seriously concerned the welfare of his subjects; 
 these entries are continued over five months, and are 
 often of considerable length. 
 
 "At last, on February 23, a.d. 1551, success crowned 
 Cabot's persevering efforts, and a result so auspicious 
 to commerce as the breaking up of the close monopoly 
 and so advantageous to the public revenue was not 
 forgotten. 
 
 " In March ' Sebastian Cabot, the great seaman, had 
 £200, by way of the King's Majesty's reward.' 
 
 " This huge obstacle removed, the merchant adven- 
 turers set to work in earnest to open the way and 
 passage to the northern seas. 
 
 " New ships are ordered to be built, strong and well- 
 seasoned planks are selected for the purpose, and, 
 to guard against worms, ' which many times pierceth 
 and eateth through the strongest oake,' it is resolved 
 
106 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 to 'cover the keel of the shippe with thinne sheets 
 of leade.' 
 
 " This was the introduction of sheathing into the 
 British marine ; the art had been practised in Spain, 
 and Cabot, if not the original inventor, must be 
 allowed the honour of introducing it into England." 
 
 Strype affirms that this famous expedition set out 
 from Bristol, where Cabot lived, and where likewise 
 the ships were probably built. The gallant Sir Hugh 
 Willoughby was appointed to the command, and 
 Richard Chancellor — who had been brought up with 
 Sir Philip Sidney — was named pilot-major to the 
 expedition, with command of one of the vessels. 
 Chancellor, who was an intimate friend of Cabot, was 
 a keen, observant man, who noted with remarkable 
 insight the customs, religious habits, manners of the 
 people, and the laws of the country visited. Chan- 
 cellor's sailing master was Stephen Burroughs, after- 
 wards chief pilot of England. 
 
 Cabot drew up a book of instructions for the guidance 
 and government of the expedition, and these instruc- 
 tions were ordered to be read publicly on board each 
 ship once a week. Nothing could more clearly show 
 Cabot's foresight as a navigator than this book of 
 rules, while they also reveal much of the inner char- 
 acter of the man. It is of great interest to note 
 the chief points in the instructions, which ran as 
 follows : 
 
 " Ordinances, instructions, and advertisements of 
 and for the direction of the intended voyage to Cathay, 
 compiled, made, and delivered by the right worshipful 
 M. Sebastian Cabota, Esqr., Governour of the Mysterie 
 
THE CABOTS AND THE FIKST ENGLISH COLONY. 107 
 
 and Companie of the Merchants Adventurers, for the 
 discoverie of regions, dominions, islands, and places 
 Tinknowen, the 9th day of May, in the yere of our 
 Lord God 1553, and in the 7 yere of the reigne of 
 our most dread sovereigne Lord Edward YL, by the 
 grace of God King of England, France, and Ireland, 
 defender of the faith, and of the Church of England 
 and Ireland, in earth, supreme head. 
 
 " 7 item. That the merchants and other skilful 
 persons, in writing, shall daily write, describe, and 
 put in memorie the navigation of each day and night, 
 with the points and observations of the lands, tides, 
 elements, altitude of the sunne, course of the moon 
 and starres, and the same so noted by the order of the 
 master and pilot of every ship to be put in writing ; 
 the captaine-generall assembling the masters togethe) 
 once every weeke (if winde and weather shall server 
 to conferre all the observations and notes of the said 
 ships, to the intent it may appeare wherein the 
 notes do agree and wherein they dissent, and upon 
 good debatement, deliberation, and conclusion deter- 
 mined to put the same into a common leger, to remain 
 of record for the companie ; the like order to be kept 
 in proportioning of the cardes, astrolabes, and other 
 instruments prepared for the voyage, at the charge of 
 the companie. 
 
 "12 item. That no blaspheming of God, or detest- 
 able swearing, be used in any ship, nor communica- 
 tion of ribaldrie, filthy tales, or ungodly talke to be 
 suffered in the company of any ship, neither dicing, 
 tabling, nor other divelish games to be frequented, 
 whereby ensueth not only povertie to the players, but 
 
108 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 also strife, variance, brauling, fighting, and often- 
 times murther, to the utter destruction of the parties, 
 and provol^ing of God's most just wrath and sword of 
 vengeance. These and all such like pestilences and 
 contagions of vices and sinnes to be eschewed, and the 
 offenders once monished, and not reforming, to be 
 punished at the discretion of the captaine and masters 
 as appertaineth. 
 
 "13 item. That morning and evening prayer, with 
 other common services appointed by the King's 
 Majestic, and lawes of this realme, be reade and 
 saide in every ship daily by the minister or the 
 Admirall, and the merchant or some other person 
 learned in other ships ; and the Bible or paraphrases 
 to be read devoutly and Christianly to God's honour 
 and for His grace to be obtained and had by humble 
 and hearty prayer of the navigants accordingly. 
 
 "23 item. Forasmuch as our people and shippes 
 may appear unto them strange and wonderous, and 
 theirs also to ours, it is to be considered how much 
 they may be used, learning much of their natures and 
 dispositions by some one such person as you may 
 first either allure or take to be brought aboard your 
 shippes, and there to learn as you may, without 
 violence or force, and no woman to be tempted or 
 intreated to incontinence or dishonestie. 
 
 " 26 item. Every nation and region to be considered 
 advisedly, and not to provoke them by any distance, 
 laughing, contempt, or such like ; but to use them 
 with prudent circumspection, with all gentleness and 
 courtesie ; and not to tarry long in one place until you 
 shall have obtained the most worthy place that may 
 
THE CABOTS AND THE FIKST ENGLISH COLONY. 109 
 
 be found in siicli sort, as you may returne with, victuals 
 sufficient prosperously." 
 
 In the 32nd item he refers to the difficulties expe- 
 rienced from timidity and incredulity ; and speaks 
 of the " obstacles which had ministered matter of 
 suspicion in some heads that this voyage could not 
 succeed, for the extremitie of the North Pole, lacke 
 of passage, and such like, which have caused waver- 
 ing minds and doubtful heads, not only to withdraw 
 themselves from the adventures of this voyage, but 
 also dissuaded others from the same," etc., etc. 
 
 " 33rd item of instructions. No conspiracies, part- 
 takings, factions, false tales, untrue reports, which be 
 the very seedes and fruits of contention, discord, and 
 confusion by evil tongues, to be suffered, but the same 
 and all other ungodliness to be chastened charitably 
 with brotherly love, and always obedience to be used 
 and practised by all persons in their degrees, not 
 only for duty and conscience' sake towards God, under 
 whose merciful hand navigants, above all other 
 creatures, naturally be most high and vicine, but also 
 for prudent and worldly policy and publicke weale, 
 considering and always having present in your minds 
 that you be all our most loyal King's subjects, and 
 naturally with daily remembrance of the great im- 
 portance of the voyage, the honour, glory, praise, and 
 benefit that depend of and upon the same toward 
 the common wealth of this noble realme, the advance- 
 ment of you the travelers therein, your wives and 
 children, and so to endeavour yourselves as that you 
 may satisfy the expectation of them who, at their 
 great costes, charges, and expenses, have so furnished 
 
no THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 you in good sort and plenty of all necessaries as the 
 like was never in any realme seen, nsed, or known, 
 requisite and needful for such an exploit, which is 
 most likely to be achieved and brought to good effect, 
 if every person in his vocation shall endeavour him- 
 self according to his charge and most bounden duty, 
 praying the living God to give you His grace to 
 accomplish your charge to His glory, whose merciful 
 hand shall prosper your voyage and preserve you 
 from all dangers. In witness whereof I, Sebastian 
 Cabota, Governor aforesaid, to these present ordinances 
 have subscribed my name and put my seal the day 
 and year above written." 
 
 The expedition sailed on the 20th of May, 1553, 
 and as it passed Greenwich it was viewed by the 
 Court, the King being unable to do so on account 
 of sickness. The vessels were parted during a great 
 storm at sea, but Chancellor reached the rendezvous 
 in Norway in safety. Having waited some days in 
 vain for the other ships, he set sail, rounded the North 
 Cape, and reached the White Sea. He landed on the 
 spot where Archangel now stands ; and having soon 
 tranquillized the natives, he was provisioned by them. 
 Chancellor safely returned home by the overland 
 route to Moscow, where he established a trade 
 which is still carried on between that city and 
 Eogland. 
 
 Willoughby's expedition, on the contrary, met with 
 a tragic fate. His two vessels became frozen up in 
 the ice. These were discovered long afterwards, but 
 all traces of the crew had disappeared, and the only 
 thing known of the gallant but unfortunate adven- 
 
THE CABOTS AND THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. Ill 
 
 tnrers is that some of them were alive in Jannary, 
 1554. 
 
 While Chancellor and Willonghby were still pnr- 
 suing their voyages, Cabot organized yet another 
 expedition. In this he was assisted by Sir George 
 Barnes (the Lord Mayor), Sheriff Garnett, York, 
 Wyndham, and other adventurers. Guinea was its 
 destination, and the expedition sailed in August, 1553. 
 The King lent two ships, the Primrose and the Lion, 
 for this voyage. There does not seem to be a record 
 of the fortunes of the expedition. If one existed, 
 it may have been lost with other documents and 
 maps. 
 
 In the company of which he was Governor, Cabot 
 had associated with him as members such celebrated 
 men as the Marquis of Winchester, Lord High 
 Treasurer ; the Earl of Arundel, Lord Steward ; the 
 Earl of Bedford, Lord Privy Seal ; Lord Howard of 
 Effingham, Lord High Admiral; the Earl of Pem- 
 broke, etc. 
 
 After the accession of Mary, England was embroiled 
 in a war with France, and all Cabot's schemes of 
 exploration and colonization had to be abandoned. 
 He secured, however, through Chancellor a charter 
 to trade with Russia. The last voyage which Chan- 
 cellor, now grand pilot, was destined to make was 
 one in 1556-7, on the occasion of his conveying the 
 Russian Ambassador to England. His vessel was 
 driven on the rocks at Pitsligo, on the Scottish coast, 
 and the noble and intrepid Chancellor lost his life 
 in saving that of the ambassador. 
 
 The last attempt to induce Cabot to return to Spain 
 
112 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 was made by Charles V. soon after Mary's accession. 
 The veteran navigator preferred to remain under 
 English colours, and he was rewarded by additional 
 emoluments. 
 
 The trade with Russia soon increased greatly. Four 
 ships were despatched thither in 1557, one of them 
 being the Primrose. The English who went out 
 taught the Russians rope-making, and took apprentices 
 to learn the duties of agents. Among other trade 
 directions which Cabot drew up was one advising the 
 underselling all other nations. The whaling trade 
 with Spitzbergen had its origin at this period. Great 
 impulse was given to commerce in all directions, and 
 this was due entirely to the energy and genius of 
 Cabot. Among other things, a mission was sent out 
 to Persia, which resulted in the opening up of an 
 excellent trade with that far-off country. 
 
 Cabot's biographer, Nicholls, thus describes the 
 last authentic glimpse we have of the indefatigable 
 navigator : 
 
 " Stephen Burroughs, who had been with Chancellor, 
 was again despatched to the north, in 1556, in a 
 pinnace called the Seathriftj and in his journal he 
 gives us a glimpse of the anxious supervision of Cabot, 
 and of his unwillingness to quit them until the very 
 last moment of their sailing. 
 
 " We catch the genial smile, marvel at the wonder- 
 ful unbroken spirit, and note how the wise old man 
 gauged and understood the character of those who 
 surrounded him, and knew how to leave a lasting 
 impression on their minds that there would ever be 
 a feeling of warm and loving sympathy cherished 
 
THE CABOTS AND THE FIEST ENGLISH COLONY. 113 
 
 for them, tbongli far, far away, by those who were 
 compelled to stay at home. 
 
 " On the 27th of April, being Monday, the Eight 
 Worshipful Sebastian Caboto came aboard our pin- 
 nesse at Gravesend, accompanied with divers gentle- 
 men and gentlewomen, who, after that they had viewed 
 our pinnesse, and tasted of such cheere as wee could 
 make them aboarde, they went on shore, giveing to 
 our mariners right liberal rewardes. And the goode 
 olde gentleman. Master Caboto, gave to the poore 
 most liberall almes, wishing them to pray for the 
 good fortune and prosperous successe of the Seathri/t 
 our pinnesse. 
 
 "And then, at the sign of the Christopher, he and 
 his friends banketted, and made me and them that 
 were in the companie great cheere ; and, for very joy 
 that he had to see the towardnesse of our intended 
 discovery, he enter'd into the dance himself, amongst 
 the rest of the younge and lusty company ; which, 
 being ended, hee and his friends departed, most gently 
 commending us to the governance of Almighty God." 
 Philip of Spain came to England in May, 1557. He 
 was no friend to Cabot, who had refused his father's 
 overtures. Consequently, we are not surprised that 
 on the 27th of May, 1557, Cabot was compelled to 
 resign his position and pension. Two days later he 
 was reinstated ; but one William Worthington was 
 associated with him, taking half his pension, and, 
 what IS worse, being given the custody of Cabot's 
 " maps, charters, and discourses, written with his own 
 hand." The fate of these documents, and whether 
 they are in the Spanish Archives or not, is not known. 
 
 8 
 
114 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 AVhen Hakluyt tried to get sight of this precious 
 collection twenty years after Cabot's death, he was met 
 with rejijeated and peremptory refusals by Worthington. 
 
 It is strange that neither the date of the birth nor 
 the death of so distinguished a man as Sebastian 
 Cabot is known, nor even the place where his ashes 
 found burial. Richard Eden, his faithful and attached 
 friend, saw him die ; and in a work to be found in the 
 King's Library of the British Museum he records how 
 the ruling passion was strong in death : " As the 
 spirit struggles with the clay, he speaks flightily 
 about a divine revelation to him of a new and in- 
 fallible method of finding the longitude, which he 
 could not disclose to any mortal." 
 
 So sailed out into the unseen the spirit of Sebastian 
 Cabot, who was practically the creator of the British 
 Navy. In addition to that, he was the discoverer of 
 a very large portion of both American continents. 
 His genius, his discoveries, his multifarious labours, 
 and his high and honourable character make up the 
 sum of one of Britain's heroes, and one to whom much 
 of her commercial greatness is due. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HOW AMEKICA EECEIVED ITS NAME. 
 
 IT is one of the most extraordinary incidents in tlie 
 history of maritime discovery that the name of 
 the American Continent owes its origin either to a 
 fraudulent misrepresentation or a very singular mis- 
 apprehension. The weight of opinion has generally 
 favoured the former hypothesis, 
 
 Amerigo Vespucci, or, to give another form of the 
 name, Americo Vespucio, is the navigator round whom 
 the controversy has raged, and his partizans have not 
 scrupled to affirm that he took precedence both of 
 Columbus and of the Cabots in the discovery of the 
 mainland of America. As we shall presently see, 
 however, the claim is totally unfounded. Vespucci 
 came of a wealthy family of merchants, and was born 
 at Florence on the 9th of March, 1451. He received 
 his education from his uncle, Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, 
 a Dominican friar, and a friend and colleague of 
 Savonarola. Amerigo early engaged in commerce, 
 first in Florence and afterwards in SevOle. In the 
 latter city he met Columbus, probably as early as the 
 year 1493. In 1497 he was engaged in fitting out 
 the ships with which Columbus sailed on his third 
 voyage, and a year before that he had been engaged 
 
 115 
 
116 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 in fitting out a fleet for the Spanish Government. 
 These undisputed facts entirely dispose of the allega- 
 tion, erroneously made by himself or others, that he 
 had made a voyage to America in 1497. 
 
 The fact is that the first expedition in which 
 Vespucci took part was that under the command of 
 Alonzo de Ojeda, which sailed on the 20th of May, 1499. 
 Ojeda was one of those who accompanied Columbus in 
 his first voyage, and his patron now was the Bishop of 
 Fonseca, the enemy of Columbus, who treacherously 
 procured for him the charts which the great navigator 
 had sent home, and gave him a licence for his voyage, 
 although there was a royal order that none should go 
 without permission within fifty leagues of the lands 
 Columbus had last discovered. Vespucci claimed to 
 have the command of two caravels in Ojeda's fleet. 
 The expedition visited the neighbourhood of Cape 
 Paria, explored several hundred miles of coast as far 
 as Cape de la Veda, and returned in June, 1500. 
 
 In May, 1501, Vespucci entered the service of the 
 King of Portugal, and participated in an expedition 
 that visited the coast of Brazil. Here again he only 
 went where others had preceded him, for in 1500 
 three Spanish expeditions bad visited Brazil, under 
 the command respectively of Vicente Yanez Pinzon, 
 Diego de Lepe, and Rodrigo de Bastidas ; while a 
 Portuguese fleet, under Pedro Alvarez de Cabral, had 
 accidentally discovered the country and taken pos- 
 session of it in the name of Portugal. Still, " the 
 expedition of Vespucci was a bold one, and made 
 important additions to astronomical science" by its 
 leader's " observations of the heavenly bodies of 
 
HOW AMERICA EECEIVED ITS NAME. 117 
 
 the southern firmament^ especially of the ' Southern 
 Cross/ and to the knowledge of geography in his 
 exploration of the southern continent and sea of the 
 Western Hemisphere. After leaving Cape Verde, he 
 was sixty-seven days at sea before he made land again 
 at 5° south, off Cape St. Roque, on the 17th of August. 
 Thence he sailed down the coast, spending the whole 
 winter in its exploration, till in the following April 
 he was as far south as the fifty-fourth parallel, farther 
 than any navigator had been before. The nights were 
 fifteen hours long ; the weather tempestuous and foggy 
 and very cold. The last land he saw is supposed to 
 be the Island of Georgia, where, finding no harbours, 
 and seeing no people along its rugged shores, the little 
 fleet turned to escape from these savage seas, where 
 perpetual winter and almost perpetual darkness seemed 
 to reign. They reached Lisbon again in 1502." 
 
 In May, 1503, Vespucci commanded a caravel in a 
 squadron that sailed for the discovery of Malacca. 
 But he parted company from the rest, and finally made 
 his way to the coast of Brazil, where he discovered 
 the Bay of All Saints. Here he remained for two 
 months, and then ran two hundred and sixty leagues 
 farther south, where he built a fort near Cape Frio ; 
 and leaving a colony there, he returned to Lisbon in 
 June, 1504. 
 
 Abandoning now the service of Portugal, early in 
 1505 he obtained letters of naturalization from King 
 Ferdinand of Spain, and on the 22nd of March, 1508, 
 was appointed pilot-major of the kingdom. This 
 office he held until his death, taking charge of the 
 preparation of a general description of coasts and 
 
118 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 accounts of new discoveries, and also superintending 
 the construction of charts and the examination of 
 pilots. Vespucci died at Seville on the 22nd of 
 February, 1512. 
 
 With regard to Vespucci's claim to he the discoverer 
 of America, it is both important and significant that 
 none of the original letters of Amerigo bearing on the 
 subject are extant, except in translations, and these 
 differ greatly among themselves, and contain incon- 
 sistencies of fact and date. It is not even known in 
 what language the letters were written. An account 
 by Amerigo of his voyage of 1499, said to have been 
 written on the 18th of July, 1500, was published by 
 Bandini in 1745. A letter of Vespucci to Lorenzo 
 Piero de Medici of Florence, a cousin of Lorenzo the 
 Magnificent, describing the voyage of 1501, was pub- 
 lished in various editions, some in Latin, others in 
 German ; and in 1789 a new text, in Italian, was dis- 
 covered by Bartolozzi. The first edition of the letter 
 to Lorenzo Piero de Medici was published at Augsburg 
 in 1504, and round this letter great interest centres. 
 " No wonder that, as it was probably the first printed 
 narrative of any discovery of the mainland of the new 
 continent, it should excite unusual attention. Several 
 editions appeared, in the course of the next four years, 
 in Latin and Italian, and among them one at Strasbourg 
 in 1505 under the editorship of one Mathias Ring- 
 mann, a native of Schlestadt, a town in the lower 
 department of the Rhine, twenty-five miles from 
 Strasbourg. So earnest an admirer of Vespucci was 
 this young student, that he appended to the narrative 
 of the voyage a letter and some verses of liis own in 
 
HOW AMERICA EECEIVED ITS NAME. 119 
 
 praise of the navigator, and lie gave to the book the 
 title of Americus Vesputius : De Or a Antarctica per 
 Regem Portugallia pridem inmnta (Americus Ves- 
 pnccins : concerning a Southern Region recently dis- 
 covered under the King of Portugal). Here was the 
 suggestion of a new southern continent as distinct 
 from the northern continent of Asia, to which the dis- 
 coveries hitherto mainly north of the Equator were 
 supposed to belong. And this supposition of such a 
 new quarter of the globe gave rise, two years after- 
 ward, to a name, all growing naturally enough out of 
 the enthusiasm of this Ringmann for Vespucci, and 
 communicated by him to others." 
 
 In 1507 a Gosmograpliice Introductio was published 
 at the little College of St. Di6 in Lorraine. This 
 college was established and conducted by Walter Lud, 
 secretary of the Duke of Lorraine. It enjoyed the 
 distinction of having one of the new printing-presses 
 then being set up, and Ringmann was appointed to 
 the important post of proof-reader, while he also held 
 the collegiate professorship of Latin. The work 
 above mentioned, the Go&mograpliice Introduction was 
 the composition of Martin Waldseemiiller, and it 
 was published under his Greco-Latinized name of 
 " Hylacomylus." Waldseemiiller was teacher of geo- 
 graphy in the college. To his little work was ap- 
 pended an account by Amerigo of his voyages, 
 purporting to be addressed to Ren6 11, Duke of 
 Lorraine. Here it was asserted that four voyages were 
 made, the date of the first being fixed in May, 1497. 
 If this had been true, Amerigo would have reached 
 the mainland a week or two earlier than Cabot, and 
 
120 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 about fourteen montlis earlier than Colambns. It was 
 also suggested in the book that Amerigo was entitled 
 to give his name to the continent he had discovered. 
 
 But the claim was groundless, and considerable 
 doubt has been thrown on the whole of Vespucci's 
 narrative. Many have charged him with deliberate 
 falsification, and most of his apologists have contented 
 themselves with defending his character rather than 
 the truth of his narrative, ascribing the inconsist- 
 encies of the latter to the errors of translators and 
 copyists. In his Researches, Santarem says he could 
 find no mention at all of Vespucci in the Koyal 
 Archives of Portugal ; and it is very important to 
 note that his reputed discovery of the mainland was 
 not used as evidence by the Spanish Government in 
 an action at law in 1512, when it would have been 
 clearly in their favour to do so. On the contrary, 
 Ojeda distinctly asserted that the mainland was dis- 
 covered by Columbus. 
 
 The name of America, however, soon began to be 
 used as the designation of the whole of the Western 
 Hemisphere ; and it was not until the publication of 
 Scboner's Opusculum Geographicum in 1533 that 
 doubt began to be thrown upon its propriety. Now 
 it is known to be clearly untrue that Vespucci was 
 the first discoverer of the Western Continent. But 
 it would be useless, we presume, to advertise in the 
 daily newspapers that on and after such a date 
 America would henceforth be called and known as 
 Columbia, as it really ought to be. The name of 
 America has taken root, and will no doubt continue 
 to be used till the end of time. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 POETUGUESE, FRENCHj AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 
 
 WITH the advent of the sixteenth century, expe- 
 ditions to the Western Hemisphere became 
 very frequent, France, Spain, Portugal, and England 
 all contributing their quota of adventurers. The lead- 
 ing explorers will be dealt with in separate chapters, 
 while men like Hernando Cortes, the conqueror of 
 Mexico, do not come within the purview of this work. 
 Confining ourselves now to the minor Portuguese, 
 French, and Spanish explorers, we come first upon the 
 name of Gaspar Cortereal, a native of Lisbon. In 
 1500, by appointment of Manuel, King of Portugal, he 
 left the mouth of the Tagus with two ships, well 
 equipped at his own cost, and went as far as the 
 regions since known as Canada. He reached 60° N., 
 and imposed upon many places purely Portuguese 
 names, such as Labrador. After his return from this 
 voyage, he again left Lisbon, with two caravels, for the 
 Arctic regions in May, 150L Cortereal ranged the 
 coast of North America for about seven hundred miles, 
 till he was blocked by ice when approaching the 
 fiftieth degree. The country by which he passed 
 had excellent verdure, and the explorer admired the 
 stately forests in which pines, large enough for masts 
 
 121 
 
122 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 and yards, promised profitable coramerce. Yet he 
 filled his ships with men instead of timber, taking on 
 board fifty Indians to be sold as slaves. The name of 
 Labrador, which was transferred from the territory 
 south of the St. Lawrence to a region farther north, 
 is the only permanent survival of Portuguese explora- 
 tion in North America. Cortereal never returned from 
 his second voyage; and although two rescue expeditions 
 were sent out, nothing was discovered as to his fate. 
 
 The French were early in the field as North 
 American colonizers. In 1504, seven years only after 
 the discovery of the continent, Bretons and Normans 
 were fishing in Newfoundland. The former gave their 
 name to the Island of Cape Breton. In 1506 a map 
 of the Gulf of St. Lawrence was drawn by John Denys 
 of Honfleur, who had explored the gulf. There are 
 many records of private French fishing enterprises. 
 One Thomas Aubert, a pilot of Dieppe, visited Cape 
 Breton Island, and carried some of the natives thence 
 to France. But the most remarkable expedition for 
 some years was the voyage of Giovanni di Verrazano 
 in 1523. Verrazano, though a native of Florence, had 
 been trained under Aubert. Originally he went out 
 with four vessels, but three were lost, leaving only his 
 own ship, the Dauphine. In a letter which he sent to 
 King Francis I., it is believed that we get for the first 
 time a passing glimpse, by actual description, of much 
 of the long stretch of the Atlantic coast of North 
 America now within the boundaries of the United 
 States. His vessel is supposed to have been the first 
 to enter New York Harbour ; and Verrazano is further 
 believed to have visited what are now known as 
 
POKTUGUESE, FBENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 123 
 
 Narragansett Bay and the shores of New England 
 and Maine. His fate is unknown, but " the credit 
 belongs to him, not only of having first explored with 
 some care the Atlantic coast of the United States, but 
 of first promulgating the true theory of the size of the 
 globe in contradistinction to that of the old cosmo- 
 graphers, which Columbus had adopted and believed 
 in to the day of his death." 
 
 Leaving for the present the great work of Jacques 
 Cartier, we must now briefly sketch the painful but 
 romantic story of the celebrated Admiral Coligny's at- 
 tempt at colonization in North America. The admiral 
 despatched from Havre, in the King's name, in February, 
 1562, two ships under the command of Captain John 
 Ribault, " to discover and view a certaine long coast 
 of the West Indies called La Florida " — a coast which 
 really included the whole of the Atlantic side of the 
 United States from the Rio Grande to the Canadian 
 line. Ribault was a tried commander, and a man of 
 faith and truth, brave also and experienced. Besides 
 his seamen, he had under him a band of soldiers, and 
 a number of gentlemen, whose object was to build up 
 the Reformed Protestant Church in the wilderness to 
 the glory of God. 
 
 Ribault's expedition safely reached the coast of 
 Florida, and entered a river which they called the 
 River of May, but which is now known as the St. 
 John. Thanks were given to God for their success, 
 and a pillar was set up with the arms of France, this 
 being the first boundary on the south of the French 
 King's dominions in the New World. The land seemed 
 fair and fruitful, " and pleasantest of all the world." 
 
124 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 It abounded in all kinds of frnits, birds, and fisbes. 
 Proceeding northward, on the 30th of May the expedi- 
 tion entered the harbour of Port Royal, where a navy 
 might ride in safety. Here it was proposed to fonnd 
 a colony ; and Ribault, calling his men together, 
 delivered a speech to them fall of noble sentiments. 
 Those whom Ribault left behind to establish a colony, 
 under Albert de la Pierria as leader, erected a fort, 
 which was called Charles Fort. It was on a little 
 island on the Chenonceau stream, now known as 
 Archer's Creek, about six miles from Beaufort, South 
 Carolina. 
 
 Improvidence and idleness on the part of the colonists 
 led to mutiny and bloodshed. Captain Albert was 
 deposed for his severity, and a worthy man named 
 Nicholas Barre was chosen as his successor. But 
 although peace was secured, the pangs of hunger 
 could not be allayed, and the colonists built a vessel, 
 on board which they embarked for France. Terrible 
 privations were experienced during the voyage, and 
 the remnant who were left were taken by an English 
 captain, the feeblest being sent to France, and the 
 others conveyed as prisoners to England. 
 
 As no news had been received of Ribault in France, 
 in April, 1564, Coligny despatched a new expedition 
 under Captain Ren6 de Laudonni^re, who had four 
 vessels under him. Laudonni^re reached the River 
 of May in June, and was received with enthusiastic 
 transports by the natives. The captain made a most 
 glowing report of the country He built a triangular 
 fort, which he named Fort Caroline, on a spot now 
 known as St. John's Bluff, on the bank of the St. 
 
PORTUGUESE, FEENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 125 
 
 John Eiver. The greed for gold and silver, however, 
 soon set in amongst the colonists, and disaffection and 
 insubordination followed. The mutineers seized the 
 vessels, but speedily quarrelled amongst themselves, 
 with the result that three of the vessels fell into the 
 hands of the Sj^aniards, while the fourth was brought 
 back to Fort Caroline, where Laudonni^re punished 
 the ringleaders with death. But famine next attacked 
 the colony, which was aggravated by conflicts with the 
 natives. In August, 1565, an English fleet arrived, 
 under Sir John Hawkins, who succoured the colonists. 
 They were next engaged in making preparations to 
 return to France, when on the 28th of August seven 
 ships arrived under the command of Ribault himself. 
 Unjust complaints had been made to Coligny against 
 Laudonni^re, and the latter was told that he must 
 return to France to answer them, Eibault being 
 appointed to take command of the colony in his place. 
 A Spanish fleet shortly afterwards arrived in the 
 River of May, under the command of Pedro Menendez, 
 whose mission was to burn and destroy all Lutheran 
 Frenchmen whom he might meet with. Menendez was 
 a treacherous, bloodthirsty bigot. Against the advice 
 of Laudonni^re, Ribault sailed with all the larger 
 vessels and most of the efiective men at his command. 
 Intending to attack the enemy at the mouth of the 
 River of Dolphins ; and he left behind him at Fort 
 Caroline only about two hundred and forty persons, 
 including the sick, the women, and the children. 
 Learning these facts, Menendez marched on Fort 
 Caroline, which fell an easy prey, and the poor colonists 
 were ruthlessly slaughtered without any consideration 
 
126 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 for age or sex. A few persons escaped, including 
 Laudonni6re ; and these got on board vessels in com- 
 mand of a nephew of Ribault, who sailed away for 
 France. 
 
 As the other men on board Ribault's ships had been 
 wrecked on Anastasia Island, a little to the southward, 
 Menendez proceeded thither ; and although the poor 
 creatures appealed to his humanity, he put nearly all 
 of them to the sword, as they were of the Eeformed 
 religion. Ribault himself, with the remnant of his 
 force, next fell into the hands of the butcher ; and they 
 also were diabolically murdered, Menendez fiendishly 
 reporting to the King of Spain that he judged this 
 " to be expedient for the service of God our Lord, and 
 of your Majesty." The place of this fearful massacre 
 is still called " the bloody river of Matanzas." There 
 were still a few French colonists left, and when these 
 were captured a few were killed and the majority sent 
 to the galleys. 
 
 Menendez now erected a fort at the mouth of the 
 River of Dolphins. " It was the first permanent Euro- 
 pean settlement within the present boundaries of the 
 United States, and called by Menendez ' St. Augustine,' 
 because on the festival day of that saint — the 28th of 
 August — the Spanish fleet had come in sight of the 
 coast of Florida, and run into the mouth of the river." 
 The foundation of this Spanish colony marked the end 
 of the French colony. 
 
 When the news of the Spanish cruelties reached 
 France, great indignation was excited amongst the 
 people ; yet the Catholic King and his infamous mother 
 Catherine took no steps to avenge the wrong because 
 
POETUGUESE, FRENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 127 
 
 the Frenclimen slain were Lutherans. However, a 
 few years later, that is, in the spring of 1568, three 
 French vessels appeared oiF the mouth of the River of 
 May, commanded by one Dominique de Gourgues. 
 De Gourgues was a soldier of high repute, who had 
 vengeance to work out on his own account against the 
 Spaniards, as well as to punish them for the Matanzas 
 massacre. His followers eagerly entered into his 
 projects, and they were warmly welcomed by the 
 Indians. An alliance was formed with the friendly 
 chief Satouriona, and a desperate assault was made 
 on the fort one morning at daybreak. The Spaniards 
 were comj)letely surprised, and in a few moments only 
 fifteen of them were left alive. 
 
 De Gourgues now embarked his men, and made for 
 the other side of the river, where he furiously attacked 
 the bewildered Spaniards in that quarter. The port 
 of San Mateo, with a force of nearly three hundred 
 men, was next assaulted and taken, almost every 
 Spaniard being left for dead. " But the massacre of 
 Fort Caroline was not even yet atoned for. The flag 
 of France once more floated over its ramparts of earth ; 
 the bodies of nearly four hundred Spaniards lay un- 
 buried on the shores of the River of May ; but there 
 were prisoners still alive. De Gourgues ordered them 
 to be brought before him, in the presence of his own 
 men and his Indian allies. He was there, he told 
 them, to avenge acts which were as heinous an insult 
 to France as they were atrocious crimes against 
 humanity ; although such deeds could not be punished 
 as they deserved, the perpetrators should, at least, be 
 made to suffer all the retaliation that could be inflicted 
 
128 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 by an honourable enemy. Near by were still standing 
 tbe trees on which Menendez had hanged his prisoners, 
 beneath the inscription : ' I do this not as to French- 
 men, but as to Lutherans.' To the same trees the 
 French cai)tain ordered the Spaniards to be led for 
 execution ; and over their heads were the words, 
 burned into a plank with a hot iron : ' I do not this 
 as unto Spaniards, nor as unto Maranes ; but as unto 
 traitors, robbers, and murderers.' " 
 
 As De Gourgues's whole force numbered less than 
 three hundred men, he was not sufficiently strong to 
 attack St. Augustine, so he left Florida and returned 
 home. The King of Spain sent a small fleet to capture 
 him off the French coast ; but he eluded their pursuit, 
 and lived in retirement until 1579. 
 
 Among the early French voyagers to the coast of 
 Maine was Andr6 Th(5vet, the traveller and cosmo- 
 grapher, who had been a member of Villegagnon's 
 Huguenot colony in South America. In 1536 he 
 visited the Grand River (Penobscot), and entered into 
 traffic with the natives, who were most friendly. The 
 Abuakis, who, with the Micmacs, were the aboriginal 
 inhabitants of Maine, inhabited the territory from the 
 Penobscot, north of Canada, and through New Hamp- 
 shire, and dwelt in five permanent villages. They were 
 brave, hospitable, and faithful people ; and coming 
 under the influence of the French missionaries, they 
 soon became attached to the French, who kept them 
 strongly hostile to the English. 
 
 Under the title of Nouvelle France, the French 
 proclaimed their authority over the whole of the 
 region which included Maine, though for many years 
 
PORTUGUESE, FRENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLORATIONS. 129 
 
 they did little towards colonizing it. In 1598 the 
 Marquis de la Roche, a nobleman of Brittany, secured 
 an ample commission from Henry IV., and made a 
 futile attempt at a settlement. He scoured the French 
 prisons, and took out their inmates to the desolate 
 Isle of Sable ; but after suffering great hardships, a 
 small remnant were glad to return to France, when 
 they received a pardon. 
 
 De Chauvin, an experienced sea officer, next obtained 
 a commission similar to that granted to De la Roche. 
 He had associated with him in the enterprise Font- 
 grave, a merchant of St. Malo. Chauvin made two 
 profitable voyages, and was preparing for a third when 
 his sudden death intervened. 
 
 But the work of French colonization was destined 
 to be effected by Samuel Champlain, who has not 
 unjustly been styled "the Father of New France." 
 He was a native of Brouage, and was an able marine 
 officer and a man of science. In 1603 he was selected 
 to command an expedition manned by a company 
 of merchants of Rouen, which had been founded by 
 the Governor of Dieppe. Champlain is described as 
 by his natural disposition " delighting marvellously in 
 these enterprises." The American historian George 
 Bancroft observes that Champlain had for a season, 
 in the last year of the sixteenth century, " engaged 
 in the service of Spain, that he might make a 
 voyage to regions into which no Frenchman could 
 otherwise have entered. He was in Porto Rico and 
 St. Domingo and Cuba, visited the city of Mexico, 
 and showed the benefits of joining the two oceans 
 by a canal to Panama. He now became the father 
 
 9 
 
130 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 of New France. He possessed a clear and penetrat- 
 ing nnderstanding with a spirit of cautions inquiry, 
 untiring perseverance with great mobility, indefatig- 
 able activity with fearless courage. The account 
 of his first expedition to Canada gives proof of sound 
 judgment, accurate observation, and historical fidelity. 
 It is full of details on the manners of the savage 
 tribes, not less than the geography of the country ; 
 and Quebec was already selected as the appropriate 
 site for a fort. 
 
 "In November, 1603, just after Champlain had re- 
 turned to France, an exclusive patent was i&sued to 
 a Calvinist, the able, patriotic, and honest De Monts. 
 The sovereignty of Acadia and its confines, from the 
 fortieth to the forty-sixth degree of latitude, that 
 is, from Philadelphia to beyond Montreal ; a still 
 wider monopoly of the fur trade ; the exclusive 
 control of the soil, government, and trade ; freedom 
 of religion for Huguenot emigrants, — these were the 
 privileges which his charter conceded. 
 
 " In March, 1604, two ships left the shores of France 
 not to return till a permanent settlement should be 
 made in America. The summer glided away while 
 the emigrants trafficked with the natives and explored 
 the coasts. The harbour called Annapolis, after its 
 conquest, by Queen Anne, an excellent harbour, though 
 difficult of access, possessing a small but navigable 
 river, which abounded in fish and is bordered by 
 beautiful meadows, so pleased Pontrincourt, a leader 
 in the enterprise, that he sued for a grant of it from 
 De Monts, and, naming it Port Royal, determined to 
 reside there with his family. The company of De Monts 
 
POETUGUESE, FBENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 131 
 
 made their first attempt at a settlement on tlie Island 
 of St. Croix, at the mouth of the river of the same name. 
 Yet the island was so ill-snited to their purposes that, 
 in the spring of 1605, they removed to Port Royal. 
 
 " For an agricultural colony a milder climate was 
 more desirable. In view of a settlement at the south, 
 De Monts in the same year explored and claimed for 
 France the rivers, especially the Merrimac, the coasts, 
 and the bays of New England, as far at least as Cape 
 Cod. The numbers and hostility of the savages led 
 him to delay a removal, since his colonists were so 
 few. Yet the purpose remained. Thrice, in the 
 spring of 1606, did Dupont, his lieutenant, attempt 
 to complete the discovery. Twice he was driven back 
 by adverse winds, and at the third attempt his vessel 
 was wrecked. Pontrincourt, who had visited France 
 and returned with supplies, himself renewed the design; 
 but meeting with disasters among the shoals of Cape 
 Cod, he too returned to Port Royal." 
 
 Henry IV. confirmed the possessions of Pontrincourt 
 in 1607 ; Marie de Medici contributed to support the 
 missions which the Marquise de Guercheville pro- 
 tected ; in 1610 the Jesuits were granted an impost 
 on the fisheries and fur trade ; and in the following 
 year a number of Jesuit priests arrived to begin the 
 work of converting the natives. In a very short time 
 the tribes between the Penobscot and the Kennebec 
 became the firm allies of France. A French colony 
 was founded in 1613, under the auspices of De 
 Guercheville and Marie de Medici, when De Saussaye 
 raised the entrenchments of St. Sauveur on the eastern 
 shore of Mount Desert Isle. The Indians now gathered 
 
132 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 round the Christian cross as raised by the Jesuits, and 
 they looked upon the Jesuit leader Father Biart as a 
 messenger from heaven. But while this was taking 
 place, the monopoly of De Monts had been revoked 
 through the influence of French merchants. Cham- 
 plain, who was filled with the ambition of founding a 
 state, succeeded in forming a company of merchants 
 of Dieppe and St. Malo, and under their auspices 
 he raised the French flag over Quebec on the 3rd 
 of July, 1608. 
 
