History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 3

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n
Publication date: 1871
Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers
Number of Pages: 844

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With more definite purpose, and with sounder views, Gilbert's patent. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a knight of Devonshire, obtained 1578. a royal patent, authorizing him to discover and occupy 11 June. any remote, heathen, and barbarous lands, "not actually possessed of any Christian prince or people." Gilbert's purpose was to begin that actual occupation of American territory which England had entirely neglected during the eighty years that followed the voyage of Cabot. The pat- ent gave Gilbert abundant powers ; but various obstacles postponed the execution of his design. Meanwhile, Eliz- abeth was stoutly denying the exclusive pretensions of 1580. Spain to the New World, in virtue of first visitation, and of the Pope's donation, and was distinctly affirming the session the principle that discovery and prescription, unless accom- Actual pos- English doctrine. panied by possession, are of no avail.§ Thus the Queen

* Hakluyt, iii., 250-297 ; Hazard, i., 19-21 ; Chalmers, 81, 82 ; Bancroft, i., 19-24.

t Hakluyt, iii., 29-32, 47-129 ; Purchas, v., 811 ; Bancroft, i., 81-86 ; Rundall's Narra- tives, &c., 9-34, published by the Hakluyt Society, 1849.

# Hazard, i., 24-28 ; Bancroft, i., 88, 89.

§ " Præterea illam non intelligere, cur sui et aliorum Principum subditi ab Indiis pro- hibeantur, quas Hispanici juris esse persuadere sibi non posset ex Pontificis Romani do- natione, in quo prærogativam in ejusmodi caussis agnovit nullam, nedum auctoritatem ut Principes obligaret, qui nullam ei obedientiam debent ; aut Hispanum novo illo orbe quasi infeudaret, et possessione investiret. Nec alio quopiani jure quam quod Hispani hinc illinc appulerint, casulas posuerint, flumen aut Promontorium denominaverint, quæ proprietatem acquirere non possunt. Ut hæc rei alienæ donatio quæ ex jure nihili est, et imaginaria hæc proprietas obstare non debeat, que minus ceteri Principes commercia in illis regionibus exerceant, et colonias ubi Hispani non incolunt, jure gentium nequaquanı violato, dedu-

THE ENGLISH IN VIRGINIA.

of England, while she refused to recognize the double CHAP. I. Spanish title by exploration and investiture, at the same time virtually renounced any English claim founded sole- 1580. ly upon Cabot's voyage.

After a few year's delay, Gilbert, aided by the resources of his half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, equipped an ex- Gilbert at Newfound- pedition, and sailed directly to Newfoundland, where, for land. the first time, he set up the arms of England and pro- 1583. claimed the queen. On his return voyage, the intrepid 5 August. adventurer perished at sea. But the English right to the 9 Septemb. island " first seen" by Cabot, was now formally published to the world " by the voice of a herald."*

new patent.

25 March.

The untimely fate of his kinsman did not dishearten Raleigh, who readily procured from Elizabeth, whose fa- Raleigh's vorite he had become, a new patent to discover and occu- py any remote, heathen, and barbarous lands, " not act- 1584. ually possessed of any Christian prince, nor inhabited by Christian people." Up to this time the English had lim- ited their views to the bleak regions near the fisheries at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence. Raleigh's enterprise was now directed to a more genial climate. Two vessels were soon dispatched toward Florida, under the com- 27 April. · mand of Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow. Sailing by the circuitous route of the Canaries and the West Indies, they safely reached the island of Wocockon, at the Ocra- coke inlet, in North Carolina, where they took formal pos- 13 July. session of the country in behalf of their sovereign. On their return to England, the adventurers made such glow- ing reports of the regions they had visited, that Elizabeth gave to the wilderness the name of VIRGINIA, to commem- Virginia orate its occupation in the reign of a maiden queen.t named.

But the time for permanent English settlements beyond Coloniza- the Atlantic had not yet fully come. The colonists whom tempted, tion at- Raleigh sent to the island of Roanoke in 1585, under 1585.

cant, quum præscriptio sine possessione haud valeat."-Camden, Rerum Ang. et Hib. Reg. Eliz. Annales, 1580, edit. Hearne, 1717, p. 360

* " Regionem illam [Newfoundland] Anglici juris esse, voce præconis publicasset." -Camden, Annales Eliz., 1583, p. 402 ; Hakluyt, i., 679-699, iii., 143-166 ; Purchas, iii., 808; Hazard, i., 32 ; Bancroft, i., 90, 91.

t Hazard. i., 33-38 ; Hakluyt, iii., 246-251 ; Bancroft, i., 92-95 ; Chalmers, 4, 9.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

and aban- doned.

