USA > New York > Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains > Part 8
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his opinion that he had discovered one of the outskirts or depend- encies of those countries, conceived that they had only to bear to the northwest, to find a still shorter route. Taking that course they reached the continent of North America, discovering the Islands of New Foundland and St. John, and sailed along it from the confines of Labrador to the coast of Virginia. Thus, England was the second nation that visited the western world, and the first that discovered the vast continent that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico towards the north pole. Instead of discovering a shorter route to the Indies, the one discovered a New World, and the other, by far the most important portions of it.
From dissentions and troubles that existed at home, and some schemes of family ambition that diverted his attention, CABOT found his patron king, on his return, indisposed to profit by his important discoveries. All the benefit that accrued to England from this enterprise, was a priority of discovery that she afterwards had frequent occasion to assert.
In 1498, the CABOTS, father and son, made a second expedi- tion, with the double object of traffic with the natives, and in the quaint language of their commission, to explore and ascertain " what manner of landes those Indies were to inhabit." They sailed for Labrador by the way of Iceland, but on reaching the coast, impelled by the severity of the cold, and a declared purpose of exploring farther to the south, they sailed along the shores of the United States to the southern boundary of Maryland; after which, they returned to England.
Portugal, desirous of participating in the career of discovery, in 1501, fitted out an expedition under the command of GASPAR CORTEREAL. The most northern point he gained was probably about the fiftieth degree. The expedition resulted in a partial survey of the coast, and the taking captive of fifty Indians that were taken to Portugal and sold as slaves.
It was twenty-seven years after the last voyage of CABOT, under English auspices that FRANCIS I, King of France, awakened by the spirit of adventure, and protesting against the partition that had made of the newly discovered continent, by the Pope, between Spain and Portugal, soon after its discovery; and determined not to overlook the commercial interests of his people; extended his patronage to JOHN DE VERRAZANA, ordering him to set sail for that country "of which so much was spoken at the time in France."
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The account of his first voyage is not preserved. He sailed with four ships, encountered storms in the north, landed in Britain; and going from thence to the island of Madeira, started from there with a single vessel, the Dolphin, with fifty men and provisions for eight months. After a stormy passage he arrived in latitude 34 deg. near Wilmington, North Carolina. In his own report to his king and patron, he says :-
"Great store of people came to the sea side, and seeing us approach they fled away, and sometimes would stand still and look backe, beholding us with great admiration; but afterwards, being animated and assured with signs that we made them, some of them came hard to the sea side, seeming to rejoice very much at the sight of us, and marvelling greatly at our apparel, shape, and whitenesse; shewed us by sundry signes where we might most commodiously come to land with our boate, offering us also victuals to eat. Remaining there for a few days, and taking note of the country, he sailed northwardly, and viewed, if he did not enter, the harbor of New York. In the haven of Newport he remained for fifteen days, where he found the natives the 'goodliest people' he had seen in his whole voyage. At one period during his coasting along the shores of New England, 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, surprise, joy and fear.' They made signs of friendship, and 'showed they were content we should come to land.' A boat with twenty-five men, attempted to land with some presents, but on nearing the shore were intimidated by the frightful appearance of the natives, and halted to turn back. One more resolute than the rest, seizing a few of the articles designed as presents, plunged into the water and advanced within three or four yards of the shore. Throwing them the presents, he attempted to regain the boat, but was caught by a wave and dashed upon the beach. The savages caught him, and sitting him down by a large fire, took off his clothes. His comrades supposed he was to be 'roasted and eat.' Their fears subsided however, when they saw them testify their kindness by caresses. It turned out that they were only gratifying their curiosity in an examination of his person, the 'whitenesse of his skin,' &c. They released him and after 'with great love clasping him faste about,' they allowed him to swim to his comrades. VERRAZANA found the natives of the more northern regions more hostile and jealous, from having, as has been inferred, been visited for the purpose of carrying them off as slaves. At another anchorage, after following the shore fifty leagues, 'an old woman with a young maid of 18 or 20 yeeres old, seeing our company, hid themselves in the grasse for feare; the old woman carried two infants on her shoulders, and behind her neck a child of 8 yeeres
