«История Соединенных Штатов, Том 1»

everywhere met his view, but no gold was to be found. Discouraged, he

and his followers returned to the coast, where almost superhuman toil

and skill enabled them to build five boats, in which they hoped to work

westward to the Spanish settlements. Embarking, they stole cautiously

along the coast for some distance, but were at last driven by a storm

upon an island, perhaps Galveston, perhaps Santa Rosa, where Narvaez and

most of his men perished. Four of his followers survived to cross Texas

to the Gulf of California and reach the town of San Miguel on the west

coast of Mexico. Here they found their countrymen, searching as usual

for pearls, gold, and slaves, and by their help they made a speedy

return to Spain, heroes of as remarkable an adventure as history

records. These unfortunates were the first Europeans to visit New

Mexico. Their narrative led to the exploration of that country by

Coronado and others, and to the discoveries of Cortez in Lower

California.

Death of Magellan.

Ferdinand de Soto.

Ferdinand de Soto, eager to rival the exploits of Cortez in Mexico, and

of his former commander, Pizarro, in Peru, offered to conquer Florida at

his own expense. Appointed governor-general of Florida and of Cuba, he

sailed with seven large and three small vessels. From Espiritu Santo Bay

he, in 1539, marched with six hundred men into the country of the

Appalachians and discovered the harbor of Pensacola. After wintering at

Appalachee he set out into the interior, said to abound in gold and

silver. Penetrating northeasterly as far as the Savannah, he found only

copper and mica. From here he marched first northwest into northern

central Georgia, then southwest into Alabama. A battle was fought with

the natives at Mavila, or Mobile, in which the Spaniards suffered

serious loss. Ships that he had ordered arrived at Pensacola, but de

Soto determined not to embark until success should have crowned his

efforts. He turned back into the interior, into the country of the

Chickasaws, marched diagonally over the present State of Mississippi to

its northwest corner, and crossed the Mississippi River near the lowest

Chickasaw Bluff. From this point the general direction of the Spanish

progress was southwest, through what is now Arkansas, past the site of

Little Rock, till at last a river which seems to have been the Washita

was reached. Down this stream de Soto and his decimated force

floated--two hundred and fifty of his men had succumbed to the hardships

and perils of his march--arriving at the junction of the Red with the

Mississippi River on Sunday, April 17, 1542. At this point de Soto

sickened and died, turning over the command to Luis de Moscoso. Burying

their late leader's corpse at night deep in the bosom of the great

river, and constructing themselves boats, the survivors of this

ill-fated expedition, now reduced to three hundred and seventy-two

persons, made the best of their way down the Mississippi to the Gulf,

and along its coast, finally reaching the Spanish town near the mouth of

the Panuco in Mexico.

A Palisaded Indian Town in Alabama.

Burial of de Soto in the Mississippi at night.

[1562]

Thus no settlement had as yet been made in Florida by the Spanish. The

first occupation destined to be permanent was brought about through

religious jealousy inspired by the establishment of a French Protestant

(Huguenot) colony in the territory. Ribault, a French captain

commissioned by Charles IX., was put in command of an expedition by that

famous Huguenot, Admiral Coligny, and landed on the coast of Florida, at

the mouth of the St. John's, which he called the River of May. This was

in 1562. The name Carolina, which that section still bears, was given to

a fort at Port Royal, or St. Helena. Ribault returned to France, where

civil war was then raging between the Catholics and the Protestants or

Huguenots. His colony, waiting for promised aid and foolishly making no

attempt to cultivate the soil, soon languished. Dissensions arose, and

an effort was made to return home. Famine having carried off the greater

number, the colony came to an end. In 1564 Coligny sent out Laudonniere,

who built another fort, also named Carolina, on the River of May. Again

misfortunes gathered thickly about the settlers, when Ribault arrived

bringing supplies.

Fort Carolina on the River of May.

[1565]

Pedro Melendez.

But Spain claimed this territory, and Pedro Melendez a Spanish soldier,

was in 1565 sent by Philip II. to conquer it from the French, doubly

detested as Protestants. He landed in the harbor and at the mouth of the

river, to both of which he gave the name St. Augustine. Melendez lost no

time in attacking Fort Carolina, which he surprised, putting the

garrison mercilessly to the sword. The destruction of the French colony

was soon after avenged by Dominic de Gourgues, who sailed from France to

punish the enemies of his country. Having accomplished his purpose by

the slaughter of the Spanish garrison he returned home, but the French

Protestants made no further effort to colonize Florida.

Spain claimed the land by right of discovery, but, although maintaining

the feeble settlement at St. Augustine, did next to nothing after this

to explore or civilize this portion of America. The nation that had sent

out Columbus was not destined to be permanently the great power of the

New World. The hap of first landing upon the Antilles, and also the warm

climate and the peaceable nature of the aborigines, led Spain to fix her

settlements in latitudes that were too low for the best health and the

greatest energy. Most of the settlers were of a wretched class,

criminals and adventurers, and they soon mixed largely with the natives.

Spain herself greatly lacked in vigor, partly from national causes,

partly from those obscure general causes which even to this day keep

Latin Europe, in military power and political accomplishments, inferior

to Teutonic or Germanic Europe.

Indians devoured by dogs. From an old print.

[1570]

Moreover, the Spaniards found their first American conquests too easy,

and the rewards of these too great. This prevented all thought of

developing the country through industry, concentrating expectation

solely upon waiting fortunes, to be had from the natives by the sword or

through forced labor in mines, Their treatment of the aborigines was

nothing short of diabolical. Well has it been said: "The Spaniards had

sown desolation, havoc, and misery in and around their track. They had

depopulated some of the best peopled of the islands and renewed them

with victims deported from others. They had inflicted upon hundreds of

thousands of the natives all the forms and agonies of fiendish cruelty,

driving them to self-starvation and suicide, as a way of mercy and

release from an utterly wretched existence. They had come to be viewed

by their victims as fiends of hate, malignity, and all dark and cruel

desperation and mercilessness in passion. The hell which they denounced

upon their victims was shorn of its worst terror by the assurance that

these tormentors were not to be there. Las Casas, the noble missionary,

the true soldier of the cross, and the few priests and monks who

sympathized with him, in vain protested against these cruelties."

