History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 4

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728

USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 4
USA > Ohio > Belmont County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 4

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Three years later, she had organized another expedition, fitted out in partnership with two brothers-Icelanders-named Helgi and Finnbagi. In 1011, they sailed for the place where Leif had laid his winter quarters ten years before. There they ar- rived without accident or delay, and found the booths, or houses, still standing, and in tolerable repair. But quietude did not reign there. In fact, peace could nowhere long exist, where lived the fierce and ambitious daughter of the Red Eric.

She quarreled with the brothers, Helgi and Finnbagi, and plotted to take their lives; inducing Thorvard also to enter into the infernal conspiracy. Inspired by her malignant counsel, Thorvard persuaded his own followers to join the plot, and to- gether they fell upon the brothers and their company, in their separate quarters, and slew them.

Of these unhappy victims, there were five women, whom the male conspirators would gladly have allowed to live, but the tiger spirit of Freydis would not have it so, and finding that her followers refused to do the murder, she killed all with her own hand, disregarding their piteous appeals for mercy.

Nothing but disaster and gloom followed this bloody deed, and the long and dreary winter which ensued was filled with remorse and dread for the guilty colonists. So when the spring came again, it was unanimously agreed to abandon the settle- ment and return to Greenland.

When Leif, the Fortunate, was told of his sister's crimes, he debated whether he should visit a just punishment upon her; but his brotherly feeling prevailed, and he allowed her to es- cape with her life, but disowned her, and predicted for her remaining years, only woe and execration, which, the chronicle says, was completely fulfilled.

This was the last Norse expedition to the American coast, of which there is any account, which seems at all authentic. One Saga has it that the place was visited several times after- ward-among these visitors being a priest named Eric, who saw the land in 1321, but of this there is great doubt, and we are left to conclude that the entire period during which the Northmen sailed to, and transiently occupied, the place which they called Vinland, covered a space of less than fifteen years. Why such an enticing field should have been so suddenly abandoned by them, must always be a mystery. Certainly it could not have been through dread of the savage natives, for those ocean freebooters hardly knew fear; and it could not have been that they thought the country not worth the occu- pation, for the land seemed limitless in extent, and far richer and more productive than any which they had ever dwelt in. The most reasonable theory is, that the cause lay in the over- whelming troubles which we know came upon Greenland and Iceland soon after, resulting in the total extinguishment of the colonies in the former country, and in the alinost complete abandonment of navigation in the northern waters.

A frightful disease, known as the Black Death, spread over the countries of Northern Europe, and from thence was com- municated to Iceland and Greenland, resulting almost in depop- ulation. In the midst of this visitation, the Esquimaux opened unrelenting war on the Greenland settlements, and to add to these horrors, there occurred two successive winters of such ex- treme severity, that the adjacent seas were blocked with ice of incredible thickness, and forever cut off the settlers from their fellow men. That was the last ever heard of the colony founded by Eric the Red. All knowledge of the country called Green- land, faded away into a shadowy tradition; and it was not until ages afterward, that its re-discovery brought it again to the remembrance of men. It was but natural, therefore, that in the oblivion which settled down on the parent country (as Greenland might properly be called) the veil of forgetfulness

should also fall on the half known land, which her sons had discovered.

The story is shadowy and incomplete, and might, by many, be regarded as mythical, but for the proofs which exist in clearly cut Runic inscriptions, engraved on the face of rocks near the town of Dighton, in southeastern Massachusetts, which remain there now, as they were found by the Puritan settlers who came there in 1620, and give authentic support to the Saga's romantic account of the Northmen's voyages to Vinland.

As we have said, the knowledge of the discoveries of Biarn and Leif, slowly spread from Norway to other portions of Europe.

In seventy-five years, it had reached Germany, being brought there by a historian called Adam, of Bremen, who had visited Sweden at that time.

