USA > Maine > The beginnings of colonial Maine, 1602-1658 > Part 2
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1 Ib., 149.
2 George Parker Winship, Cabot Bibliography with an Introductory Essay on the Career of the Cabots, 1900, v. XIII.
3 Harrisse, 69.
4 The Commission was appointed in 1895. Although the Commissioners in their report did not in any way commit the Royal Society of Canada, as a whole, to the definite acceptance of the conclusion reached, the members of the Commission were in agreement in holding that the preponderating weight of evidence was as mentioned above (Weare, 280-283). Dr. S. E. Dawson, a distinguished member of the Commission, in expressing his con- clusions, wrote : "I have had all the advantages of Mr. Harrisse's learning and labor; but the adventitious circumstance of having been born among the localities under discussion, and therefore familiar with them from boyhood,
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EARLY ENGLISH, VOYAGES.
lead to the conclusion that the landfall was at some part of the island of Cape Breton.
Cabot's discovery awakened very wide interest in England, espe- cially, however, in Bristol, to which port the discoverer returned, and also in London, whither it is believed Cabot soon proceeded in order to make his report in person to the King. Forthwith, doubtless in various quarters, a second expedition was proposed. The King gave to the enterprise enthusiastic support. So, too, did the merchant adventurers of Bristol, Plymouth and other sea- port towns. Information concerning its preparation and depar- ture,1 however, is scanty. The Spanish envoy in London, writing to his sovereign July 25, 1498, communicates what he had heard concerning the expedition. It consisted, he said, of five ships, "victualled for a year", but was expected to return in Sep- tember. It left Bristol in the early Spring probably, and doubt- less followed the same course across the Atlantic as that taken by Cabot in the preceding year. One of the vessels of the fleet, the envoy wrote, "has returned to Ireland in great distress, the ship being much damaged. The Genoese has continued his voyage".2 Beyond this, we have no contemporaneous informa- tion concerning the second expedition. It is naturally conjec- tured, however, that on reaching the coast, Cabot extended his discoveries southward before returning to England. Indeed, bas- ing his conclusion chiefly on the celebrated planisphere of Juan de la Cosa, 1500, Harrisse is of the opinion that Cabot, in this second voyage, sailed south of the Carolinas. If, from his first landfall, he made his way thus far down the coast, we may think of him as the earliest English voyager who sailed along the coast of Maine.3
compels me to see that Mr. Harrisse's judgment upon his materials is mis- led by the absence of a personal knowledge of the north-east coast of America." Weare, 287.
1 It must have sailed after April 1, 1498, "as on that day Henry VII loaned {30 to Thomas Bradley and Launcelot Thirkill 'going to the New Ile' ". Harrisse, 133. Weare, 154.
2 Weare, 162.
3 By some early writers Cabot's second voyage is confounded with the
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
Cabot's discoveries upon his second voyage must have made a far deeper impression in England than was made by the reports that were scattered abroad upon the return of the first expedition. In proceeding down the American coast, the adventurers must have been attracted both by the climate and the more favorable appearance of the country as they advanced. They could not have failed to notice here and there commodious harbors, and wide rivers extending up into the main, awakening visions of a land of untold riches and plenty. These stories, extensively circulated in various ways, added to Cabot's fame, and his great services as a discoverer have found increasing recognition in the centuries that have followed. 1
first. The statement that the navigator died on this second voyage is with- out support. The date of his death is unknown, but it must have been at a later period.
1 A tower on Brandon Hill, Bristol, commemorates Cabot's discovery of North America. It is a square buttressed structure of the late Tudor Gothic style, 75 feet high to the upper balcony floor and 105 feet to the apex of the truncated spire, on which is placed a gilded figure representing com- merce, mounted on a globe, symbol of the world. It is built of red sand- stone, with dressings of Bath freestone, and cost $3,300. In panels on the four sides of the tower are carved the arms of Henry VII, Cabot, the City of Bristol and the Society of Merchant Venturers. Three bronze tablets con- tain the following inscriptions :
The foundation stone of this tower was laid by the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava on the 24th June 1897 and the completed tower was opened by the same nobleman on the 6th September 1898.
This tablet is placed here by the Bristol Branch of the Peace Society in the earnest hope that peace and friendship may ever continue between the kindred peoples of this country and America.
