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Menendez had made, as opportunity served, partial surveys in Florida, in pursuance of his special instructions, prepara- tory to drawing a chart of the country. His military and naval operations, and domestic duties and troubles, had pre- vented him from completing this work until the whole coast had been cleared of his enemies. This result having been at last accomplished, Menendez, in 1573, commissioned his nephew Don Pedro Marquez, to finish the survey.
With four ships, and one hundred and fifty seamen and soldiers, he made the first and most perfect reconnoisance of the southern section of the east coast for the purpose of pre- paring a chart. He began his survey at Cape Florida, and followed the coast along to a point north of Chesapeake Bay. Barcia says, that he had no skillful cosmographer with him to
* Barcia, 1. c. p. 146.
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construct a chart .* But he gave so exact a description " by writing" (escriviendo), that a chart could easily be con- structed from it.
This written reconnoisance, which probably contained many interesting details of soundings, bearings, and sailing direc- tions, was delivered to Don Juan de Ovando, president of the council for the Indies, who put it into the hands of the cos- mographer Don Juan de Velasco. The possession of this original document would be invaluable to the historian of the Southern States ; especially for this reason, among others, that it would furnish materials to illustrate the history of physical changes on that coast. But unfortunately, the docu- ment was lost soon after the death of Menendez. An extract from it was, however, preserved, which Barcia says he thought · it good to communicate, " that the memory of that curious document might not be totally lost." }
It is no doubt the most interesting and minute description of the coast of Florida after that of Oviedo ; which I have given in a preceding section.
I must allude to it here only in a general way, because it does not extend as far north as New England, and because its specialties belong to the history of geography in the South- ern States of the Union. The most northern object of the part of the east coast, which was surveyed and accurately described by the young Marquez, was St. Mary's Bay, although he went beyond it ; but how far, we are not informed .; In a previous discussion, I have made use of this description of "St. Mary's Bay," to prove that it was the present Chesa- peake Bay. Barcia adds the remark, that when in 1680, Ar- nold Roggeveen published his hydrographical work, entitled
* Barcia, I. c. p. 147. t Ibid.
# Barcia (p. 147) says: " Lego mas adelante del puerto y baia do Sta. Maria."
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"The burning torch of the Sea," he knew less of the coast than was represented by these Spanish surveys, and did not venture to describe even the little which he depicted on his charts .*
It thus appears, that the Spaniards were again, at this time, far advanced in their progress to the north, and had begun to take possession of the northern coasts, which were comprised by them under the name of their "Province of Florida." That the plans of Menendez reached as far as New England, is evident from the circumstance, that he had his eye on the Banks of Newfoundland, and proposed to issue orders for the protection of the Spanish fishermen in these waters, including them also within his Province of Florida."¡ It was proba- bly his intention to take some such measures for occupation there, as were taken by Sir Humphrey Gilbert at a later period. During the interval between the destruction of Ri- bault's colony in 1566, and Gilbert's possession of Newfound- land in 1583, the Spaniards bore sway over the entire east coast of North America, with no foreign settlement, and scarcely a foreign expedition to oppose their claims.
This survey of the east coast in 1573 was, however, the last important exploration of our coast conducted under the direction and by order of Menendez. In the following year, 1574, he was recalled to Europe by Philip II, and soon ended there his career and his life. He was a great favorite with Philip, who considered him one of the most distinguished men of his time. As a token of his regard, he ordered his portrait to be placed in the gallery of his palace, and selected him to command a great fleet, which was to be fitted out that year against England and the Netherlands. He also appointed his
* See Barcia, p. 150.
t Barcia, 1. c. p. 149.
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cousin, Flores de Valdes, his successor in the government of Cuba and Florida.
