USA > Massachusetts > The history of Massachusetts, the colonial period. 1492-1692 v. I > Part 3
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Under all the circumstances, however, the charter was as good as could have been reasonably expected. The enterprise was a new one. England had but just entered upon her career of deducing colonies abroad. The few abortive efforts of the past had done little to enlighten her judgment. And it needed that she should be taught by the results of her future movements the defectiveness of her policy, and wherein it needed amendment for her own good, and the good of her several dependencies. These
1 The patent is in Hazard, 1. 50-8.
2 Chalmers, Revolt, 1. 6, and An- nals, 14.
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COLONIES AT JAMESTOWN AND SAGADAHOC.
CHAP. lessons were slowly learned ; all favors were grudgingly I. conceded ; and the conflict of interests was at last so intol- erable, that not only were the colonists compelled to over- step the boundaries of their charters, but the monarch was compelled to wink at such irregularities, or run the risk of alienating his subjects, and destroying the settle- ments.
Dec. 19.
Eight months from the issue of this patent, and one hun- 1606. dred and nine years after the discovery of the continent by Cabot, a small squadron of three ships-the largest not exceeding one hundred tons burthen-was sent by the Lon- don Company, under Capt. Newport, a distinguished naval officer, with one hundred and five colonists, including the members of a Colonial Council, to the coast of South Vir- April. ginia; and in the following spring, after many obstacles 1607. encountered, and amidst jealousies and dissensions, a set- tlement was effected upon the peninsula of Jamestown, of which but the ruins at present remain.1
May 31. 1607. Nearly at the same time a similar enterprise was pro- jected by the Plymouth Company, under more discouraging circumstances, owing to its poverty, and two ships-the " Gift of God," and the "Mary and John" ?- with a few over a hundred landsmen, were despatched under Raleigh Gilbert, a nephew of Sir Walter Raleigh, and George Pop- ham, the brother of the Chief Justice; but the result was the unfortunate colony at Sagadahoc.3 The fate of this attempt, with the doleful reports of the inhospitableness of . the climate circulated by the emigrants to cover their cow- ardice checked for a season the ardor of the company ; though Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and Sir Francis Popham,
1 Smith, Gen. Hist., 41-2; Led- iard, 412-15 ; Bancroft, 1. 123-4. 2 Gorges, in 3 M. H. Coll., 6. 54, says three ships ; but the Council's Relation, in 2 M. H. Coll., 9. 3, says two ships.
3 See Gorges' Narr., and the Council's Relation, just quoted ; Smith, Gen. Hist., 203 ; Strachey's Narrative ; Hubbard, 36-7; Led- iard, 410-11.
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DUTCH VOYAGES.
the son of the Chief Justice-the former of whom was CHAP. never dismayed-continued sending vessels to the coast, I. and spent large sums in efforts at colonization.1
Meanwhile under the auspices of the Dutch-a nation 1600. whose independence had been substantially recognized by England and France, and which was rapidly rising into commercial importance-discoveries were made by Henry Hudson2-an Englishman by birth-in the yacht "Half- Moon," upon the beautiful river which bears his name; and by Hendrick Christiaensen, Adrian Block, and others, at the 1610-14. charge of prominent merchants of Amsterdam, who derived great profits from the furs brought home by the vessels in their employ. A trading house was erected near Albany, 1614. called " Fort Nassau ; " explorations were vigorously prose- cuted around " Manhattan " by Block, in the "Restless ; " and the discovery of the island which bears his name, and the three famous rivers, the Housatonic, the Thames, and the Connecticut, with Long Island, and Rhode Island, are said to have been the fruits of his energetic enterprise. Even the shores of Massachusetts as far as Nahant were visited by this navigator, and names were given to places discovered by Gosnold and others; and after his return to Holland, the States General, who had unsuccessfully at- tempted to effect a junction with England for the coloniza- tion of Virginia, passed an ordinance for the encourage- ment of commerce, under which a company was organized, Oct. 11. licensed for three years, and empowered "exclusively to 1614. visit and navigate to the aforesaid newly discovered lands lying in America, between New France and Virginia, the sca-coasts whereof extend from the fortieth to the forty- fifth degree of latitude, now named New Netherland. " 3
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1 Gorges, in 3 M. H. Coll., 6. 56,
Harris, 1. 564 ; Lediard, 419 ; Brod- 57 ; Council's Relation, in 2 M. H. head's N. York, 24. Coll., 9. 4, 5 ; Smith, 204.
