The history of Maryland : from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations, Part 8

Author: Bozman, John Leeds, 1757-1823
Publication date: 1837
Publisher: Baltimore : J. Lucas & E.K. Deaver
Number of Pages: 1062

USA > Maryland > The history of Maryland : from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations > Part 8

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Not discouraged by these abortive efforts to plant a colony in 1587. America, Sir Walter Raleigh, with a perseverance natural to A second colony at great minds in arduous undertakings, resolved to attempt at the same

* Oldmixon's British Empire in America, Vol. 1, p. 214. Harris's Voyages, Vol. 2, p. 202.

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SEC. IV. making another settlement. By an indenture of grant bearing 1587. date the 7th of January, 29th of Eliz. 1587, (new style) he place un- granted unto John White, and twelve others, (therein mention- der Gover- nor White. ed,) "free libertie to carrie with them into the late discovered barbarous land, and countrie, called Assamacomock, alias Win- gandacoia, alias Virginia, there to inhabit with them, such and so many of her Majestie's subjects, as shall willingly accompany them, and also divers and sundrie other prerogatives, jurisdic- tions, royalties and preheminencies."-By this indenture also, it would seem, he constituted a corporation by the name of the governor and assistants of the city of Raleigh in Virginia, " a city intended to be erected and builded in Virginia aforesaid."* Captain John White was made governor, and the twelve assis- tants formed his council, in whom conjointly were vested the legislative and executive powers for the government of the colo- ny. A small fleet of three ships was fitted out and placed under the command of the governor captain White. About one hun- dred and seventeen adventurers and settlers, consisting of men, women, and children,t with a plentiful supply of provisions, were embarked on board the fleet. They were directed by Sir Walter to fix their plantation and erect a fort at the bay of Chesapeake, which had been discovered by governor Lane the preceding year. Thus prepared for a permanent settlement, they arrived on the 22d of July, 1587, at Hatteras. The governor, 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 conference 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,}

* See the recital of the Indenture in Sir Walter Raleigh's indenture of assign- ment, in Hazard's collections, Vol. 1, p. 42.

tSee 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, counting the before-mentioned fifteen men as one, yet as Robertson and other historians speak of these above under White as the second colony sent out, their authority is here followed.

į In the Indenture of Jan. 7th, 1587, above-mentioned, (under which this colo- ny was attempted to be planted) mention is made of " Simon Fernando of Lon- don," as one of the grantees, and who was probably also one of the twelve as-

ca to tv is l h

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called to the sailors on board the pinnace, and charged them not SEC. IV. to bring back any of the planters, excepting the governor and 1587. two or three others, whom he approved, but to leave them in the island; for the summer, he observed, was far spent, and there- fore he would land all the planters in no other place. The sai- lors on board the pinnace, as well as those on board the ship, having been persuaded by the master to this measure, the gover- nor, judging it best not to contend with them, proceeded to Roanoke. At sunset 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 governor and several of his company went to the north end of the island, where governor 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, overgrown with weeds and vines, and deer feeding within 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 the erection of new cottages. All the colony, consisting of one hundred and seventeen persons, soon after landed, and began to make the necessary preparations 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 them, and killed some; the rest fled into the woods.

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 mur- dered by the natives, as he happened to stroll about at a little distance from the fort, which the new planters had repaired or erected. Soon afterwards a party was sent under the command of captain Stafford, accompanied by Manteo, to a place called

sistants 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 probably took it from some authen- tic writer.

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SEC. IV Croatoan, which, it seems, was the name of an island, or section 1587. of the great sand-beach near Wokoken, as before mentioned .* At first the natives seemed determined to oppose the captain's debarkation, but as soon as they heard Manteo's voice, they laid down their arms, and became friends. Next day a conference was held, and the Indians undertook to go to the people of Se- cotan and Aguasgosack, and persuade them to renew the old friendship between them and the English ; and in seven days time they promised to bring their kings and great men to confirm the same at Roanoke. Among other things at that conference they told captain Stafford, that Mr. Howe was killed by the Indians of Dessamenpeake and Roanoke ; and that the fifteen men, left by Sir Richard Grenville, had been treacherously sur- prised by three hundred Indians from Secotan, Aguasgosack, and Dessamenpeake, (in revenge of Wingina's death,t) who had set fire to their dwellings, killed some, and forced the rest to fly in their boats towards Hatteras ; where they remained a short time on a small island, and then departed they knew not whither .- The seven days being expired, without any news of the In- dians with the chiefs they had promised to bring to Roanoke ; and the governor having received particular information from the Croatoans, that Mr. Howe's death was chiefly occasioned by the Indians of Dessamenpeake, who were also principally con- cerned in driving the English from Roanoke; he determined forth- with to take a proper revenge of these people ; and accordingly with captain Stafford and twenty-four men, of whom Manteo was one, he set out on this expedition. Next morning by break of day they landed, and got beyond the Indian houses, and as- saulted them as they were sitting round the fire. The miserable creatures fled among the reeds, where one of them was shot through ; but the fury of the assailants was soon allayed, when they understood by an Indian woman, and a man who called on captain Stafford by name, and told him that those Indians whom he attacked were his friends of Croatoan, come thither to gather

