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 8
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home without any thorough attempt to effectuate the SECT. IV.
purpose of the voyage. They offered an excuse, either real or pretended, that the extremity of weather 1602. and the loss of some principal ground tackle forced and deterred them from seeking the port of Hat- teras .*
The voyage of Gosnold, however inconsiderable 1603. it may appear, is said to have had important effects. Captain Pring's He had found a healthy climate, a rich soil, and good expedi- harbours, far to the north of the place where the tion. English had attempted to make a settlement. Its distance from England was diminished, almost a third part, by the new course he had pointed out. The pacific reign of James had now succeeded to that of Elizabeth, whose government, as well from her parsimony, as from the happy content of her subjects under it, had not been favourable to colo- nisation. In addition to which, the frequent wars with Spain, which had afforded her subjects such constant employment, and presented to them such alluring prospects both of fame and wealth, having now ceased under James, persons of high rank and ardent ambition became impatient to find some ex- ercise for their activity and talents. New plans for establishing colonies in America were the result. Under all these circumstances, the reverend Mr. Richard Hackluyt, a prebendary of the cathedral of Westminster, (to whom England is said to have been more indebted for its American possessions than to any other man of that age, and whose valuable col- lection of voyages and discoveries, published by
Harris's voyages, Vol. 2, p. 219, 220.
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SECT. him in the year 1589, diffused a relish among his IV. . countrymen for the sciences of geography and navi-
1603. gation,) was induced to project a scheme for send- ing in the year 1603, a small fleet on a voyage, simi- · lar to that of Gosnold's, and prevailed upon several gentlemen and merchants of Bristol to embrace and join in the undertaking. Previous to any prepara- tions, for this purpose, it is said to have been deem- ed by them necessary to apply to Sir Walter Raleigh, who was still looked upon as the proprietor of Virgi- nia, in order to procure his licence. On Mr. Hack- Juyt's application to Sir Walter, they received all the encouragement they could desire; for he not only granted them a licence under his hand and seal, but also made over to them all the profits which should arise from the voyage. After they were thus empow- ered, they raised a joint stock of a thousand pounds, and fitted out two small vessels, the one called the Speedwell, commanded by captain Martin Pring, of the burden of fifty tons, with thirty men and boys ; "the other a bark of 26 tons, called the Discoverer, commanded by Mr. William Brown, who had un- der him a mate and eleven men, and a boy.t These
* It is said in Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 222. that Mr. Hackluyt " had a prebend in the cathedral of Bristol," and in the Modern Universal History, Vol. 39, p. 240, that he was " a Prebendary in the cathedral of Bristol." This corresponds with his influence with the Bristol merchants. He is how- ever styled, "Prebendary of Westminster," in the first Vir- ginia charter of 1606, and by Robertson. He might, perhaps, have had a prebend in both cathedrals at different times.
t These vessels appear very small to us at this day for such long voyages; but, according to Hume, such was the mode of building them at that time. Sce his Appendix to queen Elizabeth's reign.
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vessels were victualled for eight months, and had a SECT. IV. 1603.