By most of those who heard these rumors, they were regarded as mere inventions; but the mind of Columbus-nearly five hundred years later-accepted them as possibilities, to say the least ; and it is known that he made a journey to Iceland for the purpose of determining how far they were true. We do not know to what extent he received them as substantiating the theories which he had deduced from his scientific investigations -whether they made him more firm in his determination to solve the great problem which was the idea of his life-but whether they did or not, can never bedim the surpassing lus- tre of his achievements, or cause us to give any name but that of Christopher Columbus, the honor of First Discoverer of the land we live in. To render a proper appreciation of the mag- nitude of his great undertaking, and the innumerable obstacles and difficulties with which it would necessarily be associated at that unlettered age of the world, we cannot do better than to give the following

SKETCH OF COLUMBUS.

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, about the year 1435, and died at Valladolid, Spain, May 20, 1506. He was the eldest son of Domenico Colombo, after the custom of the time he Latinized his name into Columbus. In one of his letters, he says that his ancestors, like himself, followed the seas. By some means he received a good education, though it was at a time when many of the nobles could not write. At this period the Genose were striving with the Venetians for the mastery of the sea, maritime service was the readiest avenue to wealth and power, and his predictions in that direction were encouraged by his father. In 1449, he entered the marine ser- vice of his native country, in which twenty years were passed afloat, but no continuous record of his career was preserved. In the year 1470, he found his way to Lisbon, capital of Portugal, where he remained for fourteen years, supporting himself by drawing charts, and making occasional voyages. Not long after he became a resident of Lisbon, he married the daughter of Bartolommes di Palestrello, a distinguished Italian naviga- tor in the service of the King. The lady's father died a short time after the marriage. Columbus received the deceased navi- gator's papers and journals, (a valuable legacy for one whose mind was already engrossed with the idea of maritime discov- ery) and resided for a time on his wife's small estate at Porto Santo, one of the Madeira islands. Here he was informed of a piece of curiously carved wood being washed ashore in a west- erly gale ; of a carved paddle being picked up 450 leagues west of Portugal ; that canes of tropical growth had been washed on the Madeiras, huge pines on the Azores, and that even two drowned men, of appearance unlike Europeans, had been found on the shore of the island of Flores-all of which had evidently came from the west. These all tended to corroborate and establish in his mind any views he had previously entertained. In 1477, he made a voyage to Iceland, and the sea beyond, which he was astonished to find not frozen. But it is not known that his mind had conceived an idea beyond the discovery of a western passage to Asia, that he even expected to discover a new continent, or that he knew he had done so. His expecta- tion was, in sailing west, to reach the Indies. Geographical knowledge was very limited and indefinite at that age of the world. The text book of the time, the Imago Mundi, advanced the idea that the sea extends between Spain and the Indies- quoe principia Orientis et Occidentis sunt prope, cum mare parvum ea separet ex altera parte terroe. Columbus did not originate the sup- position that land lay to the westward, but his matured views were, that the earth is spherical ; that Asia extended to a paral- lel now indicated by about 180º E. from Greenwich, and that a navigable ocean only intervened between Europe and Asia