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men." Luke 2. 14
This tower
was erected by public subscription in the 61st year of the reign of Queen Victoria
THE CABOT TOWER, BRISTOL, ENGLAND.
٦
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EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.
But if English fishermen and enterprising merchants were attracted to the American coast by Cabot's discoveries, as some it is said were, it was not for long, inasmuch as in a letter written by John Rut to Henry VIII, dated St. John's, Newfoundland, August 3, 1527, the writer says he found in that harbor "eleven sails of Normans and one Brittaine, and two Portugall barkes"; but he makes no mention of others, and declares his purpose to extend his voyage along the coast in the hope of meeting the only English vessel known by him to be in American waters.1
In fact, Robert Hore's expedition of 1536 had no reference to fishing interests on the American coast, or even to colonization. Hore was a London merchant "given to the study of Cosmog- raphy", and his chief purpose in organizing his expedition, it would seem, was prompted solely by a desire to discover a north- west passage to the East Indies, and so to open a shorter route to those far-away regions than that by the Cape of Good Hope. With his two ships and a company of one hundred and twenty, Hore, in his voyage to the American coast, evidently followed Cabot's course. From the brief account of the expedition in Hakluyt's Principall Navigations, it is not possible to learn how far Hore proceeded in his search after reaching Cape Breton. We only know that the story is one of ill success throughout, and could have had only a depressing effect upon English enterprise with reference to new-world interests.2
to commemorate the fourth centenary of the discovery of the continent of North America on the 24th of June 1497 by John Cabot who sailed from this port in the Bristol ship "Matthew" with a Bristol crew under letters patent granted by King Henry VII to that navigator and his sons Lewis, Sebastian and Sanctus.
1 Lorenzo Sabine, Report on the Principal Fisheries of the American Seas, 1853, 36.
2 For an account of the voyage of Robert Hore see Early English and
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
France, however, for many years had sent fishing vessels to the banks of Newfoundland. Jaques Cartier, a native of St. Malo, the principal port of Brittany, had been not only active in these fishing enterprises on the American coast, but already had con- ducted thither two exploring expeditions. The hardy fishermen of Bristol and Plymouth could not have been unmindful of these evidences of French commercial alertness, and, as a result, an increasing number of English fishing vessels made their way to the Newfoundland banks.1
It was not long, also, before in political circles in England there was a growing appreciation of the value of sea fisheries to the nation. In 1548, the English government took into consideration certain abuses reported from Newfoundland, for which charges were brought against certain admiralty officers ; and in remedying these abuses Parliament enacted its first legislation with reference to America, relieving the fishermen of the burdens wrongfully imposed upon them, and making fishing at Newfoundland entirely free to all English inhabitants.2
It should be added that at this time Parliament, in order to give encouragement to the fisheries, imposed severe penalties upon persons eating flesh on fish days.3
Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558. Her reign was characterized by rapidly growing commercial prosperity, in con- nection with which England entered upon that period of world- wide trade relations that has continued to the present time. The fisheries of the Channel and the German Ocean were now sup- plemented by those on the coast of North America ; and before
French Voyages chiefly from Hakluyt, v. III, of Original Narratives of Early American History, H. S. Burrage, 1906, 103-110.
1 "From the time of Henry VIII, the number of English vessels on the cod-banks of Newfoundland steadily increased." Green, Short History of England, 395.
2 Sabine, 36, 37.
3 Sabine, 37. The narrow extent of the fishing trade of England at this time is indicated by the fact that it was limited to the Flemish towns and to the fishing grounds.