·large cargo on board, consisting of all sorts of goods that were deemed proper for barter in that country. They sailed from King's Road, near Bristol, on the 20th of March, 1602-3. Being hindered by con- trary winds, they put into Milford Haven, where they continued till the 10th of April following, and then proceeded on their voyage. They did not pursue the short route, which Gosnold took, but went by the Azores, and arrived without any re- markable accident, in the beginning of June, on the coast of North America, between the forty-third and forty-fourth degrees of north latitude, among a multitude of islands, in the mouth of Penobscot bay. Ranging the coast to the south-west, and passing the Saco, Kennebunk, York, and Piscata- qua rivers, they proceeded into the bay of Massachu- setts. They went on shore here, but not finding `any sassafras-wood, the collection of which was a great object of their voyage, they coasted further along, till they entered a large sound, supposed to be what is now called the Vineyard sound, and came to an anchor on the north side of it. Here they landed at an excellent harbour in a bay, which, in honour of the mayor of Bristol, they called Whit- son bay ; mentioned to be in about forty-one de- grees and some few minutes north latitude. Having built a hut, and inclosed it with a barricade, some of them kept constant guard in it, while others were employed in collecting sassafras in the woods. The natives came and trafficked with them, forty or fifty in a company, and sometimes upward of an hun- dred, and would eat and drink, and be merry with
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SECT. IV. them. Observing a lad in the company, playing
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upon a guitar, they seemed much pleased at it, got round about him, and taking hands, danced twenty or thirty in a ring, after their manner. It was ob- served, that they were more afraid of two mastiff dogs, which the English had with them, than of twenty men ; so that when our voyagers wished to get rid of their company, they let loose one of these mastiffs, upon which the natives would immediately shrick out, and run away to the woods. After re- maining here about seven weeks, the bark was des- patched, well freighted with sassafras, for England. Soon after her departure, some alarming appearances of hostility began to be manifested on the part of the Indians ; which might, probably, be owing to the above-mentioned improper conduct towards them, as well as the erecting a fortification in their coun- try ; for not long afterwards, when most of the men were absent from the fort, a large party of Indians came and surrounded it, and would probably have surprised it, if the captain of the ship had not fired two guns, and alarmed the workmen in the woods. This induced them to accelerate the lading and de- parture of the ship, for which they had procured a very valuable cargo of skins and furs, in exchange for the commodities which they had bartered with the Indians. Amongst the curiosities which they brought back with them, was a canoe, or boat used by the inhabitants, made of the bark of the birch tree, sewed together with twigs, the seams covered with rosin or turpentine ; and though it was seven- teen feet long, four broad, and capable of carrying nine persons, it did not weigh sixty pounds. These
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boats the inhabitants rowed, or rather paddled, with two wooden instruments, similar to baker's peels, by which they went at a great rate. On the day before the embarkation of the English, an incident occurred, which seemed to confirm the suspected hostility of the natives. They came in great num- bers to the woods where the English had cut the sassafras, and set fire to it ; which seemed to be de- signed to let them know, that they would preserve nothing in their country, which should invite such guests to visit them again. On the ninth of August our voyagers quitted the coast, and sailed for Eng- land, arriving in the mouth of the Bristol channel in five weeks; but meeting there with contrary winds, they could not reach King's road before the second of October : and they had the satisfaction of find- ing that their bark was safely arrived a fortnight be-' fore them .*
In the same year also, and while Pring was em- Captain ployed in this voyage, captain Bartholomew Gilbert, mew Gil- Bartholo- who had been the year before with captain Gosnold, was sent by some merchants of London, on a fur- ther discovery, to the southern part of Virginia; it being intended also, that he should search for the lost English colony. Sailing from Plymouth on the tenth of May, in a bark of fifty tons, by the way of the West Indies, where they made a short stay, they arrived on the 25th of July, off the Capes of Chesa- peake bay, which Gilbert was very desirous of en- tering ; but the wind blowing hard, with a high sea, though they beat about for two or three days,
. Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 222. Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 240. Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 145.
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bert's voy- agc.
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SECT. !V. they could not get in, and were obliged to bear away to the eastward. On the twenty-ninth they 1603. anchored about a mile from the shore ; and the cap- tain, with four of his best men and two lads, landed in their boat. Being provided with arms, he and his men marched some short distance up into the country : but, in their march, they were set upon and overpowered by the natives, and all killed ; and it was not without difficulty, that the two young men who were left with the boat, could reach the ship again, to bring the news. They being now, in all, but eleven men and boys in the ship, were afraid to venture the loss of any more of their small compa- ny ; and their provisions growing short, the master, Henry Sute, who had taken the command, resolved, though they were in extreme want of wood and water, to return homewards ; which they did, and arrived in the river Thames about the end of September .*.
Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 223. Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 146. The above account of Gilbert's voyage is extract- ed from Harris's Voyages, with which Holmes's Annals cor- respond. But it may be proper to be informed, that Oldmixon in his British Empire in America, Vol. 1, p. 219, gives a dif- ferent relation of this expedition. He says, that " Gilbert pro- ceeded from the Carribee islands to the bay of Chesapeake, in Virginia, being the first that sailed up into it, and landed there. The Indians set upon him and his company in the woods ; and captain Gilbert and four or five of his men, were killed by their arrows: upon which his crew returned home." But, as the above mentioned collection of voyages by Harris, is not only posterior in time, but also rather a more authentic work than Oldmixon's, the narration of the former is here adopted in the text. There is an obscurity, however, in Harris's ac- count of it as to the filace where Gilbert was killed. As only ø day or two intervened between his quitting the capes of Che-
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The pacific disposition of king James, and his SECT. inexperience in the usage and law of nations, had IV. 1604. induced him to suppose, that by his mere accession to the throne of England, peace was thereby restored between England and Spain, he having been always before, as king of Scotland, in amity with Spain. He had on the 23d of June, 1603, before any terms of peace were concerted, or even proposed by Spain, recalled all the letters of marque that had been granted by Elizabeth against the nation; and, al- though a sort of peace actually existed between Spain and England from the commencement of his reign, yet it was not until the 18th of August, 1604, that the treaty of peace was signed between the two nations .* This event removed many of the obsta- cles that stood in the way of the British trade, and opened to their ships a free access to many coun- tries, to which they had not before resorted. The old passion for the discovery of a north-west pas- sage, now revived again in its full vigour. With a view to this discovery, two noblemen of the highest rank and influence in the kingdom, were induced to send out a ship under the command of captain George Weymouth. Writers who have mentioned 1605. this voyage, differ so widely, and give such con- Captain tradictory accounts of it, that it has become scarcely mouth's Wey. intitled to notice. It seems that they sailed on the voyage. last day of May, 1605, from Dartmouth, (some say,
sapeake and the time of his landing, it would seem that it could not be higher to the north-eastward than the Hudson's river. More probably, however, some where along the sea-coast of Maryland, or state of Delaware.
* Hume's Hist. of Eng. end of ch. 45, in James I, reign.
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""INTRODUCTION, &c.
SECT. from the Downs,) and met with nothing of conse. IV. quence, till such time as they judged themselves to 1605. be very near the coast of what was then called Vir- ginia ; but the winds carrying them to the north- ward, in the latitude of 41º 30', and their wood and water beginning to grow extremely short, they be- came very desirous of seeing land. By their charts they had reason to expect it, and therefore bore di- rectly in with it, according to their instructions, yet they found none in a run of almost 50 leagues. After running this distance they discovered several islands, on one of which they landed, and called it St. George .* Within three leagues of this island, they came into a harbour, which they called Pentecost harbour, because it was about Whitsuntide they discovered it .; They then sailed up a great river forty miles ;} set up crosses in several places, and had some traffick with the natives. In July they re- turned to England, carrying with them five Indians; one a Sagamore, and three others of them, persons of distinction, whom they had taken as prisoners. §
* In Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 223, this island is said to be that which is now called Long island, near New York.
1 In the Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 240, this harbour is said to be the mouth of Hudson's river.
# This river is said by Oldmixon, in his British Empire in America, Vol. 1, p. 220, to have been " the river of Powha- tan," now called James's river, in Virginia. Dr. Belknap (American Biog. ii, 149,) is satisfied, that it was the Penob- scot, in Maine ; but from the Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 240, it would seem to have been the Hudson's ; which is the most probable, if (according to Harris's Voyages, just cited,) the island above-mentioned was Long Island.
§ Sec Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 223. Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 150.
SECTION V.
The progress of the French in settling colonies in America-A set- tlement of convicts on the Isle of Sables, by the French-Chauvin's voyages to the St. Lawrence-Pontgrave's voyage to the same- The Sieur de Mont's commission, and voyages under it-His pa- tent revoked-Pontrincourt's endeavours to fix a settlement at Port Royal, Nova Scotia-The Sieur de Mont obtains a restoration of his grant-and establishes the first permanent colony in Canada, under the conduct of Champlain.
THE connection which necessarily subsists SECT. V. between the events attending the early settlements of the French in Acadia, now called Nova Scotia, 1598. and Canada, and those of the former British colo- The pro- nies in North America, must apologise for a short of the gress French digression here, in taking a cursory notice of the in settling early progress of those French settlements. In do- colonies in North ing this it will be necessary to carry the attention of America. the reader a few years back.
