USA > New York > History of the state of New-York : including its aboriginal and colonial annals, vol. pt 1 > Part 14
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Previously to his return to his little islet in Cuttyhunk, a chief of the neighbouring country with his retinue of fifty men, had arrived there on a visit. They were dressed in their peculiar style, and some of their ornaments were copper. For the purpose of making an imposing display, or of impressing upon their minds, a conviction that the leader of the white men was a very great man, Gosnold was received by his friends with studied pomp and ceremony. The Indians were feasted, and so highly pleased that the chief permitted some of his men to remain and aid the colonists in digging sassafras, with which and with furs, they designed to load their vessel for England.
Gosnold's intention was to remain with twenty men, and send his mate Gilbert, with twelve men to England with the' vessel and cargo, to obtain supplies for the infant colony. But upon examining their stock of provisions, it was ascertained, that after victualling the vessel, six weeks provision only could be spared for those who should remain. Indications of hos- tility from the Indians, also startled them ; some jealousy pre- vailed respecting the distribution of the proceeds of the cargo, and the intention of those who were to have the care of it, and the result was, that after a further consultaion of five days, they
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concluded unanimously to abandon for that time the project of colonisation, and return to England.
Conformably to this prudent determination, they departed from Cuttyhunk on the eighteenth day of June, and, after a short and pleasant passage of five weeks, they arrived at Ex- mouth, in England.
This voyage, however trifling it might at first appear, was ve- ry important when viewed in connexion with its incidental con- sequences. Its rapidity and success made a strong impression upon the English merchants. The new route marked out by the intrepid Gosnold, shortened the distance to Virginia nearly one half. The enthusiastic admiration of the country which he and his associates expressed, was also calculated to revive a colonising spirit among their countrymen. The former had indeed visited it in the spring, and departed in the summer, and it is no wonder that they represented the country as the Garden of Eden. Gosnold was indefatigable in his exertions in conjunction with Captain John Smith, to promote the esta- blishment of a colony ; and although he does not appear ever to have revisited the little rocky islet of Naushaun in Cutty- hunk, upon which the first house was erected within the for- mer limits of New-York, yet he embarked with Captain Smith in his first expedition to South Virginia, was a member of the Colonial Council, and there died in the year 1607.
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Among those who were distinguished for the zeal with which they encouraged the renewal of adventures to North America, Richard Hackluyt* was conspicuous. He compiled those va- Inable collections which have been ever since a standard au- thority ; which were designed to promote the colonization of North America ; and which, no doubt, in connexion with the
See Forster' Northern Voyages, p. 189. n. Vol I. Belk. Am. Biog.
166 European Discoveries and Claims to New-York. [PART I.
personal influence and exertions of their author, contributed to produce that result in a very great degree. He accordingly, after the return of Gosnold, persuaded the municipal authority and merchants of the wealthy city of Bristol, to equip two ves- sels, to take the route which Gosnold had so fortunately prescri- bed. Having obtained permission from Sir Walter Raleigh and his associates, two small vessels were equipped, one of fifty tons, called the Speedwell, the other a bark of twenty-six tons, named the Discoverer. The command of the ship was given to Martin Pring (or Prinne) ; the bark was commanded by William Brown. Robert Salterne, who had been with Gos- nold, was supercargo and principal agent. The design of this equipment was to make new discoveries, ascertain whe- ther the flattering accounts given of North Virginia were ex- aggerated, and to bring home a cargo of sassafras and furs. Pring sailed in April 1603, a few days after the demise of the queen. His voyage was prosperous. He revisited the islands to which he and Gosnold had been the year before, and from his christian name that of Martin's Vineyard was probably derived. After his arrival on the coast, in June, Pring enter- ed the harbour of Edgartown, in Martha's Vineyard, which he called Whitson Bay, and anchored under shelter of Cappa- quiddick Neck, to which he gave the name of Mount Alworth. Here he spent several weeks collecting sassafras. Martha's Vineyard then contained sassafras, vines, cedar, oak, ash, beech, birch, cherry, hazel, walnut, maple, holly, and wild plum. The land animals were " stags and fallow deer in abundance, bears, wolves, foxes, lusernes, porcupines, and dogs with sharp and long noses." "The waters and shores abounded with fish and shell-fish of various kinds, and aqua- tic birds.
