USA > Maryland > A sketch of the history of Maryland during the three first years after its settlement : to which is prefixed, a copious introduction > Part 3
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* Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 348. Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 406. Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 68.
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Seas through those Straits, had returned back to Spain, probably jealous of the honour which he perceived Magellan was about acquiring, proposed, soon after his return to the emperor Charles V, the discovery of a more direct passage into the South Scas than that found by Magellan, through the nor- thern part of America. But the emperor, for many reasons which appear to have induced him at that time to discountenance an opposition to the Portu- guese claim of the Moluccas, and at the same time, perhaps, disgusted with Gomez's base desertion of Magellan, did not listen to his application in so fa- vourable a manner as he expected. He therefore made proposals of the same nature to the count de Aranda, a Spanish nobleman, and some others, to induce them to send him by this supposed passage to the Moluccas. Less tender of the Portuguese . rights than the emperor, and willing to avail them- selves of this man's abilities as a pilot, they agreed to furnish him with a ship for that purpose. Ac- cordingly (in the year 1525, as it appears,) Gomez sailed to Cuba, and thence in search of this pas- sage he coasted the continent northward, as high as Cape Ras, at Newfoundland. His heart now fail- ing him, as it is said, or more probably chagrined at not succeeding in finding the much-desired pas- sage, he returned to Corunna, carrying with him only some of the unhappy natives, whom he had captured somewhere on the coast, An unlucky jest, which occurred immediately on his return, injured both his reputation and the credit of the famed north-west passage. When the ship came into port, somebody asked, what they had on board?
SECT. 1.
1525.
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SECT. I.
1525.
A seaman answered, Esclavos-slaves, meaning the poor Indians. A person on shore, not far from the ship, mistaking the sound for Clavos-cloves, and setting off immediately for the Spanish court, reported there that Gomez had returned with a car- go of spice from Moluccas. When the mistake came to be discovered, the disappointment, as it . generally happens when hopes are unreasonably ele- vated, produced on the contrary equally unreason- able ridicule and derision on his voyage. The men- tion of it here, however, serves to illustrate the more early discoveries of the continent of North Ame- rica .*
1527. English attempt to discover a north- west pas- sage.
This , delusion of a north-west passage to the East-Indies, which had thus in Spain prompted this expedition, was at the same time operating in other parts of Europe. As Henry the eighth of England, among other of his inordinate passions, was often actuated with the avidity of wealth, he was induced to listen to the advice of a Mr. Robert Thorne, an English merchant, who had long resided at Seville, in Spain, and had there acquired some knowledge of the East-India trade. This gentleman represented to Henry the advantages which his kingdom might derive from such a commerce, and proposed that endeavours should be made to find out a passage to the East-Indies, by the north-west parts of Ame- rica .¡ The king, on mature deliberation, gave or- ders for two ships to be fitted out for that purpose. They sailed on the 20th of May, 1527; but the voyage was productive of no discovery of import-
* Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 9, p. 388, 575.
t Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 10, p. 11, 12.
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ance. One of the ships was lost in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the other returned in the month of October following, to England. One circumstance attending this voyage of discovery, is perhaps worth mentioning. The king ordered, that " several cun- ning men" should embark in the voyage. The wri- ter, who mentions this,* explains them to mean,- " persons skilled in the mathematics; who, with the common sort of people, passed now, and long after, for cunning men and conjurers." By an uncom- mon association for those days, one of these cunning men, it seems, was a priest,-" a Canon of St. Paul's in London, who was a great mathematician, and a man indued with wealth."t
To return to the Spaniards :- Notwithstanding their disappointment in Vasquez's expedition before mentioned, they were not altogether discouraged from pursuing their discoveries in Florida. In about four years afterwards, (in 1528,) Pamphilo Narvez, the same commander, it would seem, who Narvez's a few years before had been ungenerously sent by grant. Velasquez, governour of Cuba, to supersede the great Cortez in his important conquest of Mexico, which he was just at that time completing, obtained from his catholic majesty, the emperor Charles V, a grant of " all the lands lying from the River of Palms to the cape of Florida."}
* Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 192.