2 Hudson had previously made voyages under the sanction of mer- chants of London. Purchas, 3. 464;
3 Heylin's Cosmog., 1028, ed. 1670; Brodhead's N. Y., 24-63 ; Bancroft's U. S., 2. 265-77; Hildreth's U. S., 1. 136-9.
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JOHN SMITH IN NEW ENGLAND.
CHAP. I. It is worthy of notice that this ordinance neither incor- , porated nor conferred powers of government upon the mer- chants of Holland, but vested in them simply a monopoly of trade; the charter expired in 1618; the West India Company was not incorporated until 1621 -a year after the settlement of Plymouth ; - the territory of New Nether- land was not formally erected into a Province until 1623; nor was any permanent agricultural colony established within its limits until that year. It should also be noticed, that the territory embraced in the charter of 1614 was claimed by England, and was included in the patent to the Virginia Company ; the settlements of the Dutch were ever regarded as intrusions; the controversies growing out of these claims disturbed for a long time the peace of the colonies ; nor were they permanently adjusted until after the reduction of New Netherland in 1664.
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1614.
A new era in the annals of New England begins with the voyages of Capt. John Smith. This remarkable man, a native of Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, although but thirty-five years of age, had acquired a world-wide reputation by his extraordinary adventures, begun in boyhood and continued for the space of "near twice nine years." He had been a traveller in Europe, Asia, and Africa ; a soldier in Austria, battling with the Turks, and knighted for his services by Sigismund Bathori ; a slave at Constantinople, and indebted for his deliverance to " the lady Tragabigzanda ; " and, crossing to the New World to acquire new laurels, he had been a voyager to South Virginia, and President of the Colonial Council of that Plantation.1
Furnished, principally at the charge of four private gentlemen,? with an outfit of two vessels, and a company
1 See his own account, in his Gen. private adventure, of members of Hist., vol. 1., Richmond edition.
2 Chalmers, Ann., 80, errs in at- tributing the outfit of this voyage to the Plymouth Company. It was a Coll., 3. 19.
that company and others. See 2 M. H. Coll., 9. 5, 6, and Smith, Gen. Hist., and his Pathway, in 3 M. H.
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HE EXPLORES THE COUNTRY.
of forty-nine men and boys-sixteen of whom were for CHAP. colonists -he sailed from London early in March, and in I. a few weeks arrived at Monhegan, where he immediately Mar. 3. 1614. entered upon the chief business of his voyage: "to take April. whales, and make trials of a mine of gold and copper." " If those failed," says he, "fish and furs were then our refuge, to make ourselves savers."
But " whale fishing " proved a " costly conclusion ;" the " gold mine " was a chimera of the brain of " the mas- ter ;" and fish and furs became the last resort. "Of dry fish," says he, "we made about 40,000, of corfish about 7000; 1 and "whilst the sailors fished," Capt. Smith and a few others ranged the coast in an open boat, in the most attractive season of the year, making noted discoveries, and purchasing, "for trifles, near 1100 beaver skins,' 100 martens, and near as many otters"-valued in all at £1500. "With these furs, the train and corfish," he returned to England, July 18. and within six months "arrived safe back " -the other ship remaining for a season to "fit herself for Spain with the dry fish."
