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diff --git a/16038-8.txt b/16038-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2c9b0d --- /dev/null +++ b/16038-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6222 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Great Epochs in American History, Vol. II, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Great Epochs in American History, Vol. II + The Planting Of The First Colonies: 1562--1733 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Francis W. Halsey + +Release Date: June 11, 2005 [EBook #16038] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT EPOCHS, AMERICAN *** + + + + +Produced by Carel Lyn Miske and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +GREAT EPOCHS IN AMERICAN HISTORY + +DESCRIBED BY FAMOUS WRITERS +FROM COLUMBUS TO WILSON + + +Edited, with Introductions and Explanatory Notes + +By FRANCIS W. HALSEY + +_Associate Editor of "The World's Famous Orations"; Associate Editor +of "The Best of the World's Classics"; author of "The Old New York +Frontier"; Editor of "Seeing Europe With Famous Authors"_ + + +IN TEN VOLUMES + +ILLUSTRATED + + +VOL. II + +THE PLANTING OF THE FIRST COLONIES: 1562--1733 + + +Current Literature Publishing Company +New York + +COPYRIGHT, 1912 AND 1916, by + +FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY + +[_Printed in the United States of America_] + + + + + [Transcriber's Note: This text retains original spellings. Also, + superscripted abbreviations or contractions are indicated by the + use of a caret (^), such as w^th (with).] + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +(_The Planting of the First Colonies_) + + +After the discoverers and explorers of the sixteenth century came +(chiefly in the seventeenth) the founders of settlements that grew +into States--French Huguenots in Florida and Carolina; Spaniards in +St. Augustine; English Protestants in Virginia and Massachusetts; +Dutch and English in New York; Swedes in New Jersey and Delaware; +Catholic English in Maryland; Quaker English and Germans in +Pennsylvania; Germans and Scotch-Irish in Carolina; French Catholics +in Louisiana; Oglethorpe's debtors in Georgia. + +To some of these came disastrous failures--to the Huguenots and +Spaniards in Florida, to the English in Roanoke, Cuttyhunk and +Kennebee. Others who survived had stern and precarious first +years--the English in Jamestown and Plymouth, the Dutch in New York, +the French in New Orleans. Chief among leaders stand John Smith, +Bradford, Penn, Bienville and Oglethorpe, and chief among settlements, +Jamestown, Plymouth, New York, Massachusetts Bay, Wilmington, +Philadelphia, New Orleans and Savannah. The several movements, in +their failures as in their successes, were distributed over a century +and three-quarters, but since the coming of Columbus a much longer +period had elapsed. From the discovery to the arrival of Oglethorpe +lie 240 years, or a hundred years more than the period that separates +our day from the years when America gained her independence from +England. + +Each center of settlement had been inspired by an impulse separate +from that of others. Alike as some of them were, in having as a moving +cause a desire to escape from persecution, religious or political, or +otherwise to better conditions, they were divided by years, if not by +generations, in time; the settlers came from lands isolated and remote +from one another; they were different as to race, form of government, +and religious and political ideals, and, once communities had been +founded, each expanded on lines of its own and knew little of its +neighbors. + +The Spaniards who founded St. Augustine continued long to live there, +but of social and political growth in Spanish Florida there was none. +Spain, in those eventful European years, was fully absorbed elsewhere +in Continental wars which taxed all her strength, especially that +furious war, waged for forty years against Holland, and from which +Spain retired ultimately in failure. In those years also was +overthrown Philip's Armada, an event in which the scepter of +maritime-empire passed from Spain to England. + +Of the French settlements the chief was New Orleans, French from the +beginning, and so to remain in racial preponderance, religious +beliefs, and political ideals, for a century and a half after +Bienville founded it--so, in fact, it still remains in our day. But +elsewhere the French gave to the United States no permanent +settlements. Numbers of them came to Florida, only to perish by the +sword; others in large numbers settled in South Carolina, only to +become merged with other races, among whom the English, with their +speech and their laws, became supreme. + +On