To all these causes we must add the narrow colonial policy of Spain.

Imitating Venice and ancient Carthage instead of Greece, she held her

dependencies under the straitest servitude to herself as conquered

provinces, repressing all political or commercial independence. A

similar restrictive policy, indeed, hampered the colonies of other

nations, but it was nowhere else so irrational or blighting as in

Spanish America.

CHAPTER III.

EXPLORATION AND COLONIZATION BY THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH

[1534]

How the French fought for foothold in Florida and were routed by the

Spaniards has just been related. So early as 1504, and possibly much

earlier, before Cabot or Columbus, French sailors were familiar with the

fisheries of Newfoundland. To the Isle of Cape Breton they gave its name

in remembrance of their own Brittany. The attention of the French

Government was thus early directed toward America, and it at length

determined to share in the new discoveries along with the Spanish and

the English.

In 1524 Verrazano, a Florentine navigator, was sent by Francis I. on a

voyage of discovery to the New World. Sighting the shores of America

near the present Wilmington, North Carolina, he explored the coast of

New Jersey, touched land near New York Bay, and anchored a few days in

the harbor of Newport. In this vicinity he came upon an island, which

was probably Block Island. Sailing from here along the coast as far

north as Newfoundland, he named this vast territory New France.

Verrazano, the Florentine Navigator.

Jacques Cartier. From an old print.

[1540]

In 1534 Cartier, a noted voyager of St. Malo, coasted along the north of

Newfoundland, passed through the Straits of Belle Isle into the water

now known as St. Lawrence Gulf, and into the mouth of the St. Lawrence

River. Erecting a cross, he took possession of the shores in the name of

the king of France.

In the following year he made a second voyage, going up as far as the

mouth of a small river which the year before he had named St. John's. He

called the waters the Bay of St. Lawrence. Ascending this, he came to a

settlement of the natives near a certain hill, which he called Mont

Royal, now modified into "Montreal." Cartier returned to France in 1536,

only a few of his men having survived the winter.

In 1540 Lord Roberval fitted out a fleet, with Cartier as subordinate.

Cartier sailed at once--his third voyage--Roberval following the next

year. A fort was built near the present site of Quebec. Roberval and

Cartier disagreed and returned to France, leaving the real foundation of

Quebec to be laid by Champlain, much later.

In 1604 De Monts arrived on the coast of Nova Scotia and erected a fort

at the mouth of the St. Croix, New Brunswick. He also made a settlement

on the shore of the present harbor of Annapolis, naming it Port Royal,

and the country around it Acadia. De Monts is famous largely because

under him the Sieur de Champlain, the real father of French colonization

in America, began his illustrious career. He had entered the St.

Lawrence in 1603. In 1608 he founded Quebec, the first permanent colony

of New France. The next year he explored the lake which perpetuates his

name. In 1615 he saw Lake Huron, Le Caron, the Franciscan, preceding him

in this only by a few days. Fired with ardor for discovery, Champlain

joined the Hurons in an attack upon the Iroquois. This led him into what

is now New York State, but whether the Indian camp first attacked by him

was on Onondaga or on Canandaigua Lake is still in debate. These were

but the beginning of Champlain's travels, by which many other Frenchmen,

some as missionaries, some as traders, were inspired to press far out

into the then unknown West. We shall resume the narrative in Chapter VII

of the next period. Champlain died at Quebec in 1635.

Turn back now to Columbus's time. England, destined to dominate the

continent of North America, was also practically the discoverer of the

same. On St. John's day, June 24, 1497, thirteen months and a week

before Columbus saw South America, John Cabot, a Venetian in the service

of King Henry VII., from the deck of the good ship Matthew, of Bristol,

descried land somewhere on the coast either of Labrador or of Nova

Scotia. Cabot, of course, supposed this prima vista of his to belong to

Asia, and expected to reach Cipango next voyage. So late as 1543 Jean

Allefonsce, on reaching New England, took it for the border of Tartary.

Andre Thevet, in 1515, in a pretended voyage to Maine, places Cape

Breton on the west coast of Asia. This confusion probably explains the

tradition of Norumbega as a great city, and of other populous and

wealthy cities in the newly found land. Men transferred ideas of Eastern

Asia to this American shore.

[1516]

The subsequent year Cabot made a second voyage, inspecting the American

coast northward till icebergs were met, southward to the vicinity of

Albemarle Sound. Possibly in his first expedition, probably in the

second, John Cabot was accompanied by his more famous son, Sebastian.

For many years after the Cabots, England made little effort to explore

the New World. Henry VII. was a Catholic. He therefore submitted to the

Pope's bull which gave America to Spain. Henry VIII. had married

Catherine of Aragon. He allowed Ferdinand, her father, to employ the

skill and daring of Sebastian Cabot in behalf of Spain. It was reserved

for the splendid reign of Elizabeth to show what English courage and

endurance could accomplish in extending England's power.

Sebastian Cabot. From an old print.

[1576]

Like those before him, Martin Frobisher was in earnest to find the

northwest passage, in whose existence all navigators then fully

believed. Like Columbus, he vainly sought friends to aid him. At last,

after he had waited fifteen years in vain, Dudley, the Earl of Warwick,

helped him to an outfit. His little fleet embraced the Gabriel, of

thirty-five tons, the Michael of thirty, and a pinnace of ten. As it

swept to sea past Greenwich, the Queen waved her hand in token of

good-will. Sailing northward near the Shetland Isles, Frobisher passed

the southern shore of Greenland and came in sight of Labrador, 1576.

