USA > New York > History of the state of New-York : including its aboriginal and colonial annals, vol. pt 1 > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
The three savages "from Newfound island," were presented by Cabot to King Henry. They were clothed in beast skins, " eat raw flesh, and spake such speach that no man could un- derstand them, and in their demeanour, like to brute beastes." (86) The king kept them some time, and they were seen two years afterwards in Westminster Hall, dressed like English- men, but silent.
In memory of this discovery, Sebastian Cabot made a chart of the American coast, with his picture, and an inscription .; This map contained a concise account of his discovery of North America.(87) It was hung up in his majesty's private gallery in Whitehall, as a valuable testimonial of the title of the British crown to all North America. (88)
* Hakluyt. Salmon, in Mod. Hist. Vol. XXX. says, Cabot discovered all the north-east coast from Cape Florida, in 25 deg. north lat. to 673. Hakluyt, Vol. III. says in another place, they went down till they found Cuba on the left, and thence to England ; and in another place, that they sailed along the coast, from 56 deg. of lat. to Florida. But query ? See Forbes's Florida, reviewed, Vol. IV. (n. s.) N. Am. Rev. 62, 63.
+ Hakluyt.
# With this title : Edigies Sob. Caboti, filii Jo. Caboli, Venetiani, Mi- litis aurati, &c.
3 28.]
Cabois. 129
After their return, they found great tumult in England, and preparations for war in Scotland, and no further consideration was paid to this voyage. Sebastian, having lost his father, went to Spain, entered the royal service, sailed to Brazil, discover- ed the Rio de la Plata, (89) and after this, made other voy- ages, and at length retired from a sea life. He continued high in public fane and private esteem, and lived to receive from the sixth Edward an annuity for life .* His brothers, Lewis and Sauctius, settled in foreign countries, and also obtained. eminence and distinction.t
Although English writers, in opposition to those of Hol- land, maintain that Sebastian Cabot sailed along the coast of New-York, yet the existing accounts, collected by Haklnyt, furnish not the least evidence of such a fact, unless it be in the supposition which they might warrant, that Cabot, on his re- tura fromi the North American waters to the southern, in about the lachute of Virginia, might have also touched the extreme 1
coast of Long Island. (90)
The spirit of English adventure now slept. Henry was in dispute with the Scotch. Projects of discovery in his time, bad in view mines of gold and silver. The Cabots found none among the Indians to gratify the avarice of their royal employer, and he did not choose to expend his treasures for the distant prospect of commercial benefits to his subjects. Jeal- ous, severe, and avaricious, and sinking deeper as he advan- ced in years in these unpopular vices, until his subjects, weary of his existence, rejoiced at its termination ; } this monarch Inade it his sole interest to foster productive commerce amidst foreign war and domestic insurrection; and northern maritime adventure therefore received no further encourage- ment during his long reign. That period, however, was also
-
* Viz : " One hundred and three score and five pounds, thirteen shillings and four pence sterling," in the Se year of Edward's reign, January, 1549. (Hakluyt, Vol. III. p. 10.) Fifty-teo years after his discovery !
i See Forster, Prince, Belknap, Pinkerton's Collections, and Haklnyt. ! See Ilume, Vol. III. p. 427, 423, 429. VOL. I.
17
130 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [PART I.
distinguished for the blind submission of crowned heads to the supremacy of the sce of Rome. The pope's graut, (91) giving away the new world to Spain and Portugal, four years previously to Cabot's discovery, operated upon the public mind a century afterwards, and might have influenced Henry, under an apprehension on his part, that further northern in- terference might offend particularly Spain, whose friend- ship he was solicitous to secure.
$ 29.
In the mean time, the Spaniards and Portuguese pursued the advantages of their discoveries, and while they kept the northern continent in reversion, (though some of their subjects actually visited it,)* they consulted their peculiar character in the immediate objects of their adventurous pursuits. The Spaniard, (92) proud, lazy and magnificent, sought, and even- tually found, an ample field for his indulgence ; a soft climate to favour his love of ease, and a profusion of gold and sil- ver to procure him all the luxuries which his pride demand- ed, but which his indolence denied. The Portuguese, indi gent at home, and enterprising, rather than industrious abroad ul mutely obtained gold and diamonds as the Spaniard had, wanted them as he did, but possessed them in a more useful though a less ostentatious manner. (93)
It has been said, indeed, that the Spaniards visited the Hudson and St. Lawrence rivers before any other Europe- ans. Vander Donchf observes, that there are persons who suppose that the Spaniards, many years ago, were in this country, but finding it too cold, they returned, leaving the beans and Turkish wheat, or Indian corn, found here when the Dutch arrived. This, continues Vander Donck, is not pro-
* Viz : Gaspar de Cortelreal, a Portuguese, who explored and named the coast of Labrador in 1500 ; and the Spaniards Velasco in 1506, and Gomez in 1525. See Vol. VI. N. Am. Rev. (n. s. 42, 50.
