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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES TO THE AMERICAN COAST.
Between the close of the fifteenth century and the first part of the seventeenth, events are recorded that were more or less clearly connected with the beginnings of colonial Maine. The influences that were operative in these beginnings were largely of English origin. Primarily, the basis of England's claim to territory on the American coast is to be found in John Cabot's discovery of the North American continent in 1497. But other navigators and explorers, sailing from English ports, followed Cabot in the sixteenth century, and all are worthy of mention in aiding in opening the way to English colonization on the Atlantic coast of that continent.
The sources of information concerning Cabot's voyage are scanty. From these we learn that Cabot, a native of Genoa1 but for some time a resident of Venice, made his home in Bristol, England, about the year 1490. Then, as now, Bristol was an important English seaport, and among its merchants and fishermen, Cabot found eager listeners to his urgen pleas for English participation in further discoveries upon the American coast; and because of these pleas, and those of other interested parties, King Henry VII, March 5, 1496, granted letters patent to his "well-beloved John Cabot, citizen of Venice - and to Lewis, Sebastian and Sanctus, sons of the said John Cabot.....upon their own proper costs and charges, to seek out, discover and find whatsoever islands, countries, regions or provinces of the heathens or infidels, in whatever part of the world they be, which before this time have been unknown to all Christians."
footnotes:
1. The date of Cabot's birth cannot be placed later than 1451.
2. Although the sons of John Cabot are here mentioned, there is no evidence of any value that even one of them accompanied the first expedition. The career of Sebastian Cabot belongs to a leter period. Harrisse says: "Cabot had a son named Sebastion, born in Venice, who lived in England not less than sixteen years, and then removed to Spain, where in 1518, King Charles V appointed him Pilot-Major. This office he held for 30 years. In 1526, Sebastion Cabot was authorized to take command of a Spanish expedition intended for "Tharsis and Ophir', but which instead went to LaPlata and proved disastrous. After his return to Seville, he was invited in 1547, by the counsellors of King Edward VI to England, and again settled in that country. Seven years afterward, he prepared the expeditions of Willoughby and Chancelor and of Stephen Burroughs in search of a northeast passage to Cathay. He finally died in London, after 1557, at a very advanced age, in complete obscurity." John Cabot, the Discoverer of North America and Sebastian, his son. A chapter in the Maritime History of England under the Tudors, 1496-1557. By Henry Harrisse, 1896.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
CABOT REACHED THE AMERICAN COAST.
Busy preparations for the expedition followed and in May, 1497, probably early in the month, a small vessel1 with eighteen seamen,2 Cabot sailed from Bristol, England, animated with high hopes and undaunted courage. Skirting the southern coast of Ireland, he turned the prow of his little bark first northward, then westward; and after sailing seven hundred leagues, he reached the American coast. No words have come down to us, either from Cabot or any of the eighteen seamen, narrating the circumstances under which the voyagers approached the land. We have no mention of any thrilling spectacle as they landed and planted the Royal standard on the North American continent, in token of English possession. It is not likely that there was much delay upon the coast, following the discovery. The purpose of the expedition had been accomplished, and Cabot naturally would desire to make the story of his achievement known in England at as early a date as was possible.
The first report we have with reference to Cabot's return is found in a letter from Lorenzo Pasqualigo to his brothers, Alvise
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
Main Land
and Francesco, dated London, England, August 23, 1497. In it he says: "The Venetian, our countryman, who went with a ship from Bristol (England) to search for new islands, is returned and says that seven hundred leagues from here he discovered main land (terra firma), the territory of the Grand Khan. He coasted for three hundred leagues and landed; saw no human beings, but he has brought here to the King, certain snares which had been set to catch game, and a needle for making nets; he also found some felled trees, by which he judged there were inhabitants, and returned to his ship in alarm. He was three months on the voyage." That Pasqualigo's information was early, the date of his letter shows; and his narrative is confirmed as to its main points by
two dispatches sent by Milanese embassadore in London to the Duke of Milan, one dated August 24, 1497, and the other, December 18, 1497.
In one of these dispatches - that of December 18th - mention is made of the newly discovered country and its products. "And they say that the land is fertile and the climate temperate and think that the red wood (el brasilio) grows there and the silks."
THE FISHERIES ON THE AMERICAN COAST.
