French settlement in America. The settlement was 1605. named Port Royal, and the whole country, embracing the present New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the adjacent islands, was called ACADIA. 3. 'In 1608, De Monts, although deprived of his former commission, having obtained from the king of France the grant of the monopoly of the fir trade on the river St. Lawrence, fitted out two vessels for the purpose of forming a settlement; but not finding it convenient to command in person, he placed them under Samuel Champlain, who had previously visited those regions. 1608. 1. Farther account of De Monts. the voyage of and the settlement of Quebec. a. April 13. b. June 3. 4. The expedition sailed in April, and in June arri- 2 Account of ved at Tadoussac, a barren spot at the mouth of the Sa- Champlain, guenay† river, hitherto the chief seat of the traffic in furs. Thence Champlain continued to ascend the river until he had passed the Isle of Orleans, when he selected a commodious place for a settlement, on the site of the present city of Quebec, and near the place where Cartier d. Note, p. 280, had passed the winter, and erected a fort in 1541. From this time is dated the first permanent settlement of the French in New France or Canada. XI. NORTH AND SOUTH VIRGINIA.-1. In 1606 James the 1st, of England, claiming all that portion of North America which lies between the 34th and the 45th degrees of north latitude, embracing the country from Cape Fear§ to Halifax, divided this territory into two nearly equal districts; the one, called NORTH VIRGINIA, extending from the 41st to the 45th degree; and the other, called SOUTH VIRGINIA, from the 34th to the 38th. c. July 3. 1606.. North VirSouth Vir ginia and ginia. e. April 20. 4. To what these districts 10ere granted. 2. The former he granted to a company of "Knights, gentlemen, and merchants," of the west of England, companies called the Plymouth Company; and the latter to a company of "noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants," mostly resident in London, and called the London Company. The intermediate district, from the 38th to the 41st degree, was open to both companies; but neither was to form a settlement within one hundred miles of the other. wick. It is nearly 200 miles in length from S. W. to N. E., and 75 miles across at its entrance, gradually narrowing towards the head of the bay. At the entrance the tide is of the ordinary height, about eight feet, but at the head of the bay it rises 60 feet, and is so rapid as often to overtake and sweep off animals feeding on the shore. Port Royal (now Annapolis), once the capital of French Acadia, is situated on the east bank of the river and bay of Annapolis, in the western part of Nova Scotia, a short distance from the Bay of Fundy. It has an excellent harbor, in which a thousand vessels night anchor in security. †The Saguenay river empties into the St Lawrence from the north, 130 miles N. E. from Quebec. The Isle of Orleans is a fertile island in the St. Lawrence, five miles below Quebec. It is about 25 miles long and 5 broad. (See Map, p. 280.) Cape Fear is the southern point of Smith's Island, at the mouth of Cape Fear River, on the coast of N. Carolina, 150 miles N. E. from Charleston. (See Map, p. 251.) 1 Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, is situated on the S. W. side of the Bay of Chebucto, which is on the S. E. coast of Nova Scotia. The town is 10 miles from the sea, and has an excellent harbor of 10 square miles. It is about 450 miles N. E. from Boston. ANALYSIS. 1 The gov these rese regulations. 3. The supreme government of each district was to be vested in a council residing in England, the members of ernments of which were to be appointed by the king, and to be redistricts. moved at his pleasure. The local administration of the affairs of each colony was to be committed to a council residing within its limits, likewise to be appointed by the Effects of king, and to act conformably to his instructions. The effects of these regulations were, that all executive and legislative powers were placed whoily in the hands of the king, and the colonists were deprived of the rights of selfgovernment, and the companies received nothing but a simple charter of incorporation for commercial purposes. 4. Soon after the grant, the Plymouth Company des3. Nov. 22 patched a vessel to examine the country; but before the Plymouth Voyage was completed she was captured by the SpanCompany to iards. Another vessel was soon after sent out for the same country. purpose, which returned with so favorable an account of the country, that, in the following year, the company sent out a colony of a hundred planters under the command 1607. of George Popham. 1. Aug. 22. Attempts of tamine the 3. Aug. 21. Attempted Kennebec. ettlement at d. Dec. 15. 5. Expedition sent out by Company. e. Dec 30. 5. "They landede at the mouth of the Kennebec,* where they erected a few rude cabins, a store-house, and some slight fortifications; after which, the vessels sailed for England, leaving forty-five emigrants in the plantation, which was named St. George. The winter was intensely cold, and the sufferings of the colony, from famine and hardships, were extremely severe. They lost their storehouse by fire, and their president by death; and, in the following year, abandoned the settlement and returned to England. 