Raleigh's fate.

CHAP. I. Grenville and Lane, returned the next year, dispirited, to 1587. England. A second expedition, dispatched in 1587, un- der John White, to found " the borough of Raleigh, in Virginia," stopped short of the unexplored Chesapeake, whither it was bound, and once more occupied Roanoke. 1590. In 1590, the unfortunate emigrants had wholly disappear- ed ; and, with their extinction, all immediate attempts to establish an English colony in Virginia were abandoned .* Its name alone survived. After impoverishing himself in unsuccessful efforts to add an effective American planta- tion to his native kingdom, the magnanimous patriot was 1603. consigned, under an unjust judgment, to a lingering im- prisonment in the Tower of London ; to be followed, after 1618. the lapse of fifteen years, by a still more iniquitous exe- cution. Yet, returning justice has fully vindicated Ra- leigh's fame ; and nearly two centuries after his death, 1792. the State of North Carolina gratefully named its capital after that extraordinary man, " who united in himself as many kinds of glory as were ever combined in an indi- vidual."+

Gosnold's voyage.

96 March.

The reign of Elizabeth did not terminate before anoth- er step had been taken in the path of American adventure. Shakspeare's liberal-minded patron, the Earl of South- ampton, "having well weighed the greatness and good- ness of the cause," contributed largely to fit out a vessel under the command of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold and Captain Bartholomew Gilbert, to discover a " convenient place for a new colony" to be sent to North America. 1602. Early in 1602, Gosnold sailed from Falmouth in a Dart- mouth bark, named the Concord, " holding a course for the north part of Virginia." Rejecting the usual circui- tous route by the Canaries and the West Indies, Gosnold, after being driven by an unfavorable wind " as far south- ward as the Azores," boldly steered his small vessel di-

* Hazard, i., 38-45 ; Hakluyt, iii., 251-265, 280-295 ; Chalmers, 514, 515 ; Bancroft, i., 95-108. The attention of Europe was attracted, in 1590, to the characteristics of the North American savages, by the beautiful plates with which Theodorus de Bry, of Frankfort, illustrated his collections of " Voyages." These were engraved from the sketches made, under Raleigh's direction, by the draughtsman Wythe, who accompanied Lane in 1585. + Bancroft, i., 111.

GOSNOLD AT CAPE COD.

rectly across the Atlantic, by which he made the voyage CHAP. I. "shorter than heretofore by five hundred leagues."* In seven weeks the Concord safely made the land, about the 1602. 14 May. latitude of 43º, in the neighborhood of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Here the adventurers were visited by several Indians in a French-built shallop, with "mast and sail, iron grapples, and kettles of copper." From their explana- - tions, it appeared that some French vessels from the Basque Provinces " had fished and traded at this place." But seeing no good harbor, Gosnold stood again to sea south- wardly, and soon " found himself imbayed with a mighty headland." Here he went ashore in his shallop, while his men, during the six hours he was absent, caught so many " excellent codfish, that they were compelled to throw numbers of them overboard again.". Naming this head- land " Cape Cod"-a designation which it has ever since Cape Cod retained-Gosnold coasted to the southward as far as the and named discovered mouth of Buzzard's Bay, where he prepared to plant a colony on the westernmost island, which was called " Eliz- 28 May. abeth," in honor of the queen. Three weeks were spent in building a house, where Gosnold proposed to remain during the winter, with eleven of his men, and mean- while send the Concord home, in charge of Gilbert, " for new and better preparations." But his men, filled with "a covetous conceit of the unlooked-for merchandise" which had rewarded their traffic with the Indians, " would not by any means be treated with to tarry behind the ship;" and Gosnold returned to England, after an absence of five months, with the most favorable reports of "the 23 July. benefit of a plantation in those parts."".

Elizabeth's timid successor now sat on the throne of 1603. Great Britain. At the time of James's accession, Spain 24 March. Accession was the only European nation that possessed any fixed of James L settlements in all the northern continent to which Colum-

* Smith's Hist. of Virginia, i., 105.

