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 7
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* See the recital of the Indenture in Sir Walter Raleigh's indenture of assignment, in Hazard's collections, Vol. 1, p. 12.
1587. A second colony at the same piace un. ٢٢٦٠١١١٣م White.
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SECT. IV. 1587.
legislative and executive powers for the government of the colony. A small fleet of three ships was fitted out and placed under the command of the governour captain White. About one hundred and seventeen adventurers and settlers, consisting of men, women, and children,* with a plentiful supply of provisions, were embarked on -board the fleet. They were directed by Sir Walter to fix their plan- tation and erect a fort at the bay of Chesapeake, which had been discovered by governour Lane the preceding year. Thus prepared for a permanent settlement, they arrived on the 22d of July, 1587, at Hatteras. The governour, with forty of his best men, went on board the pinnace, intending to pass up to the island of Roanoke, in the hope of finding the fifteen Englishmen, whom Sir Richard Grenville had left there the year before; and, after a confer- ence with them concerning the state of the country and of the Indians, to return to the fleet, and proceed along the coast to the bay of Chesapeake, according to the orders of Raleigh. But no sooner had the pinnace left the ship, than a gentleman, instructed by Fernando, the principal naval commander, who was destined to return soon to England,t called to the
* See a list of their names in Hazard's collections, Vol. 1. p. 40. Although these adventurers composed in reality the third English colony attempted to be settled in America, con- sisting the before-mentioned fifteen men as one, yet as Ro- bertson and other historians speak of these above under White as the second colony sent out, their authority is here followed .
t In the Indenture of Jan. 7th, 1587, above-mentioned, (under which this colony was attempted to be planted) men- tion is made of " Simon Fernando of London," as one of the
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SECT. sailors on board the pinnace, and charged them not IV. to bring back any of the planters, excepting the 1587. governour and two or three others, whom he approv. ed, but to leave them in the island ; for the summer, he observed, was far spent, and therefore he would land all the planters in no other place. The sailors on board the pinnace, as well as those on board the ship, having been persuaded by the master to this measure, the governour, judging it best not to con- tend with them, proceeded to Roanoke. At sun- set he landed with his men at that place in the island, where the fifteen men were left ; but discovered no signs of them, excepting the bones of one man, whom they supposed to have been killed by the savages. The next day the governour and several of his company went to the north end of the island, where governour Lane had erected his fort, and his men had built several decent dwelling houses, the preceding year; hoping to find here some signs, if not the certain knowledge, of the fifteen men. But, on coming to the place, and finding the fort razed, and all the houses, though standing unhurt, over- grown with weeds and vines, and deer feeding with- in them, they returned in despair of ever seeing their looked-for countrymen alive. Orders were given the same day for the repair of the houses, and for
grantees, and who was probably also one of the twelve assis- tants or counsellors. His name appears also in the list of colonists, (published in Hazard's Collections, Vol. 1, p. 40.) " who remained to inhabit in Virginia" at this time, they . could not therefore be the same persons, but I find it related as above in Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 125, who probabl; took it from some authentic writer.
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the crection of new cottages. All the colony, con- SECT. sisting of one hundred and seventeen persons, soon IV. after landed, and began to make the necessary pre- 1587. parations for their accommodation and comfort. It was not long before they were visited by Manteo, the faithful Indian, who had accompanied Amidas and Barlow to England ;* from whom they received some intelligence of the fate of their countrymen. He informed them, that the natives secretly set upon
* Although the names of two Indians, Manteo and Towaye, are mentioned in the list of adventurers in this expedition, published in Hazard's collections, vol. 1, p. 40. as " Savages that were in England and returned home into Virginia with them ;" which seems to be repeated in Holmes's Annals, vol. 1, p. 127, note, 1 .; yet there is evidently a mistake in this supposition, although it may be so in Hackluyt; not merely because it is expressly said by Oldmixon, in his British Em- pire in America, vol. 1, p. 212, and Burk in his History of Virginia, vol. 1, p. 51, that Manteo and Wanchese, the two Indians who had been in England, returned with governour Lane and his colony under Sir Richard Grenville, but that it would be otherwise impossible to suppose, that Manteo should be said to have come to captain White's colony soon after their arrival, and given them some information of the loss of the fifteen men left by Grenville, as he is said by most writers to have done, if he had not been in the country during the time when these fifteen men resided at Roanoke. The im- probability also of governour Lane's coming out with a colony and leaving these two Indians in England, when he must have been certain of their utility to them, forms a strong ground against the supposition. The difference between the names " Towaye" and " Wanchese" appears to be immaterial, as Indians are said to change their names frequently, and the · name of Towaye most probably means the same person as that of Wanchese. It is possible, that they were mentioned in the list of colonists, because, being friendly to them, they might make their constant residence with them.
