for a long time concentrated upon northern shores and in northern valleys. In these lands, adventure was not to be pursued, nor was sustenance to be obtained, without energy and hardihood.

Extent of

French claims.

In following the French into Acadie and Canada, we have gone far beyond the limits of the United States. But their Acadie embraced our Maine, or

a large portion of it; their Canada comprehended our Vermont and our New York, or large portions of them; not to speak of the western regions afterwards included in the same province. We shall return to the French at the epoch of their later acquisitions. For the present, we leave the name of New France, bestowed by Verrazzani and Cartier in their voyages, and confirmed by Poutrincourt, Champlain, and De Saussaye, in their settlements, extending in immense proportions along the seaboard and in the interior. It was a title to be set against the Florida and the New Mexico of Spain.

CHAPTER V.

ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.

SECTION I. Early Movements.

1492 to 1606.

England

lumbus.

THE English were first connected with America and Co- through Columbus. When his plans of discovery were declined by the Portuguese court, he sent his brother Bartholomew to make the same offers to Henry VII. of England, (1484.) Bartholomew, long upon his way and upon his return, was bringing back some favorable proposals from the English king just as Christopher was returning from his first voyage, (1493.) It was too late for England to obtain the services of Columbus.

Voyages

But it was just in time for England to profit by of the his discoveries. Both the king and his subjects, at Cabots. least those of his subjects who were interested in navigation, seem to have caught the impulse naturally springing from such an enterprise as had been achieved. Within three years from the first return of Columbus, Henry authorized a Venetian then belonging to Bristol, John Cabot, with his three sons, to start an expedition at their own expense, in order to do whatever they could for themselves, and at the same time to set up the banners of the English monarch, as his vassals and deputies, upon the lands supposed to exist northward of those discovered by Columbus, (1496.) The Cabots, setting sail in the following year, (1497,) reached a shore called by them Prima

Vista, the First View, since known by the name of Labrador. It was more than a year before the continent was gained by Columbus. Another voyage, made a year later (1498) by Sebastian Cabot, the second son of John, and a native of England, was directed along the coast of the new continent from the latitude of Labrador to that of the Chesapeake.

Interval. Gilbert and

Drake.

So successful a beginning augured great ends. But there ensued a long interval, in which none but isolated and remote adventures towards the west were undertaken in England. The fisheries of the north were for many years the only objects of attraction in the direction of America. Then the opening of hostilities, at first rather of a private or piratical than of a national character, against Spain,* drew the English towards the southern regions. But the central territories, those of the present United States, were long unvisited except for some passing purpose. More than three quarters of a century had elapsed since the coasting voyage of Sebastian Cabot, and both the Spaniards and the French had several times seized upon the shores discovered by the English navigators, when a new permission to possess and settle the western lands was given by Queen Elizabeth to one of her noblest subjects, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, (1578.) At the same period, while Sir Francis Drake, the half hero, half freebooter of the English navy, was on his voyage of adventure and plunder round the world, he gave the name of New Albion to the coasts of California and Oregon. Thus gaining a foothold on the western as well as on the eastern side of the continent, England was recalled, at a moment of general activity throughout the nation, to her interests in America.

* Beginning about 1570, though there was no formal war until 1585.

Raleigh.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert perished in the course of a second attempt to reach his American possessions, (1583.) But his claims were immediately transferred to his half brother, Walter Raleigh, the courtier and the cavalier of the age in England, (1584.) A voyage of exploration was immediately made under his directions to the coast of our North Carolina, of which so flattering an account was returned to him and to his sovereign, that the name of Virginia, from the virgin Queen Elizabeth, was not thought too great for the new land.

Failures of his

In the following year, (1585,) Sir Richard Gren

ville, one of the chief commanders of the time, left colonies. a colony of one hundred and eighty persons at Roanoke Island; but such were the hardships which they encountered, that they were only too well satisfied to be taken home by Sir Francis Drake a year afterwards. They had scarcely gone when Grenville returned with supplies for them, and he, unwilling to have the colony abandoned, left fifteen of his mariners to keep possession until they could be reënforced, (1586.) The little band was gone, murdered, it was believed, by the natives, when, in the next year, (1587,) a fresh party of one hundred and seventeen arrived. Soon after they came, the first English child to see the light in America was born. She was the daughter of Ananias Dare, and the granddaughter of John White, the leader of the expedition, who gave her the name of Virginia. But the presence of the infant brought no better fate to the colony than had befallen its predecessors. The one hundred and eighteen disappeared, and though sought for at various times, were never heard of more. Raleigh lost heart as well as means. He made over his patent to a number of persons, (1589,) who, with less enterprise than he, met with still less success. North

Carolina was but a waste as far as English settlements were concerned, and Virginia but a name.

Gosnold

others.

*

Many years passed before any further attempts and were made to occupy the American coast. The cessation of hostilities with Spain at length reopened the way to commercial and colonial enterprise. Bartholomew Gosnold, after landing on Cape Cod, sailed thence to Buzzard's Bay, where, on Elizabeth's Island, named after his queen, he commenced, but soon abandoned, a settlement, (1602.) The adjoining coasts were revisited the next year (1603) by Martin Pring, and again, the next year but one, (1605,) by George Weymouth, both, like Gosnold, commanders of distinction. The preparation for settlements was decidedly resumed.

Ill success of

lish.

It was high time. The Spaniards had their St. Augustine and their Santa Fe, the French their the Eng- Port Royal, though this was beyond the limits of our United States. But the English, the first to discover the coast, were still without a single foothold upon it. Wherever they had gained one, it had slipped from beneath them.

Organized

efforts.

Hitherto the efforts of the English in exploring and in settling the American shore had been those of individuals. No one, indeed, unless it were those who went on voyages for fishery or for trade, attempted his enterprise without the formal countenance of the sovereign. But there had been no organized efforts such as were now prepared.

*1604. But it was some time since the war had been generally carried on.