He effected a landing at Hall's Island, at the mouth of the bay now

called by his name, but which he thought to be a strait, his discovery

thus strengthening his belief in the possibility of reaching Asia by

this westward course. He sailed up the bay as far as Butcher's Island,

where five of his men were taken prisoners by the natives. All effort to

rescue them was made, but to no purpose. Among the curiosities which he

brought home was a piece of stone, or black ore, which gave rise to the

belief that gold was to be found in this new country.

[1577]

A second and larger expedition sailed in 1577. The Queen gave 1,000

pounds and lent the royal ship Aid, of two hundred tons. The Gabriel and

the Michael of the former year were again made ready, besides smaller

craft. This voyage was to seek gold rather than to discover the

northwest passage. The fleet set sail May 27th, and on July 18th arrived

off North Foreland, or Hall's Island, so named for the man who had

brought away the piece of black earth. Search was made for this metal,

supposed to be so valuable, and large quantities were found. The fleet

sailed back to England with a heavy cargo of it.

In 1578 a third and the last voyage was made to this region, to which

the name meta incognita was given. Two large ships were furnished by the

Queen, and these were accompanied by thirteen smaller ones.

[1578-1580]

It was now the purpose to found a colony. The expedition set sail May

31st, going through the English Channel, and reaching the coast of

Greenland June 21st. Frobisher and a few of his sailors landed where,

perhaps, white men had never trodden before. As he came near the bay he

was driven south by stormy weather, and entered, not knowing his

whereabouts, the waters of Hudson's Straits, which he traversed a

distance of sixty miles. He succeeded at length in retracing his course,

and anchored on the southern shore of Frobisher's Bay, in the Countess

of Warwick's Sound. But the desire for gold, the bleak winds, barren

shores, and drifting icebergs, all combined to dispel the hopes of

making a successful settlement, and the adventurers turned their faces

homeward, carrying once more a cargo of ore, which proved, like the

first, to be of no value whatever.

Almost three hundred years later Captain Hall, the American explorer,

visited the Countess's Island and Sound. Among the Eskimos, from 1860 to

1862, he learned the tradition of Frobisher's visits, which had been

preserved and handed down. They knew the number of ships; they spoke of

the three times that white men had come; how five of these strangers had

been taken captive, and how, after remaining through the winter, they

had been allowed to build a boat, and to launch themselves upon the icy

seas, never to be heard of more. Captain Hall was shown many relics of

Frobisher's voyages, some of which he sent to the Royal Geographical

Society of London, a part to the Smithsonian Institute at Washington.

The small English house of lime and stone on this island was still

standing in good condition, and there was also a trench where they had

built their ill-fated boat.

An Indian Village at the Roanoke Settlement.

A contemporary of Frobisher, Sir Francis Drake, also entertained the

idea of making the northwest passage. While engaged in privateering or

piratical expeditions against the Spanish, Drake landed on the Isthmus

of Panama, saw the Pacific for the first time, and determined to enter

it by the Straits of Magellan. In 1577 he made his way through the

straits, plundered the Spanish along the coast of Chili and Peru, and

sailed as far north as the 48th parallel, or Oregon, calling the country

New Albion. Steering homeward by the Cape of Good Hope, he arrived at

Plymouth, his starting-point, in 1580, having been absent about two

years and ten months.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert.

Thomas Cavendish had been with Grenville in the voyage of 1585 to

Virginia. Frobisher's attempts inspired him with the ambition of the

age. In 1586 he, too, sailed through the Straits of Magellan, burning

and plundering Spanish ships, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and reached

Plymouth in 1588, having been gone about two years and fifty days.

Sir Walter Raleigh.

From a portrait attributed to Zuccaro

in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

[1584]

These half-piratical attempts against Spain led continually into

American waters, till the notion of forming a permanent outpost here as

base for such adventures suggested to Sir Humphrey Gilbert the plan,

which he failed to realize, of founding an American settlement. Gilbert

visited our shores in 1579, and again in 1583, but was lost on his

return from the latter voyage.

In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh sent two captains, Amidas and Barlow, to

inspect the coast off what is now North Carolina. They reported so

favorably that he began, next year, a colony on Roanoke Island. England

was now a Protestant land, and no longer heeded Spanish claims to the

transatlantic continent, save so far as actual settlements had been

made.

[1586]

Sir Richard Grenville commanded this expedition, but was to return on

seeing the one hundred and eight colonists who accompanied him well

established. Queen Elizabeth gave the name VIRGINIA to the new country.

Drake, tending homeward from one of his raids on the Spanish coast, in

1586, offered the settlers supplies, but finding them wholly

discouraged, he carried them back to England.

Queen Elizabeth.

[1587]

Determined to plant an agricultural community, Raleigh next time, l587,

sent men with their families. A daughter to one of these, named Dare,

was the first child of English parents born in America. Becoming

destitute, the colony despatched its governor home for supplies. He

returned to find the settlement deserted, and no tidings as to the fate

of the poor colonists have ever been heard from that day to our own. The

Jamestown settlers mentioned in the next chapter found among their

Indian neighbors a boy whose whitish complexion and wavy hair induced

the interesting suspicion that he was descended from some one of these

lost colonists of Roanoke.

Thus Sir Walter's enterprise had to be abandoned. In the 40,000 pounds

spent upon it his means were exhausted. Besides, England was now at war

with Spain, and the entire energies of the nation were in requisition

for the overthrow of the Spanish Armada.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PLANTING OF VIRGINIA

[1606]

We have now arrived at the seventeenth century. In 1606 King James I.

issued the first English colonial charter. It created a first and a

second Virginia Company, the one having its centre in London, and coming

to be known as the London Company; the other made up of Bristol, Exeter,

and Plymouth men, and gradually taking the title of the Plymouth

Company. This latter company, the second, or Plymouth Company,

authorized to plant between 38 degrees and 45 degrees north, effected a

settlement in 1607 at the mouth of the Kennebec River. Little came of it

but suffering, the colonists, after a severe winter, returning to

England.