"That great and good monarch, Henry IV, of France, (having acceded to the throne of that king- dom in the year 1589,) as soon as he had defeated his enemies, the Guise faction, and obtained quiet possession of the crown, with a liberality of mind, which always marked his character, issued his edict of the 4th of July, 1590, whereby he revoked those extorted from his predecessor by the Leaguers, and established religious liberty of conscience through- out his dominions. A restless disposition, however, which appears to have too much attended the con- duct of the Hugonots or Protestants of France,
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SECT. V. throughout their unhappy civil wars of the six- teenth century, did not permit them to rest quiet 1598. with these concessions of Henry .* Indeed, as he had been a Protestant and one of their leaders, and had obtained the crown principally by their means, they might naturally look up to him for greater fa- vours than a mere toleration: Be this as it may, he thought it proper to yield to the importunities of their deputies, who had for that purpose waited up- on him at Nantz, where he then was, by issuing another edict, bearing date the 13th of April, 1598, since well known and celebrated in history under the emphatic denomination of " The Edict of Nantz ;" the revocation of which by Louis the fourteenth, in the year 1685, is said to have been productive of much mischief to France for many succeeding years. By this edict of Henry, the Protestants were, not only restored to the frec en- joyment of their religion, and a safe protection in their civil rights by the establishment of particular tribunals of justice for them, but they were also advanced to an almost equal share of political liber- ty, by a free admission to all employments of trust, profit, and honour in the state.t
France, having thus recovered some tranquillity after fifty years of internal commotion since her last attempts at colonisation in 1549,¿ was now enabled
The Hugonots, or Protestants of France, are said to bave been at this time, about a twelfth part of the nation .- Voltaire's Age of Lewis XIV, Vol. 2, p. 183.
t Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 24. p. 334, 342, 377.
# Sce before, p. 41.
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to exercise again, the enterprising talents of her citi- SECT. V.
zens. In the same year in which the Protestants obtained from Henry the edict of Nantes, (1598,) 1598. A settle- the Marquis de la Roche, a Breton gentleman, re- ment of ceiving from the king a commission to conquer on the isle
convicts Canada, and other countries, not possessed by any of Sables, Christian prince, sailed from France, in quality of French. by the lord-lieutenant of those countries, taking with him a person of the name of Chetodel, of Normandy, for his pilot. The marquis, having most absurdly pitched upon the isle of Sables, (which lies about fifty leagues to the south-east of Cape Breton, is about ten leagues in circumference, and is itself a mere sand-bank,) as a proper place for a settlement, left there about forty malefactors, the refuse of the French jails .* The history of those poor wretches, contains the history of the expedition. The mar- quis, after cruising for some time on the coast of Nova Scotia, returned to France, without being able to carry them off the miserable island ; and is said to have died of grief for having lost all his interest at that court. As for his wretched colony, they must all have perished, had not a French ship been wrecked upon the island, and a few sheep driven upon it at the same time. With the boards of the wreck, they erected huts ; with the sheep, they sup- ported nature : and when they had eat them up, they lived on fish. Their clothes wearing out, they made coats of scal's skins ; and in this miserable condi- tion, they spent seven years, till Henry IV ordered
* See a like colony of convicts authorised by the commis- sion to Quartier, before mentioned, and referred to in a note in p. 40.
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Chetodel to go and bring them back to France.
SECT: V. Chetodel found only twelve of them alive; and 1598. when he returned, Henry had the curiosity to see them in their seal-skin dresses. Their appearance moved this generous and humane monarch so much, that he ordered them a general pardon for their offences, and gave each of them fifty crowns to be- gin the world with anew .*
Though la Roche's patent had been very ample and exclusive, yet private adventurers still conti- nued to trade to the river St. Lawrence, without any notice being taken of them by the government. Amongst others was one Pontgravé, a merchant of St. Malo, who had made several trading voyages for furs, to Tadoussac.t Upon the death of the Marquis de la Roche, his patent was renewed in fa- vour of Mons. de Chauvin, a commander in the French navy, who put himself under the direction of Pontgravé ; as the latter might justly be suppo- sed, from his frequent trading voyages to that coun- try, to have acquired a considerable knowledge of 1600. it. In the year 1600, Chauvin, attended by Pont- Chauvin's gravé, made a voyage to Tadoussac, where he left to the St. some of his people, and returned with a very pro- voyages Lawrence. fitable quantity of furs to France. These people, whom he left, would have perished by hunger or disease, during the following winter, but for the compassion of the natives. Chauvin, in the next
* Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 408.