; Hackluyt's Voyages, cited in Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 75.
{ The above description of Narvez's grant is taken from Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 75, who appears to have extract- ed it from the commission as in Purchas's Pilgrimage, which he there cites. The Rio de las Palmas, or River of Palms,
SECT. I. 1527.
1528. Pamphilo
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SECT. I. Narvez, in pursuance of his grant, fitted out a powerful armament to conquer the country, with 1528. which he landed somewhere on the western side of the cape of Florida, in the month of April, 1528. It does not appear that he explored any part of the ·continent at any great distance from the coast bor- -dering on the Gulf of Mexico. His expedition was ·entirely unsuccessful ; and he and all his men pe- rished miserably, except a very few, who, after undergoing inexpressible hardships, found their way 'to Mexico .* His grant, however, serves to recog- nize the Spanish claim at this early period of time, to a most extensive part of the southern coast of North America, comprehending a considerable por- tion of Louisiana, particularly the most valuable part of it to the United States-the territory of New Orleans.
1539. Ferdinand de Soto's expedi- tion.
: Before we quit our observations on the progress of the Spaniards in the southern part of North Ame- rica, we must trespass a little on the order of time, in briefly mentioning a subsequent expedition of that nation, in about ten years after that of Narvez, for making a conquest of Florida. Ferdinand de 'Soto, who was governour of Cuba, received from Charles V, the title of Marquis of Florida, with au- thority as we may suppose, to acquire that country by conquest. He accordingly, on the 12th of May, 1539, embarked three hundred and fifty horse, and nine hundred foot, on board of nine ships, at the
empties itself into the Gulf of Mexico, in that part of the coast thereof now called, the New Kingdom of Leon. The mouth of the river is in about 25° of north latitude.
Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 40, p. 380.
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port of Havanna ; the most formidable armament of SECT. Europeans, that till then had appeared in North 1. 1539.
America. Pursuing his course to Florida, he dis- embarked on the 25th of the same month, at the bay of Spiritu Sancto, which lies on the western side of the peninsula of East Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico. His route from thence seems to have been in various directions from one Indian tribe to ano- ther, as they were then scattered throughout that part of the continent now called the Floridas ; and from the length of some of his marches, as mentioned in the account of his expedition, he must have pene- trated also far into Georgia, and what is now called the Mississippi Territory, among the Creeks and Cherokees : who are probably the remains of those populous and flourishing tribes of the natives, who are so pompously described by the famous Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, one of the historians of this expedition, and who probably felt a partiality for those, whom he might consider as his countrymen, and consequently a natural indignation at the bar- barous usage of them practised on this occasion by Soto. After a series of adventures, experienced by himself and his army, which have the appearance more of romance than reality, during a period of almost five years, and having lost the greater part of his armament, he died of a fever on the banks of the Mississippi; on which event, the officer next in command, prudently contrived to conduct the miserable remnant of them, by water, along the shores of the Gulf, to Panuco, in the kingdom of Mexico. " Thus," says the historian, " ended this expedition, in ruin and poverty to all who were
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SECT. concerned in it; nor did they leave a Spaniard in 1. all Florida."*
1539.
We may now attend to the proceedings of the French, in the northern parts of the American con- tinent, when they first began to make serious at- tempts to form settlements in Canada. Although the loss of Verazzini had discouraged them, for a few years, from fitting out ships for discovery in America, yet, agreeably to the genius and charac- ter of that nation, their accustomed activity and en- ergy on such occasions, soon again revived. A certain Jacques Quartier, (called by the English, James Cartier,) a native and an experienced pilot of St. Malo, was prevailed upon by admiral Cabot to undertake another expedition. He accordingly, on
Jacques voyage.
1534. the 20th of April, 1534, sailed from that port under Quartier's a commission from the French king ; and on the . 10th of May following, he arrived at cape Bona- vista, in Newfoundland. Although in cruising along that coast to the southward, he found many commo- dious harbours, yet the land was so uninviting, and the climate so cold, that he directed his course to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and entered within a bay there, which he called, Le Baye des Chaleurs, on account of the sultry weather which he there expe- rienced, and which has been sometimes since called Spanish Bay. t
It may, perhaps, gratify the curiosity of those F who are amused with the origin of names, to take
T
* Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 40, p. 381.
t Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 349. Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, pa. 407.