King James I. Mr. Henry Irving's Collection.

[1607]

A colony of one hundred and five planters sent out by the first or

London Company, proceeded, also in 1607, to Chesapeake Bay, entering

James River, to which they indeed gave this name, and planted upon its

banks Jamestown, the first permanent English colony on the continent.

This London Company consisted of a council in England, appointed by the

king, having the power to name the members of a local council which was

to govern the colony, the colonists themselves having no voice.

It is well known that the very earliest population of the Old Dominion

was not of the highest, but predominantly idle and thriftless. Vagabonds

and homeless children picked up in the streets of London, as well as

some convicts, were sent to the colony from England to be indented as

servants, permanently, or for a term of years. Persons of the better

class, to be sure, came as well, and the quality of the population, on

the whole, improved year by year. Settlement here followed a centrifugal

tendency, except as this was repressed by fear of the Indians. In 1616

the departments of Virginia were Henrico, up the James above the

Appomattox mouth, West and Shirley Hundreds, Jamestown, Kiquoton, and

King's Gift on the coast near Cape Charles--a wide reach of territory to

be covered by a total population of only three hundred and fifty.

[1608]

A little exporting was immediately begun. So early as May 20, 1608,

Jamestown sent to England a ship laden with iron ore, sassafras, cedar

posts, and walnut boards. Another followed on June 2d, with a cargo all

of cedar wood. This year or the next, small quantities of pitch, tar,

and glass were sent. From 1619 tobacco was so common as to be the

currency. About 1650 it was largely exported, a million and a half

pounds, on the average, yearly. The figure had risen to twelve million

pounds by 1670. At the middle of the century, corn, wheat, rice, hemp,

flax, and fifteen varieties of fruit, as well as excellent wine were

produced. A wind-mill was set up about 1620, the first in America. It

stood at Falling Creek on the James River. The pioneer iron works on the

continent were in this colony, hailing from about the date last named.

Community of property prevailed at Jamestown in all the earliest years,

as it did at Plymouth. After the event noted by John Rolfe: "about the

last of August [1619] came in a Dutch man of warre that sold us twenty

Negars," slavery was a continual and increasing curse, as is attested

by the laws concerning slaves. It encouraged indolence and savagery of

habit and nature. Virginian slaves, however, were better treated than

those farther south. They were tolerably clothed, fed, and housed.

Tobacco Plant.

Captain John Smith.

There was in Virginia little of that healthful social and political

contact which did so much to develop civilization at the North. Of town

life there was practically nothing. Even so late as 1716 Jamestown had

only a sorry half-dozen structures, two of which were church and

court-house. Fifteen years later Fredericksburg had, besides the manor

house of Colonel Willis and its belongings, only a store, a tailor shop,

a blacksmith shop, a tavern or "ordinary," and a coffeehouse. Richmond

and Petersburg still existed only on paper, and if we come down to the

middle of the eighteenth century, Williamsburg, the capital of the

province, was nothing but a straggling village of two hundred houses,

without a single paved street. Only the College and the governor's

"palace" were of brick. The county-seats were mostly mere glades in the

woods, containing each its court-house, prison, whipping-post, pillory,

and ducking-stool, besides the wretched tavern where court and

attendants put up, and possibly a church. Hardships and dissensions

marked the whole early history of this infant state. At one time only

forty settlers remained alive, at another meal and water were the sole

diet. Hoping for instant riches in gold, poor gentlemen and vagabonds

had come, too much to the exclusion of mechanics and laborers. For

relief from the turbulence and external dangers of this period, the

colony owed much to Captain John Smith, who, after all allowance for his

boasting, certainly displayed great courage and energy in emergencies.

He, too, it was who did most to explore the country up the James and

upon Chesapeake Bay.

"King Powhatan commands C:Smith to be flayne his daughter

Pokahontas beggs his life his thankfullness and how he subiecled 39 of

their kings reade ye history"

Pocahontas saving Captain Smith's

Life. From Smith's "General History."

[1609-1610]

A new charter was granted in 1609, the council in England being now

appointed by the stockholders instead of the king, and the governor of

the colony being named by this council. Lord Delaware was made Governor

and Captain-General of Virginia, and many more colonists sent out. By a

wreck of two of the vessels there was delay in the arrival of the newly

chosen officers. Smith, then Percy, meantime continued to exercise

authority. This, again, was a critical period. Indians were troublesome.

Tillage having been neglected from the first, provisions became

exhausted, and a crisis long referred to as "the starving time" ensued.

The colony had actually abandoned Jamestown and shipped for England,

when met in James River by Lord Delaware, coming with relief. They at

once returned, and an era of hope dawned. This was in June, 1610. One

hundred and fifty new settlers accompanied Delaware. Planting was

vigorously prosecuted, the Indians placated, and still further

accessions of people and cattle secured from England.

[1612]

Delaware's brief, mild sway was always a benediction, in pleasing

contrast with the severities of Dale and Argall, who successively

governed after his departure. Under Dale, death was the penalty for

slaughtering cattle, even one's own, except with the Governor's leave,

also of exporting goods without permission. A baker giving short weight

was to lose his ears, and on second repetition to suffer death. A

laundress purloining linen was to be flogged. Martial law alone

prevailed; even capital punishment was ordained without jury. Such

arbitrary rule was perhaps necessary, so lawless were the mass of the

population. It at any rate had the excellent effect of rousing the

Virginians to political thought and to the assertion of their rights. In

1612 a change took place in the Company's methods of governing its

colony. The superior council was abolished, its authority transferred to

the corporation as a whole, which met as an assembly to elect officers

and enact laws for the colony. The government thus became more

democratic in form and spirit.