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SECT. IV. them, and killed some; the rest fled into the woods.
15.7.
The colony had now been but a few days on the island, when Mr. Howe, a gentleman who was one of the council, or court of assistants as it was called, was attacked and barbarously murdered by the na- tives, as he happened to stroll about at a little dis- tance from the fort, which the new planters had re- paired or erected. Soon afterwards a party was sent under the command of captain Stafford, accompanied by Manteo, to a place called Croatan, which it seems was the name of an Indian town, situated ncar Ocracock inlet, and on the northern part of the island of which Cape Look-out is the southern ex- tremity. At first, the natives seemed determined to oppose the captain's debarkation ; but, through the persuasion of Manteo, they were induced to alter their resolution, lay down their arms, and enter into an alliance against the Indians of Scroton, on the continent. Upon this occasion, it was, that they received further information of the fate of the little co- lony left by Grenville. Seven of the fifteen, it seems, had been killed by the Indians of Scroton, who fell upon them by surprise, and set fire to their houses in the night ; while the remaining eight escaped to the water-side, went over to a little island near Cape Hatteras, and were never since heard of .* The
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* The above account of the destruction of these unfortu- nate men, is from the Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 239 ; but .it is somewhat differently related in an extract from Hack- luyt, iii, 283, 284, published in Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 126, note 1 : " About a week afterward, some of the English people going to Croatan, were told by the Indians, that the 15
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reader wil recollect, that the Indians of Scroton were the same tribe or nation, upon whom Sir Richard Grenville had exercised such an imprudent revenge for the theft of a silver cup. In consequence of this intelligence, it was now resolved to fall upon the Scrotons; upon which expedition, the governour set out in person, attended by twenty-eight select soldiers, well armed. Being informed of the situa- tion of their principal town, he attacked it in the night, broke in with the greatest impetuosity ; but was astonished to find that he had killed and wound- ed several of his allies, the Croatans. The Scrotons, it seems, expecting an attack from the English set- tlement, to revenge the ruin of Grenville's little co- , lony, and the death of Mr. Howe, had evacuated the place; and, after their departue, the Croatans had un- luckily taken possession of it.
Two small events about this time, have been thought by historians, worth recording. On the thirteenth of August Manteo, the friendly Indian, was baptized at Roanoke, according to a previous order of Sir Walter Raleigh ; and, in reward of his
Englishmen, left by Grenville, were surprised by 30 Indians ; who, having treacherously slain one of them, compelled the rest to repair to the house containing their provisions and weapons, which the Indians instantly set on fire; that the English, leaving the house, skirmished with them about an hour ; that in this skirmish, another of their number was shot in the mouth with an arrow, and died ; that they retired fight- ing to the water-side, where lay their boat, with which they fled towards Hatteras ; that they landed on a little island on the right hand of the entrance into the harbour of Hatteras, where they remained a-while, and afterward departed, whither they knew not."