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EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.
the close of Elizabeth's reign "the seamen of Biscay found Eng- lish rivals in the whale fishery of the Polar seas".1 In 1563, Parliament, responding to this awakened spirit of enlargement among English fishermen of the seaport towns, enacted "that as well for the maintenance of shipping, the increase of fishermen and marines, and the repairing of port-towns, as for the sparing of the fresh victuals of the realm, it shall not be lawful for any one to eat flesh on Wednesdays and Saturdays, unless under the forfeiture of £3 for each offence, excepting in cases of sickness and those of special licenses to be obtained". The occasion for the enactment, as expressly indicated by Parliament, was not a religious one, as the act had its origin in the prevalent desire to develop the fishing interests of the nation in all possible ways.2
At the same time there was an enlargement of foreign commerce as well as of the fisheries. William Hawkins, of Plymouth, the first of his countrymen to sail a ship into southern seas, made what he recorded as a fitting venture by engaging in the African slave-trade, finding a market for his cargoes in the Spanish settle- ments of the West Indies.8 John Hawkins, his son, inheriting the adventurous spirit of his father, was in the West Indies in 1565, and on his return voyage, sailing up the American coast as far as Newfoundland-catching glimpses of that vast unknown territory in whose opening and exploration England was to have so great part-he turned the prows of his vessels homeward, bringing with him "great profit to the venturers of the voyage", including "gold, silver, pearls and other jewels, a great store".4
Hawkins reached England in September, 1565. Glowing reports of his venture furnished the theme of animated conversa- tion throughout the kingdom, and he had no difficulty in fitting out a new and larger expedition, which sailed from Plymouth,
1 Green, 395.
2 Sabine, 37.
8 Not the slightest disgrace at that time seems to have attached either to slave-stealing or slave-selling.
4 The narrative of the closing part of this voyage of 1565, taken from Hakluyt, will be found in Early English and French Voyages, 113-132.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
October 2, 1567. One of Hawkins' vessels was commanded by Francis Drake, afterward Sir Francis Drake. High hopes con- cerning the expedition were entertained both at court and in all parts of the realm ; but it ended in dire disaster through Spanish treachery in the harbor of San Juan de Ulua, a small island on the Mexican coast opposite Vera Cruz. Of the survivors, some returned to England in the Minion, one of the vessels of the fleet. Some landed and marched westward into Mexico, the larger num- ber suffering punishment and imprisonment in the galleys.1 Three made their long, weary way northward to the Great Lakes; and then turning eastward, as one may infer from the narrative printed by Hakluyt, they crossed a part of what is now the State of Maine, and finding a French vessel on the coast they were taken on board and so made their way back to England.2
At this time, singularly enough because of the reports of Cabot and Hawkins, Englishmen were giving little if any thought to enterprises having reference to the upbuilding of a new England upon these western shores. But of enterprising navigators there was no lack in the island kingdom. As early as 1560 or 1561, Martin Frobisher, a native of Yorkshire, pondering problems hav- ing reference to the new world, was still considering the possi- bility and even the probability of a shorter passage to the Indies along the northern American coast. Added years passed, how- ever, before he could enlist much interest in his proposed under- taking; and it was not until 1575, that, with the help of the Earl
1 Drake was so embittered against the Spaniards on account of the treat- ment he and his countrymen received at San Juan de Ulua that for sev- eral years following his return to England he ravaged the Spanish main. On one of these voyages Drake crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and had his first view of the Pacific Ocean. For the narrative of a part of Drake's world- encompassing voyage, see Early English and French Voyages, 153-173.
2 A narrative of this "troublesome voyage", written by John Hawkins, will be found in Early English and French Voyages, 137-148. Hawkins was a member of Parliament for Plymouth from 1571 to 1583. He was said to be the man to whom is due all the credit of preparing the royal fleet to meet the Armada" in 1588, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth July 25th of that year.
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EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.
of Warwick, he was able to enter upon this quest, having secured for the expedition two tiny barks of twenty or twenty-five tons. Sailing northward and westward, Frobisher sighted on July 28, of that year, the coast of Labrador ; but finding impossible barriers as he advanced, he at length sailed homeward, reaching London October 9. In the following year, however, he was able to return to the American coast with an expedition promising larger suc- cess, but which was also doomed to failure-search for gold, which he was now commissioned to undertake, not being better rewarded than search for a northwest passage. The enthusiastic navigator's dreams, however, were still forceful, and May 15, 1578, with fifteen vessels, he again crossed the Atlantic, this time by way of Greenland, but only to find himself compelled to face added disappointments and the final non-realization of hopes long fondly cherished.1
As little, also, was Francis Drake at this time giving attention to English colonization upon the American coast. In 1567, he was in command of the Judith in Hawkins' "troublesome voy- age". Ten years later, having meanwhile devoted himself to the destruction of Spanish interests, he sailed from Plymouth in his celebrated world-encompassing voyage, receiving on his return the congratulations of Elizabeth, and the added honor of knight- hood.2
1 Frobisher commanded the "Triumph" at the time of the destruction of the Armada, and was knighted at sea by the Lord High Admiral.