"POWHATAN Held this state & fashion when Capt.' Smith was

delivered to him prisoner. 1607"

The Council of Powhatan. From Smith's "General History,"

[1614-1619]

The year 1614 was distinguished by the marriage of Pocahontas, daughter

of the native chief Powhatan, to the English colonist Rolfe. With him

she visited England, dying there a few years later. The alliance secured

the valuable friendship of Powhatan and his subjects--only till

Powhatan's death, however. Thenceforth savage hostilities occurred at

frequent intervals. In 1622 they were peculiarly severe, over three

hundred settlers losing their lives through them. Another outbreak took

place about 1650, this time more quickly suppressed. We shall see in a

later chapter how Bacon's Rebellion was occasioned by Indian troubles.

As James I. broke with Parliament, a majority of the Virginia

shareholders proved Liberals, and they wrought with signal purpose and

effect to realize their ideas in their colony. To this political

complexion of the Virginia Company not only Virginia itself, but, in a

way, all America is indebted for a start toward free institutions.

During the governorship of George Yeardley, was summoned an assembly of

burgesses, consisting of two representatives, elected by the

inhabitants, from each of the eleven boroughs or districts which the

colony had by this time come to embrace. It met on June 10, 1619, the

earliest legislative body in the New World. This was the dawn of another

new era in the colony's history.

Pocahantas

[1622-1625]

In 1622 arrived Sir Thomas Wyatt, bringing a written constitution from

the Company, which confirmed to the colony representative government and

trial by jury. The assembly was given authority to make laws, subject

only to the Governor's veto. This enlargement of political rights was

due to the growth of the sentiment of popular liberty in England. In the

meetings of the London Company debates were frequent and spirited

between the court faction and the supporters of the political rights of

the colonists. James I., dissatisfied with the authority which he had

himself granted, appointed a commission to inquire into the Company's

management, and also into the circumstances of the colony. A change was

recommended, the courts decided as the king wished, and the Company was

dissolved, The colony, while still allowed to govern itself by means of

its popular assembly, was thus brought directly under the supervision of

the Crown. Charles I., coming to the throne in 1625, gave heed to the

affairs of the colony only so far as necessary to secure for himself the

profits of the tobacco trade, It was doubtless owing to his indifference

that the colony continued to enjoy civil freedom. He again appointed

Yeardley Governor, a choice agreeable to the people; and in 1628, by

asking that the assembly be called in order to vote him a monopoly of

the coveted trade, he explicitly recognized the legitimacy and authority

of that body.

[1642]

Yeardley was succeeded by Harvey, who rendered himself unpopular by

defending in all land disputes the claims arising under royal grant

against those based upon occupancy. Difficulties of this sort pervaded

all colonial history.

In 1639 Wyatt held the office, succeeded in 1642 by Berkeley, during

whose administration the colony attained its highest prosperity.

Virginians now possessed constitutional rights and privileges in even a

higher degree than Englishmen in the northern colonies. The colonists

were most loyal to the king, and were let alone. They were also attached

to the Church of England, ever manifesting toward those of a different

faith the spirit of intolerance characteristic of the age.

[1650]

During the civil war in England, Virginia, of course, sided with the

king. When Cromwell had assumed the reins of government he sent an

expedition to require the submission of the colony. An agreement was

made by which the authority of Parliament was acknowledged, while the

colony in return was left unmolested in the management of its own

affairs.

Signature of Berkeley.

CHAPTER V.

PILGRIM AND PURITAN AT THE NORTH

[1612]

The Pilgrims who settled New England were Independents, peculiar in

their ecclesiastical tenet that the single congregation of godly

persons, however few or humble, regularly organized for Christ's work,

is of right, by divine appointment, the highest ecclesiastical authority

on earth. A church of this order existed in London by 1568; another,

possibly more than one, the "Brownists," by 1580. Barrowe and Greenwood

began a third in 1588, which, its founders being executed, went exiled

to Amsterdam in 1593, subsequently uniting with the Presbyterians there.

These churches, though independent, were not strictly democratic, like

those next to be named.

Soon after 1600 John Smyth gathered a church at Gainsborough in

Lincolnshire, England, which persecution likewise drove to Amsterdam.

Here Smyth seceded and founded a Baptist church, which, returning to

London in 1611 or 1612, became the first church of its kind known to

have existed in England. From Smyth's church at Gainsborough sprang one

at Scrooby, in Nottinghamshire, and this, too, exiled like its parent,

crossed to Holland, finding home in Leyden in 1607 and 1608. Of this

church John Robinson was pastor, and from its bosom came the Plymouth

Colony to New England.

Plymouth Harbor, England.

Harbor of Provincetown, Cape Cod, where the Pilgrims landed.

[1620]

This little band set out for America with a patent from the Virginia

Company, according to James I.'s charter of 1606, but actually began

here as labor-share holders in a sub-corporation of a new organization,

the Plymouth Company, chartered in 1620. Launching in the Mayflower from

Plymouth, where they had paused in their way hither from Holland, they

arrived off the coast of Cape Cod in 1620, December 11th Old Style,

December 21st New Style, and began a settlement, to which they gave the

name Plymouth. Before landing they had formed themselves into a

political body, a government of the people with "just and equal laws."

The Life of the Colony at Cape Cod.

They based their civil authority upon this Mayflower compact,

practically ignoring England. Carver was the first governor, Bradford

the second. The colony was named Plymouth in memory of hospitalities

which its members had received at Plymouth, England, the name having no

connection with the "Plymouth" of the Plymouth Company. The members of

the Plymouth Company had none but a mercantile interest in the

adventure, merely fitting out the colonists and bearing the expense of

the passage for all but the first. On the other hand, the stock was not

all retained in England. Shares were allotted to the Pilgrims as well,

one to each emigrant with or without means, and one for every 10 pounds

invested.