t Tadoussac is a town, or place, at the mouth of the Sa- - guenay, a small river emptying into the St. Lawrence from .the north, considerably below Quebec, and ninety leagues from the mouth of the St. Lawrence.
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year, (1601,) made a second voyage with the same SECT. good fortune as the first, and sailed up the St. Law- V. rence as high as Trois Rivieres ; but while prepar- 1601. ing for a third voyage, (in the year after,) he died.
.' The many specimens of profit to be made by the Canadian trade, led the public to think favourably of it. M. de Chatte, the governour of Dieppe, succeeded Chauvin as governour of Canada. De Chatte's scheme seems to have been, to have carried on that trade with France, by a company of Rouen merchants and adventurers. An armament for this purpose, was accordingly equipped, and the com- mand of it given to Pontgravé, with powers to ex- tend his discoveries up the river St. Lawrence. Pontgravé, with his squadron, sailed in 1603, hav- ing in his company Samuel Champlain, afterwards the famous founder of Quebec, who had been a grave's captain in the navy, and was a man of talents and the St. enterprise. Arriving at Tadoussac, they left their ships there, and in a long-boat they proceeded up the river as far as the falls of St. Louis, and then re- turned to France.
While Pontgrave was engaged in this voyage of The Sieur 1603, De Chatte died, and was succeeded in his pa- de Mont's tent by Pierre du Gast, Sicur de Monts, styled in sion, and commis- the king's commission to him, " gentilhomme ordi- under it. voyages naire de notre chambre." The tenor of his letters patent, (as we have it at large in Hazard's Collec- . tions, Vol. 1, p. 45,) bearing date November 8th, 1603, appears to have been as well for colonising the country then called Acadić, (which compre- hended Canada, as well as what is now called Nova Scotia,) as for encouraging the fur-trade carried on
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SECT. there. A difference of opinion is said to have taken V. place, on the occasion of granting these letters pa- in
1604. tent, between king Henry and his very able minis- ter, the duke of Sully. The duke declared round- ly, that all settlements in America above the fortieth degree of north latitude, could be of no utility ; and that all pretended advantages insisted upon in their favour, were but so many commercial chimeras. Here again, (observes the historian, *) the monarch was right and the minister wrong, as we know by experience. By these letters patent, the Sieur de Monts was constituted and appointed the king's lieutenant-general, to represent his person, in the country, territory, coasts, and confines of Acadie, from the fortieth degree of north latitude to the forty-sixth. The extent of this portion of the con- tinent was, from that part of the coast of New Jer- sey, in the latitude of Philadelphia, to the northern extremity of Cape Breton. Had the Sieur de Monts fixed his settlement or colony, at this time, on that part of the continent as low as, or near to the fortieth degree, which he might have done, the country be- ing then unsettled by any Europeans, and entirely open to him, very different indeed might have been the present situation of affairs in North America. But it is probable, that as all northern furs are said to be much better than those of a southern climate, the French found greater profits from that trade in Canada, than the English did from the southern part of the continent, which they were at this time ex- ploring. The Sieur de Monts, was therefore, soon
* Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 24, p. 406.
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enabled to form a company under his patent, more SECT. considerable than any that had yet undertaken that V. trade. For their further encouragement, it seems, 1604. the king, soon after the former patent to the Sieur de Monts, granted also to him and his associates, an exclusive right to the commerce of peltry in Acadie, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Thus en- couraged, they fitted out four ships. De Monts, in person, took the command of two of them, and was attended by Champlain, and a gentleman, called Pontrincourt, with a number of volunteer adventu- rers. * Another of the ships was destined to carry on the fur trade at Tadoussac; and the fourth was
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