Manhattan Island and in the valleys of the Hudson and lower Mohawk +settled the Dutch a few years after the English at Jamestown. They +erected forts on Manhattan Island and at Albany, Hartford and near +Philadelphia; they partitioned vast tracts of fertile lands among +favorite patroons; they built up a successful trade in furs with the +Indians--and sent the profits home. Real settlements they did not +found--at least, not settlements that were infused with the spirit of +local enterprise, or animated by vital ambitions looking to growth in +population and industry. After forty years of prosperity in trade they +had failed to become a settled and well-ordered colonial state, +looking bravely forward to permanence, expansion and eventual +statehood. The first free school in America is credited to their +initiative, and they were tolerant of other religions than their own, +but they planted no other seeds from which a great State could grow. + +As Coligny before him had sought to plant in Florida a colony of +French Huguenots, so Raleigh, who had served under that great captain +in the religious wars of the Continent, sought to found in Virginia a +Protestant state. Much private wealth and many of his best years were +given by Raleigh to the furtherance of a noble ambition, but all to +futile immediate results. Raleigh's work, however, like all good work +nobly done, was not lost. Out of his failure at Roanoke came English +successes in later years--John Smith at Jamestown, the Pilgrims at +Plymouth. + +Oldest of permanent English settlements in America is Jamestown, but +the English failures at Cuttyhunk and Kennebec antedate it by a few +years, and the failure at Roanoke by a quarter of a century. At +Jamestown, ten years after the arrival of the first settlers, a +legislative assembly was organized--a minature parliament, modeled +after the English House of Commons, and the first legislative body the +new world ever knew. Here, too, in Jamestown began negro slavery in +the United States, and in the same, or the next, year. Thus +legislative freedom and human slavery had their beginning in America +at the same time and in the same place. + +Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, next among the English settlements, +followed in due time the failure of Gosnold at Cuttyhunk and the +description of New England John Smith wrote and printed in 1614 after +a voyage of exploration along her coast. After several years Plymouth +contained only about 300 souls, but the Bay colony, founded ten years +later, increased rapidly. By 1634 nearly 4,000 of Winthrop's followers +had arrived, many of them college graduates. From this great parent +colony went forth Roger Williams to Rhode Island, Hooker to Hartford, +Davenport to New Haven, so that by the middle of the seventeenth +century five English colonies had been planted within the borders of +New England. + +Long after all these came the Maryland and Pennsylvania settlements, +founded by Lord Baltimore and William Penn as lords proprietor, owners +of vast tracts of land and possessing privileges more extensive than +ever before were bestowed on British subjects. In the new century +arrived Oglethorpe, with his insolvent debtors, soon to find Spaniards +from St. Augustine hostile to his enterprise. But Oglethorpe was a +soldier as well as a colonizer; he had served in Continental wars, +and, after laying siege to St. Augustine further aggressions from that +source ceased. + +Thus at last, in the New World, the English race, their flag, their +language and their laws, had displaced the Spaniards in that +world-important contest for dominion and power, of which the second +issue was soon to be fought out on many bloody fields with France. + +F.W.H. + + + + +CONTENTS + +VOL. II--THE PLANTING OF THE FIRST COLONIES + + +INTRODUCTION. By the Editor + +THE FOUNDING OF ST. AUGUSTINE AND THE MASSACRE BY MENENDEZ +(1562-1565): + + I. The Account by John A. Doyle + + II. Mendoza's Account + +SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S VIRGINIA COLONIES (1584-1587): + + I. The Account by John A. Doyle + + II. The Return of the Colonists with Sir Francis Drake. By Ralph + Lane + + III. The Birth of Virginia Dare. By John White + +BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLD'S DISCOVERY OF CAPE COD (1602): + + I. By Gabriel Archer, One of Gosnold's Companions + + II. Gosnold's Own Account + +THE FOUNDING OF JAMESTOWN (1607). By Captain John Smith + +THE FIRST AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY (1819). By John Twine, its +Secretary + +THE ORIGIN OF NEGRO SLAVERY IN AMERICA: + + I. In the West Indies (1518). By Sir Arthur Helps + + II. Its Beginnings in the United States (1620). By John A. Doyle + +NEW ENGLAND BEFORE THE PILGRIM FATHERS LANDED (1614). By Captain John +Smith + +THE FIRST VOYAGE OF THE "MAYFLOWER" (1620). By Governor William +Bradford + +THE FIRST NEW YORK SETTLEMENTS (1623-1628). By Nicolas Jean de +Wassenaer + +THE SWEDES AND DUTCH IN NEW JERSEY (1627). By Israel Acrelius + +THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY (1627-1631). By +Governor Thomas Dudley + +HOW THE BAY COLONY DIFFERED FROM PLYMOUTH. By John G. Palfrey + +LORD BALTIMORE IN MARYLAND (1633). By Contemporary Writers + +ROGER WILLIAMS IN RHODE ISLAND (1636). By Nathaniel Morton + +THE FOUNDING OF CONNECTICUT (1633-1636). By Alexander Johnston + +WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND (1647-1696). By John G. Palfrey + +THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF NEW YORK (1664). By John H. Brodhead + +BACON'S REBELLION IN VIRGINIA (1676). By an Anonymous Writer + +KING PHILIP'S WAR (1676). By William Hubbarrd + +THE FOUNDING OF PENNSYLVANIA: + + I. Penn's Account of the Colony (1684) + + II. Penn's Treaty with the Indians (1683). His Own Account + + III. The Reality of Penn's Treaty. By George E. Ellis + +THE CHARTER OAK AFFAIR IN CONNECTICUT (1682). By Alexander Johnston + +THE COLONIZATION OF LOUISIANA (1699). By Charles E.T. Gayarré + +OGELETHORPE IN GEORGIA (1733). By Joel Chandler Harris + + + + +THE PLANTING OF THE FIRST COLONIES + +1562-1733 + + +THE FOUNDING OF ST. AUGUSTINE AND THE MASSACRE BY MENENDEZ + +(1562-1565) + +I. + +THE ACCOUNT BY JOHN A. DOYLE[1] + + +In 1562 the French Huguenot party, headed by Coligny, made another +attempt[2] to secure themselves a refuge in the New World. Two ships +set sail under the command of Jean Ribault, a brave and experienced +seaman, destined to play a memorable and tragic part in the history of +America. Ribault does not seem to have set out with any definite +scheme of colonization, but rather, like Amidas and Barlow, to have +contented himself with preliminary exploration. In April he landed on +the coast of Florida.... + +After he had laid the foundations of a fort, called in honor of the +king Charlefort, Ribault returned to France. He would seem to have +been unfortunate in his choice alike of colonists and of a commander. +The settlers lived on the charity of the Indians, sharing in their +festivities, wandering from village to village and wholly doing away +with any belief in their superior wisdom and power which might yet +have possest their savage neighbors.... + +France was torn asunder by civil war, and had no leisure to think of +an insignificant settlement beyond the Atlantic. No supplies came to +the settlers, and they could not live forever on the bounty of their +savage neighbors. The settlers decided to return home. To do this it +was needful to build a bark with their own hands from the scanty +resources which the wilderness offered. Whatever might have been the +failings of the settlers, they certainly showed no lack of energy or +of skill in concerting means for their departure. They felled the +trees to make planks, moss served for calking, and their shirts and +bedding for sails, while their Indian friends supplied cordage. When +their bark was finished they set sail. Unluckily in their impatience +to be gone, they did not reckon what supplies they would need. The +wind, at first favorable, soon turned against them, and famine stared +them in the face. Driven to the last resort of starving seamen, they +cast lots for a victim, and the lot, by a strange chance, fell upon +the very man whose punishment had been a chief count against De +Pierria. Life was supported by this hideous relief, till they came in +sight of the French coast. Even then their troubles were not over. An +English privateer bore down upon them and captured them. The miseries +of the prisoners seem, in some measure, to have touched their enemies. +A few of the weakest were landed on French soil. The rest ended their +wanderings in an English prison. + +The needs of the abandonment of the colony did not reach France till +long after the event. Before its arrival a fleet was sent out to the +relief of the colony. Three ships were dispatched, the largest of a +hundred and twenty tons, the least of sixty tons, under the command of +René Laudonnière, a young Poitevin of good birth. On their outward +voyage they touched at Teneriffe and Dominica, and found ample +evidence at each place of the terror which the Spaniards had inspired +among the natives. In June the French reached the American shore south +of Port Royal. As before, their reception by the Indians was friendly. +Some further exploration failed to discover a more suitable site than +that which had first presented itself, and accordingly a wooden fort +was