Plymouth early made a treaty with Massasoit, the chief of the

neighboring Wampanoags, the peace lasting with benign effects to both

parties for fifty years, or till the outbreak of Philip's War, discussed

in a later chapter. The first winter in Plymouth was one of dreadful

hardships, of famine, disease and death, which spring relieved but in

part. Yet Plymouth grew, surely if slowly. It acquired rights on the

Kennebec, on the Connecticut, at Cape Ann. It was at first a pure

democracy, its laws all made in mass-meetings of the entire body of

male inhabitants; nor was it till 1639 that increase of numbers forced

resort to the principle of representation. In 1643 the population was

about three thousand.

Signatures to Plymouth Patent.

/In witnes whereof the said President & Counsell haue to the one pt of

this pute Indenture sett their seales* And to th'other pt hereof the

said John Peirce in the name of himself and his said Associate haue sett

to his seale geven the day and yeeres first aboue written/

[1626-1630]

Between 1620 and 1630 there were isolated settlers along the whole New

England coast. White, a minister from Dorchester, England, founded a

colony near Cape Ann, which removed to Salem in 1626. The Plymouth

Company granted them a patent, which Endicott, in charge of more

emigrants, brought over in 1628. It gave title to all land between the

Merrimac and Charles Rivers, also to all within three miles beyond each.

These men formed the nucleus of the colony to which in 1629 Charles I.

granted a royal charter, styling the proprietors "the Governor and

Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England." Boston was made the

capital. Soon more emigrants came, and Charlestown was settled.

Site of First Church and Governor Bradford's House at Plymouth.

It was a momentous step when the government of this colony was

transferred to New England. Winthrop was chosen Governor, others of the

Company elected to minor offices, and they, with no fewer than one

thousand new colonists, sailed for this side the Atlantic. In

Massachusetts, therefore, a trading company did not beget, as elsewhere,

but literally became a political state. Many of the Massachusetts men,

in contrast with those of Plymouth, had enjoyed high consideration at

home. Yet democracy prevailed here too. The Governor and his eighteen

assistants were chosen by the freemen, and were both legislature and

court. As population increased and scattered in towns, these chose

deputies to represent them, and a lower house element was added to the

General Court, though assistants and deputies did not sit separately

till 1644.

Governor Winthrop.

[1631]

At this time Massachusetts had a population of about 15,000. To all New

England 21,200 emigrants came between 1628 and 1643, the total white

population at the latter date being about 24,000.

First Church in Salem.

So early as 1631 this colony decreed to admit none as freemen who were

not also church members. Thus Church and State were made one, the

government a theocracy. The Massachusetts settlers, though in many

things less extreme than the Pilgrims, were decided Puritans, sincere

but formal, precise, narrow, and very superstitious. They did not,

however, on coming hither, affect or wish to separate from the Church of

England, earnestly as they deprecated retaining the sign of the cross in

baptism, the surplice, marriage with ring, and kneeling at communion.

Yet soon they in effect became Separatists as well as Puritans, building

independent churches, like those at Plymouth, and repudiating episcopacy

utterly.

Seal of Massachusetts Bay Company.

[1635]

Much as these Puritans professed and tried to exalt reason in certain

matters, in civil and religious affairs, where they took the Old

Testament as affording literal and minute directions for all sorts of

human actions for all time, they could allow little liberty of opinion.

This was apparent when into this theocratic state came Roger Williams,

afterward the founder of Rhode Island. Born in London, England, about

1607, of good family, he was placed by his patron, Coke, at the Charter

House School. From there he went to Pembroke College, Cambridge. In 1631

he arrived in Boston. Somewhat finical in his political, moral, and

religious ideas, he found it impossible, having separated from the

Church of England, in which he had been reared, to harmonize here with

those still favoring that communion. At Salem he was invited by a little

company of Separatists to become their teacher. His views soon offended

the authorities. He declared that the king's patent could confer no

title to lands possessed by Indians. He denied the right of magistrates

to punish heresy, or to enforce attendance upon religious services. "The

magistrate's power," he said, "extends only to the bodies, goods, and

outward state of men."

Alarmed at his bold utterances, the General Court of Massachusetts,

September 2, 1635, decreed his banishment for "new and dangerous

opinions, against the authority of magistrates." His fate was not,

therefore, merely because of his religious views. The exile sought

refuge at Seekonk, but this being within the Plymouth jurisdiction, he,

on Governor Winslow's admonition, moved farther into the wilderness,

settling at Providence. He purchased land of the natives, and, joined by

others, set up a pure democracy, instituting as a part thereof the

"lively experiment," for which ages had waited, of perfect liberty in

matters of religious belief. Not for the first time in history, but more

clearly, earnestly, and consistently than it had ever been done before,

he maintained for every man the right of absolute freedom in matters of

conscience, for all forms of faith equal toleration.

Roger Williams' House at Salem.

[1638]

Edward Winslow.

Some friends of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson established a colony on Aquidneck,

the Indian name for Rhode Island. Williams went to England and secured

from Parliament a patent which united that plantation with his in one

government. Charles II.'s charter of 1663 added Warwick to the first two

settlements, renewing and enlarging the patent, and giving freest scope

for government according to Williams' ideas. Mrs. Hutchinson, a woman of

rare intellect and eloquence, who maintained the right of private

judgment and pretended to an infallible inner light of revelation, was,

like Williams, a victim of Puritan intolerance. She and her followers

were banished, and some of them, returning, put to death, 1659-60. She

came to Providence, then went to Aquidneck, where her husband died in

1642. She next settled near Hurl Gate, within the Dutch limits, where

herself and almost her entire family were butchered by the Indians in

1643.

In 1633 the Dutch erected a fort where Hartford now is, but some English

emigrants from Plymouth Colony, in defiance of a threatened cannonade,

sailed past and built a trading-house at Windsor, where, joined by

colonists, from about Boston, they soon effected a settlement.