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SECT. fidelity and services to the English, the governour created him Lord of Dassamenpeak, an Indian na- 1587. tion in the neighbourhood. And on the eighteenth, Mrs. Dare, a daughter of governour White, and wife of Ananias Dare, (one of the assistants,) was delivered of a daughter at Roanoke, who was bap- tized on the next Sunday, by the name of Virginia; because she was the first English child born in the country .*
The affairs of the colony seem to have been now considered in so prosperous a way, and the colonists so well pleased with their situation, that when the ships were about to return to England, and it be- came necessary for some person to return with them in order more speedily to promote further supplies, they all declined, except one, who was judged to be unequal to the office; and the governour, by mere importunity and solicitation, was constrained, much against his wishes, to undertake it.f He sailed from Roanoke on the twenty-seventh of August, and ar- rived in England at a most unfavourable time in- deed, for the purposes he had undertaken. He found the nation in universal alarm, at the formi- dable preparations of Philip II, of Spain, to invade England, and collecting all its force to oppose the fleet, which the Spaniards arrogantly denomi- nated the Invincible Armada. Raleigh, Gren- ville, and all the most zealous patrons of the new
* Oldmixon's British Empire in America, Vol. 1, p. 215, 216. Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 239. Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 124. Burk's Hist. of Virginia, Vol. 1, p. 63.
+ Burk's Hist. of Virginia, Vol. 1, p. 64, Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 203.
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settlements, were called to act a distinguished part SECT. VI.
in those measures of defence, which the public dan- ger demanded and rendered indispensable.
1588.
Raleigh, however, mingled with his exertions to - defend his native country, some attention to the si- tuation of the colony he had planted. Early in the following year he found leisure to fit out for its re- lief, at Biddeford, a small fleet, the command of which was given to Sir Richard Grenville ; but the apprehensions from the Spanish armament still in- creasing, the ships of force prepared by Raleigh were detained in port, by order of the queen, for the defence of their own country ; and Sir Richard Grenville was specially and personally commanded, not to depart out of Cornwall; where his sevices under Sir Walter Raleigh, who was mustering and training the forces, as lieutenant of the county, were deemed necessary .* Governour White, it seems, was also at this time, one of the queen's council of war, and was, therefore, by reason of his office, obliged to remain in England. t These patrons of the colony still, however, found means to make some efforts for their relief in this year. Two small pin- naces, in which were fifteen planters, with suitable supplies of provision, were fitted out, and sailed for Virginia. Being more intent on a profitable voyage, than on the relief of the colony, the person or per- sons under whose direction they were placed, went in chase of prizes ; until at length, two men of war from Rochelle, falling in with them, disabled and rifled them, and obliged them to put back for Eng-
* Marshall's Life of Washington, Vol. 1, p. 18.
. t Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 130.
حمد
L
T
-
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SECT. land .* IV. Thus the whole year of 1588 elapsed with- out furnishing the colony with supplies.
1589. Sir Walter Raleigh assigns his patent to others.
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Soon after this, the attention of Raleigh being directed to other more splendid objects, he assigned his patent to Thomas Smith, William Sanderson, and several others, merchants and adventurers, whose names are enumerated- in the indenture of assignment, bearing date the 7th of March, 31 Eliz. (1589,) making at the same time a donation to the assignees, of one hundred pounds lawful money of England, for the encouragement of their designs. t Although the Spanish armada had been destroyed in the course of the preceding year, and the nation freed from the alarm of invasion, yet, it seems, that they were as anxiously engaged this year in retalia- ting on the Spaniards, by an expedition against them ; so that difficulties, similar to those of the former year, might have operated to prevent any relief to the unfortunate colonists.
1500. The whole of the se- cond colo- AF lost.
It was not till the year after the assignment, that governour White could go to their assistance. Above two years had now elapsed, since he had left his infant colony, under the full expectation of his speedy return to them. On the 20th of March, 1590, he sailed from Plymouth with three ships ; but, taking the usual circuit by the West Indies, he, perhaps undesignedly, suffered himself to be too much delayed in the capturing of Spanish prizes. Having arrived at Hatteras on the 15th of August, they fired some cannon to give notice of their arri-
* Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 129.
t See this indenture of assignment at large, in Hazard's Collections, Vol. 1, p. 42.