Although this company had no design of making a settle- inent, yet they erected a temporary but, and enclosed it with a barricade, in which they kept guard day and night, while others were in the woods gathering sassafras. The Indians often visited them. They were adorned with plates of cop- per. Their bows, arrows, and quivers, were neatly made.
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Pring .. 167
They lived on fish; but the English gave them pulse, and trinkets. Their birchen canoes were considered great curio- sities ; and one of them, seventeen feet long and four broad, was taken to Bristol as a sample of their ingenuity. They were excessively delighted with music : and would dance in a ring around an English youth who played upon the guitar .*
The Indians repeatedly visited them in parties from ten to a hundred. An amicable disposition prevailed on both sides, and no instance of actual aggression is recorded. But in the end of July, the barh with sassafras sailed to England. The Indians perceiving their force thus diminished, advanced one day in a hostile manner to the barricade. There were one hundred and forty, armed with bows and arrows. They de- manded the four men who were on guard with muskets, to come ont. Captain Pring, with two men only on board the ship, perceiving the danger of the guard, secured his ship, and fired one of his great guns as a signal for the labourers who had been engaged in the woods, and were reposing after their fatigue, relying upon the protection of their two mastiffs, which the English had brought over. The Indians had early manifested great terror from the bark of these dogs. They now awoke their masters, who, hearing a second gun, seized their arms, and hastened to the relief of the guard. The In- dians observing their approach, affected to turn the whole af- fair into a jest, and went off laughing. In a few days, how- ever, they set fire to the woods where the sassafras grew. These alarming incidents hastened the departure of the ship. Even when it was ready to sail, the Indians, in an unexampled number, amounting to about two hundred, came to the shore,
* " Is there, indeed, whom music cannot melt ? Alas, how is that rugged heart forlorn. ** % * *
He need not woo the Muse, he is her scorn ;
The sophist's robe of cobweb he shall tivine, Mope o'er the schoolman's peevish page, and mourn And delve for life in Mammon's dirty mine ; Sneak with the scoundrel fox. or grunt with glutton swine."
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168 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [PART I.
ostensibly for the purpose of inviting Pring to remain. Hc very prudently declined the invitation ; sailed off on the 9th of August ; and, after a passage as short as that of Gosnold on his return the year before, Pring arrived in England, and fully confirmed the glowing description which had previously been given of the beauties of the North Virginia regions .* This account was still further confirmed by Captain George Weymouth, in his unsuccessful voyage to the north in 1605.5. His voyage is memorable only, says Dr. Belknap, for the dis- covery of Penobscot River, (not Hudson River, as Beverly, in the preface to his History of Virginia, supposes) and for his Kidnapping five natives, whom he carried to England.j
Weymouth visited an island of six miles in compass, on which he caused grain to be sown. From this he could dis- cern the continent and very high mountains; and coasting among the islands adjoining the main, he found an excellent harbour. The island upon which grain was sown, Stith, in his History of Virginia, § is inclined to believe was Block Island ; and the river he explored either Narraganset or Con- necticut. Bat Dr. Belknap has designated the route with more precision and accuracy.
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'The importance of these voyages, however, was exhibited in their effect upon the dormant spirit of colonisation, upon the revival of which, schemes for that purpose became popu- lar. Upon the accession of king James to the throne of Eng- land, several merchants and others associated, and as former patents had expired, were forfeited, or disregarded, by that vain, weak, and bigoted king, he was easily flattered to yield
* See authorities ante, cited under Gomold's voyage.
t See Vol. I. Belk. Am. Biog. Art. " Gorges," for an account of voy- ages before the arrival of the Pilgrims, as well as that of the latter. Also Vol. II. p. 151, &c.
t See Vol. II. Belk. A.n. Biog. p. 195, &c
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89.] Progress of English Colinisation. 16,9
the sanction of his royal authority, by granting, in 1606, a wcw patent to two monopolies, who were afterwards denomi- nated the South and North Virginia Companies.
Notwithstanding the connexion which these early events have with our history, inasmuch as this State was a part of the territory thus chartered, we shall barely dwell upou a few general facts, and for particulars, refer to the Virginia histo- rians, Smith, * Stith, ¡ Beverlyt and Burkg.