Wethersfield and Hartford were presently founded. In 1630 the Plymouth

Company had granted Connecticut to the Earl of Warwick, who turned it

over to Lord Brooke, Lord Say-and-Seal, and others. Winthrop the

Younger, son of Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, commissioned by

these last, built a fort at Saybrook. Till the expiration of his

commission the towns immediately upon the Connecticut were under the

government of Massachusetts. Their population in 1643 was three

thousand. A convention of these towns met at Hartford, January 14, 1639,

and formed a constitution, like that of Massachusetts Bay, thoroughly

republican in nature. Connecticut breathed a freer spirit than either

Massachusetts or New Haven, being in this respect the peer of Plymouth.

At Hartford Roger Williams was always welcome.

Meantime, in 1638, having touched at Boston the year before, Davenport,

Eaton, and others from London began planting at New Haven. The Bible was

adopted as their guide in both civil and religious affairs, and a

government organized in which only church members could vote or be

elected to the General Court. The colony flourished, branching out into

several towns. In 1643 it numbered twenty five hundred inhabitants.

As early as 1622, Mason and Gorges were granted land partly in what is

now Maine, partly in what is now New Hampshire; and in 1623 Dover and

Portsmouth were settled. Wheelwright, a brother-in-law of Mrs.

Hutchinson, with others, purchased of the natives the southeast part of

New Hampshire, between the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, and in 1638

Exeter was founded. In the same year with Wheelwright's purchase, Mason

obtained from the council of the Plymouth Company a patent to this same

section, and the tract was called New Hampshire. These conflicting

claims paved the way for future controversies and lawsuits. The settlers

here were not Puritans, nor were they obliged to be church members in

order to be deputies or freemen.

The settlement of Maine goes back to 1626, when the Plymouth Company

granted lands there both to Alexander and to Gorges. In 1639 Gorges

secured a royal charter to re-enforce his claim. Large freedom, civil

and religious, was allowed. For many years the Maine settlements were

small and scattered, made up mostly of such as came to hunt and fish for

a season only.

[1650]

From 1643 to 1684 Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven

formed a confederation under the style of the United Colonies of New

England. Maine, Providence, and Rhode Island sought membership, but were

refused as being civilly and religiously out of harmony with the

colonies named. Connecticut, offensive to the Dutch, and exposed to

hostilities from them, was the most earnest for the union, while at the

same time the most conservative as to its form. It was a loose league,

leaving each colony independent save as to war and peace, Indian

affairs, alliances and boundaries. Questions pertaining to these were to

be settled by a commission of two delegates from each of the four

colonies, meeting yearly, voting man by man, six out of the eight votes

being necessary to bind.

The confederacy settled a boundary dispute between New Haven and New

Netherland in 1650. It received and disbursed moneys, amounting some

years to 600 pounds, for the propagation of the gospel in New England,

sent over by the society which Parliament incorporated for that purpose

in 1649. It was also of more or less service in securing united action

against the savages in Philip's War. The union was, however, of little

immediate service, useful rather as an example for the far future. Its

failure was due partly to the distance of the colonies apart, and to the

strength of the instinct for local self-government, a distinguishing

political trait of New England till our day. Its main weakness, however,

was the overbearing power and manner of Massachusetts, especially after

her assumption of Maine in 1652. In 1653 the Plymouth, New Haven, and

Connecticut commissioners earnestly wished war with New Netherland, but

Massachusetts proudly forbade--a plain violation of the articles. After

this there was not much heart in the alliance. The last meeting of the

commissioners occurred at Hartford, September 5, 1684.

CHAPTER VI.

BALTIMORE AND HIS MARYLAND

[1630]

Maryland Shilling.

The very year that witnessed the landing of the Pilgrims records the

beginning of another attempt to colonize the New World. While Secretary

of State, having been appointed in 1619, Sir George Calvert, a member of

the Virginia Company from 1609 until its dissolution in 1624, determined

to plant a colony for himself. In the memorable year 1620 he bought of

Lord Vaughan the patent to the south-eastern peninsula of Newfoundland,

the next he sent colonists thither with a generous supply of money for

their support. In 1623 King James gave him a patent, making him

proprietary of this region. In 1625 Calvert boldly declared himself a

Catholic, and resigned his office of Secretary. Spite of this he was

soon afterwards ennobled, and his new title of Lord Baltimore is the

name by which he is best known. Visiting his little settlement in 1627

he quickly came to the conclusion that the severity of the climate would

make its failure certain. He therefore gave up this enterprise, but

determined to repeat the attempt on the more favorable soil of Virginia.

Confident of the goodwill of Charles I., to whom he had written for a

grant of land there, he did not await a reply, but sailed for Virginia,

where he arrived in 1629. In 1632 the king issued a patent granting to

Baltimore and his heirs a territory north and east of the Potomac,

comprising what we now call Maryland, all Delaware, and a part of

Pennsylvania. The name Maryland was given it by the king in, honor of

his queen, Henrietta Maria. But before this charter had received royal

signature Lord Baltimore had breathed his last, and his son Cecil

succeeded to his honors and possessions.

Henrietta Maria.

The Maryland charter made the proprietary the absolute lord of the soil.

He was merely to acknowledge fealty by the delivery of two Indian arrows

yearly to the king at Windsor. He could make laws with the consent of

the citizens, declare war or peace, appoint officers of government; in

fact, in most respects he had regal power. The colonists were, however,

to remain English subjects, with all the privileges of such. If they

were not represented in Parliament, neither were they taxed by the

Crown. If the proprietary made laws for them, these must not be contrary

to the laws of England. And they were to enjoy freedom of trade, not

only with England but with foreign countries.

[1634-1635]

This charter, as will be readily seen, could not please the Virginians,

since the entire territory conveyed by it was part of the grant of 1609

to the London Company for Virginia. But as this and subsequent charters

had been annulled in 1624, the new colony was held by the Privy Council

to have the law on its side, and Lord Baltimore was left to make his

preparations undisturbed. He fitted out two vessels, the Ark and the

Dove, and sent them on their voyage of colonization. They went by the

way of the West Indies, arriving off Point Comfort in 1634. Sailing up

the Potomac, they landed on the island of St. Clement's, and took formal

possession of their new home. Calvert explored a river, now called the

St. Mary's, a tributary of the Potomac, and being pleased with the spot

began a settlement. He gained the friendship of the natives by

purchasing the land and by treating them justly and humanely.