6. 'Under the charter of the London Company, which the London alone succeeded, three small vessels, under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, sailed for the American coast in December, 1606, designing to land and form a f. Note, p 131. settlement at Roanoke. Pursuing the old route by the g. Note, p 118. Canaries, and the West Indies, Newport did not arrive until April; when a storm fortunately carried him north of Roanoke into Chesapeake Bay.† h. Note, p 112. i. May 6. The Kennebec, a river of Maine, west of the Penobscot, falls into the ocean 120 miles N. E. from Boston. The place where the Sagadahoc colony (as it is usually called) passed the winter, is in the present town of Phippsburg, which is composed of a long narrow peninsula at the mouth of the Kennebec River, having the river on the east. Hills Point, a mile above the S. E. corner of the peninsula, was the site of the colony. The Chesapeake Bay, partly in Virginia, and partly in Maryland, is from 7 to 20 miles in width, 180 miles in length from N. to S., and 12 miles wide at its entrance, between Cape Charles on the N. and Cape Henry on the S 1606. 1. Account of of Jamestown. a May 23. 7. 'Sailing along the southern shore, he soon entered a noble river which he named James River,* and, after passing about fifty miles above the mouth of the stream, the settlement through a delightful country, selected a place for a settlement, which was named Jamestown.† Here was formed the first permanent settlement of the English in the New World, one hundred and ten years after the discovery of the continent by Cabot, and forty one years from the settlement of St. Augustine in Florida. b. See p. 130. • The James River rises in the Alleghany Mountains, passes through the Blue Ridge, and Salls into the southern part of Chesapeake Bay. Its entrance into the bay is called Hampton Roads, having Point Comfort on the north, and Willoughby Point on the south. Jamestown is on the north side of James River, 30 miles from its mouth, and 8 miles S. 8. W. from Williamsburg. The village is entirely deserted, with the exception of one or two old buildings, and is not found on modern maps. (See Map.) 18 APPENDIX TO THE PERIOD OF VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. ANALYSIS. 1. The pre ceding part of our his tory 2. Impor tance of er English his tory in con amining nection toith our oron. 3. Henry the Seventh. 4. Intelli discorery of America. 1. In the preceding part of our history we have passed over a period of more than one hundred years, extending from the end of the fifteenth to the beginning of the seventeenth century As this portion consists of voyages and discoveries merely, made by navigators of different nations, with no unity of action or design, we find here little or nothing that can throw light on the subsequent character of the American people. 2. In the meantime, however, our fathers, mostly of one nation, were already on the stage of action in another land, and causes and influences were operating to plant them as colonists on this then wilderness cost, and to give them those types of individual and national character which they afterwards exhibited. To England therefore, the nation of our origin, we must look, if we would know who and what our fathers were, in what circumstances they had been placed, and what characters they had formed. We shall thus be enabled to enter upon our colonial history with a preparatory knowledge that will give it additional interest in our eyes, and give us more enlarged views of its importance. Let us then, for a while, go back to England our father-land; let us look at the social, the internal history of her people, and let us endeavor to catch the spirit of the age as we pass it in review before us. 3. Henry the Seventh, the first king of the house of Tudor,* was on the throne of England at the time of the discovery of America. When intelligence of that important event reached gence of the England, it excited there, as throughout Europe, feelings of surprise and admiration; but in England these feelings were mingled with the regret that accident alone had probably deprived that 5. Columbus country of the honor which Spain had won. For while Columbus, deprived of with little prospect of success, was soliciting aid from the courts the patronage of Henry. of Portugal and Spain, to enable him to test the wisdom of his schemes, he sent his brother Bartholomew to solicit the patronage of the king of England, who received his propositions with the greatest favor. But Bartholomew having been taken prisoner by pirates on his voyage, and long detained in captivity, it was ascertained soon after his arrival that the plans of Columbus had already been sanctioned and adopted by Ferdinand and Isabella, English when the patronage of Henry was no longer needed. A America 4. Although the English were thus deprived of the honor of So called because he was a descendant from Elmund Tudor. Before his accession to the throne his title was Earl of Richmond. The five Tudor sovereigns were Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. On the death of the latter the throne came into the possession of the Stuarts in the following manner. Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII., married James Stuart, King of Scotland, whose title was James V. They left one daughter, the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots. On the death of Elizabeth the Tudor race was extinct, and James VI. of Scotland, son of Mary of Scots, was the nearest heir to the throne of England, to which he acceded with the title of James I.; the first English sovereign of the house of Stuarts. As the Tudor princes were on the throne of England during the first period of our history, and as this Appendix frequently refers to them individually, it will be well for the reader to learn the order of their succession by referring to the Chart, page This will also serve to fix in the mind a comparative view of the two histories-English and American. property. 1. Cabot. discovering America, they were the second nation to visit its shores, ANALYSIS. and the first that reached the continent itself. Little immediate benefit was derived to England from the two voyages of Cabot, their claims und found except the foundation of a claim to the right of territorial pro- to territorial perty in the newly discovered regions. Cabot would willingly have renewed his voyages under the patronage of Henry, but finding him so occupied with civil dissensions at home that he could not be interested in projects of colonial settlements abroad, he transferred his services to the Spaniards, by whom he was long reverenced for his superior skill in navigation. 5. From the reign of Henry the Seventh to that of Elizabeth, the English appear to have had no fixed views of establishing colonies in America; and even the valuable fisheries which they had discovered on the coast of Newfoundland, were, for nearly a century, monopolized by the commercial rivalries of France, Spain, and Portugal, although under the acknowledged right of English jurisdiction. 6. 3Henry the Seventh was a prince of considerable talents for public affairs, but exceedingly avaricious, and by nature a despot, although his sagacity generally led him to prefer pacific counsels. His power was more absolute than that of any previous monarch since the establishment of the Great Charter, and although his reign was, on the whole, fortunate for the nation, yet the services which he rendered it were dictated by his views of private advantage, rather than by motives of public spirit and generosity-a signal instance in which the selfishness of a monarch has been made to contribute to the welfare of his subjects. 4The state of England at this period requires from us more than a passing notice, for here commenced those changes in the condition of her people, the influences of which have affected ail their subsequent history, and, consequently, essentially modified the character of our own. 7. 5At the accession of Henry, which was at the close of the long and bloody wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, which had ruined many of the nobility of the kingdom, there was no overshadowing aristocracy, as under former kings, sufficiently united and powerful to resist the encroachments of royal authority; and the great body of the people, so long the sport of contending factions, were willing to submit to usurpations, and even injuries, rather than plunge themselves anew into like miseries. In the zeal of the king however to increase his own power and give it additional security, he unconsciously contributed to the advancement of the cause of popular liberty. In proportion as the power of the nobility had been divided and weakened by the former civil wars, so had the power of the Feudal System↑ been diminished,-a far more 2 Early re lations of England with Amer ica. 3. Character and poiver of Henry the Seventh. Importance the state of England at this period. of knowing 5 State of time of the accession of England at the Henry the 6. Policy of Henry the Seventh, and its effects. The Great Charter. [Magna Charta,] was obtained from King John, by the barons, arms in hand, in the year 1215. It limited and mitigated the severities of the feudal system, diminished the arbitrary powers of the monarch, and guarantied important liberties and privileges to all classes-the barons, clergy, and people. Yet it was not till after a long and bloody struggle, during many succeeding reigns, that the peaceable enjoyment of these rights was ob*ained The Great Charter was signed June 15th, 1215, at a place called Runnymede, on the tanks of the River Thames, between Staines and Windsor. + Feudal System. At the time of the Norman conquest, in the year 1066, the people of England, then called Anglo-Saxons, from their mixed English and Saxon origin, were divided into three classes :-the nobles or thanes; the freemen; and the villains, or slaves. The latter, however, a very numerous class, were of several kinds, and reduced to different degrees of servitude. Those who cultivated the land were transfered with it from one proprietor to another, and could not be removed from it. Others, taken in war, were the absolute property of their masters. The power of a master however over his slaves, was not unlimited among the Anglo-Saxons, as it was among their German ancestors. If a man maimed his slave the latter recovered his freedom; if he killed him he paid a fine to the king; but if the slave did |