* According to Williamson, (Hist. of North Carolina, vol. 1, p. 41,) there were two Indian names of two distinct places, similar in sound and differing only in a single letter, to wit: Croatoan and Croatan. The former was situated as above mentioned ; but as to the latter he says, " the point of main land, now called Croatan, was called Dasamonquipo;" the same, probably, as mentioned by others under the name of Dessamenpeake. But no place, now called Croatan, nor Dessamenpeake, is designated on any of the common modern maps of North Carolina.

+ Burk's Hist. of Virginia, vol. 1, p. 63.

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corn, having learned that the Dessamenpeakes, on the death of SEC. IV. Mr. Howe, had fled from their habitations, and left their corn to 1588. be devoured by the birds. The English finding themselves dis- appointed of their intended revenge, and touched with concern for what had happened to their friends, only gathered what corn was ripe, and left the rest growing for their use. Manteo very justly imputed their misfortune wholly to the Indians, who had not kept their promise in coming to the governor at the time they appointed .*

Two small events about this time, have been thought by his- torians, 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 fidelity and services to the English, the governor created him Lord of Dessamenpeake, the Indian nation before mentioned. And on the eighteenth, Mrs. Dare, a daughter of governor White, and wife of Ananias Dare, (one of the assistants,) was delivered of a daughter at Roanoke, who was baptized on the next Sun- day, by the name of Virginia ; because she was the first English child born in the country.t

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 Eng- land, and it became 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 governor, by mere importunity and solicitation, was con- strained, much against his wishes, to undertake it .¿ He sailed from Roanoke on the twenty-seventh of August, and arrived in England at a most unfavourable time indeed, for the purposes he had undertaken. He found the nation in universal alarm, at the formidable preparations of Philip II. of Spain, to invade Eng- land, and collecting all its force to oppose the fleet, which the Spaniards arrogantly denominated the Invincible Armada. Ra-

* The above account is taken from Heith's Hist. of Virg. p. 48, 49. The au- thor of this volume had, in the former account published, followed the Mod. Univ. Hist. there cited, but now perceives it to be erroneous. The fate of the. fifteen men above mentioned is somewhat differently related, &c. (as in the note published.)

t 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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SEC. IV. leigh, Grenville, and all the most zealous patrons of the new 1588. settlements, were called to act a distinguished part in those measures of defence, which the public danger demanded and rendered indispensable.

Raleigh, however, mingled with his exertions to defend his native country, some attention to the situation of the colony he had planted. Early in the following year he found leisure to fit out for its relief, at Biddeford, a small fleet, the command of which was given to Sir Richard Grenville; but the apprehen- sions from the Spanish armament still increasing, 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 Rich- ard Grenville was specially and personally commanded, not to depart out of Cornwall; where his services under Sir Walter Raleigh, who was mustering and training the forces, as lieuten- ant of the county, were deemed necessary .* Governor 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 re- main in England.+ These patrons of the colony still, however, found means to make some efforts for their relief in this year. Two small pinnaces, in which were fifteen planters, with suit- able supplies of provision, were fitted out, and sailed for Virgi- nia. Being more intent on a profitable voyage, than on the relief of the colony, the person or persons 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 England .¿ Thus the whole year of 1588 elapsed without furnishing the colony with supplies.

Raleigh as- signs his patent to others.

1589. Soon after this, the attention of Raleigh being directed to Sir Walter 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 encourage- ment of their designs. || Although the Spanish armada had

* Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. 1, p. 18.

t Holmes's Annals, vol. 1, p. 130.

# Holmes's Annals, vol. 1, p. 129.

|| See this indenture of assignment at large, in Hazard's Collections, vol. 1, p. 42.

b n

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been destroyed in the course of the preceding year, and the SEC. IV. nation freed from the alarm of invasion, yet, it seems, that they 1589. were as anxiously engaged this year in retaliating on the Span- iards, by an expedition against them ; so that difficulties, simi- lar to those of the former year, might have operated to prevent any relief to the unfortunate colonists.

