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1603.

CHAP. I. bus had led the way, more than a century before. South of the Saint Lawrence, not a foot of American territory had yet been permanently occupied by England or France. But the time was now near at hand when these rival nations were to commence a long-enduring struggle for ultimate dominion over vast regions far across the sea. Raleigh's enterprises, and Gosnold's successful voyage, had given a strong impulse to the national spirit of Great Britain; for the development of which the anticipated termination of hostilities with Spain, in consequence of James's accession to the throne, was soon to offer the most favorable opportunities. The south of England already felt the pressure of a redundant population; and English adventurers foresaw that they would no longer be allowed to despoil, at pleasure, their enemies' rich West India possessions. Enterprise must soon pursue more honest. paths, and commerce and colonization must supplant piracy and rapine. The thoughts of the intelligent were naturally turned toward the North American Continent, where, between Mexico and Florida and the mouth of the Saint Lawrence, not a solitary European family was yet established. Among the foremost of these intelligent men, and the one to whom "England is more indebted for its American possessions than to any man of that age," was the distinguished historian of maritime enterprise, Richard historian. Hakluyt, a prebendary of Saint Augustine's at Bristol, and afterward of Saint Peter's at Westminster. Influenced by his enlightened zeal, some Bristol merchants fitted out two small vessels, manned with experienced crews, several of whom had accompanied Gosnold the year before; and, a few days after the death of the queen, dispatched them from Milford Haven, under the command of Martin Pring, to explore the northern coasts of Virginia. Falling in with the land near Penobscot Bay, Pring coasted southerly along the mouths of the Kennebeck, Saco, and Piscataqua, until he reached the waters of Massachusetts Bay. After 2 October. an absence of six months, he returned to England, with

Richard
Hakluyt the

10 April. Pring's voyage.

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* Robertson, ix.

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

1603.

Spain.

18 August.

mouth's

Pring's voyage stimulated afresh the awakened enterprise of England. James had, meanwhile, signalized his accession to the British throne by declaring himself at Peace with peace "with all the princes of Christendom," and by re- 23 June. calling all letters of marque and reprisal against the Spaniards. This step was followed the next year by a formal treaty with Spain, which by degrees repressed the preda- 1604. tory expeditions that English mariners had so long carried on against the American possessions of their recent foes. The northern voyage across the Atlantic was now divested of its terrors, and experience had abundantly demonstrated its advantages over the more circuitous route by the West Indies. The liberal Earl of Southampton, "concurrent the second time in a new survey and dispatch," in concert Weywith his brother-in-law, Lord Arundel, of Wardour, fitted voyage. out a ship, in which Captain George Weymouth was dispatched from the Downs to visit the coast of Maine. In 1605. six weeks Weymouth found himself near the shoals of Nan- 31 March, tucket; whence, running northward about fifty leagues, 18 May. he landed upon an island between the Penobscot and the Kennebeck, which he named Saint George. Pursuing "his search sixty miles up the most excellent and beneficial river of Sacadehoc," which he found "capable of shipping for traffic of the greatest burden," Weymouth set up a cross, and took possession in the name of the king. After four months absence, Weymouth returned to En- 18 July gland, bringing with him five native savages, whom he had decoyed on board his ship. Three of these were immediately "seized upon" by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the governor of Plymouth, who afterward declared that "this accident must be acknowledged the means, under God, of putting on foot and giving life to all our plantations."‡

* Purchas, iv., 1654.

+ Rymer, Federa, xvi., 516.

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

CHAP. I.

1605.

A new Vir

ginia char

ed.

Upon Weymouth's return to England, "his goodly report joining with Captain Gosnold's," and being confirmed by the accounts given by the native Indians he had ter project brought over, kindled the ambition of "many firm and hearty" British adventurers to colonize domains in the New World. Next to Richard Hakluyt, the most prominent among these master spirits of an enterprising age were Sir John Popham, the chief justice of England, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the governor of Plymouth. Raleigh was now lying attainted in the Tower, and his Virginia patent had been forfeited. But since the grant of Raleigh's patent, extensive discoveries had been made far to the northward; and within the limits of these new discoveries it was proposed that English emigrants should now be settled, simultaneously with a renewed attempt to colonize Virginia. To accomplish these purposes, a royal charter was thought necessary; and all questions of rivalry, it was supposed, could best be avoided by combining both objects. in the same instrument. The moment seemed favorable, and was improved. The world was aroused. A mighty intellectual revolution was just beginning; the era of successful American colonization had come. About the very

time that Bacon was putting forth his noble treatise on the "Advancement of Learning," some of the most influential men of England, including Hakluyt the historian, Popham, the chief justice, Gorges, Somers, Gates, and Smith, went to the king, and besought him to encourage an undertaking whereby "God might be abundantly made known, his name enlarged and honored, a notable nation made fortunate," and themselves famous.*

Obeying England's sublime destiny, to "make new nations".

"Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine—”† 1606. James I. readily granted a new and ample charter for the 10 April. colonization of "that part of America commonly called granted by Virginia, and other parts and territories in America either appertaining unto us, or which are not now actually pos

Charter

James.

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

1606.

Company.

Company.

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

don Com

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

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

+ De Bry; Hakluyt, iii., 255; Smith, i., 151; C. Robinson's "Voyages to America," 483, 484, Cabot's and Verazzano's discoveries have already been considered.

colonists to

CHAP. I. Late in the winter, a little squadron of three ships sailed from England, under the command of Christopher New1606. port; and, following the old roundabout route by the Can1607. aries and West Indies, it arrived safely, the next spring 26 April. within the Chesapeake Bay. The headlands at the mouth

19 Dec.

founded.

13 May.

of this bay were immediately named Cape Henry and Cape Charles, in honor of the two sons of King James. A few days afterward, the colony of Virginia-the "Old DominJamestown ion" of the United States-was founded at Jamestown; and, during the two following years, Captain John Smith, "the adventurer of rare genius and undying fame," unremittingly exerted the most strenuous efforts to sustain, amid constant discouragements, an enterprise which, but for his sagacity and devotion, must soon have utterly and disgracefully failed.*

The Plymouth

at the Kennebeck.

The simultaneous attempt of Chief-justice Popham, Sir Company Ferdinando Gorges, and other members of the Plymouth or Northern Company, to establish a colony upon the Sagadahoc or Kennebeck, which Weymouth had visited in 1605, was unsuccessful. Soon after the charter was sealed, Gorges and some others of the Plymouth Company 1606. sent out a ship under the command of Captain Henry 12 August. Challons, to make further discoveries on the coast of Maine. But instead of taking the northern course, accordChallons, ing to his orders, Challons sailed by way of the West Inand Pring. dies, where he was captured by a Spanish fleet and carried

Hanham,

into Spain. Meanwhile, Chief-justice Popham had, dispatched another ship, under the command of Captains Thomas Hanham and Martin Pring, to join Challons on the coast of Maine. Failing to meet him there, Hanham and Pring carefully explored the shores and harbors, and brought home with them the most accurate descriptions of the country. "Upon whose relations," says the manifesto of the Plymouth Company, "afterward the lord chief justice and we all waxed so confident of the business, that the year following, every man of any worth, formerly interested in it, was willing to join in the charge for the

* Smith, i., 114, 151; Bancroft, i., 118-129.

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