A brilliant ovation and festival were given to Menendez on the 8th of Sept., 1574, the day on which he was solemnly invested with the command of the " Great Armada," a fleet of three hundred vessels, and twenty thousand men, assem- bled in Santander. But with a fatality similar to that expe- rienced a little later by his great enemy Gourgues, who died at the moment when he was about to take command of a great Portuguese fleet destined against Spain, Menendez, on the very day of his investiture with this authority, was sud- denly seized with a burning fever, of which he died on the 17th of September, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.
He was buried in Aviles, his native town, and his tomb bore the inscription, "Captain-general del Mar Oceano." He is represented by Spanish authors as " a great hero, and the greatest mariner known in his time " (Grande heroe, el major Hombre de Mar que se conocia), "because by making more than fifty exploring voyages to and in the Indies, he facilitated the navigation of the Atlantic Ocean, which before him was very dangerous and difficult."* He is undoubtedly entitled to a very prominent place among the navigators and explorers of the east coast of North America.
The Spanish explorations on the coast from Cape Florida to Chesapeake Bay, have been much ignored and neglected in subsequent times ; while the French explorations, by means of the French descriptions and charts, have become univer- sally known. The best historians and geographers on Amer- ica, of the sixteenth century, repeat over and over again the story of Ribault and Laudonniere, while they scarcely mention Menendez, except to tell us that he was " the cruel Spanish General who massacred the poor French." As an
* See Barcia, I. c. p. 150.
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explorer and navigator, he is seldom spoken of in their works. He is hardly noticed or recognized by Hakluyt, by De Laët, by Lescarbot, or by any other of the French, English, Dutch, or German historians of that time ; and while "that French chart of Florida, made by the painter Le Moyne," is con- stantly referred to by these writers, and is embodied without alteration in their large maps of America, no notice what- ever is taken of the admirable exploration of the southern sec- tion of the east coast, in 1573, made by Don Pedro Marquez.
It is certainly a singular fact, that the authors of the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries should have entirely ignored the labors and merits of men so eminent as the two Menen- dez, uncle and nephew. It is however not difficult to account for it, by the peculiar policy of the kings of Spain, who were accustomed to make a secret of their affairs of State, and were especially unwilling that the explorations and discover- ies of their great navigators and generals should be made public, lest they should excite the rivalry and interference of other nations. This mistaken policy shrouded in obscurity many valuable enterprises and their results, which would have added renown to the Spanish nation. Among these enter- prises were those of Menendez and Marquez. When Menen- dez came upon the stage of action, the old Spanish historians of America, the Gomaras and Oviedos, had already disap- peared. Herrera, who wrote soon after Menendez, did not bring his elaborate history quite down to the time of this ex- plorer, though he mentions him occasionally in his description of the West Indies. During the seventeenth century many great works on several other parts of America were published in Spain, but none on the coast of Florida; and some of the best Spanish documents on the discovery of this coast were suffered to perish.
It is, therefore, no matter of wonder, that foreign authors
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EXPLORATION OF MARQUEZ, 153.
were so ignorant of these matters. It was not till 1723 that a more complete account of that part of Spanish American history of which we have been speaking, was published by the Spanish historian Barcia, in his history of Florida, often quoted in this work. But what is still more unaccountable and culpa- ble, even since the publication of that history and until quite recent times, few writers on the discovery of our coast have given any proper attention to the explorations of Menendez and his Spanish contemporaries.
We may perhaps find some explanation of this in the un- attractive manner in which Barcia set forth the information he had to give. He is neither an able nor an elegant writer. His heavy work has, I believe, never been translated into any other language, and has not, therefore, been used as gen- erally, as the more elegant and interesting reports on Florida written by French authors.
There was also something in the Spanish hero Menendez himself, which dimmed the glory of his character. His hand had been stained with the blood of many Protestant victims, which could never be forgotten by the writers of the differ- ent Protestant nations by whom the history of North Amer- ica in later times has been principally treated; and has hindered them, perhaps, from acknowledging his great merits as an able and energetic navigator and explorer, by whose endeavors many of the great geographical problems have been solved.