"THE SEA IF FULL OF FISH"
Of course this is the language of glowing enthusiasm, abundant illustrations of which are to be found in the reports of other discoverers of that time. An allusion to the importance of the fisheries on the American coast in the same report, however, indicates slight emotional restraint. "They affirm that there the sea is full of fish that can be taken not only with nets, but with fishing baskets, a stone being placed in the basket to sink it in the water." They say "that they can bring so many fish that this
footnote. "There resided in London at that time a most intelligent Italian, Raimondo di Soncino, envoy of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, one of the those despots of the Renaissance who almost atoned for their treachery and cruelty by their thirst for knowledge and the love of arts. Him Soncino kept informed of all matters going on in London and especially concerning matters of cosmography to which the Duke was much devoted." Dr. S. E. Dawson, "The Discovery of America by John Cabot in 1497, 59,60.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
THE CODFISH - "Stoch-fissi"
kingdom will have no more business with Islanda (Iceland), and that from that country there will be a very great trade in the fish which call stock fish (stoch-fissi)", the codfish of our language.
In these and other early reports concerning Cabot's voyage, we have no positive information with reference to the landfall. It is, therefore, only a matter of conjecture. General agreement, accordingly, even on the part of those who have given to the problem, the most careful attention, is not to be expected. A cautious statement is that of a recent writer, who affirms that it was "somewhere on the eastern seacoast of British North America, between Halifax and southern Labrador."
It should be said, however, that Harrisse, whose monumental work on John Cabot is the chief authority concerning the voyage of 1497, while admitting that in the absence of documentary evidence we must resort to presumption, finds himself warranted in saying that "with great probability" the landfall "was on some point of the northeast coast of Labrador". From his discussion, however, it is evident that Harrisse was wholly unacquainted with the conditions that Cabot would have met on reaching the American coast at that point. On the approach of the four hundredth anniversary of Cabot's voyage, the most careful attention was called to these conditions by a commission of the Royal society of Canada; and at present, after all that has been said, the probabilities plainly
THE LANDFALL WAS AT SOME PART OF THE ISLAND OF CAPE BRETON.
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lead to the conclusion that the landfall was at some part of the island of Cape Breton.
CABOT, THE EARLIEST ENGLISH VOYAGER ALONG THE COAST OF MAINE.
Cabot's discovery awakened very wide interest in England, especially however, in Bristol, to which port the discover returned, and also in London, whither it is believed Cabot soon proceeded in order to make his report in person to the King. Forthwith, doubtless in various quarters, a second expedition was proposed. The King gave to the enterprise enthusiastic support. So, too, did the merchant adventurers of Bristol, Plymouth and other seaport towns. Information concerning its preparation and departure, however, is scanty. The Spanish envoy in London, writing to his sovereign, July 25, 1498, communicates what he had heard concerning the expedition. It consisted, he said, of five ships, "victualled for a year", but was
expected to return in September. It left Bristol, England in the early Spring probably, and doubtless followed the same course across the Atlantic as that taken by Cabot in the preceding year. One of the vessels of the fleet, the envoy wrote, "has returned to Ireland in great distress, the ship being much damaged. The Genoese has continued his voyage." Beyond this, we have no contemporaneous information concerning the second expedition. It is naturally conjectured, that on reaching the coast, Cabot extended his discoveries southward before returning to England. Indeed, basing his conclusion chiefly on the celebrated planisphere of Juan de la Cosa, 1500, Harrisse is of the opinion that Cabot, in this second voyage, sailed south of the Carolinas. If, from his first landfall, he made his way thus far down the coast, we may think of him as the earliest English voyager who sailed the coast of Maine.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
A LAND OF UNTOLD RICHES AND PLENTY.