i AJrian Vander Donck, " Beschryvinge Van Nieuw-Nederlant," &c. Printed Amst. 1656.
131
j 29.]
Spaniards-Hudson and St. Lawrence.
bable, nor is it confirmed by the Indians. The beans and corn, they say, were sent to them by the southern Indians, who had obtained the same from the people who lived still south of them. This may be true, for Castillians Jong since settled in Florida ; or perhaps corn may have been cultivated by the Indians carlier in those warm countries. But before its introduction here, the Indians say that they used to eat the bark of trees and roots for bread.
As to the St. Lawrence, it is said, when the Spaniards first discovered the northern region, as they sailed past Cape Ro- siers, at the entrance of the St. Lawrence, the mountains (of Notre Dame) were covered with snow. Such a prospect in the summer season, gave them a very unfavourable opinion of the country, and they were deterred from going up the river, supposing the land too barren to recompense their present la- bours, or afford any future advantages. The same impres- sions induced them to call it Capo di Nada, or Cape Nothing, by which name it is described in their charts, and whence is derived, by corruption of language, the name of Canada.(94)
It is true that the Spaniards claimed Florida, { which had in carly day as extensive and undefined a signification as Vir- ginia afterwards had)* by virtue of a discovery at the com- mencement of the sixteenth century.(95) Ponce de Leon (or John de Ponce) a wealthy and aged inhabitant of Porto Rico, its first discoverer and governor, went in search of a fountain, (then reported to be in one of the Bahama islands) supposed to possess the marvellous power of restoring youth and vigour to aged persons who should bathe in its waters. Having dis- covered Florida, and disappointed, of course, in his main ob- ject, he resolved to recompense the want of youth by gratify- ing the avarice of age ; and, accordingly, in the year 1513, having obtained the appointment of governor of Florida, he arrived on the coast with a considerable number of men ; but a furious attach: of the Indians compelled him to fice, with his
. * By the charter from Philip IL.to Menendez, Florida extended from New. foundland to the river of Palins, as far as lat. 25 deg. or 22 deg. See its ex- tent, as stated by De Lact and Sanson, See VOL. IV. (n. s.) N. A. Re. p. 74.
132 European Discoveries and Claims 10 New- York. [PARTE remnant of survivors, to Cuba. On these adventures, Spain grounded her claim to Florida.
Lucas d'Aillon, (or Luke Vasquez of Aillon) in 1520, went from Hispaniola on a kidnapping voyage, landed at St. Hele- na in South Carolina, was received hospitably by the natives, and, as a requital, invited a large number on board, and set sail with them. Some pined away, refusing all food. A great many perished in one of the vessels, which foundered, and the residue were forced into slavery. Vasquez went again five years afterwards. One of his ships was cast away ; two hundred of his men were cut off by the natives, and he fled, or died, in Florida. Pamphilo de Narvaes, also in 1528, sailed to Florida, with a force of four hundred foot and forty horse. They traversed and conquered the country without much resis- tance, travelled 280 leagues, built boats, embarked, were ship- wrecked, and almost the whole perished by that disaster and subsequent famine. Afterwards, and about the time when St. Lawrence was discovered by the French, Sotos' celebrated and disastrous expedition was made to the Mississippi, as will be mentioned hereafter."
The exterminating cruelty of the Spaniards towards the South Americans made a deep and wide-spread impression. No wonder any attempt in North America should be repelled (as it had been unsuccessfully in the south,) with indignation and fury. The Spaniards sought gold and slaves. The na- tives, while living, were sometimes thrown to the dogs to be devoured; millions were butchered, and thousands reduced to slavery, or forced to the mines.+ Spain is now suffering the vengeance which her national crimes merited. Since her dis- coveries she has been on the decline. The very gold that en- riched her became the means of her impoverishment, berause it unnerved her industry. Reduced from the proud eminence
* Sce Forbe's Floridas, reviewed, Vol. IV. (n. s.) N. Am. Rev. p. 63, &c. Williamson's North Caorlina, Vol. I. p. 12, 14.
i See Pinkerton's Collections. The subversion of the empire of the In- cas; the fate of Montezuma, Se. and all the sickening horrors which Peru, Chili, and Mexico have witnessed.