soon built with a timber palisade and bastions of earthen work. +Before long the newcomers found that their intercourse with the +Indians was attended with unlooked-for difficulties. There were three +tribes of importance, each under the command of a single chief, and +all more or less hostile to the other. In the South the power of the +chiefs seems to have been far more dreaded, and their influence over +the national policy more authoritative than among the tribes of New +England and Canada. Laudonnière, with questionable judgment, entangled +himself in these Indian feuds, and entered into an offensive alliance +with the first of these chiefs whom he encountered, Satouriona.... + +A new source of trouble, however, soon beset the unhappy colonists. +Their quarrels had left them no time for tilling the soil, and they +were wholly dependent on the Indians for food. The friendship of the +savages soon proved but a precarious means of support. The dissensions +in the French camp must have lowered the new-corners in the eyes of +their savage neighbors. They would only part with their supplies on +exorbitaut terms. Laudonnière himself throughout would have adopted +moderate and conciliatory measures, but his men at length became +impatient and seized one of the principal Indian chiefs as a hostage +for the good behavior of his countrymen. A skirmish ensued, in which +the French were victorious. It was clear, however, that the settlement +could not continue to depend on supplies extorted from the Indians at +the point of the sword. The settlers felt that they were wholly +forgotten by their friends in France, and they decided, tho with heavy +hearts, to forsake the country which they had suffered so much to +win.... + +Just, however, as all the preparations for departure were made, the +long-expected help came. Ribault arrived from France with a fleet of +seven vessels containing three hundred settlers and ample supplies. +This arrival was not a source of unmixed joy to Laudonnière. His +factious followers had sent home calumnious reports about him, and +Ribault brought out orders to send him home to stand his trial. +Ribault himself seems to have been easily persuaded of the falsity of +the charges, and prest Laudonnière to keep his command; but he, broken +in spirit and sick in body, declined to resume office. + +All disputes soon disappeared in the face of a vast common misfortune. +Whatever internal symptoms of weakness might already display +themselves in the vast fabric of the Spanish empire, its rulers showed +as yet no lack of jealous watchfulness against any attempts to rival +her successes in America. The attempts of Cartier and Roberval[3] had +been watched, and the Spanish ambassador at Lisbon had proposed to the +King of Portugal to send out a joint armament to dispossess the +intruders. The king deemed the danger too remote to be worth an +expedition, and the Spaniards unwillingly acquiesced. An outpost of +fur traders in the ice-bound wilderness of Canada might seem to bring +little danger with it. But a settlement on the coast of Florida, +within some eight days' sail of Havana, with a harbor whence +privateers might waylay Spanish ships and even attack Spanish +colonies, was a rival not to be endured. Moreover, the colonists were +not only foreigners but Huguenots, and their heresy served at once as +a pretext and stimulus to Spanish zeal. + +The man to whose lot it fell to support the monopoly of Spain against +French aggression was one who, if we may judge by his American career, +needed only a wider field to rival the genius and the atrocities of +Alva. Pedro de Menendez, when he had scarcely passed from boyhood, had +fought both against the French and the Turks, and had visited America +and returned laden with wealth. He then did good service in command of +the Spanish fleet in the French war, and his prompt cooperation with +the land force gave him a share in the glories of St. Quentin.[4] A +second voyage to America was even more profitable than the first, but +his misconduct there brought him into conflict with the Council of the +Indies, by whom he was imprisoned, and heavily fined. His previous +services, however, had gained him the favor of the court. Part of his +fine was remitted, and he was emboldened to ask not merely for pardon, +but for promotion. He proposed to revive the attempt of De Soto and to +extend the Spanish power over Florida. The expedition was to be at +Menendez's own cost; he was to take out five hundred colonists, and in +return to be made Governor of Florida for life and to enjoy certain +rights for free trade with the West Indies and with the mother +country.... + +The military genius of Menendez rose to the new demands made upon it. +He