VII. CHAP. history to record the deeds of the past-the evil and the good; let the one be condemned and avoided, the other 1564. commended and imitated. May we not hope that the day of fanatic zeal and religious persecution has passed away forever? The French government was indifferent, and did not avenge the wrongs of her loyal and good subjects; but the Huguenots, and the generous portion of the nation, were roused to a high state of indignation at such wanton, such unheard-of cruelty. This feeling found a representative in Dominic de Gourges, a native of Gascony. He fitted out, at his own expense, three ships, and with one hundred and fifty men sailed for Florida. He suddenly came upon the Spaniards and completely overpowered them. 1568. Near the scene of their former cruelty he hanged about two hundred on the trees; placing over them the inscription, "I do not this as unto Spaniards and mariners, but as unto traitors, robbers, and murderers !" Gourges immediately returned to France, when the "Most Christian" king set a price upon his head; and he who had exposed his life, and sacrificed his fortune to avenge the insult offered to his country, was obliged to conceal himself to escape the gallows. Thus perished the attempt of the noble Coligny and the Huguenots to found a French Protestant State in the New World. 1567. After the unsuccessful expeditions of Cartier and Roberval, French fishermen, in great numbers, continued to visit the waters around Newfoundland. As the government had relinquished its claim to Florida, the idea was once more revived of colonizing on the shores of the St. Lawrence. The Marquis de la Roche obtained a commission for this purpose. His colonists, like those of Roberval, were criminals taken from the prisons of France: like his, this enterprise proved an utter failure. The efforts of some mer PORT ROYAL SETTLEMENT. 35 chants, who obtained by patent a monopoly of the fur- CHAP. trade, also failed. VII. At length, a company of merchants of Rouen engaged 1603. in the enterprise with more success. That success may be safely attributed to Samuel Champlain, a man of comprehensive mind, of great energy of character, cautious in all his plans; a keen observer of the habits of the Indians, and an unwearied explorer of the country. In the latter part of this same year, a patent, exclusive in its character, was given to a Protestant, the excellent and patriotic Sieur De Monts. The patent conferred on him the sovereignty of the country called Acadie—a territory extending from Philadelphia on the south, to beyond Montreal on the north, and to the west indefinitely. It granted him a monopoly of the fur-trade and other branches of commerce; and freedom in religion to the Huguenots who should become colonists. It was enjoined upon all idlers, and men of no profession, and banished persons to aid in founding the colony. The expedition was soon under way in two ships. In due time they entered a spacious harbor on the western part of Nova Scotia, which they named Port Royal, since Annapolis. The waters abounded in fish, and the country was fertile and level-advantages that induced some of the emigrants to form a settlement. Others went to an island at the mouth of the St. Croix, but the next spring 1607. they removed to Port Royal. This was the first permanent French settlement in the New World; and these were the ancestors of those unfortunate Acadiens whose fate, nearly a century and a half later, forms a melancholy episode in American history. Among the influences exerted upon the Indians was that of the Jesuits, who, a few years afterward, were sent as missionaries to the tribes between the Penobscot and the Kennebec in Maine. These tribes became the allies of the French, and remained so during all their contests VII. CHAP. with the English. De Monts explored the coast and rivers of New England as far south as Cape Cod, intending 1608. somewhere in that region to make a settlement; but disaster followed disaster, till the project was finally abandoned. Meantime, Champlain, whose ambition was to establish a State, had founded Quebec, that is, it was the centre of a few cultivated fields and gardens. Huguenots were among the settlers; they had taken an active part in the enterprise; but there were also others who were of the Catholic faith. Soon religious disputes as well as commercial jealousies arose, which retarded the progress of the colony. Champlain, the soul of the enterprise, was not idle; he made many exploring expeditions, and discovered the beautiful lake which bears his name. In spite of the quarrels between the Jesuits and the Huguenots, and the restlessness of the Indians and disappointments of various kinds, the persevering Champlain succeeded in establish1634. ing a French colony on the banks of the St. Lawrence. For one hundred and twenty years it remained under the dominion of his native France, and then passed into the hands of her great rival. 1609. CHAPTER VIII. ENGLISH ENTERPRISE. Si: Humphrey Gilbert.-The Fisheries.-St. Johns, Newfoundland.-Sir Walter Raleigh.-Exploring Expedition.-Virginia; failures to colonize.-Contest with Spain.-Death of Sir Walter. CHAP. ENGLAND never relinquished her claims to North America; they were based upon the discovery and explorations 1569. of Sebastian Cabot. According to the received rules of the times, she was right, as he was undoubtedly the 1497. first discoverer. For many reasons, she was not prepared to avail herself of these claims, till nearly ninety years after that discovery. This time was not passed by the English sailors in maritime idleness. During the reign of Henry VIII., intercourse was kept up with the fisheries of Newfoundland, that school of English seamen, in which were trained the men who gave to that nation the supremacy of the ocean,-the element upon which the military glory of England was to be achieved. The king cherished his navy, and took commerce under his special protection. The reign of Mary, of bloody memory, saw the struggle commence between England and Spain for the supremacy on the ocean. She married Philip II., the most powerful monarch of the age: he designed to subject the English nation to himself, and its religion to the church of Rome. When this became known, the Protestant spirit rose in opposition. This spirit pervaded the entire people; VIII. CHAP. they exerted their energies to the utmost. Instead of submitting to the dictation of Spain, England boldly assumed There was a marked conThe navy of the one was small, but brave and effi 1570. the position of an antagonist. trast between the two nations. immense, that of the other was cient: the one drew her wealth from mines of gold and silver in the New World-the other obtained hers by the slow process of industry and economy. The one became proud and indolent, luxurious and imbecile-the other may have become proud, but certainly not indolent; luxurious, but certainly not imbecile. From merce. On her accession, Queen Elizabeth pursued the policy of her father Henry VIII., towards her navy and comWhile some of her subjects were trading by land 1549 with the east, others were on the ocean cruising against the Spaniards: some were prosecuting the fisheries around Newfoundland and in the seas northwest of Europe; some were exploring the western coast of America, and the eastern coast of Asia: others were groping their way among the islands of the extreme north, in a vain search for the north-west passage. Explorers were still haunted with the idea that mines of exhaustless wealth were yet to be found in the New World. Great was the exultation when a "mineral-man" of London declared that a stone brought by an English sailor from the Polar regions, contained gold. England was to find in the region of eternal snow mines of the precious metal, more prolific than Spain had found in Mexico. Soon fifteen vessels set sail for this northern island, where there was "ore enough to suffice all the gold-gluttons of the world." They returned laden, not with golden ore, but 1578. with worthless yellow stones. to Meanwhile, the fisheries around Newfoundland had become a certain, though a slow source of wealth. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a gentleman of distinction and of upright principles, obtained a commission from the Queen to |