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old. The young woman was laden likewise with as many; but when our men came unto them the woman cried out; the old wo- man made signs that the men were fled into the woods. As soon as they saw us, to quiet them, and to win their favor, our men gave them such victuals as they had with them to eate, which the old woman received thankfully, but the young woman threw them disdainfully on the ground. They took a child from the old 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 outeries she made, bring her to the sea; and especially having great woodes to pass through, and being far from the ship, we purposed to leave her behind, bearing away the child onely. At another anchorage,* 'there ran down into the sea an exceed- ing great streme of water, which at the mouth was very deepe, and from the sea to the mouthe of the same, with the tide which they found to raise eight foote, any great ship laden might pass up.' Sending up their boat the natives expressed their admiration and showed them where they might safely come to land. They went up the river half a league, where it made a 'most pleasant lake, about three leagues in compass, on which the natives rode from one side to the other to the number of thirty of their small boats. wherein were many people which passed from one shore to the other.' At another anchorage they 'met the goodliest people and of the fairest conditions that they had found in their voyage :- exceeding us in bigness - of the color of brasse, some inclining to whiteness, black and quick eyed, of sweete and pleasant counte- nance, imitating much the old fashion.' Among them, they discovered pieces of wrought copper, which they 'esteemed more than gold.' 'They did not desire cloth of silk or of gold, or of other sort, neither did they care for things made of steel or iron, which we often shewed them in our armour, which they made no wonder at; and in beholding them they only asked the art of making them; the like they did at our glasses, which when they suddenly beheld, they laughed and gave them to us again.' The ship neared the land and finally cast anchor 'in the haven,' when, continues VERRAZANA, 'we bestowed fifteen days in providing ourselves with many necessary things, whither every day the people repaired to see our ship, bringing their wives with them whereof they were very jelous; and they themselves entering aboard the ship and staying there a good space, caused their wives to stay in their boats; and for all the entreaty we could make, offering to give them divers things, we could never obtaine that they should suffer to to come aboard our ship. Oftentimes one of the two kings (of this people) comming with his queene, and many gentlemen for their pleasure to see us, they all staid on shore two hundred paces from us till they sent a message they were coming. The queene and
* Off Sandy Hook, as has been inferred.
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her maides staid in a very light boat at an island a quarter of a league off, while the king abode along space in the ship, uttering divers conceits with gestures, viewing with great admiration the ship, demanding the property of everything particularly. 'There were plaines twenty-five or thirty leagues in width, which were open, and without any impediment.' They entered the woods and found them 'so greate and thick, that any army were it never so greate might have hid itself therein; the trees whereof are oakes. cipresse, and other sorts unknown in Europe.' The natives fed upon pulse that grew in the country, with better order of hus- bandry than in the others. They observed in their sowing the course of the moone and the rising of certain starres, and diverse other customes spoken of by antiquity. They dwell together in great numbers, some twenty-five or thirty persons in one house. They are very pitifull and charitable towards their neighbors, they make great lamentations in their adversitie, and in their miserie, the kindred reckone up all their felicite. At their departure out of life they use mourning mixed with singing which continueth for a long space."
VERRAZANA having coasted 700 leagues of new country, and being refitted with water and wood, returned to France, arriving at Dieppe in July, whence he addressed his letter to the king. His, in all probability, were the first interviews with the natives upon all our northern, and a part of our southern coast, and for that reason his narrative which gives us a glimpse of them in the primitive condition that civilization found them, possesses a great degree of interest. "We have detailed these instances in their favor," say YATES and MOULTON, "because they occurred at a period when the warm native fountain of good feeling and disin- terested charity, had not been frozen by the chilly approach and death-like contact of civilized man. We have dwelt upon these incidents as the most interesting portion of VERRAZANA'S adventures. They present human nature in an amiable point of view, when unsophisticated by metaphysical subtlety, undisguised by art, or even when adorned by the refinements, the pride and circumstance of civilization. They illustrate the position which we believe is true, that the natives of this continent, before they had been exasperated by the encroachments and provocations of Europeans, when the former were confiding and unsuspicious, without any foresight of the terrible disasters which their inter- views with the latter were destined to become the tragical prelude,
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entertained uniform feelings of kindness, of hospitality and benevolence."
