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CH. II.]

RIGHTS OF THE INDIANS.

could confer. It would seem strange to us, if, in the present times, the natives of the South Sea Islands, or of Cochin China, should, by making a voyage to, and discovery of, the United States, on that account set up a right to the soil within our boundaries. The truth is, that the European nations paid not the slightest regard to the rights of the native tribes. They treated them as mere barbarians and heathens, whom, if they were not at liberty to extir pate, they were entitled to deem were temporary occupants of the soil. They might convert them to Christianity; and, if they refused conversion, they might drive them from the soil, as unworthy to inhabit it. They affected to be governed by the desire to promote the cause of Christianity, and were aided in this ostensible object by the whole influence of the papal power. But their real object was to extend their own power and increase their own wealth, by acquiring the treasures, as well as the territory, of the New World. Avarice and ambition were

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at the bottom of all their original enterprises."*

It must, we think, be admitted, that it was right in principle for our forefathers to seek to cultivate the soil of a country situate as this of America was, and to open a new pathway to the enterprise and energy of the human race; yet, seeing that their intercourse with the natives was not always marked by either fairness or due regard to the natural sentiments of those who had long held undisputed possession of the Continent, it is no wonder that dissensions and collisions soon occurred, and that all the fierce passions of the Indians were aroused into savage and unpitying activity. Neither need it occasion any surprise that ere long the Indians persuaded themselves that the white man was, with here and there an exception, their necessary and perpetual foe. The facts of history, as hereinafter related, will too sadly verify the correctness of this general statement.

* Familiar Exposition of the Constitution," p. 13.

CHAPTER III.

1553-1606.

ATTEMPTS AT COLONIZATION BY THE ENGLISH.

Enterprise of Englishmen — Willoughby and Chancellor - Reign of Elizabeth-Frobisher — Drake—Sir Humphrey Gilbert-Sir Walter Raleigh-Amidas and Barlow's Letter Roanoke-VIRGINIA — Lane, governor - Hariot-Indian hostility-Abandonment of the colony-New one sent out White, governor-Virginia Dare Political agitations in England - Colony lost entirely - Assignment of Raleigh's patent- Gosnold - James I.— Hakluyt- Pring - Weymouth London Company - Plymouth Company - Charter-Instructions issued by the king.

THE enterprising spirit of Englishmen led them, from the earliest period, to enter earnestly and vigorously into the work of discovery, and to engage with equal zeal and energy in attempts at settlement and colonization. The fame of Sebastian Cabot's efforts, and his undoubted skill and sagacity in respect to naval affairs, were very influential during the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. Although the attempt to find a north-west passage to the Indies had failed, still the idea of there being such a passage yet to be discovered was ever uppermost in the minds of navigators of that age. By Cabot's advice and urgency a new path was sought. He presented various reasons for thinking it probable that there was a passage to the eagerly sought Cathay by the north-east; accordingly a company of merchants was formed, at the head of which Cabot was placed, and an expedition was fitted out with special instructions and directions drawn up by the celebrated navigator himself. The command of the expedition was enentrusted to Sir Hugh Willoughby. "At

1553.

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the first setting forth of these northeastern discoverers," observes the excellent Hakluyt, "they were almost altogether destitute of clear lights and inducements, or if they had an inkling at all, it was misty as they found the northern seas, and so obscure and ambiguous, that it was meet rather to deter than to give them encouragement. Into what dangers and difficulties they plunged themselves, 'animus meminisse horret,' I tremble to relate. For, first they were to expose themselves unto the rigor of the stern and uncouth northern seas, and to make trial of the swelling waves and boisterous winds which there commonly do surge and blow." The "driftes of snow and mountains of ice, even in the summer, the hideous overfalls, uncertaine currents, darke mistes and fogs, and other fearful inconveniences," which the expedition had to encounter, he contrasts with "the milde, lightsome, and temperate Atlantick Ocean, over which the Spaniards and Portuguese have made so many pleasant, prosperous, and golden voyages, tỏ voyages, to the satisfaction of their fame-thirsty and gold-thirsty minds,

CH. III.]

WILLOUGHBY, CHANCELLOR, FROBISHER.

with that reputation and wealth which made all misadventures seem tolerable unto them." Willoughby and Chancel lor were divided by storms, and after doubling the "dreadful and mistie North Cape," the terrors of a polar winter surprised them, but with very different issue. The former sought shelter in an obscure harbor of Lapland, to die a fearful and a lingering death. In the following spring his retreat was discovered, the corpses 1554. of the frozen sailors lay about the ship, Willoughby was found dead in his cabin, his journal detailing the horrible sufferings to which they had been reduced. Chancellor, more fortunate, entered the White Sea, and found a secure shelter in the harbor of Archangel. Here the Muscovites received their first foreign visitors with great hospitality, and Chancellor, on learning the vastness of the empire he had discovered, repaired to Moscow, and presented to the czar, John Vasilowitz, a letter with which each ship had been furnished by Edward VI. The czar, who was not deficient in sagacity, saw the advantages likely to accrue from opening a trade with the western nations of Europe, and accordingly treated Chancellor with courtesy and attention. He, also, by a letter to the king, invited the trade of England, under promises of ample protection and favor.