Cabot's discoveries upon his second voyage must have made a far deeper impression in England than was made by the reports that were scattered abroad upon the return of the first expedition. In proceeding down the American coast, the adventurers must have been attracted both by the climate and the more favorable appearance of the country as they advanced. They could not have failed to notice here and there commodious harbors, and wide rivers extending up into the main, awakening visions of a land of untold riches and plenty. These stories, extensively circulated in various ways, added to Cabot's fame, and his great services as a discoverer, have found increasing recognition in the centuries that have followed.1
footnote
1. A tower on Brandon Hill, Bristol, England, commemorates Cabot's discovery of North America. It is a square buttressed structure of the late Tudor Gothic style, 75 feet high to the upper balcony floor and 105 feet to the apex of the truncated spire, on which is placed a gilded figure representing commerce, mounted on a globe, a symbol of the world. It is built of red sandstone, with dressings of Bath freestone and cost �3,300. In panels on the four sides of the tower are carved the arms of Henry VII, Cabot, the City of Bristol, England and the Society of Merchant Venturers. Three bronze tablets contain the following inscriptions:
The foundation of this tower was laid by The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava on the 24th of June 1897
and the completed tower was opened by the same nobleman on the 6th of September, 1898.
THE CABOT TOWER, BRISTOL, ENGLAND.
This tablet is placed here by the Bristol Branch of the Peace Society in the earnest hope that peace and friendship may ever continue between the kindred peoples of this country (England) and America.
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men." Luke 2. 14.
This tower was erected by public subscription in the 61st year of the reign of Queen Victoria.
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EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.
But if English fishermen and enterprising merchants were attracted to the American coast by Cabot's discoveries, as some, it is said, were, it was not for long, inasmuch as in a letter written by John Rut, to King Henry VIII, dated St. John's, Newfoundland, August 3, 1527, the writer says he found in that harbor "eleven sails of Normans and one Brittaine, and two Portugal barkes"; but he makes no mention of others, and declares his purpose to extend his voyage along the coast in the hope of meeting the only English vessel known by him to be in American waters.
In fact, Robert Hore's expedition in 1536 had no reference to fishing interests on the American coast, or even to colonization. Hore was a London merchant "given to the study of Cosmography", and his chief purpose in organizing his expedition, it would seem, was prompted solely by a desire to discover a north-west passage to the East Indies, and so to open a shorter route to those far-away regions than that, by the Cape of Good Hope.
With his two ships and a company of one hundred and twenty, Hore, in his voyage to the American coast, evidently followed Cabot's course. From the brief account of the expedition in Hakluyt's Principall Navigations, it is not possible to learn how far Hore proceeded in his search after reaching Cape Breton. We only know that the story is one of ill success throughout, and could have had only a depressing effect upon English enterprise with reference to new-world interests.
To commemorate the fourth centenary of the discovery of the continent of North Americaon the 24th of June 1497 by John Cabot who sailed from this port in the Bristol ship "Matthew" with a Bristol Crew under letters patent granted by King Henry VII to that navigator and his sons Lewis, Sebastian and Sanctus.
footnotes:
Lorenzo Sabine, Report of the Principal Fisheries of the American Seas, 1853, 36.
For an account of the voyage of Robert Hore see Early English and French Voyages Chiefly from Hakluyt, v. III, of the Original Narratives of Early American History, H. S. Burrage, 1906, 103-110.
1. "From the time of Henry VIII, the number of English vessels on the codbanks of Newfoundland steadily increased." Green, A Short History of England, 395.
2. Sabine, 36, 37.
3. Sabine, 37. The narrow extent of the fishing trade of England at this time is indicated by the fact that it was limited to the Flemish towns and to the fishing grounds.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
France, however, for many years had sent fishing vessels to the banks of Newfoundland. Jacques Cartier, a native of St. Malo, the principal port of Brittany, had been not only active in these fishing enterprises on the American coast, but already had conducted thither two exploring expeditions. The hardy fishermen of Bristol and Plymouth could not have been unmindful of these evidences of French commercial alertness, and, as a result, an increasing number of English fishing vessels made their way to the Newfoundland banks.1
It was not long, also, before the political circles in England, there was a growing appreciation of the value of sea fisheries to the nation. In 1548, the English government took into consideration certain abuses reported from Newfoundland, for which charges were brought against certain admiralty officers; and in remedying these abuses, Parliament enacted its first legislation with reference to America, relieving the fishermen of the burdens wrongfully imposed upon them, and making fishing at Newfoundland entirely free to all English inhabitants.
It should be added that at this time, Parliament, in order to give encouragement to the fisheries, imposed severe penalties upon persons eating flesh on fish days.
QUEEN ELIZABETH ASCENDS THE THRONE.
Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne of England in 1558. Her reign was characterized by rapidly growning commercial prosperity, in connection with which England entered upon that period of world-wide trade relations that has continued to the present time. The fisheries of the Channel and the German ocean were now supplemented by those on the coast of North America; and before
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EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.
the close of Elizabeth's reign "the seamen of Biscay found English rivals in the whale fishery of the Polar seas". In 1563, Brittish Parliament, responding to this awakened spirit of enlargement among English fishermen of the seaport towns, enacted "that as well for the maintenance of shipping, the increase of fishermen and marines, and the repairing of porttowns, as for the sparing of the fresh victuals of the realm, it shall not be lawful for anyone to eat fresh victuals of the realm, it shall not be lawful for any one to eat flesh on Wednesdays and Saturdays, unless under the forfeiture of �3 for each offence, excepting in cases of sickness and those of special licenses to be obtained". The occasion for the enactment, as expressly indicated by Parliament, was not a religious one, as the act had its origins in the prevalent desire to develop the fishing interests of the nation in all possible ways.2
WILLIAM HAWKINS OF PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND.
THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.
At the same time there was an enlargement of foreign commerce as well as of the fisheries. William Hawkins of Plymouth, England, the first of his countrymen to sail a ship into southern seas, made what he recorded as a fitting venture by engaging in the African slave-trade; finding a market for his cargoes in the Spanish settlements of the West Indies.3 John Hawkins, his son, inheriting the adventurous spirit of his father, was in the West Indies in 1565, and on his return voyage, sailing up the American coast as far as Newfoundland - catching glimpses of that vast unknown territory in whose opening and exploration England was to have so great a part - he turned the prows of his vessels homeward, bringing with him "great profit to the venturers of the voyage", including "gold, silver, pearls and other jewels, a great store".4
Hawkins reached England in September, 1565. Glowing reports of his venture furnished the theme of animated conversation throughout the Kingdom, and he had no difficulty in fitting out a new and larger expedition, which sailed from Plymouth, England
footnotes:
1 Green, 395.
2 Sabine, 37.
3 Not the slightest disgrace at that time seems to have attached either to slave-stealing or slave-selling.
4. The narrative of the closing part of this voyage of 1565, taken from Hakluyt, will be found in "Early English and French Voyages, 113-132.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
October 2, 1567. One of Hawkins' vessels was commanded by Francis Drake, afterwards, Sir Francis Drake. High hopes concerning the expedition were entertained both at Court and in all parts of the realm; but it ended in dire disaster through Spanish treachery in the harbor of San Juan de Ulua, a small island on the Mexican coast opposite Vera Cruz. Of the survivors, some returned to England in the ship, Minion, one of the vessels of the fleet.
Some landed and marched westward into Mexico, the larger number suffering punishment and imprisonment in the galleys.1 There made their long, weary way northward to the Great Lakes; and then turning eastward, as one may infer from the narrative printed by Hakluyt, they crossed a part of what is now the State of Maine, and finding a French vessel on the coast they were taken aboard and so made their way back to England.2
MARTIN FROBISHER, YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND
At this time, singularly enough because of the reports of Cabot and Hawkins, Englishmen were giving little if any thought to enterprises having reference to the upbuilding of a new England upon these western shores. But of enterprising navigators there was no lack in the Island Kingdom of England. As early as 1560 or 1561, Martin Frobisher of Yorkshire, England, pondering problems having reference to the new world, was still considering the possibility and even the probability of a shorter passage to the Indies along the northern American coast. Added years passed, however, before he could enlist much interest in his proposed undertaking; and it was not until 1575, that, with the help of the Earl
footnotes:
1. Drake was so embittered against the Spaniards on account of the treatment of his countrymen received at San Juan de Ulna, that for several years following his return to England, he ravaged the Spanish main. On one of these voyages Drake crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and had his first view of the Pacific Ocean. For the narrative of a part of Drake's world-encompassing voyage, see Early English and French
Voyages, pp. 153-173.
2. A narrative of this "troublesome voyage", written by John Hawkins, can be found in Early English and Frency Voyages, 137-148. John Hawkins was a member of Parliament for Plymouth from 1571 to 1583. He was said to be the man to whom is due all credit of preparing the Royal fleet to meet the Armada" in 1588, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth July 25th of that year.
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EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.