 Champlain, with a mixed party consisting of Hurons 
 and Algonkins, and two Europeans, undertook, in 1607, 
 an expedition against the Iroquois, or Five Nations, 
 in the north of New York. He explored the lake 
 which now bears his name, and fought a successful 
 battle near Ticonderoga. After the death of Henry IV., 
 the Prince of Cond6 became Viceroy of New France, 
 and through him the merchants of St. Malo, Rouen, 
 and La Rochelle obtained a colonial patent from the 
 King in 1615. Champlain, who was then in France, 
 again went out to the New World, and unsuccessfully 
 invaded the territory of the Iroquois. Wounded and 
 dispirited, he wandered about the forests until he 
 reached a village of Algonkins, near Lake Nipissing. 
 
 In 1620 Champlain carried out the wishes of the 
 new viceroy, Montmorenci, by beginning the con- 
 struction of the strong Castle of St. Louis. It was 
 completed in 1624, on a commanding elevation, and 
 it long formed the place of council against the 
 Iroquois and against New England. Difficulties arose 
 between the Jesuits and the Calvinists in the French 
 settlements ; but Champlain finally established the 
 
POKTUGUESE, FRENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 133 
 
 aathority of the Frencli on the banks of the St. 
 Lawrence. This enterprising navigator died at Quebec 
 on Christmas Day, 1635. 
 
 With regard to the Spanish explorations, they were 
 of a stirring and romantic character. First in order 
 come those of Yasco Nniiez de Balboa, who dis- 
 covered the Pacific Ocean in September, 1513 ; but 
 as his exploits do not come within our scope, we 
 pass on to the discoverer of Florida, Juan Ponce de 
 Leon. This Ponce de Leon was a fellow-voyager 
 of Columbus in his second expedition. For a time 
 he was governor of Porto Rico. When removed from 
 this post, although he was getting into years, he 
 resolved on an expedition to the north. Accordingly, 
 on the 3rd of March, 1513, he sailed from Porto Rico 
 with three vessels, fitted out at his own expense. He 
 cruised among the Bahamas, and on the 27th of 
 March anchored off the mainland near the point now 
 called Fernandina. He took possession of the land in 
 the name of Spain ; and as the day was Easter Sunday 
 — called by the Spaniards Pascua de Flores — he named 
 the newly discovered territory Florida. The land, 
 moreover, was brilliant with flowers. Ponce doubled 
 Cajje Florida ; and in addition to giving Si)aiu a new 
 province, he opened up for Spanish commerce a new 
 channel through the Gulf of Florida. The King of 
 Spain ordered him to colonize the new land, and 
 appointed him its governor ; and Ponce had thus the 
 distinction of being the first governor of territory 
 within the limits of the present United States. After 
 being absent in Europe for some years. Ponce de Leon 
 returned to Florida in 1.521. He was engaged in 
 
134 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 selecting a site for a new colony, when the Indians 
 fell furiously upon the Spaniards, and Ponce, who was 
 mortally wounded by an arrow, returned to Cuba to 
 die. 
 
 Between Ponce de Leon's discovery of Florida and 
 his death other travellers visited the coast. In 1516 
 Diego Miruelo, a sea captain, landed and traded with 
 the natives ; in 1517 Hernandez de Cordova did the 
 like, but was mortally wounded ; in 1518 his pilot 
 conducted another squadron to the same shores ; and 
 in 1519 Francisco de Garay, a comj^anion of Columbus, 
 and now governor of Jamaica, landed on the shore, 
 but was attacked by the Indians and lost most of his 
 men. He returned the next year, and he was the 
 first thorough explorer of the gulf coast of the United 
 States. He found that Florida was not an island, as 
 was supposed ; and he was believed also to have made 
 the first discovery of the Mississippi, which appears in 
 the earliest charts as the Rio del Espiritu Santo, or 
 River of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The next important discoverer was Lucas Vasquez 
 de Ay lion, who in 1520 explored the coasts of South 
 Carolina, which was then called Chicora. The name 
 of the Jordan was given to the Combahee River, and 
 that of St. Helena, given to a cape, now belongs 
 to the sound. Vasquez treacherously kidnapped a 
 number of Indians, whom he intended to sell as slaves 
 for the gold-mines and plantations of the islands. 
 But of his two vessels, one foundered at sea and all 
 on board perished, and only a few of the Indians 
 remaining on the other ship lived to reach Hispaniola. 
 The Emperor Charles V. rewarded Vasquez, and 
 
POETUGUESE, FEENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLORATIONS. 135 
 
 appointed him to the conquest of Chicora. In 1525 
 Vasquez set forth again with a formidable expedition. 
 He appears to have explored the territory which is 
 now represented by the States of Georgia, the Caro- 
 linas, Virginia, and Maryland ; but sickness and the 
 Indians decimated his force, so that out of six hundred 
 soldiers and sailors who formed the expedition not 
 more than one hundred and fifty returned to His- 
 paniola. Vasquez himself died from sickness. 
 
 Stephen Gomez, an able Portuguese seaman in the 
 service of Spain, sailed from Corunna with a single 
 vessel only, in February, 1525, to find a passage to 
 Cathay, which he believed to lie between Florida 
 and the Baccalaos, or Newfoundland. He voyaged 
 from north to south on the American coast, and 
 discovered the Hudson, which he named the St. 
 Antony. It would seem that he got to about the 
 latitude of New York, but no positive record remains 
 of his voyage. He returned to Spain, however, with 
 a freight of furs and Indians. 
 
 A story of the deepest interest is that relating to 
 the formidable but disastrous expedition of Pamphilo 
 de Narvaez, who obtained from Charles V. the contract 
 to explore and reduce all the territory from the Atlantic 
 to the River Palmas. Narvaez was a wealthy man, 
 who risked all his treasure upon his conquests. He 
 sailed from Spain in 1527 with five ships and about 
 five hundred men. Many Spaniards of noble birth 
 were in his train, and one, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de 
 Vaca, will have a permanent place in the records of 
 discovery as treasurer and historian of the expedition. 
 During the winter of 1527-8 the expedition, amidst 
 
136 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 storms and losses, passed from port to port on 
 the southern side of Cuba. In the spring Cape San 
 Antonio was doubled ; but a strong south wind setting 
 in, the fleet was driven upon the American coast. On 
 the 14th of April Narvaez anchored in or near the 
 outlet of the Bay of the Cross, now Tampa Bay. 
 This was the day before Good Friday, and two days 
 afterwards the governor landed, and in the name of 
 Spain took possession of Florida. Against the advice 
 of Cabeza de Vaca, Narvaez, with three hundred men, 
 struck into the interior of the country, being allured 
 by the prospect of gold. Nature everywhere they 
 found to be most beautiful, and the trees, birds, deer, 
 etc., elicited admiration ; but they discovered no gold. 
 
 The further fate of the expedition is told in detail 
 by many historians ; but as the narrative by Mr. 
 Bancroft is perhaps the most graphic, we quote from 
 it the following passage : " When on rafts and by 
 swimming they had painfully crossed the strong 
 current of the Withlochoochee, they were so worn 
 away by famine as to give infinite thanks to God for 
 lighting upon a field of unripe maize. Just after the 
 middle of June, they encountered the Swanee, whose 
 wide, deep, and rapid stream delayed them till they 
 could build a large canoe. Wading through swamps, 
 made more terrible by immense trunks of fallen trees, 
 that lay rotting in the water, and sheltered the few but 
 skilful native archers, on the day after Saint John's 
 they came in sight of Appalachee, where they had pic- 
 tured to themselves a populous town and food and trea- 
 sure, and found only a hamlet of forty wretched cabins. 
 
 " Here they remained for five-and-twenty days, scour- 
 
POETUGUESE, FRENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 137 
 
 ing the conntry round in quest of silver and gold, 
 till, perishing with hunger, and weakened by fierce 
 attacks, they abandoned all hope but of an escape 
 from a region so remote and malign. Amidst in- 
 creasing dangers, they went onward through deep 
 lagoons and the ruinous forest in search of the sea, 
 till they came upon a bay, which they called Baia 
 de Caballos, and which now forms the harbour of 
 St. Mark's. No trace could be found of their ships. 
 Sustaining life, therefore, by the flesh of their horses, 
 and by six or seven hundred bushels of maize, plun- 
 dered from the Indians, they beat their stirrups, spurs, 
 crossbows, and other implements of iron into saws, 
 axes, and nails ; and in sixteen days finished five 
 boats, each of twenty-two cubits, or more than thirty 
 feet in length, 
 
 " In calking their frail crafts, films of the palmetto 
 served for oakum, and they payed the seams with 
 pitch from the nearest pines. For rigging, they 
 twisted ropes out of horsehair and the fibrous bark 
 of the palmetto ; their shirts were pieced together 
 for sails, and oars were shaped out of savins ; skins 
 flayed from horses served for water-bottles ; it was 
 difiicult in the deep sand to find large stones for 
 anchors and ballast. Thus equipped, on the 22nd 
 of September about two hundred and fifty men — all 
 of the original party of five hundred whom famine, 
 autumnal fevers, fatigue, and the arrows of the savage 
 bowmen had spared — embarked for the River Palmas. 
 
 " Former navigators had traced the outline of the 
 coast, but among the voyagers there was not a single 
 expert mariner. One shallop was commanded by 
 
138 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Alonzo de Castillo and Andres Dorantes, another by 
 Cabeza de Vaca. The gunwales of the crowded vessels 
 rose but a hand-breadth above the water, till, after 
 creeping for seven days through shallow sounds, 
 Cabeza seized five canoes of the natives, out of which 
 the Sx^aniards made guard-boards for their five boats. 
 During thirty days more they kept on their way, 
 sufi'eriug from hunger and thirst, imperilled by a storm, 
 now closely following the shore, now avoiding savage 
 enemies by venturing out to sea. On the 30th of 
 October, at the hour of vespers, Cabeza de Vaca, 
 who happened to lead the van, discovered one of the 
 mouths of the river now known as the Mississippi, 
 and the little fleet was snugly moored among islands 
 at a league from the stream, which brought down such 
 a flood that even at that distance the water was sweet. 
 They would have entered the ' very great river ' in 
 search of fuel to parch their corn, but were baflled by 
 the force of the current and a rising north wind. 
 
 " A mile and a half from land they sounded, and 
 with a line of thirty fathoms could find no bottom. 
 In the night following a second day's fruitless struggle 
 to go up the stream, the boats were separated ; but 
 the next afternoon Cabeza, overtaking and passing 
 Narvaez, who chose to hug the land, struck boldly 
 out to sea in the wake of Castillo, whom he descried 
 ahead. They had no longer an adverse current, and 
 in that region the prevailing wind is from the east. 
 For four days the half-famished adventurers kept 
 prosperously towards the west, borne along by their 
 rude sails and their labour at the oar. All the 5th 
 of November an easterly storm drove them forward ; 
 
POETUGUESE, FUENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOKATIONS. 139 
 
 and, on the morning of tlie Cth, the boat of Cabeza 
 was thrown by the surf on the sands of an island, 
 which he called the Isle of Malhado — that is, of mis- 
 fortune. Except as to its length, his description 
 applies to Galveston ; his men believed themselves 
 not far from the Panuco. The Indians of the place 
 expressed sympathy for their shipwreck by howls, 
 and gave them food and shelter. Castillo was cast 
 away a little farther to the east ; but he and his 
 company were saved alive. Of the other boats, an 
 uncertain story reached Cabeza : that one foundered 
 in the gulf; that the crews of the two others gained 
 the shore; that Narvaez was afterwards driven out 
 to sea ; that the stranded men began wandering 
 towards the west ; and that all of them but one 
 perished from hunger. 
 
 " Those who were with Cabeza and Castillo gradually 
 wasted away from cold and want and despair ; but 
 Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, Castillo, and Estevanico, 
 a blackamoor from Barbary, bore up against every 
 ill, and, though scattered among various tribes, took 
 thought for each other's welfare. The brave Cabeza 
 de Vaca, as self-possessed a hero as ever graced a 
 fiction, fruitful in resources, and never wasting time 
 in complaints of fate or fortune, studied the habits 
 and the languages of the Indians, accustomed himself 
 to their modes of life, peddled little articles of com- 
 merce from tribe to tribe in the interior and along 
 the coast for forty or fifty leagues, and won fame in 
 the wilderness as a medicine man of wonderful gifts. 
 In September, 1534, after nearly six years' captivity, 
 the great forerunner among the path-finders across 
 
140 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 the continent inspired the three others with his own 
 marvellous fortitude, and, naked and ignorant of the 
 way, without so much as a single bit of iron, they 
 planned their escape. Cabeza has left an artless 
 account of his recollections of the journey ; but his 
 memory sometimes called up incidents out of their 
 place, so that his narrative is confused. He pointed 
 his course far inland, partly because the nations away 
 from the sea were more numerous and more mild, 
 partly that, if he should again come among Chris- 
 tians, he might describe the land and its inhabitants. 
 Continuing his pilgrimage through more than twenty 
 months, sheltered from cold, first by deer-skins, then 
 by buffalo robes, he and his companions passed through 
 Texas as far north as the Canadian River ; then, along 
 Indian paths, crossed the water-shed to the valley 
 of the Rio Grande del Norte ; and borne up by cheer- 
 ful courage against hunger, want of water on the 
 plains, cold and wearisome, perils from beasts and 
 perils from red men, the voyagers went from town to 
 town in New Mexico, westward and still to the west, 
 till in May, 1536, they drew near the Pacific Ocean 
 at the village of San Miguel, in Sonora. From that 
 place they were escorted by Spanish soldiers to 
 Compostella ; and all the way to the city of Mexico 
 they were entertained as public guests." 
 
 After his return to Spain in 1537, Cabeza de Vaca 
 published an account of his expedition. He was sub- 
 sequently appointed administrator of La Plata, but 
 was shipwrecked in going out on the coast of Paraguay, 
 and became the first explorer of that country. In 
 1544 he was taken to Spain, and on certain charges 
 
POETUGUESE, FEENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 141 
 
 affecting his administration was banished to Africa. 
 Recalled by the King in 1552, he was pardoned and 
 made judge of the Supreme Court of Seville, dying 
 seven years later. 
 
 The news originally brought by Cabeza de Vaca 
 of the existence of half-civilized tribes far to the 
 north led to expeditions in that region. The first was 
 sent out under Marco de Niza in 1539. On its return 
 a more important expedition was fitted out under 
 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, governor of New 
 Galicia. It departed from Culiacan, on the Pacific 
 coast, in April, 1540. Coronado passed up the entire 
 length of what is now the State of Sonora to the River 
 Gila. Crossing this, he penetrated the country beyond 
 to the Little Colorado, and visited the famed cities of 
 Cibola mentioned by De Vaca and De Niza. He states 
 that he found seven cities in the kingdom ; but the 
 country was too cold for cotton, although the people 
 wore mantles of it, and cotton yarn was found in their 
 houses. He also found maize, guinea-cocks, peas, and 
 dressed skins. From Cibola, Coronado travelled east- 
 ward, visiting several towns, similar to the existing 
 villages of the Pueblo Indians, till he reached the Rio 
 Grande ; and from there journeyed three hundred 
 leagues to Quivira, the ruins of which are well known, 
 being near lat. 34° N., about one hundred and seventy 
 miles from El Paso. There he found a temperate 
 climate, with good water and an abundance of fruit. 
 The people were clothed in skins. On his way back 
 in March, 1542, Coronado fell from his horse at Tiguex, 
 near the Rio Grande, and is said to have become 
 insane. Mendoza, the viceroy, desired a colony to be 
 
142 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 founded in the regions visited ; but tlie commander of 
 the expedition did not wish to leave any of his party in 
 so poor a country and at so great a distance from suc- 
 cour. It appears that the narrative of this expedition 
 furnishes the first authentic account of the buffalo, or 
 American bison, and the great prairies and plains of New 
 Mexico. Drawings of the cities and houses, built by 
 the Indians, were sent to Spain with Coronado's report. 
 An expedition under Don Tristan de Luna, a scion 
 of a noble family in Aragon, sailed from Vera Cruz 
 on the 14th of August, 1559, for Florida. It was a 
 large and imposing fleet, for Tristan had with him an 
 army of fifteen hundred men, besides many friars bent 
 on Indian proselytizing, and a number of women and 
 children, the families of the soldiers who were to 
 colonize the new dominion. The expedition arrived 
 safely at a good harbour, which Tristan named the 
 Santa Maria, now known as Pensacola Bay. Within 
 a few days, however, a great storm arose, and all the 
 ships were driven on shore and destroyed. The leader 
 sent out a detachment of soldiers to explore the 
 country. After a march of forty days, they came upon 
 an Indian town, and found provisions abundant. The 
 sergeant-major sent back a party of sixteen to De 
 Luna, who, with his train of one thousand men, women, 
 and children, set out for the Indian town, which was 
 safely reached. But the provisions which at first 
 seemed so abundant were soon exhausted, and De Luna 
 sent out a second search party. As his people began 
 to die of hunger, however, he led them back by a 
 weary and painful march to Santa Maria. De Luna 
 despatched from the port two small vessels to the 
 
POETUGUESE, FRENCH, AND SPANISH EXPLOEATIONS. 143 
 
 viceroy, asking for sncconr, which fortunately arrived, 
 and the colonists were borne away. The commander 
 was recalled, and returned to Mexico in 1561, chagrined 
 at the failure of the most promising attempt ever 
 made by the Spaniards for the colonization of Florida. 
 Pedro Menendez, who had already founded St. 
 Augustine, likewise made an attempt in 1566 to estab- 
 lish a post on the shores of the Bay of St. Mary, or 
 Chesapeake Bay, or upon one of its tributary rivers. 
 The expedition was unsuccessful ; but four years later 
 Menendez persuaded the General of the Order of the 
 Jesuits to found a missionary station at Axacan, as a 
 portion of Virginia was called. A band of priests, led 
 by an Indian convert named Don Luis, afterwards 
 landed on the banks of the Potomac — then called the 
 Espiritu Santo — and travelled on foot to the Rappa- 
 hannock, near which river they put up a chapel. But 
 Don Luis soon forgot his Christianity, and returned 
 to his savage Indian instincts, and the priests were 
 massacred. Menendez returned from Spain, and ex- 
 acted vengeance for the deed. For more than thirty 
 years longer, nevertheless, St. Augustine remained 
 the only European colony within the present limits 
 of the United States. In 1586 Sir Francis Drake, on 
 entering the River of Dolphins, found the Spanish 
 settlement under the command of Pedro Menendez, a 
 nephew of the founder, who had also continued his 
 relative's explorations on the coast of Florida. To 
 Spain thus belongs the honour of discovering Florida 
 and the Mississippi ; but the path of the explorers was 
 unfortunately too often stained by treachery, cruelty, 
 and bloodshed. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 JACQUES CAKTIEE AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 
 
 AMONG the early pioneers of North America, 
 Jacqnes Cartier is entitled to a very prominent 
 place. This distingnished explorer -was born in the 
 French town of St. Malo in December, 1494. He led 
 a seafaring life, and made several fishing voyages to 
 the great banks of Labrador, until he entered upon 
 his first real voyage of discovery in 1534. It was 
 Philip Chabot, Admiral of France, who initiated the 
 expedition. He had urged the King to establish a 
 colony somewhere in the north-west, and the enter- 
 prise was entrusted to Cartier, who already enjoyed 
 high repute as an experienced mariner. 
 
 Cartier, who had only two ships of sixty tons each, 
 with a total of one hundred and twenty-two men, sailed 
 from St. Malo in April, 1.534. Steering for Newfound- 
 land, he passed through the Straits of Belle Isle into 
 the Gulf of Chaleurs, and planted a cross at Gasp6, 
 decorated with the arms of France, and bearing the 
 inscription, Vive le Roi de France! The native Indians, 
 whom he described as being in a lamentable condition, 
 objected through their chief to this proceeding; but 
 Cartier deceived them by saying that it " was only set 
 
 144 
 
JACQUES CARTIER AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 145 
 
 up to be as a light and leader whicli ways to enter 
 into the port." He further conciliated them by trifling 
 presents, and persuaded the chief to allow him to take 
 his two sons back to France with him. During this 
 voyage Cartier discovered the Great River of Canada, 
 and ascended its channel until he could perceive land 
 on either side. When he returned home, his native 
 city and France were filled with the fame of his 
 discoveries. 
 
 The consequence was that, in the ensuing year, a 
 new expedition was decided upon, the King himself 
 providing three well-furnished vessels, the largest, how- 
 ever, being of only one hundred and twenty tons. It 
 solemnly set forth in May, 1535, Cartier's object being, 
 not only to find the way to Cathay, but to plant French 
 colonies in new lands, where whole nations were to be 
 converted to the Holy Catholic Faith. Steering west- 
 ward along the coast of Labrador, Cartier entered a 
 small bay opposite the Island of Anticosti, which he 
 called the Bay of St. Lawrence. He proceeded 
 cautiously up the river, past the Saguenay and Cape 
 Tourmente, and anchored off a wooded and vine-clad 
 island. On account of the rich clusters of grapes he 
 called this island Bacchus (afterwards known as the 
 Island of Orleans) ; and after friendly converse with 
 the Indians, notably with Dounacona, their chief, he 
 came upon the majestic site of the modern Quebec, 
 then called Stadacone. He next went in a boat up the 
 St. Croix Hiver (now the St. Charles) ; and understand- 
 ing that many days' journey up the River Hochelaga 
 (for by that name the Indians called the St. Lawrence) 
 there was a large town of the same name, he resolved 
 
 10 
 
146 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 to proceed thither. The Indians were averse to his 
 going, and tried to frighten him by sending three of 
 their number, disguised as devils, with blackened faces 
 and " horns on their heads more than a yard long." 
 But Cartier only ridiculed the devils, and declared the 
 Indian god Cudruaigny to be " but a fool and a 
 noddie." Christ would defend from the cold all who 
 believed in Him ; and though he (the French captain) 
 had not himself talked with Jesus upon this subject, 
 his priests had, and received from Him a promise of 
 fair weather. The Indians felt themselves defeated, 
 and Cartier proceeded on his way. On the 2nd of 
 October, 1535, his vessels lay in the stream off 
 Hochelaga, the modern Montreal. 
 
 The stirring scene which followed the arrival of 
 Cartier and his companions is thus described by one 
 historian: "When they landed below the Rapids of 
 St. Mary, a thousand Indians, men, women, and 
 children, came down to the strand to welcome them. 
 With great pomp and circumstance, Cartier, 'very 
 gorgeously attired,' marched with his companions to 
 the royal residence. It was in a village of about fifty 
 huts, surrounded with a triple row of palisades, in the 
 midst of wide fields where the brown dried leaves of 
 the Indian corn waved and rustled in the autumn 
 winds. On this spot now stands Montreal, and a hill 
 near by which Cartier called Mont Royal gave a name 
 to the future city. 
 
 "In the centre of Hochelaga was a public square, 
 where all the people gathered. The women and 
 the maidens came with their arms full of children, 
 begging that they might even so much as be 
 
JACQUES CARTIER AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 147 
 
 touclied by these wonderfal white men from some 
 far-ofif country. The ' lord and king,' Agoiihanna, 
 a man of fifty years, helpless from palsy, was brought 
 in by his attendants stretched upon a deer-skin. 
 Upon his head, instead of a crown, he wore ' a certain 
 thing made of the skinnes of hedgehogs like a red 
 wreath,' but otherwise his apparel did not distinguish 
 him from his subjects. He prayed that relief might 
 be given him from the disease with which he was 
 afflicted. Cartier with his own hands rubbed the 
 shrunken limbs of the royal sufferer, who bestowed 
 upon him in return his crown of coloured porcupine 
 quills. It seemed to these poor heathen ' that God 
 was descended and come downe from heaven to heale 
 them ' ; and the halt, the lame, the blind, the impotent 
 from age — so old, some of them, ' that the hair of 
 their eyelids came downe and covered their cheekes' — 
 were brought forward to be healed. The best the 
 good captain could do was to pray ; he read the first 
 chapter of the Gospel of St. John and the passion 
 of Christ from his service-book, and besought the 
 heavenly Father that He would have mercy upon 
 these benighted savages, and bring them to a know- 
 ledge of His holy Word. The Indians were ' marvel- 
 lously attentive,' looking to heaven as the Christians 
 did, and imitating all the gestures of devotion; but 
 they better understood, and were overwhelmed with 
 joy, when, the prayers being finished, the distribution 
 of hatchets, knives, beads, rings, brooches of tin, and 
 other trifles was begun. 
 
 " Cartier and his companions soon returned to their 
 winter quarters at the mouth of the St. Charles, 
 
148 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 where those they had left behind had meanwhile 
 built a rough fort. The river within a few weeks 
 was covered with solid ice, and their ships were 
 buried in four feet of snow. With the increasing 
 cold, one of those pestilences so common among 
 the Indians broke out; and whether it was con- 
 tagious, or whether it was superinduced by ex- 
 posure to the severity of the climate, it soon attacked 
 the French. Twenty-four of the company died, and 
 the rest were so enfeebled that only three were 
 capable of any exertion. To the fear of death from 
 sickness was added suspicion of the Indians, who, 
 they were afraid, would take advantage of the weak- 
 ness of the strangers and exterminate those whom 
 the pestilence spared. The natives were ordered to 
 keep away from the fort and the ships under pretence 
 of precaution against infection ; and when any of them 
 approached, Cartier ordered his sick men to beat with 
 hammers and sticks against the side of their berths 
 that the noise might be mistaken for sounds of 
 busy industry. But where they looked for danger 
 came succour. From the Indians they learned that 
 a decoction of the leaves and bark of a certain tree 
 was a specific for that malady under which they were 
 fast perishing. The squaws brought branches of 
 the tree, and taught them how to prepare and use 
 this sovereign medicine, which in a few days, not 
 only did all that was promised for it, but also cured 
 the sick of some old chronic difficulties. 
 
 " Their suspicions of the Indians, nevertheless, con- 
 tinued. When Donnacona had gone on a hunting 
 expedition, the French had feared it was to gather a 
 
JACQUES CAETIER AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 149 
 
 force sufficient for an attack upon tlie fort and sliips. 
 A certain shyness the Indians showed on their return, 
 and an unwillingness to part, except at a high price, 
 with provision they needed for their own support, con- 
 firmed the apprehensions. Suspicion on the one side 
 undoubtedly begot it on the other ; but that the 
 natives had the most ground for it was shown in the 
 end. When Cartier, in the spring, was ready to sail, 
 he enticed Donnacona, with nine others, on board his 
 ships, seized and confined them, and, heedless of the 
 cries and entreaties of their countrymen, carried them 
 to France. In July, 1 536, the fleet arrived at St. Malo ; 
 and when, fonr years later, another expedition returned 
 to Canada, Donnacona and his companions, excepting 
 one little girl, were all dead. They had been baptized 
 and received into the bosom of the Church, however, 
 before they died — compensation enough, it was thought, 
 for enforced loss of liberty, country, and friends." 
 
 Cartier made such a report to King Francis of the 
 natural wealth of Canada, that in 1540 Jean Francois 
 de la Roque, Lord de Roberval of Picardy, was made 
 viceroy and lieutenant-governor in Canada, Hochelaga, 
 Saguenay, Newfoundland, and all the other French- 
 American territories. Cartier was appointed his 
 captain-general, and went out before De Roberval, 
 leaving St. Malo on the 23rd of May, 1541. He had 
 five vessels with him. When he reached Stadacone, 
 Cartier announced the death of Donnacona, and spread 
 the false report that the other chiefs had married in 
 France and dwelt in great afiluence. 
 
 De Roberval's expedition was, says the historian 
 already quoted, barren of any permanent results, like 
 
150 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 those preceding it. " A new fort was begun a few miles 
 above the site of the old one, at the mouth of the 
 St. Croix Eiver ; some little land was sowed ; some- 
 thing which they took to be gold was gathered ; 
 something else, probably crystals of quartz, they 
 supposed were diamonds — for they were so 'faire, 
 polished, and excellently cut,' that in the sunlight 
 they * glister as it were sparkles of fire.' Two ships 
 were sent home in the autumn with tidings of good 
 progress. It was determined, nevertheless, to abandon 
 the adventure. The Indians soon became troublesome, 
 for probably they were not in the least imposed upon 
 by the story of Jacques Cartier, that their kidnapped 
 countrymen — except Donnacona, who, it was acknow- 
 ledged, was dead — were all married in France, and 
 living there as ' lords.' And the next summer 
 Roberval, on his way out with an addition to the 
 colony of two hundred men and women, met Cartier 
 in the harbour of St. John, Newfoundland, with his 
 three remaining vessels bound homeward. Roberval 
 indignantly ordered him to return to the St. Lawrence, 
 In the morning his lieutenant was far out to sea on 
 his way to France, having quietly slipped off in the 
 darkness of the night. Perhaps it was not fear of 
 the Indians, nor the hopelessness of a longer struggle 
 with the difficulties and hardships of settling a new 
 country, that alone influenced Cartier and his com- 
 panions. For, says the old narrative, they were moved, 
 as it seemeth, with ambition, because they would have 
 all the glory of the discovery of those parts themselves. 
 Roberval continued his voyage, weakened but not 
 dismaj^ed by the desertion of his lieutenant. Of the 
 
JACQUES CAETIER AND FEEDINAND DE SOTO. 151 
 
 colony he planted little is known except its failure, 
 after at least one winter's experience of the hardships 
 of the wilderness. According to one account, Cartier 
 was sent to bring the survivors home. At any rate 
 they returned. Roberval, it is said, undertook another 
 expedition with a brother in 1549, which was lost at 
 sea ; but it is also asserted that this could not be, as 
 he was killed in Paris. Cartier died about 1555." 
 
 Cartier called the St. Lawrence " the River of 
 Hochelaga," or " the Great River of Canada," and 
 limited the designation of " Canada " to a stretch of 
 country from the Isle des Coudres to a point above 
 Quebec. He said that the Indians called the country 
 above Quebec " Hochelaga," and that below the city 
 " Saguenay." " Canada," according to him, was an 
 Indian word, signifying a town ; and in this Indian 
 origin of the word he was sustained by other early 
 French authorities, one of whom, however, rendered it 
 terre^ that is, land, while another called it an Indian 
 proper name of unknown meaning. 
 
 One of the most ambitious of all the North American 
 explorers was Ferdinand de Soto, a Spaniard of Xeres. 
 He had distinguished himself under Pizarro, sharing in 
 the wealth thus acquired, and, returning to Spain, was 
 desirous of rivalling the exploits of Cortes and Pizarro 
 in a new field. Consequently, he applied to Charles V. 
 for permission to conquer Florida at his own cost. 
 The Emperor, familiar with his past renown, conferred 
 upon him the government of Cuba, with absolute power 
 over the whole of the region to which the name of 
 Florida was given. 
 
 Upon this, noble and wealthy Spaniards flocked to 
 
152 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Conrt, to enrol themselves under his banner, many 
 even selling their estates to take part in his adventures. 
 Even a number of brave Portuguese enlisted in the 
 service. The muster at the port of San Lucar of Barra- 
 meda furnished a remarkable scene, the Portuguese 
 glittering in burnished armour, and the Castilians being 
 " very gallant with silk upon silk." Soto made choice 
 of six hundred men for his purposes, all iu the bloom of 
 life, and the very pick of the Peninsula. Some have 
 said that he had several hundreds more than this in 
 his expedition, which was fitted out with the double 
 purpose of conquest and colonization. The fleet con- 
 sisted of nine vessels, ships, caravels, and pinnaces ; 
 and in addition to the soldiers and crews, they carried 
 nearly three hundred horses, a large herd of swine, and 
 a number of bloodhounds. 
 
 The expedition safely reached Cuba, where De Soto 
 began his preparations for the conquest of Florida. 
 He left his wife to govern Cuba, and on the 18th of May, 
 1539, sailed from Havana. After a good passage, the 
 fleet anchored at Tamj^a Bay in about twelve days. 
 The adventurers at once began their march into the 
 interior, following practically the route of Narvaez some 
 years before. De Soto early fell in with a Spaniard 
 who had long been held in captivity by the Indians. 
 The historians Bryant and Gay observe that " the 
 romantic story of John Smith and Pocahontas was in 
 part anticipated in the experience of this man, Juan 
 Ortiz. When first captured by a band whose chief 
 was named Ucita, he was bound hand and foot to 
 stakes, stretched at length upon a scaffolding, beneath 
 which a fire was kindled. The smoke had enwreathed 
 
JACQUES CAETIER AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 153 
 
 the victim, and the forked flames were leaping to 
 seize the naked flesh, when the intended holocaust 
 was suddenly interrupted by the prayers of a daughter 
 of the chief. She besought her father to spare the 
 life of the Christian; one such, she urged, if he could 
 do no good, at least could do no harm ; and she made 
 a cunning appeal to the vanity of the chief, by suggest- 
 ing how great a distinction it would be to hold a white 
 man as a captive. Her prayers were listened to ; 
 Ortiz was lifted from the scaffold and unbound, to 
 serve henceforth as a slave. What the feeling was 
 which the sight of the pale stranger had aroused in 
 the bosom of the dusky maiden, or what the relation 
 which may have afterward existed between them, we 
 are not told ; but whether it was on her part mere pity 
 for a stranger, or a tenderer and deeper sentiment, the 
 service was not forgotten. Three years later Ucita was 
 defeated in a petty war with another chieftain, and 
 there was danger that Ortiz would be sacrificed to 
 propitiate the devil whose anger, Ucita believed, had 
 brought this misfortune upon him and his people. 
 Then the princess came again to the rescue of the 
 stranger, and saved him from probable death. Warn- 
 ing him of his danger, and leading him secretly and 
 alone in the night-time beyond the boundaries of her 
 father's village, she put him in the way to find the 
 camp of the victorious chieftain who had just triumphed 
 over her father, and would protect, she knew, the 
 Christian slave. Ortiz, when years afterwards he heard 
 that his countrymen had arrived in Florida, was glad 
 enough to welcome them, while he did not forget that 
 he had some cause of gratitude to his Indian friends. 
 
154 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 As a horseman rode at him, not distinguishing him from 
 the savages, he cried oat, ' Do not kill me, cavalier ; I 
 am a Christian ! Do not slay these people ; they have 
 given me my life I ' Fortunately his appeal was 
 heard in time, and to him the expedition was more 
 indebted than to any other man, next to De Soto him- 
 self; for through him alone was it possible to hold any 
 intelligent communication with the Indians, whether 
 for peace or war. His death, which occurred not long 
 before that of the governor, was a source of deep 
 perplexity, and a ' great cross to his designs.' " 
 
 To ensure his men remaining with him, De Soto 
 had sent his ships back to Cuba before leaving the 
 coast, so that his followers were now obliged to press 
 forward with him. He played upon their avarice as 
 well as their religious feelings in his march. But after 
 wandering for three months — July to October, 1539 — 
 and discovering no gold at Appalachee as promised, and 
 finding, moreover, the journey to be full of dangers 
 and the Indians hostile, the whole company grew 
 dispirited. They begged their leader to return, but he 
 replied, " I will not turn back till I have seen the 
 poverty of the country with my own eyes." Indians 
 were captured, and made to grind the maize and carry 
 the baggage. One exploring party discovered Ochus, 
 the harbour of Pensacola ; and a messenger was 
 despatched to Cuba for supplies to be forwarded to 
 that place. 
 
 Early in the spring of 1540, says Mr. Bancroft, 
 " the wanderers renewed their march, with an Indian 
 guide, who promised to lead the way to a country 
 governed, it was said, by a woman, and where gold 
 
JACQUES CAETIEK AND FEllDINAND DB SOTO. 155 
 
 SO abounded that the art of melting and refiumg it 
 was understood. He described the process so well 
 that the credulous Spaniards took heart. The Indian 
 appears to have pointed towards the gold region of 
 North Carolina. The adventurers, therefore, eagerly 
 hastened to the north-east ; they passed the Alatamaha ; 
 they admired the fertile valleys of Georgia, rich, pro- 
 ductive, and full of good rivers. They crossed a 
 northern tributary of the Alatamaha and a southern 
 branch of the Ogeechee ; and at length came upon the 
 Ogeechee itself, which, in April, flowed with a full 
 channel and a strong current. Much of the time the 
 Spaniards were in wild solitudes ; they suffered for 
 want of salt and of meat. Their Indian guide affected 
 madness ; but ' they said a gospel over him, and the 
 fit left him.' Again he involved them in pathless 
 wilds, and then he would have been torn in pieces by 
 the dogs if he had not still been needed to assist the 
 interpreter. Of four Indian captives, who were ques- 
 tioned, one bluntly answered, he knew no country 
 such as they described ; the governor ordered him to 
 be burnt, for what was esteemed his falsehood. The 
 sight of the execution quickened the invention of his 
 companions, and the Spaniards made their way to the 
 small Indian settlement of Cutifa-Chiqui. A dagger 
 and a rosary were found here ; the story of the Indians 
 traced them to the expedition of Vasquez de Ayllon ; 
 and a two days' journey would reach, it was believed, 
 the harbour of St. Helena. The soldiers thought of 
 home, and desired either to make a settlement on the 
 fruitful soil around them, or to return. The governor 
 was ' a stern man, and of few words.' Willingly 
 
156 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 hearing tlie opinion of others, he was inflexible, when 
 he had once declared his own mind ; and all his 
 followers, ' condescending to his will,' continued to 
 indulge delusive hopes. 
 
 " In May the direction of the march was to the 
 north, to the comparatively sterile country of the 
 Cherokees, and in part through a district in which 
 gold is now found. The inhabitants were poor, but 
 gentle ; they offered such presents as their habits of 
 life permitted — deer-skins and wild hens. Soto could 
 hardly have crossed the mountains, so as to enter the 
 basin of the Tennessee River ; it seems, rather that 
 he passed from the head-waters of the Savannah or 
 the Chattahoochee to the head-waters of the Coosa. 
 The name of Canasanga, a village at which he halted, 
 is still given to a branch of the latter stream. For 
 several months the Spaniards were in the valleys 
 which send their waters to the Bay of Mobile. 
 Chiaha was an island, distant about one hundred miles 
 from Canasanga. An exploring party which was sent 
 to the north were appalled by the aspect of the 
 Appalachian Chain, and pronounced the mountains 
 impassable. They had looked for mines of copper and 
 gold ; and their only plunder was a buffalo robe." 
 
 On one occasion during his journeyings, there came 
 to meet the governor an Indian queen, who presented 
 the Spaniards with pearls, telling them there were 
 great quantities to be found in the vicinity. As a 
 sample of De Soto's methods, he retained the queen, 
 or cacica, as a captive, and made slaves and beasts of 
 burden of her subjects ; but she managed to make her 
 escape. Her people were the most civilized of any 
 
JACQUES GAKTIEK AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 157 
 
 of the Indians yet met with, and wore shoes and 
 clothing made from skins. 
 
 The Spaniards reached Coosa in July, and in 
 October they were at Mavilla, or Mobile, a town on 
 the Alabama, above the junction of the Tombigbee, 
 and one hundred miles from Pensacola. The name 
 Mobile is now not only applied to the bay, but to the 
 river, after the union of its numerous tributaries. 
 The Spaniards wished to occupy the cabins of the 
 Indians ; and as the latter resisted, there ensued one 
 of the most bloody race battles ever fought in the 
 United States. The town was set on fire, and one 
 witness reported that two thousand five hundred 
 Indians were slain, sufibcated, or burnt. Eighteen 
 Christians died, and one hundred and twenty were 
 wounded. Soto's curious collections perished in the 
 flames. 
 