at once decided on a bold and comprehensive scheme which would +secure the whole coast from Port Royal to Chesapeake Bay, and would +ultimately give Spain exclusive possession of the South Seas and the +Newfoundland fisheries. The Spanish captain had a mind which could at +once conceive a wide scheme and labor at the execution of details. So +resolutely were operations carried on that by June, 1565, Menendez +sailed from Cadiz with thirty-four vessels and four thousand six +hundred men. After a stormy voyage he reached the mouth of the St. +John's river. Ribault's party was about to land, and some of the +smaller vessels had crossed the harbor, while others yet stood out to +sea. Menendez hailed the latter, and after some parley told them that +be had come there with orders from the king of Spain to kill all +intruders that might be found on the coast. The French being too few +to fight, fled. Menendez did not for the present attack the +settlement, but sailed southward till he reached a harbor which be +named St. Augustine. There the Spaniards disembarked and threw up a +fortification destined to grow into the town of St. Augustine, the +first permanent Spanish settlement north of the Gulf of Mexico. +Various attempts had been made, and with various motives. The +slave-hunter, the gold-seeker, the explorer had each tried his +fortunes in Florida, and each failed. The difficulties which had +baffled them all were at length overcome by the spirit of religious +hatred. + +Meanwhile a council of war was sitting at the French settlement, +Charlefort. Ribault, contrary to the wishes of Laudonnière and the +rest, decided to anticipate the Spaniards by an attack from the sea. A +few sick men were left with Laudonnière to garrison the fort; all the +rest went on board. Just as everything was ready for the attack, a +gale sprang up, and the fleet of Ribault, instead of bearing down on +St. Augustine, was straggling in confusion off an unknown and perilous +coast. Menendez, relieved from immediate fear for his own settlement, +determined on a bold stroke. Like Ribault, he bore down the opposition +of a cautious majority, and with five hundred picked men marched +overland through thirty miles of swamp and jungle against the French +fort. Thus each commander was exposing his own settlement in order to +menace his enemies. + +In judging, however, of the relative prudence of the two plans, it +must be remembered that an attack by land is far more under control, +and far less liable to be disarranged by unforeseen chances than one +by sea. At first it seemed as if each expedition was destined to the +same fate. The weather was as unfavorable to the Spanish by land as to +the French by sea. At one time a mutiny was threatened, but Menendez +succeeded in inspiring his men with something of his own enthusiasm, +and they persevered. Led by a French deserter, they approached the +unprotected settlement. So stormy was the night that the sentinels had +left the walls. The fort was stormed; Laudonnière and a few others +escaped to the shore and were picked up by one of Ribault's vessels +returning from its unsuccessful expedition. The rest, to the number of +one hundred and forty, were slain in the attack or taken prisoners. +The women and children were spared, the men were hung on trees with an +inscription pinned to their breasts: "Not as to Frenchmen, but as to +Lutherans." + +The fate of Ribault's party was equally wretched. All were +shipwrecked, but most apparently succeeded in landing alive. Then +began a scene of deliberate butchery, aggravated, if the French +accounts may be believed, by the most shameless treachery. As the +scattered bands of shipwrecked men wandered through the forest, +seeking to return to Fort Caroline, they were mercilessly entrapped by +friendly words, if not by explicit promises of safety. Some escaped to +the Indians, a few were at last spared by the contemptuous mercy of +the foes. Those of the survivors who profest themselves converts were +pardoned, the rest were sent to the galleys. Ribault himself was among +the murdered. If we may believe the story current in France, his head, +sawn in four parts, was set up over the corners of the fort of St. +Augustine, while a piece of his beard was sent as a trophy to the king +of Spain.... + +Dominic de Gourgues had already known as a prisoner of war the horrors +of the Spanish galleys. Whether he was a Huguenot is uncertain. +Happily in France, as the history of that and all later ages proved, +the religion of the Catholic did not necessarily deaden the feelings +of the patriot. Seldom has there been a deed of more reckless daring +than that which Dominic de Gourgues now undertook. With the proceeds +of his patrimony he