.
133
§ 30.]
Henry VIII. and Francis T.
she once enjoyed, to a secondary and degraded rank in the balance of Europe, she is a living lesson to the world, not only in national morals, Fut political economy; which proves that with nations as well as individuals " prosperous vice is but triumphant woe ;" that what is gained without labour, may be squandered without regret; and that productive industry alone constitutes the solid wealth of a nation; the only certain means of augmenting its population, and securing a durable prospe- rity. It has been well remarked, " that it is as natural for a people to flock into a busy and wealthy country, where em- ployment is had, and which, by any accident, may be thinly / populated, as it is for the dense air to rush into those parts where it is rarified."(96) But Spain, now stripped of the very mines that supplied her with gold, (unlike England and Hol- land amidst their freedom and industry) pursued a policy which has reduced her numbers, unnerved ber people, plunged them into political despotism and religious intolerance, and pay- ed the way, perhaps, for the extinction of her national existence
$ 30.
While the subjects of Spain thus made ineffectual efforts to colonise and explore North America, Heury the Eighth of England, and Francis First of France, arose to question the infallibility, and deny the unlimited supremacy of the Pope. The former defied, and the latter disregarded, the monstrous usurpation of the papal sce, who dared not only to fetter the conscience, but, in imitation of his Satanic majesty, to dis- pose of kingdoms and worldis. Although Heury, denying the right of the partition of the new world between Spain and Portugal, sent two ships, it is said, in 1527, (four years after Francis despatched Varrazano) to make discoveries, one of which was cast away on Newfoundland, and the other arrived at St. John's Bay ;(97) yet he was too much engrossed in the gratificationi o: Ins pa-sions, to lay the foundation of transat- lantic empires. Neither did Edward and Mary attend much to foreign o jects. Bu: Francis I. who is denominated by the historiographer of France, (Sieur de Mezeray) the Great
134 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [PART I.
King, the father and restorer of learning and liberal sciences, clement in peace and victorious in war, was as ready as his contemporary, Henry the Eighth, to question the Pope's grant and partition. In reply to the Spanish and Portuguese pre- tension, he said (98) he should be very glad to see the clause in Adam's will, which made this continent their inheritance ex- clusively.
He was one of the most active. but ambitious and head- strong, princes of his age ;" and although, during his long reign, j he was involved in war and misfortunes, he was deter- mined not to overlook the commercial interest of his people, by suffering Spain, Portugal, or England, to appropriate to themselves all the advantages of the great discovery. Under the patronage of this Ling, sailed John de Varrazano and James Cartier.į
§ 31.
A correct knowledge of the voyage of Varrazano, made twenty-seven years after that of Cabot, becomes important, masmuch as he is supposed by some to have been the first dis-' coverer of the bay of New-York and river Hudson. By vir- tue of this and subsequent French discoveries, France claim- ed a considerable part of this continent, and Henry the IV. in 1603 gave to des Monts all the American lands from the for- tieth to the forty-sixth degree of north latitude ; a grant which included this State, but which James J. of England disregarded in 1606, when be created by patent the North and South Virginia Companies.5
* See Somerville's Letters on France, reviewed, Vel. X, (n. s.) N. Am. Rcr. 50, 52.
i Commencing in 1515, and ending by his death in 1547. (Mczeray's ['rance.)
į Or Giovanni de Verazzani, (as his Italian name has been rendered) and Jacques Cartier, sometimes Quartier, (as his French name is given.)
4 See both Charters, in Hazard's Collections, Vol. 1, p. 46, 51, and ap- pendei to Stith's Virginia. Williamsburg, 1717.
135
Varrazuno.
y 31.]