 Although De Soto had now lost more than a 
 hundred men, and was within six days of Pensacola, 
 he concealed the latter fact, lest his men should desert 
 him, and determined to push his way towards the 
 north. "A month passed away before he reached 
 winter quarters at Chica(;;a, a small town in the coun- 
 try of the Chickasaws, in the upper part of the State 
 of Mississippi, probably on the western bank of the 
 Yazoo. The weather was severe, and snow fell ; but 
 maize was yet standing in the open fields. The 
 Spaniards were able to gather a supply of food, and 
 the deserted town, with such rude cabins as they 
 added, afi'orded them shelter through the winter. Yet 
 no mines of Peru were discovered; no ornaments of 
 gold adorned the rude savages ; their wealth was the 
 
158 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 harvest of corn, and wigwams were their ocly palaces ; 
 they were poor and independent ; they were hardy and 
 loved freedom. When spring opened, Soto, as he 
 had usually done with other tribes, demanded of the 
 chieftain of the Chickasaws two hundred men to carry 
 the burdens of his company. The Indians hesitated. 
 Human nature is the same in every age and in every 
 climate. Like the inhabitants of Athens in the days of 
 Themistocles, or those of Moscow of a recent day, the 
 Chickasaws, unwilling to see strangers and enemies 
 occupy their homes, in the dead of night, deceiving 
 the sentinels, set fire to their own village, in which 
 the Castilians were encamped. On a sudden, half the 
 houses were in flames ; and the loudest notes of the 
 war-whoop rang through the air. The Indians, could 
 they have acted with calm bravery, might have gained 
 an easy and entire victory ; but they trembled at their 
 own success, and feared the unequal battle against 
 weapons of steel. Many of the horses had broken 
 loose ; these, terrified and without riders, roamed 
 through the forest, of which the burning village 
 illuminated the shades, and seemed to the ignorant 
 natives the gathering of hostile squadrons. Others 
 of the horses perished in the stables ; most of the 
 swine were consumed ; eleven of the Christians were 
 burnt, or lost their lives in the tumult. The clothes 
 which had been saved from the fires of Mobile were 
 destroyed, and the Spaniards, now as naked as the 
 natives, suffered from the cold. Weapons and equip- 
 ments were consumed or spoiled. Had the Indians 
 made a resolute onset on this night or the next, the 
 Spaniards would have been unable to resist. But, 
 
JACQUES CAETIER AND FEEDINAND DE SOTO. 159 
 
 in a respite of a week, forges were erected, swords 
 newly tempered, and good ashen lances were made, 
 equal to the best of Biscay, When the Indians attacked 
 the camp, they found ' the Christians ' prepared." 
 
 De Soto's pride was too great to allow him to 
 return and confess that his expedition had been a 
 failure, though none of its objects had yet been accom- 
 plished, or seemed likely to be. He therefore still 
 struggled on in quest of the golden regions ; and after 
 a painful march through forests and marshes, arrived 
 in April, 1541, at certain Indian settlements in the 
 vicinity of the Mississippi. In the following mouth 
 the expedition crossed the great river at about the 
 thirty-fifth degree of latitude, or the boundary line 
 between the States of Mississippi and Tennessee. 
 
 Progress in ascending the Mississippi was very 
 slow, the Spaniards being sometimes compelled to 
 wade through morasses. But in June they came 
 upon the district of Little Prairie, and the dry and 
 elevated lands extending towards New Madrid. The 
 natives adored the travellers as children of the Sun, 
 and brought their blind to them to receive their sight. 
 The people subsisted on wild fruits. The northern- 
 most point which De Soto reached in his march up 
 the Mississippi was called Pacaha — which cannot now 
 be identified — and here he remained from the 19th of 
 June to the 29th of July. An exploring party sent to 
 the north reported the country to be a desert, and 
 the land still nearer the Missouri to be thinly in- 
 habited. The Indians here were hunters, and the bison 
 abounded, but nothing else. 
 
 De Soto now turned to the west and north-west, 
 
160 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 and penetrated farther into the interior. With the 
 main body of his men he seems to have got as far 
 as the highhinds of the White River, upwards of two 
 hundred miles from the Mississippi, and then to have 
 marched almost southwards through a country well 
 watered, fertile, and thickly inhabited, to the present 
 site of Little Rock, in Arkansas. The expedition came 
 upon the saline springs in Arkansas; and at a town 
 called Antiamque, on the Washita River, it went into 
 winter quarters. The Spaniards cruelly ill-treated 
 the Indians on the very slightest provocation. De 
 Soto and his companions seem to have felt their dis- 
 appointed hojies most keenly, and this made them 
 still harsher towards the natives. In three years' 
 wanderings the commander had lost two hundred and 
 fifty men and one hundred and fifty horses; and from 
 the time of his first winter at Appalachee Bay, his 
 wife, the Dona Isabella, had received no tidings of 
 him whatever. 
 
 The melancholy story of De Soto's tragic end is 
 thus related by the historians : 
 
 " With the spring the march was resumed, and the 
 sole object now was to reach the sea. Communication 
 with the Indians had become more difficult, for Ortiz 
 had died in the course of the winter. The Indians, 
 observing the weakness and perplexities of the 
 Spaniards, were more defiant than any of their tribes 
 had hitherto been. A haughty cacique sent word to 
 De Soto that his boast of being the son of the Sun 
 would be accepted when he was seen to dry up the 
 great river ; that meanwhile it was not the custom of 
 him who sent this message to visit inferiors ; if the 
 
 ( 
 
JACQUES CAETIEB AND FEKDINAND DE SOTO. 161 
 
 stranger wished to see Lim, he was always at home ; 
 if he came in peace, he would find a welcome ; if with 
 hostile intentions, the chief was equally ready for him. 
 De Soto was in no condition to punish or resent this 
 defiance. An expedition that was sent down the river 
 to find the sea returned and reported that in eight 
 days' journey they could make but little progress, for 
 the country was full of swamps and dense forests, and 
 that the river with many bends ran far up into the land. 
 " Worn down with hardships, anxiety, disappoint- 
 ment, and despair, De Soto sank under this accumulation 
 of misfortunes. Conscious of approaching death, he 
 called the principal officers of the expedition about 
 him. He told them he was dying ; he thanked them 
 for the fidelity and affection they had always shown 
 him, and regretted that he had not been able to 
 reward them as he had always hoped to do, and 
 according to their deserts ; he asked pardon of all who 
 believed they had cause of offence against him, and 
 as a last favour he begged they would in his presence 
 choose a leader to take his place, that he might leave 
 them without fear of dissensions to arise after he was 
 gone. They asked him to appoint his own successor, 
 and he named Luis Moscoso de Alvarado, whom they 
 all swore to obey. The next day, the 21st of May, 
 1542, he died. It was thought wise to conceal his 
 death from the Indians, for he had assured them not 
 only that he was the son of the Sun, but that Chris- 
 tians could not die. The new governor ordered him 
 to be buried secretly in the gateway of the camp. 
 But the suspicions of the natives, who had seen him 
 sick, were aroused. He was no longer visible, but 
 
 11 
 
162 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 they saw a new-made grave, and gathering about it 
 looked down with curious eyes and in solemn whispered 
 consultation upon the mysterious heap of earth. Then 
 Moscoso ordered the body to be disinterred with great 
 precaution in the dead of night ; and the mantles in 
 which it was wrapped being made heavy with sand, 
 it was dropped silently and in the darkness in the 
 middle of the deep waters of the Mississippi. And 
 when the cacique of Guachoya came to Moscoso 
 and said, ' What has been done with my brother 
 and lord, the governor ? ' the answer was, ' He has 
 ascended into the skies for a little while, and will soon 
 be back.' 
 
 "Either De Soto misunderstood this Luis de Moscoso 
 or history has belied him. It is said that he loved 
 a life of ease and gaiety in a Christian land, rather 
 than one of toil and hardship and self-denial in the 
 discovery and subjection of strange countries. But 
 whether he believed that longer persistence in an 
 enterprise, now in its fourth year, whose sole fruits 
 had been death and disaster, was foolhardiness, or 
 whether he wanted the energy and boldness to pursue 
 it and achieve success, he decided at once to lead his 
 companions back to Cuba, if he could find the way. 
 When this was announced, and a council called to 
 consult as to the best direction to pursue, there were 
 many who were glad that De Soto was quiet in his 
 loaded mantles at the bottom of the great river. 
 With him the enterprise could have ended only with 
 his and their lives, and they rejoiced that he was 
 taken and they left." 
 
 Moscoso and his followers endeavoured to search 
 
JACQUES CAETIER AND FERDINAND DE SOTO. 163 
 
 ont their conntrymen on the Pacific coast. Out of 
 the wilderness, and from the hnnting grounds of the 
 Pawnees and Comanches, they made their way to the 
 Mississijjpi, reaching it in December at a place called 
 Minoya, a few leagues above the mouth of Red River. 
 Here they rested, and constructed seven brigantines, 
 which were frail barks without decks. Upon these 
 the survivors of the expedition began their voyage 
 down the river on the 2nd of July, 1543. After a 
 passage of seventeen days, they reached the Gulf of 
 Mexico, a distance of nearly five hundred miles. They 
 found the Indians very aggressive ; but sailing forth 
 into the gulf, the explorers cruised for fifty days 
 along the coast of Louisiana and Texas, until they 
 reached the Spanish colony of Panuco, their numbers 
 being now reduced to three hundred and eleven men. 
 They were in a most pitiable condition, being half 
 starved and half clothed. But they so rejoiced at 
 finding their countrymen that " on bended knees, with 
 hands raised above them, and their eyes to heaven, 
 they remained untiring in giving thanks to God." 
 
 This famous expedition practically achieved nothing, 
 but its members were the first to discover that for 
 some distance from the mouth of the Mississippi the 
 sea is not salt, so vast is the volume of fresh water 
 which the river discharges. Undeterred by the fate 
 of De Soto, and the failures of this first voyage of 
 Europeans to the Mississippi, several other ex- 
 peditions sailed from Spain to the same quarter, 
 before that of Tristan de Luna, described in the pre- 
 ceding chapter, but they all proved abortive and 
 ended in disaster. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ENGLISH ADVENTUEEKS — FEOBISHEK AND GILBERT. 
 
 ENGLISH interest in North American discovery 
 was awakened with the birth of the sixteenth 
 century. Most of the early voyages were undertaken 
 with the view of discovering a short route to India. 
 It is conjectured that two merchants and mariners of 
 Bristol, named Thorne and Eliot, visited Newfound- 
 land in 1502 ; and certainly in that year savages in 
 their native attire were exhibited to the King of 
 England. Trade privileges had already been granted 
 to an Anglo-Portuguese company, but they chiefly 
 concerned Newfoundland and its fisheries. 
 
 In 1527 Robert Thorne, an eminent merchant of 
 London — son of the Thorne mentioned above — urged 
 Henry VIII. to send expeditions to the east by way 
 of the north, believing that there would be found an 
 open sea near the Pole, through which, during the con- 
 tinuous Arctic day, Englishmen might reach the land 
 of spices without travelling half so far as by way of 
 the Cape of Good Hope. Two vessels, the Mary of 
 Guilford and the Samson — in which Cardinal Wolsey 
 had an interest — sailed from London in the above- 
 named year ; but the former accomplished nothing, 
 while the latter was lost. 
 
 164 
 
ENGLISH ADVENTURERS — FROBISHER AND GILBERT. 165 
 
 The tragic voyage of Master Hore, who was 
 " assisted by the King's favour and good counte- 
 nance," and accompanied by many gentlemen of the 
 Inns of Court and of Chancery, took place in 1536. 
 The party, numbering one hundred and ten persons, 
 sailed from Gravesend in the ships Trmitie and Minion. 
 They reached Newfoundland in safety, but soon suffered 
 so severely from famine that they murdered each 
 other secretly and fed upon the flesh of the victims. 
 The captain strongly condemned this as a deadly sin 
 before God. Eventually the remnant of the expedi- 
 tion obtained possession of a French ship and returned 
 to England. 
 
 The sad fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby is well known. 
 Sailing from London with three ships in May, 1553, 
 with the object of reaching China by doubling the 
 northern promontory of Norway, the admiral got 
 separated from his companions, and was driven in 
 September into a Lapland harbour. His whole 
 company perished from cold ; and when search was 
 made in the following spring, Willoughby was found 
 dead in his cabin, a pen between his frozen fingers. 
 His journal, which was lying open on the table before 
 him, showed that he had survived till January. 
 
 Sir Martin Frobisher, one of the great Elizabethan 
 seamen, was the next prominent North American 
 navigator. Frobisher was born in Yorkshire in 1535. 
 He was sent to sea as a boy, and soon traded on his 
 own account to Guinea and elsewhere. Like every- 
 body else at this period, he was possessed by the idea 
 of a north-west passage to Cathay, and in this he 
 was strengthened by an ingenious essay written by 
 
166 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in wliich the writer set forth 
 that America was the Atlantis of Plato, Aristotle, 
 and other ancient philosophers, and that it was possible 
 to sail round the north of it to China and East India. 
 
 Frobisher was a poor man ; but after much solicita- 
 tion he found a patron in the Earl of Warwick, 
 through whose help he was able to fit out an ex- 
 pedition. "Two small barques of twenty-five and of 
 twenty tons, with a pinnace of ten tons' burden, 
 composed the whole fleet, which was to enter gulfs 
 that none before him had visited. As in June, 1576, 
 they dropped down the Thames, Queen Elizabeth 
 waved her hand in token of favour, and, by an honour- 
 able message, transmitted her approbation of an 
 adventure which her own treasures had not contributed 
 to advance. During a storm on the voyage, the 
 pinnace was swallowed up by the sea ; the mariners 
 in the Michael became terrified, and turned their prow 
 homewards ; but Frobisher, in a vessel not much sur- 
 passing in tonnage the barge of a man-of-war, made 
 his way, fearless and unattended, to the shores of 
 Labriidor, and to a passage or inlet north of the 
 entiance of Hudson's Bay. A strange perversion has 
 transferred the scene of his discoveries to the eastern 
 coast of Greenland ; it was among a grouj) of American 
 islands, in the latitude of sixty-three degrees and eight 
 minutes, that he entered what seemed to be a strait. 
 Hope suggested that his object was obtained, that 
 the land on the south was America, on the north 
 was the continent of Asia, and that the strait opened 
 into the Pacific. Great praise is due to Frobisher 
 for penetrating far beyond all former mariners into 
 
ENGLISH ADVENTURERS — FROBISHER AND GILBERT. 167 
 
 the bays and among the islands of this Meta Incognita, 
 this unknown goal of discovery. Yet his voyage was 
 a failure. To land upon an island, and perhaps on 
 the main ; to gather up stones and rubbish, in token of 
 having taken possession of the country for Elizabeth ; 
 to seize one of the natives of the north for exhibition 
 to the gaze of Europe, — these were all the results 
 which he accomplished. 
 
 "America and mines were always thought of to- 
 gether. A stone which had been brought from the frozen 
 regions was pronounced by the refiners of London to 
 contain gold. The news excited the wakeful avarice 
 of the city : there were not wanting those who en- 
 deavoured to purchase of Elizabeth a lease of the new 
 lands where it had been found, A fleet was immediately 
 fitted out to procure more of the gold, rather than to 
 make further research for the passage into the Pacific ; 
 and the Queen, who had contributed nothing to the 
 voyage of d.s>jovery, sent a large ship of her own to 
 join the expedition, which was now to conduct to 
 infinite opulence. More men than could be employed 
 volunteered their services ; those who were discharged 
 resigned their brilliant hopes with reluctance." 
 
 This second expedition embarked in May, 1577, and 
 soon reached the Orkneys. On nearing the American 
 coast, the vessels were steered with difficulty through 
 numberless icebergs. When the explorers landed, they 
 freighted the ships with earth which they believed to 
 contain gold ; but it was a delusion, and the whole 
 voyage was a failure, not accomplishiug so much as 
 Frobisher had done alone. 
 
 A third voyage made by Frobisher in 1578 was 
 
168 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 more important than either of those which had pre- 
 ceded it, for it was the first attempt at English 
 colonization in North America. A splendid fleet of 
 fifteen sail was fitted out, partly at the expense of 
 Elizabeth, and the volunteers included sons of many 
 Englishmen of position. One hundred persons were 
 selected to form the colony, which was to secure great 
 wealth for England ; and twelve vessels were to return 
 immediately with cargoes of ore, three being ordered 
 to remain and aid the settlement. Alas, for the 
 futility of human hopes ! " The entrance to these 
 wealthy islands was rendered difficult by frost ; and 
 the fleet of Frobisher, as in midsummer, 1578, it 
 approached the American coast, was bewildered among 
 icebergs, which were so vast that, as they melted, 
 torrents poured from them in sparkling waterfalls. 
 One vessel was crushed and sunk, though the men on 
 board were saved. In the dangerous mists the ships 
 lost their course, and came into the straits which have 
 since been called Hudson's, and which lie south of the 
 imagined gold regions. The admiral believed himself 
 able to sail through to the Pacific, and resolve the 
 doubt respecting the passage. But his duty as a 
 mercantile agent controlled his desire of glory as a 
 navigator. He struggled to regain the harbour where 
 his vessels were to be laden ; and after ' getting in at 
 one gap and out at another,' escaping only by miracle 
 from hidden rocks and unknown currents, ice, and a 
 lee shore, which was, at one time, avoided only by a 
 prosperous breath of wind in the very moment of 
 extreme danger, he at last arrived at the haven in 
 the Countess of Warwick's Sound. The zeal of the 
 
ENGLISH ADVENTURERS — FROBISHER AND GILBERT. 169 
 
 volunteer colonists had moderated ; and the dis- 
 heartened sailors were ready to mutiny. One ship, 
 laden with provisions for the colony, deserted and re- 
 turned ; and an island was discovered with enough of 
 the black ore ' to suffice all the gold-gluttons of the 
 world.' The plan of the settlement was abandoned. It 
 remained to freight the home-bound ships with a store 
 of minerals. They who engage in a foolish project 
 combine, in case of failure, to conceal their loss ; for 
 the truth would be an impeachment of their judgment; 
 so that unfortunate speculations are promptly consigned 
 to oblivion. The adventurers and the historians of 
 the voyage are silent about the disposition which was 
 made of the cargo of the fleet. The knowledge of the 
 seas was not extended; the credulity of avarice met 
 with a rebuke ; and the belief in regions of gold 
 among the Esquimaux was dissipated ; but there re- 
 mained a firm conviction that a passage to the Pacific 
 Ocean might yet be threaded among the icebergs and 
 northern islands of America." 
 
 The remaining incidents of Frobisher's career are 
 soon told. In 1585 he commanded a vessel in Drake's 
 expedition to the West Indies, and three years later he 
 so distinguished himself in the defeat of the Spanish 
 Armada by his conduct in the Triumph that he re- 
 ceived the honour of knighthood. He now married a 
 daughter of Lord Wentworth, and settled down as 
 a country gentleman ; but the old spirit became too 
 strong in him, and he once more scoured the seas for 
 the treasure-ships of Spain. He was wounded at the 
 Siege of Crozon, near Brest, in November, 1594 ; and 
 being taken into Plymouth, died there before the end 
 
170 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 of the same month. We have a permanent reminder 
 of the navigator in Frobisher Bay, an inlet opening 
 westward near the mouth of Davis Strait, into the 
 territory called by Frobisher Meta Incognita, at the 
 southern end of Baffia Land. It is about two hundred 
 miles long by twenty wide, and has rugged, mountainous 
 shores. 
 
 Important work was done in Northern America 
 about this time by another English navigator, John 
 Davis, whose name is given to the strait above men- 
 tioned. Davis was born at Sandridge, near Dartmouth, 
 about 1550; and in 1585 and the two following years 
 he made three vo^'ages to the Arctic Seas in search of 
 a north-west passage. On the third occasion he left 
 his two small vessels on the coast of Cumberland 
 Island to fish, while he went northward in a pinnace, 
 bravely pushing his way through icebergs and fields 
 of ice. He penetrated Baffin Bay as far as the seventy- 
 third degree of latitude, and discovered the strait bear- 
 ing his name, which connects Baffin Bay with the 
 Atlantic Ocean. Finding on his return that his men 
 had abandoned him, he ventured to cross the Atlantic 
 in his pinnace, and safely reached home. Subsef|uently 
 he made two ill-fated voyages towards the South Seas, 
 and as pilot of a Dutch vessel bound to the East Indies. 
 In his last voyage as pilot of an English ship of two 
 hundred and forty tons, he was killed in a brush with 
 some Japanese pirates at Bintang, near Singapore, on 
 the 30th of December, 1605. 
 
 One of the most touching narratives in Hakluyt is 
 that which relates the adventures of Sir Humphrey 
 Gilbert. This eminent British navigator was born at 
 
ENGLISH ADVENTUEERS — FROBISHER AND GILBERT. 1 71 
 
 Dartmoutli in 1539, and was educated at Eton and 
 Oxford. Afterwards abandoning the law for a career 
 of arms, he did such good service against the Irish 
 rehels as earned him knighthood and the government 
 of Muuster in 1570. Next he saw five years' cam- 
 paigning in the Netherlands. In 1576 appeared his 
 Discourse on a North-west Passage to India, which 
 was published by George Gascoigne without his know- 
 ledge. In 1578 Gilbert secured a charter, extending 
 over six years, with powers to discover " such remote 
 heathen and barbarous lands as were not actually 
 possessed by any Christian prince or people," and to 
 retain them for his own as absolute projmetor. Al- 
 though the Canadian territory was the best known, 
 Gilbert decided that the lands north of Florida were 
 the best "to be reduced into Christian civility by the 
 English nation." 
 
 The various chronicles report that " Sir Walter 
 Raleigh was chief among those who entered into this 
 scheme of his half-brother, who contributed money, 
 influence, and personal effort for its success. When, 
 the year after Gilbert received the charter, he made 
 the first attempt to avail himself of the privileges it 
 bestowed, Raleigh, it is said, sailed with him. The 
 expedition, however, returned within a few days 
 crii)pled, and with the loss of one ship, probably 
 captured in a fight with the Sjjaniards at sea. But 
 it encountered many difficulties even before starting. 
 Dissensions had arisen among those who had engaged 
 in it, followed by withdrawals ; then Orders of Council 
 came, first that Gilbert should only put to sea under 
 sureties of good behaviour ; then that he should 
 
172 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 abandon the enterprise altogether nnder pain of the 
 Queen's displeasure. For the watchful Spaniards, 
 jealous of every English vessel that turned her head 
 westward, complained of depredations made or to 
 be made upon Spanish commerce — complaints likely 
 enough to be well founded, for he was no true British 
 sailor in the reign of Elizabeth who did not hate the 
 Spaniard as he hated the enemy of mankind, and did 
 not hold him to be the lawful prey of all Christian 
 men. But in 1583 the start was more successful. 
 Raleigh's influence with Elizabeth removed all ob- 
 stacles that the Lords of the Council could put in the 
 way, if they were still disposed to listen to Spanish 
 complaints, or the Spaniards to offer them. The 
 Queen wished Gilbert ' as great goodhap and safety 
 to his ship as if herself were there in person,' and 
 desired him to send her his picture as a keepsake. 
 His charter, moreover, expired in a year, and he could 
 afford to delay no longer. He sailed in June in 
 command of five ships, the largest of which, the 
 Raleigh, was fitted out by Sir Walter himself at an 
 expense of £2,000, and was two hundred tons' burden. 
 The smallest, the Squirrel, was only ten tons' burden ; 
 of the other three, the Golden Hind and the Swallow 
 measured forty tons each ; and the admiral's ship, the 
 Delight, was one hundred and twenty tons. The 
 Raleigh deserted them in a few days, and returned to 
 port, pestilence having broken out, it was said, among 
 her crew; but something else was the matter. ' For,' 
 says Captain Edward Hayes, the owner and captain of 
 the Golden Hind, as well as historian of the expe- 
 dition, ' the reason I could never understand. . . . 
 
ENGLISH ADVENTUREKS — FROBISHEE AND GILBERT. 173 
 
 Therefore I leave it nnto God.' And Gilbert himself 
 wrote to Sir George Peckham, 'The Ai^k Raleigh ran 
 from me in fair and clear weather, having a large 
 wind. I pray yon, solicit my brother Raleigh to make 
 them an example to all knaves.'" 
 
 The expedition consisted altogether of abont two 
 hundred and sixty men, including mechanics, mineral 
 men, and refiners. A band of music, and morris- 
 dancers, etc., were also on board, and many pretty 
 wares wherewith to tempt the savage races. The 
 vessels arrived safely at St. John's, Newfoundland, 
 where Sir Humphrey read to the assembled fishermen 
 and tradesmen his commission from the Queen. He 
 took possession of the place and the neighbouring 
 country, for two hundred leagues in every direction, 
 with proper solemnities, and set up a pillar with the 
 arms of England engraved upon it. His intention was 
 to make his way to the south, but trouble arose among 
 the men. Many were disabled by sickness, others 
 deserted, and some died. A conspiracy was formed 
 to seize the vessels, but this was defeated. Never- 
 theless, a portion of the crews boarded a fishing vessel, 
 and put out to sea. Gilbert now sent home the Sioallow 
 with the sick and as many of the discontented and 
 the insubordinate as could be spared. This left him 
 with three vessels only and a small company. 
 
 Setting forth at length from St. John's, the expedi- 
 tion doubled Cape Race, sailed along the west coast 
 of Newfoundland as far as Placentia Bay, and then 
 headed for Cape Breton and Sable Island, meaning to 
 land upon the latter. But the vessels were beaten 
 about by contrary winds ; and after struggling for 
 
174 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 more than a week, were driven upon a lee shore on 
 the dangerous coasts of Nova Scotia. The Delight, 
 which was the largest ship, struck and went to pieces, 
 and all upon her were drowned, save seventeen men 
 who got away upon a raft, and of whom fifteen reached 
 Newfoundland. The death of Maurice Browne, the 
 captain of the Delight, showed the stuff of which these 
 old mariners were made. He refused to leave his 
 ship ; but " mounting upon the highest deck, he 
 attended imminent death and unavoidable." Those who 
 perished were the men who had dispossessed the crew 
 of a French fishing vessel and left them to perish, so 
 that this was regarded as Grod's judgment upon them. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Golden Hind and the Squirrel 
 hauled off the shore and stood out to sea. But the 
 weather was terribly cold and tempestuous, and Gilbert 
 turned his course for England. The last scene in his 
 eventful and fateful history is thus described : 
 
 " Notwithstanding the disasters that had attended 
 the expedition. Sir Humphrey was content. At St. 
 John's one of his assayers had brought him an ore 
 which he solemnly affirmed was of silver, and so per- 
 suaded of this was Gilbert that he believed he had but 
 to return in the spring to gather great wealth. This 
 vision took possession of him, and was a great comfort 
 in all his trials, though it did not make him forget 
 his wise purpose of colonization on the continent 
 farther south. The specimens of the ore had been 
 left on board the Delight by mistake of his servant, 
 and the assayer, who knew most about them, was 
 lost in that vessel. 
 
 " But Sir Humphrey knew where to find the mine. 
 
ENGLISH ADVENTUREES — FROBISHER AND GILBERT. 175 
 
 Hitherto he had said little about it, and had enjoined 
 silence upon others ; but now that he was far out at 
 sea and returning to England after so many mis- 
 fortunes, he talked not a little about the great store 
 of silver in his new possessions. The thing he seemed 
 most to regret, next to the loss of his men, was the 
 loss of the lumps of ore ; and when long after, on 
 visiting the Golden Hind at sea, he met the boy whose 
 fault it was that these precious minerals were left on 
 the Delight, he fell upon and beat him ' in great rage.' 
 Good and pious and wise man as he was known to 
 be, he was of a choleric and unforgiving disposition. 
 Years before, when he was putting down the rebellion 
 in Ireland, the castle or fort that did not surrender 
 at his first summons he ' would not afterwards,' he 
 said, ' take it of their gift, but won it perforce — how 
 many lives soever it cost ; putting man, woman, and 
 child of them to the sword.' There was good reason 
 why he should be more feared than any other man by 
 the Irish, as Raleigh said he was. Among sailors 
 who were pirates if they had the opportunity, and 
 among Irish outlaws who were no better than half 
 savages, he showed little of the quality of mercy. 
 
 " So much did he rely upon his mine of silver, that 
 he was sure the Queen, upon report thereof, would 
 readily advance £10,000 wherewith he would equip 
 two fleets in the spring, one to bring home the ore, 
 the other for a new venture to the south to plant 
 colonies. ' I will set yon forth royally next spring,' 
 he said to his companions, ' if God send us safe home.' 
 That hope was not ill-founded ; the promise of sudden 
 wealth in the New World was never made to dull ears. 
 
176 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 " But it would only have been one more idle tale to 
 be confuted, for there was no mine ; the colonies, other 
 hands than his were to plant. 
 
 " The vessel Gilbert had last embarked upon was the 
 Squirrel, the smallest of the fleet, of only ten tons' 
 burden. He was besought to leave her and find greater 
 safety on board the Golden Hind ; but his answer 
 was always, ' I will not forsake my little company 
 going homewards, with whom 1 have passed so many 
 storms and perils.' Severe as he was, he would ask 
 no man to do that which he was himself afraid to do. 
 So small a craft was a poor thing in which to cross 
 the Atlantic in September. The weather was foul, 
 the waves 'terrible, breaking short and high like 
 pyramids. . . . Never men saw more outrageous seas.' 
 On the 9th of the month the Squirrel came near 
 foundering, but rode out the storm. The Golden Hind 
 approached and hailed ; and Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 
 sitting quietly in the stern of the boat with a book in his 
 hand, answered cheerfully, ' We are as near to heaven 
 by sea as by land.' In the darkness of the night that 
 followed they anxiously watched on board the Hind 
 for the Squirrel's lights ; suddenly at midnight, ' as 
 it were in a moment,' they disappeared. The little 
 vessel ' was devoured and swallowed up of the sea.' " 
 
 Such was the death of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and 
 such the sad termination of an expedition upon which 
 great hopes were built. We shall see, however, that 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, undismayed by the failure and death 
 of his kinsman, undertook with great spirit and deter- 
 mination the work of North American colonization. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE EXPEDITIONS OF RALEIGH AND DEAKE. 
 
 THERE is no name more typical of the golden 
 age of Elizabeth in all its nobler aspects than 
 that of Sir Walter Raleigh. English history of that 
 glorious period would lose much if his name were 
 dropped out of it, even if we remember all the other 
 names which shed lustre upon it. He was one of the 
 makers of the age, not an offshoot of it, and was as 
 distinguished for his universality as he was for his 
 originality. 
 
 Devonshire claimed the honour of his birth, and 
 he was born of a good old family at the manor-house 
 of Hayes, near Budleigh, in the year 1552. His 
 mother, who had been married before, had given birth 
 to the famous Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert. 
 Walter Raleigh was educated at Oriel College, 
 Oxford, and left there in 1569 in order to volunteer 
 for Huguenot service in France. Not much is known 
 of his apprenticeship to arms beyond the fact that 
 he served at Montcontour. He early crossed the 
 Atlantic, and joined in Humphrey Gilbert's disastrous 
 expedition of 1578. 
 
 In 1580 we find him in Ireland serving against 
 the Irish rebels, where his boldness and daring soon 
 made him conspicuous. He assisted largely in the 
 
 177 12 
 
1/8 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 drastic policy for stamping out the rebellion, and re- 
 turned to England in December, 1581. The favourite 
 Leicester took him into his circle, and in February, 
 1582, he accompanied him to the Netherlands. Soon 
 after his return he became in high favour with the 
 Queen, though the romantic story of his spreading 
 his plash mantle before her in the mud may be 
 apocryphal. Raleigh was a fine, handsome fellow, 
 splendid in dress, witty in conversation, perfect in 
 manners, and with a mind admirably stored with 
 information. But he lacked the weightiness in 
 counsel of a Burghley or a Walsingham, and never 
 in consequence took the first rank of a statesman in 
 the Queen's counsels. Elizabeth, however, lavished 
 wealthy appointments upon him. In 1584 he was 
 knighted, and in the following year he was appointed 
 Lord Warden of the Stannaries, Lieutenant of Corn- 
 wall, and Vice-Admiral of Devonshire and Cornwall. 
 The same year he was returned to Parliament as one 
 of the members for Devonshire, and in 1587 he was 
 appointed Captain of the Queen's Guard. 
 
 The fact that Raleigh had risked £2,000— then a 
 large sum — in Sir Humphrey Gilbert's last and fatal 
 expedition of 1583, did not deter him, as already stated, 
 from further efforts in American exploration. On the 
 contrary, he at once set to work, and in March, 1584, 
 obtained a new patent from the Queen, with greatly 
 enlarged powers and privileges. It was drawn accord- 
 ing to the principles of feudal law, and with strict 
 regard to the Christian faith, as professed in the Church 
 of England. Raleigh was to be a lord proprietary, with 
 almost unlimited powers, holding his territories under 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DEAKE. 179 
 
 homage and at an almost nominal rent ; while he 
 possessed jurisdiction over an extensive region, with 
 power to make grants according to his pleasure. 
 
 In one month from the date of his patent Raleigh 
 had procured and manned two vessels, which sailed 
 from the Thames on the 27th of April, under the 
 command of Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur 
 Barlow. After voyaging amongst the Canaries and 
 the islands of the West Indies, the expedition sailed 
 for the north, and on the 2nd of July reached the 
 shores of Carolina. The coast was explored for one 
 hundred and twenty miles ; and on entering the first con- 
 venient harbour, the leaders of the expedition returned 
 thanks to God for their safe arrival, and took possession 
 of the country in the name of the Queen of England. 
 
 " The spot on which this ceremony was performed," 
 says Bancroft, "was in the Island of Wocoken, the 
 southernmost of the islands forming Ocracoke Inlet. 
 The shores of North Carolina, at some periods of the 
 year, cannot safely he approached by a fleet, from the 
 hurricanes against which the formation of the coast 
 offers no secure roadsteads and harbours. But in the 
 month of July the air was agitated by none but 
 the gentlest breezes, and the English commanders 
 were in raptures with the beauty of the ocean, seen in 
 the magnificence of repose, gemmed with islands, and 
 expanding in the clearest transparency from cape to 
 cape. The vegetation of that southern latitude struck 
 the beholders with admiration ; the trees had not their 
 paragons ; luxuriant climbers gracefully festooned the 
 loftiest cedars ; wild grapes abounded ; and natural 
 arbours formed an impervious shade, that not a ray 
 
180 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 of the snns of July could penetrate. The forests 
 were filled with birds ; and, at the discharge of an 
 arquebuse, whole flocks would arise, uttering a cry, 
 as if an army of men had shouted together. 
 
 " The gentleness of the tawny inhabitants appeared 
 in harmony with the loveliness of the scene. The 
 desire of traffic overcame their timidity, and the 
 English received a friendly welcome. On the Island 
 of Roanoke, they were entertained by the wife of 
 Grangamiues, father of Wingina, the king, with the 
 refinements of Arcadian hospitality. ' The people 
 were most gentle, loving, and faithful, void of all 
 guile and treason, and such as lived after the manner 
 of the golden age.' They had no cares but to guard 
 against the moderate cold of a short winter, and to 
 gather such food as the earth almost spontaneously 
 produced. And yet it was added, with singular want 
 of comparison, that the wars of these guileless men 
 were cruel and bloody ; that domestic dissensions had 
 almost terminated whole tribes ; that they employed 
 the basest stratagems against their enemies ; and that 
 the practice of inviting men to a feast, to murder 
 them in the hour of confidence, was not exclusively a 
 device of European bigots, but was known to the natives 
 of Secotan. The English, too, were solicited to engage 
 in a similar enterprise, under promise of lucrative booty. 
 
 " The adventurers were satisfied with observing 
 the general aspect of the New World ; no extensive 
 examination of the coast was undertaken ; Pamlico 
 and Albemarle Sound and Roanoke Island were 
 explored, and some information gathered by enquiries 
 from the Indians ; the commanders had not the courage 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DKAKE. 181 
 
 or the activity to survey the country with exactness. 
 Having made bnt a short stay in America, they arrived 
 in September in the West of England, accompanied 
 by Manteo and Wanchese, two natives of the wilderness ; 
 and the returning voyagers gave such glowing de- 
 scriptions of their discoveries as might be expected 
 from men who had done no more than sail over the 
 smooth waters of a summer's sea, among ' the hundred 
 islands' of North Carolina. Elizabeth esteemed her 
 reign signalized by the discovery of the enchanting 
 regions, and, as a memorial of her state of life, named 
 them Virginia." 
 
 Raleigh obtained a Bill in Parliament confirming 
 his patent of discovery, and resolved upon honestly 
 pursuing his scheme for the colonization of Virginia. 
 In the ensuing spring a larger expedition, and one 
 with a more definite purpose, was fitted out. It con- 
 sisted of seven vessels ; and the fleet sailed from 
 Plymouth on the 9th of April, 1585, under the com- 
 mand of the celebrated Sir Richard Grenville, who 
 afterwards fought with great valour against the 
 Spaniards. One hundred and eight colonists were to 
 settle in Carolina under Richard Lane as governor. 
 Lane was subsequently knighted. There were like- 
 wise attached to the expedition Sir Thomas Cavendish, 
 who soon after circumnavigated the globe; Thomas 
 Hariot, the mathematician and astronomer, and in- 
 ventor of the system of notation in modern algebra ; 
 and John White, artist of the expedition, whose 
 sketches of the appearance and habits of the natives 
 of Virginia were the earliest and most authentic 
 drawn by any Eurojiean. 
 
182 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Two months after it set sail, the fleet touched the 
 mainland of Florida. It was nearly wrecked on the 
 cape, which now first received the name of Cape Fear ; 
 but soon afterwards it came to anchor at Wocoken. 
 The coast being full of shoals, the vessels made their 
 way through Ocracoke Inlet to Roanoke. In July 
 Grenville, accompanied by Lane, Harlot, Cavendish, 
 and others, explored the coast as far as Secotan, being 
 well received by the savages. After their return, 
 Grenville sailed for England. 
 
 It is of great interest to read the accounts of the 
 first attempt at an English settlement, made by 
 Lane and his fellow-colonists after the departure of 
 Grenville. " It is the goodliest soil under the cope 
 of heaven," wrote Lane ; "the most pleasing territory 
 of the world ; the continent is of a huge and unknown 
 greatness, and very well peopled and towned, though 
 savagely. The climate is so wholesome that we have 
 not one sick, since we touched the land. If Virginia had 
 but horses and kine, and were inhabited with English, 
 no realm in Christendom were comparable to it." 
 
 Hariot was by far the keenest observer, however, 
 for he was a man of altogether superior parts. As 
 the summary of his own investigations shows, "he 
 carefully examined the productions of the country, 
 those which would furnish commodities for commerce, 
 and those which were in esteem among the natives. 
 He observed the culture of tobacco, accustomed himself 
 to its use, and believed in its healing virtues. The 
 culture and the extraordinary productiveness of maize 
 especially attracted his admiration; and the tuberous 
 roots of the potato, when boiled, were found to be 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DEAKE. 183 
 
 very good food. The natural inhabitants are described 
 as too feeble to inspire terror; clothed in mantles 
 and aprons of deer-skins ; having no weapons but 
 wooden swords and bows of witch-hazel with arrows 
 of reeds ; no armonr but targets of bark and sticks 
 wickered together with thread. Their largest towns con- 
 tained but thirty dwellings. The walls of the houses 
 were made of bark, fastened to stakes ; and sometimes 
 consisted of poles fixed upright, one by another, and 
 at the top bent over and fastened. But the great 
 peculiarity of the Indians consisted in the want of 
 political connection. A single town often constituted 
 a government ; a collection of ten or twenty wigwams 
 might be an independent state. The greatest chief in 
 the country could not muster more than seven or eight 
 hundred fighting men. The dialect of each govern- 
 ment seemed a language by itself. The country 
 which Hariot explored was on the boundary of the 
 Algonkin race, where the Lenni-Lenape tribes melted 
 into the widely difiering nations of the south. Their 
 wars rarely led them to the open battle-field ; they 
 were accustomed rather to sudden surprises at day- 
 break or by moonlight, to ambushes and the subtle 
 devices of cunning falsehood. Destitute of the arts, 
 they yet displayed excellency of wit in all which they 
 attempted. To the credulity of fetishism they joined 
 an undeveloped conception of the unity of the Divine 
 Power, continued existence after death, and retributive 
 justice. The mathematical instruments, the burning- 
 glass, guns, clocks, and the use of letters, seemed the 
 works of gods rather than of men ; and the English 
 were reverenced as the pupils and favourites of Heaven. 
 