2 Drake won lasting fame in connection with the destruction of the Spanish Armada. Even when the Armada was in preparation, Drake, who was ever ready to "singe the beard of the Spanish King", entered the har- bor of Cadiz with a fleet he had hastily assembled and destroyed nearly a hundred store-ships and other vessels. In the following year, when the Armada at length sailed from Lisbon, Drake, a vice admiral in command of the English privateers, hurried out of the harbor of Plymouth, and in com- pany with the Queen's ships fell upon the Spanish galleons with terrific fury, and "the feathers of the Spaniard were plucked one by one". But a might- ier foe than Drake struck the final blow, as fierce storms broke upon the scattered remnants of the Armada and swept them from the wind-disturbed seas. Drake died December 27, 1595, while waging war upon Spanish inter- ests in the West Indies, and was buried at sea.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
In his thoughts concerning a northwest passage to the Indies, Frobisher had received much encouragement from Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who, in 1566, wrote his Discourse of Discovery for a New Passage to Cataia, and presented it to Queen Elizabeth. Frobish- er's ill-success, however, so far lessened Gilbert's confidence in his own reasonings that he now turned his new-world thoughts into other channels. But they still had reference to the American continent. He knew no reason why England's interest in that vast territory should be inferior to that of other nations. France already had secured a strong foothold on the banks of the St. Lawrence, and had even sought to establish colonists in Florida. Between Florida in the south, and settlements in the north that opened a way to the Great Lakes, there was a vast territory as yet unpossessed. To it Gilbert called the attention of the Queen, and asked for authority and assistance in conducting an expedition thitherward. She responded June 11, 1578, by bestowing upon him letters-patent to discover and possess lands in America, but there was to be no robbery "by sea or land". With a fleet of seven vessels Gilbert set sail in November, an untimely season of the year. Disaster followed disaster, and the expedition failed.
But Gilbert's letters-patent-the first granted by the Queen for English colonization upon American soil-were still in force, and with undiminished ardor the hardy navigator commenced prepara- tions for an added venture. Delays in the organization of the expedition were encountered, and it was not until 1583 that it was fully equipped and ready to sail. The expedition left Plymouth June 11, with five vessels and two hundred and sixty men. Where the colony should be planted had not been determined. In shaping the course of the voyage, however, Gilbert selected the "trade way unto Newfoundland", and the fleet assembled in the harbor of St. John's early in August. Having landed and called together "the merchants and masters, both English and strangers", Sir Humphrey exhibited his royal commission, and having had delivered unto him "a rod and a turf of the same soil" after the English custom, he took formal possession of the
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EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.
island in the name of Queen Elizabeth. Disappointments, and then discouragements, rapidly followed. Sickness and death at length diminished the number of the colonists. Discontent was mani- fested among those who survived. One of the vessels returned to England, and one-"the chief ship freighted with great provision, gathered together with much travail, care, long time and diffi- culty"-suffered wreck, probably on some part of the island of Cape Breton, the loss of life-about one hundred souls-striking a death blow to the expedition itself. The homeward voyage that followed was also marked by disaster, Gilbert himself perishing in the founding of his little vessel in a terrific storm. But the expe- dition was not wholly a failure. It had called the attention of the English people to the vast territory beyond the sea, not only await- ing exploration and colonization, but offering large possibilities for enterprise and daring to those who were bold enough to avail themselves of them.1
Among those most deeply interested in English colonization in America was Sir Walter Ralegh, a half-brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. He had commanded the Falcon in the unsuccessful expedition of 1578, and had assisted Gilbert in his preparation for the larger service to which Sir Humphrey had devoted himself with so much heroic endeavor and self-sacrifice. Ralegh now took up the unfinished task, and obtained from Queen Elizabeth,
1 The mother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert was a Champernoun, and through her he was related to the Gorges family. His noble spirit found fitting expression in his disastrous homeward voyage, just before his little bark was engulfed. So severe was the storm that he was urged to seek safety on a larger vessel, but he resolutely declined to leave the men with whom he had embarked, and calling through the storm he encouraged his distressed com- panions with the words, "Cheer up, lads! We are as near heaven at sea as on land!" Longfellow has recalled the incident in the words:
He sat upon the deck, The Book was in his hand;
"Do not fear! Heaven is as near," He said, "by water as by land!"