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HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
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val, and sent some men on shore at the place where the colony had been left; but no signs of their countrymen could be found. In attempting the next day, to go to Roanoke, one of the boats in passing a bar, was half filled with water; another overset, and seven men were drowned. This disas- ter discouraged the other sailors to such a degree, that they all seemed resolved to abandon the research : but by the persuasion and authority of the gover- nour and one of their captains, they resumed it. The governour accordingly, taking with him nine- teen men in two boats, went towards the place where he had left the English colony, and found on a tree at the top of the bank, the letters CRO, carved in fair Roman characters. This he knew to be intend- ed to mark the place, where the planters might be found : for they had secretly agreed with him, at his departure for England, to write or carve on the trees or posts of the doors, the name of the place where they should be seated, because they were at that time preparing to remove fifty miles from Roa- noke island, into the main land. It had also been agreed, that in case of their distress, they should .carve over the letters a cross; but, to the great comfort and encouragement of their English friends, they found not this sign. Coming to the spot where the colony had been left, they found the houses taken down, and the place very strongly inclosed with a high palisade of trees, in the form of a fort. At the right side of the entrance, on one of the chief trees or posts, the bark of which had been taken off five feet from the ground, was carved in fair capital letters, CROATAN, without the sign of distress:
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SECT. IV. Within the palisade they found many bars of iron, pigs of lead, iron shot, and other things of bulk and 1590. weight, scattered about, and almost overgrown with grass and weeds. In the end of an old trench, they found also, five chests, that had been carefully bu- ried and hid by the planters ; three of which gover- nour White recognised as his own, together with many other things of his, spoiled and broken : such as his books torn from their covers, the frames of his pictures and maps rotten and spoiled with rain, and his armour almost eaten through with rust. Concluding from the circumstance of no signal of distress being left, as agreed upon, that the colony was safe at the place thus designated, they returned to their ships, and determined to sail for Croatan on the next morning. But, a violent storm arising that night, the ships were separated from each other, and having lost their anchors and cables, durst not venture in with the shore. So they all shifted for themselves, and with various fortunes, arrived in England and Ireland .* What became of the un- fortunate colonists, whom White had left in 1587, time has never yet developed. From the palisaded fort, it would seem, that they had been either at- tacked by, or were in much apprehension of danger from the natives before their removal. The Indians of Croatan, having been always friendly to the Eng- fish, through the influence of Manteo, who, it seems, belonged to that tribe, and was a native of that place, i- 8
Oldmixon's British Empire in America, Vol. 1, p. 217. Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 130.
¿ Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 131.
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they were induced, probably by that circumstance, SECT. to remove thither. After which no traces of them IV. appear. 1602.
This unfortunate event seems to have chilled the Gosnold's ardour of the English for colonisation in America New Eng. voyage to for many succeeding years. It was not until the land. year 1602, the last year of the reign of Elizabeth, that any voyage of importance was undertaken by . them to North America, some of the Virginia com- pany, probably the most zealous of those to whom Sir Walter Raleigh had assigned his patent, resolv. " ed to fit out a vessel for that country, and accord- ingly made choice of captain Bartholomew Gosnold for the commander thereof, who had been one of the adventurers in a former voyage thither, and was an excellent mariner. He sailed from Falmouth on the 26th of March, 1602, in a small vessel, with thirty-two persons on board, of whom it was pro- posed, that twelve should stay behind and form a settlement, in case he should meet with any place which he should judge convenient for that purpose. Instead of following former navigators in their un- necessary circuit by the West India isles and the Gulf of Florida, Gosnold steered due west, as nearly as the winds would permit, and is said to be the first English commander, who reached America by this shorter and more direct course .* He arrived
Although Robertson, and other historians after him, have observed as above, that Gosnold was the first English com- mander who sailed to America by this shorter course, yet, unless it be understood of that part of America then called Virginia, it cannot well be admitted. For undoubtedly Ca- bot, (who, though not an Englishman, yet sailed under English
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SECT. on the 11th of May in nearly forty-three degrees of IV. north latitude on the coast of Massachusetts. Here
1602. they met with a shallop with a mast and sails, having on board eight Indians, with whom the English had friendly intercourse. * Sailing along the shore they the next day discovered a headland in the latitude of forty-two degrees, where they came to anchor ; and, taking a great number of cod-fish at this place, they called it Cape Cod, a name it still retains, holding their course along the coast as it stretched toward the south-west they discovered, on the twenty-first of May, an island, which they called Martha's Vine- yard ; not that, it seems, which now bears that name, but a small island now called Noman's Land. Co- ming to anchor, two days afterwards, at the north- west part of this island, they were visited the next morning by thirteen of the natives, with whom they
. colours and with English seamen,) and all those, who had previously visited Newfoundland, particularly Sir Humphrey Gilbert, sailed this shorter and direct course.