----
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notice here of a traditional report, mentioned. by SECT. I.
some writers, that the Spaniards had long before this voyage of Cartier, visited this coast, but find- . 1534. ing no signs of gold or silver, they hurried to get off again, crying out in the Spanish language, Aca Nada ! that is, There is nothing here! These words the Indians retained in their memory, and when the French now visited the country, and land- ed, they were saluted by the natives with the cry of Aca Nada ! Aca Nada ! this the French mistook for the name of the country, and have ever since called it Canada. The writer from whom this is taken, observes, that this is a very strange deriva- tion, but as he found it in the best French authors, he thought it worth setting down .*
Leaving the bay of Chaleurs, Cartier landed at several places along the coast of the Gulf, and took possession of the country in the name of his most Christian majesty. After which, he returned to France, where he arrived on the 5th of September, 1534.
Cartier's report to the French monarch, of his 1535. proceedings, was so favourably received by him, tempt of First at- that it was now resolved to attempt the settlement of a colony in the country which he had visited, colonise He was accordingly furnished with three large ships Canada. for that purpose, and sent out again with a sufficient number of colonists ; among whom were many young men of distinction, who were desirous of accompanying him in the character of volunteers. He arrived in the Gulf on the 10th of August, 1535,
* Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 349.
the French to
ஆர்ட்ஸ் நான்
TV
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SECT. and because that was St. Lawrence's day, he then I. gave it the name of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which 1535. name was subsequently extended to the river, and which both retain to this day. Passing by an is- land, to which he gave the name of Assumption, since called Anticosti, he sailed up the Saguenay, a river emptying into that of St. Lawrence. Return. ing from thence, and proceeding up the river St. Lawrence, he passed a small island, to which he gave the name of Isle aux Cuodriers, Isle of Hazels, from the number of those trees growing on it ; and afterwards came to another island so full of vines, that he called it the Isle of Bacchus ; but it has since acquired the name of the Isle of Orleans. He had in his last voyage, the precaution to carry two of the natives with him to France, where they learned as much of the language, as enabled them now to serve as interpreters between him and their countrymen. Sailing further up the St. Lawrence, he entered a small river, where he had an interview with an Indian chief, whose name was Donnacona, and where he was informed of an Indian town called Hochelaga, which was deemed the metropolis of the whole country, and situated in an island now known by the name of Montreal, near to which it would seem he then was. The inhabitants here, who are sup- posed to have been the Hurons, the most tractable of all the Indians then in Canada, treated Cartier and his attendants with much hospitality, expressing at the same time astonishment at their persons, dress, and accoutrements. He had at this time with him only one ship and two long boats, having left the rest at St. Croix, a port in the river of St. Lawrence, to
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HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
which port he returned, and there spent the winter. SECT. The severe cold of the climate, together with a 1. 1535. more probable cause; the use of salt provisions, brought on them the scurvy, with which he and his people would have perished, it is supposed, had they not, by the advice of the natives, used a decoc- tion of the bark and tops of the white pine. On the approach of spring, Cartier prepared to return to Europe. Whatever other excellencies of cha- racter he might have possessed, gratitude does not appear to have been a prevalent sentiment with him. He was ungenerous enough to kidnap his Indian friend, Donnacona, and carry him to France, where he arrived in the spring of 1536 .*
As Henry VIII, and Francis I, were at this time upon the very best terms, and as neither of them expected to draw much immediate wealth from their North American expeditions, it was natural that they should not suffer that harmony, which then subsisted between them, to be interrupted by the feeble attempts which the subjects of each were then carrying on for the establishment of colonies in America. In corroboration of this it may be observed, that such establishments were with Henry but secondary objects ; for, his principal desire was to find out a north-west passage, so that, agreeably to his imperious temper, he might have a way of his own to the East Indies, and not be obliged to follow the route either of the Spaniards or Portuguese. It was this inclination of the king, that indirectly pro- duced a spirit in the English nation, at this time,
* Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 349. Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 408.