In this remarkable voyage, the coast was explored " from Penobscot to Cape Cod," within which bounds, he says, "I have seen at least 40 several habitations upon the sea coast, and sounded about 25 excellent good harbors, in many whereof there is anchorage for 500 sails of ships of any bur- then, in some of them for 5000;3 and more than 2004 isles overgrown with good timber of divers sorts of woods." Of the coast of Massachusetts he says, it is "indifferently mixed with high clay or sandy cliffs in one place, and then tracts of large long ledges of divers sorts, and quarries of stone;"
1 In his "Pathway," 3 M. H. Coll., 3. 20, he says 60,000; but in his Gen. Ilist., and his Descrip. of N. E., he says 40,000.
" It is 11,000 in the Gen. Hist.,and 1100 in the other works.
8 It is 5,000 in the Descrip. of N. E., but 1,000 in his other works, 4 It is 200 in the Gen. Ilist., and the Descrip. of N. E., and 300 in. the " Pathway."
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TREACHERY OF HUNT.
CHAP. and "by reason of those sandy cliffs, and cliffs of rocks," I. he adds, " both which we saw so planted with gardens and cornfields, and so well inhabited with a goodly, strong and well proportioned people, besides the greatness of the tim- ber growing on them, the greatness of the fish, and the moderate temper of the air, . .. . who can but approve this a most excellent place, both for health and fertility ? And of all the four parts of the world that I have yet seen, not inhabited, could I but have means to transport a colony, I would rather live here than anywhere. And if it did not maintain itself, were we but once indifferently well fitted, let us starve."
Indeed, the Massachusetts country, to him, was "the paradise of all those parts, for here are many isles all planted with corn, groves, mulberries, salvage gardens, and good harbors," and "the seacoast, as you pass, shows you cornfields, and great troupes of well proportioned people."' There is no evidence of his having advanced in this voyage up into the Bay to "Mishawum," or Charlestown, as is represented in the Records of that Town ;? but he seems to have crossed from Cape Ann to Cohasset, and describes the Bay, not from personal inspection, but from the repre- sentations of the Indians.
But though Smith acted honorably as principal of this expedition, his companion Hunt, whom he left behind, vilely copied the example of Weymouth, and enticing to his vessel upwards of twenty3 of the natives under pretense of trade, he confined them in the hold, and sailed for Malaga, where part of them, at least, were sold as slaves. "This bar- barous act," says Mather, "was the unhappy occasion of
1 The authorities for this voyage, are his Descrip. of N. E., pub. in 1616, and repub. in 3 M. II. Coll., 6. 95-140 ; his Pathway, pub. in 1631, and repub. in 3 MI. II. Coll., 3. 1-54; and his Gen. Ilist., ed. 1626, 204-8. At his return he is- 27.
sued a map of the country, which then first received, from Prince Charles, the name of New England. 2 See Chas'n. Recs., in Young's Chron. Pil.
3 Some authorities say 24, others
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23
SMITH'S SECOND VOYAGE.
the loss of many a man's estate and life, which the bar- CHAP. barians did from thence seek to destroy ; and the English,~ I. in consequence of this treachery, were constrained for a time to suspend their trade, and abandon their project of a settlement in New England."1
The prosperous pecuniary issue of the first voyage of Smith, awakened in his mind an earnest desire to visit again the delightful regions which his pen has described ; and imparting his views to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a man of kindred enthusiasm, and to Dr. Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter,? he was, after some delay, furnished with two ships-one of two hundred, and the other of fifty tons burthen - with which he set out on his second voyage ; but as if an in- March. exorable fate relentlessly pursued the persevering Gorges, 1615. the largest ship was disabled ere Smith had sailed two hundred leagues, 3 and he was forced to return. The smaller vessel, commanded by Capt. Thomas Dermer, con- tinued on her course, and after a successful voyage of five months returned in safety. Obtaining another bark of sixty tons in the place of his disabled ship, and taking with him thirty men - sixteen planters and fourteen mari- ners' - the dauntless Smith, gathering fresh courage from the consciousness of difficulties, renewed his attempt ; but Jun. 24. misfortune followed misfortune, until it seemed as if every- 1615. thing was arrayed to defeat his plans. He was first attacked by brutal pirates; then taken prisoner by four French man-of-war, stripped of everything, and detained
1 Mather, Magnalia, vol. 1; Coun- cil's Relat., in 2 M. H. Coll., 9. 6; Hubbard, 38-9
" The Council's Relation, in 2 M. M. II. Coll., 9. 7, seems to speak as if Smith and Dermer were sent out by the Plymouth Co .; but Smith, De- scrip. N. E., 49, and Gen. Hist., 221, makes the statement in the text.