If ever any design had an ominous beginning, and seemed to forbid any attempts for its continuance, it was that of the first settlement of Virginia. Nearly half of the first colony was destroyed by the savages, and the rest exhausted and worn down by fatigue and famine, deserted the country and returned home in despair. The second colony was cut off to a man, in a manner unknown; but they were supposed to have been destroyed by the Indians. The third, met very nearly the same dismal fate; and the fourth, quarreling among themselves, neglected their agriculture to hunt for gold, and provoking the Indians by their insolent and unguarded beha- viour, lost several of their people; the remains of which were returning in 1610, in a famishing and desperate condi- tion to England, when just in the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, they met Lord Delawar, the successful founder of Vir- ginia, who, regardless of his life, and inattentive to his fortune, had entered upon this long and dangerous voyage, and ac- cepted this barren province, which had nothing of a govern- ment but its cares and anxieties, merely for the service of his country and the interest of posterity. (114)
Indeed, so precarious was the dominion which our English ancestors held upon Virginia territory, that while Hudson was exploring our river, they were struggling for existence with
* Sce his history in Pinkerton's Collections.
{ " Whose word is equal to a record," says Mr. Jefferson, in MS. letter in possession of N. Y. Hist. Society, addressed to Doct. Miller, 1940
# Col. Beverly, author of the anonymous worke.
: Late bistory of Virginia.
Von. F.
02
170 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [PART I.
an effort scarcely calculated to surmount its difficulties. For the very year afterwards, the planters were reduced by an irruption of the natives, from 500 to 80 men, who, abandon- ing the country, were met on their way to England by Lord Delawar as before mentioned. Such were the formidable obstacles which they were obliged to encounter, that even so late as 1622, when our Dutch progenitors had quietly seated themselves in this State, and the pilgrims had made a tranquil settlement in New-England, the English in Virginia suffered a massacre in one day, of three hundred and forty-seven of .
their colonists.
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On the death of Elizabeth, the crown of England passed from the family of Tudor to that of Stuart. James made peace with Spain. Tranquillity being restored, the com- mencement of the seventeenth century was peculiarly auspi- cious for foreign enterprise. Although the Spanish claim on the restoration of peace, was revived and insisted upon, yet it seems that even James did not incline to regard it more than his subjects. Indeed, so late as 1609, while Hudson was exploring our river, the validity of the Pope's gift of the territory through which it ran, was seriously agitated, but it was treated by writers of that day, as the unsubstantial fabric of a vision.
In a work published, London 1609, entitled, " Nova Britan- nia. Offering most excellent fruites by planting in Virginia." These pretensions are thus discussed : " Of late a challeng is laid to all, by vertue of a donation from Alexander the first, Pope of Rome, wherein (they say) is given al the West Indies, including Florida and Virginia, with al America, and what- soever ilands adjacent. But what is this to us? They are blind indeed that stumble here ; it is much like that great do- nation of Constantine, whereby the Pope himself doth hold and claime the cittie of Rome, and all the western empire, a thing that so crosseth all histories of truth and sound antiqui- tic. that by the apt resemblance of those two donations, the
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King James 1. Spanish pretensions.
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whole west empire from a temporall prince to the Pope, and the whole West Indies, from the Pope to a temporall Prince, I doe verily guesse they be ncere of Kinne, they are so like each other ; the one an old tale vaine and fabulous, the other a new toy most idle and ridiculous. When the flatterers of Cambises, King of Persia, could find no law to warrant his immoderate lust, and incestuous marrige with his owne dangh- ter, yet they told him of another law which they had found, whereby the kings of Persia might doe what they listed: if in these cases, likewise, there be a law that the Pope may do what he list, let them that list obey him, for we believe not in him." He then proceeds to point out the advantages of the settle- ment, and vehemently urges his countrymen to go forward notwithstanding the pretensions of "one Prince Christian, whose people within the memory of man, began first to creepe upon the face of those Territories, and now by meanes of their remnants settled here and there, doe therefore imagine the world to be theirs, shouldring out all other nations."
Sir Walter Raleigh's patent (the first being limited to six years) was vacated by his attainder. Other grants that were made prior to 1606, were disregarded by James. (115) Itis said(116) that the patent of 1606 was obtained through the solicitation of Chief Justice John Popham and others, and that Sir John Gilbert revived the claim of his brother Sir Humphrey. It granted to the South Virginia (or London) Company, viz. Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Summers, Richard Hackluyt,* and Edward Maria Wingfield, Esq. adventurers of the city of London and their associates, to settle between 34 and 41 de- grees of north latitude ; to the North Virginia Company, viz. Thomas Hanham, Raleigh Gilbert, William Parker, and George Popham, of the cities of Bristol and Exeter, and town of Plymouth in the county of Devon, between 38 and 45 degrees of the same latitude. Each company should have fifty miles each way along the continent, from the place of their settlement, (thus precluding the actual contact of settle-
Author of " Collections of Voyages, &c."