" When COLUMBUS visited the new world, the natives viewed him as a super-natural being, and treated him with the veneration inseparable from a delusion, which COLON was willing to counte- nance. When VESPUCIUS AMERICUS landed, he also was treated as a superior being. When the CABOTS coasted this continent, when CARTIER first visited the St. Lawrence, when the French first settled in Florida as friends, when Sir HUMPHREY GILBERT, and after him the captains employed by Sir WALTER RALEIGH, first landed in Virginia, when HUDSON discovered and explored our bay and river, when the Pilgrims colonized New England, the generous reception which they all met from the natives, should stand a monumental rebuke to the shameful prejudices too prevalent among ourselves, since we supplanted their descendants on a soil which their fathers left them as a patrimony. We will cite proofs of two instances which took place thirty-seven years apart, but which are given as a general illustration of our position. In the first report of SIR WALTER RALEIGH's expedition, it is said by his captain, and those in the employ, in 1584, that they were enter- tained with as much bounty as they could possibly devise. They found the people most gentle, loving and faithful, woid of all guile and treason, and such as live after the manner of the golden age."
The following is an extract from the first sermon ever preached in New England. It was by one of the Pilgrims, and bears date Dec. 1621 :-- "To us they (the Indians,) have been like lambs, so kind, so submissive and trusty, as a man may truly say many chris- tians are not so kind and sincere. When we first came into this country we were few, and many of us were sick, and many died by reason of the cold and wet, it being the depth of winter, and we having no houses or shelter; yet when there were not six able persons among us, and that they came daily to us by hundreds with their sachems or kings, and might in one hour have made a dispatch of us, &c. yet they never offered us the least injury. The greatest commander of the country, called MASSASOIT, cometh often to visit us, though he lives fifty miles from us, often sends us presents, &c."
And yet aggressions and wrongs commenced on the part of our race in its earliest intercourse with theirs. VERRAZANA after the reception he has himself acknowledged, attempted to carry away two of their people; CABOT had carried two as a present to his
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sovereign HENRY VII, that were never returned. The Spaniards and Portugese immediately followed up their first intercourse with them by carrying them into captivity and slavery. Can it be wondered that in numerous instances that occurred in after attempts at settlement, in New England - upon the Hudson - in Virginia, North Carolina &c .- this primitive good feeling - the simple hospitality with which they met the first adventurers upon their shores, gave place to self-defence - perhaps revenge? Of the Spaniards, and their early intercourse with them, KOTZEBUE says :- "Wherever they moved in anger, desolation tracked their progress,-wherever they paused in amity, affliction mourned their friendship."
Well has it been observed that the Indian has had no historian of his own. Were some one of his own race, the chronicler of events ;- commencing with the discovery of COLUMBUS, and coming down to our present day of pre-emption bribes, and treaties attained with wrong and outrage ;- he would gather up a fearful account which would meet with no adequate offsets. It would be that which would admit of but one manner of recompense :- the care- ful guardianship and protection hereafter of our states and general governments, and a co-operation in all measures that tend to pro- mote their rights, their peace and happiness, on the part of our people.