184 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 In every town which Hariot entered, he displayed and 
 explained the Bible ; the Indians revered the volume 
 rather than its doctrines ; with a fond superstition 
 they embraced the book, kissed it, and held it to their 
 breasts and heads, as an amulet. As the colonists 
 enjoyed uniform health, and had no women with them, 
 there were some among the Indians who imagined the 
 English were not born of women, and therefore not 
 mortal ; that they were men of an old generation 
 risen to immortality. The terrors of fire-arms the 
 natives could neither comprehend nor resist ; every 
 sickness which now prevailed among them was at- 
 tributed to wounds from invisible bullets, discharged by 
 unseen agents, with whom the air was supposed to be 
 peopled. They prophesied that ' more of the English 
 generation would come, to kill theirs and take their 
 places ' ; and some believed that the purpose of exter- 
 mination was already matured, and its execution begun." 
 " Was it strange, then," as one of the historians 
 of the period asks, " that the natives desired to be 
 delivered from guests by whom they feared to be 
 supplanted ? The colonists were mad for gold ; and 
 a wily savage allured them by tales : that the River 
 Roanoke gushed from a rock so near the Pacific that 
 the surge of that ocean sometimes dashed into its 
 fountain ; that its banks were inhabited by a nation 
 skilled in the art of refining the rich ore in which the 
 country abounded. The walls of their city were 
 described as glittering with pearls. Lane was so 
 credulous that he attempted to ascend the rapid current 
 of the Roanoke ; and his followers would not return 
 until their stores of provisions were exhausted, and they 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DRAKE. 185 
 
 had killed and eaten the very dogs which bore them 
 company. On this attempt to explore the interior, 
 the English hardly advanced higher np the river than 
 some point near the present village of Williamstown. 
 
 " The Indians had hoped to destroy the English by 
 thus dividing them ; bnt the prompt return of Lane 
 prevented open hostilities. They next conceived the 
 plan of leaving their lands unplanted, that famine 
 might compel the departure of their too powerful 
 guests. The suggestion was defeated by the modera- 
 tion of one of their aged chiefs ; but the feeling of 
 enmity could not be restrained. The English believed 
 that fear of a foreign enemy was teaching the natives 
 the necessity of union, and that a grand alliance was 
 forming to destroy the strangers by a general massacre. 
 Desiring an audience of Wingina, the most active 
 among the native chiefs. Lane and his attendants 
 were on the first day of June readily admitted to 
 his presence. Immediately, and without any sign 
 of hostile intentions by the Indians, a preconcerted 
 watchword was given, and the Christians, falling upon 
 the unhappy king and his principal followers, put 
 them without mercy to death. 
 
 " The discoveries of Lane were inconsiderable : to 
 the south they had extended only to Secotan, in the 
 present county of Craven, between the Pamlico and the 
 Neuse ; to the north they reached the River Elizabeth, 
 which joins the Chesapeake Bay at Hampton Roads ; 
 in the interior the Chowan had been examined beyond 
 the junction of the Meherrin and the Nottoway ; and 
 we have seen that the hope of gold attracted Lane to 
 make a short excursion up the Roanoke. Yet some 
 
186 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 general results of importance were obtained. The 
 climate was found to be salubrious ; during the year 
 not more than four men had died, and of these three 
 brought the seeds of their disease from Europe. The 
 hope of finding better harbours at the north was 
 confirmed; and the Bay of Chesapeake, though so 
 long since discovered by the Spanish, was first made 
 known to the English by this expedition. 
 
 " But in the Island of Roanoke the men began to 
 despond ; they looked in vain towards the ocean for 
 supphes from England ; they were sighing for their 
 native land, when early in June it was rumoured that 
 the sea was white with the sails of three-and-twenty 
 ships, and within three days Sir Francis Drake 
 anchored his fleet outside of Roanoke Inlet, in ' the 
 wild road of their bad harbour.' 
 
 " He had come, on his way from the West Indies to 
 England, to visit the domain of his friend, and readily 
 supplied the wants of Lane to the uttermost, giving 
 him a barque of seventy tons, with pinnaces and small 
 boats, and all needed provisions for the colony. Above 
 all, he induced two experienced sea captains to remain 
 and employ themselves in the action of discovery. 
 Everything was furnished to complete the surveys 
 along the coast and the rivers, and in the last resort, 
 if suffering became extreme, to convey the emigrants 
 to England. 
 
 "At this time an unwonted storm suddenly arose, 
 and had nearly wrecked the fleet, which lay in a most 
 dangerous position, and which had no security but in 
 weighing anchor and standing away from the shore. 
 When the tempest was over, nothing could be found 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DKAKE. 187 
 
 of the boats and the barque which had been set apart 
 for the colony. The humanity of Drake was not weary ; 
 he devised measures for supplying the colony with the 
 means of continuing their discoveries ; but Lane shared 
 the despondency of his men ; and Drake yielded to 
 their unanimous desire of permission to embark in his 
 ships for England. Thus ended the first actual settle- 
 ment of the English in America." 
 
 It was Hariot who first spoke in his description of 
 the colony of the herb " called by the inhabitants 
 yppoiDOC^'' which was brought to England and consumed 
 under the name of tobacco. Raleigh himself took 
 kindly to the new luxury, and would enjoy it in pipes 
 of silver, the Queen sitting by him while he smoked. 
 
 Soon after Lane and his friends set sail for England, 
 Sir Richard Grenville arrived with three ships and 
 plenty of provisions ; but not finding any of the colonists 
 on Roanoke Island, he left fifteen men on the island, 
 well provisioned, to hold possession of it. 
 
 Still declining to be discouraged by outward events, 
 in May, L587, Raleigh sent out three fresh ships under 
 Captain John White, with one hundred and fifty colonists, 
 seventeen of whom were women. Simon Ferdinando 
 was admiral. The two officers were utterly out of har- 
 mony with each other, and White accused Ferdinando 
 of wishing to ruin the expedition. The admiral was a 
 violent and passionate man, and greatly addicted to 
 profane swearing. White alleged, moreover, that he 
 left one of the vessels at a port in the West Indies, 
 stealing away in the night in his own ship, and hoping 
 that the captain of the vessel left behind would fail 
 to reach Virginia, or that he would be taken by the 
 
188 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Spaniards. " It was White's intention," observes one 
 writer, " to go up the Chesapeake Bay, in accordance 
 with Sir Walter Raleigh's orders, to find a seat for his 
 colony, after looking on Roanoke Island for the fifteen 
 men whom Grenville had left there the year before. 
 But when Ferdinando had got forty of the colonists on 
 board the pinnace at Hatorask to go to the island, 
 he ordered the sailors not to bring them back again, 
 declaring that the summer was too far gone to admit 
 of time being spent in seeking for the best spot for a 
 settlement. The two men were governed by different 
 motives : one was for delay, the other for speed ; the 
 governor wanted time to move with caution and con- 
 sider consequences ; the sailor wanted to reach his port 
 and discharge his cargo, looking forward to some new 
 venture — probably some homeward-bound Spaniard 
 laden with treasure. 
 
 " The fifteen men whom Grenville had left at 
 Roanoke were not to be found. The fort was razed 
 to the ground ; the huts were standing, but they were 
 overgrown with melon-vines, and the deer roamed 
 through them undisturbed by any fear of human 
 presence. The whitening bones of one man were the 
 only sign of recent habitation. All that White could 
 learn of the fate of his countrymen was that they had 
 been attacked by the Indians, two of them killed, 
 and the rest driven to a little island in the harbour 
 of Hatorask. They could be traced no farther. 
 
 " The fleet remained a little more than a month, 
 but before it sailed the enmity between the English- 
 men and the Indians was renewed with fresh fury. 
 One of the assistants, Mr. Howe, while searching 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DEAKE. 189 
 
 alone for shell-fish along the beach of Roanoke Island, 
 was killed by some of the tribe of which Pemissippan 
 had been chief. To avenge his death an attack was 
 made before daylight upon an encampment of Indians, 
 who, after one of them was killed, were found to be 
 friends from Croatoan, where Mauteo's people lived. 
 The effect upon the Croatoans of this unhappy blunder 
 was probably not favourable to their continued friend- 
 ship, though they may have been appeased for the 
 moment by the subsequent christening of Manteo, 
 who, by Sir Walter Raleigh's order, was, in reward 
 for his faithfulness to the English, baptized with due 
 ceremony under the name of Lord of Roanoke and 
 Dasamomquepeuk. Before the fleet sailed, also, the 
 daughter of White, the wife of Ananias Dare, one of 
 the assistants, gave birth, on the 18th of August, to a 
 daughter, who was christened Virginia — the first child 
 of English parentage born upon the territory of the 
 present United States." 
 
 Being anxious to return to England, White left the 
 colony on the 27th of August, 1587, ostensibly to fetch 
 supplies. Certainly, when he arrived in England, he 
 found it impossible to return at once to Virginia, 
 however anxious he might be to do so, for the country 
 was agitated from end to end over the threatened 
 Spanish invasion. When the Invincible Armada 
 appeared in sight, Raleigh was engaged in superintend- 
 ing the coast defence. His vessels scoured the seas 
 in privateering enterprises, which at once gratified his 
 deep hatred of Spain, and provided the golden sinews 
 of war for his schemes in Virginia. In 1589 we find 
 him in Ireland, deep in his friendship with the poet 
 
190 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Spenser, and planting tobacco on his Youglial estate, 
 as well as the first potatoes that grew on Irish soil. 
 
 Matters having at length calmed down in England, 
 White succeeded in 1590 in his efibrts to make the 
 return voyage to his colony. Hearing that three 
 vessels had been prevented by an Order in Council 
 from proceeding to the West Indies, White, through 
 the influence of Raleigh, procured their release on con- 
 dition that they should carry a reasonable number of 
 persons and laud them in Virginia. In the end, how- 
 ever, they conveyed only White himself, with whom 
 they arrived at Wocoken on the 9th of August. A 
 few days later the ships anchored in Hatorask harbour ; 
 and when White saw smoke arising in the direction 
 of Roanoke Island, he thought to find the colonists 
 there. Neither men nor habitations were, however, dis- 
 covered. What followed is thus related by the authors 
 of The Popular History of the United States : 
 
 " A disaster well-nigh put an end to all further 
 attempts to reach Roanoke. The boats were sent 
 ashore at Hatorask for water -, the surf was heavy in 
 the inlet ; one of the boats was upset, and two of the 
 captains of the ships and five others were drowned. 
 So disheartened were the sailors at this mishap that 
 they refused at first to go on, and this determination 
 was with difficulty overcome by the will and authority 
 of White and the remaining captain. It was night 
 before they reached Roanoke, and approached the spot 
 where White expected to find his friends. Glimmer- 
 ing through the trees they saw the light of a fire, 
 and for a moment their hopes were kindled into 
 enthusiasm. Approaching it along the shore, the 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DEAKE. 191 
 
 notes of a trnmpet-call from the boats rang clear and 
 shrill through the silent woods ; the sailors sang out 
 in cheering tones the familiar words of English songs, 
 which would have so stirred the blood of any listening 
 Euglishmen long exiled from home. But there was 
 no answer. The lights of the distant fire still flickered 
 above the dim line of the forest ; but out of the 
 darkness came no friendly shout of men, no woman's 
 glad cry of joy and welcome. 
 
 " They landed at daybreak ; the fire they had seen 
 was from burning grass and rotting trees, kindled no 
 doubt by the Indians, whose fresh footprints were 
 found in the sand. Pushing through the woods to- 
 ward the spot where White had left his colony three 
 years before, they saw the letters C. R. 0. carved upon 
 the trunk of a tree, upon the brow of a hill. Pausing 
 to consider what this might mean, White remembered 
 that when he left the colony it was proposed that the 
 people should remove to the mainland, and that 
 wherever they went the name of the place should be 
 left behind them here upon trees or doorposts. It was 
 further understood that, should any misfortune have 
 overtaken them, they should carve beneath the name 
 a cross. Here then was the guide, if C. R. 0. meant 
 Croatoan, to the place whither the colony had removed, 
 though it was to an outer island rather than to the main. 
 But to the anxious father and governor there was this 
 encouragement — the sign of the cross was wanting. 
 
 " Again they pushed on, after a brief consultation 
 upon the ' faire Romane letters curiously carved,' 
 which White had thus explained. It was not far to 
 the deserted post, still surrounded with its palisades. 
 
192 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 " Here all doubts were removed : at tlie entrance, 
 npon one of the largest of the trees from which the 
 bark had been stripped, was carved in capital letters 
 the word Croatoan in full, and still without the cross. 
 Within the palisades the houses were gone, but scat- 
 tered about were bars of iron and pigs of lead, some 
 large guns with their balls — ' fowlers ' and ' sacker 
 shot,' they were called— and other things too heavy 
 for a hasty removal, all overgrown with grass and 
 weeds. In a trench not far off were found some chests 
 where they had been buried by the colonists and 
 dug up afterwards by the Indians ; among these were 
 three belonging to White, but all had been rifled. 
 Books were torn out of their covers, the frames of 
 pictures and of maps were rotten with dampness, and 
 a suit of armour was almost eaten up with rust. 
 ' Although it much grieved me,' says White, ' to 
 see such spoyle of my goods, yet on the other side I 
 greatly joyed that I had safely found a certaine token 
 of their (the colonists) safe being at Croatoan, which 
 is the place where Manteo was borne, and the savages 
 of the island our friends.' 
 
 " It was his only consolation — if he really believed 
 that his friends, among whom was his daughter, had 
 found any such refuge. The boats had hardly re- 
 gained the ships at Hatorask when a gale of wind 
 with a heavy sea set in, and in attempting to get 
 under way one of the ships lost her anchors and was 
 near going ashore. The water-casks, which had been 
 taken to the land to be filled, could not be brought 
 off; provisions were short, the sailors were despondent 
 and impatient, and it was determined to abandon all 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF RALEIGH AND DRAKE. 193 
 
 attempts to go to Croatoan in further search of the 
 colony, but to sail at once to the West Indies and 
 recruit. White was only a passenger, and could 
 probably do nothing to change this determination, 
 though his friends, if still alive, were not many miles 
 distant. He may, indeed, have been doubtful if they 
 were still alive, for the ships on their arrival on the 
 coast had stopped at Wocoken, had sailed along the 
 shores of Croatoan, and anchored for a night off the 
 north end of the island. Had there been any sur- 
 vivors of the colonists there, they could hardly have 
 failed, on the look-out as they would always have been 
 for succour, to see the passing vessels, and have made 
 their presence known by signals of some sort. Bat 
 no signs had been seen of living men : no columns of 
 smoke curled np above the trees ; no flags of distress 
 were descried ; no friendly Indians beckoned them to 
 land ; no sound of gun or shout broke the silence of 
 the wilderness. At Roanoke alone, in the one word 
 Croatoan carved upon the trees, and in the crumbling 
 vestiges of the colony, half buried in the rank growth 
 of two or three summers, were there any evidences 
 that Englishmen had ever been there — tokens, also, 
 that they had perished. 
 
 " That such was White's conviction — that he believed 
 his daughter and her children, and all the rest whom 
 he had led to this distant land, had fallen victims to 
 the vengeance of the natives — is the most charitable 
 way of accounting for the readiness with which he 
 seems to have acceded to the proposal to sail for the 
 West Indies. It was, indeed, suggested that they 
 should return to Virginia, after taking on board a 
 
 13 
 
194 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 fresh stock of water and provisions ; but this cotild 
 only have been a pretext ; for as Croatoan was directly 
 in their course, a delay of half a day would have 
 sufficed to ascertain whether there were any English- 
 men alive upon the island. ' I leave off,' said 
 White, in a letter to Hakluyt, narrating the details 
 of this voyage — ' I leave off from prosecuting that 
 whereunto I would to God my health were answerable 
 to my will.' Others did not leave off, no doubt 
 sincerely believing what with White may have been 
 only a desperate hope, that the unhappy planters were 
 not all exterminated. Sir Walter Raleigh seems never 
 to have neglected any chance of finding his lost colony, 
 but excuses were never wanting for not making a 
 thorough search on the part of those whom he engaged 
 to undertake it." 
 
 But a great deal happened in England before another 
 attempt could be made to find the lost colony. Raleigh 
 fell into disgrace with his royal mistress over Bessie 
 Throckmorton, one of her maids of honour, and spent 
 four years in the Tower in consequence. On his 
 release he married the fair Bessie. In February, 1595, 
 he explored the coasts of Trinidad and sailed up the 
 Orinoco, but no practical result followed. Some time 
 later he despatched Captain Laurence Key mis to make 
 further explorations, and still later one Captain Berry ; 
 but Raleigh failed to rouse any great public interest 
 in England by his splendid dreams of the golden 
 treasures of Guiana. In June, 1596, he had the chief 
 honours in the expedition of Howard and Essex to 
 Cadiz, when the naval strength of Spain was once 
 more shattered. He also was concerned in several 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DRAKE, 195 
 
 other adventures before the ccntnry closed, which 
 proved his indomitable spirit and valour. 
 
 In 1602 Raleigh again returned to the question of 
 his colony, and bought a vessel, which he manned 
 in order to send out there. The command was given 
 to Samuel Mace, a capable mariner, who had twice 
 already visited Virginia. But Mace, though able 
 enough, was not honest of purpose, and he spent 
 a month on the coast, forty leagues south-west of 
 Hatteras, trafficking with the Indians, and making no 
 attempt to reach Croatoan. This was the last direct 
 effort made by Raleigh to recover his lost colony in 
 Virginia, a scheme which altogether involved him in 
 an expenditure of upwards of £40,000. 
 
 The report gained currency that the colonists were 
 all massacred soon after White left in the first instance ; 
 but considerable doubt has been thrown upon this. 
 William Strachey, the first secretary of the colony at 
 Jamestown, in his work on Virginia, stated that a 
 chief of the Upper Potomac had preserved seven 
 English settlers alive — namely, four men, two boys, 
 and a young maid. Captain John Smith also, in his 
 references to the Indian emperor Powhatan, would 
 seem to imply that some of the colonists had been 
 spared. Raleigh himself showed by his letters that 
 he believed many of the colonists escaped death. His 
 nephew, Captain Bartholomew Gilbert, went out to 
 Virginia on an exploring expedition, but he and some 
 of his companions were slain by the Indians. 
 
 There was something prophetic in Raleigh's faith 
 in the future of Anglo-Saxon America. In a letter to 
 Cecil he used these remarkable words : " I shall yet 
 
196 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 live to see it an English nation." But although the 
 prophecy was not fulfilled in its exactitude, after a lapse 
 of nearly two centuries the State of North Carolina, 
 in 1792, revived, in its capital, '^ the city of Raleigh," 
 in grateful commemoration of his name and fame. 
 Raleigh's Virginia patent expired by his attainder, and 
 in 1618 he was sent to the block on a charge of high 
 treason. His execution on insufficient grounds will 
 always remain a dark blot on the character of James I. 
 
 Mention must here be made of John Oxenham, a 
 young Devonshire adventurer, who in 1575 undertook 
 a voyage in a single ship to the Isthmus of Darien. 
 He crossed over in a pinnace to Panama and the Pearl 
 Islands, and intended proceeding to the north, when 
 he was seized by the Spaniards, conveyed to Lima, 
 and there executed as a pirate. 
 
 Sir Francis Drake, " the first who ploughed a furrow 
 round the world," and who is frequently spoken of as 
 the greatest of the Elizabethan seamen, now demands 
 attention. He was born near Tavistock, of humble 
 parents, about the year 1540. After fulfilling his 
 apprenticeship with the master of a small sailing 
 vessel, he followed the coasting trade for some years. 
 But by 1565 he was voyaging to Guinea and the 
 Spanish Main. In 1567 he commanded the Judith in 
 his kinsman John Hawkins's ill-fated expedition to 
 the West Indies. In 1570, and again in 1571, he 
 made voyages to the West Indies, with a view of 
 discovering how he could make good his previous 
 losses sustained at the hands of the Spaniards. 
 
 " The great experience he must thus have gained," 
 remarks his biographer Barrow, " would not suffer 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DRAKE. 197 
 
 him to rest in idleuess ; and in May, 1572, he had 
 provided two small ships, the Pacha, of seventy tons, 
 and the Siuan, of twenty-five tons — the latter com- 
 manded by his brother John — all ready for sea, and 
 sailed on the 24th of that month for Nombre de Dios. 
 Here he landed with his handful of men, dismounted 
 the guns on the platform and marched to the market- 
 place, while the alarm-bells were ringing and drums 
 beating. They were attacked, and Drake received a 
 wound, which he concealed, knowing that, 'if the 
 general's heart stoops, the men's will fail.' He ordered 
 one of his trusty followers, Oxenham, and his brother, 
 with sixteen men, to proceed to the king's treasure- 
 house, where vast piles of silver were found, and still 
 more in the governor's house : he then told his people 
 * that he had brought them to the mouth of the 
 treasury of the world, which, if they did not gain, 
 none but themselves were to be blamed.' 
 
 " Here, however, his strength and sight and speech 
 failed him, from loss of blood ; his men bound up 
 the wound with his scarf, and by main force (having 
 refused their entreaties) carried him to his pinnace. 
 On recovering, he speedily decided on crossing the 
 Isthmus of Panama ; but having lost many of his 
 men by sickness, and among them his brother Joseph, 
 and also the other brother John, who was unfortunately 
 killed in action with a Spanish ship, he removed the 
 whole of the people into his own ship and pinnace, 
 and sank the Swan. His object on the isthmus was 
 to intercept a recoe, or train of mules, laden with the 
 king's treasure. He met them, attacked and chased 
 the party as far as Vera Cruz, strictly charging all 
 
198 , THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 his company on no account to hurt any female or 
 unarmed man. This journey decided the future fate 
 of Drake. He was led to a tree — ' a goodlie and great 
 high tree ' — and from it had a full view of that sea 
 of which he had heard such golden reports, and with 
 great solemnity * besought God to give him life and 
 leave once to sail an English ship in those seas.' 
 
 " Having so far gratified his curiosity, and intercepted 
 a party of mules laden with treasure, and stripped 
 them of as much as was convenient to carry away, he 
 returned to his ship and made sail for England, where 
 he arrived, at Plymouth, on Sunday, the 9th of August, 
 1673, during divine service, when all the people in 
 crowds ran out of the church, in the midst of the sermon, 
 '■ to witness the blessing of God on the dangerous 
 adventures and enterprises of Captain Drake.' " 
 
 His next great enterprise, the voyage round the 
 world, was unexampled for its daring and enterprise. 
 Procuring an audience of the Queen, in 1.577, he laid 
 before her his scheme, the first of the kind which 
 any Englishman had thought of, and she gave her 
 sanction to his fitting out an expedition. The 
 squadron, as completed, consisted of the Pelican, 
 100 tons, Drake, commander ; the Elizabeth, 80 tons, 
 John Winter, commander ; the Marigold, 30 tons, 
 John Thomas ; the Swa?i, fly-boat, 50 tons, John 
 Chester ; the Christopher, pinnace, 15 tons, Thomas 
 Moone, the whole manned with one hundred and sixty- 
 three stout and able seamen. 
 
 The vessels sailed from Plymouth on the 13th of 
 December, 1577. They had not been long at sea 
 before they captured a Portuguese vessel, over which 
 
THE EXrEDITlONS OF EALEIGH AND DRAKE. 199 
 
 Drake placed one Thomas Doughty, a volunteer gentle- 
 man, as commander. Doughty endeavoured to get 
 the whole expedition into his own hands, and he 
 was accordingly tried and executed at Port St. Julian 
 for his attempts to stir up a mutiny. The squadron, 
 now reduced to three ships by the burning of two, 
 entered the Strait of Magellan — this being the first 
 time any Englishman had done so, or indeed any one 
 else except Magellan himself. Drake changed his 
 own ship's name at this juncture from the Pelican 
 to the Golden Hind. The passage through the strait 
 occupied sixteen days. Violent tempests followed, 
 when they reached the open sea, and the storms 
 lasted for fifty-two days, during which the Marigold 
 foundered with all hands. 
 
 " On the 7th of October," says Barrow, '' the 
 Admiral (which was the vessel captured early from 
 the Portuguese) and the Elizabeth under slow sail 
 stood into a bay near the western entrance of the 
 strait, where they hoped to have found shelter from 
 the bad weather ; but in a few hours after coming 
 to an anchor, the cable of the Admiral parted, and 
 she drove out to sea, and was thus separated from 
 the Elizabeth, which remained in the port without 
 making any attempt to follow her. The account 
 given by Cliff'e, one of the crew of the Elizabeth, is 
 that Winter the next day, after having been in great 
 danger among the rocks, re-entered the strait, and, 
 anchoring in an open bay, made great fires on the 
 shore in the hope that Drake might see them ; that 
 he remained there ten days, then went farther, and 
 stayed for three weeks in a sound which he named 
 
200 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 ' The Port of Health ' ; and that then, being in 
 despair both as to Drake's existence and as to favour- 
 able winds for Peru, he 'gave over the voyage, full 
 sore against the mariners' minds.' Winter arrived 
 safe in England, but he was censured by many for 
 having abandoned his commander. 
 
 "The general being now left with only the little 
 pinnace, was driven back once more into the latitude 
 of 55° south, in which he got among some islands, 
 perhaps some of those to the north of Terra del 
 Fuego, where the ship was anchored, and the crew 
 were refreshed with wholesome herbs and good water. 
 After two days, however, they were driven from 
 their anchorage, and the little shallop or pinnace 
 lost sight of the ship, nor did it ever again rejoin 
 her. There were eight men in her, who had pro- 
 visions only for one day ; they, however, reached the 
 shore, procured water and roots, and in the course 
 of a fortnight entered the Strait of Magelhaens. 
 Here they salted and dried penguins, and proceeded 
 to Port Julian, and thence to Rio de la Plata. There 
 six of the party went into the woods to seek for food. 
 A party of Indians met them, wounded them all with 
 their arrows, and took four of them prisoners : the 
 other two escaped to their companions who had re- 
 mained in the boat. They moved to an island two 
 or three leagues from the shore, where the two 
 wounded men died : the shallop was dashed in pieces 
 against the rocks. The remaining two, Peter Curder 
 and William Pitcher, stayed on this island two 
 months, subsisting on small crabs, eels, and a fruit 
 like an orange ; but they had no water. The misery 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF RALEIGH AND DRAKE. 201 
 
 they endured for want of this indispensable necessary 
 of life induced them to endeavour, by means of a 
 plank and a couple of paddles, to reach the mainland. 
 This they accomplished in three days and two nights, 
 and found a rivulet of sweet water — ' where,' says 
 Curder, ' Pitcher, my only comfort and companion 
 (although I endeavoured to dissuade him), being 
 pinched with extreme thirst, over-drank himself ; 
 •end, to my unspeakable grief, died within half an 
 hour, whom I buried as well as I could in the sand.' 
 
 " Curder, the only survivor of the party, was kindly 
 treated by some Indians, and at the end of nine years 
 returned to England. The Golden Hind was now 
 left completely alone, and with a reduced crew. Another 
 storm arose, and the vessel was driven to the very 
 southern extremity of the American Continent, and 
 thus Drake was the first to discover Cape Horn." 
 
 The storm abated on the 30th of October, and Drake 
 then proceeded to the northward, towards the place 
 appointed for the rendezvous of his squadron, 30° 
 south ; but no vessels could be found. Coasting along 
 till he came to 38°, he landed on the Island of JVIacho, 
 where he obtained supplies from the natives, who were 
 apparently friendly. On the second day, however, the 
 Indians mustered in force, and killed and wounded a 
 great many Englishmen, Drake himself being wounded 
 in the face by an arrow, which pierced almost to the 
 brain ; and he also received a wound in the head. 
 
 On the 30th of November Drake dropped anchor in 
 a bay called St. Philip, and brought away an Indian 
 they had fallen in with. The general obtained plenty 
 of stores, and afterwards seized a Spanish ship, richly 
 
202 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 laden, and then dismissed the Indian, rewarding him 
 amply for his good services. On the 19th of December 
 Drake entered a bay near a town named Cyppo, where 
 he was greeted by a number of Spaniards and Indians. 
 They were very hostile, and the English retired to 
 their vessel — all except one, who was killed and 
 fearfully mutilated. They next landed at Tarapaca, 
 in about 20° S. lat. 
 
 " Coasting along, still in the hope of meeting with 
 his friends, Drake arrived, on the 7th of February, 
 before Arica, where he took two barques, on board of 
 one of which was about eight hundredweight of silver. 
 On the 15th he arrived at Callao, the port of Lima, 
 and entered the harbour without resistance, though 
 about thirty ships were lying there, seventeen of which 
 were prepared for their voyage. Whether these ships 
 were manned and armed, or what was their size, is 
 not stated ; but it appears most strange that Drake, 
 with his single ship, should have been able to strike 
 such dismay into the Spaniards that they suffered the 
 plunder of their seventeen loaded ships to be carried 
 on without the least attempt at resistance. 
 
 " In one of these ships they found fifteen hundred 
 bars of silver ; in another, a large chest of coined 
 money ; and valuable lading in the rest, from all of 
 which they leisurely selected what they pleased ; and 
 had they been so disposed, they might have set fire 
 to the whole of the ships ; but Drake was satisfied in 
 obtaining booty for himself and his crew, in compensa- 
 tion for the former wrongs he had received from the 
 Spanish people. The general, however, in order to 
 secure himself against an immediate pursuit, ordered 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DRAKE. 203 
 
 the cables of the ships to be cut, and let them drive. 
 He had here received intelligence of a very rich ship, 
 that was laden with gold and silver, and had sailed 
 from hence just before his arrival, bound for Panama. 
 Her name was the CacafuegOy and she was termed 
 ' the great glory of the South Sea.' As he was in 
 full chase of this vessel he fell in with and boarded a 
 brigantine, out of which he took eighty pounds' weight 
 of gold, a crucifix of the same metal, and some 
 emeralds. In a few days after, near Cape St. Francis, 
 in 1° lat., he got sight of the Cacafuego, about one 
 hundred and fifty leagues from Panama. On coming 
 up with her, a shot or two carried away one of her 
 masts, when she was boarded and easily carried. Be- 
 sides a large quantity of pearls and precious stones, 
 they took out of her eighty pounds' weight of gold, 
 thirteen chests of coined silver, and rough silver enough 
 to ballast a ship. Having transferred all this to the 
 Golden Hind, the total amount of which was cal- 
 culated at three hundred and sixty thousand pieces 
 of eight, or nearly £90,000, they let the Caca- 
 fuego go. Standing out to the westward to avoid 
 Panama, where probably they considered that they 
 were too well known, they fell in with another ship, 
 from which they obtained some linen, cloth, jjorcelain, 
 dishes, and silk. The owner of this ship, a Spanish 
 gentleman, was on board her, from whom Drake is 
 said to have received a falcon, wrought in pure gold, 
 with a large emerald set in its breast ; but whether 
 by seizure, by purchase, or as a present is not men- 
 tioned. After taking out the pilot for his own service, 
 he suffered the ship to proceed on her voyage. He 
 
204 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 now continued his course ; and keeping close to the 
 coast of North America, on the 1 5th of April came to 
 the port of Agnapulca, in latitude about 15° 30' N. 
 Having here taken in some bread and other provisions, 
 he prepared to depart northwards ; but, as the narra- 
 tive says, ' not forgetting, before we got a shijjboard, 
 to take us also a certain pot (of about a bashell in 
 bignesse) full of ryalls of plate, which we found in the 
 towne, together with a chaine of gold, and some other 
 jewels, which we entreated a gentleman Spaniard to 
 leave behind him, as he was flying out of the towne.' 
 
 " At this place the admiral set on shore Nuna de 
 Silva, the Portuguese pilot, whom he had taken from 
 the Cape de Verde Islands, and who, on his arrival 
 at Mexico, gave to the governor a narrative of all the 
 circumstances that had happened on the voyage, which 
 was correct in most particulars ; and it was published 
 by Hakluyt." 
 
 Drake made a complete refit of his little barque at 
 Aguapulca, and then boldly resolved to try to reach 
 home by way of the north-east. He failed like Cook 
 and many of Cook's successors, and the dream of 
 navigators still remains to be realized. Drake skirted 
 the north-western shores of America, where the people 
 regarded him and his companions as gods. On the 
 17th of June they entered a convenient harbour in 
 lat. 38° 30' N., the land being inhabited, and the 
 houses of the natives close to the water's edge. The 
 Golden Hind having sprung a leak, she was now put 
 to rights. A great multitude of natives came down 
 from the country, headed by the king. They indulged 
 in singing and dancing, and during the festitives the 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DEAKE. 205 
 
 king placed a feathered cap of network on the 
 general's head and a chain round his neck, and sainted 
 him by the name of Hioh — that is, king or chief. 
 Drake took this to mean the submission of themselves 
 and the whole country to the new-comers ; and he 
 gave them to understand, in the best way he was able, 
 that he accepted them in the name, and for the use 
 of, the Queen of England. 
 
 The natives certainly regarded the English with 
 great favour. Hitherto, this part of the American 
 Continent had been visited by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, 
 and by no other European. His intercourse with the 
 natives was of the most friendly kind, and the favour- 
 able disposition of the latter towards Europeans 
 Drake strengthened and confirmed by his friendly and 
 humane treatment of them. Before he left, Drake 
 caused a post to be set up on shore, as a monument, 
 and it bore a brass plate, on which was engraved the 
 Queen's name, as well as the assertion of her right 
 and title, and that of her successors, to the new 
 kingdom. Record was also made of "the day and 
 year of our arrival there, and of the free giving up of 
 the province and kingdom, both by the king and 
 people, into her Majesty's hands ; together with her 
 Highness's picture and arms in a piece of sixpence, 
 current English money, showing itself by a hole made 
 of purpose through the plate : underneath was like- 
 wise engraven the name of our general, etc." 
 
 In order to show respect to his native land, and 
 because white cliffs were observed on the coast, Drake 
 gave to all the land he had seen in this part of 
 America the name of New Albion. After remaining 
 
206 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 tliirty-six days in port, Drake and his companions left, 
 to the deep regret of the friendly natives, who expressed 
 a wish for their speedy return. Admiral Barney con- 
 sidered that the port of Drake was that which is now 
 known by the name of Port San Francisco, the lati- 
 tude of which is 37° 48|' N. " Allowing them to be 
 the same," he continues, " it is remarkable that both 
 the most northern and the most southern ports at 
 which Drake anchored in the course of his voyage 
 should afterwards by the Spaniards — doubtless without 
 any intended reference to the name of Francis Drake 
 —be named San Francisco T Thus, as it has been 
 observed by another writer, this portion of the west 
 coast of America was discovered, and taken possession 
 of in the usual manner, by an Englishman, in the 
 name of his sovereign, full two hundred years before 
 the United States of America came into existence 
 as such. 
 
 The Golden Hind left the American coast on the 
 23rd of July, and Drake resolved to return home by 
 crossing the Pacific. He consequently directed his 
 course towards the Philippine Islands. For the long 
 period of sixty-eight days the expedition was without 
 sight of any land, but " on the 30th of September it 
 fell in with certain islands lying in about 8° to the 
 northward of the Line. The natives came off in their 
 canoes, each hollowed out of a single tree, bringing 
 cocoanuts, fruits, and fish. The first that came 
 appeared to be well disposed, but others acted dis- 
 honestly, carrying off whatever articles were once put 
 into their hands. The English therefore would have 
 nothing to do with them in the way of trade . on which, 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF RALEIGH AND DRAKE. 207 
 
 to manifest their resentment, tliey began to attack 
 tlie ship with stones, with which they had provided 
 themselves. A gun was fired over their heads, the 
 noise of which frightened them ; but none being hnrt, 
 they returned, and were more insolent than before. 
 The patience of Drake was now exhausted, and he 
 ordered some muskets to be fired at them ; for they 
 could not be got rid of till they were made to feel 
 some smart as well as terror. Drake gave these islands 
 the name of the Islands of Thieves. Admiral Burney 
 thinks, from the description of the natives, the time 
 of the passage to them, and the latitude, that they are 
 the islands which in our time have been called the 
 Pelew Islands. 
 
 " Leaving these islands, they sailed westerly, from 
 the 3rd to the 16th of October, without seeing any 
 land till they made the Philippine Islands, and coasted 
 them until the 21st, when they anchored and watered 
 the ship at the largest of the group, called Mindanao ; 
 and sailing thence about eight leagues, they passed 
 between two islands south of Mindanao, and on the 
 3rd of November had sight of the Moluccas, and steered 
 for Tidore ; but having received information that the 
 Portuguese had been driven out of Ternate, and had 
 taken up their quarters at Tidore, Drake determined 
 to proceed to the former place. 
 
 " On anchoring at this city, the capital of the 
 Moluccas, Drake sent a messenger with a velvet cloak 
 to the king, with a request to be supplied with pro- 
 visions and allowed to purchase various kinds of spices. 
 The king himself came off to the ship, preceded by 
 three large and magnificent canoes, each having eighty 
 
208 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 rowers, who paddled to the sound of brass cymbals. 
 On each side of these canoes was a row of soldiers, 
 every one having a sword, dagger, and target ; and in 
 each there was also a small piece of ordnance mounted 
 on a stock. Drake received the king in great state, 
 himself and all his officers being dressed in their richest 
 clothes, guns firing, and trumpets sounding. The king 
 was a tall, corpulent man, with a good countenance. 
 His attendants showed him great respect, speaking to 
 him only in a kneeling posture. 
 
 " On taking leave, he promised to visit the general 
 on the following day, so that the ship should be sup- 
 plied with provisions. Abundance of rice, fruits, and 
 poultry were sent off, together with a small quantity 
 of cloves. The king, however, instead of visiting 
 them as he had promised, sent his brother with an 
 excuse and an invitation to the general to land. This 
 Drake declined; but some of his officers waited on the 
 king, the brother being detained on board as a pledge 
 for their safety. The king, who was covered with a 
 profusion of gold ornaments and jewels, received them 
 with much parade." 
 
 Drake won golden opinions from all with whom he 
 had to deal here ; and having duly furnished his 
 ship with provisions, he sailed from the capital of 
 the Moluccas on the 9th of November. The passage 
 home was a lengthy one. He was compelled to make 
 a thorough refit on the south-west coast of Java, after 
 which he held for the Cape of Good Hope, and landed 
 in England on the 26th of September, 1580. For 
 some time he was deprived of his justly earned honours 
 by Spanish protests ; but at length, on the 4th of 
 
THE EXPEDITIONS OF EALEIGH AND DRAKE. 209 
 
 April, Elizabeth visited his ship at Deptford, aud 
 knighted him on its deck. 
 
 Four years later, or a little more, Drake sailed with 
 a fleet of twenty-five ships for the Spanish Indies. 
 He harassed Hispaniola, Cartagena, and the coast of 
 Florida; and after terrible losses from illness, brought 
 home the hundred and ninety dispirited colonists whom 
 he found in Virginia, together with cargoes of tobacco 
 and potatoes. This expedition was far inferior, both 
 in interest and profit, to his former enterprises. 
 
 Spain and the Azores were the next objects of his 
 exploits — but, indeed, as he said, he was ready to go 
 anywhere " to seek God's enemies and her Majesty's 
 wherever they may be found." In the destruction of the 
 Spanish Armada, Drake's splendid seamanship and his 
 indomitable courage covered him with fresh glory, and 
 made his name one of terror for the Spaniards. 
 
 A few peaceful years ensued after this, and then, 
 finally, in August, 1595, Drake sailed on his last 
 voyage to the West Indies. Misfortunes crowded 
 upon him, including the death of Hawkins, his second 
 in command, and at last the gallant Drake himself 
 fell ill of dysentery, and died off Porto Bello on the 
 28th of January, 1596. The sea received him, for his 
 body was put into a leaden coffin and committed to 
 the deep. But although the element in which he 
 was always so much at home was now his tomb, " the 
 ocean sea was not sufficient room for his fame," as an 
 unknown poet finely wrote. 
 
 14 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OPERATIONS OF THE VIEGINIA COMPANY. 
 
 THE history of Virginia is probably more full of 
 romance than that of any other State of the 
 American Union, and it was in this State that the 
 first permanent colony was established by English 
 settlers. It almost lost this distinction, however, 
 owing to the exploits of one Bartholomew Gosnold, 
 whose career we must first glance at, and who nearly 
 secured for New England the honour of being the first 
 lasting English colony. 
 