No sooner had this great commander been removed by death, than the Spanish interests in Florida, no longer sus- tained by his zeal and activity, began to decline,* and were soon effectually supplanted by the heroic adventurers of an- other nation, following rapidly to our coast, in the tracks of Ribault, Laudonniere, and Menendez. This new era in the
* Barcia, I. c. p. 152.
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history of discovery in America begins with a commission given by Queen Elizabeth to the brothers Gilbert and Ra- leigh, in the year 1578; a date which marks the conclusion of this, and the commencement of another volume.
The influence exerted by the expeditions above described, particularly those of the French Protestants to Florida, upon the discovery and settlement of the north-east section of our coast, especially the coast of Maine, and certain relations ex- isting between the former and the latter, may be summed up in a few words :
1. Jean Ribault, in 1562, was commissioned "to discover and survey a certain long coast of the West Indies, from the head of the land called 'La florida,' drawing toward the north parts unto the head of Britons, distant from La florida 900 leagues or thereabouts." The commission; therefore, in- cluded the whole coast of the Gulf of Maine.
2. Ribault, on his voyage to the West Indies in that year, took a new northern route over the ocean in about the lati- tude of New England; and intended to establish this as a national French route, in opposition to the old southern route till that time frequented by the Spaniards. He himself re- peatedly adopted this course ; and by it opened a shorter way for subsequent English navigators, on their western voyages. It was by this shorter northern route of Ribault, that Gosnold reached the coast of Maine in 1602.
3. The expedition of Ribault was planned after that of Verrazano, who, in 1524, had been on the coast of Maine, and on whose chart the Gulf of Maine had been represented as separated from the Western Ocean, or the "Sea of Ver- razano," only by a narrow istlimus. In pursuance of that plan, he would accordingly have been brought to the coast of Maine, and in searching for a passage to Cathay, he would naturally have sought it along this coast.
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4. But Ribault, having disregarded his instructions by de- laying in Florida to establish a colony there, neglected to obey the order for a survey of the coast as high up as Cape Breton. He thus lost the opportunity of seeing the inviting harbors of New York and of Maine, and of adding his testi- mony in their favor to that given by Verrazano ; and also the opportunity, which never returned, of establishing a French settlement in these regions, more remote from the centre of the Spanish power in the new world, and less liable to its interference.
5. The French colonists left by Ribault in Florida, com- pelled by distress and want to abandon the country, were res- cued by an English vessel, and carried to England. There, in 1563, they made report of their transactions to Queen Elizabeth, and awakened the interest of the English people in the subject of American colonization.
6. Several French sailors in Ribault's expedition appear to have remained in the English service. Some of them went out with Master John Hawkins in 1565, and showed him the way to the place in Florida where Laudonnière, in 1564, had established a new French settlement. On his homeward voyage Hawkins visited this colony, saw its situation and advantages ; and, following the Gulf-stream, traversed, with more than one hundred of his countrymen, the entire east coast from south to north, as far as Newfoundland. He was the first Englishiman who had done this, and was a pioneer of the English navigators to northern and southern Virginia.
7. Laudonnière, commander of the second French under- taking, Le Moyne the painter, who had made an accurate map of French Florida, and Challeux, who, like Laudonnière and Ribault, gave a written description of this country, were, on their homeward voyage in 1565, carried to England ; which thus, for a second time, had the earliest news of the
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French disaster, and of the destruction of their settlement by the Spaniards. This circumstance also was the probable cause of the connection of Le Moyne, the French map-maker, with Sir Walter Raleigh, the founder of English America, and of the earlier and wider diffusion of the knowledge of this country in England, than in France.
8. The Spaniards, also, as well as the English, and for still more urgent reasons, were attracted by the French Protes- tants to Florida ; and having subverted the French settle- ments, set up their own government, fortified the coast in its southernmost section, surveyed it minutely as far north as Chesapeake Bay, explored the interior as far as the Appala- chian mountains, continued the search for a western passage in that northern section pointed out by Cortes, and reasserted their claims to the whole of North America, as high north as Labrador ; not only planting the Spanish flag in their charts over this whole territory under the name of Florida, but adopting measures of regulation for regions as far north as to the Banks of Newfoundland.