3 The Gen. Ilist., 2. 207, Rich-
mond ed., says : " ere I had sailed 120 leagues." But in his " Path- way," 3 M. H. Coll., 3. 20, he says he was " more than 200 leagues at sea" when he returned.
4 The names of the planters are in the Gen. Ilist., p. 222, ed. 1626, or vol. 2. 206, Richmond ed .; and Descrip. N. E., p. 45, ed. 1616, or in 3 M. II. Coll., 6. 130.
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SUBSEQUENT MOVEMENTS OF SMITH.
CHAP. three months, when he succeeded in escaping " far beyond I. all men's reason or his expectation." 1
Forced by these reverses, and by the discouragement of his employers, to relinquish for a time his plans of colo- nization, the restless spirit of this resolute man could not be content to remain inactive ; and publishing to the world 1616. his "Description of New England," he traversed the king- dom to awaken an interest in establishing permanent settle- 1617. ments in these parts. "I spent that summer," he says, "in visiting the Cities and Townes of Bristoll, Exeter, Bastable, Bodnam, Perin, Foy, Milborow, Saltash, Dartmouth, Absom, Tattnesse, and the most of the Gentry in Cornewall and Deuonshire, giving them Bookes and Maps, showing how in six moneths the most of those ships had made their voyages, and with what good successe;" but the only result of his earnest labors was a promise that "twenty saile of ships" should be furnished him the next year; and "in regard of my paines, charge, and former losses, the westerne'Com- missioners in behalf of themselues and the rest of the Com- pany, and them hereafter that should be ioyned to them, contracted with me by articles indented vnder our hands, to be Admirall of that country during my life, and in the renewing of their Letters-Patent so to be nominated."2
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1614 to 1616.
Contemporary events, however, unlooked for by the Plymouth Council, were preparing New England for suc- cessful colonization. First of all a war broke out among the aborigines, which resulted in the destruction of thou- sands of the Indians, with the "Great Bashaba " at their
1 Gen. Hist., 2. 207-13, Rich- mond ed .; Pathway, in 3. M. H. Coll., 3. 21 ; Descrip. N. E., p. 51, ed. 1616, or in Force, vol. 2, and 3 M. II. Coll., 6. 133-8; Council's Relat., in 2 M. II. Coll., 9. 7. Some authorities represent this second voyage as undertaken in 1616.
2 Gen. Hist., 2. 218, Richmond ed .; Pathway, in 3 M. II. Coll., 3. 24. Prince and Holmes quote Pur- chas as authority for a voyage under- taken by Smith in 1617; but I find no notice of such a voyage in Smith's own writings.
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PESTILENCE AMONG THE INDIANS.
head ;1 and to war succeeded pestilence, which completed CHAP. the work of depopulation. This singular disease, "the great- I est that ever the memory of father to son took notice of," 1617 to spread far and wide, and was exceedingly fatal. It raged, 1619. at intervals, for more than two years, and extended, in its wasting effects, from the borders of the Tarratines south- ward to the Narragansets. The people "died in heaps, insomuch that the living were in no wise able to bury the dead;" the wigwams were filled with putrefying corpses ; "young men and children, the very seeds of increase," and whole families and tribes perished ; and even seven years after, the bones of the unburied lay bleaching upon the ground at and around their former habitations.
The nature of this epidemic has never been determined. It has been called the "small pox," and the "yellow fever." But whatever was its character, all were not equally affected by its ravages, for the Penobscots and the Narragansets suffered but little. Nor does it seem to have troubled the few English residents of the country. Richard Vines, the agent of Gorges, who was stopping at Saco when the pesti- lence was at its height says, that, though he and his men " lay in the cabins with these people that died, some more, some less, not one of them ever felt their heads to ache so long as they stayed there."?