+ " History of Travail into Virginia Britannia," by William Strachey, 153-158 ; Pur- chas, iv., 1647 ; Smith's Hist. of Virginia, i., 105-108. Strachey's interesting work has just been published (1850) for the first time, from the original MS. in the British Museum, by the Hakluyt Society.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. I. bus had led the way, more than a century before. South 1603. of the Saint Lawrence, not a foot of American territory had yet been permanently occupied by England or France. But the time was now near at hand when these rival na- tions were to commence a long-enduring struggle for ul- timate dominion over vast regions far across the sea. Ra- leigh's enterprises, and Gosnold's successful voyage, had given a strong impulse to the national spirit of Great Britain ; for the development of which the anticipated termination of hostilities with Spain, in consequence of James's accession to the throne, was soon to offer the most favorable opportunities. The south of England already felt the pressure of a redundant population ; and English adventurers foresaw that they would no longer be allow- ed to despoil, at pleasure, their enemies' rich West India possessions. Enterprise must soon pursue more honest paths, and commerce and colonization must supplant pi- racy and rapine. The thoughts of the intelligent were naturally turned toward the North American Continent, where, between Mexico and Florida and the mouth of the Saint Lawrence, not a solitary European family was yet established. Among the foremost of these intelligent men, and the one to whom " England is more indebted for its American possessions than to any man of that age,"* was the distinguished historian of maritime enterprise, Richard Hakluyt, a prebendary of Saint Augustine's at Bristol, and

Richard Hakluyt the historian.

afterward of Saint Peter's at Westminster. Influenced by his enlightened zeal, some Bristol merchants fitted out two small vessels, manned with experienced crews, several of whom had accompanied Gosnold the year before .; and, a 10 April. Pring's voyage. few days after the death of the queen, dispatched them from Milford Haven, under the command of Martin Pring, to explore the northern coasts of Virginia. Falling in with the land near Penobscot Bay, Pring coasted southerly along the mouths of the Kennebeck, Saco, and Piscataqua, un- til he reached the waters of Massachusetts Bay. After 2 October. an absence of six months, he returned to England, with

* Robertson, ix.

WEYMOUTH IN MAINE.

a valuable cargo of sassafras, and a birch bark canoe, as a CHAP. 1. specimen of the ingenuity of the native savages .*

1603.

Pring's voyage stimulated afresh the awakened enter- prise of England. James had, meanwhile, signalized his accession to the British throne by declaring himself at Peace with peace " with all the princes of Christendom," and by re- 23 June. Spain. calling all letters of marque and reprisal against the Span- iards.t This step was followed the next year by a formal treaty with Spain, which by degrees repressed the preda- 1604. tory expeditions that English mariners had so long carried 18 August. on against the American possessions of their recent foes. The northern voyage across the Atlantic was now divested of its terrors, and experience had abundantly demonstrated its advantages over the more circuitous route by the West Indies. The liberal Earl of Southampton, " concurrent the second time in a new survey and dispatch," in concert Wey- with his brother-in-law, Lord Arundel, of Wardour, fitted voyage. mouth's out a ship, in which Captain George Weymouth was dis- patched from the Downs to visit the coast of Maine. In 1605. six weeks Weymouth found himself near the shoals of Nan- 31 March. tucket; whence, running northward about fifty leagues, 18 May. he landed upon an island between the Penobscot and the Kennebeck, which he named Saint George. Pursuing " his search sixty miles up the most excellent and bene- ficial river of Sacadehoc," which he found "capable of shipping for traffic of the greatest burden," Weymouth set up a cross, and took possession in the name of the king. After four months absence, Weymouth returned to En- 18 July gland, bringing with him five native savages, whom he had decoyed on board his ship. Three of these were im- mediately "seized upon" by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the governor of Plymouth, who afterward declared that " this accident must be acknowledged the means, under God, of putting on foot and giving life to all our plantations."#

* Purchas, iv., 1654. t Rymer, Federa, xvi., 516.

# Sir F. Gorges, " Brief Narration," &c., in Mass. Hist. Coll., xxvi., 50, 51 ; xxviii., 129-157 ; Strachey, 159 ; Purchas, iv., 1659 ; Smith, i., 109 ; Prince, 109. Some of our his- torians have supposed that Weymouth ascended the Penobscot. But Strachey's author- ity seems to be conclusive in favor of the Sagadahoc or Kennebeck.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

1605. A new V ginia char- ter project- ed.

CHAP. I. Upon Weymouth's return to England, " his goodly re- port joining with Captain Gosnold's," and being confirm- ed by the accounts given by the native Indians he had brought over, kindled the ambition of "many firm and hearty" British adventurers to colonize domains in the New World. Next to Richard Hakluyt, the most prominent among these master spirits of an enterprising age were Sir John Popham, the chief justice of England, and Sir Fer- dinando Gorges, the governor of Plymouth. Raleigh was now lying attainted in the Tower, and his Virginia patent had been forfeited. But since the grant of Raleigh's pat- ent, extensive discoveries had been made far to the north- ward; and within the limits of these new discoveries it was proposed that English emigrants should now be set- tled, simultaneously with a renewed attempt to colonize Virginia. To accomplish these purposes, a royal charter was thought necessary ; and all questions of rivalry, it was supposed, could best be avoided by combining both objects in the same instrument. The moment seemed favorable, and was improved. The world was aroused. A mighty intellectual revolution was just beginning ; the era of suc- cessful American colonization had come. About the very time that Bacon was putting forth his noble treatise on the " Advancement of Learning," some of the most influential men of England, including Hakluyt the historian, Popham, the chief justice, Gorges, Somers, Gates, and Smith, went to the king, and besought him to encourage an undertak- ing whereby " God might be abundantly made known, his name enlarged and honored, a notable nation made fortu- nate," and themselves famous .*