The spirit of maritime adventure, though not so active during the reign of Mary, was still on the increase. The accession and reign of Elizabeth af forded full opportunity for its large development. "The domestic tran

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quillity of the kingdom," says Dr. Robertson, "maintained almost without interruption, during the course of a long and prosperous reign; the peace with foreign nations, that subsisted more than twenty years after Elizabeth was seated on the throne; the queen's attentive economy, which exempted her subjects from the burden of taxes oppressive to trade; the popularity of her administration; were all favorable to commercial enterprise, and called it forth into vigorous exertion. The discerning eye of Elizabeth having early perceived that the security of a kingdom environed by the sea depended on its naval force, she began her government with adding to the number and strength of the royal navy; she filled her arsenals with naval stores; she built several ships of great force, according to the ideas of that age, and encouraged her subjects to imitate her example, that they might no longer depend on foreigners, from whom the English had hitherto purchased all vessels of any considerable burden. By those efforts the skill of the English artificers was improved, the numbers. of sailors increased, and the attention of the public turned to the navy, as the most important national object."* The queen gave every encouragement to her subjects to trade with Russia, to seek to penetrate into Persia by land, and in any and every way to open new paths to commercial enterprise and activity. The attempt to discover a north

1561

to 1568.

* Robertson's "History of America," Book ix., p.

207.

1578.

east passage having failed, a new effort was made to find an opening to the north-west. Three small ves1576. sels were placed under the command of Martin Frobisher, an eminent mariner of that day; but although he made three successive voyages, and explored to some extent the coast of Labrador, he did not succeed in accomplishing the object of his expedition. It was about this same date that Sir Francis Drake entered upon his voyage of fortune, which by its success added a kind of lustre to his name, without producing any essential benefit to legitimate trade and commerce. Drake had the boldness to follow in the track of Magellan, and, crossing the equator, he ranged the Pacific coast of America to the latitude of forty-three degrees north, in hope of discovering the north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; but without accomplishing that object.

1578.

In the same year that Frobisher's third voyage terminated so fruitlessly, an attempt was made by Englishmen, under the queen's patronage, to plant a colony in America. It was mainly due to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a gentleman of distinction and marked ability, as a soldier and a writer on navigation. Without difficulty he obtained a patent from the queen which empowered him to proceed at once with every hope of success in carrying out his designs. Six years were allowed for the establishment of the colony. As this is the first charter to a colony granted by the crown of England, the articles in it merit especial attention, as they unfold

the ideas of that age with respect to the nature of such settlements. Elizabeth authorizes Sir Humphrey Gilbert to discover and take possession of all remote and barbarous lands, unoccupied by any Christian prince or people; invests in him the full right of property in the soil of those countries whereof he shall take possession; empowers him, his heirs and assigns, to dispose of whatever portion of those lands he shall judge meet, to persons settled there, in fee simple, according to the laws of England; and ordains that all the lands granted to Gilbert shall hold of the crown of England by homage, on payment of the fifth part of the gold or silver ore found there. The charter also gave Gilbert, his heirs and assigns, full power to convict, punish, pardon, govern, and rule, by their good discretion and policy, as well in causes capital or criminal as civil, both marine and other, all persons who shall, from time to time, settle within the said countries; and declared, that all who settled there should have and enjoy all the privileges of free denizens and natives of England, any law, custom, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding. And finally, it prohibited all persons from attempting to settle within two hundred leagues of any place which Sir Humphrey Gilbert, or his associates, shall have occupied during the period named for the permanent founding of the colony.*

Sir Humphrey Gilbert embarked a large part of his fortune in this projected expedition, but dissensions and

* Hakluyt, vol. iii., p. 135.

CH. III.]

1579.

GILBERT'S VOYAGES AND FATE.

disputes among those who had volunteered to go with him, rendered it virtually a failure before it set out. With only a few tried and fast friends he put to sea; one of his ships was lost in a storm, and it is probable, also, that he had an encounter with a Spanish squadron; so that, disheartened to a great extent, he was compelled to return.

The step-brother of Gilbert was the illustrious Sir Walter Raleigh, a man of surpassing genius, wonderful acquirements, and lofty aspirations. He was a soldier under Coligny, eminent for gallantry and skill: he was a statesman, a patriot, a devoted lover of his country and his country's fame. Raleigh readily came to the aid of his brother; it is even thought that he accompanied Gilbert in his first voyage, in 1579; by his influence he enlisted the queen's special favor in behalf of the expedition; he furnished a vessel of two hundred tons, which bore his name; and did everything that could be done except go in person with the expedition. With a fleet of five 1583. ships and barks, the Delight, Raleigh, Golden Hind, Swallow, and Squirrel, in which a large body of men were embarked, Gilbert set sail in June on his second voyage. On reaching Newfoundland, early in August, he took possession of it in the name of Elizabeth; a pillar with the arms of England was raised, and, after the feudal custom, the royal charter was read, and a sod and turf of the soil delivered to the admiral. The mutinous and disorderly conduct of many of his sailors had already been a trying

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obstacle. As they steered towards the south, to "bring the whole land within compass of the patent," the principal ship, owing to their carelessness, struck upon a shoal and was totally lost; nearly a hundred men perishing with her, among whom were Parmenius the Hungarian-called Budæus, from his native city-who was to have been the chronicler of the expedition, as well as "their Saxon refiner and discoverer of inestimable riches," and the valuable papers of the admiral. They now decided on returning home; the autumnal gales were already beginning to render the navigation perilous for such small vessels; yet Sir Humphrey, who had sailed in the Squirrel, their "frigate of ten tons," contrary to all remonstrance, persisted in remaining with his brave shipmates, rather than go on board the larger vessel. The two ships sailed in company, Gilbert from time to time repairing on board the Hind, and encouraging his companions with prospects of future success. The weather now became frightful; and the oldest sailors never remembered more mountainous and terrific surges. On Monday, the 9th of September, in the afternoon, the Squirrel, which was overcharged with artillery and deck hamper, was nearly ingulfed by a heavy sea, from which she escaped as by miracle. As she emerged from the watery abyss, a shout of surprise and thanksgiving burst from her decks; and Gilbert, seated on the stern with a book in his hand, calmly exclaimed, when the roll of the waves brought them within hearing of those on board the other vessel, "We are as near to heaven

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