For the narrative of Gilbert's voyage, see Early English and French Voyages, 179-222.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
March 25, 1584, letters-patent to "discover, search, find out and view such remote, heathen and treacherous lands, countries and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian prince, nor inhabited by Christian people", the colonists "to have all the privilege of denizens, and persons native of England. in such like ample manner and form, as if they were born and personally resident within our said realm of England, any law, custom or usage to the contrary notwithstanding".
Two vessels, designed for preliminary exploration, were soon in readiness, and left England April 27, 1584. Avoiding the north- ern route taken by Gilbert, those in command, Philip Amadas and Walter Barlowe, crossed the Atlantic by way of the Canaries. After reaching the islands of the West Indies, they sailed up the Atlantic coast, and at length entered the inlets that break the long, sandy barriers of North Carolina. Exploration followed. The Indians of the mainland were interviewed. Having taken posses- sion of the country in the name of the Queen, Amadas and Bar- lowe returned to England and made a favorable report concerning the newly acquired territory. A second expedition, organized by Ralegh and placed under the command of Ralegh's cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, sailed from Plymouth April 9, 1585. In 1586, a vessel, with supplies for the relief of the fifteen men left by Grenville at Roanoke Island in the preceding year, was fitted out by Ralegh and despatched to the American coast. Sir Richard Grenville shortly after, with three ships, followed. Though Ralegh's efforts at colonization in connection with these expedi- tions failed, he was ready to make added endeavors, and, in 1587, he fitted out a fourth expedition, including one hundred and fifty colonists under the command of John White, whom he appointed Governor, and to whom he gave a charter with important privi- leges, incorporating the colonists under the name of the "Gov- ernors and Assistants of the City of Ralegh in Virginia." The colonists were landed at Roanoke Island. By their request, Gov- ernor White returned to England in the autumn for added sup- plies ; but in the following spring, when he hoped to recross the
1
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EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.
Atlantic, all England was making heroic efforts to meet the Span- ish Armada. Ralegh, however, succeeded in fitting out a small fleet with needed supplies for the Roanoke Island colonists. But the vessels he had secured, and made ready for the Atlantic voy- age, were impressed by the government. Ralegh, however, did not lose heart, and by the most strenuous efforts on his part two small vessels, under the command of Governor White, were at length allowed to start for the American coast. Yet so severely were they handled by Spanish cruisers soon after leaving port, that they were compelled to abandon the voyage. In the follow- ing year, Ralegh made an added attempt to send relief to the colo- nists and again failed. In 1590, though a "general stay" of all ships throughout England was ordered by the government, Gov- ernor White obtained for himself an opportunity to return to America. On reaching Roanoke Island, however, the traces he found of the colonists he had left there two years before told only a story of disaster, and he was obliged to return to England with- out any knowledge of their fate. Ralegh, however, still con- tinued to send thither yet other vessels in the endeavor to obtain added information ; but it was not until after the settlement of Jamestown that it became known, through the Indians, that most of the Roanoke colonists were massacred by order of Powhatan.1
If English colonial enterprises on the American coast had ended in disappointment and disaster, maritime interests meanwhile had prospered. The destruction of the Spanish Armada made the sea- port towns of England more and more a nursery of seamen. Bold navigators sought out new lines of trade. But especially the fish-
1 It was at Ralegh's request that Hakluyt wrote his Particular Discourse concerning the great necessity and manifold commodities that are like to grow to this Realm of England by the Western discoveries lately attempted. Several manuscript copies of the "Discourse" were made by Hakluyt, but it was not printed until 1877, when a manuscript copy, found in England by the late Dr. Leonard Woods, was published by the Maine Historical Society as volume II of its Documentary Series. It has since been published in Goldsmid's Hakluyt, II, 169-358. For the narratives of Ralegh's expedi- tions to the North Carolina coast, see Early English and French Voyages, 227-323.
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