Providence, too, whose prerogative it is, was bringing good out of evil. The natives, who had been treacher- ously carried to England, were some of them yet living there, and had acquired a smattering of the English tongue; Gorges, who had received and entertained them kindly,
1 Gorges, in 3. M. II. Coll., 6. 57. 2 Smith's Pathway, in 3 M. H. Coll., 3. 16; Gorges, in 3 M. H. Coll., 6. 57; Morton's Mem., 23; T. Morton's N.Eng. Can., in Force, vol. 2; Iligginson, in Chron. Mass. 256; Johnson, in 2 M.II. Coll., 2. 66;
Gookin, in 1 M. II. Coll.,1. 148 ; Cot- ton's Way of Cong. Churches, 21, and Reply to Williams, 27-8; Hub- bard, 54-5, 194-5; Plym. Col. Laws, ed. 1671; the Charter of King James, of 1620, &c. &c.
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DERMER'S VOYAGE.
CHAP. had often conversed with them of America and its inhabi- I. tants ; and still anxious to accomplish his favorite project of settling a colony on these shores, he was on the eve of fitting out a new expedition, and the captive aborigines were to accompany its commander.
1618. · Learning that Capt. Dermer, the companion of Smith in the voyage of 1615, was then at Newfoundland, where a colony had been established a few years before, 1 and that he was an active friend of discovery and settlement, through the persuasion of Gorges Capt. Edward Rocroft was sent to those parts in a vessel of two hundred tons, with orders to join Dermer in exploring the coasts of New England. On reaching the coast, and whilst awaiting the arrival of his companion- who was then absent- Rocroft seized a French bark of Dieppe, engaged in fishing, and finding her a valuable prize, he sent her master and crew in his own ship to England, and keeping possession of the cap- tured vessel, his men conspired to rob and slay him; but putting the mutineers ashore at "Sawaguatock," he sailed to Virginia, where he had lived some years before, and in another quarrel he was killed, and his bark was sunk during a storm.2
Dec. 1618.
Dermer, in the meantime, had crossed over to England ; and after conferring with Gorges, he set out on his return in a ship belonging to his employer, expecting to meet Rocroft according to appointment ; but finding he had left, and learning his fate by a ship from Virginia, he sent his own vessel to England, laden with fish and furs, and em- . May 26. barked in an open pinnace of five tons, taking with him 1619.
Tisquantum or Squanto-the subsequent friend and inter-
1 For a sketch of this colony, see 2 Gorges, in 3 M. II. Coll., 6. 61- Whitbourne's Newfoundland, ed. 2; Council's Relat., in 2 M. HI. Coll., 1620. A copy of this rare work is 9. 7-10.
in the valuable library of Charles Deane, Esq., of Cambridge.
ver.
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JOURNEY TO POCKANOKIT.
preter of the Pilgrims - and "searching every harbor, and CHAP. compassing every cape-land," he arrived at length in the I. May. 1619. neighborhood of what is now Plymouth, and " travelling along a day's journey to a place called Nummastaquyt"- now Middleboro' -" my savage's native country," a messen- ger was despatched " a days journey further to Pockanokit, which bordereth on the sea; whence came to see me two kings, attended with a guard of fifty armed men, who being well satisfied with that my savage and I discoursed unto them, being desirous of novelty, gave me content in what- soever I demanded. Here I redeemed a Frenchman, and afterwards another at Masstachusit, who three years since escaped shipwreck at the Northeast of Cape Cod."1
From this place the voyager, passing the Dutch settlement at Manhattan, continued on to Virginia, where he tarried for the remainder of that year ; and returning to the north- ward the ensuing spring for the prosecution of his discov- 1620. eries, in the vicinity of Cape Cod he was beset by the natives, and received a large number of wounds of which he subsequently died.2
This journey of 1619, as preceding by a year the settle- ment of Plymouth, and as taken in the territory so often alluded to by the Pilgrims, is exceedingly interesting. It was an important addition to the knowledge of the country, and prepared the way, by its friendly termination, for the hospitable reception of the Plymouth colonists by the gener- ous Massasoit and his brother Quadequina, whom all will recognize as the two savage kings alluded to in the nar- rative.