:
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SECT. for discoveries and settlements in the northern parts I. of America, notwithstanding the many difficulties
1536. English
and dangers which appeared to attend them. Ac. attempt to cordingly a Mr. Hore, a merchant of London, a settle New- man of considerable estate, of an athletic constitu- foundland. tion and undaunted fortitude, and addicted to the study of the sciences of geography and astronomy, resolved to undertake a voyage, and attempt a set- tlement in Newfoundland. He no sooner made his intention known, than he received all the counte- nance and encouragement from the crown that he could expect; and as this gave much credit to the expedition, so in a short time many young gentle- men of good fortunes and distinguished families, offered to share both the expense and dangers of the undertaking. Among these were some men of the learned professions, particularly a Mr. Thomas Butts, son of Sir William Butts, the king's first physician, and a Mr. Rastal, brother to Serjeant Rastal, the eminent special pleader. About the end of April, 1536, all things were ready, and the whole of the companies of both ships, amounting to one hundred and twenty, mustered at Gravesend, where, with much ceremony, they embarked. They soon after sailed, and arrived in the space of two months at cape Breton; from whence they sailed round a great part of Newfoundland, to Penguin island. They afterwards went on shore upon the east side of Newfoundland, where they staid till their provisions were nearly exhausted. Being then afraid to trust themselves at sca in such a condi- tion, they delayed going on board till they were in such distress, that they began secretly to murder
هاحلول
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and eat one another ! This horrid practice coming SECT. to the knowledge of their captain, or governour, he,~ I. by a most judicious and pathetic speech, brought 1536. them to resolve rather to live upon grass and herbs, than to subsist any longer by this detestable method. But it happened soon after, that a French ship put in there, well manned and well victualled, of which the Englishmen resolved to take advantage; and therefore, watching a fair opportunity, they pos- sessed themselves of the French ship, and leaving their own, sailed directly for the coast of England. They returned safely ; but some of them so much altered by their fatigues, that their friends did not know them again ; particularly young Mr. Butts, whose parents could not recognise him, but by a mark on his knee. Another circumstance relating to this unfortunate enterprise, is mentioned also, as redounding much to the credit of Henry VIII. The Frenchman, whose ship had been thus taken, came to England not long afterwards, to complain of the violence committed upon them. King Henry examined very minutely into the affair, and finding that extreme want was the sole cause of an action, otherwise inexcusable, he satisfied the French to the full extent of their demands, out of his own coffers, and pardoned in his own subjects that wrong, which necessity forced them to commit .*
The accounts which had been given in France of the before-mentioned voyage of Cartier to Ca- nada, had, according to some writers, made an unfavourable impression on both the nation and its
* Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 192.
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La Roc- que's at- tempt to settle Ca- nada.
SECT. monarch. Not being able to produce either gold I. or silver, all that this unfortunate gentleman could 1540. urge about the utility of the settlement and the fruitfulness of the country was treated with neglect by the public. Some individuals, however, appear to have cherished a different opinion. For, in about four years after Cartier's-expedition before men- tioned, the project of settling Canada began again to be talked of, and a gentleman of Picardy, whose name was Francis de la Rocque, Lord of Roberval, undertook to accomplish this design. To qualify him for this thing Francis I, by letters patent dated Janu- ary 15th, 1540, erected him viceroy, and lieutenant- general in Canada, Hochalaga, Saguenay, Newfound- land,Belle-isle, cape Breton and Labrador, giving him the same power and authority in those places that he had himself. This gentleman, who had a good es- tate, fitted out two ships at his own expense, and prevailed upon James Cartier, by the large promises he made him, to undertake another voyage to Can- ada. La Rocque not being ready for embarkation himself, he sent Cartier with five ships before him, having previously obtained for him a royal commis- sion as captain-general .* Cartier commenced this voyage in May, and after encountering many storms,
* This commission is inserted entire in Hazard's Collec- tions, Vol. 1, p. 19, 21. It is worthy of remark, that in this commission to Cartier, power is given to him to choose fifty persons out of such criminals in prison as shall have been convicted of any crimes whatever, except treason and counterfeiting money, whom he should think fit and capable to serve in the expedition: See an account of a settlement of convicts on the Isle of Sables, by the French, in the year 1598, post. p. 94.