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

which was not more than one-third of the earth's circumference. History records that he first applied for aid to make his great voyage of discovery, to his native republic of Genoa, and was refused. Thence to the King of Portugal, who remitted the subject to his special committee of maritime affairs, and like- wise to his privy council. These, after many delays, reported against the project, and Columbus, wearied and disgusted, hav- ing spent nearly ten years in fruitless efforts, in 1484, went to Spain. Here he finally succeeded, after numerous attempts and failures, and long, perplexing delays, in getting the atten- tion of Ferdinand and Isabella, and again was his stupendous project referred to a council of learned men, mostly ecclesias- tics, under the presidency of the Queen's Confessor. Seven years more of valuable time was uselessly spent; the confer- ence, instead of making prompt investigation on scientific grounds, controverted the project on scriptural texts; and it was not until 1491, after many renewed applications, that the learned commission reported, and then pronounced it " vain and impossible, and not becoming great princes to engage in on such slender grounds as had been adduced." During this long period of hope deferred, Columbus must have been possessed with re- markable perseverance, and no one without the most patient temperament could have sustained himself with such undimin- ished confidence. The report of the committee in 1491 was a death-blow to his hopes, and he meditated laying his hopes before Charles VIII. of France. But some friends of Palos, a town where dwelt the most experienced and enterprising mariners of Spain, interceded at the opportune moment, proffered assist- ance, and aided in again getting the attention of the King and Queen. One of those who espoused his cause was an exper- ienced navigator named Alonzo Pinzon, who not only offered to advance money, but to command a ship. At length, through the offer of the Queen herself to render the desired aid, at her own expense, an agreement was entered into with Ferdinand and Isabella. The document was signed April 17, 1492, and in three months thereafter the expedition, consisting of three ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina, with full crews and provisions for one year, was ready to sail. In officers and men there were, in all, 120 souls. On Friday morning, August 3, 1492, the little expedition set sail. It is unnecessary, in this connection, to trace the incidents of the voyage. At 2 o'clock A. M. of Friday, October 12, 1492, after a prolonged and uncer- tain voyage of 71 days, the signal gun was fired announcing the discovery of land. Rodring Triana, a sailor of the Pinta, was the first who saw the new world. At sunrise the boats were rowed to the shore, and Columbus, bearing the royal stan- dard of Castile, was the first to step upon the beach of one of the Islands of the West Indies. All knelt down, kissing the ground with tears and thanks to God. Returning to Spain on the 15th day of March, 1493, he was received with great honors, and subsequently made his second, third and fourth voyages. It was on the third voyage that he approached and landed at several places bordering on the Mexican gulf, but he never knew that he had discovered a great continent. His last cxpe- ditions were all deprived of complete success by the dissensions, quarrels, and mutinies that occurred among his adventurous followers ; he suffered many indignities, and was the victim of malice, misrepresentation, and ingratitude. A conspiracy against him on his third voyage resulted in his being sent back to Spain in chains. From his last voyage he returned sick, and being 70 years old, broken in body, he died without having received redress for his wrongs or recognition for the great service he had rendered mankind. He was deprived of the honor of associating his name with that of the new found world, and not until after his death was his valuable life appre- ciatcd.

OTHER EARLY DISCOVERERS-OUTLINES OF HISTORY.

On the 5th day of March, 1496, John Cabot (Giovanni Cabota, a Venitian), and his three sons obtained a patent from Henry VII., King of England, authorizing them to search for islands, provinces, or regions in the eastern, western or northern scas. Under this charter in May, 1497, he embarked in a single vessel, accompanied by his son Sebastian, sailed west, as he said, 700 leagues, and on June 24 following, came upon land which he reported to have been a part of a continent. He sailed along the coast for about 300 leagues, landed at several places, and planted the banners of England and Venice. He returned to Bristol in August of the same year, and his discoveries are said to have attracted the admiration of the city and the favor of the English king. But for reasons that can only be conjectured, he did not make another voyage, and the place and time of his

death are unknown. He was more of a practical navigator than a scholar, and it is evident that he did not have a proper conception of the nature and importance of his discoveries.

Sebastian Cabot, who had been associated with his father's expedition of the year previous, led forth, in May, 1498, two ships, and a company of English volunteers, on a voyage in search of a short western passage to China and Japan. He sailed so far to the north, that in the early part of July, the light of day was almost continuous. Finding the sea full of icebergs, he turned more to the south, and arrived at land which is generally supposed to have been Newfoundland. Pursuing his search, he reached the main land of North America, landed in many places, and saw natives clad in skins of beasts. He coasted along the shore as far south as Florida; but his object had been to find a passage to the rich continent of Asia, and though he had discovered an immense territory under a temperate sky, his voyage was considered a failure. A navi- gator named Vasco da Gama had reached India by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, and filled the world with his fame. From this cause, the discoveries of the Cabots were considered of little value. Though spoken of in English annals as "Sebas- tian Cabot, the great scaman," he does not seem to have pos- sessed sufficient learning and powers of description to impress upon the leading minds of the old world, that the new one, which he had discovered, was of such vast importance to the ultimate welfare of mankind.