On the 20th of April, 1534, JAMES CARTIER, a mariner of St. Malo, was commissioned by Francis First, to fit out an expedition for the purpose of exploring and colonizing the new world. He sailed with two ships of sixty tons burthen, and each a crew of sixty men. He visited New Foundland, surveyed the coast, and returned. The favorable report he was enabled to make, increased the confidence of his patron, and in May, 1535, he was enabled to set sail again with a squadron of three ships, well furnished. “ A solemn and gorgeous pageant," a confessional and sacrament, and the benediction of a bishop attended his departure. In this voyage he passed to the west of New Foundland and entering the Gulf of St. Lawrence, gave it its name. In September, he ascended the river as far as the Island of Orleans. Here he met with the
NOTE .- In ascribing the discovery of the Hudson river to the navigator whese name it bears, it is assumed that the coasting and entering of rivers, of Verrazana did not embrace it. It is generally admitted, however, that he came to anchor at Sandy Hook and that the bay within it, is the "pleasant lake," he alludes to
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natives of the country. Although they considered the French intruders, and wished to prevent their further advances, they never- theless treated them with kindness and hospitality. To direct them from their purpose of advancing, they first gave them bountiful presents of corn and fish, and to discourage them they resorted to jugglery, in which they declared they had drawn maledictions from the Great Spirit, against them. They repre- sented that there was so much ice and snow in the country above, that certain death awaited them if they advanced. Undismayed by the arts and devices of the natives, the intrepid mariner contin- ued to ascend the river, and arrived at a principal Indian village called Hochelaga, the present site of Montreal. That region he found occupied by a branch of the Wyandot, or Huron tribe of Indians, who were there by recent conquest. "Having climbed the hill at the base of which lay the village, he beheld spread around him a gorgeous scene of woods and waters, promising glorious visions of future opulence and national strength. The hill he called Mount Royal, and this name was afterwards extended to the Island of Montreal. At that period, more than three centuries ago, the village of Hochelaga was surrounded by large fields of corn and stately forests. The hill called Montreal, was fertile and highly cultivated." The form of the village was round and encompassed with timber, with three courses of ramparts, framed like a sharp spire, but laid across above. The middlemost of them was made and built as a direct line, but perpendicular. These ramparts were framed and fashioned with pieces of timber laid along the ground, very well and cunningly joined together after this fashion :- The enclosure was in height about two rods. It had but one gate which was shut with piles, stakes and bars. Over it, and also in many places in the wall there were places to run along and ladders to get up, full of stones for its defence. In the town there were about fifty houses, about fifty paces long and twelve or fifteen broad, built of wood, covered only with the bark of the wood as broad as any board, very finely and cunningly joined together. Within their houses there were many rooms, lodgings and chambers. In the midst of these, there was a great court, in the middle whereof they made their fire. They lived in common together. Then did the husbands, wives and children, each one retire themselves to their chambers. They also had on
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the tops of their houses, garrets, where they kept their corn to make their bread, which they called caraconny."*
These Indians gave CARTIER a glimpse of the vast region that lay at the west of him and for the first time perhaps directed French enterprise to a region where it was destined to occupy so wide a space. They told him there were three great lakes and a sea of fresh watert of which no man had found the end; that a river # ran south-west, upon which there was a "month's sailing to go down to a certain land where there was no ice nor snow, where the inhabitants continually warred against each other," and where "there was a great abundance of oranges, lemons, nuts and apples "; that the people | there were clad as the French, lived in towns, were very honest, and had great stores of gold and copper.
By the authority of his king, and in the name of his country, CARTIER erected a cross and shield, emblazoned with the arms of France, and called the country New France.
CARTIER's report on his return from this voyage, was made with candor. "This country which he had visited abounded with no gold or precious stones and its shores were alledged to be bleak and stormy." The project of colonization was not renewed until six years after.