Obeying England's sublime destiny, to " make new na- tions"-

" Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine-"+

10 April. Charter granted by King James.

1606. James I. readily granted a new and ample charter for the colonization of " that part of America commonly called Virginia, and other parts and territories in America either appertaining unto us, or which are not now actually pos-

* Strachey, 161 ; Gorges, " Brief Narration," 53. t Cranmer in Henry VIII., Act V.

KING JAMES'S PATENT OF 1606.

sessed by any Christian prince or people," between the CHAP. I. thirty-fourth and the forty-fifth degrees of latitude. The grant included all the North Amcrican coast from Cape 1606. Fear to- Nova Scotia. Two, separate companies were named as grantees of the patent. To the first of these, composed of Gates, Somers, Hakluyt, and Wingfield, with their associated adventurers residing at London, was grant- London ed the privilege of occupying and governing a space of one Company. hundred miles along the coast, in any part of the country between the thirty-fourth and the forty-first degrees. The second company, whose leading members, Hanham, Gil- bert, Parker, and George Popham, with their associates, lived in and near Plymouth and Bristol, the chief com- Plymouth mercial towns in the west of England-for Liverpool was Company. then only an inconsiderable village, and the northern coun- ties almost entirely pastoral-was invested with similar privileges for any part of the territory between the thirty- eighth and the forty-fifth degrees of latitude. Thus the whole of the region between the thirty-eighth and the for- ty-first degrees-from the sea-coast of Maryland to Mon- tauk Point-was, by the terms of James's patent, nomin- ally open to colonization by either company. Yet, to pre- vent collision, the charter expressly provided that the col- ony which should be planted last should not approach its boundary within one hundred miles of that of the prior establishment .* But at the time the patent was sealed, no English navigator had searched the American coast further south than Buzzard's Bay, nor further north than Roanoke. The almost unknown intermediate region was entirely unoccupied by Europeans ; the Chesapeake itself was yet unexplored, nor had its Capes been discovered or named.t

The summer passed away in preparations, on the part of the patentees of the Southern or London Company, to or- The Lon- ganize an expedition to Virginia ; and, on the part of the pany sends don Com- pedantic king, in drawing up a code of laws for the colony. Virginia. colonists to

* See charter at length in Hazard, i., 51-58 ; Chalmers, 13 ; Bancroft, i., 117-121.

t De Bry ; Hakluyt, iii., 255; Smith, i., 151 ; C. Robinson's " Voyages to America," 483, 484. Cabot's and Verazzano's discoveries have already been considered.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

19 Dec.

26 April.

CHAP. I. Late in the winter, a little squadron of three ships sailed 1606. from England, under the command of Christopher New- port; and, following the old roundabout route by the Can- 1607. aries and West Indies, it arrived safely, the next spring within the Chesapeake Bay. The headlands at the mouth of this bay were immediately named Cape Henry and Cape Charles, in honor of the two sons of King James. A few days afterward, the colony of Virginia-the " Old Domin- ion" of the United States-was founded at Jamestown ; and, during the two following years, Captain John Smith, " the adventurer of rare genius and undying fame," un- - remittingly exerted the most strenuous efforts to sustain, amid constant discouragements, an enterprise which, but for his sagacity and devotion, must soon have utterly and disgracefully failed .*

Jamestow founded. 13 May.

The Ply- mouth Company at the Ken- nebeck.

12 August.

Challons, Hanham, and Pring.

The simultaneous attempt of Chief-justice Popham, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and other members of the Plymouth or Northern Company, to establish a colony upon the Sag- adahoc or Kennebeck, which Weymouth had visited in 1605, was unsuccessful. Soon after the charter was seal- ed, Gorges and some others of the Plymouth Company 1606. sent out a ship under the command of Captain Henry Challons, to make further discoveries on the coast of Maine. But instead of taking the northern course, accord- ing to his orders, Challons sailed by way of the West In- dies, where he was captured by a Spanish fleet and carried into Spain. Meanwhile, Chief-justice Popham had dis- patched another ship, under the command of Captains Thomas Hanham and Martin Pring, to join Challons on the coast of Maine. Failing to meet him there, Hanham and Pring carefully explored the shores and harbors, and brought home with them the most accurate descriptions of the country. "Upon whose relations," says the mani- festo of the Plymouth Company, "afterward the lord chief justice and we all waxed so confident of the business, that the year following, every man of any worth, formerly in- terested in it, was willing to join in the charge for the * Smith, i., 114, 151 ; Bancroft, i., 118-129.