 Gosnold had already made a voyage to Virginia, 
 when he was commissioned to go out to America 
 again by the Earl of Southampton. He sailed from 
 Falmouth on the 25th of March, 1602, in a small 
 vessel called the Concord^ having as his second in 
 command Bartholomew Gilbert. He had with him 
 thirty-two persons, of whom twenty were to remain 
 and found a colony somewhere on the northern coast 
 of Virginia, as the whole country was then called, 
 from the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth degree of 
 latitude. Gosnold's idea was to proceed by a direct 
 north-west course, thus avoiding the usual circuitous 
 route by the Canaries and the West India Islands ; 
 but he was driven by contrary winds southward to 
 the Azores, and thence he steered almost due west, 
 
 210 
 
OPEEATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 211 
 
 arriving in seven weeks at Cape Elizabeth, on the 
 coast of Maine. " Following the coast to the south- 
 west, he skirted ' an outpoint of wooded laud,' and 
 about noon of the 14th of May he anchored ' near 
 savage rock ' to the east of York Harbour. There he 
 met a Biscay shalloj), and there he was visited by 
 natives. Not finding his ' purposed place,' he stood 
 to the south, and on the morning of the 15th dis- 
 covered the promontory which he named Cape Cod. 
 He and four of his men went on shore. Cape Cod 
 was the first spot in New England ever trod hy 
 Englishmen, while as yet there was not one European 
 family on the continent from Florida to Hudson's Bay. 
 Doubling the cape, and passing Nantucket, they 
 touched at No Man's Land, passed round the pro- 
 montory of Gay Head, naming it Dover Cliff, and 
 entered Buzzard's Bay, a stately sound, which they 
 called Gosnold's Hope. The westernmost of the 
 islands was named Elizabeth, from the Queen — a 
 name which has been transferred to the group. Here 
 they beheld the rank vegetation of a virgin soil : 
 noble forests ; wild fruits and flowers bursting from 
 the earth ; the eglantine, the thorn, and the honey- 
 suckle, the wild pea, the tansy, and young sassafras ; 
 strawberries, raspberries, grape-vines, — all in profusion. 
 Within a pond upon the island lies a rocky islet ; on 
 this the adventurers built their storehouse and their 
 fort ; and the foundations of the first New England 
 colony were laid. The island, the pond, the islet, are 
 yet visible ; the shrubs are luxuriant as of old ; but 
 the forests are gone, and the ruins of the fort can no 
 longer be discerned. 
 
212 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 "A traffic with the natives on the main enabled 
 Gosnold to lade the Concord with sassafras root, then ■ 
 esteemed in pharmacy as a sovereign panacea. The 
 band, which was to have nestled on the Elizabeth 
 Islands, finding their friends about to embark for 
 Enrope, despaired of supplies of food, and determined 
 not to remain. Fear of the Indians, who had ceased 
 to be friendly, the want of provisions, and jealousy 
 respecting the distribution of the risks and profits 
 defeated the design. The party soon set sail, and 
 bore for England, leaving not so much as one European 
 family between Florida and Labrador. The return 
 voyage lasted but five weeks ; and the expedition was 
 completed in less than four months, during which 
 entire health had prevailed." 
 
 The favourable reports which Gosnold gave of the 
 regions visited induced the merchants of Bristol — at 
 the instance of Richard Hakluyt, the historian of 
 these discoveries, and with the cordial assent of 
 Raleigh — to pursue the work of exploration. Accord- 
 ingly, Martin Pring, who was with Gosnold on the 
 Concord, was given the command of the Speedwell, 
 a ship of fifty tons and thirty men, and the Discoverer, 
 a barque of twenty- six tons and thirteen men ; and 
 he set sail for America on the 10th of April, 1603. 
 The vessels were well provided with articles to please 
 the natives, and the voyage was successful. The 
 little expedition " reached the American coast among 
 the islands of Penobscot Bay. Coasting towards the 
 west, Pring made a discovery of many of the harbours 
 of Maine ; of the Saco, the Kennebunk, and the York 
 Rivers ; and the channel of the Piscataqna was 
 
OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 213 
 
 examined for three or four leagues. Finding no 
 sassafras, he steered to the south, doubled Cape Ann, 
 and went on shore in Massachusetts ; but being still 
 unsuccessful, he again pursued a southerly track, till 
 he anchored in Old Town Harbour, on Martha's Vine- 
 yard. Here obtaining a freight, he returned to 
 England, after an absence of about six months, which 
 had been free from disaster or danger. 
 
 "The testimony of Pring having confirmed the report 
 of Gosnold, an expedition, promoted by the Earl of 
 Southampton and his brother-in-law Lord Arundel 
 of Wardour, was confided to George Waymouth, a 
 careful and vigilant commander, who, in attempting 
 a north-west passage, had already explored the coast 
 of Labrador. Weighing anchor on Easter Sunday, on 
 the 14th of May, 1605, he came near the whitish, sandy 
 promontory of Cape Cod. To escape the continual 
 shoals in which he found himself embayed, he stood 
 out to sea, then turned to the north, and on the 
 17th anchored to the north of Monhegan Island, 
 in sight of hills to the north-north-west on the 
 main. On Whit-Sunday he found his way among 
 the St. George's Islands into an excellent harbour, 
 which was accessible by four passages, defended from 
 all winds, and had good mooring upon a clay ooze, 
 and even upon the rocks by the cliff side. The climate 
 was agreeable ; the sea yielded fish of many kinds 
 profusely; the tall and great trees on the islands 
 were much observed ; and the gum of the silver fir 
 was thought to be as fragrant as frankincense ; some 
 trade was carried on with the natives for sables, and 
 skins of deer and otter and beaver ; the land was of 
 
214 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 such pleasantness that many of the company wished 
 themselves settled there. 
 
 ''Having in the last of May discovered in his pinnace 
 the broad, deep current of the St. George's, on the 
 11th of June Waymouth passed with a gentle wind 
 up with the ship into that river for about eighteen 
 miles, which were reckoned at six-and-twenty, and 
 ' all consented in joy ' to admire its width of a half- 
 mile or a mile; its verdant banks; its gallant and 
 spacious coves ; the strength of its tide, which may 
 have risen nine or ten feet, and was set down at 
 eighteen or twenty. 
 
 "On the 13th he ascended in a row-boat ten 
 miles farther, and the discoverers were more and 
 more pleased with the beauty of the fertile bordering 
 ground. No token was found that ever any Christian 
 had been there before ; and at the point where the 
 river trends westward into the main, he set up a 
 memorial cross, as he had already done on the rocky 
 shore of the St. George's Islands. Well satisfied with 
 his discoveries, on Sunday, the 16th of June, he 
 sailed for England, taking with him five of the natives 
 whom he had decoyed, to be instructed in English, 
 and to serve as guides to some future expedition. At 
 his coming into the harbour of Plymouth, he yielded 
 up three of the natives to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the 
 governor of that town, whose curiosity was thus 
 directed to the shores of Maine." 
 
 It was by voyages like these that the way was 
 paved for the colonization of the United States. The 
 great work of the Virginia Companies was begun 
 in 1606^ when James I., delighted at the idea of 
 
OPEEATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 215 
 
 extending his territories, granted the first patent for 
 a colony to Edward Maria Wingfield, a merchant of 
 the West of England; Robert Hunt, a clergyman 
 of worth and fortitude ; John Smith, an adventurer 
 of the first order and the finest qualities ; Richard 
 Halduyt ; Sir George Somers ; and others who should 
 be joined to them. The patent was dated the 10th of 
 April, 1606. 
 
 All the territories on the American coast, between 
 34° and 45° of north latitude, together with the islands 
 within a hundred miles, were granted to the adven- 
 turers. Two companies were to be formed, the first 
 to be called the Southern Colony, and the second the 
 Northern Colony. The jurisdiction of the former 
 company— whose council was chiefly composed of 
 residents of London, and therefore came to be known 
 as the London Company— extended from Cape Fear 
 to the southern limit of Maryland— that is, from 
 34° to 38° ; and the jurisdiction of the other company 
 —whose council was appointed from Plymouth and 
 the vicinity, and therefore came to be known as the 
 Plymouth Company— extended from 41° to 45°. The 
 intermediate district, from 38° to 41°, was open to 
 the competition of both companies. 
 
 "Each colony was to be governed by a resident 
 council of thirteen, to be appointed by the King, with 
 power to choose a president, who should not be a 
 clergyman, from their own body, and to fill any 
 vacancies that should occur among themselves from 
 death or resignation. The laws enacted by them were 
 subject to revision either by the King or the Council 
 in England. No part whatever in the government 
 
216 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 was given to the people ; even trial by jury was 
 allowed only in cases of capital crimes, which were 
 ' tumults, rebellion, conspiracy, meetings, and sedition, 
 together with murder, manslaughter, incest, rapes, 
 and adultery.' Lesser crimes and misdemeanours 
 were to be tried before the president and council, and 
 punished according to their will. Real estate was to 
 be held as under the laws of England, but for the 
 first five years all personal property and the fruits of 
 the labours of the colonists were to be held as a 
 common stock, and each member of the community 
 was to be supported from the general store. Religion 
 was to be established in accordance with the rites and 
 doctrines of the Church of Eugland ; the people were 
 enjoined, by virtue of such penalties as the president 
 and council should choose to inflict, to ' kindly treat 
 the savage and heathen people in those parts, and use 
 all proper means to draw them to the true service 
 and knowledge of God,' and also to lead them to 
 '■ good and sociable traffic' Such were the essential 
 features of the first constitution of government estab- 
 lished within the limits of the present United States. 
 It was esj)ecially the work of that pedantic despot 
 James I., who afterwards amused himself with drawing 
 up a code of laws for the administration of a govern- 
 ment where, in the last resort, all political power 
 rested in his hands, and the hands of those of his 
 appointment." 
 
 The Plymouth Company sent out two ships in the 
 summer of 1606 : one in May, commanded by Captain 
 Pring; the other in August, commanded by Henry 
 Chalong. Chalong was captured by the Spaniards, 
 
OPEKATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 217 
 
 but Pring explored the coast of Maine, and brought 
 home such a favourable report that in the following 
 year Chief Justice Popham sent out an expedition 
 under his brother George Popham and Raleigh Gilbert, 
 a son of Sir Humphrey, to settle a colony at the mouth 
 of the Sagadahoc. As this attempt proved abortive, 
 however, the honour of planting the first permanent 
 colony was destined to accrue to the London Company 
 in Virginia. 
 
 This first important band of colonists numbered one 
 hundred and five men, and among these there were 
 only about twenty labourers and mechanics. No women 
 went over. There were forty-eight gentlemen to four 
 carpenters, although they were going to a region 
 where there was not a house standing. The most 
 notable members of the colony included Bartholomew 
 Gosnold, and his companion in the Concord^ Gabriel 
 Archer ; Edward Maria Wingfield, afterwards the 
 first governor ; the Rev. Robert Hunt, the chaplain ; 
 George Percy, a brother of the Earl of Northumberland, 
 who did excellent service; and the redoubtable Captain 
 John Smith. 
 
 As this last-named extraordinary man now comes 
 into great prominence, and as his experiences are 
 amongst the most romantic in the history of coloniza- 
 tion, it will be convenient here to refer briefly to his 
 early career. John Smith was born at Willoughby, 
 in Lincolnshire, in 1580, and was educated at the 
 schools of Alford and Louth. He wanted to go to sea 
 on his father's death in 1596, but his guardian bound 
 him apprentice to a merchant of Lynn. Business 
 being obnoxious to him, he accompanied the second 
 
218 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 son of Lord Willoughby to France, and saw some 
 soldiering at Havre. Afterwards lie went into the 
 Low Countries, and thence crossed to Scotland, re- 
 tnrning to Willoughby, where he lived in a wood, 
 and studied Machiavelli and Marcus Aurelius, and 
 exercised himself on a good horse with lance and ring. 
 As the Turks were then ravaging Hungary, he decided 
 to join the Christian army, and was plundered on the 
 way thither by four French adventurers. He next 
 joined himself with a piratical merchant, and acquired 
 wealth by the capture of a Venetian argosy, while 
 coasting round Italy and the north of Africa. He 
 next entered the service of Ferdinand, Duke of Austria, 
 under whom he greatly distinguished himself, and had 
 some surprising adventures. Sold as a slave, and 
 marched to Adrianople, he escaped and travelled 
 through Germany, France, Spain, and Morocco. After 
 a sea fight with two Spanish men-of-war, he returned 
 to England in 1604, the richer by a thousand ducats. 
 
 The London Company's scheme fell in with Smith's 
 disposition admirably. The fleet sailed from Blackwall 
 on the 19th of December, 1606. It was under the 
 command of Captain Christopher Newport, and con- 
 sisted of three vessels : the Sarah Coiistant, one hundred 
 tons ; the God-speed, forty tons ; and the Discovery, 
 pinnace, twenty tons. The instructions of the council 
 were that the ships should seek for a safe port at the 
 entrance of some navigable river ; and if more than 
 one was discovered, that was to be preferred which 
 mio:ht have two branches. Should either branch come 
 from the north-west, then that was to be entered, as 
 it might be the passage to the South Sea ; and the 
 
OPEEATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 219 
 
 hope of finding this passage was never abandoned by 
 the London Council so long as the company was in 
 existence. 
 
 During the voyage out dissensions arose among the 
 adventurers, for James I. had foolishly directed that 
 the papers appointing the authorities should not be 
 opened till after the arrival in Virginia. John Smith 
 especially appears to have excited jealousy, probably 
 from his superior abilities, and he was charged with 
 desiring to usurp the government and to assassinate 
 the council. After a stormy passage, the expedition 
 sailed into Chesapeake Bay on the 26th of April, 1607. 
 Cape Henry and Cape Charles were named after the 
 sous of the King. 
 
 On the sealed box being opened at Cape Henry, it 
 was ascertained that the council was to consist of 
 Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, Edward M. Wing- 
 field, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John 
 Martin, and George Kendall. Seventeen days were 
 spent in searching for a suitable site for the colony ; 
 and at length, on the 13th of May, the council decided 
 upon the present site of Jamestown, so called after the 
 King. It was situate on a peninsula about forty 
 miles from the mouth of the Powhatan, which was 
 called the King's River, and subsequently James 
 River. 
 
 The council appointed Wingfield president, and at 
 first excluded Smith from their deliberations. Yet he 
 was the man " without whose aid the vices of the 
 colony would have caused its immediate ruin." Most 
 of the colonists devoted themselves to felling timber 
 and providing freight for the ships, while Captain 
 
220 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Newport and Smith, with twenty others, ascended the 
 James River to the falls. Here they came upon the 
 native chief Powhatan, king of the tribes, whose city 
 of wigwams lay just below the site of Richmond. 
 The two explorers desired to visit the Blue Ridge 
 Mountains ; but being dissuaded by Powhatan, they 
 now turned back down the river. On reaching James- 
 town, they learned that the Indians had attacked the 
 camp during their absence, wounding several men. 
 
 Matters were going very badly in the colony when 
 Newport left it in June to return to England. Before 
 the end of August fifty men had died of sickness and 
 fatigue, including the worthy Bartholomew Gosnold, 
 the projector of the colony. Disunion set in amongst 
 the rest, and the president, Wingfield, was deposed 
 on the ground of appropriating public stores and 
 designing to abandon the colony. His successor, 
 Ratcliffe, proved inefficient, and Smith came to the 
 front by his capable and vigorous management of 
 affairs. Kendall, one of the council, was tried for 
 mutiny, and shot. Ratcliffe and Archer next proposed 
 to abandon the colony to its fate ; but the project was 
 suppressed by Smith, and tranquillity was restored 
 before the winter set in. 
 
 On the 10th of December Smith left the colony in 
 order to explore the interior. He went up the Chicka- 
 hominy to trade for corn, and to find the head of that 
 river. On its upper waters two of his men were taken 
 by the Indians and slain, but Smith was saved by an 
 Indian. Smith's own account of what followed is 
 published in his General History of Virginia, where 
 he brings in the story of the Princess Pocahontas. 
 
OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 221 
 
 His adventures are thus summarized. : " Making his 
 way (with his Indian guide) towards the boat, which 
 he had left in charge of two of his men, he and the 
 guide slipped together into an * oasie creek,' from 
 which it was impossible to extricate themselves. Half 
 dead with cold, he at length threw away his arms and 
 surrendered, and was taken before Opechankanough, 
 King of Pamunkey. He sought to propitiate the chief 
 by presenting him with ' a round Ivory dowble com- 
 pass Dyall.' The savages marvelled much at the 
 playing of the needle, which they could see, but, for 
 the glass over it, could not touch. With this ' globe- 
 like-jewel,' Smith explained to the king and his people 
 the movements of the sun, moon, and stars, the shape 
 of the earth, the extent of land and sea, the difference 
 in the races of men, and 'many other suchlike matters,' 
 at which, it was hardly necessary to add, the savages 
 ' all stood as amazed with admiration.' They never- 
 theless tied the lecturer to a tree, and were about to 
 shoot him to death with arrows, when Opechankanough, 
 who seemed to have a better appreciation than his 
 followers had of the sciences of astronomy and cosmo- 
 graj)hy, holding up the wonderful compass, stayed the 
 execution. They then released the prisoner, fed him, 
 and used him well. So well, indeed, did they feed 
 him, that he thought they meant to fatten him for a 
 feast ; and they received him otherwise with so much 
 honour, that they dressed themselves in their brightest 
 paints, the plumage of the most brilliant birds, the 
 choicest rattlesnake tails, and ' such toys ' — adding, 
 perhaps, as Strachey says the Indians sometimes did, 
 *a dead ratt tyed by the tail, and suchlike conun- 
 
222 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 drams ' — and so attired danced before him and the 
 king, ' singing and yelling out with hellish notes and 
 screeches.' They promised him, moreover, life and 
 liberty, land and women, if he would aid them by his 
 advice in an attack upon Jamestown ; but from this 
 he dissuaded them by representations of the mines, 
 great guns, and other engines with which such an 
 attack would be repulsed. When he persuaded them 
 to send a letter to the fort, and the messengers brought, 
 as he promised they should, such things as he asked 
 for, the savages were amazed anew, that either the 
 paper itself spoke to those who received it, or that 
 Smith had the power of divination. 
 
 " This clothed and bearded white man was a strange 
 spectacle to the Indians, and men, women, and children 
 crowded to see him, as he was led from tribe to tribe. 
 At length he was taken before the great king of all, 
 Powhatan, at a place called Werowocomoco, which 
 signifies king's house, on the north side of the York 
 River, and only fourteen or fifteen miles from James- 
 town. When Smith was led into his presence, the 
 emperor received him in state, seated on a throne 
 which was much like a bedstead, clothed in a robe of 
 raccoon skins. On each side of him sat a young girl 
 of sixteen or eighteen years, and beyond them a double 
 row of men and women, their heads and shoulders 
 painted red and adorned with feathers. A queen 
 served the prisoner with water to wash his hands, and 
 a bunch of feathers on which to dry them ; a feast was 
 spread before him as if he were an honoured friend 
 and welcome guest, for such was the Indian treatment 
 of those who presently were to be led to die. 
 
OPEKATIONS OF THE VIEGINIA COMPANY. 223 
 
 " This ceremonious and hospitable reception was 
 followed by a brief consultation between the king and 
 his chief men. Two great stones were then brought 
 in, to which Smith was dragged, and his head laid 
 upon them. The executioners stood ready to beat out 
 his brains with their clubs ; but at this critical moment 
 ' Pocahontas, the king's dearest daughter, when no 
 intreaty could prevaile, got his head in her arms, and 
 laid her owne upon his to save him from death; 
 whereat the emperour was contented he should live 
 to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and 
 copper.' " 
 
 Whatever truth or whatever romance there may be 
 in this account, its main features relating to Smith's 
 capture are probably correct. His captivity resulted 
 in real benefit to the colony ; for he not only had 
 opportunity of observing the country between the 
 James and the Potomac, and gaining insight into the 
 habits and character of the natives, but he opened 
 up friendly relations thereby between the English and 
 the tribes of Powhatan. 
 
 When Smith reached Jamestown, after an absence 
 of four weeks, he found the colony reduced to forty 
 men, who were planning their escape in the pinnace ; 
 but this attempt he sternly suppressed. His own life 
 was j)laced in jeopardy, but he was saved by the 
 opportune arrival of Captain Newport from England. 
 
 Newport had been despatched by the London 
 Council with supplies, and also with one hundred and 
 twenty new emigrants. His arrival was hailed with 
 joy, but the new-comers were consumed by the idea 
 of gold, and Newport himself once more embarked 
 
224 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 for England with a cargo of worthless earth. Mean- 
 time, from July to September, 1608, Smith "surveyed 
 the Bay of the Chesapeake to the Susquehannah, 
 and left only the borders of that remote river to 
 remain for some years longer the fabled dwelling- 
 place of a giant progeny. He was the first to 
 publish to the English the power of the Mohawks, 
 ' who dwelt upon a great water, and had many boats, 
 and many men,' and, as it seemed to the feebler 
 Algonkin tribes, ' made war upon all the world.' In 
 the Chesapeake he encountered a fleet of their canoes. 
 The Patapsco was discovered and explored, and Smith 
 probably entered the harbour of Baltimore. The 
 majestic Potomac especially invited curiosity ; and 
 he ascended beyond Mount Vernon and Washington 
 to the falls above Georgetown. Nor did he merely 
 examine the rivers and inlets. He penetrated the 
 territories, and laid the foundation for future beneficial 
 intercourse with the native tribes. The map which 
 he prepared and sent to the company in London 
 delineates correctly the great outlines of nature. The 
 expedition was worthy of the romantic age of American 
 history." 
 
 Smith was appointed president of the council on 
 the 10th of September, 1008; and when Newport 
 again returned with supplies, he found a more hope- 
 ful feeling in the colony. Seventy new emigrants, 
 including two women, arrived with Newport from 
 England. The two females were Mistress Forrest, 
 and her maid Ann Burras ; and we read that Ann 
 was married in the course of a few weeks to one 
 John Laydon. 
 
OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 225 
 
 Newport's new instructions from the London 
 Council were to the effect that he was to bring home 
 a lump of gold, to discover the passage to the South 
 Sea, and to find the survivors of the Roanoke colony. 
 He took out a number of things for Powhatan, in- 
 cluding a crown for his coronation. The ceremony- 
 was performed; but Newport was no match for the 
 wily savage, and the Indian chief took a high tone 
 afterwards when he referred to his " royal brother of 
 England." 
 
 Smith knew Powhatan better, and managed both 
 him and his own fellow-colonists with discretion. 
 But he was sadly handicapped, and he lost in rapid 
 succession Captain Wynne and J. Scrivener, members 
 of the council ; Captain Waldo, the commander of 
 the fort in Smith's absence ; Anthony Gosnold, a 
 brother of Bartholomew ; and eight others. Smith 
 was the only member of the original council left ; 
 and in writing to the London authorities, we find him 
 saying, " When you send again, I entreat you rather 
 send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, 
 fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers up of 
 trees' roots, well provided, than a thousand of such 
 as we have." Meantime, he did his best to enforce 
 industry amongst the surviving colonists. 
 
 On the 23rd of May, 1609, the second charter of 
 Virginia was issued under royal authority. It 
 entrusted the colonization of the territory to a very 
 numerous, wealthy, and influential body of adven- 
 turers. The list was headed by the name of Robert 
 Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, the enemy and rival of Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, who was now languishing in the 
 
 15 
 
226 THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 Tower. Among tlie other names were those of the 
 Earls of Sontliampton, Lincoln, and Dorset, George 
 Percy, Sir Oliver Cromwell (uncle to the future Pro- 
 tector), Sir Anthony Ashley, Sir Edwin Sandys, Sir 
 Francis Bacon, Captain John Smith, Richard Hakluyt, 
 and George Sandys. Many public companies were 
 represented, as were also the nobility and gentry, the 
 army and the bar, the trade, commerce, and industry 
 of England. 
 
 "The territory granted to the company extended 
 two hundred miles to the north, and as many to the 
 south of Old Point Comfort, ' up into the land through- 
 out from sea to sea, west and north-west'; including 
 ' all the islands lying within one hundred miles along 
 the coast of both seas of the precinct.' 
 
 " At the request of the corporation, the new charter 
 transferred to the company the powers which had 
 before been reserved to the King. The perpetual 
 supreme council in England was now to be chosen 
 by the shareholders themselves, and, in the exercise 
 of the functions of legislation and government, was 
 independent of the monarch. 
 
 "The governor in Virginia, whom the corporation was 
 to appoint, might rule the colonists with uncontrolled 
 authority, accord^ig to the tenor of instructions and 
 laws established by the council ; or, in want of them, 
 according to his own good discretion, even in cases 
 capital and criminal, not less than civil ; and, in the 
 event of mutiny or rebellion, he might declare martial 
 law, being himself the judge of the necessity of the 
 measure, and the executive officer in its administra- 
 tion. If not one valuable civil privilege was guaran- 
 
OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPAISnT. 227 
 
 teed to the emigrants, they were at least withdrawn 
 from the power of the King, and the company conld 
 at its pleasm'e endow them with all the rights of 
 Englishmen. 
 
 " Lord Delawarre, distinguished for his virtues as 
 well as his rank, received the appointment of governor 
 and captain-general for life, and was surrounded, at least 
 nominally, by stately officers, with titles and charges 
 suited to the dignity of a flourishing empire. The 
 public mind favoured colonization ; the adventurers, 
 with cheerful alacrity, contributed free-will offerings ; 
 and such swarms of people desired to be transported, 
 that the company could despatch a fleet of nine 
 vessels, containing more than five hundred emigrants." 
 
 Sir Thomas Gates was appointed lieutenant-governor 
 of the colony, and Sir George Somers admiral of the 
 expedition ; and these, with Captain Newport, the 
 vice-admiral, took passage in the Sea Admnture. 
 Among the captains of the fleet were Ratcliffe, Martin, 
 and Archer, whose appointment was somewhat of a 
 reflection upon Smith and his administration, as he 
 had made formal complaints against them. A storm 
 overtook the expedition soon after sailing, but seven 
 of the vessels reached the Chesapeake in August. 
 
 One of the two vessels missing was a pinnace, and 
 the other was the admiral's ship conveying Gates, 
 Somers, Newport, and William Strachey. The con- 
 sequence was that a difficulty was created in Virginia 
 when the other seven ships arrived. " The old charter 
 was abrogated ; and there was in the settlement no 
 one who had any authority from the new patentees. 
 The emigrants of the last arrival were dissolute 
 
228 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 gallants, packed off to escape worse destinies at home, 
 broken tradesmen, gentlemen impoverished in spirit 
 and fortune, rakes and libertines, more fitted to cor- 
 rupt than to found the new commonwealth. It was 
 not the will of God that these men should 'be the 
 carpenters and workers in this so glorious a building.' 
 Hopeless as the determination appeared. Smith, for 
 more than a year, maintained his authority as presi- 
 dent over the unruly herd, and devised new expeditions 
 and new settlements for their occupation and support. 
 When an accidental explosion of gunpowder disabled 
 him by inflicting wounds which the surgical skill of 
 the colony could not relieve, he delegated his office 
 to Percy, and embarked for England, never to see 
 Virginia again. He united the highest spirit of adven- 
 ture with eminent powers of action. His courage and 
 self-possession accomplished what others esteemed des- 
 perate. Fruitful in expedients, he was prompt in 
 execution. He was accustomed to lead, not to send, 
 his men to danger; would suffer want rather than 
 borrow, and starve sooner than not pay. He had a 
 just idea of the public good and his country's honour. 
 To his vigour, industry, and resolution the survival of 
 the colony is due. He clearly discerned that it was 
 the true interest of England not to seek in Virginia for 
 gold and sudden wealth, but to enforce regular industry. 
 ' Nothing,' said he, ' is to be expected thence but by 
 labour.' 
 
 " The colonists, no longer controlled by an acknow- 
 ledged authority, abandoned themselves to improvident 
 idleness. Their ample stock of provisions was rapidly 
 consumed ; and further supplies were refused by the 
 
OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 229 
 
 Indians, who began to regard them with a fatal con- 
 tempt. Stragglers from the town were cut off, parties 
 which begged food in the Indian cabins were murdered, 
 and plans were laid to starve and destroy the whole 
 company. The horrors of famine ensued ; while a 
 band of about thirty, seizing on a ship, escaped to 
 become pirates, and to plead desperate necessity as 
 their excuse. Smith had left more than four hundred 
 and ninety persons in the colony : in six months, 
 indolence, vice, and famine reduced the number to 
 sixty ; and these were so feeble and dejected, that, if 
 relief had been delayed but ten days longer, they also 
 must have utterly perished." 
 
 Sir Thomas Gates and his companions were wrecked 
 on the rocks of the Bermudas, but they all safely 
 reached land. The islands were henceforth known as 
 the Somers Islands (from Sir George Somers) as well 
 as the Bermudas, and the name became corrupted into 
 Summer Islands. There was fortunately abundance 
 of food for Gates and the one hundred and fifty men, 
 women, and children who were with him. During 
 the enforced stay of the colonists there were births, 
 deaths, and a marriage. The wife of one John Rolfe 
 gave birth to a daughter, who was christened Bermuda, 
 and a boy born to another couple was called Bermudas. 
 
 The castaways constructed two vessels, in which 
 they embarked for Virginia. When they arrived, on 
 the 24th of May, 1610, instead of finding a prosperous 
 colony, they were shocked at the scene of misery, 
 scarcity, and death which was revealed. The outlook 
 was so hopeless that Gates and the colonists aban- 
 doned Jamestown, and in four vessels went down the 
 
230 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 river in quest of another destination. As they drew 
 near the mouth of the river on the 9th of June, they 
 encountered the long-boat of Lord Delawarre, who 
 had arrived on the coast with supplies and emigrants. 
 All the colonists now returned to Jamestown, and on 
 the 11th Delawarre himself also brought his three 
 ships to anchor opposite the fort, and went ashore. 
 When he landed, the new governor fell upon his knees 
 and engaged in silent prayer. 
 
 A procession of colonists met him by the shore ; and 
 when his commission as captain-general had been 
 read, Sir Thomas Gates surrendered into his hands 
 the government of the colony. Delawarre at once 
 began to reorganize the colony, combining firmness 
 and urbanity in doing so. In a short time all the old 
 troubles were healed, and the colonists became pacified 
 and industrious. They began the day with prayers in 
 the little church ; and after receiving their daily allow- 
 ance of food, laboured from six in the morning until 
 ten, and from two in the afternoon till four, raising 
 substantial, well-timbered houses, etc. 
 
 The governor despatched Sir George Somers and 
 Captain Argall to the Bermudas, to bring off some of 
 the wild swine with which the islands abounded, but 
 the vessels were driven northward by stress of weather. 
 Argall returned to England, but Somers reached the 
 Bermudas, where he soon afterwards, however, died. 
 Argall went on another exploring expedition up the 
 coast, and on the 27th of July he anchored in a very 
 large bay, which he called Delawarre, or Delaware. 
 Forts were built on the James River, and the Indians 
 were brought into peaceable relations. 
 
OPEEATIONS OF THE VIEGINIA COMPANY. 231 
 
 But while snccessfully administering the affairs of the 
 colony, Lord Delawarre's health gave way, and he was 
 compelled to return to England, leaving the government 
 in the hands of Percy. This exercised a depressing 
 effect, both upon the colonists and the London Council, 
 and for a time the name of Virginia became a byword 
 in England. Fortunately two fresh expeditions had 
 already sailed for the colony before Delawarre's return. 
 One was under the command of Sir Thomas Gates, 
 and the other under Sir Thomas Dale. 
 
 Dale, who was an experienced soldier, arrived in 
 Chesapeake Bay on the 10th of May, 1611. He at 
 once assumed the government, which he soon ad- 
 ministered on the basis of martial law. Bancroft, the 
 historian, observes that " the Code — printed and sent 
 to Virginia by the treasurer, Sir Thomas Smith, on his 
 own authority, and without the order or assent of the 
 company — was chiefly a translation from the rules of 
 war of the United Provinces. The Episcopal Church, 
 coeval in Virginia with the settlement of Jamestown, 
 was, like the infant commonwealth, subjected to mili- 
 tary power ; and though conformity was not strictly 
 enforced, yet court-martial had authority to punish 
 indifference with stripes and infidelity with death. 
 The normal introduction of this arbitrary system, 
 which the charter permitted only in cases of rebellion 
 and mutiny, added new sorrows to the wretchedness 
 of the people, who pined and perished under despotic 
 rule. 
 
 "The letters of Dale to the council confessed the small 
 number and weakness and discontent of the colonists, 
 but he kindled hope in the hearts of those constant 
 
232 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 adventurers who, in tlie greatest disasters, had never 
 fainted. ' If anything otherwise than well betide me,' 
 said he, ' let me commend unto your carefulness the 
 pursuit and dignity of this business, than which your 
 purses and endeavours will never open nor travel 
 in a more meritorious enterprise. Take four of the 
 best kingdoms in Christendom, and put them all 
 together, they may no way compare with this country, 
 either for commodities or goodness of soil.' 
 
 " Lord Delawarre and Sir Thomas Gates confirmed 
 what Dale had written ; and, without any delay. Gates, 
 who has the honour, to all posterity, of being the first 
 named in the original patent for Virginia, conducted 
 to the New World six ships, with three hundred 
 emigrants. Long afterwards the gratitude of Virginia 
 to these early emigrants was shown by repeated acts 
 of benevolent legislation. A wise liberality sent also 
 a hundred kine, as well as suitable provisions. It was 
 the most fortunate step which had been taken, and 
 proved the wisdom of Cecil and others, whose firmness 
 had prevailed. 
 
 " The promptness of this relief merits admiration. 
 In May Dale had written from Virginia ; and the 
 last of August the new recruits, under Gates, were 
 already at Jamestown. So unlooked for was this 
 supply, that, at their approach, they were regarded 
 with fear as a hostile fleet. Who can describe the 
 joy at finding them to be friends ? Gates assumed 
 the government amidst the thanksgiving of the 
 colony, and at once endeavoured to employ the senti- 
 ment of religious gratitude as a foundation of order 
 and of laws. ' Lord, bless England, our sweet, native 
 
OPEEATIONS OF THE VIEGINIA COMPANY. 233 
 
 conntry,' was the morning and evening prayer of the 
 grateful emigrants. 
 
 " The colony now numbered seven hundred men. 
 Dale, with the consent of Gates, went far up the river 
 to found the new plantation, which, in honour of 
 Prince Henry, a general favourite with the English 
 people, was named Henrico ; and there, on the 
 remote frontier, Alexander Whitaker, the self-denying 
 ' apostle of Virginia,' assisted in '■ bearing the name 
 of God to the Gentiles.' But the greatest change 
 in the condition of the colonists resulted from the 
 incipient establishment of private property. To each 
 man a few acres of ground were assigned for his 
 orchard and garden, to plant at his pleasure and for 
 his own use. So long as industry had been without 
 its special reward, reluctant labour, wasteful of time, 
 had been followed by want. Henceforward the 
 sanctity of private property was recognized. Yet the 
 rights of the Indians were little respected \ nor did 
 the English disdain to appropriate by conquest the 
 soil, the cabins, and the granaries of the tribe of 
 the Appomattocks. It was, moreover, the policy 
 of the government so 'to overmaster the subtile 
 Powhatan ' that he would perforce join with the 
 colony in submissive friendship, or, finding * no room 
 in his country to harbour in,' would ' leave it to their 
 possession.' " 
 
 The Spaniards threatened reprisals for the English 
 appropriation of the country on the Chesapeake, but 
 nothing came of their threats, although they made a 
 reconnaissance. 
 
 Before the Virginia colony was ten years old, 
 
234 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 the London Council began to grant patents of large 
 tracts of land to individuals, and tracts were also 
 given to colonists for meritorious services. The plant- 
 ing of tobacco soon became so profitable that it was 
 necessary to define strictly the proportions of land 
 allowed to corn crops and tobacco culture. In March, 
 1612, a third patent for Virginia was issued, granting 
 to the adventurers in England the Bermudas and all 
 islands within three hundred leagues of the Virginia 
 shore. These new acquisitions were soon transferred 
 to a separate company. Meetings at least once a 
 week were now ordered to be held by the old company; 
 while all questions affecting government, commerce, 
 and the disposition of lands were reserved for four 
 great general courts, at which all oiJ&cers were to be 
 elected and all laws established. The character of 
 the corporation was completely changed by transferring 
 power from the council to the company, through 
 whose assemblies the people of Virginia might gain 
 leave to exercise every political power belonging to 
 the people of Eu gland. Lotteries were authorized for 
 the benefit of the colony, and these soon produced 
 £29,000 to the company ; but as they became a 
 grievance, they were suspended by an Order of Council. 
 An attempt was made in 1612 to restrain French 
 colonization in North America. Argall made voyages 
 from Virginia up the Potomac, and persuaded an 
 Indian chief to betray the Princess Pocahontas into 
 his hands, to be kept as a hostage at Jamestown for 
 the return of Englishmen held captive by her father 
 Powhatan. In a further expedition Argall destroyed 
 the French settlements on Mount Desert Isle, and 
 
OPEEATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 235 
 
 expelled the French from the territory. On making 
 his report at Jamestown, he was once more despatched 
 to the north, with authority to remove every landmark 
 of France in the territory south of the forty-sixth 
 degree. He razed the fortifications of De Monts on 
 the Isle of St. Croix, set on fire the deserted settle- 
 ment of Port Royal, and raised the arms of England 
 on the spot where those of France and De Guercheville 
 had been thrown down. So England asserted her 
 claim to Maine and Acadia — a claim which was 
 ultimately to result in great international strife and 
 bloodshed. 
 
 A most interesting incident now took place in the 
 colony of Virginia. The Princess Pocahontas, who had 
 been brought to a knowledge of the truth, and baptized 
 into the Christian faith, married, in April, 1614, one 
 of the settlers, Mr. John Rolfe, who was further 
 distinguished as the first cultivator of tobacco in 
 Virginia. Many eminent Americans trace their de- 
 scent from this union, and its immediate effects were 
 the pacification of Powhatan and the Chickahominy 
 tribes, and the consolidation of the English settlement. 
 
 Pocahontas received the baptismal name of Lady 
 Rebecca. Sir Thomas Dale " took Rolfe and his wife 
 to England, and with them went several other young 
 Indians, men and women, and one Tamocomo, the 
 husband of another of Powhatan's daughters. The 
 young people were under the guardianship of the 
 council, and to be educated as Christians ; but 
 Tamocomo was an emissary of his father-in-law, under 
 orders to gather information in regard to the English 
 people. His observations may have been valuable, 
 
236 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 but he soon gave over an attempt to talce a census 
 of tlie population by notches on a stick. The whole 
 party excited the liveliest curiosity. The Lady Eebecca 
 was received at Court with great favour, though grave 
 doubts were entertained, suggested it was supposed 
 by James, who was never unmindful of the divine 
 right of kings, whether Kolfe had not been guilty of 
 treason in presuming to make an alliance with a royal 
 family. The princess appeared at the theatres and 
 other public places, everywhere attracting great atten- 
 tion as the daughter of the Virginian emperor, and 
 as one to whom the colonists had sometimes been 
 indebted for signal services, and everywhere exciting 
 admiration for her personal graces, and the propriety 
 and good sense with which she always conducted her- 
 self. She remained in England for nearly a year, and 
 died as she was about to sail for her native country. 
 Her only child, a son, is claimed as the ancestor of 
 some of the most respectable families of Virginia. 
 
 '^ Alliances by marriage between the whites and 
 Indians were encouraged, and were not infrequent, 
 as it was hoped to establish by such connections more 
 friendly relations with the savages. They had no 
 doubt some influence, the marriage of Pocahontas 
 especially leading to a treaty with Powhatan, which 
 he faithfully observed so long as he lived, and which 
 was renewed after his death, in 1618, by his successor." 
 