In 1540, FRANCIS DE LA ROQUE, SEIGNEUR DE ROBERVAL, Was granted a charter by FRANCIS I, which invested him with all the powers of his sovereign, over the newly discovered and claimed colony of New France. Under his immediate auspices a squadron of five ships was fitted out, with CARTIER commissioned by the king as chief Pilot of the expedition. He was directed to take with him persons of every trade and art, and to dwell in the newly discovered territory. The expedition had an untoward commence- ment and ultimately resulted in but a feeble advance toward per- manent settlement. As good colonists could not be obtained to go to the inhospitable and bleak northern regions, the prisons and work houses of France were resorted to to supply the demand. In addition to this, a feeling of rivalry and jealousy sprang up between
* The author finds this ancient account of Hochelaga, in Lanman's History of Michigan.
tErie, Huron, Michigan. The "sea," lake Superior.
# The Mississippi.
|| Florida and the Spanish colonies.
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ROBERVAL and CARTIER. They neither embarked in company, nor acted in concert. CARTIER ascended the St. Lawrence and built a fort at Quebec; but no considerable advances in geographical knowledge would seem to have been made. In June, 1542 he returned to France. On the way back he met ROBERVAL on the banks of New Foundland, with more provisions and arms, and returning with him to the fort, he assumed the command, while ROBERVAL ascended the St. Lawrence. CARTIER not entering with cordiality into the views or measures of ROBERVAL, the expedition after remaining about a year returned to France.
In the career of French discovery in New France there occurs here an hiatus or suspension of over fifty years. The causes of this suspension may be found in that portion of the history of France which embraces that period; they were domestic troubles, civil war, &c., which divested the nation from all projects of discovery and colonization.
It was under the reign of ELIZABETH, that England made the first attempt at colonization in America. In 1584 Sir WALTER RALEIGH, under the patronage of the Queen, fitted out two vessels, to "visit the districts which he intended to occupy, and to examine the accommodations of the coasts, the productions of the soil, and the condition of the inhabitants." These ships approached the North American Continent by the Gulf of Florida, and anchored in Roanoke Bay, off the coast of North Carolina. This was followed the year after by seven more ships, which left 108 men at the Roanoke Colony, The immediate prospect of forming a colony was finally unsuccessful. A fleet under Sir Admiral DRAKE, that was returning home after a successful expedition against the Spaniards in the West Indies, touched at Roanoke on its home- ward passage, and took the colonists home to England.
There were several other attempts to colonize by RALEIGH, and under his auspices, but were failures; amounting only to the landing of several ship loads of emigrants, illy provided for sub- sistance or defence ; to become a prey to the natives, or perish for food. At the period of Queen ELIZABETH's death, not an English- man was settled in America.
In 1603, BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLD, planned an expedition in a small vessel with only thirty men-discovered a much nearer route than had hitherto been pursued -visited the coast of Massachusetts and returned with a rich freight of peltry. His favorable accoun
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led a few merchants of Bristol to send out two vessels, to examine the country GOSNOLD had visited. They returned, confirming his statements. Another expedition followed, which, returning, reported so many "additional particulars commendatory of the region, that all doubt and hesitation vanished from the minds of the projectors of American Colonization; and an association sufficiently numerous wealthy and powerful to undertake this enterprise, being speedily formed, a petition was presented to the King for his sanction of the plan, and the interposition of his authority towards its execution."
In April 1606, King James issued letters patent to Sir THOMAS GATES, GEORGE SOMERS, RICHARD HAKLUYT, and their associates granting to them those territories in America, lying on the sea coast between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, together with all the Islands situated. within one hundred miles of their shores.
The patentees were divided into two companies. The territory appropriated to the first, or Southern Colony, was called Virginia. That appropriated to the Northern Colony, was called New Eng- land. They were termed the London and Plymouth companies.
Three vessels soon sailed under the auspices of the London Company, having on board one hundred and five men destined to remain in America; among the adventurers, were GEORGE PERCY, a brother of the Duke of Northumberland, GOSNOLD, the enter- prising navigator, and Capt. JOHN SMITH. The squadron arrived in the Chesapeake Bay, April 1607. These colonists founded the settlement at Jamestown, and theirs was the first successful scheme of English colonization in America. In 1608, this colony first tilled the soil of what now constitutes the United States, unless the Spaniards had previously planted in Florida.
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