Amerigo Vespucci (Americus Vespucius), an Italian navi- gator, obtained the glory of associating his name with that of the new found world. He came of a noble but not wealthy family, and received a finished education. Later in life he was engaged in Commerce at Seville, He was in that city when Columbus returned from his first voyage, and became enamored with a career of nautical adventure by occasionally meeting with the latter and listening to his accounts of his new discov- eries. He subsequently entered the service of the King of Portugal, and sailed on his first voyage in the year 1499. The expedition reached the coast of Brazil and other points of the South American continent, and he subsequently made other successful voyages of discovery. Being a man of literary attain- ments, he was enabled to write descriptions of his discoveries in such a manner as to attract special attention from the learned men of Europe, and in this particular possessed great advantage over his predecessors and cotemporaries. One of his narratives was published at Strasbourg in 1505, under the title of Ameri- cus Vesputius de Orbe Antarctico per Regem Portugallice pridem inventa. His vivid and glowing accounts were highly interest- ing, and being the earliest published description of the new world, was called by his name, Amerigo, or America.

Pinzon, a companion of Columbus on his first voyage, dis- covered the mouth of the Amazon, in the year 1500.

In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon, a Spanish cavalier, fitted out a little squadron at his own cost, put to sea from Porto Rico, and directed his course to the unexplored west. On the 27th of March, Easter Sunday, called in Spanish, Pasqua Florida, the Feast of Flowers, he came in sight of a region which he named Florida.

The Spaniards boldly pushed their explorations around the entire coast of the Mexican Gulf and the South American Con- tinent, and in 1521 sent out the memorable expedition which resulted in the conquest of Mexico.

In 1524, the French nation sent out an expedition under the command of Giovanni Verazzano, a Florentinc. After a stormy voyage of fifty days, he reached the main land of North Amer- ica, in latitude 34°. He traced the coast southward for fifty leagues, and then, returning, sailed northward as far as Nova Scotia. He entered and explored the harbors now known as New York and Newport, gathered knowledge concerning the products and inhabitants of the region, and claimed for the French King, the whole country along the shores of which he had ranged, under the name of New France. On his return to Europe he prepared a written account of his voyages, which contains the earliest description extant of the eastern border of what is now the United States.

Ten years later, in 1534, the French dispatched Jacques Cartier to explore and colonize the new world, and he made the coast of Newfoundland in twenty days. He sailed up the St. Lawrence, made extensive discoveries, and made persistent attempts at colonization; but sickness, scarcity, and severe weather long defeated all efforts to plant a permanent French colony in America.

In 1539, Hernando de Soto set sail with his expedition of 600 men for exploration and conquest. He traversed the vast wilderness from the Florida coast to the Mississippi river, and

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

after two years of hardships and misfortune, met his death and was consigned to the bosom of the mighty stream he had discovered.

In 1562 and 1564, the Huguenots, French Protestants, planted their feeble colonics in Florida.

In 1564, the Spaniard, Pedro Menendez, made his expedition to Florida, destroyed the Huguenot colony, and laid the founda- tion of St. Augustine, the oldest town in the United States.

In 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert obtained a patent from Elizabeth, Queen of England, to plant a colony in North America. He led his expedition to Newfoundland, but failed to establish a colony.

About the year 1580, Sir Francis Drake aceomplished his celebrated voyage around the globe. This was an event highly auspicious to mercantile enterprise, and stimulated the English in their plans and attempts at colonization.

In 1584, the famous Sir Walter Raleigh, a step-brother of Gilbert, renewed the effort to found an English colony in America, and as the planting of the first European settlement on Virginia soil belongs to his genius and enterprise, we here- with present a sketch of his life.

SKETCH OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

Sir Walter Raleigh was born at Hayes, Devonshire, in the year 1552, and was the son of an English gentleman of ancient family. At the age of sixteen he was sent to Oxford, where he appears to have been distinguished in his collegiate studies, but possessing the disposition of an adventurer, which characteri- zed his varied career throughout his whole life. When at the University barely a year, he volunteered and joined a body of troops sent by Queen Elizabeth to assist the Huguenots of France. After serving about five years under Admiral Coli- gni, he proceeded to the Netherlands, and fought under the prince of Orange against the Spaniards.