bought three small ships, manned by eighty sailors +and a hundred men-at-arms. He then obtained a commission as a slaver +on the coast of Guinea, and in the summer of 1567 set sail. With these +paltry resources he aimed at overthrowing a settlement which had +already destroyed a force of twenty times his number, and which might +have been strengthened in the interval.... + +Three days were spent in making ready, and then De Gourgues, with a +hundred and sixty of his own men and his Indian allies, marched +against the enemy. In spite of the hostility of the Indians the +Spaniards seem to have taken no precaution against a sudden attack. +Menendez himself had left the colony. The Spanish force was divided +between three forts, and no proper precautions were taken for keeping +up the communications between them. Each was successively seized, the +garrison slain or made prisoners, and as each fort fell those in the +next could only make vague guesses as to the extent of the danger. +Even when divided into three the Spanish force outnumbered that of De +Gourgues, and savages with bows and arrows would have counted for +little against men with firearms and behind walls. But after the +downfall of the first fort a panic seemed to seize the Spaniards, and +the French achieved an almost bloodless victory. After the death of +Ribault and his followers nothing could be looked for but merciless +retaliation, and De Gourgues copied the severity, though not the +perfidy, of his enemies. The very details of Menendez's act were +imitated, and the trees on which the prisoners were hung bore the +inscription: "Not as Spaniards, but as traitors, robbers, and +murderers." Five weeks later De Gourgues anchored under the walls of +Rochelle, and that noble city, where civil and religious freedom found +a home In their darkest hour, received him with the honor he deserved. + + [1] From Doyle's "English Colonies in America." By permission of + the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. + + [2] Coligny's first attempt was made in 1555, when two shiploads of + Huguenot immigrants (290 persons), under Villegagnon, were sent to + Brazil. This settlement was soon destroyed by the Portuguese. + + Menendez's expedition of 1565 followed the earlier Spanish + expeditions by Ponce de Leon, Narvaez and De Soto. It sailed from + Cadiz and comprized eleven ships. Twenty-three other vessels + followed, the entire company numbering 2,646 persons. The aim + of Menendez was to begin a permanent settlement in Florida. On + arrival he found a colony of French Huguenots already in + possession, having been there three years. A conflict was + inevitable, and one which forms a most melancholy chapter in the + early history of American colonization. Menendez hanged Huguenots, + "not as Frenchmen, but as heretics," while Gourgues hanged + Spaniards "not as Spaniards, but as traitors, robbers and + murderers." After the conflicts closed the Spaniards maintained + themselves in St. Augustine until 1586, when St. Augustine was + completely destroyed by Sir Francis Drake. Two years later the + Armada of Spain was overthrown in the English Channel, largely as + the work of Drake. + + [3] In the valley of the St. Lawrence as described in Volume I. + + [4] St. Quentin is a town in northeastern France, near which on + August 10, 1557, the army of Philip II, Spain, won a great victory + over the combined armies of France and England. + + + + +II + +MENDOZA'S ACCOUNT OF THE MASSACRE[1] + + +We saw two islands, called the Bahama Islands. The shoals which lie +between them are so extensive that the billows are felt far out at +sea. The general gave orders to take soundings. The ship purchased at +Porto Rico got aground that day in two and a half fathoms of water. At +first we feared she might stay there; but she soon got off and came to +us. Our galley, one of the best chips afloat, found herself all day in +the same position, when suddenly her keel struck three times violently +against the bottom. The sailors gave themselves up for lost, and the +water commenced to pour into her hold. But, as we had a mission to +fulfil for Jesus Christ and His blessed mother, two heavy waves, which +struck her abaft, set her afloat again, and soon after we found her in +deep water, and at midnight we entered the Bahama Channel. + +On Saturday, the 25th, the captain-general (Menendez) came to visit +our vessel and get the ordnance for disembarkment at Florida. This +ordnance consisted of two rampart pieces, of two sorts of culverins, +of very small caliber, powder and balls; and he also took two soldiers +to take care of the pieces. Having armed his vessel, he stopt and made +us an address, in which he instructed us what we had to do on arrival +at the place where the French were anchored. I will not dwell on this +subject, on which there was a good deal said for and against, although +the opinion of the general finally prevailed. There were two thousand +(hundred) Frenchmen in the seaport into which we were to force an +entrance. I made some opposition to the plans, and begged the general +to consider that he had the care of a thousand souls, for which he +must give a good account.... + +On Tuesday, the 4th, we took a northerly course, keeping all the time +close to the coast. On Wednesday, the 5th, two hours before sunset, we +saw four French ships at the mouth of a river.