 With regard to the condition of private property in 
 lands among the Virginian colonists, this " depended 
 in. some measure on the circumstances under which 
 they had emigrated. To those who had been sent and 
 maintained at the exclusive cost of the company, 
 
OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 237 
 
 and were its servants, one month of their time and 
 three acres of land were set apart for them, besides 
 an allowance of two bushels of corn from the public 
 store ; the rest of their labour belonged to their 
 employers. This number gradually decreased ; and, 
 in 1617, there were of them all, men, women, and 
 children, but fifty-four. Others, especially the favourite 
 settlement near the mouth of the Appomattox, were 
 tenants paying two and a half barrels of corn as a 
 yearly tribute to the store, and giving to the public 
 service one month's labour, which was to be required 
 neither at seedtime nor harvest. He who came 
 himself, or had sent others at his own expense, had 
 been entitled to a hundred acres of land for each person ; 
 now that the colony was well established, the bounty 
 on emigration was fixed at fifty acres, of which the 
 actual occupation and culture gave a right to as many 
 more, to be assigned at leisure. Besides this, lauds 
 were granted as rewards of merit ; yet not more than 
 two thousand acres could be so appropriated to one 
 person. A payment to the company's treasury of 
 £12 105. likewise obtained a title to any hundred 
 acres of land not yet granted or possessed, with a 
 reserved claim to as much more. Such were the 
 earliest land laws of Virginia : though imperfect and 
 unequal, they gave the cultivator the means of becoming 
 a proprietor of the soil. These changes were established 
 by Sir Thomas Dale, a magistrate, who, notwithstand- 
 ing the introduction of martial law, has gained praise 
 for his vigour and industry, his judgment and conduct." 
 When Dale left the colony, he appointed George 
 Yeardley deputy governor. Captain Argall succeeded 
 
238 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 for a time in May, 1617; but his administration was 
 so arbitrary and oppressive, that in 1618 — after the 
 news had been made public of the death of Lord 
 Delawarre at sea while en route to Virginia — he was 
 displaced, and the mild and popular Yeardley was 
 appointed in his stead. Yeardley was granted higher 
 rank and powers, and was knighted. He entered 
 upon his office at Jamestown on the 19th of April, 
 1619. The colony had fallen into a pitiable condition, 
 not one in twenty of the emigrants remaining alive. 
 " From the moment of Yeardley's arrival dates the real 
 life of Virginia. Bringing with him ' commissions and 
 instructions from the company for the better establish- 
 inge of a commonwealth,' he made proclamation 
 ' that those cruell lawes, by which the ancient planters 
 had soe longe been governed, were now abrogated, 
 and that they were to be governed by those free lawes 
 which his Majestie's subjectes lived under in Bnglande.' 
 Nor were these concessions left dependent on the good- 
 will of administrative officers. ' That the planters 
 might have a hande in the governing of themselves, 
 yt was graunted that a generall assemblie shoalde be 
 helde yearly once, whereat were to be present the 
 governor and counsell with two burgesses from each 
 plantation, freely to be elected by the inhabitants 
 thereof, this assemblie to have power to make and 
 ordaine whatsoever lawes and orders should by them 
 be thought good and profitable for their subsistence.' 
 
 " In conformity with these instructions. Sir George 
 Yeardley ' sente his summons all over the country, as 
 well to invite those of the counsell of estate that 
 were absente, as also for the election of burgesses.' " 
 
OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 239 
 
 Beneficial changes were likewise effected in the 
 London Company. Sir Thomas Smith was dismissed, 
 and Sir Edwin Sandys was elected by a great majority 
 governor and treasurer. John Ferrar was elected 
 deputy, and his brother Nicholas, one of the purest 
 and most unselfish of men, was appointed counsel to 
 the corporation. The conduct of business gradually fell 
 into the hands of Nicholas Ferrar, who combined a 
 reverence for monarchy with a true regard for English 
 liberties, and the efi'ect of his action was most bene- 
 ficial upon the future of the Virginia Company. 
 
 The 30th of July, 1619, was a day memorable in 
 the history of the colony, for on that date the first 
 legislative assembly from the eleven plantations of 
 Virginia met at James City. It consisted of twenty- 
 two representatives and the governor and council. 
 " The inauguration of legislative power in the Ancient 
 Dominion," says Bancroft, " preceded the introduc- 
 tion of negro slavery. The governor and council sat 
 with the burgesses, and took part in motions and 
 debates. John Pory, a councillor and secretary of 
 the colony, though not a burgess, was chosen speaker. 
 Legislation was opened with prayer. The assembly 
 exercised fully the right of judging of the proper 
 election of its members ; and they would not suffer 
 any patent, conceding manorial jurisdiction, to bar 
 the obligation of obedience to their decisions. They 
 wished every grant of land to be made with equal 
 favour, that all complaint of partiality might be 
 avoided, and the uniformity of laws and orders never 
 be impeached. The commission of privileges sent by 
 Sir George Yeardley was their ' great charter ' or 
 
240 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 organic act, which they claimed no right ' to correct 
 or control ' ; yet they kept the way open for seeking 
 redress, ' in case they should find ought not perfectly 
 squaring with the state of the colony.' 
 
 " Leave to propose laws was given to any burgess, or 
 by way of petition to any member of the colony ; but, 
 for expedition's sake, the main business of the session 
 was distributed between two committees ; while a 
 third body, composed of the governor and such bur- 
 gesses as were not on those committees, examined 
 which of former instructions ' might conveniently 
 put on the habit of laws.' The legislature acted also 
 as a criminal court. 
 
 " The Church of England was confirmed as the 
 Church of Virginia ; it was intended that the first 
 four ministers should each receive £200 a year ; 
 all persons whatsoever, upon the Sabbath days, were 
 to frequent divine service and sermons both fore- 
 noon and afternoon ; and all such as bore arms, to 
 bring their pieces or swords. Grants of land were 
 asked not for planters only, but for their wives, ' be- 
 cause, in a new plantation, it is not known whether 
 man or woman be the most necessary.' Measures 
 were adopted ' towards the erecting of a university 
 and college.' It was also enacted that, of the children 
 of the Indians, ' the most towardly boys in wit and 
 graces of nature should be brought up in the first 
 elements of literature, and sent from the college to 
 the work of conversion ' of the natives to the Chris- 
 tian religion. Penalties were appointed for idleness, 
 gaming with dice or cards, and drunkenness. Excess 
 in apparel was taxed in the Church for all public 
 
OPEEATIONS OF THE VIEGINIA COMPANY. 241 
 
 contributions. The business of planting corn, mul- 
 berry trees, hemp, and vines was encouraged. The 
 price of tobacco was fixed at three shillings a pound 
 for the best, and half as much ' for the second sort.' 
 
 " When the question was taken on accepting ' the 
 great charter,' ' it had the general assent and the 
 applause of the whole assembly,' with thanks to it 
 for Almighty God and to those from whom it had 
 issued, in the names of the burgesses and of the whole 
 colony whom they represented : the more so, as they 
 were promised the power to allow or disallow the 
 orders of court of the London Company." 
 
 The laws made by this first elective body were 
 pronounced by Sir Edwin Sandys to be on the whole 
 " very well and judiciously formed." They were 
 instantly put in force, former griefs were forgotten, 
 and the colony began an era of prosperity. Although, 
 in the twelve years before Sandys assumed office, the 
 company had spent £80,000, with the result that 
 there were only six hundred men, women, and children 
 in the colony, in one year after Sandys took up the 
 governorship the company and private adventurers 
 made provision for sending over twelve hundred and 
 sixty-one persons. Great interest in Virginia was 
 kindled throughout England, and gifts and bequests 
 flowed in for founding a colonial college and building 
 up the colonial Church. George Herbert, the poet, 
 and the bosom friend of Nicholas Ferrar, voiced the 
 feeling of the mother country in his verse ; while 
 another poet, George Sandys, son of the Archbishop 
 of York, went out to Virginia as the resident treasurer 
 of the colony of the London Company. 
 
242 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 On the nth of May, 1620, the quarter session was 
 attended by nearly five hundred persons, among whom 
 were twenty peers of the realm, about one hundred 
 knights, an equal number of officers of the army and 
 renowned lawyers, and numerous merchants and men 
 of business. It was the general desire that Sir Edwin 
 Saudys should be continued in the office of governor, 
 but the meeting was postponed in consequence of an 
 effort by the King to nominate another treasurer and 
 governor. At the next quarter session in June, how- 
 ever. Sir Edwin Sandys withdrew his claim in con- 
 sequence of the ill-will of the sovereign. Thereupon 
 the whole court, " with much joy and applause," 
 nominated the Earl of Southampton, and he was 
 elected by a universal show of hands, without having 
 recourse to the ballot-box. 
 
 But Southampton stipulated for the assistance of 
 his friend Sir Edwin Sandys ; and these two, with 
 the further co-operation of Nicholas Ferrar, now for 
 a time managed " the great work of redeeming the 
 noble plantation of Virginia from the ruins that 
 seemed to hang over it." All three were men of 
 high character and ability, the friends of liberty, and 
 thorough Protestants. Under their ausjiices, more 
 than eleven hundred persons now made their way 
 annually to Virginia. Among the emigrants were 
 ninety young women, agreeable in person and respect- 
 able in character, who were sent out at the expense 
 of the company, and were speedily married to enter- 
 prising colonists, who repaid the cost of their passage 
 out. In 1621 sixty more were despatched, maids of 
 virtuous education, young, handsome, and well recom- 
 
 I 
 
OPEEATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 243 
 
 mended. The price rose from one hundred and twenty 
 to one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco, and the 
 debt for a wife was regarded as a debt of honour, 
 which took precedence over any other. In conferring 
 emijloyments, the company gave the preference to 
 married men, and in the course of three years fifty 
 patents for land were granted, the colony thus being 
 placed on a stable foundation. Wrongs were redressed, 
 and the right of the colonists to trial by jury confirmed. 
 The freedom of the northern fisheries was soon equally 
 asserted, and the monopoly of a rival corporation 
 successfully opposed. 
 
 By an important ordinance of the 24th of July, 1621, 
 a written constitution was granted to the colony. It 
 was taken out by Sir Francis Wyatt, who succeeded 
 Yeardley in the governorship. The form of govern- 
 ment was to be analogous to the English Constitution, 
 and it was to a large extent the model for later 
 settlements and colonies. The terms of the Virginia 
 Constitution were few and simple : " a governor, to 
 be appointed by the company ; a permanent council, 
 likewise to be appointed by the company ; a general 
 assembly, to be convened yearly, and to consist of the 
 members of the council, and of two burgesses to be 
 chosen from each of the several plantations by the 
 respective inhabitants. The assembly might exercise 
 full legislative authority, a negative voice being re- 
 served to the governor ; but no law or ordinance would 
 be valid, unless ratified by the company in England. 
 It was further agreed that, after the government of 
 the colony should have once been framed, no orders 
 of the court in London should bind the colony, unless 
 
244 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 they shonld in like manner be ratified by the general 
 assembly. The courts of justice were required to 
 conform to the laws and manner of trial used in the 
 realm of England." 
 
 Representative government and trial by jury were 
 thus conceded as a right ; and " on this ordinance 
 Virginia erected the superstructure of her liberties. 
 Its influences were wide and enduring, and can be 
 traced through all her history. It constituted the 
 I^lantation, in its infancy, a nursery of freemen; and 
 succeeding generations learned to cherish institutions 
 which were as old as the first period of the prosperity 
 of their fathers. The privileges then conceded could 
 never be wrested from the Virginians ; and as new 
 colonies arose at the south, their proprietaries could 
 hope to win emigrants only by bestowing franchises 
 as large as those enjoyed by their elder rival. The 
 London Company merits the praise of having auspi- 
 cated liberty in America. It may be doubted whether 
 any public act during the reign of King James was 
 of more permanent or pervading influence ; and it 
 reflects honour on Sir Edwin Sandys, the Earl of 
 Southampton, Nicholas Ferrar, and the patriot 
 royalists of England, that, though they were unable 
 to establish guarantees of a liberal administration at 
 home, they were careful to connect popular freedom 
 inseparably with the life, prosperity, and state of 
 society of Virginia." 
 
 The question of slavery in Virginia now calls for 
 notice. Slavery was prevalent both in the earlier 
 ages of the world and in medieval times. The 
 Egyptians, the Hebrews, the Moors, and the Chris- 
 
OPERATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY. 245 
 
 tians were all guilty of the practice, and we have 
 already seen that the first discoverer of America 
 enslaved the native Indians. The practice was con- 
 tinned wherever colonization went on, and Virginia 
 and other colonies were corrupted by it, New England 
 also falling into the custom of importing negro slaves. 
 
 A form of slavery known as conditional servitude, 
 under indentures or covenants, existed from the first 
 in Virginia. Men sent over from England were 
 obliged to discharge the costs of their emigration, and 
 oppression by the masters speedily ensued. White 
 servants or slaves were sold at prices ranging from 
 £40 to £80, and came to be regarded as customary 
 articles of traffic. Negroes were valued at £20 or 
 £25. In the year 1619 a Dutch man-of-war entered 
 James River, and landed twenty African negroes for 
 sale, and this formed the epoch of the introduction 
 of negro slaves into the English colonies. By-and-by 
 there was a regular slave trade in the markets of 
 Virginia, and the antipathy between the white and 
 the black races became every year more strongly 
 pronounced. 
 
 The first session under the new constitution was 
 held in November and December, 1621, and the sub- 
 jects discussed related chiefly to the encouragement 
 of domestic industry. From this period dates the 
 first planting of cotton, also the sending of beehives 
 to Virginia, and the exportation of skilful workmen 
 to extract iron from the ore. Five-and-twenty shijD- 
 wrights likewise landed in 1622. Education and 
 religious worship received attention, and the Bishop 
 of London collected and sent over £1,000 towards 
 
246 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 the erection of a university, which was afterwards 
 liberally endowed with lands. 
 
 Wyatt adopted a policy of conciliation towards the 
 natives; and the latter, gradually losing their fears 
 of the British, were employed as fowlers and hunts- 
 men. The English plantations were widely extended 
 along the James River and towards the Potomac, 
 and the great chief Powhatan remained the friend 
 of the colonists. Everything seemed peaceable and 
 prosperous, when suddenly a great act of treachery 
 was perpetrated by the Indians on the 22nd of March, 
 1622. At midday they fell upon a scattered and 
 unsuspecting population occupying an area of one 
 hundred and forty miles on both sides of the river. 
 In one hour no fewer than three hundred and forty- 
 seven persons were slaughtered, including women and 
 children and missionaries. Jamestown was saved by 
 being warned, and placed in a state of resistance ; 
 but whereas before the massacres the emigrants in 
 the colony exceeded four thousand, a year afterwards 
 there only remained two thousand five hundred men. 
 
 The immediate consequences of the Indian rising 
 were disastrous. Public works were abandoned, and 
 the settlements reduced from eighty plantations to 
 eight ; many colonists returned to England ; while 
 numbers of those remaining were ill and dispirited. 
 In England the news excited angry feelings, but the 
 London Company redoubled its energies in strengthen- 
 ing the colony and sending out further detachments 
 of emigrants. Meanwhile, expeditions against the 
 Indians were undertaken by George Sandys, the 
 colonial treasurer, Yeardley, the ex-governor, and 
 
OPEKATIONS OF THE VIRGINIA COUP ANY. 247 
 
 Captain Madison ; and stern reprisals were the order 
 of the day for several years. 
 
 In 1623 another difficulty arose, which seriously 
 affected the status of the London Company. The Earl 
 of Southampton and his friends were true to the 
 interests of the colony ; but the adherents of the 
 former treasurer — conspicuous amongst whom were 
 Argall and his patron the Earl of Warwick — mis- 
 represented matters to the King. Then, as James was 
 contemplating the Spanish marriage with his son, he 
 was further influenced by Gondomar, the Spanish 
 envoy in London, who described the Virginia courts 
 as " but a seminary to a seditious parliament." The 
 company fully answered all allegations against it ; but 
 the King was resolved to recover his authority, which 
 he had signed away in the charter. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 9th of May, 1623, commissioners 
 were appointed to engage in a general investigation 
 of the concerns of the corporation ; the records were 
 seized, the deputy treasurer imprisoned, and private 
 letters from Virginia intercepted. A long examination 
 of Smith seemed to favour the cancelling of the charter 
 as an act of benevolence to the colony. After a pre- 
 liminary order to the Virginia court in June to delay 
 the election of officers — which was disobeyed on grounds 
 furnished by the charter itself— the King, in October, 
 by an Order in Council, made known to the company 
 that the disasters in Virginia were a consequence of 
 their ill government ; that he had resolved by a new 
 charter to reserve to himself the appointment of the 
 officers in England, a negative on appointments in Vir- 
 ginia, and the supreme control of all colonial affairs. 
 
248 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 The "Virginia Company took this order into considera- 
 tion on the 20th of October, and by a majority of sixty 
 votes to nine refused to surrender its charter into the 
 King's hands. Nevertheless, on the 24th, James ap- 
 pointed commissioners to proceed to Virginia, to enquire 
 into the state of the plantation ; and among these com- 
 missioners were John Harvey and Samuel Matthews, 
 men whose names assumed great prominence in the 
 later annals of Virginia. When the commission arrived 
 in the colony, the general assembly was at once con 
 vened, and it was decided to send an agent to England 
 representing the true state of affairs, and entreating 
 the King not to give credence to the statements in 
 favour of Sir Thomas Smith's miserable rule, and 
 repelling the imputations on the administration of 
 Southampton and Ferrar. 
 
 But the King was exasperated because the colonists 
 would not voluntarily surrender their charter. The 
 aid of the Privy Council was again invoked, whereupon 
 the company appealed to the House of Commons for 
 protection. James sent a message to the effect that 
 the Virginia matter was in his hands, and " he would 
 make it one of his masterpieces " ; so they must let 
 it alone. Parliament grudgingly acquiesced ; and the 
 next step was that the case was taken to the Court of 
 King's Bench, where, on the 16th of June, 1624, the 
 patent was declared by the Chief Justice to be null 
 and void. 
 
 Thus was brought about the dissolution of the 
 London Company, but not nntil it had done noble 
 work in completing the colonization of Virginia, and 
 securing a liberal form of government for the English 
 
OPEEATIONS OF THE VIEGINIA COMPANY. 249 
 
 colonists in America. James partially compromised 
 matters by putting the new administration into the 
 hands of a commission, at the head of which, however, 
 he placed Sir Thomas Smith. But the King was pre- 
 vented by the hand of death from fulfilling his intention 
 to prepare a new code of laws for his colony of Virginia, 
 so that posterity was spared one of his juridical 
 masterpieces. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 
 
 THE efforts at colonization made by the Northern 
 Company — or the Plymouth Company, as it is 
 frequently called — were of no less interest than those 
 of the Southern Company. 
 
 Even before the incorporation of the two companies, 
 Sir John Popham, Chief Justice of England, and Sir 
 Ferdinando Gorges, Governor of Plymouth, had agreed 
 to send out a ship each to begin a plantation in the 
 northern region which Captain Waymouth had ex- 
 plored in 1605. Popham had already had experience 
 in colonization, for he was concerned in the project for 
 the plantation of Munster ; while Gorges had for some 
 time indulged the hope of acquiring domains and 
 fortune in America. 
 
 On the last day of May, 1607 — that is, not many 
 months after the first southern exjiedition sailed — a 
 small expedition fitted out by the Northern Company 
 set forth from Plymouth. It consisted of the Mary 
 and John, commanded by Raleigh Gilbert, a younger 
 son of Sir Humphrey ; and the Gift of God, com- 
 manded by Sir George Popham, brother of the Chief 
 
 Justice, who was " well stricken in years and infirm, 
 
 250 
 
SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 251 
 
 yet willing to die in acting something that might be 
 serviceable to God and honourable to his country." 
 On board the former vessel were one hundred and 
 twenty persons, most of whom were well adapted to 
 the work of planting. They had for guide an Indian 
 named Skitwarroes, who had been captured by Way- 
 mouth. In exactly two months the vessels came to 
 anchor on the American coast, off Monhegan Island. 
 
 The emigrants were received in a friendly way by 
 an Indian chief, Nahanada, and they forthwith pro- 
 ceeded to explore the coast and islands, both ships 
 entering the Kennebec on the 16th of August. Three 
 days later they went ashore, and chose the Sabino 
 Peninsula, near the mouth of the River Sagadahoc, 
 for their colony and fort. They " had a sermon 
 delivered unto them by their preacher," the chaplain 
 Richard Seymour, after which Popham's commission 
 was read, as well as the laws appointed by King 
 James. " Without delay, most of the men, under the 
 oversight of the president, laboured hard on a fort 
 which they named St. George, a storehouse, fifty rude 
 cabins for their own shelter, and a church. The 
 carpenters set about the building of a small pinnace, 
 the chief shipwright being one Digby, the first con- 
 structor of sea-going craft in New England. Mean- 
 while, Gilbert coasted toward the west, judged it to 
 be exceeding fertile from the goodly and great trees 
 with which it was covered, and brought back news 
 of the beauty of Casco Bay with its hundreds of isles. 
 When, following the invitation of the mighty Indian 
 chief who ruled on the Penobscot, Gilbert would have 
 visited that river, he was driven back by foul weather 
 
252 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 and cross winds. But he remained faithfully in the 
 colony; and, in December, despatched his ships under 
 another commander, who bore letters announcing to 
 the Chief Justice the forwardness of the plantation, 
 and importuning supplies for the coming year. A 
 letter from President Popham to King James informed 
 that monarch that his justice and constancy, his 
 praises and virtues, had been proclaimed to the 
 natives; and that the country produced fruits resem- 
 bling spices, as well as timber of pine, and lay hard 
 by the great highway to China over the southern 
 ocean. The winter proved to be intensely cold ; no 
 mines were discovered ; the natives, at first most 
 friendly, grew restless ; the storehouse caught fire, 
 and a part of the provisions of the colony was con- 
 sumed ; the emigrants had brought discontent with 
 them ; their president found his grave on American 
 soil, ' the only one of the company that died there ' ; 
 to the discomfort and despair of the poor planters, 
 the ships which revisited the settlement with supplies 
 brought nevrs of the death of the Chief Justice, who 
 had been the stay of the enterprise; and Gilbert, 
 who had shown rare ability, and had succeeded to 
 the command at St. George, had, by the decease of 
 his brother, become heir to an estate in England 
 which required his presence. So, notwithstanding 
 all things were in good forwardness, the fur trade 
 with the Indians prosperous, and a store of sarsaparilla 
 gathered, ' all former hopes were frozen to death,' 
 and nothing was thought of but to quit the place. 
 Wherefore, they all embarked in the newly arrived 
 ships, and in the new pinnace the Virginia^ and set 
 
SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 253 
 
 sail for England. Here was the end of that northern 
 colony upon the River Sagadahoc. The returning 
 colonists ' did coyne many excuses ' to conceal their 
 want of spirit; but the Plymouth Company was 
 dissatisfied ; Gorges esteemed it a weakness to be 
 frightened at a blast. Three years had elapsed since 
 the French had hutted themselves at Port Royal ; and 
 the ships which carried the English from the Kennebec 
 were on the ocean at the same time with the squadron 
 of those who built Quebec during the summer in which 
 Maine was deserted." 
 
 The collapse of the Popham colony did not deter 
 Sir Francis Popham, son of the Chief Justice, from 
 sending several later expeditions to the coast of 
 Maine, at his own cost. But no settlement was 
 effected, and the Northern Virginia Company remained 
 for a time quiescent. In 1614, however, a number of 
 London merchants sent out Captain John Smith with 
 two vessels to Maine. It was a prosperous venture, 
 and much business was done with the fishermen. 
 Smith explored the coast from Penobscot to Cape 
 Cod, prepared a map, and named the country New 
 England, which title Prince Charles confirmed. After 
 Smith left for England, Captain Thomas Hunt, master 
 of the second ship, kidnapped a considerable number 
 of Indians, and sold them as slaves to the Spaniards. 
 One of these escaped, made his way to London, and 
 was restored to his native land to be an interpreter 
 for English emigrants. 
 
 In 1615 Smith was despatched by Gorges and other 
 leading members of the Plymouth Company to found 
 a colony in New England. The efibrt proved abortive, 
 
254 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 for Smith was compelled by violent storms to return 
 to England. During this same year Richard Hawkins, 
 president of the Plymouth Company, sailed to the 
 coast of New England ; but finding a desperate war 
 going on between the savages, he returned to England. 
 Gorges next sent out, at his own expense, Richard 
 Vines, who was a physician, to found a settlement. 
 Vines spent the winter of 1616-17 at "Winter Harbour 
 in Saco Bay. There was a severe pestilence amongst 
 the natives, and Vines nursed them with such skill 
 and assiduity that he was soon held in veneration and 
 affectionate esteem by the natives. Vines traded with 
 the Indians, and also did a great deal of exploring 
 work entirely alone and unaided. In a little canoe 
 he traced the Saco River to its course at Crawford's 
 Notch, a place afterwards painfully associated with 
 the captivity of white men. Vines first described the 
 White Mountains. He restrained the trafiicking in 
 rum with the Indians, and thus " favoured a kind of 
 Maine Law before Maine existed." 
 
 In 1619 Gorges fitted out an expedition under 
 Captain Rocroft, who had before been in Virginia ; but 
 he was killed by his men in a quarrel, and the vessel 
 was lost. Gorges next tried a Captain Dermer, who 
 had once sailed on a voyage with Smith. He left 
 Plymouth in a ship fully commissioned ; and after 
 reaching the Island of Monhegan, he explored the 
 coast from Maine to Virginia in an open pinnace. 
 Next he sailed through Long Island Sound, being the 
 first Englishman to discover the passage. He acquired 
 from the Indians the knowledge, as he thought, of a 
 passage to the South Sea ; but this may have referred 
 
SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 255 
 
 to the Hudson River. Proceeding to Virginia again, 
 be soon afterwards died there. 
 
 The Plymouth Company had always been dissatisfied 
 with the joint charter with the Southern Company, 
 under which the rights of both were specifically 
 defined. So after nearly two years of agitation, they 
 succeeded in obtaining from King James, in November, 
 1620, a new and comprehensive charter for themselves. 
 It was strongly opposed by the Virginia Company ; 
 but Gorges laboured strenuously for it, and succeeded, 
 after ably arguing for the charter before a committee 
 of the House of Commons. The charter was granted 
 to forty persons, some of them members of the King's 
 household and government. The adventurers and 
 their successors were incorporated as " The Council 
 established at Plymouth, in the County of Devon, for 
 the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing New 
 England, in America." Their territory was defined as 
 that land from the fortieth to the forty-eighth degree 
 of latitude ; so that " nearly all the inhabited British 
 possessions to the north of the United States, all New 
 England, New York, half of New Jersey, very nearly 
 all Pennsylvania, and the whole of the country to the 
 west of these States, comprising, and at the time 
 believed to comprise, much more than a million of 
 square miles, and capable of sustaining far more than 
 two hundred millions of inhabitants, were, by a stroke 
 of the pen of King James, given away to a corporation 
 within the realm, composed of but forty individuals. 
 The grant was absolute and exclusive : it conceded 
 the land and islands, the rivers and the harbours, the 
 mines and the fisheries. Without the leave of the 
 
256 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 conncil of Plymonth, not a ship might sail into a 
 harbour from Newfoundland to the latitude of Phila- 
 delphia, not a skin might be purchased in the interior, 
 not a fish might be caught on the coast, not an 
 emigrant might tread the soil. Those who should 
 become inhabitants of the colony were to be ruled, 
 without their own consent, by the corporation in 
 England. A royal proclamation was soon issued, 
 enforcing these provisions ; and a revenue was con- 
 sidered certain from an onerous duty on all tonnage 
 employed in the American fisheries." 
 
 " The results which grew out of the concession of 
 this charter," says Bancroft, " form a new proof, if 
 any were wanting, of that mysterious connection of 
 events by which Providence leads to ends that human 
 councils had not conceived. The patent left the emi- 
 grants at the mercy of the unrestrained power of the 
 corporation ; and it was under grants from that plenary 
 power, confirmed, indeed, by the English monarch, 
 that institutions the most favourable to colonial liberty 
 were established. The patent yielded everything to 
 the avarice of the corporation ; the very extent of the 
 concession rendered it of little value to them. The 
 English nation, incensed at the erection of vast mono- 
 polies by the royal prerogative, prompted the House 
 of Commons to question the validity of the gift ; and 
 the French, whose traders had been annually sending 
 home rich freights of furs, derided the tardy action of 
 the British monarch in bestowing lands and privileges 
 which their own sovereign, seventeen years before, had 
 appropriated. The patent was designed to hasten 
 plantations, in the belief that men would eagerly 
 
SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 257 
 
 throng to the coast, under the protection of the council ; 
 and, in fact, adventurers were delayed through fear of 
 infringing the rights of a powerful company. While 
 the English monopolists were wrangling about their 
 exclusive possessions, the first permanent colony on 
 the soil of New England was established without the 
 knowledge of the corporation and without the aid of 
 King James." 
 
 The Plymouth Company, on finding itself firmly 
 established, made a grant of Nova Scotia, in 1621, to 
 Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling. 
 His rights extended from Cape Sable to the St. 
 Lawrence, including Cape Breton and all the islands 
 within six leagues. This grant encroached upon the 
 disputed territory lying between the French and English 
 settlements, Alexander seems to have desired to set 
 up Scotch Presbyterianism against the growing bands 
 of French Catholic emigrants. 
 
 But the sea-coast of Maine, New Hampshire, and 
 Massachusetts, and the lands extending to the little 
 Plymouth colony just founded, were still unappro- 
 priated. Therefore Gorges, in conjunction with John 
 Mason, also a member of the Plymouth Company, 
 obtained for himself and co-adventurer a grant of 
 the region between the Merrimac and the Kennebec, 
 stretching back to Canada and the Great Lakes. The 
 owners called their territory Laconia ; and their grant 
 being confirmed in 1623, they despatched from England 
 a ship-load of emigrants, consisting of planters and 
 fishermen, to efiect a permanent settlement. When 
 these new settlers arrived off the mouth of the Pisca- 
 taqua, they divided into two parties, one of which 
 
 17 
 
258 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 chose the site of the old town of Portsmouth, New 
 Hampshire, while the other went np the river a few 
 miles and began the settlement of Dover. These were 
 two of the oldest towns in New England. Shortly 
 afterwards Christopher Lovett made an attempt to 
 colonize the connty and city of York. 
 
 In the above year, 1623, Eobert Gorges, a son of Fer- 
 dinando, was appointed governor-general of the whole 
 of the domains belonging to the Plymouth Company, 
 with authority to establish laws and principles of govern- 
 ment similar to those of England. An extensive tract 
 of land on Massachusetts Bay, three hundred square 
 miles in extent, was given him by the company. 
 Under him were Captain West and Captain Lovett, 
 and the governor of the New Plymouth colony recently 
 established. Gorges' wife was a daughter of the Earl 
 of Lincoln, who was interested in Puritan emigration. 
 Not liking the country, however. Gorges returned to 
 Enghind in 1624. His rights were made over to his 
 brother, John Gorges, who subsequently surrendered 
 them to William Brereton, who settled several families 
 upon the lands. 
 
 As yet no permanent settlement had been made on 
 the coast of Maine ; but in 1625 two Bristol merchants, 
 Aldworth and Eldridge, bought Moneghan Island, and 
 established an agent there. Later, they acquired the 
 Point of Pemaquid, where they founded a flourishing 
 colony, which by 1630 numbered eighty-four families. 
 Richard Vines and John Oldham were also granted a 
 tract of land each by the council on the Saco River. 
 These lands had a breadth of four miles each on the 
 sea, and extended inland for eight miles. The two 
 
SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 259 
 
 proprietors founded the towns of Bideford and Saco, 
 whicli were opposite each other on the banks of the 
 river. Thus began the settlements in Maine ; bnt un- 
 fortunately they were of a straggling character, and 
 the colony made but slow progress. In 1631 Mason 
 and Gorges agreed to divide their grant, the former 
 taking all west of the Piscataqua, and calling it New 
 Hampshire, after his own English county, while Gorges 
 took all land east of that stream to the River Saga- 
 dahoc, which he named New Somersetshire, after his 
 own native county. Gorges' settlers planted the town 
 of York, on which an emigrant named Edward Godfrey 
 became the first settler. Gorges set aside twelve 
 thousand acres as a kind of future provisional interest 
 for his family. 
 
 In 1635, however, the reign of the Plymouth 
 Company itself came to an end. In detailing the 
 reasons for this, the historians Bryant and Gay remark : 
 
 " Already bitter complaints were made in England, 
 that discontented spirits, full of disaffection to the 
 King, and hostile to the government of the Established 
 Church, were settling on the grants made by the Ply- 
 mouth Company. Gorges, in New England, was looked 
 upon with jealousy and dislike by many of the Puritans, 
 because of his large territorial claims in their vicinity, 
 as well as on account of his opinions as a loyalist and 
 member of the English Church; on the other hand, 
 he was attacked in England as an upholder and author 
 of the reputed licence of laws and opinions among the 
 new colonies in Massachusetts. He seems to have 
 been deeply hurt at this, after his long and arduous 
 ivork in forwarding the plantation of English colonies 
 
260 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 in New England, and lie ' therefore was moved to 
 desire the rest of the lords, that were the principal 
 actors in this business, that we should resign our 
 grand patent to the King, and pass particular patents 
 to ourselves, of such parts of the country about the 
 sea-coast as might be sufficient to our own uses, and 
 such of our private friends as had affections to works 
 of that nature.' This was done in 1 635, and the lands 
 of the company lying between the forty-eighth and 
 thirty-sixth degree of latitude were parcelled out 
 among its members. 
 
 " This new division confirmed the right of Gorges 
 to the tract lying between the Piscataqua and the 
 Kennebec, with a sea-coast of sixty miles, and an 
 extent of one hundred and twenty miles inland. And 
 now for the first time he called this his province of 
 Maine, and he drew up for it a code of laws, dividing 
 the land first into counties, subdividing these into 
 hundreds, and again into parishes or tithings, as fast 
 as population flowed in to fill up the vacant places. 
 He offered also to transport planters to his domain, 
 promising to assign them a certain portion of land 
 at the low rate of two or three shillings for a hundred 
 acres ; and if any would found a town or city, he would 
 endow it with such liberties and immunities as they 
 would have in England. Others of poorer condition, 
 who would go as labourers, should have as much 
 land as they could till, at the rent of four or six pence 
 an acre, according to the situation." 
 
 King Charles granted a commission to Gorges in 
 April, 1639, constituting him governor of New England, 
 in order to recompense him for past labours and losses. 
 
SKETCH OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY. 261 
 
 Gorges had never seen America, but now in his old 
 age he made preparations to go out to Maine to 
 assume the duties of his important office. He was 
 anxious to found cities, draw up laws, and propound 
 a scheme of colonial government. He never lived to 
 carry out his ideas, however, but was content to send 
 over, in 1640, his kinsman Thomas Gorges instead. 
 But Ferdinando Gorges rendered very serviceable 
 work in the early settlement of New England, and 
 he was a real friend to colonization, working un- 
 selfishly with this view. 
 
 Here we pause in our survey of the New England 
 colonies, which, after the close of the operations of 
 the two Virginia Companies, enter upon a new stage 
 of existence. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 COLONIZATION OF MARYLAND. 
 
 rpHE foundation of Maryland forms an interesting 
 X chapter in the history of North American coloniza- 
 tion. It is inseparably interwoven with the name of 
 Sir George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, and with 
 those of his son and grandson, Cecil and Charles 
 Calvert, who ruled the colony for upwards of fifty 
 years. 
 
 Originally, the land which forms the State of Mary- 
 land was included in the second charter of the Virginia 
 Company ; but before Virginia could occupy the ter- 
 ritory north of the Potomac, it was promised to George 
 Calvert for his separate government. Calvert was 
 a Yorkshireman, and was born at Kipling about the 
 year 1582. He graduated at Oxford in 1597, and 
 became secretary to Sir Robert Cecil, who obtained 
 for him a clerkship of the Privy Council. He was 
 knighted by King James in 1617, and made a Secretary 
 of State, but resigned the ofiice in 1624, as he had 
 become a Roman Catholic. In 1625, however, he 
 was made a peer of Ireland, with the title of Lord 
 Baltimore. 
 
 At a very early stage in his career Calvert was 
 
 262 
 
COLONIZATION OF MARYLAND. 263 
 
 interested in the work of colonization. He was a 
 member of the Virginia Company, and in 1621 obtained 
 a patent from the King for the southern promontory 
 of Newfoundland, which he named Avalon. Here he 
 expended money lavishly in building warehouses and 
 a splendid mansion. Soon after the death of his royal 
 patron he visited his colony, and again in 1629, when 
 he captured some French ships which had been harass- 
 ing the colonists. But Calvert found the climate too 
 severe, and wrote to Charles I. requesting another 
 grant farther south. He visited Virginia and explored 
 Chesapeake Bay, but his religion made him unpopular 
 with the settlers. The King endeavoured to dissuade 
 him from founding another colony ; but Calvert was 
 so persistent, and was so delighted with the country, 
 that he overcame the King's scruples. 
 
 Accordingly, early in 1632, Charles promised Balti- 
 more a new patent, granting him all that part of the 
 country now included in the States of Maryland and 
 Delaware. As Baltimore died in April, 1632, however, 
 the patent was continued to, and made out in the 
 name of, his son Cecilius, or Cecil, Baron Baltimore. 
 The limits of the territory were defined as the ocean, 
 the fortieth parallel of latitude, the meridian of the 
 western fountain of the Potomac, the river itself from 
 its source to its mouth, and a line drawn due east 
 from Watkin's Point to the Atlantic. The name of 
 Maryland was given to the province, after Charles's 
 wife. Queen Henrietta Maria. The land was given to 
 Lord Baltimore and his heirs and assigns for ever, as 
 true and absolute lords and proprietaries. They held 
 by the tenure of fealty only, paying a yearly rent of 
 
264 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 two Indian arrows, and a fifth of all gold and silver 
 ore which might be fonnd. 
 
 But the authority of the governor of Maryland 
 was absolute rather as regarded the Crown than the 
 colonists. "The charter, like the constitution of 
 Virginia of July, 1621, provided for a resident council 
 of state ; and like Calvert's patent, which in April, 1621, 
 had passed the Great Seal for Avalon, secured to the 
 emigrants themselves an independent share in the 
 legislation of the province, of which the statutes were 
 to be established with the advice and approbation 
 of the majority of the freemen or their deputies. 
 Authority was entrusted to the proprietary, from time 
 to time, to constitute fit and wholesome ordinances, 
 provided they were consonant to reason and the laws 
 of England, and did not extend to the life, freehold, 
 or estate of any emigrant. For the benefit of the 
 colony, the statutes restraining emigration were dis- 
 pensed with ; and all present and future liege people 
 of the English King, except such as should be ex- 
 pressly forbidden, might transport themselves and 
 their families to Maryland. Christianity as professed 
 by the Church of England was protected ; but the 
 patronage and advowsons of churches were vested in 
 the proprietary ; and as there was not an English 
 statute on religion in which America was specially 
 named, silence left room for the settlement of religious 
 affairs by the colony. Nor was Baltimore obliged to 
 obtain the royal assent to his appointments of officers, 
 nor to the legislation of his province, nor even to make 
 a communication of the one or the other. Moreover, 
 the English monarch, by an express stipulation, cove- 
 
COLONIZATION OF MAEYLAND. 265 
 
 nanted that neither he, nor his heirs, nor his successors 
 should ever, at any time thereafter, set any imposition, 
 custom, or tax whatsoever upon the inhabitants of the 
 province. To the proprietary was given the power of 
 creating manors and courts baron, and of establish- 
 ing a colonial aristocracy on the system of sub- 
 infeudation. But feudal institutions could not be 
 perpetuated in the lands of their origin, far less renew 
 their youth in America. Sooner might the oldest oaks 
 in Windsor forest be transplanted across the Atlantic 
 than the social forms which Europe was beginning to 
 reject as antiquated. But the seeds of popular liberty, 
 contained in the charter, would find in the New World 
 the soil best suited to quicken them." 
 
 Athough the first Lord Baltimore was a strong 
 supporter of royal prerogative in England, he favoured 
 popular institutions and liberty of conscience in the 
 colonies. Many of the provisions of the Maryland 
 charter were supposed to be due to him, and it was 
 even thought that he might have drawn up the entire 
 paper. His design was to found a colony where there 
 should be, on the one hand, a hereditary landed aris- 
 tocracy and many features of the feudal system, and, 
 on the other hand, an assembly of freemen whose 
 consent should be necessary to all laws. 
 