172 European Discoveries and Claims to New-York. [PART I.
ments within one hundred miles) and one hundred miles back into the country.1.
Thus New-York was partitioned, so that both patents in- cluded it. All colonising enterprise having slept from 1590, till Bartholomew Gosnold awakened it in 1602, though some fee- ble, ill-directed, and unavailing efforts in the mean time were made to discover the lost colony in Virginia, yet the first effectual settlement in North America may be placed about two years previous to the discovery of Hudson river. It was conducted under the South Virginia Company, sustained by that intrepid and daring adventurer, acute and sagacious ob- server, the founder of James Town, Captain John Smith, and preserved through the friendship of Pocahontes.
At the north the fisheries seemed first to attract the Eng- lish as well as the French. The planting of a colony was not it seems contemplated by the North Virginia Company, but the establishment only of little factories for traffic and fishing. (117) In fact, had not religion become the incen- tive as well as consolation for the hardships of northern co- Ionisation, England might never have had colonies there. Under the auspices of Chief Justice Popham, ineffectual at- tempts at an establishment were made, and in 1607 Captain George Popham as president, and Captain Rawly Gilbert as admiral, arrived at Sagadehock, (on Kennebeck river). In the winter Captain Popham died, and Captain Rawley Gilbert succeeded him as president. In the spring Chief Justice Popham sent two ships with supplies, but before they sailed the chief justice died, and before they arrived Sir John Gilbert (sur- viving brother of Sir Humphrey) died, leaving his younger brother Rawley his heir. These melancholy events, combin- ed with the hardships incidental to the enterprise, hastened the departure of the adventurers, and the abandonment of the country .*
* Prince in chronology.
{ Sce Salmon Mod. Hist. Vol. XXX, p. 430. Ilazard's Coll. Vol. I. p. 50 Beverly's " Hist. of Virginia," 2d. edit. 1722. p. 19, 14. Stithi's Virginia, 32, 35, &c. and appendix. Purchas' Pilgrims: and so as to effect of this division, Belk. Am. Biog. Vol. I. 400 -- 401.
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y 40.] English Policy and Progress of Colonisation. 173
With the exception of a few adventurers, who came over from time to time in the summer, built temporary huts for trading with the savages and then departed, these northern patented regions remained unvisited till 1620, except by the ever-toiling John Smith in 1614, and by Captain Argal from Virginia. 'The former pronounced the country of Massachu- setts a paradise ; was prevented from attempting a settlement only by the want of " means to transport a colony ;" and though he had sailed on a fishing and whaling voyage, yet, from the observations he made of the coasts, islands, and har- bour (in his range from Penobscot to Cape Cod) he formed the first map of the country, and gave it the name of New-Eng- land. (118) The latter (Argal) sailed under the South Virgi- nia government, while England was at peace with France and Spain (as will be hereafter particularized), proceeded to Aca- dia, destroyed a French establishment a little north of Cape Cod, invaded and conquered the little quiet settlement of the Dutch on the Hudson, and returned to Virginia with their spoils, and his own inglorious laurels.
In truth, until eleven years after the discovery of our river by Hudson, no permanent colony was located in New-Eng- land. The vigorous operation of religious intolerance, which produced the emigration of the pilgrims, (whose memorable voyage was intended to have been made to this river, as will appear hereafter) revived the project of settling this part of America, among the North Virginia Company. They had no new or distinct grant from 1606. Their patent be- came vacated, and in November (3d) 1620, King James, by a new patent, incorporated the Duke of Lenox, the Marquisses of Buckingham and Hamilton, the Earls of Arundel and Warwick, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and thirty-four others, by the name of the Great Council, established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of New-England ; granting them the country from the 40° to 48º N. latitude inclusively, and in length of and within, all the breadth aforesaid throughout the main- Jands, from sea to sea : Provided, the same be not actually possessed or inhabited by any other Christian prince or state.
774 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [PART I.