THE BEGINNING OF COLONIAL MAINE.
of Warwick, he was able to enter upon this quest, having secured for the expedition two tiny barks of twenty or twenty-five tons. Sailing northward and westward, Frobisher sighted on July 28, of that year, the coast of Labrador; but finding impossible barriers as he advanced, he at length sailed homeward, reaching London on October 9th. In the following year, however, he was able to return to the American coast with an expedition promising larger success, but which was also doomed to failure - search for gold, which he was now commissioned to undertake, not being better rewarded than search for a northwest passage. The enthusiastic navigator's dreams, however, were still forceful and May 15, 1578, with fifteen
vessels, he again crossed the Atlantic, this time by way of Greenland, but only to find himself compelled to face added disappointments and the final non-realization of hopes long and fondly cherished.1
Francis Drake knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
As little, also, was Francis Drake at this time giving attention to English colonization upon the American coast. In 1567, he was in command of the ship "Judith" in Hawkins' "troublesome voyage". Ten years later, having meanwhile devoted himself to the destruction of Spanish interests, he sailed from Plymouth, England, in his celebrated world-encompassing voyage, receiving on his return the congratulations of Queen Elizabeth, and the added honor of knighthood.2
footnotes.
1. Frobisher commanded the ship, "Triumph" at the time of the destruction of the Spanish Armada - and was knighted at sea by the LordHigh Admiral.
Destruction of the Spanish Armarda.
2. Drake won lasting fame in connection with the destruction
of the Spanish Armada. Even when the Armada was in preparation, Drake, who was ever ready to "singe the beard of the Spanish King", entered the harbor at Cadiz with a fleet he had hastily assembled and he destroyed nearly a hundred store-ships and other vessels. In the following year, when the Armada at length sailed from Lisbon, Drake, a Vice Admiral in command of the English privateers, hurried out of the harbor of Plymouth, England, and in company with the Queen's ships, fell upon the
Spanish galleons with terrific fury, and "the feathers of the Spaniard were plucked one by one." But a mightier force than Drake struck the final blow as fierce storms broke upon the scattered remnants of the Armada and swept them from the wind-disturbed seas. Drake died December 27, 1595 while waging war upon Spanish interests in the West Indies, and he was buried at sea.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
In his thoughts concerning a northwest passage to the Indies, Frobisher had received much encouragement from Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who, in 1566, wrote his Discourse of Discovery for a New Passage to Cataia, and presented it to Queen Elizabeth. Frobisher's ill-success, however, so far lessened Gilbert's confidence in his own reasonings, that he now turned his new-world thoughts into other channels. But they still had reference to the American continent. He knew no reason why England's interest in that vast territory should be inferior to that of other nations. France already had secured a strong foothold on the banks of the Saint Lawrence, and had even sought to establish colonists in Florida.
Between Florida in the south and the settlements in the north that opened a way to the Great Lakes, there was a vast territory as yet unpossessed. To it, Gilbert called attention of the Queen, and asked for the
authority and assistance in conducting an expedition thitherward. She responded June 11th, 1578, by bestowing upon him, letters-patent, to discover and possess lands in America, but was "to be no robbery by sea or by land" With a fleet of seven vessels, Gilbert set sail in November, an untimely season of the year. Disaster followed disaster and the expedition failed.
ENGLISH COLONIZATION ON AMERICAN SOIL.
THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
But Gilbert's letters-patent - the first granted by the Queen for English colonization upon American soil - were still in force, and with undiminished ardor the hardy navigator commenced preparations for an added venture. Delays in the organization of the expedition were encountered, and it was not until 1583 that it was fully equipped and ready to sail. The expedition left Plymouth June 11th, with five vessels and two hundred and sixty men.
Where the colony should be planted had not been determined. In shaping the course of the voyage, however, Gilbert selected the "trade way unto Newfoundland", and the fleet assembled in the harbor of St.
John's, early in August. Having landed and called together "the merchants and masters, both English and also stranger", Sir Humphrey exhibited his royal commission, and having delivered unto him "a rod and a turf of the same soil" after the English custom, he took formal possession of the
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THE EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.
THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
island in the name of Queen Elizabeth. Disappointments and then discouragements rapidly followed. Sickness and death at length diminished the number of the colonists. Discontent was manifested among those who survived. One of the vessels returned to England, and one, "the chief ship, with great provision, gathered together with much travail, care, long time and difficulty" - suffered wreck, probably on some part of the island of Cape Breton and the loss of life - about one hundred souls, striking a death blow to the expedition itself. The homeward voyage that followed was also marked by disaster - Gilbert, himself, perhishing in the founding of his little vessel in a terrific storm. But the expedition was not wholly a failure. It had called the attention of the English people to the vast territory beyond the sea, not only awaiting exploration and colonization, but offering large possiblitlies for enterprise and daring to those who were bold enough to avail themselves of them.1
Among those most deeply interested in English colonization in America, was Sir Walter Raleigh, a half-brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. He had commanded the ship Falcon in the unsuccessful expedition of 1578, and had assisted Gilbert in his preparation for the larger service to which Sir Humphrey had devoted himself with so much heroic endeavor and self-sacrifice. Ralegh now took up the unfinished task, and obtained from Queen Elizabeth,
CHAMPERNOUN.
"CHEER UP, LADS!"
"We are as near Heaven at sea as on land."
footnotes.
1. The mother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert was a Champernoun, and through her, he was related to the Gorges family. His noble spirit found fitting expression in his disastrous homeward voyage, just before his little bark was engulfed. So severe was the storm that he was urged to seek safety on a larger vessel, but he resolutely declined to leave the men with whom he had embarked, and calling through the storm, he encouraged his distressed companions with the words, "Cheer up, lads!" "We are as near heaven at sea as on land." - Longfellow has recalled this incident in the words:
"He sat upon the deck,
The Book was in his hand;
"Do not fear! Heaven is as near,"
He said, "by water as by land!"
INSERT.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Southward with fleet of ice
Sailed the corsair Death;
Wild and gast blew the blast,
And the east-wind was his breath.
His lordly ships of ice
Glisten in the sun;
On each side, like pennons wide,
Flashing crystal streamlets run.
His sails of white sea-mist
Dripped with silver rain;
But where he passed there were cast
Leaden shadows o'er the main.
Eastward from Campobello
Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed;
Three days or more seaward he bore,
Then, alas! the land-wind failed.
Alas! the land-wind failed,
And ice-cold grew the night;
And nevermore, on sea or shore,
Should Sir Humphrey see the light.
He sat upon the deck,
The Book was in his hand;
"Do not fear! Heaven is as near,"
He said, "by water as by land!"
In the first watch of the night,
Without a signal's sound,
Out of the sea, mysteriously,
The fleet of Death rose all around.
The moon and the evening star
Were hanging in the shrouds;
Every mast, as it passed,
Seemed to rake the passing clouds.
They grappled with their prize,
At midnight black and cold!
As of a rock was the shock;
Heavily the ground-swell rolled.
Southward through day and dark,
They drift in cold embrace,
With mist and rain, o'er the open main;
Yet there seems no change of place.
Southward, forever southward,
They drift through dark and day;
And like a dream, in the Gulf-Stream
Sinking, vanish all away.
For the narrative of Gilbert's voyage, see Early English and French Voyages, pp. 179-222.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
March 25, 1584, letters patent to "discover, search, find out and view such remote, heathen and treacherous lands, countries and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian Prince, nor inhabited by Christian people", the colonists "to have all the privilege of denizens and persons native of England - in such like ample manner and form, as if they were born and personally resident within our said realm of England, any law, custom or usage to the contrary notwithstanding".
APRIL, 1584.