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landed in Newfoundland, on the 23d of August. SECT. I. 1540.
Roberval not arriving, he proceeded to Canada; and on a small river four leagues above the port de St. Croix, and at no great distance from where Quebec now stands, he built a fort and began the first settle- ment in Canada, which he called Charlebourgh. Car- tier having waited there in vain above a year, for the arrival of the viceroy Roberval, and having near- Jy consumed all his provisions, and now dreaded an attack from the savages, set out in the year 1542 on his return to France. Roberval, with three ships and two hundred persons, coming to recruit the set- tlement in Canada, met him at Newfoundland, and would have obliged him to return to his province ; but Cartier eluded him in the night and sailed for Bretagne. The viceroy proceeding up the river St. Lawrence four leagues above the island of Orleans, and finding there a convenient harbour, built a fort, and remained over the winter. It is probable that he returned to France in the next year ; for we find him again, in the year 1549, embarking for the river St. Lawrence, accompanied by his brother and a numerous train of adventurers ; but they were ne- ver heard of afterwards. With them expired, or at least ceased for many years, all the hopes which had been conceived in France of making settlements in America .*
. Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 349. Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 408. It seems to be alleged here, in the Mod. Univ. Hist. that, notwithstanding this loss of Roberval and his adventur- ers, some few French settlers still remained in Canada. If so, they must have been some left there by him on his return to France, after his first voyage in 1542, when he met Cartier.
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SECT. I. To return to the proceedings of the English na- tion .- Although Henry VIII, during his long reign. 1546. Proceed- was frequently at open enmity with Spain, and, for ings of the a considerable part of it, was under no restriction English. from a papal bull, yet his interference in the affairs of the continent, and the vexation he experienced about his wives, seem to have so much engrossed his attention, and of consequence that of the nobility and gentry of his kingdom, that his reign appears to have been unfavourable to the progress of disco- very.
1546. Fishery of New. found- land.
- In the feeble minority of his son Edward VI, less was to be expected. It seems, from the preamble to a statute made in the second and third year of this king's reign,* that, " within a few years, then past, there had been levied and taken by certain officers of the admiralty, of such merchants and fishermen as had used and practised adventures and voyages to Iceland, Ireland, and other places, com- modious for fishing, divers great exactions, as sums of money, doles, and shares of fish, for licenses to pass the realm for such purposes;" severe penalties were therefore enacted against such offenders. This statute appears to have originated from some abuses either connived at or practised by the king's uncle,
This seems, however, to be contradicted by a passage in Char- levoix's Nouv. France, 1, 22, " Avec eux tombèrent toutes les esperances, qu'on avoit conçûés de faire un établissement en ' Amerique." And in Harris's Voyages, just cited, it is said that " it was this gentleman (Roberval) who first fixed some French settlements in America, which, however, were after- wards abandoned."
* II and III Edw. 6. c. 6. at a parliament holden November 4th, 1548.
THE
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SECT. I. 1543.
HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
Thomas Seymour, lord high admiral of England, who was attainted by an act of parliament of this same session. As the admiral had undoubtedly formed very unjustifiable schemes of ambition, and probably took this method of obtaining money as the means of success in those schemes, there is every reason to suppose that the accusations against him on this subject, were not without foundation. The act, however, serves to show, that the English fishery on the coast of Newfoundland, was at this period an object of such national importance as to deserve legislative encouragement; and it is said to have been the first act of parliament that ever was made in relation to America .* .. .
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The pension which was in this reign also granted 1549. Pension granted. to Sebastian Cabot,t seems to imply, that his servi- ces in the discovery of North America were not to Cabot. deemed entirely unworthy of remuneration. It must be observed, however, that in the reigns of both Henry and his son Edward, the ruling persons in England appear to have been less desirous of mak- ing discoveries of new countries and settlements therein, than in exploring a more expeditious route to the East-Indies. After failing in some of their
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