Supposed Portrait of William Clayborne.

Clayborne's Trading Post on Kent Island.

The proprietary was a Catholic, yet, whether or not by an agreement

between him and the king, as Gardiner supposes, did not use either his

influence or his authority to distress adherents of the Church of

England. The two creeds stood practically upon an equality. But if

religious troubles were avoided, difficulties of another sort were not

slow in arising. About the year 1631, Clayborne, who had been secretary

of the Virginia colony, had chosen Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay as a

station for trading with the Indians. This post was in the very midst of

Maryland, and Calvert notified Clayborne that he should consider it a

part of that province. Clayborne at once showed himself a bitter enemy.

The Indians became suspicious and unfriendly, Clayborne, so it was

believed, being the instigator of this temper. An armed vessel was sent

out, with orders from Clayborne to seize ships of the St. Mary's

settlement. A fight took place, Clayborne fleeing to Virginia. Calvert

demanded that he should be given up. This was refused, and in 1637 he

went to England. A committee of the Privy Council decided that Kent

Island belonged to Maryland.

[1638]

In 1635 the first Maryland assembly met, consisting of the freemen of

the colony and the governor, Leonard Calvert, the proprietary's brother,

who was presiding officer. Lord Baltimore repudiated its acts, on the

ground that they were not proposed by him, as the charter directed. The

assembly which gathered in 1638 retaliated, rejecting the laws brought

forward by the proprietary.

[1639]

For a time the colony was without laws except the common law of England.

But Baltimore was too wise and conciliatory to allow such a state of

affairs to continue. He gave authority to the governor to assent to the

acts of the assembly, which he himself might or might not confirm.

Fight between Clayborne and the St. Mary's Ship.

Accordingly in 1639 the assembly met and passed various acts, mostly

relating to civil affairs. One, however, was specially noteworthy, as

giving to the "Holy Church" "her rights and liberties," meaning by this

the Church of Rome, for, as Gardiner says, the title was never applied

to the Church of England. It was at the same time expressly enacted that

all the Christian inhabitants should be in the enjoyment of every right

and privilege as free as the natural-born subjects of England. If Roger

Williams was the first to proclaim absolute religious liberty, Lord

Baltimore was hardly behind him in putting this into practice. As has

been neatly said, "The Ark and the Dove were names of happy omen: the

one saved from the general wreck the germs of political liberty, and the

other bore the olive-branch of religious peace."

[1646]

During the civil war in England the affairs of Maryland were in a very

disturbed condition. Clayborne, Maryland's evil genius, seized the

opportunity to foment an insurrection, possessed himself once more of

Kent Island, and compelled the governor to flee to Virginia. Returning

in 1646, Calvert was fortunate enough to recover the reins of

government, but the following year witnessed the close of his

administration and his short though useful and eventful life. Few men

intrusted with almost absolute authority have exercised it with so much

firmness and at the same time with so much ability, discretion, and

uprightness.

[1650]

His successor, Greene, a Catholic, was not likely to find favor with the

Puritan Parliament of England, and Baltimore, in 1648, to conciliate the

ruling powers and to refute the charge that Maryland was only a retreat

for Romanists, removed the governor and appointed instead one who was a

Protestant and a firm supporter of Parliament. The council was also

changed so as to place the Catholics in the minority. The oath of the

new governor restrained him from molesting any person, especially if of

the Roman Catholic persuasion, on account of religious profession. The

way was thus opened for the Act of Toleration passed in 1649. This law,

after specifying certain speeches against the Trinity, the Virgin, or

the saints as punishable offences, declared that equal privileges should

be enjoyed by Christians of all creeds. Whatever the motives of

Baltimore, his policy was certainly wise and commendable.

A new and troublesome element was now introduced into the colony. Some

Puritans who had not been tolerated among the stanch Church-of-England

inhabitants of Virginia were invited by Governor Stone to Maryland.

Their home here, which they named Providence, is now known as Annapolis.

The new-comers objected to the oath of fidelity, refused to send

burgesses to the assembly, and were ready to overthrow the government

whose protection they were enjoying. Opportunity soon offered.

Parliament had already in 1652 brought Virginia to submission. Maryland

was now accused of disloyalty, and when we notice among the

commissioners appointed by the Council of State, the name of Clayborne,

it is not difficult to understand who was the author of this charge. The

governor was removed, but being popular and not averse to compromise,

was quickly restored. Then came the accession of Cromwell to power as

Protector of England. Parliament was dissolved. The authority of its

commissioners of course ceased. Baltimore seized this opportunity to

regain his position as proprietary. He bade Stone to require the oath of

fidelity to the proprietary from those who occupied lands, and to issue

all writs in his name. He maintained that the province now stood in the

same relations to the Protectorate which it had borne to the royalist

government of Charles I.

Oliver Cromwell.

So thought Cromwell, but not so Clayborne or the Maryland Puritans. They

deposed Stone, and put in power Fuller, who was in sympathy with their

designs. There resulted a reversal of the acts of former assemblies, and

legislation hostile to the Catholics. The new assembly, from which

Catholics were carefully excluded by disfranchisement, at once repealed

the Act of Toleration. Protection was withdrawn from those who professed

the popish religion, and they were forbidden the exercise of that faith

in the province. Severe penalties were threatened against "prelacy" and

"licentiousness" thus restricting the benefits of their "Act concerning

Religion" to the Puritan element now in power. The authority of the

proprietary himself was disputed, and colonists were invited to take

lands without his knowledge or consent.

[1656]

Baltimore adopted vigorous measures. By his orders Stone made a forcible