In 1523, Francis, having thus determined to excite the emu- Jation of his subjects in commerce, as he had in science and the fine arts, ordered Varrazano to set sail with four vessels for the discovery of that country, of which so much was spoken at the time in France. The account of the first voyage is not preserved. Historians give no particulars. Varrazano, in his letter addressed to his majesty, detailing the discoveries we shall presently mention, dated Dieppe, July 8, 1524, pre- . supposes that the king had previously been informed of this first voyage. It seems that Varrazano, with his four ships, had encountered storms in the north, been driven with two ships, the Norman and Dolphin, to land in Britain, whence he determined, in the latter vessel, to prosecute the discoveries already began. According to this letter, (which is preserved by Ramusio# and Hakluyt,f) having procceded to Madeira with fifty men, and provisions for eight months, he departed on the 17th day of January, 1524, from the rocks (the Deserters ) east of Madeira, and proceeded westwardly. After encoun- tering a tempest, which put him in imminent danger of ship- wreck, he found himself near a low country. Ile approached it within a quarter of a league, and from the fires along the coast, concluded that it was thickly peopled. Turning to the south fifty leagues, without finding a harbour, and perceiving the land ranging still southwardly, he'retraced his course, and arrived in latitude 34º, (near Wilmington, North Carolina.) Here the ship was anchored off the coast. "Great store of peo- ple (says Varrazano) came to the sea side, and seeing us ap- proach, they fled away, and sometimes would stand still and looke backe, beholding us with great admiration ; but after- wards, being animated and assured, with signes that we made them, some of them came hard to the sea side, seeming to re- joyce very much at the sight of us, and marvelling greatly at our apparel, shape and whitenesse; shewed us by sundry
* In his Great Collections.
f Hakluyt's Voyages, &c. Vol. II. p. 295. 300. Lond. 1600. Also in vo' 1. N. Y. Hist. Collec. p. 45. 60.
130 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [ PART i.
signes where we might most commodiously come a land with our boate, offering us also of their victuals to eat." Encour- aged by this kind welcome, our adventurers made a " short abode" on shore, taking note of the peculiarities of the natives and of the country.
It is difficult to determine the southern latitude which he had reached .* In consequence of his describing the coast as full of palm trees, it has been conjecturedf that he sailed as far as the southern part of Georgia, to the north of which the re- gion of palm trees is not found.
Having concluded his short visit in the latitude to which he had retrograded, be resumed his northern course. After coasting some time without perceiving any harbour by which he could enter, he was compelled for the sake of fresh water, to send off his boat. The shore was lined with savages, whose countenances betrayed at the same time the effects of surprise, admiration, joy, and fear. But, " making signes of friendship, and shewing that they were c tent we should come aland,"} twenty-five men with presents were dispatched with the boat ; but it could not, in consequence of the roughness of the waves and surge, approach the beach without danger, or the men in it dared not advance towards the savages. One sailor, how- ever, bolder than his comrades, seizing a few of the articles designed as presents, plunged into the water, and advanced within three or four yards of the shore, when the appearance of the savage array striking him with panic, he suddenly threw to them the presents, hastened about, and struggled to regain the boat : but a heavy sea now rushed towards the shore, and dashed him full length almost dead upon the beach. His
# Lescarbot says he discovered the country from 30 to 40 degrees N. latitude. Dr. Williamson (Hist. N. Caro. Vol. I. p. 15.) says he touched the continent at 30th deg. and called the country Mocosa, taking possession of it in the name of the king of France, and left it near the 50th degree. But neither of these cite any authority.
i By Dr. Miller, in Jiscourse, &c. Vol. I .- N. Y. Hist. Coll. p. 23, 24 + Observes Varrazano.
137
§ 31.] Varrazano-Interview with Natives.
strength was so much exhausted that he could not maintain any foot-hold, and the next return of the waves would have carried him off, had not the savages, seeing his deplorable condition, ran to his assistance, and caught him in their arms. Shortly recovering his senses, he was greatly frightened, and began to cry with all his might. The savages, in order to comfort him, cried still louder, and ran about to cheer him, and to give him courage. They finally seated him at the foot of a little hill, and turned his face towards the sun. Then having lighted a large fire near him, they stripped him entirely naked. He could then no longer doubt but that their intention was to roast him. and eat him." Those on board thought so too, and while they intensely watched all this ma- nagement, they could sigh only for the fate of the victim. But the poor sailor began to hope that his life might be spar- ed when he saw them dry his clothes, and only carry him near enough to the fire to warm him. In truth, he trembled in every part of his body, but more from fear than cold. The savages on their part testified their kindness by caresses, which half restored his confidence. They could not cease admiring the whiteness of his skin .; Finally, they restored to him his clothes. After recovering his strength, and staying with them a while, he began to manifest great impatience to rejoin bis companions. Accordingly, these guileless people conducted him to the shore, held him some time in a close embrace, " with great love clapping him fast about," in order to evince
.