WALTER BARLOWE
Two vessels, designed for preliminary exploration, were soon in readiness and left England April 27, 1584. Avoiding the northern route taken by Gilbert, those in command, Philip Amadas and Walter Barlowe, crossed the Atlantic by way of the Canaries. After reaching the islands of the West Indies, they sailed up the Atlantic coast, and at length entered the inlets that break the long, sandy barriers of North Carolina. Exploration followed. The Indians of the mainland were interviewed. Having taken possession of the country in the name of the Queen, Amadas and Barlowe returned to England and made a favorable report concerning the newly acquired territory. A second expedition, organized Ralegh and placed under the command of Ralegh's cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, sailed from Plymouth, England April 9, 1585. In 1586, a vessel, with supplies for the relief of the fifteen men left by Grenville at Roanoke Island in the preceding year, was fitted out by Ralegh and despatched to the American coast. Sir Richard Grenville, shortly after, with three ships, followed. Though Ralegh's efforts at colonization in connection with these expeditions failed, he was ready to make added endeavors, and in 1587, he fitted out a fourth expedition, including one hundred and fifty colonists under the command of John White, whom he appointed Governor, and to whom he gave a Charter with important privileges, incorporating the colonists under the name of the "Governors and Assistants of the City of Ralegh in Virginia." The colonists were landed at Roanoke Island. By their request, Governor White returned to England in the autumn, for added supplies; but in the following spring, when he hoped to recross the
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
Atlantic, all England was making heroic efforts to meet the Spanish Armada. Ralegh, however, succeeded in fitting out a small fleet with needed supplies for the Roanoke Island colonists. But the vessels he had secured, and made ready for the Atlantic voyage, were impressed by the government. Ralegh, however, did not lose heart, and by the most strenuous efforts on his part, two small vessels, under the command of Governor White, were at length, allowed to start for the American coast. Yet so severely were they handled by Spanish cruisers soon after leaving port, that they were compelled to abandon the voyage. In the following year, Ralegh made an added attempt to send relief to the colonists and again failed. In 1590, though a "general stay" of all ships throughout England was ordered by the government, Governor White obtained for himself an opportunity to return to America.
On reaching Roanoke Island, however, the traces he found of the colonists he had left there two years before, told only a story of disaster and he was obliged to return to England without any knowledge of their fate. Ralegh, however, still continued to send thither yet other vessels in the endeavor to obtain added information; but it was not until after the settlement of Jamestown, that it became known, through the Indians, that most of the Roanoke colonists were massacred by order of Powhatan.1.
If English colonial enterprises on the American coast had ended in disappointment and disaster, maritime interests meanwhile had prospered. The destruction of the Spanish Armada made the seaport towns of England more and more a nursery of seamen. Bold navigators sought out new lines of trade. But especially the fish-
footnote
1. It was at Ralegh's request that Hakluyt wrote his Particular Discourse concerning the great necessity and manifold commodities that like to grow to this Realm of England, by the Western discoveries lately attempted. Several manuscript copies of the "Discourse" were made by Hakluyt, but it was not printed until 1877, when a manuscript copy, found in England by the late Dr. Leonard Woods, was published by the Maine Historical Society, as Volume II of its Documentary Series. It has since been published in Goldsmid'sHakluyt, II, 169-358. For the narratives of Ralegh's expeditions to the North Carolina coast, see Early English and French Voyages, 227-323.
Pg. 16
THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
fisheries flourished. Fishing voyages were made to the coast of Newfoundland, and Sir Walter Ralegh, who had sacrificed so much in the endeavor to plant an English colonly on American soil, having watched the growth of the fishing interests of Bristol, Plymouth and other ports, voiced in Parliament, in 1593, a fact of recognized national importance, when he said that the fisheries of England on the American coast were the "stay and support" of the west counties of the Kingdom. Indeed, when the century closed, it is estimated that there were about two hundred English fishing vessels around Newfoundland and in neighboring waters, giving employment to ten thousand men and boys.1 But English fishermen did not limit themselves to these waters. Possessing the spirit of daring adventure that now characterized maritime interests throughout the nation, they were ever seeking new scenes of busy endeavor and larger rewards of enterprise.
But the reports which English fishermen in American waters brought with them on their return voyages, had reference not only to the employments in which they were engaged, but they also called attention in glowing words to the glimpses they caught of the new world to whose shores thier voyages were made. Hakluyt, in his "Principall Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation, published in 1589, had made the schollars and statesmen of England familiar with the work of adventurers and explorers.2 The returning fishermen, on the other hand, told their tales in seaport towns, to the merchants and men in their employ, who were easily inspired by the fair visions of wealth and empire which these reports awakened. People in all parts of the country were reached in this way, and when the century closed, England, as never before, was beginning to be stirred with high hopes of extending her growing power into the new and larger fields to which her discoverers and navigators had opened the way.
footnotes:
1. Sabine's Report, p.40.
2. Hakluyt's monumental work was printed in London in 1809; also in Edinburgh in 1890, in sixteen volumes "with notes, indices and numerous additons", edited by Edmund Goldsmid; also in 1903-1905, by the MacMillan Company of New York and London, in a handsome edition in twelve volumes, with many illustrations. |