 In November, 1633, Cecil Calvert, the new Lord 
 Baltimore, sent out an expedition under his brother 
 Leonard to his new domain. The bulk of the emi- 
 grants were labourers, but there were some twenty 
 gentlemen of influence and wealth. Accompanying 
 the expedition, which was under Roman Catholic 
 leadership, were Father Andrew White and Father 
 
266 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Jolm Altham, men of pious and self-sacrificing lives. 
 The former wrote a narrative of the expedition in 
 Latin. The emigrants sailed from Cowes, in the Isle 
 of Wight, in two vessels, the Ark and the Dove, and 
 they arrived at Point Comfort, in Virginia, on the 
 24th of February, 1634, when they received a warm 
 welcome from the governor, Harvey. 
 
 On the 3rd of March the adventurers resumed their 
 journey, and entered the Potomac. The Ark came to 
 an anchor under an island, but Calvert, with the Dove 
 and another pinnace, ascended the stream. About one 
 hundred and fifty miles from the mouth of the river, 
 Calvert landed at the Indian settlement of Piscataqua, 
 nearly opposite Mount Vernon, where he met with an 
 Englishman who traded amongst the Indians. With 
 the aid of this interpreter, who was a Captain Henry 
 Fleet, the settlers parleyed with the Indians, who 
 neither opposed nor welcomed their arrival. Not 
 deeming it wise to plant so far from the sea, Calvert 
 went down the river, examining the creeks and estuaries 
 nearer the Chesapeake. One stream which flowed 
 into the Potomac he named the St. George, and one 
 of the two harbours which formed its mouth he called 
 St. Mary's, which has since become the name of the 
 whole river. About four leagues from the junction of 
 the river with the Potomac, he anchored at the Indian 
 town of Yoacomoco. As the Indians were already 
 quitting the town for a place of more security against 
 the Susquehannah tribes, they readily came to an 
 understanding with the English, whom they permitted 
 to take possession of the site. 
 
 On the 25th of March, the day of the Annunciation, 
 
COLONIZATION OF MARYLAND 267 
 
 the emigrants took possession of the country with 
 solemn ceremonies. Mass was celebrated on the beach 
 — this being the first time in that region — and then, 
 on the highest part of the island, a great cross of 
 wood was erected, round which the emigrants knelt 
 while the Litany was read. Leonard Calvert next 
 proclaimed the English right to the territory, which 
 was taken possession of " for our Saviour and for our 
 Sovereigne Lord and King of England." The governor 
 named the first village of Maryland St. Mary's, and 
 the work of building and planting was at once begun. 
 A Roman Catholic church was erected, and two frag- 
 ments of its rude altar-piece are still preserved in the 
 Roman Catholic College at Georgetown. 
 
 The colonists, more fortunate than many others, 
 endured no suff'erings ; " no fears of want arose, the 
 foundation of the colony of Maryland was peacefully 
 and happily laid, and in six months it advanced more 
 than Virginia in as many years. The proprietary 
 continued with great liberality to provide everything 
 needed for its comfort and protection, expending 
 £20,000 sterling, and his associates as many more. 
 But far more memorable was the character of the 
 Maryland institutions. One of the largest wigwams 
 was allotted to the Jesuit missionaries, who relate 
 that the first chapel in Maryland was built by the 
 Lidiaus. Of the Protestants, though they seem as 
 yet to have been without a minister, the religious 
 rights were not abridged. This enjoyment of liberty 
 of conscience did not spring from any act of colonial 
 legislation, nor from any formal and general edict of 
 the governor, nor from any oath as yet imposed by 
 
268 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 instructions of the proprietary. Englisli statutes were 
 not held to bind the colonies, unless they especially 
 named them ; the clause which, in the charter for 
 Virginia, excluded from that colony ' all persons 
 suspected to affect the superstitions of the Church 
 of Rome ' found no place in the charter for Mary- 
 land; and while allegiance was held to be due, 
 there was no requirement of the oath of supremacy. 
 Toleration grew up in the province silently, as a 
 custom of the land. Through the benignity of the 
 administration, no person professing to believe in the 
 divinity of Jesus Christ was permitted to be molested 
 on account of religion. Roman Catholics, who were 
 oppressed by the laws of England, were sure to find 
 a peaceful asylum on the north bank of the Potomac ; 
 and there, too, Protestants were sheltered against 
 Protestant intolerance. From the first, men of foreign 
 birth were encouraged to plant, and enjoyed equal ad- 
 vantages with those of the English and Irish nations." 
 Grave difficulties arose, however, in connection with 
 the proceedings of an adventurer named William 
 Clayborne, who was protected by the Virginians, and 
 who had purchased from the Indians the right to the soil 
 of the Isle of Kent. The allegiance of Clayborne's 
 settlement was claimed under the patent of Maryland ; 
 but the governor of Virginia told Clayborne that this 
 question was as yet undetermined in England, so 
 the latter went on trading with the natives. Lord 
 Baltimore gave orders to seize him if he did not 
 submit, and the English Secretary of State directed 
 Sir John Harvey to assist in suppressing Clayborne's 
 malicious practices. 
 
COLONIZATION OF MARYLAND. 269 
 
 So matters stood when the colony of Maryland was 
 first convened for legislation in February, 1635. Un- 
 fortunately, no account of the proceedings has come 
 down to us, so it is impossible to say what was done 
 to vindicate the authority of the province. But in 
 April of the above year there was an armed conflict 
 between Clayborne's vessel, the Long Tail — while 
 on a trading voyage — and two pinnaces commissioned 
 by the Marylanders, and commanded by one Cornwallis. 
 The Long Tail was captured ; and when Clayborne 
 sent an armed boat under Ratcliif Warren to recapture 
 her or seize any Maryland vessels he might encounter, 
 Cornwallis, on the 10th of May, slew Ratcliff and two 
 others of the Virginians, taking the rest prisoners. 
 
 As matters now became serious, and the Marylanders 
 demanded the surrender of Clayborne on the charge 
 of felony, the latter proceeded to England to lay his 
 case before the King. There was great excitement at 
 Jamestown, but while Clayborne was away the govern- 
 ment of Maryland was established on the Isle of Kent. 
 In January, 1638, a new assembly was convened, in 
 which the Isle of Kent was represented. An act o 
 attainder was carried against Clayborne, and his 
 officer, Thomas Smith, was brought to trial, condemned, 
 and executed. Meanwhile, the General Assembly of 
 Virginia, equally excited and angry with its governor 
 for not taking strong measures to protect Clayborne 
 and his rights, deposed Harvey and sent him to 
 England for trial, and elected John West as governor 
 in his stead. 
 
 In England Clayborne procured a favourable hearing 
 from Charles ; but when his case was finally referred 
 
270 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 to the commissioners for the plantations, it was decided 
 that Clayborne had no rights as against the charter of 
 Maryland, and that the Isle of Kent belonged to Lord 
 Baltimore, who alone conld permit plantations to be 
 established, or commerce with the Indians to be 
 conducted, within his territory. 
 
 The colonists of Maryland were very jealous of their 
 liberties ; and while the first assembly vindicated the 
 jurisdiction of the colony, and the second asserted its 
 claims to original legislation, the third framed a 
 declaration of rights, asserting the liberties which 
 Englishmen enjoyed at home, establishing a system of 
 representative government, and asserting such powers 
 as were exercised by the Commons of England. As 
 negro slavery already prevailed, however, native or 
 foreign slaves were debarred from the rights enjoyed 
 by the settlers. "In October, 1640, the Legislative 
 Assembly of Maryland, in the grateful enjoyment of 
 happiness, seasonably guarded the tranquillity of the 
 province against the perplexities of an ' interim,' by 
 providing for the security of the government in case 
 of the death of the deputy governor. Commerce was 
 fostered, and tobacco, the staple of the colony, sub- 
 jected to inspection. The act which established Church 
 liberties declares that ' Holy Church, within this 
 province, shall have and enjoy all her rights, liberties, 
 and franchises, wholly and without blemish.' This 
 enactment of a clause in Magna Charta, cited in the 
 preceding century by some of the separatists, as a 
 guarantee of their religious liberty, was practically 
 interpreted as in harmony with that toleration of all 
 believers in the divinity of Jesus Christ which was 
 
COLONIZATIOIT OF MAE YL AND. 271 
 
 the recognized usage of the land. Nor was it long 
 before the inhabitants acknowledged Lord Baltimore's 
 great charge and solicitude in maintaining the govern- 
 ment and protecting them in their persons, rights, 
 and liberties ; and therefore, ' out of desire to return 
 some testimony of gratitnde,' they granted 'such a 
 subsidy as the young and poor estate of the colony 
 could bear.' Ever intent on advancing the interests 
 of his colony, the proprietary invited the Puritans of 
 Massachusetts to emigrate to Maryland, offering them 
 lands and privileges, and ' free liberty of religion ' ; 
 but Gibbons, to whom he had forwarded a commission, 
 was ' so wholly tutored in the New England disci- 
 pline' that he would not advance the wishes of the 
 Irish peer, and the people were not tempted to desert 
 the Bay of Massachusetts for the Chesapeake. 
 
 " The aborigines, alarmed at the rapid increase of the 
 Europeans, and vexed at being frequently overreached 
 by their cupidity, commenced hostilities ; for the 
 Indians, ignorant of the remedy of redress, always 
 plan retaliation. After a war of frontier aggressions, 
 marked by no decisive events, peace was re-established 
 with them on the usual terms of submission and 
 promises of friendship, and rendered durable by the 
 prudent legislation of the assembly and the humanity 
 of the government. Kidnapping them was made a 
 capital offence ; the sale of arms to them prohibited 
 as a felony ; and the pre-emption of the soil reserved 
 to the proprietary. To this right of pre-emption Lord 
 Baltimore would suffer no exception. The Jesuits 
 had obtained a grant of land from an Indian chief ; 
 the proprietary, ' intent upon his own affairs, and not 
 
272 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 fearing to violate the immunities of the Chnrch,' 
 would not allow that it was valid, and persisted in 
 enforcing against Catholic priests the necessity of 
 obtaining his consent before they could acquire real 
 estate in his province in any wise, even by gift." 
 
 In April, 1642, Clay borne was compensated for the 
 loss of his alleged rights by being appointed by the 
 King treasurer of Virginia for life. Meanwhile, 
 Maryland, which was very largely Protestant, though 
 governed by Roman Catholics, was greatly disturbed 
 by the events in England, where Charles and his 
 Parliament were in conflict. Leonard Calvert, Balti- 
 more's deputy, consequently went to England for 
 advice ; and during his absence. Brent, the acting 
 governor, seized a London ship which anchored at St. 
 Mary's, and under a general authority from the King 
 tendered to its crew an oath against the Parliament. 
 But Eichard Ingle, the commander, escaped in January, 
 1644, and it was sought to recapture him and convict 
 him of treason. Calvert returned to find the colony 
 rent by discord, and Clayborne reasserting his claims. 
 Ingle, who had been to England, now returned, and 
 overran the colony. He raised the standard of Parlia- 
 ment, destroyed the records and the Grand Seal, and 
 compelled the governor and secretary, with a few of 
 their adherents, to fly to Virginia. Father White 
 and the other Jesuit missionaries were sent to England, 
 but Ingle tried in vain to impose an oath of submis- 
 sion upon the colonists. 
 
 Calvert appealed to the Virginians for aid, but 
 they only offered to arbitrate, at the same time invit- 
 ing Clayborne to cease from intermeddling on Kent 
 
COLONIZATION OF MARYLAND. 273 
 
 Island. At length, towards the close of 1646, Calvert 
 organized a considerable force, with which he swept 
 down upon St. Mary's and recovered the province. 
 He next reduced Kent Island, and appointed Robert 
 Vaughan, a Protestant, as its commander. Calvert 
 had begun anew a wise and clement rule, when he 
 somewhat suddenly died on the 9th of June, 1647. 
 He appointed Thomas Greene, one of his council, to 
 be. his successor, but times of turmoil and difficulty 
 for the colony ensued. 
 
 The English Parliament was petitioned to remove 
 Lord Baltimore and his deputy, and to settle the 
 government of Maryland in the hands of Protestants. 
 But the matter dragged on for three years without 
 result, which gave Baltimore time to set his own 
 house in order. In August, 1648, he removed Greene, 
 who was a Roman Catholic, and appointed in his 
 place a Protestant named William Stone, who had 
 promised to take out a large number of emigrants to 
 the colony. Stone was bound by an oath to maintain 
 the rights of his lord, but there was to be no perse- 
 cution of the Roman Catholics. A general amnesty 
 was proclaimed; and at the instance of Stone, his 
 council of six was constituted with three Protestants 
 and three Catholics. These, with the representatives 
 of the people of Maryland — of whom five were 
 Catholics — met in a general session of the assembly, 
 held in April, 1649. There was then placed upon the 
 statute-book an Act securing religious freedom for 
 all m the colony. This noble declaration api^eared in 
 the Act : " And whereas the enforcing of the con- 
 science in matters of religion hath frequently fallen 
 
 18 
 
274 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 ont to be of dangerous consequence in those common- 
 wealths where it has been practised, and for the more 
 quiet and peaceable government of this province, and 
 the better to preserve mutual love and amity among 
 the inhabitants, no person within this province, pro- 
 fessing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall be in any- 
 ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced, for his 
 or her religion, or in the free exercise thereof." But 
 this clause was introduced by a proviso couched in 
 a very severe spirit, to the effect that "whatsoever 
 person shall blaspheme God, or shall deny or rejjroach 
 the Holy Trinity, or any of the three Persons thereof, 
 shall be punished with death." 
 
 Still, freedom of conscience was the cardinal prin- 
 ciple of the Act, and Maryland soon became a refuge 
 for oppressed colonists from Virginia. One band of 
 Puritans or Independents who had been banished for 
 Nonconformity by Sir William Berkeley, the governor 
 of Virginia, were granted lands on the banks of the 
 Severn by the Mary landers ; and their place of refuge, 
 to which they gave the name of Providence, is now 
 known as Annapolis. 
 
 By an Act passed in 1650, the Maryland house of 
 representatives was separated from the council, and 
 the right of veto was thus secured to the people. The 
 employment of martial law was limited to the pre- 
 cincts of the camp and the garrison ; and a perpetual 
 Act declared that no tax should be levied upon the 
 freemen of the province, except by the vote of their 
 deputies in a general assembly. Acknowledgment 
 was made of the efforts of the proprietor to secure 
 the peace and happiness of the colony. But after 
 
COLONIZATION OF MARYLAND. 275 
 
 the overthrow of the monarchy and the peerage in 
 England, difficulties supervened in Maryland ; Virginia 
 tried to revive its rights beyond the Potomac ; Stone 
 was active as Lord Baltimore's deputy ; the Long 
 Parliament threatened to intervene ; and, finally, 
 Charles IL issued a commission to Sir William 
 Davenant as governor. 
 
 Owing to some unexplained reason, in the last draft of 
 the instructions to the Parliamentary Commissioners, 
 in 1651, authority was given to reduce "all the 
 plantations within the Bay of the Chesapeake," which 
 included Maryland. Acting upon this, Bennett and 
 Clayborne entered the province in March, 1652. They 
 seized the commissions of Stone and his council, 
 declared them to be null and void, and appointed an 
 executive council to direct the affairs of the colony. 
 An assembly was summoned of burgesses elected 
 only by those freemen who had taken the oath to 
 the Commonwealth of England. But in April the 
 assembly of Virginia, acting in conformity to the 
 manifest desire of the inhabitants of Maryland, re- 
 instated Stone as governor, with a council of which 
 three at least were friends of Lord Baltimore. 
 
 In England, Baltimore was working for the in- 
 dependence of his own colony, and against its union 
 with Virginia. But the dissolution of the Long 
 Parliament brought fresh difficulties. Although, in 
 May, 1654, Stone proclaimed Cromwell as Lord Pro- 
 tector, Bennett and Clayborne — then governor and 
 secretary of Virginia — entered Maryland, and raised 
 troops. Stone was prevailed upon by his Roman 
 Catholic friends to surrender his commission, and 
 
276 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Bennett and Clayborne appointed Captain William 
 Fuller and nine others commissioners for governing 
 Maryland. An assembly was summoned, but all 
 Eoman Catholics, and persons who had borne arms 
 against the Parliament, were disqualified from being 
 either electors or representatives. 
 
 Eeligious feuds arose ; and when the assembly 
 met in October, 1654, at Patuxent, the authority of 
 Cromwell was recognized, and the whole Romish 
 party were formally disfranchised. Baltimore, who 
 described these proceedings, when he heard of them, 
 as " illegal, mutinous, and usurped," took steps 
 through his officers to vindicate his supremacy. Stone 
 resumed his authority, stating that his resignation 
 had been extorted by force, and Papists and friendly 
 Protestants were empowered to levy men. The 
 leaders regained possession of the provincial records. 
 But in a conflict with his opponents Stone was 
 defeated, and yielded himself and his company as 
 prisoners. A council of war condemned the governor 
 and his councillors, with some others, to be shot ; but 
 although three Roman Catholics and one Protestant 
 were executed. Stone and five others were spared. 
 
 Cromwell was appealed to in order to effect a settle- 
 ment in Maryland, but he left the jurisdiction an open 
 question. In July, 1656, consequently, Baltimore 
 commissioned Josiah Fendall as his lieutenant, and 
 sent over his brother Philip Calvert as councillor 
 and principal secretary of the province. But Fendall 
 was seized by those who had usurped authority, and 
 he was only released on promising to return to 
 England, there to await a final decision. " To England, 
 
COLONIZATION OF MAETLAND. 277 
 
 therefore, lie sailed the next year, that he might consnlt 
 with Baltimore, leaving Barber, a former member of 
 Cromwell's household, as his deputy. Still the Pro- 
 tector, by reason ' of his great affairs,' had not leisure 
 to consider the report of the commissioners for trade 
 on the affairs of Maryland. 
 
 "At last, in November, 1657, Lord Baltimore, by 
 ' the friendly endeavours of Edward Digges,' negotiated 
 with Bennett and Matthews, all being then in England, 
 an agreement for the recovery of his province. The 
 proprietary covenanted so far to waive his right of 
 jurisdiction as to leave the settlement of past offences 
 and differences to the disposal of the Protector and 
 his Council ; to grant the land claims of * the people 
 in opposition,' without requiring of them an oath of 
 fidelity, but only some engagement for his support ; 
 and, lastly, he promised for himself never to consent 
 to a repeal ' of the law whereby all persons professing 
 to believe in Jesus Christ have freedom of conscience 
 there.' 
 
 " Returning to his government with instructions, 
 Fendall, in the following March, held an interview 
 with Fuller, Preston, and the other commissioners at 
 St. Leonards, when the agreement was carried into 
 effect. The Puritans were further permitted to retain 
 their arms, and were assured of indemnity for their 
 actions. The proceedings of the assemblies and the 
 courts of justice, since the year 1652, in so far as 
 they related to questions of property, were confirmed." 
 
 After the death of Cromwell, further action on 
 the part of the colony of Maryland became necessary. 
 Consequently, on the 12th of March, 1660, its repre- 
 
278 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 sentatives — meeting in the house of one Robert Slye 
 — voted themselves a lawful assembly, without de- 
 pendence on any other power in the province. The 
 burgesses refused to acknowledge the rights of the 
 body claiming to be an upper house, and Governor 
 Fendall yielded to the popular will. The representa- 
 tives having settled the government, irrespective of 
 Baltimore and his deputy and council, further passed 
 an Act making it felony to disturb the new order of 
 things. 
 
 Maryland, in the year of the Restoration of the 
 Stuarts, was thus in possession of its liberties, 
 asserted and defined by representatives elected by the 
 popular vote. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF NEW AMSTEEDAM. 
 
 IT was naturally to be expected that the Dutch, who 
 were a race of navigators, would early turn their 
 attention to North American exploration. 
 
 Consequently, we find that William Barentz, a pilot 
 of Amsterdam, sailed with several expeditions from 
 Holland, in search of a north-east passage, towards 
 the close of the sixteenth century. The first vessel, 
 which was fitted out by the city of Amsterdam, left 
 Holland on the 5th of June, 1 594, reached the north- 
 east extremity of Nova Zembla, and returned. A second 
 expedition of seven vessels was despatched in 1595, 
 but too late to be successful ; a third, however, con- 
 sisting of two ships, which left in May, 1596, reached 
 Spitzbergen. The two vessels parted, and Barentz's 
 vessel, encountering ice to the north-east of Nova 
 Zembla, turned southwards. Barentz and his crew 
 were frozen up in Ice Haven, where they spent a 
 terrible winter. In June, 1597, they were able to 
 leave in two boats, and Barentz died shortly after- 
 wards. The Barentz Sea, between the European 
 mainland and Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen, and Franz 
 Josef Land, still preserves the name of this adventurous 
 mariner. 
 
 279t 
 
280 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 The next explorer in tliese regions was the dis- 
 tinguished English navigator Henry Hudson, of whom 
 little is known until 1607, when he commanded the 
 last expedition under the Muscovy Company. He 
 was instructed to proceed directly across the Pole, but 
 he was stopped by the ice. On a second expedition 
 he penetrated as far as Nova Zembla, but was again 
 blocked by the ice and compelled to return. Being 
 invited to the Netherlands, Hudson undertook a third 
 voyage in 1609 from Amsterdam, at the expense of 
 the Dutch East India Company. Abandoning all 
 hope of finding a north-east passage, he sailed for 
 Davis Strait, then steered southwards, and discovered 
 the mouth of the river which now bears his name, 
 sailing up its waters for one hundred and fifty miles. 
 Hudson's last voyage was undertaken in 1610, when, 
 in the Discoverie, of seventy tons, he reached Greenland 
 in June. Turning towards the west, he discovered 
 the strait now known as Hudson Strait, passed 
 through it, and entered the great bay now known as 
 Hudson Bay. Here he resolved to winter, but food 
 fell short, and the men mutinied. Hudson was cast 
 adrift, with eight others, on Midsummer Day, 1611. 
 The leading mutineers perished miserably in a scuffle 
 with savages, and the survivors, after great suffering, 
 landed safely on English shores. 
 
 Although Hudson's discoveries were of great 
 importance, they were regarded with comparative 
 indifference by the Netherlanders as a whole. The 
 States-General placed commercial results before any 
 others. When enquiries from various Dutch cities 
 reached them, they simply gave information about the 
 
. SETTLEMENT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 281 
 
 situation of the new river and the best rente to reach 
 it. So also the East India Company by no means 
 regarded the discovery by Hudson of the Great River 
 of the Mountains as a set-off for his failure to find the 
 north-east passage. But when Hudson's vessel, the 
 Half -moon — which he used in the expedition of 1609 
 — reached Amsterdam, after being detained in England, 
 the Company engaged part of her crew to go out to the 
 great bay and river in a vessel of their own, and trade 
 with the natives for furs, etc. The experiment proved 
 a very profitable one, and a brisk trade began to 
 spring up, which ultimately grew into an important 
 branch of commerce. 
 
 Little round-prowed Dutch vessels soon became 
 familiar objects to the Indians, as the explorers sailed 
 up the Hudson in quest of trade. In the course of 
 a few years, Manhattan Island formed the principal 
 station for the collection of peltries, etc., and their 
 shipment to home ports. Unsuccessful efforts were 
 made to raise European goats on the island, which 
 boasted of a fort and several small buildings. The 
 Dutch began to call the river the Mauritius, after the 
 Stadtholder Maurice of Orange. In addition to trading 
 on the river, the Netherlanders included in their opera- 
 tions the bays of what is now New Jersey, as well 
 as the coast as far south as Delaware Bay, besides 
 opening up fresh stations. 
 
 " Foremost in these enterprises," observes one his- 
 torian, " were Hendrick Christaensen, Adriaen Block, 
 and Cornells Jacobsen May, three Dutch captains, 
 who, by the end of the four years following Hudson's 
 voyage, had grown most familiar with the new region, 
 
282 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 and had engaged their ships most successfully in its 
 trade. Christaensen, who by that time had made ten 
 voyages to the river, bnilt the first great trading post 
 upon it, in 1614 — Fort Nassau, on Castle Island, close 
 by Albany — and was appointed its commander. 
 
 " Block spent the winter of 1613-14 on Manhattan 
 Island in building a yacht of sixteen tons, the Onrust 
 (Restless), to take the place of his ship, the Tiger, 
 which had accidentally been burned. In the spring 
 he sailed eastward, passing through the rapids of 
 Hell-Gate in the East River, explored Long Island 
 Sound from end to end, discovered and entered the 
 Quonehtacut or Connecticut River, and made his way 
 up the New England coast as far as what he called 
 Pye Bay — now the Bay of Nahaut— which he called 
 < the limit of New Netherland.' He visited the shores 
 of Narragansett Bay, and saw within it that ' Roode ' 
 or 'Red' Island from which the modern State of 
 Rhode Island derives its name. Martha's Vineyard 
 and Nantucket the Dutch named Texel and Vieland ; 
 the waters surrounding them the Zuyder Zee ; the 
 island which still bears Block's name, north-east of 
 Montank Point, they called ' Visscher's Hoeck.' 
 Meeting Hendrick Christaensen' s ship, the Fortune, 
 which had been sent to Cape Cod Bay, perhaps to take 
 him on board, Block transferred the Restless to another 
 skipper, Cornells Hendricksen, and sailed in the other 
 vessel to Holland, adding his report to the list of 
 explorations which revealed the extent and wealth of 
 the new country. 
 
 " May had seen ' Yisscher's Hoeck ' even before 
 Block, and had visited the coast of Martha's Vineyard. 
 
SETTLEMENT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 283 
 
 But bis name is perpetuated farther south, in the 
 Cape May of Southern New Jersey ; though New York 
 Bay was for many years called, in his honour. Port 
 May." 
 
 On the 20th of March, 1614, the traders secured 
 from the States-General a decree, in general terms, 
 by which any discoverers of " new passages, havens, 
 lands, or places " should have " the exclnsive right of 
 navigating to the same for four voyages," provided 
 they reported their discoveries within fourteen days 
 after their return to Holland. Some months later, 
 they appeared before the Assembly of the States, and 
 asked for a more extended protection and a special 
 charter, pointing out the expense and the dangers 
 attending their labours. A charter was consequently 
 granted on the 11th of October, in which the name 
 " New Netherland " was first officially applied to the 
 American region " between New France and Virginia, 
 being the sea-coasts between 40° and 45°." A company 
 was formed called the New Netherland Company, and 
 to it was granted the monopoly of the trade for three 
 years, from the 1st of Janaary, 1615. No other Dutch 
 citizens were permitted to frequent or navigate the 
 newly discovered lands, havens, or places, " on penalty 
 of the confiscation of the vessel and cargo, besides 
 a fine of fifty thousand Netherlands ducats." 
 
 The company cared little for exploration, but made 
 the most of the commercial advantages allotted to 
 them for the brief period of their charter. Friendly 
 relations were maintained with the Indians, though 
 the traders promptly executed a native who was guilty 
 of the murder of Hendrick Christaensen. All went 
 
284 THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 well, and trade increased, while the interest of Holland 
 was naturally kept alive in the company's operations. 
 A trading honse and defences were erected at Fort 
 Nassau, and from this place the director, Jacob 
 Eelkens, despatched ever-increasing stores of furs down 
 the river to Manhattan. His assistants made frequent 
 expeditions into the great western forests to trade for 
 skins with new Indian tribes. One party, consisting 
 of three men, reached the upper waters of the Dela- 
 ware; but on descending the stream to the mouth of 
 the Schuylkill, were seized by the Indians and held 
 as prisoners. They were not slain or injured, however. 
 
 As soon as the Manhattan traders heard of their 
 detention, they sent Cornelis Hendricks en in the yacht 
 Restless to go and ransom them, Hendricksen ex- 
 plored the shores of Delaware Bay and River, rescued 
 the captives, and returned with glowing accounts that 
 the river banks were covered with grape-vines and 
 abounded in game. He reported, too, that he had 
 opened up a trade with the natives for seal-skins. 
 Hendricksen's discoveries completed the survey of the 
 whole coast belonging to the New Netherland Com- 
 pany ; and on the strength of his discoveries the 
 company applied for a new special charter, but the 
 States-General were too reluctant to encroach upon 
 the territories of Virginia to grant it. 
 
 In 1617 Jacob Eelkens concluded the first formal 
 treaty with the Indians ; but on the 1st of January, 
 1618, the New Netherland Company's charter expired, 
 and all efforts to renew i^t failed. Traders, however, 
 still continued to use their old privileges without 
 molestation or competition. But Holland was now 
 
SETTLEMENT OF NEW AMSTEKDAM. 285 
 
 fully awake to the value of the territories in North 
 America, especially for extending Dutch commercial 
 relations abroad. The result was that, in 1621, the 
 great West India Company was incorporated, and 
 chartered by the States-General with powers almost 
 equal to those of the Eastern Company. The patent 
 of the West India Company, " with that assumption 
 of authority which belonged to the great monopolies 
 of the time, forbade any and all inhabitants of the 
 United Netherlands, for twenty-two years after the 
 1st of July, 1621, to sail to the coast of Africa 
 between the tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good 
 Hope, or to those of America between the Banks 
 of Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan, except 
 in the service of the West India Company. In the 
 Dutch territory in America its power was practically 
 absolute. It could make treaties, appoint governing 
 officers from the highest to the lowest, build and 
 garrison forts, administer justice, exercise, in fact, 
 all the functions of a government, and was only 
 responsible to the States-General for its acts as shown 
 through its own reports. Its central board of nineteen 
 delegates, drawn from its five chambers of directors in 
 Amsterdam, Middleburg, Dordrecht, North Holland, 
 Friesland and Groningen, together with a representa- 
 tive of the States-General, sat at their council-board 
 at home, and ruled a territory immeasurably greater 
 than their little state built upon the marshes ; a 
 small army of officials and a considerable merchant 
 fleet carried out their orders ; thirty-two vessels of 
 war and eighteen armed yachts were at their service 
 in case they needed defence. 
 
286 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 " It was to the Amsterdam chamber of this powerful 
 corporation that the affairs of all the region of 
 New Netherland were given in charge ; and by the 
 authority of their patent the West India Company 
 formally ' took possession ' of the country in the 
 spring of 1622. The enterprise of private traders had 
 not been discontinued in the meantime ; for the fur 
 trade had been so vigorously prosecuted along the 
 coasts to the south and east of Manhattan, and even 
 in the bays near which the New English colony of 
 Plymouth had been founded, that Sir Dudley Carleton, 
 King James's ambassador at The Hague, had 
 entered a protest against the encroachment. But this 
 remonstrance went through a process which would 
 now be called ' stifled in committee ' ; for it was 
 referred first to one branch of the Netherlands Govern- 
 ment and then to another, each professing ignorance 
 of any actual Dutch establishment in America, until 
 at last the subject was fairly forgotten. At all events, 
 it was not permitted to interfere with the West 
 India Company's plans ; these went steadily on, and 
 now took such shape as for the first time promised 
 the new territory a permanent population, and began 
 to change it from being the resort of transient traders 
 to the site of settled and lasting colonies." 
 
 In March, 1623, the ship New Netherland left 
 Amsterdam with the first colonists. These were 
 chiefly Walloons, Netherlanders of French origin, who 
 had been driven from their homes in the southern 
 provinces by the fierce religious persecution of the 
 Spaniards. They now went out to their new home 
 under the command of Captain Cornells Jacobsen 
 
SETTLEMENT OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 287 
 
 May. They were landed on the west bank of the 
 Mauritius or North River, as far north as where the 
 fort had been on Castle Island. This was the actual 
 site of Albany, now the capital of the State. Here 
 they set to work with a will, erecting huts, raising 
 corn, and carrying on an amicable trade with the 
 Indians. This new and permanent settlement was 
 named New Amsterdam. A fort was thrown up called 
 Fort Orange. 
 
 A few settlers were sent from Manhattan to the 
 South Delaware River, and a number of others to 
 the north of the Connecticut or Fresh River, and to 
 the western end of Long Island at Walloons Bay, or 
 Wallabout, as the English corrupted the name. Eight 
 men were also appointed to form a trading establish- 
 ment for the company at Manhattan Island. The 
 settlers on the South River built a fort, and they were 
 soon trading northward and eastward all along the coast 
 to Narragansett Bay. By December, 1624, all was 
 going on peaceably and profitably in the settlements. 
 
 May, who was the first governor of New Amsterdam, 
 was appointed in 1624 ; William Verhult, the second, 
 was commissioned in 1625; and Peter Minuit, the 
 third, was appointed in 1626. Minuit seems to have 
 been an able and enterprising man, and it was he who 
 made Manhattan what it came to be politically. He 
 bought the whole island for sixty guilders, or about 
 £5 of English money; but a thousand millions 
 would not now buy the island on which New York 
 stands. Danger of disturbances having arisen at Fort 
 Orange, the plans of Minuit for Manhattan were 
 assisted by his withdrawal of the colonists from the 
 
288 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 fort, leaving only a small garrison. Concentration 
 was further assisted by the migration of the settlers 
 on the South River to the main colony. In a short 
 time a large quadrangular stone fort was constructed, 
 which was called Fort Amsterdam. 
 
 The West India Company soon began to convey 
 valuable cargoes to Holland, and to bring back other 
 goods and fresh settlers. The governor of New 
 Amsterdam sent his secretary as a formal ambassador 
 to Bradford, the Puritan governor of New England ; 
 and although the latter looked askance at the new 
 settlers, and at first questioned their rights, eventually 
 an excellent trade sprang up in various native com- 
 modities between Manhattan and Plymouth. 
 
 By the year 1628 the Island of Manhattan had a 
 population of two hundred and seventy, and the profits 
 of the West India Company's fur trade had more than 
 doubled. The colony went on prospering, and mills and 
 factories began to be erected. The early settlers had 
 many trials and struggles, as was the case indeed with 
 all the American colonies ; and they were frequently 
 engaged in conflict with the Indians. In August, 
 1664, the English, under Colonel Nichols, dispossessed 
 the Dutch and the Swedes, and changed the name of 
 the colony to New York, Charles II. having given the 
 territory to his brother the Duke of York. The city 
 was confirmed to England by the Peace of Breda, 
 the 24th of August, 1667; but in 1673 it was retaken 
 by the Dutch, and named New Orange. In 1674, 
 however, the English once more captured the city, 
 and it remained henceforward in their possession 
 until the War of the Revolution. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE PUEITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 
 
 IN order to understand the circumstances whicli led 
 a number of the English Puritans to leave their 
 native land and establish themselves as settlers in New 
 England, a brief sketch of the Puritan movement is 
 necessary. 
 
 It was a movement which sprang up within the 
 Church of England itself. According to Fuller and 
 Strype, the name of Puritan was first given — between 
 1560 and 1570 — to those clergymen who refused to con- 
 form to the English liturgy, ceremonies, and discipline 
 as arranged by Archbishop Parker and his coadjutors. 
 Fuller fixes 1564 and Strype 1569 as the date of the 
 first use of the word. The Puritan clergy believed that 
 the Church did not separate itself decisively enough 
 from Roman Catholicism, and that it needed further 
 reformation. These principles gradually spread among 
 the serious portion of the laity, who likewise came to be 
 distinguished by the title of Puritans. Ultimately the 
 word came to be used by the Elizabethan dramatists 
 and others to mean all persons who gave up the plea- 
 sures of the world, and assumed a grave and strict 
 habit of life. 
 
 289 19 
 
290 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 As regards the Puritans in the Chnrch, some would 
 have accepted a moderate reform in the rights, dis- 
 cipline, and liturgy ; others, like Cartwright, desired to 
 abolish Episcopacy altogether, and to substitute Prcs- 
 byterianism ; while a third party, the Brownists, were 
 uncompromising dissenters, opposed both to Presby- 
 terianism and Episcopacy. The historian Hume, who 
 certainly cannot be accused of undue partiality for the 
 Puritans, was constrained to acknowledge that they were 
 the preservers of civil and religious liberty in England. 
 
 The first secession from the Church took place in 
 1563, but the leading foreign Reformers deplored it, 
 as they wished for an adjustment. Nevertheless, 
 Puritan principles spread rapidly. Eobert Browne, the 
 founder of the Brownists, was born about 1550 at 
 Tolethorpe, in Rutlandshire. He graduated at Cam- 
 bridge in 1572, and became a schoolmaster and an 
 open-air preacher in London. In 1580 he began his 
 campaign against the order and discipline of the Estab- 
 lished Church, and soon afterwards formed a dis- 
 tinct Church on apostolic and congregational principles 
 at Norwich. He was imprisoned by Bishop Freake, 
 but released through the influence of his kinsman 
 Lord Burghley. In 1581, however, he was compelled 
 to take refuge with his followers at Middleburg, in 
 Holland. Browne returned to England in 1584; and 
 reconciling himself to the Established Church, was 
 appointed master of Stamford Grammar School in 1586, 
 and rector of a Northamptonshire church in 159L 
 Being of a very violent temper, when upwards of 
 eighty years of age he was sent to Northampton Jail 
 for an assault on a constable, and died in iail about 1633. 
 
THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHERS. 291 
 
 But although Browne early abandoned the distinctive 
 princijiles associated with his name, those principles 
 made great headway, and they may be said to have 
 given birth to the Independents and Congregationalists. 
 As an example of the religions persecution which the 
 Puritans had to undergo in Elizabeth's reign, we may 
 cite the case of John Udall, a Brownist minister, who 
 was tried in the year 1591 for having published a 
 defence of the doctrines of the Browuists. This work 
 was entitled, A Demonstration of the Discipline which 
 Christ hath prescribed in His Word for the Government 
 of the Church in all Times and Places until the World^s 
 End. An attack on the Established Church Elizabeth 
 regarded as an attack upon herself, so Udall was 
 arrested for a political libel, and arraigned on a capital 
 charge of felony. According to the barbarous usages 
 of the time, the witnesses were not confronted with 
 the prisoner, and he was not allowed to call exculpatory 
 evidence. As he declined to swear that he was not 
 the author of the book, his refusal was treated as a 
 confession of guilt. When he was told by one of the 
 judges that " a book replete with sentiments so incon- 
 sistent with the established institutions tended to the 
 overthrow of the State by the provocation of rebellion, 
 he replied, ' My Lords, that be far from me ; for we 
 teach that, reforming things amiss, if the prince will 
 not consent, the weapons that subjects are to fight 
 withall are repentance and prayers, patience and 
 tears.' The judge offered him his life if he would 
 recant ; and added, that he was now ready to pro- 
 nounce sentence of death. ' And I am ready to receive 
 it/ exclaimed this magnanimous man ; ' for I protest 
 
292 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 before God (not knowing that I am to live an hour), 
 that the cause is good, and 1 am contented to receive 
 sentence, so that I may leave it for posterity how I 
 have suffered for the cause.' He was condemned to 
 die ; and being still urged to submit to the Queen, he 
 willingly expressed his regret that any of his writings 
 should have given her offence, and disclaimed any 
 such wish or intention, but firmly refused to disown 
 what he believed to be truth, or to renounce liberty of 
 conscience. By the interest of some powerful friends, 
 a conditional pardon was obtained for him ; but before 
 the terms of it could be adjusted, or the Queen pre- 
 vailed on to sign it, he died in prison. Penry, Green- 
 wood, Barrow, and Dennis, of whom the first two were 
 clergymen, and the others laymen, were soon after 
 tried on similar charges, and perished by the hands of 
 the executioner. A pardon was offered to them if they 
 would retract their profession; but inspired by a courage 
 which no earthly motive could overcome, they clung 
 to their principles, and left the care of their lives to 
 Heaven. Some more were hanged for dispersing the 
 writings and several for attending the discourses of 
 the Brownists. Many others endured the torture of 
 severe imprisonment, and numerous families were 
 reduced to indigence by heavy fines." 
 
 The two cardinal principles enunciated by the 
 Brownists were these : first, if the King, or the 
 magistrate under the King, refused or demurred to 
 reforming the Church, the people might sever them- 
 selves from the National Church, and for themselves 
 individually undertake a reformation ; and, secondly, 
 a Church might be gathered by a number of believers 
 
THE PUKITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHEES. 293 
 
 coming together under a willing covenant made among 
 themselves, without civil authority. 
 
 Among those accused of assisting to spread the 
 doctrines of the Brownists were two persons named 
 Copping and Thacker. Under the interpretation of 
 the law laid down by the Lord Chief Justice of 
 England, they were hanged for the felony of sedition. 
 When Elizabeth was told of the calm piety of the 
 martyrs, and their prayers for herself as they went 
 to their death, her heart for a time relented. But 
 the persecuting spirit soon returned again, and she 
 had for her chief adviser Archbishop Whitgift, who 
 governed the Church with a rod of iron, and insisted 
 upon subscription to points which had hitherto re- 
 mained in abeyance. 
 