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CHAPTER XII.
CONCLUSION AND RECAPITULATION.
THE eager search for a passage to the Pacific Ocean by the west and north-west, which had engaged the attention of European nations in the early part of the sixteenth century, was, after a while, wholly abandoned for a season. But in the latter part of the century, a series of western voyages was undertaken by these nations with a different object and result.
It would be interesting here to inquire into the cause of this remarkable fact, and endeavor to account for it. But having proposed to finish the present volume at this period of our history, and as the revival of north-western expedi- tions by France and England in the voyages of Frobisher, Gilbert, De Monts, and others will occupy a future volume, I will here briefly review the ground which has been trav- ersed, and for the sake of convenience will exhibit the whole work of the discovery of the east coast of North America, and particularly of the coast of Maine, under the agency of the several nations of Europe who were concerned in it.
1. AGENCY OF THE NORTHIMEN.
The Northmen were the first Europeans who discovered and explored the coasts and countries of the north-east of America. They described them under the names " Hellu-
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land," " Markland," and "Vinland," and considered them as belonging to the north of Europe. They visited them repeatedly during more than three hundred years, from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, as far down as Cape Cod and its vicinity. Their republic in Iceland gradually decreased in power, and at length became a province of Norway and Denmark. Their colonies in America, first in Vinland and Markland, then in Greenland, declined, and were at last totally destroyed. Their exploits in these regions were forgotten ; so that in modern times, learned men have been obliged to search in old Scandinavian documents for proof of their reality and importance.
The coast of Maine was seen and traversed by the North- men on several occasions. From some traces of the Scan- dinavian language found among the aborigines of Maine, it would appear, that the Northmen must have trafficked, and perhaps dwelt, among their tribes. They probably in- cluded Maine under this name of " Vinland ; " though it may perhaps have sometimes been considered as belonging to "Markland." On a chart of these discoveries, Maine is put down under the name of " Drogeo," which country was afterwards depicted by geographers as an island, floating in the middle of the ocean.
2. AGENCY OF THE ENGLISH.
Expeditions to the shores of North America are said to have gone forth from the British Isles in very ancient times, and even in advance of the Northmen ; first, under the con- duct of Madoc, a Prince of Wales, and afterwards under the lead of Irish adventurers. Their undertakings in the north- west, toward Iceland and its vicinity, do not appear to have ever entirely ceased. During the fourteenth and fifteenth
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centuries they maintained a flourishing commerce with Ice- land, chiefly from the port of Bristol, and sometimes made , warlike and piratical expeditions into that region, even as far as Greenland. The same may be said of their rivals, the Hanseatic traders and pirates. During the fifteenth century, numerous English and Hanseatic vessels sailed to Iceland and its vicinity, and it is not unlikely that they were there in- formed of the existence of those western countries, formerly visited by the Icelanders, and still recognized in their tradi- tions. Occasionally, too, an English vessel may have been driven by gales to the American coast, although we have no evidence of any such fact.
The Anglo-Scandinavian commerce carried Columbus to Iceland, and the Cabots, not long after, beyond it; and thus gave an impulse to the discovery of the rest of America. In the approach to the northern parts of America, the English may be said to have taken the lead, under the conduct of the Cabots, assisted by the merchants and sailors of Bristol. Toward the end of the fifteenth century, they reconnoitered nearly the entire east coast of America ; and in so doing, doubtless explored the coast of that region, destined, two cen- turies later, to bear the name of New England, and to be the principal centre of the English power on the continent.