COLONY AT THE SAGADAHOC.

sending over a competent number of people to lay the CHAP. I. ground of a hopeful plantation."*

1607.

Under such auspices, a fly-boat, called the "Gift of Popham God," commanded by George Popham, the brother of the sail from Plymouth.

and Gilbert

chief justice, and a ship called the " Mary and John," com- manded by Raleigh Gilbert, a nephew of Sir Walter Ra- leigh, sailed from Plymouth in the summer of 1607, with 31 May. one hundred and twenty persons, to found a colony on the Kennebeck. Both the commanders were patentees of the new charter, and they now carried home with them two of the native savages whom Weymouth had taken to En- gland.+

The adventurers arrived off Penobscot Bay early in Au- 7 August. gust. Thence running westward, they anchored, a few 16 August. days afterward, at the mouth of the Sagadahoc. Popham the Sagada- Anchor at and Gilbert then manned their boats and "sailed up into hoc. the river near forty leagues," to find a fit place for their settlement. On the return of the exploring party, "they 18 August. all went ashore, and made choice of a place for their plant- ation at the mouth or entry of the river, on the west side." The next day, Richard Seymour, their chaplain, preached 19 August. them a sermon ; after which the commission of George Popham, their president, and their colonial laws, were read. The next two months were diligently employed in build- ing a fort and store-house ; while Gilbert, with twenty-two of his men, explored the adjacent coasts, between the Pe- nobscot and Casco Bay. Before long, the ship was sent home, in charge of Captain Davies, with news of their prog- ress, and with letters to Chief-justice Popham, asking for a supply of necessaries to be sent to them betimes the next year.¢

After the departure of Davies, the remaining colonists finished their intrenched fort, which they named " Saint George," and armed it with twelve pieces of ordnance.

* Mass. Hist. Coll., xix., 3, President and Council's " Brief Relation," 1622 ; Purchas, iv., 1827 ; Prince, 113; Strachey, 162, 163.

t Strachey, 164 ; F. Gorges, Brief Narration, Mass. Hist. Coll., xxvi.

# Strachey, 165-179; Gorges, Brief Narration, 54. According to Gorges and Purchas, both the vessels sailed for England on the 15th of December, 1607, leaving forty-five per- sons only in the colony. Prince, 117.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

1607. First vessel built by Europeans within the United States.

5 Feb.

CHAP. I. Fifty houses, besides a church and store-house, were also constructed within the intrenchments ; "and the carpen- ters framed a pretty pinnace of about some thirty tons, which they called the Virginia ; the chief shipwright be- ing one Digby, of London." Gilbert, meanwhile, endeav- ored to explore more fully the neighboring coasts ; but the winter proved so very severe, that "no boat could stir upon any business." To add to their distress, their store-house took fire, and their provisions in part were burned. Early 1608. in the new year, their president, George Popham, died. In the mean time, the colonists on the Kennebeck had not been forgotten by their principals at home. In the course of the next summer, Davies returned from England with a ship " laden full of victuals, arms, instruments, and tools." On his arrival, he found that, notwithstanding the death of the president, the colony had prospered ; " all things in good forwardness," large quantities of furs obtained, a good store of sarsaparilla gathered, and "the new pinnace all finished." The " Virginia," of Sagadahoc, was thus the first vessel built by Europeans within the limits of the original United States.

1607. 10 June. Death of Chief-jus- tice Popham.

But with welcome supplies, the mournful intelligence now reached the colony, that its liberal patron, Chief-jus- tice Popham, had died just after the first ships left En- gland ;* and Gilbert also learned that, by the decease of his brother, he had become heir to a fair estate which re- 1608. quired his presence in England. As Popham, their pres- ident, was dead, and Gilbert was about to leave them; as no mines, "the main intended benefit to uphold the charge of this plantation," had been discovered ; and especially, as they feared that all the other winters would prove like the first, "the company by no means would stay any lon- ger in the country." They therefore "all embarked in this

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History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 3

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n Publication date: 1871 Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers Number of Pages: 844

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n
Publication date: 1871
Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers
Number of Pages: 844