* Or sacrifice him to the sun-as Charlevoix (in Nouvelle France, &c.) has rendered it. But this appears to be a gratuitous conjecture of his own. ¡ And also, as Charlevoix says, " his beard and spots (poil) that they saw on his body, where they had none themselves, which astonished them still more." This is another gratuitous assertion of Charlevoix, not found in Varrazano's Letter. As to the declaration of writers, that the natives have no beards, we think we shall show (in our aboriginal history) this to be a mistake which has arisen from the circumstance of Indians appearing to have none, but which is consequential of their practice from early youth of plucking it out from the roots.
Von .. I.
JS
1
133 European Discoveries and Claims to New-York. [PART i.
their regret at parting, and to show that they had nothing equivocal or sinister in view. They then retired to a little distance, leaving him at liberty : and when they saw him swimming, they mounted on a little eminence, from which they kept their eyes fixed upon bim until he reached the boat, and returned to the ship .*
Departing thence, Varrazano followed the shore fifty leagues and anchored. Twenty men in the boat went ashore : entered the country six miles, and found that the people had fled to the woods affrighted. " They saw only one old woman, with a young maid of 18'or 20 yceres old, which seeing our com- pany (says Varrazano) hid themselves in the grasse for feare ; the olde woman carried two infants on her shoulders, and be -- hind her necke a child of eight yeeres old. The young wo- man was laden likewise with as many ; but when our men came unto them, the women cried out ; the olde woman made signes that the men were fledde into the woods. As soone as they saw us to quiet them, and to win their favour, our men gave them such victuals as they had with them, to eate, which the olde woman received thankfully, but the young woman disdained them all, and threw them disdainfully on the ground. They took a child from the olde woman to bring into France ; and going about to take the young woman, which was very beautiful and of tall stature, they could not possibly, for the great outcries that she made, bring her to the sea ; and espe- cially having great woods to passe thorow, and being farre from the ship, we purposed to leave her behind, bearing away the child onely."
After remaining three days in this country, and riding on the coast for want of harbours, they pursued their route.
Previously to their arrival at the place which we shall pre- sently describe, they had coasted along shore between a north- ern and eastern direction one hundred leagues, without making a harbour, when they arrived at a very pleasant-place, situat-
" See Varrazano's Letter in Hackluyt. and N. Y. Hist. Coll. ib.
§31.] Varrazano at or near Sandy Hook ? 139
cd among certain little steep hills, from amidst which " there ranne downe into the sea an exceeding great streme of water, which, within the mouth was very deepe, and from the sea to the mouth of the same, with the tide, which they found to rise 8 foote, any great ship laden miglit passe up."* Here they rode safely at anchor, and sent up their boat. The natives expressing their admiration, and showing them where they might come safely to land with their boat, they entered up the river half a league, " where it made a most pleasant lake, ; about three leagues in compasse, on which they (the natives) rowed from one side to the other to the number of thirty of their small boats, wherein weere many people, which passed from one shore to the other to come and see them." A sud- den rise of wind compelled them to return to the vessel and put to sea. Here possibly they might have touched at Sandy Hook, and taken the bay within it for a lake. Thence, weigh- ing anchor, they " sayled toward the east, for so the coast trended, and so alwayes for fifty leagues being in the sight thereof, they discovered an island in forme of a triangle, distant from the main land ten leagues, about the bignesse of the island of Rhodes ; it was full of hills, covered with trees, well peo- pled, for they saw fires all along the coast ; they gave it the name of his majesty's (Francis Ist.) mother, but not staying there by reason of the weather being contrary."
Here perhaps they may have coasted Long Island, until they reached Block Island, Nantucket, or Martha's Vineyard. There is certainly no such triangular island ten leagues from the entrance of Sandy Hook; and the described direction which they took renders their entry into New-York bay and river at this juncture altogether improbable, as will be insisted upon more at Jarge hereafter.
From this island they came to another land fifteen leagues distant, where they met the " goodliest people, and of the fair-
Varrazano.
i The Scandinavians also speak of a lake in their visits to these coaste. See ante, p. 114, 116.
4
140 European Discoveries and Claims to New-York. [PARTI.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.