During the reign of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. several expeditions were made by the English to the north-east of America. Their leading motive in those expeditions was the hope of finding a shorter passage to the rich countries of eastern Asia. But in this respect their undertakings were · failures, and for the most part, unfortunate ; their crews and ships being always exposed to perils from the ice, and often entirely wrecked. The last English expedition of this kind, in 1536, ended so terribly, with such loss of life, and other disasters, that a most unfavorable impression appears to have
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been made by it on the nation. After this, for nearly fifty years, the English seem to have entirely abandoned the east coast of North America, and their explorations of the north- west. Their skill in maritime affairs was not yet great. Their commercial and marine fleet was not large ; and their ships found more profitable occupation in capturing the ships of the Portuguese and Spaniards, returning home richly laden with the products of the mines of the South, than in explor- ing the jey seas and sterile shores of the North. Their rulers, Henry VIII, during the latter part of his reign, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth during the first part of her reign, were more occupied with the affairs of religion and the church, and with foreign wars, than with exploring new countries, or set- tling questions of geography. And when at last they came to be able to employ some of their means and forces in the work of discovery, they were diverted from the north-west into other directions. This was owing, in part, to the influence of Sebastian Cabot himself. This great navigator, after hav- ing conducted several expeditions from England, in search of a passage to China by the north-west, appears to have be- come satisfied, that further attempts in that direction were hopeless ; and he now thought, that a shorter route to India might be found by sailing to the north-east, round the north of Europe and Asia. Through his influence, soon after the middle of the sixteenth century, several exploring expeditions went from England, under Hugh Willoughby, Richard Chan- cellor, and Stephen Burrough, intended to reach Cathay by the north-east. Though they did not arrive at their destina- tion, they found a route to Russia by sea, and originated a very profitable commerce with that country.
These may be some of the reasons why no official explor- ing expedition, for more than forty years after 1536, was directed to our coasts from England. Meanwhile the fishing
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expeditions to the Banks of Newfoundland, which had begun with the discovery of the Cabots, continued after the expedi- tion of Hore. And once at least during this interval, these coasts were reached by a great English navigator and ex- plorer, Sir John Hawkins, who having been attracted to Flor- ida by the French settlements, and guided by French pilots, sailed along the east coast of North America in 1565. Haw- kins thus became a pioneer of those enterprises, which, be- ginning in 1578 with the letters-patent of Queen Elizabeth, and under the command of Gilbert and Raleigh, form a new era in the history of American discovery.
The coast of Maine, in particular, was visited during this period, perhaps by Cabot in 1498; and also by Rut in 1527, when some of his company probably landed, and our shores were for the first time trodden by the feet of Englishmen.
The territory of Maine appears, at this time, to have been known by the English, under the names of "the New Isles," " the Newfoundland," or "the country of Bacallaos," which were first given by the Cabots. After Cabot, however, the English generally adopted the names given to these countries by other nations.
But little as was done by the English, during this period, in their naval enterprises, still less was accomplished in their literary efforts to preserve and diffuse the knowledge of what had been really effected by their voyagers. The original re- ports and descriptions made by Cabot, and which must have been invaluable, were lost, and have never been recovered. A chart, composed by him in 1544,* was printed, but nearly all its copies were lost. The same is true of all the reports
** [Another chart was made by Cabot, immediately after his return from his first voyage in 1497, which was seen and partially described by D'Ay- ala in his letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, July 25, 1498. This document is found in Bergenroth's Calendar of the Spanish Archives, vol. 1, p. 177 .- ED.]
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which may have been made at that time by other English ex- plorers on our coasts.
But at length, toward the end of this period, Richard Eden collected and published, in 1577, his book of travels to the West and East Indies, and thus gave a new impulse to the spirit of discovery among his countrymen. Before this time he had published, in 1553, a less important work, " Treatise of the New India," which was only a translation of Sebastian Münster's cosmography. After Eden followed Master Rich- ard Hakluyt. The first of his voluminous collections of voyages was not published, however, until 1582, and there- fore falls into a later period than the one comprised within the present volume.
The few charts of the east coast which were composed by Englishmen during this time, were mostly copied from Span- ish, French, and Portuguese originals.
3. AGENCY OF THE PORTUGUESE.
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