It was not till the year after the assignment, that governor

1590. White could go to their assistance. Above two years had now The whole elapsed, since he had left his infant colony, under the full ex- of the se- pectation of his speedy return to them. On the 20th of March, ny lost. cond colo- 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 off Roanoke inlet on the 15th of August, they fired some cannon to give notice of their arrival, 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 disaster discouraged the other sailors to such a degree, that they all seemed resolved to aban- don the research : but by the persuasion and authority of the governor and one of their captains, they resumed it. The go- vernor accordingly, taking with him nineteen 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 Roanoke 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 with curtains and flankers. 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

VOL. I .- 10

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SEC. IV. capital letters, CROATOAN, without the sign of distress .* 1590. Within the palisade they found many bars of iron, pigs of lead, iron shot, and other things of bulk and 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 care- fully buried 'and hid by the planters ; three of which governor White recognized 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 Croatoan 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.t What became of the unfor- tunate colonists, whom White had left in 1587, time has never yet developed. From the palisaded fort, it would seem, that they had been either attacked by, or were in much apprehension of danger from the natives before their removal. The Indians of Croatoan, having been always friendly to the English, through the influence of Manteo, who, it seems, belonged to that tribe, and was a native of that place,¿ they were induced, probably by that circumstance, to remove thither. After which no traces of them appear.

1602. Gosnold's voyage to land. This unfortunate event seems to have chilled the ardour of the English for colonization in America for many succeeding years. New Eng- It was not until the year 1602, the last year of the reign of Eliza- beth, that any voyage of importance was undertaken by them to North America. Some of the Virginia company, probably the most zealous of those to whom Sir Walter Raleigh had assigned his patent, resolved to fit out a vessel for that country, and ac- cordingly 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

* Mr. Williamson, in his Hist. of North Carolina, vol. 1, p. 60, (published in 1812,) says,-" Part of the works are seen at this day."

t Oldmixon's British Empire in America, vol. 1, p. 217. Holmes's Annals, vol. 1, p. 130.

į Holmes's Annals, vol. 1, p. 131.

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from Falmouth on the 26th of March, 1602, in a small vessel, SEC. IV. with thirty-two persons on board, of whom it was proposed, that 1602. 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 unne- cessary 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 Ame- rica by this shorter and more direct course .* He arrived on the 11th of May in nearly forty-three degrees of north latitude on the coast of Massachusetts. Here 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 num- ber 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 Vineyard : not that, it seems, which now bears that name, but a small island now called Noman's Land. Coming to anchor, two days afterwards, at the north-west part of the island, they were visited the next morning by thirteen of the natives, with whom they had a friend- ly 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 large bay, which they called Gosnold's Hope, which is said to be the same as that now called Buzzard's Bay. On

* Although Robertson, and other historians after him, have observed as above, that Gosnold was the first English commander 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 Cabot, (who, though not an Englishman, yet sailed under English colours and with English seamen, ) and all those, who had previously visited Newfoundland, particularly Sir Humphrey Gilbert, sailed this shorter and direct course.

t 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-stock- ings, 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 Bis- cay, wrecked on the coast. Holmes's Annals, vol. 1, p. 142.

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SEC. IV. the northern side of this bay was the main land ; and on the 1603. southern, four leagues distant, was a large island, which, in ho- nour of the queen, they called Elizabeth. On the twenty-eighth they consulted 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 centre 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 occupied 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 Mas- sachusetts, 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 relinquish the design of a settlement. Having loaded their ship with a cargo of sas- safras 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, having left their little fort on the 18th of June, arrived at Plymouth the 23d of July following .*

Sir Walter Raleigh's endeavors It would be doing great injustice to Sir Walter Raleigh to omit an event, appertaining to this year, which displays both his to find out sense of honour and humanity in a very conspicuous point of colony at Roanoke. the second view. Uneasy, as he manifestly appears to have been, at the abandonment of the colony left 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 effectual ; some having followed their own profit, and others returned with frivolous excuses. Still not abandoning all hope

* 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 Gosnold's com- pany on Elizabeth Island, and had the supreme satisfaction to find the cellar of Gosnold's store-house : the stones of which were evidently taken from the neigh- bouring beach ; the rocks of the islet being less moveable, and lying in ledges." Belknap's Biog. ii. 115.

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of finding them, he resolved to make one effort more to discover SEC. IV. and relieve them. Having accordingly purchased and fitted out 1602. a bark for that purpose, he gave 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 Wey- mouth 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 home without any tho- rough attempt to effectuate the purpose of the voyage. They offered an excuse, either real or pretended, that the extremity of weather and the loss of some ground tackle forced and deterred them from seeking the port of Hatteras .*

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The history of Maryland : from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations, Part 8

Author: Bozman, John Leeds, 1757-1823 Publication date: 1837 Publisher: Baltimore : J. Lucas & E.K. Deaver Number of Pages: 1062

Author: Bozman, John Leeds, 1757-1823
Publication date: 1837
Publisher: Baltimore : J. Lucas & E.K. Deaver
Number of Pages: 1062