 In the year 1593 a new and yet severer law was 
 enacted against the Puritans. These religious re- 
 formers were not only increasing in numbers every 
 day, bnt were furnishing so many votaries " of the 
 Brownist or independent doctrines, that, in the debate 
 which took place in the House of Commons on the 
 introduction of this measure. Sir Walter Raleigh 
 stated, that the numbers of professed Brownists alone 
 then amounted to twenty thousand. The humane 
 arguments, however, which he derived from this con- 
 sideration were unavailing to prevent the passing of 
 a law which enacted, that any person above sixteen 
 years of age who obstinately refused, during the space 
 of a month, to attend public worship in a legitimate 
 parochial Church should be committed to prison ; 
 that, if he persisted three months in his refusal, he 
 must abjure the realm ; and that, if he either refused 
 
294 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 this condition or returned after banishment, he should 
 suffer death as a felon. If this act was not more 
 fortunate than its predecessors in accomplishing the 
 main object of checking the growth of Puritan 
 principles, it promoted at least the subordinate pur- 
 pose of driving a great many of the professors of 
 ecclesiastical indei)endency out of England. A 
 numerous society of these fugitives was collected 
 about the close of the sixteenth century at Amster- 
 dam, where they flourished in peace and piety for 
 upwards of a hundred years. Others retired to various 
 Protestant states on the Continent, whence with fond, 
 delusive hopes they expected to be recalled to their 
 native land on the accession of Elizabeth's successor. 
 The remainder continued in England to fluctuate 
 between the evasion and the violation of the law, — 
 cherishing with their principles a stern impatience, 
 generated by the galling restraints that impeded the 
 free expression of them ; and yet retained in sub- 
 mission by the hope which, in common with the 
 exiles, they indulged of a mitigation of their sufferings 
 on the demise of the Queen." 
 
 But the hopes indulged of James I. on his accession 
 proved fallacious. There seemed nothing before the 
 Puritans but emigration, in order to enjoy liberty of 
 conscience. John Penry, the Welsh martyr, who had 
 taken degrees both at Oxford and Cambridge, had 
 prophetically said just before his death, " Take my 
 poor desolate widow and my mess of fatherless and 
 friendless orphans with you into exile ; you shall yet 
 find days of peace and rest, if you continue faith- 
 ful." Francis Johnson, another persecuted clergyman, 
 
THE PURITANS— LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 295 
 
 eventually gathered his exiled flock into a Churcli 
 at Amsterdam, where it shone as an example for at 
 least a century. William Brewster, of the Scrooby 
 Manor-house, Nottinghamshire, procured good Puritan 
 preachers, and sent them to all places in the vicinity 
 of Scrooby at his own expense. He had held a small 
 office under Queen Elizabeth, but he had been shocked 
 by the tyranny of the bishops against godly preachers 
 and people. 
 
 The Hampton Court Conference was held in January, 
 1604, when an attempt was made to arrive at an 
 amicable understanding between the Church and the 
 Puritans. But it proved abortive, for James strenu- 
 ously upheld the complete authority of the Church of 
 England. " I will have none of that liberty as to 
 ceremonies," he said ; " I will have one doctrine, one 
 discipline, one religion in substance and in ceremony." 
 The erewhile Presbyterian thus became at once a 
 full-blown Episcopalian. When the Puritans desired 
 permission to assemble occasionally, and to enjoy the 
 liberty of free discussion, the King peremptorily stifled 
 the request ; and turning to the bishops, he remarked, 
 " I will make them conform, or I will harry them out 
 of the land, or else worse, only hang them ; that's all." 
 The necessity of subscrijjtion was enforced, and a time 
 set within which all clergymen should conform, or be 
 removed from their benefices. 
 
 Whitgift died six weeks after the close of the 
 conference, and he was succeeded as Archbishop by 
 Bancroft, who required conformity with unrelenting 
 rigour, while the King issued a proclamation of equal 
 severity. In the year 1604 alone three hundred 
 
296 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Puritan ministers were silenced, inaprisoned, or exiled. 
 Then, by the Canons of the Convocation of 1606, every 
 doctrine of popular rights was denied, and the supe- 
 riority of the King to the Parliament and the laws 
 asserted. Church and monarch reigned for the time 
 supreme. 
 
 But in this same year, 1606, " a poor people " in the 
 north of England, " in towns and villages of Notting- 
 hamshire, Lincolnshire, and the borders of Yorkshire, 
 in and near Scrooby, had ' become enlightened by the 
 Word of God. Presently they were both scoffed and 
 scorned by the profane multitude ; and their ministers, 
 urged with the yoke of subscription,' were, by the 
 increase of troubles, led ' to see further,' that not only 
 Hhe beggarly ceremonies were monuments of idolatry,' 
 but also ' that the lordly power of the prelates ought 
 not to be submitted to.' Many of them, therefore, 
 ' whose hearts the Lord had touched with heavenly 
 zeal for His truth,' resolved, ' whatever it might cost 
 them, to shake off the anti-Christian bondage, and, as 
 the Lord's free people, to join themselves by a covenant 
 into a Church estate in the fellowship of the Gospel.' 
 Of the same faith with Calvin, heedless of acts of 
 Parliament, they rejected ' the offices and callings, 
 the courts and canons,' of bishops ; and renouncing 
 all obedience to human authority in spiritual things, 
 asserted for themselves an unlimited and never-ending 
 right to make advances in truth, and ' walk in all the 
 ways which God had made known or should make 
 known to them.' 
 
 " ' The Gospel is every man's right ; and it is not to 
 be endured that any one should be kept therefrom. 
 
THE PUEITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHERS. 297 
 
 But the Evangel is an open doctrine ; it is bound to no 
 place, and moves along freely under heaven, like the 
 star which ran in the sky to show the wizards from 
 the East where Christ was born. Do not dispute with 
 the prince for place. Let the community choose their 
 own pastor, and support him out of their own estates. 
 If the prince will not suffer it, let the pastor flee into 
 another land, and let those go with him who will, as 
 Christ teaches.' Such was the counsel of Luther on 
 reading ' the twelve articles ' of the insurgent peasants 
 of Swabia. What Luther advised, what Calvin planned, 
 was carried into effect by this rural community of 
 Englishmen." 
 
 The Reformed Church chose as their leading minister 
 John Robinson, a godly, modest, and learned man, 
 while William Brewster was their ruling elder. They 
 met to worship God as opportunity offered, but always 
 under great hardships. At length they determined to 
 go into exile, and Holland was chosen as a sanctuary. 
 Brewster had once served as a diplomatist in the Low 
 Countries. The first attempt of this Puritan band 
 to leave England, in 1607, was circumvented, and a 
 number of them were imprisoned. 
 
 In the spring of 1608 the design was renewed, an 
 unfrequented heath in Lincolnshire, near the mouth 
 of the Humber, being chosen as the place of meeting. 
 The authorities again interfered, but in the end 
 Robinson and Brewster and their followers were 
 allowed to leave their native land. They arrived in 
 Amsterdam in 1608 ; but even now their wanderings 
 were not at an end. " They knew they were PUgrims,^^ 
 and therefore possessed their sovils in patience. 
 
298 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Removing to Leyden in 1609, the exiles at last 
 found a resting-place, where they were permitted to 
 establish themselves in peace under the ministry of 
 their pastor, John Robinson. " Being ' careful to keep 
 their word, and painful and diligent in their callings,' 
 they attained ' a comfortable condition, grew in the 
 gifts and grace of the S[>iritof God, and lived together 
 in peace and love and holiness.' ' Never,' said the 
 magistrates of the city — ' never did we have any suit 
 or accusation against any of them ' ; and but for fear 
 of offence to King James, they would have met with 
 public favour. ' Many came there from different 
 parts of England, so as they grew a great congrega- 
 tion.' ' Such was the humble zeal and fervent love 
 of this people towards God and His ways, and their 
 single-heartedness and sincere affection one towards 
 another,' that they seemed to come surpassingly near 
 ' the primitive pattern of the first Churches,' A 
 clear and well-written apology of their discipline was 
 published by Robinson, who, also, in the controversy 
 on free-will, as the champion of orthodoxy, ' began 
 to be terrible to the Arminians,' and disputed in the 
 University with such power that, as his friends assert, 
 ' the truth had a famous victory.' " 
 
 But the Arminian controversy continued to rage 
 with such fury that the Grand Pensionary Barneveldt 
 was barbarously executed, while the learned Grotius 
 was imprisoned. The English exiles lamented the 
 cruelty and intolerance by which the bigoted repre- 
 sentatives of Calvinism were thus disgraced, and they 
 came to the conclusion that they might combine the 
 indulgence of their patriotic feelings as Englishmen 
 
THE PUEITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHERS. 299 
 
 with the propagation of their religious principles, by 
 establishing themselves in some distant quarter of the 
 British dominions. After many days of earnest prayer 
 for the counsel and direction of Heaven, the Pilgrims 
 unanimously determined to transport themselves and 
 their families to North America. 
 
 How was the transport across the Atlantic to be 
 accomplished ? This was a matter of difjficulty. They 
 wished to go to the most northern parts of Virginia, 
 and in 1617 John Carver and Robert Cashman went to 
 England to obtain the consent of the London Company. 
 They bore with them articles of religion, promising 
 " obedience in all things, active if the thing com- 
 manded be not against God's Word, or passive if 
 it be " ; but they denied all power to ecclesiastical 
 bodies, unless it were given by the temporal magistrate. 
 They pledged themselves to preserve unity of spirit 
 in peace with all men. They found encouragement 
 from the London Company, and could have obtained 
 a patent at once through the influence of Sir Edwin 
 Sandys, had not the envoys decided first to consult 
 the pilgrims at Leyden. 
 
 However, on the 15th of December, 1617, the latter 
 transmitted a formal and almost unanimous request, 
 through Robinson and Brewster. The messengers, 
 fortified by their reception at the hands of the Virginia 
 Company, now petitioned the King for liberty of 
 religion, to be confirmed under the sovereign's broad 
 seal. Unfortunately, they found a powerful opponent 
 in the great philosopher and statesman. Lord Bacon. 
 He had shown such favour to settlers in Ireland and 
 Virginia, that the Pilgrims naturally looked to him 
 
300 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 for support. But Bacon the statesman was not so 
 great a man as Bacon the scholar. He became a 
 subservient courtier like the rest, and said, " Discipline 
 by bishops is fittest for monarchy of all others. The 
 tenets of separatists and sectaries are full of schism, 
 and inconsistent with monarchy. The King will 
 beware of Anabaptists, Brownists, and others of their 
 kinds ; a like connivency sets them on fire." 
 
 So, when the envoys were asked at James's council- 
 board who should make their ministers, and they 
 replied " the Church," without episcopal ordination, 
 their mission was in danger. The King liked the 
 idea of extending British territory and British trade, 
 but he liked not this religious independence at all, 
 so referred the matter to the prelates of Canterbury 
 and London. But in 1619 things became brighter. 
 Sir Edwin Sandys was elected treasurer of the London 
 Virginia Company, and a patent was granted to the 
 Pilgrims. As it was made out in the name of one 
 who failed to accompany the expedition, however, it 
 was never of any service. Moreover, the Pilgrims 
 had not sufficient capital to carry out their own 
 schemes. 
 
 Various plans were suggested for the fitting out 
 of the expedition. The Dutch were appealed to, but 
 failed to respond. The West India Company then 
 ofiered to transport the emigrants free of charge, if 
 they would go out solely under their auspices. The 
 Virginia Company were also willing to do what they 
 could. Finally, the emigrants resolved to trust to 
 their own resources and the help of private friends. 
 " The fisheries," remarks Bancroft, " had commended 
 
THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHEES. 301 
 
 American expeditions to English merchants ; and the 
 agents from Leyden were able to form a partnership 
 between their employers and men of business in 
 London. The services of each emigrant were rated 
 as a capital of £10, and belonged to the company ; 
 all profits were to be reserved till the end of seven 
 3'ears, when the whole amount, and all houses and 
 lands, gardens and fields, were to be divided among the 
 shareholders according to their respective interests. 
 The London merchant, who risked £100, would receive 
 for his money tenfold more than the penniless labourer 
 for his services. This arrangement threatened a seven 
 years' check to the pecuniary prosperity of the com- 
 munity ; yet, as it did not interfere with civil rights 
 or religion, it did not intimidate the resolved." 
 
 Everything was now made ready for the departure 
 of the emigrants. Two vessels were provided, one of 
 one hundred and eighty tons, bearing the now historic 
 name of the Mayrfiower ; and the other the Speedwell^ 
 of sixty tons. As the ships could not hold anything 
 like all the colony at Leyden, Robinson remained at 
 home with a considerable portion of the body; while 
 Brewster, the governing elder, went forth to America, 
 with such of the youngest and strongest as freely 
 offered themselves. 
 
 There was a most affecting scene at Leyden, when 
 the Pilgrims, as was their custom in everything, 
 commended themselves to God, and held a solemn 
 fast. Robinson delivered a farewell address, breath- 
 ing such a noble sj)irit of Christian candour and 
 liberality as was then almost unknown in the 
 world. 
 
302 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 " Brethren," said this traly great Christian — for snch 
 he was, having drunk deeply of his Master's spirit — 
 " we are now quickly to part from one another ; and 
 whether I may ever live to see your faces on earth any 
 more, the God of heaven only knows ; but whether the 
 Lord has appointed that or no, I charge you, before 
 God and His blessed angels, that you follow me no 
 farther than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 "If God reveal anything to you, by any other 
 instrument of His, be as ready to receive it as ever 
 you were to receive any truth by my ministry ; for I 
 am verily persuaded, I am very confident, the Lord 
 has more truth yet to break forth out of His holy 
 Word. For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the 
 condition of the Reformed Churches, who are come to 
 a period in religion, and will go at present no farther 
 than the instruments of their reformation. The 
 Lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther 
 said; whatever part of His will our good God has 
 revealed to Calvin, they will rather die than embrace 
 it ; and the Calvinists, you see, stick fast where they 
 were left by that great man of God, who yet saw not 
 all things. 
 
 " This is a misery much to be lamented ; for though 
 they were burning and shining lights in their times, 
 yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of 
 God ; but were they now living, would be as willing 
 to embrace farther light, as that which they first 
 received. I beseech you remember it, 'tis an article 
 of your Church covenant, that you he ready to receive 
 whatever truth shall be made known to you from the 
 
THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHEES. 303 
 
 written Word of God. Remember that, and every 
 other article of yom* sacred covenant. 
 
 " But I must herewithal exhort you to take heed 
 what you receive as truth. Examine it, consider it, 
 and compare it with other Scriptures of truth before 
 you receive it ; for 'tis not possible the Christian 
 world should come so lately out of antichristian dark- 
 ness, and that perfection of knowledge should break 
 forth at once. 
 
 " I must also advise you to abandon, avoid, and 
 shake off the name of Browuist ; 'tis a mere nick- 
 name, and a brand for the making religion, and the 
 professors of it, odious to the Christian world." 
 
 The closing scene in Holland was thus described by 
 Edward Winslow, one of the Pilgrims : " When the 
 ship was ready to carry us away, the brethren that 
 stayed at Leyden, having again solemnly sought the 
 Lord with us and for us, feasted us that were to go, 
 at our pastor's house, being large ; where we refreshed 
 ourselves, after tears, with singing of psalms, making 
 joyful melody in our hearts, as well as with the voice, 
 there being many of the congregation very expert in 
 music ; and indeed it was the sweetest melody that 
 ever mine ears heard. After this, they accompanied 
 us to Delft Haven, where we went to embark, and 
 then feasted us again ; and after prayer performed 
 by our pastor, when a flood of tears was poured out, 
 they accompanied us to the ship, but were not able 
 to speak one to another for the abundance of sorrow 
 to part. But we only, going abroad, gave them a 
 volley of small shot and three pieces of ordnance ; 
 and so, lifting up our hands to each other, and our 
 
304 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 hearts for eacli other to the Lord our God, we 
 departed." 
 
 Such were the good and brave men whom a bigoted 
 King and a relentless hierarchy drove from their native 
 land to seek freedom of conscience on alien shores. 
 
 The Mmj/lower and Speedwell made first for South- 
 ampton ; and after waiting there for a fortnight for 
 the completion of all arrangements in connection 
 with the expedition, the vessels sailed from South- 
 ampton on the 5th of August, 1620, for America. The 
 colonists numbered in all seventy-four men and twenty- 
 eight women. It was found soon after starting that 
 the smaller vessel needed repairs, and the expedition 
 put into Dartmouth for that purpose. Again they 
 set forth ; but after eight days the captain of the 
 Speedwell and his companions became discouraged 
 by the dangers of the enterprise, and asserted that 
 the ship was too weak for the service. The expedition 
 put back into Plymouth, and the Speedwell was dis- 
 missed, which " was very grievous and discouraging." 
 Then the resolute little band remaining, amounting in 
 all to one hundred and two souls, went on board the 
 Mmjfiower, and on the 6th day of September, 1620, 
 the Pilgrims finally left Plymouth, and the shores of 
 England, for a new world. 
 
 Hudson's River was the intended destination of the 
 emigrants, who proposed to found their settlement 
 upon its banks ; but the Dutch claimed a prior right 
 to this territory, and the English settlers were con- 
 ducted to the most barren part of Massachusetts. On 
 the 9th of November, after a boisterous voyage of 
 sixty-three days, the May/lower cast anchor in the 
 
THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 305 
 
 harbour of Cape Cod. This region was not only 
 beyond the precincts of their grant, but beyond the 
 territories of the Company from which the grant was 
 derived. Before landing, the emigrants discussed the 
 form of their future government ; and as there were 
 some not too well affected towards unity and concord, 
 on the 11th they formed themselves into a body politic 
 by this solemn voluntary compact : 
 
 " In the name of God, amen ; we, whose names are 
 underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign, 
 King James, having undertaken, for the glory of God, 
 and advancement of the Christian faith, and honour of 
 our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony 
 in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, 
 solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and 
 one of another, covenant and combine ourselves to- 
 gether into a civil body politic, for our better ordering 
 and preservation, and furtherance of the ends afore- 
 said ; and, by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and 
 frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, con- 
 stitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be 
 thought most convenient for the general good of the 
 colony. Unto which we promise all due submission 
 and obedience." 
 
 This instrument, which signalized the birth of con- 
 stitutional liberty in the United States, was signed 
 by all the men in the emigrant body, and John 
 Carver was unanimously chosen governor for the 
 first year. 
 
 The American orator, Edward Everett, in an elo- 
 quent centennial address, thus described the voyage 
 and landing of the Mwjflower : 
 
 20 
 
306 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 "The feeble company of Pilgrims is not to be 
 marshalled by gartered statesmen or mitred prelates. 
 Fleets will not be despatched to convoy the little band, 
 nor armies to protect it. Had there been honours to 
 be won, or pleasures to be enjoyed, or plunder to be 
 grasped, hungry courtiers, midsummer friends, godless 
 adventurers, would have eaten out the heart of the 
 enterprise. Silken Buckinghams and Somersets would 
 have blasted it with their patronage. But, safe amidst 
 their unenvied perils, strong in their inoffensive weak- 
 ness, rich in their untempting poverty, the patient 
 fugitives are permitted to pursue unmolested the 
 thorny paths of tribulation ; and, landed at last on 
 the unfriendly shore, the host of God, in the frozen 
 mail of December, encamp around the dwellings of 
 the just. 
 
 stern famine guards the solitary coast, 
 And winter barricades the realms of frost. 
 
 " While Bacon is attuning the sweetest strains of his 
 honeyed eloquence to soothe the dull ear of a crowned 
 pedant, and his great rival, only less obsequious, is 
 on his knees to deprecate the royal displeasure, the 
 future founders of the new Republic beyond the sea 
 are training up for their illustrious mission, in ob- 
 scurity, hardship, and weary exile in a foreign land. 
 
 " And now — for the fulness of time is come — let us 
 go up once more, in imagination, to yonder hill, and 
 look out upon the November scene. That single dark 
 speck, just discernible through the perspective glass, 
 on the waste of waters, is the fated vessel. The 
 storm moans through her tattered canvas as she 
 
THE PUEITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGEIM FATHEES. 307 
 
 creeps, almost sinking, to her anchorage in Province- 
 town Harbour, and there she lies with her treasures, 
 not of silver and gold (for of these she has none), but 
 of courage, of patience, of zeal, of high spiritual 
 daring. As often as I dwell in imagination on this 
 scene ; when I consider the condition of the May Mower, 
 utterly incapable, as she was, of living through another 
 gale ; when I survey the terrible front presented by 
 our coast to the navigator who, unacquainted with its 
 channels and roadsteads, should approach it in the 
 stormy season, — I dare not call it a mere piece of good 
 fortune, that the general north and south wall of the 
 shore of New England should be broken by this extra- 
 ordinary projection of the cape, running out into the 
 ocean a hundred miles, as if on purpose to receive 
 and encircle the precious vessel. As I now see her, 
 freighted with the destinies of a continent, barely 
 escaped from the perils of the deep, approaching the 
 shore precisely where the broad sweep of this most 
 remarkable headland presents almost the only point 
 at which, for hundreds of miles, she could, with any 
 ease, have made a harbour, and this, perhaps, the 
 very best on the seaboard, I feel my spirit raised 
 above the sphere of mere natural agencies. I see the 
 mountains of New England rising from their rocky 
 thrones. They rush forward into the ocean, setting 
 down as they advance ; and there they range them- 
 selves as a mighty bulwark around the Heaven-directed 
 vessel. Yes, the everlasting God Himself stretches 
 out the arm of His mercy and His power, in substantial 
 manifestations, and gathers the meek company of His 
 worshippers as in the hollow of His hand." 
 
308 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 The early history of the colonists was full of hard- 
 ships. They seemed to be shnt out from the whole 
 world, for the nearest French settlement was at Port 
 Royal, and the English plantation in Virginia was 
 five hundred miles distant. The weather was already 
 unusually severe, and winter was at hand. The vessel's 
 shallop was unshipped, but it was found to need serious 
 repairs. Weary of delay. Miles Standish and Bradford, 
 with some others, made an unsuccessful expedition 
 inland. The first voyage made by the shallop was 
 likewise a failure, and some who went in her contracted 
 their death through the intense cold and frost. A 
 small quantity of Indian maize was discovered on 
 shore, but little else except Indian graves and a few 
 untenanted wigwams. 
 
 On the 6th of December the shallop again went 
 out, with Carver, Bradford, Standish, Winslow, and 
 fourteen or fifteen others, including seamen. The 
 spray of the sea froze as it fell on the explorers, and 
 made their clothes like coats of iron. At night they 
 reached Billingsgate Point, at the bottom of the Bay 
 of Cape Cod, on the western shore of Wellfleet Harbour. 
 Next day the company divided, but no suitable place 
 for a settlement was found, and the whole party met 
 again at night, and encamped on the shore near 
 Namskeket, or Great Meadow Creek. 
 
 Next day the settlers were attacked by the Indians, 
 but no serious consequences ensued, and they pursued 
 their journey along the coast for a distance of nearly 
 fifty miles. After some hours a terrible storm arose, 
 and the shallop was nearly cast away, while her 
 inmates were almost blinded by snow and rain. The 
 
THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 309 
 
 pilot nearly ran the boat into a cove full of breakers ; 
 but this clanger was averted, and grateful shelter was 
 found under the lee of a small neck of land. With 
 some difficulty a fire was kindled on the shore, and 
 the night passed in painful expectancy. As the day 
 broke the place of shelter was seen to be a little island 
 within the entrance of a harbour. Next day was the 
 Christian Sabbath, and the Pilgrims passed it in all 
 reverence. 
 
 Monday, the 11th of December, 1620, Old Style, is a 
 day ever memorable in the history of the United States. 
 On that date the Pilgrims landed at a place afterwards 
 included within the province of Massachusetts, to which 
 they gave the name of New Plymouth, in commemora- 
 tion of the town with which their last recollections of 
 England were associated. The rock first trodden by 
 the emigrants now bears an inscription recording the 
 fact, and the day of landing is annually honoured as 
 the origin of New England and the planting of its 
 institutions. 
 
 The site being found favourable for a settlement, the 
 little Mayflower was safely brought into harbour on 
 the 15th of December. The settlers had an onerous 
 task before them ; but they were one in heart, and a 
 thoroughly democratic and Christian body, with prin- 
 ciples of government already well established. Daniel 
 Webster, the great American orator, finely said on this 
 head, in a discourse on the settlement of New England: 
 " Our fathers came hither to a land from which they 
 were never to retarn. Hither they had brought, and 
 here they were to fix, their hopes, their attachments, 
 and their objects. Some natural tears they shed as 
 
310 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 tliey left the pleasant abodes of their fathers, and some 
 emotions they suppressed when the white cliffs of their 
 native country, now seen for the last time, grew dim 
 to their sight. They were acting, however, upon a 
 resolution not to be changed. With whatever stifled 
 regrets, with whatever occasional hesitation, with what- 
 ever appalling apprehensions, which must sometimes 
 arise with force to shake the firmest purpose, they had 
 yet committed themselves to Heaven and the elements ; 
 and a thousand leagues of water soon interposed to 
 separate them for ever from the region which gave 
 them birth. A new existence awaited them here ; and 
 when they saw these shores, rough, cold, barbarous, 
 and barren as then they were, they beheld their country. 
 That mixed and strong feeling, which we call love of 
 country, and which is in general never extinguished 
 in the heart of man, grasped and embraced its proper 
 object here. Whatever constitutes country, except the 
 earth and fhe sun, all the moral causes of aifection and 
 attachment which operate upon the heart, they had 
 brought with them to their new abode. Here were 
 now their families and friends, their homes and their 
 property. Before they reached the shore, they had 
 established the elements of a social system, and at a 
 much earlier period had settled their forms of religious 
 worship. At the moment of their landing, therefore, 
 they possessed institutions of government and institu- 
 tions of religion : and friends and families, and social 
 and religious institutions, established by consent, 
 founded on choice and preference, how nearly do these 
 fill up our whole idea of country ? The morning that 
 beamed on the first night of their repose saw the 
 
THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 311 
 
 Pilgrims already established in their country. There 
 were political institutions, and civil liberty, and re- 
 ligions worship. Poetry has fancied nothing in the 
 wanderings of heroes so distinct and characteristic. 
 Here was man indeed unprotected and unprovided for, 
 on the shore of a rude and fearful wilderness, but it 
 was politic, intelligent, and educated man. Every- 
 thing was civilized but the physical world. Institu- 
 tions containing in substance all that ages had done 
 for human government were established in a forest. 
 Cultivated mind was to act on uncultivated nature ; 
 and, more than all, a government and a country were 
 to commence with the very first foundations laid under 
 the divine light of the Christian religion. Happy 
 auspices of a happy futurity I Who would wish that 
 his country's existence had otherwise begun ? Who 
 would desire the power of going back to the ages of 
 fable ? Who would wish for an origin obscured in the 
 darkness of antiquity ? Who would wish for other 
 emblazoning of his country's heraldry, or other orna- 
 ments of her genealogy, than to be able to say that 
 her first existence was with intelligence, her first 
 breath the inspirations of liberty, her first principle 
 the truth of divine religion ? " 
 
 Early in January, 1621, the colonists began to build, 
 but their exertions to erect suitable dwellings were 
 obstructed for a time by the hostile attacks of neigh- 
 bouring Indians, who had not forgotten the provocations 
 received from previous explorers. After the Indians 
 had been successfully repulsed, sickness — caused by 
 scarcity of provisions and the increasing horrors of 
 the season — aiflicted the colonists with a calamity 
 
312 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 more fatal to their health and security than the perils 
 of war. 
 
 The historians Mather, Neal, Grahame, and others 
 furnish painful pictures of the sufferings of the 
 colonists. More than one-half of their number, in- 
 cluding John Carver, their first governor, "perished 
 by hunger or disease before the return of spring ; and, 
 during the whole of the winter, only a few were 
 capable of providing for themselves, or rendering 
 assistance to the rest. But hope and virtue survived, 
 and, rising in vigour beneath the pressure of ac- 
 cumulated sufferings, surmounted and ennobled every 
 circumstance of distress. Those who retained their 
 strength became the servants of the weak, the afilicted, 
 and the dying ; and none distinguished himself more 
 in this humane employment than Carver, the governor. 
 He was a man of large estate, but more enlarged 
 benevolence; he had spent his whole fortune on the 
 colonial project ; and now, willingly contributing his 
 life to its accomplishment, he exhausted a feeble body 
 in laboriously discharging the humblest offices of 
 kindness and service to the sick. He was succeeded 
 by William Bradford, who, inheriting the merit and 
 the popularity of his predecessor, was re-elected to the 
 same office for many successive years — notwithstanding 
 his own earnest remonstrance, that, if his office were an 
 honour, it should be shared by his fellow-citizens, and, 
 if it were a burden, the weight of it should not always 
 be imposed upon him. When the distress of the 
 colony was at its height, the approach of a powerful 
 Indian chief with his followers seemed to portend the 
 utter destruction of the colonists; but, happily, in 
 
THE PURITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 313 
 
 the train of this personage was the ancient guest 
 and friend of the English, Squanto, who eagerly and 
 successfnllj^ laboured to mediate a good understanding 
 between them and his countrymen. He afterwards 
 cancelled the merit of this useful service, and en- 
 deavoured to magnify his own importance by fabricating 
 charges of plots and conspiracies against some of the 
 neighbouring tribes, while at the same time he main- 
 tained an empire of terror over these tribes by secretly 
 assuring them that the English were in possession of 
 a cask filled with the plague, which only his influence 
 prevented them from setting abroad for the destruction 
 of the Indians. But before he resorted to this mis- 
 chievous policy the colonists had become independent of 
 his services. His friendship with the English was never 
 entirely dissolved ; and on his death-bed soon after, 
 he desired Governor Bradford to pray for him, that he 
 might go to the Englishman's God in heaven. Some 
 of the neighbouring tribes from time to time made 
 alarming demonstrations of hostility, but they were at 
 length completely overawed by the courage and resolu- 
 tion of Captain Miles Standish, a gallant and skilful 
 officer, who, with a handful of men, was always ready 
 to encounter their strongest force, and anticipate their 
 most rapid movements." 
 
 On the 22nd of March, 1621,Massassoit — the greatest 
 Indian chief of the country, and sachem of the tribe 
 possessing the land north of Narragansett Bay, between 
 the rivers of Providence and Taunton — came to visit 
 the Pilgrims, who, with their wives and children, were 
 now only fifty in number. A friendly treaty was 
 concluded, by which both parties promised to abstain 
 
314 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 from mutual injuries and to deliver up offenders. The 
 colonists were to receive assistance if attacked, and to 
 render it if Massassoit should be unjustly assailed. 
 This is the oldest act of diplomacy recorded in New 
 England annals, and it was sacredly kept for more 
 than half a century. In July new emigrants arrived 
 from England, and during the same month an embassy 
 from the little colony of New Plymouth to Massassoit 
 succeeded in ratifying the treaty of amity, and pre- 
 paring the way for a trade in furs. 
 
 In September nine Indian chiefs subscribed an in- 
 strument of submission to King James, and the British 
 settlers explored the Bay of Massachusetts and Boston 
 Harbour. One important native chief, named Canoni- 
 cus, still maintained a hostile attitude, and in 1622 
 sent a bundle of arrows, wrapped in the skin of a 
 rattlesnake, as a message of hostility. He succumbed, 
 however, and craved for peace when Bradford sent 
 back the skin stuffed with powder and shot. 
 
 The summer months had brought back renewed 
 health to the colonists, and their numbers were re- 
 cruited from time to time by successive emigrations of 
 oppressed Puritans from Europe. But the additions 
 fell far short of their needs ; and the colonists were 
 unhappily disappointed in their expectation of the 
 main reinforcement which they had looked for from 
 the emigration of the remainder of the congregation 
 at Leyden. Robinson, their beloved pastor, had un- 
 expectedly passed away, and his stimulating example 
 and counsel were no longer available. The surviving 
 members of the congregation were dismayed by the 
 accounts of the distresses sustained by their friends in 
 
THE PUKITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHEES. 315 
 
 New England; and after the death of Robinson, the 
 greater part of them joined the other English exiles 
 at Amsterdam, and few had the courage to proceed to 
 New Plymouth. 
 
 Meanwhile, the colony continued to deepen the roots 
 of its existence. The settlers evinced a due respect 
 for the natives by purchasing from them the territory 
 over which their settlement extended, but at the same 
 time they neglected no precautions to defend by force, 
 if needs be, what they had acquired by justice. 
 Alarmed at the tidings of the massacre of their 
 countrymen in Virginia, they erected a timber fort, and 
 adopted other necessary measures for their security. 
 
 Historical records show that the constitution of the 
 Church which the emigrants established "was the same 
 with that which had prevailed among them at Leyden ; 
 and their system of civil government was founded on 
 those ideas of the natural equality of men to which 
 their ecclesiastical policy, so long the main object 
 of their concern, had habituated their minds. The 
 supreme legislative body was composed at first of all 
 the freemen who were members of the Church ; and 
 it was not until the year 1639 that they established 
 a house of representatives. The executive power was 
 committed to a governor and council annually elected 
 by the members of the legislative assembly. Their 
 jurisprudence was founded on the laws of England, 
 with some diversity, however, in the appreciation and 
 punishment of crimes, wherein they approximated 
 more nearly to the Mosaic institutions. Considering 
 the protection of morals more important than the 
 preservation of wealth, they punished fornication with 
 
816 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 flogging and adultery with death, while on forgery 
 they inflicted only a moderate fine. The clearing and 
 cultivation of the ground, fishing, and the curing of 
 fish for exportation formed the temporal occupations 
 of the colonists. The peculiarity of their situation 
 naturally led them, like the Virginians, for some 
 time to throw all their property into a common stock, 
 and, like members of one family, to carry on every 
 work of industry by their joint labour for the public 
 behoof. But the religious zeal which promoted this 
 self-denying policy was unable to overcome the diffi- 
 culties which must always attend it, and which are 
 peculiarly aggravated in a society deriving its principle 
 of increment not so much from internal growth as 
 from the confluence of strangers. About three years 
 after the foundation of New Plymouth, it was judged 
 proper to introduce separation of possessions, though 
 the full right of separate property was not admitted 
 till a much later period ; and even that change is 
 represented as having produced a great and manifest 
 improvement in the industry of the people. The slow 
 increase which, for a considerable period of time, the 
 population of the colony exhibited has been ascribed 
 to the prolonged operation of this system of equality; 
 but it seems more likely that the slowness of the 
 increase (occasioned by the poverty of the soil, and 
 the report of the hardships attending a settlement in 
 New England) was itself the reason why the complete 
 ascertainment of the rights of separate property was 
 so long retarded." 
 
 The colonists ceased to suff'er from a scarcity of 
 food after the harvest of 1623. Each family now 
 
THE PUEITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 317 
 
 tilled its own quota of land, though the community 
 owned the soil. In a very short time so much corn 
 was raised that it became a profitable article of com- 
 merce, and the Indians purchased corn from the emi- 
 grants, or exchanged beaver skins, etc., for it. The 
 gains from the fur trade stimulated the envy of one 
 Thomas Weston, a London merchant, who had done 
 touch in fitting out the Plymouth expedition. He 
 now obtained a patent for land near Weymouth, the 
 first plantation in Boston Harbour, and sent over sixty 
 men. The venture proved a disastrous failure, and 
 the colonists threw themselves on the hospitality of 
 the Plymouth people, while they alienated the Indians 
 by their folly and injustice. An attempt was made 
 to massacre Weston's band, but the friendly Indian 
 chief Massassoit revealed it to the Plymouth settlers, 
 and the Weymouth planters were saved by their 
 English brethren, and chiefly through the bravery of 
 Miles Staudish, who performed his most gallant ex- 
 ploit on this occasion. A portion of the rescued men 
 remained at New Plymouth, and the rest returned 
 to England. 
 
 It is worthy of note that the colonists of New 
 Plymouth never received a charter from the Crown. 
 They had one from the grand council of the Plymouth 
 Company, by which they were authorized to choose 
 a governor, council, and general court for the enact- 
 ment of laws, and some historians have mistaken 
 this for a royal charter. As a matter of fact, however, 
 the social community of New Plymouth was never 
 incorporated with legal formalities as a public body, 
 but remained a voluntary municipal association until 
 
318 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 it was united with the colony of Massachusetts. 
 Owing to a variety of causes, the growth of the colony 
 was small, and it only numbered three hundred per- 
 sons altogether after an existence of ten years. One 
 great difficulty arose out of their connection with the 
 English adventurers. The latter endeavoured to force 
 upon the colonists a clergyman favourable to the 
 Established Church, and likewise oppressed them by 
 heavy charges upon goods sent from England, and 
 heavy usury for money lent. The consequence was 
 that the emigrants at length bought out the Eng- 
 lish adventurers, after which the common property of 
 the settlement was equitably divided, and agriculture 
 placed on the sure basis of private possession. The 
 cultivators of the soil became the owners of the free- 
 hold, and eight of the more substantial settlers 
 assumed all the engagements of the colony in con- 
 sideration of a trade monopoly for six years. 
 
 In 1 626 an effort was made by the London Plymouth 
 Company to establish in Massachusetts a colony 
 similar to that of New Plymouth. An expedition 
 was sent out under Captain Wollaston, and it was 
 his followers who first taught the Indians of the 
 district the use of fire-arms — a knowledge which the 
 colonists of New England soon had reason to lament. 
 Wollaston's eflbrts were unsuccessful, like those of 
 several adventurers who had preceded him in the same 
 field. The coast of Massachusetts Bay was the scene 
 of these failures, but eventually a colony was actually 
 founded in this locality upon the model of that of 
 New Plymouth. 
 
 A few words must be added with . regard to the 
 
HE PUEITANS — LANDING OF THE PILGKIM FATHERS. 319 
 
 civil government of the Plymouth colony in its early 
 days. The governor was chosen by the whole people ; 
 and in 1624, at the request of Bradford, his power was 
 restricted by the nomination of a council of five to act 
 with him, the number being increased to seven in 
 1633. When sitting in council, the governor had only 
 a double vote, and no law could be made or impost 
 laid without the consent of the freemen. The whole 
 body of male inhabitants constituted the legislature 
 for more than eighteen years; but in 1639, in conse- 
 quence of the increase of population, the representative 
 system was introduced, and each town sent its com- 
 mittee to the general court. Though the colonists 
 were never betrayed into those excesses of religious 
 persecution from which they had themselves suffered, 
 they sometimes sanctioned a disproportion between 
 crime and punishment. For example, in 1 645, although 
 a majority of the house of delegates were in favour of 
 an act to " allow and maintain full and free toleration 
 to all men that would preserve the civil peace and 
 submit unto government — and there was no limitation 
 or exception against Turk, Jew, Papist, Arian, Socinian, 
 Nicolaitan, Familist, or any other " — the governor was 
 afraid that such a law would " eat out the power of 
 godliness," and declined to put the question, so that 
 the law was lost. 
 
 But with all its defects, this little colony boasted 
 of greater civil and religious freedom than existed in 
 any other quarter of the civilized world. The New 
 Englanders were pioneers in the noblest sense, and 
 out of small beginnings evolved great issues. No 
 wonder that their descendants hold their names in 
 
320 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 hgnonr and reverence. It was no empty boast when 
 an Englishman wrote of the Plymouth colony that 
 " the memory of the adventurers to this plantation 
 shall never die." As religious men, these early 
 settlers " acknowledged no infallible head but God 
 Almighty, and no patristic guides to faith and practice 
 but the holy company of the Prophets and Apostles." 
 
 It seemed to James I. and his satellites that this 
 small baud of Puritans, when it went out to the 
 inhospitable shores of Northern America, went to its 
 extinction, and to the grave of oblivion. Yet there 
 was in this obscure and insignificant band a vitality 
 which was destined to assert itself long after the 
 Stuarts had been swept from the throne of England. 
 The successors of the Plymouth colonists have grown 
 into a mighty nation, which is destined to carry aloft 
 the torch of liberty, first lit at the fires of persecution 
 in England, down to the latest ages of time in the 
 history of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
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