4
Eighteen years had now elapsed since the discovery of 1620. Massachusetts by the enterprising Gosnold, and as yet no
2 Council's Relat., in 2 M. H. Coll., 9. 12, 13; Dermer, in Purchas,
1 Purchas, 4. 1778; Smith, Gen. Hist., 2. 219; Council's Relat., in 2 M. II. Coll., 9. 10, 11; Gorges, 4. 1778-9, and in N. Y. Hist., Coll., in 3 M. H. Coll., 6. 62-3; Hub- 1. 352 ; Brodhead's N. Y., 92-4. bard, 40, 54 ; Morton's Mem., 25-7.
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A NEW PATENT PROPOSED.
CHAP. colony was planted upon its territory. The settlements to I. the North were more successful, and in Canada and New-
1620. foundland colonies were established, and children had been born.1 To the South, also, the Dutch had thrown up slight bulwarks at New Netherlands, and were conducting a lucra- tive trade in furs .? But the indefatigable Gorges was not easily baffled ; and after he had "made so many trials of the state and commodities of the country, and nature and condition of the people, and found all things agreeable to the ends" which he proposed, he "thought it sorted with reason and justice to use the like diligence, order and care" for the affairs of the Northern Plantation, as the London Council had employed for the Southern; and of "this his resolution, he was bold to offer the sounder considerations to divers of his Majesty's Honorable Privy Council, who had so good liking thereunto, as they willingly became interested themselves therein as patentees and counsellors for the management of the business," and application was made to the king for a charter. His Majesty, who was at this time highly offended with the members of the London Council for their bold defiance of his arbitrary will, listened not unwillingly to the propositions of his " trusty and well- beloved servants," and readily sanctioned their request for a patent. But to obtain this instrument was no easy matter, for not only was the London Council earnest in its remon- strances, but the French protested against it, and there were many members of Parliament opposed to all commer- cial monopolies, so that two years elapsed before a patent could be obtained.
July 23. 1620.
At length an order was issued to Sir Thomas Coventry, Solicitor General, to "prepare a Patent ready for his Majes- ty's Royal Signature ;" and a few months later the GREAT
1 Prince's Chronol., and Whit-
Brodhead's New York, ch. 3. bourne's Newfoundland, ed. 1620.
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THE GREAT PATENT FOR NEW ENGLAND.
PATENT FOR NEW ENGLAND passed the seals.1 In this mem- CHAP. orable document, the principal foundation of all subsequent I vrants of territory in New England, his Majesty conveyed Nov. 3. 1620. to forty of his subjects ?-. among whom were the most pow- rrful and wealthy of his nobility - all that part of America extending from the 40th to the 48th degree of North lati- tude, and between these parallels from the Atlantic to the Pacific : - a body of land embracing the Acadia of the French, and the New Netherlands of the Dutch, and cover- ing nearly the whole of the present inhabited British Pos- sions in North America, all New England, the State of New York, half of New Jersey, nearly all of Pennsylvania, and the vast country to the West- comprising, and at the time believed to comprise, more than a million of square miles, and capable of sustaining more than two hundred million of inhabitants.3
The Company established by this grant - which was to consist of " forty persons and no more"-was to be known as " the Council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the Planting, Ruling, Ordering, and Governing New England in America." Absolute property in the soil, unlimited jurisdiction, the regulation of trade, sole powers of legislation, the administration of justice, and the appoint- ment of all officers, were among the privileges conceded by his Majesty. Subordinate patents, vesting property in the soil, could be granted by this Council, but it could not confer powers of government without the authority and
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