His return to England was at a time when the people's minds were filled with projects for exploring and colonizing the new world. His half brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, had just obtained a liberal patent from Queen Elizabeth for establishing a colony in America. With designs of promoting fisheries in Newfoundland, Sir Humphrey fitted out his expedition in 1579, and enlisted Raleigh in the scheme of colonization. The expe- dition was a failure, and the next year Raleigh distinguished himself in Ireland in the struggle to put down the rebellion of the Desmonds. It was shortly after his return to England, at this time, that he met the queen, as she was walking one day, when he spread his mantle over a wet place in the path for her to tread upon it, and so attracted her by his gallantry, that she at once admitted him to her court and loaded him with honors.

The queen employed him to attend the French ambassador Simier, on his return to France, and afterward to escort the duke of Anjou to Antwerp. In her favor, however, Raleigh had a powerful rival in the person of the accomplished earl of Essex, and many are the romantic stories related of the assi- duity with which the two courtiers endeavored to supplant each other.

But sueh an inactive life being so contrary to Sir Walter's inclination and love for adventurc, he soon became tired, and made use of his influence to promote a second expedition to America. Under Sir Humphrey Gilbert's patent a second expe- dition was undertaken in 1583, and five vessels sailed under his command for Plymouth on the 11th of June of that year. By an accident Raleigh was not permitted to join the expedition in person, and Gilbert, with four of his vessels, reached New- foundland, of which he took possession, in accordance with the terms of his charter. The finest ship of the fleet had turned back when only two days out; another was abandoned at New- foundland; a third was lost with nearly one hundred men; and Gilbert himself went down with one of the remaining two, in a violent storm on the voyage home.

Raleigh, so far from being intimidated by the melancholy fate of his relative, or disheartened by the unprofitable and disastrous termination of most of the voyages. to America, undertook during the very next year an expedition to the coast of North America. Obtaining from Elizabeth an ample patent, and the title of lord proprietor over an extensive region, he fitted out two vessels under the command of experienced navi- gators, and abandoning the idea of further efforts at the cold north, with its barren snows, its storms, and certain evils, he directed that his sails should be set for the sunny south, where he was sure to find a fertile soil and a delightful climate. This expedition reached Ocracoke inlet, on the shore of the present state of North Carolina, on the 13th of July, 1584, and after

being hospitably entertained by the savages on Roanoke island, and exploring Pamlico and Albemarle sounds, returned to Eng- land in September. The glowing description given by the adventurers, on their return, of the beauty of the country, the fertility of the soil, and mildness of the climate, so delighted the queen, that she named the country Virginia as a memorial of her unmarried state of life. She also conferred upon Ral- eigh the honor of knighthood.

Now being a member of parliament for Devonshire, Raleigh obtained a bill confirming his patent, raised a company of eolo- nists, and in 1585 sent out under command of Sir Richard Grenville a fleet of seven vessels with one hundred and eight emigrants. The colony landed at Roanoke island about the first of July, and Ralph Lane was appointed by Raleigh its governor. Grenville soon afterward returned to England with the fleet, capturing a Spanish prize on his way. During this time Raleigh had been appointed Seneschal of the duchies of Devon and Cornwall and lord warden of the stannaries, con- tinued to grow in Elizabeth's favor at her court, but his haughty carriage and peculiar characteristics, made him exceedingly unpopular among the multitude. In 1586 two parties were sent out by Raleigh with reinforcements and sup- plies for the colonists in Virginia, but they found the settle- ments abandoned. Sir Francis Drake had stopped on his return from his expedition against the Spaniards in South America, and the desponding colonists, becoming disheartened, had begged to be taken back to England. This little colony, during its sojourn, had mingled freely with the Indians, and had acquired the native fondness for tobacco, and learned to believe that it possessed powerful medicinal virtues. Upon their return to England, they introduced the use of the weed with such success that it gradually became a favorite luxury, and was eventually adopted as such throughout the world.

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History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 4

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 728

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728