This charter or patent, is the great civil basis on which all sub- sequent patents, in the subdivision of New-England, were founded. (119) It embraced this State, though then in the possession of the Dutch, and conflicted with the claims of France, not merely to this State, but to the northern territories that were afterwards conceded to her. These charters will also appear important in the disputes which New-York has had in the settlement of its boundaries.
The patent or charter of 1606 for South Virginia, was vacated at the desire of the patentees, and in 1609, renewed and enlarged, by which the London company was incorpora- ted by the name of " The Treasurer and Company of Adven- turers and Planters of the city of London, for the first Colo- ny in Virginia." This was again enlarged by that of March 12, 1611-12 .*
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We heretofore observed that the impulse to North Americau adventure arose from the policy of king Henry IV., Queen Eli- zabeth, and Prince Maurice ; that France claimed this State in collision with England ; and that the claims of both were oppos- ed to that of Spain and of their revolted provinces the Republic of Holland. The time of Cardinal Richelieu. in the subsequent reign of Louis XIV. is considered (120) the true era of French policy. This celebrated minister, while he pacificd all at home, and strove, even at the expense of liberty, to exalt the royal authority upon the ruins of the power of the nobility, and to model a system of general policy in external affairs, which should raise France and her monarch to an exalted height of grandeur ; did not, amongst his numerous and ex- tensive cares, forget those of commerce, and what serves most effectually to support commerce, colonies, and establishments abroad. But the circumstances of the time, and his genius and ambition, that embraced so many objects, did not leave
* These three charters are in Stitit's Hist. of Virg. Appx. and in Vol. I. Hazard's Collections. p. 50, 58.72.
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§ 41.] Henry IV .- French Claims to New-York.
him leisure to perfect what he began. It was reserved for Colbert, who has been pronounced a great, wise, and honest minister, one of the ablest that ever served any prince or ho- noured any country, (121) to bring that plan to perfection, to carry it in a great measure into execution, and to leave things in such order that it was not difficult, when favourable circum- stances offered, to make France one of the first commercial powers in Europe ; and her colonies the most powerful, their nature considered, of any in America.
Notwithstanding this may be viewed as the true era of the commercial policy of France, (the civil wars that had so dis- tracted her from her true interests having subsided) still the emulation her subjects caught from the enterprising examples of other states at the close of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century, could not escape the favourable observa- tion of so great a prince as Henry the Fourth,* to whose libe- ral and enlightened policy France was indebted for a long pe- riod of her prosperity.
It was under Henry* (surnomme Le Grand) that De La Roche, in 1598, obtained his commission to conquer Canada. It was from Henry that the family Des Monts received, in 1603, (the first year of king James and last of Elizabeth) a grant which included this State, and comprehended all the American lands from the 40° to the 46º north latitude.j. It was two years before he fell by the dagger of an assassin, that Quebec was founded, (1608) and one year before, that Champlain, its founder (1609) explored the northern coast of our State, and made a contemporaneous discovery of Lake Champlain during the time Hudson was discovering our bay and river at its southern extremity.
De La Roche having obtained from Henry the Great the commission to conquer Canada and other countries not pos- sessed by any Christian Prince, sailed with a colony of con- victs from the prisons, and landed forty on the Isle of Sable. The survivors, twelve only, were taken off' seven years after,
Who reigned from 1589 to 1608. - MMezeray:
+ See patent in Hazard, Vol. I. p. 46. 51. Stith's Virg. Appx.
176 European Discoveries and Claims to New- York. [PART I. and Henry pardoned them, giving cach fifty crowns as a re- compense for their sufferings .*
Five years after De La Roche had sailed, Pierre du Gast. Sieur de Monts (or Ments) having obtained from Henry a pa- tent for planting of L'Acadia and Canada, from latitude 40° to 46°, winch embraced Nassau Riverf and the whole of our present State, the same year Champlain sailed up the great Canada river and returned. Next year, (1604) De Monts sailed from France, taking Champlain and Champdore for pilots, and Pourtrincourt, who intended a settlement in Ameri- ca. They discovered and began plantations at Port Royal, St. John's, and St. Croix, in the Bay of Funda. Pourtrin- court introduced two Jesuits in 1607. Champlain, by order of De Monts, sailed up the river of Canada, and fortified Quebec, the name of a strait in the river. In 1609, Champ- laint (having discovered the lake that afterwards took his name) returned to France, leaving Captain Pierre to command at Quebec. The next near he revisited and reassumed his command.
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