. These natives first hailed the English; who answered them. After signs of peace, and a long speech made by one of the Indians, they went boldly on board the English vessel, "all naked," saving loose deer skins about their shoulders, " and neer their wastes seal skins tyed faste like to Irish dimmie trowses." One of them, who seemed to be their chief, wore a waistcoat, breeches, cloth-stockings, shoes, and a hat ; one or two others had a few things of European fabric ; and "these with a piece of chalke described the coast thereabouts, and could name Placentia of the Newfoundland; they spake divers christian words." Their vessel is supposed to have belonged to some unfortunate fishermen of Biscay, wrecked on the coast., Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 142.
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SECT. IV. 1603.
had a friendly traffic. On the twenty-fourth they discovered another island, which they named Dover Cliff, now called Gay Head ; and the next day came to anchor at a quarter of a mile from the shore, in a farge bay, which they called Gosnold's Hope, which is said to be the same as that now called Buzzard's Bay. On the northern side of this bay was the main land ; and on the southern, four leagues distant, was a large island, which, in honour of the queen, they called Elizabeth. On the twenty-eighth they con- sulted together upon a fit place for a plantation ; and concluded to settle on the western part of Elizabeth island. In this island there is a pond or lake of fresh water, two miles in circumference, in the cen- tre of which is a small rocky islet of about an acre of ground, and on this islet they began to erect a fort and store-house. While the men were occu: pied in this work, Gosnold crossed the bay in his vessel ; went on shore ; trafficked amicably with the natives; and having discovered the mouths of two rivers, supposed to be the two harbours of Apoone. ganset and Pascamanset, on one of which the town of New Bedford is now built, in the southern part of the State of Massachusetts, returned in five days to the island. In nineteen days the fort and store- house were finished ; but discontents arising among those who were to have remained in the country, it was concluded, after deliberate consultation, to re- linquish the design of a settlement. Having loaded their ship with a cargo of sassafras and cedar wood, furs, and some other commodities of the country, sufficient to indemnify the charges of the expedition, they set sail for England. The whole company,
-
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SECT. having left their little fort on the 18th of June, ar- IV. rived at Plymouth the 23d of July following .*
1603. Sir Wal- ter Ra- leigh's en- dravours It would be doing great injustice to Sir Walter Raleigh to omit an event, appertaining to this year, which displays both his sense of honour and huma- to find out nity in a very conspicuous point of view. Uncasy, colony at as he manifestly appears to have been, at the aban- the second Roanoke. donment of the colony loft at Roanoke in 1587, and which had been sent there under his auspices, he had sent vessels four different times prior to the present instance, at his own charges, for their relief ; but these had returned without doing any thing ef- fectual ; some having followed their own profit, and others returned with frivolous excuses. Still not abandoning all hope of finding them, he resolved to make one effort more to discover and relieve them. Having accordingly purchased and fitted out a bark for that purpose, he gave the command of her to Samuel Mace, an able mariner and an honest, sober man, who had been at Virginia (North Carolina) twice before. He sailed from Weymouth in March, 1602, and fell on the American coast; in about the thirty-fourth degree of north latitude ; spent a month there ; proceeded along the coast; but returned
. Harris's voyages, Vol. 2, p. 219. Modern Universal History, Vol. 39, p. 240. Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 143. The following note from Holmes's Annals, ibid. may perhaps gratify the curious. In 1797 the reverend Dr. Belknap with several other gentlemen went to the spot, which was selected by Gosnoid's company on Elizabeth Island, and had the su- preme satisfaction to find the cellar of Gosnold's store-house : the stones of which were evidently taken from the neighbour- ing beach; the rocks of the islet being less moveable, and lying in ledges." Belknap's Biog. ii, 115.
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