[2] When we were two +leagues from them the first galley joined the rest of the fleet, which +was composed of four other vessels. The general concerted a plan with +the captains and pilots, and ordered the flag-ship, the _San Pelayo_, +and a _chaloupe_ to attack the French flag-ship, the _Trinity_, while +the first galley and another _chaloupe_ would attack the French +galley, both of which vessels were very large and powerful. All the +ships of our fleet put themselves in good position; the troops were in +the best of spirits, and full of confidence in the great talents of +the captain-general. They followed the galley; but, as our general is +a very clever and artful officer, he did not fire, nor seek to make +any attack on the enemy. He went straight to the French galley, and +cast anchor about eight paces from her. The other vessels went to the +windward, and very near the enemy. During the maneuvers, which lasted +until about two hours after sunset, not a word was said on either +side. Never in my life have I known such stillness. Our general +inquired of the French galley, which was the vessel nearest his, +"Whence does this fleet come?" They answered, "From France." "What are +you doing here?" said the Adelantado. "This is the territory of King +Philip II. I order you to leave directly; for I neither know who you +are nor what you want here." + +The French commander then replied, "I am bringing soldiers and +supplies to the fort of the King of France." He then asked the name of +the general of our fleet, and was told, "Pedro Menendez de Aviles, +Captain-general of the King of Spain, who have come to hang all +Lutherans I find here." Our general then asked him the name of his +commander, and he replied, "Lord Gasto." While this parleying was +going on, a long-boat was sent from the galley to the flag-ship. The +person charged with this errand managed to do it so secretly that we +could not hear what was said; but we understood the reply of the +French to be, "I am the admiral," which made us think he wished to +surrender, as they were in so small a force. Scarcely had the French +made this reply, when they slipped their cables, spread their sails, +and passed through our midst. Our admiral, seeing this, followed the +French commander, and called upon him to lower his sails, in the name +of King Philip, to which he received an impertinent answer. Immediatly +our admiral gave an order to discharge a small culverin, the ball from +which struck the vessel amidship, and I thought she was going to +founder. We gave chase, and some time after he again called on them to +lower their sails. "I would sooner die first than surrender!" replied +the French commander. The order was given to fire a second shot, which +carried off five or six men; but, as these miserable devils are very +good sailors, they maneuvered so well that we could not take one of +them; and, notwithstanding all the guns we fired at them, we did not +sink one of their ships. We only got possession of one of their large +boats, which was of great service to us afterward. During the whole +night our flag-ship (the _San Pelayo_) and the galley chased the +French flag-ship (_Trinity_) and galley.... + +The next morning, being fully persuaded that the storm had made a +wreck of our galley, or that, at least, she had been driven a hundred +leagues out to sea, we decided that so soon as daylight came we would +weigh anchor, and withdraw in good order, to a river (Seloy) which was +below the French colony, and there disembark, and construct a fort, +which we would defend until assistance came to us. + +On Thursday, just as day appeared, we sailed toward the vessel at +anchor, passed very close to her, and would certainly have captured +her, when we saw another vessel appear on the open sea, which we +thought was one of ours. At the same moment, however, we thought we +recognized the French admiral's ship. We perceived the ship on the +open sea: it was the French galley of which we had been in pursuit. +Finding ourselves between these two vessels, we decided to direct our +course toward the galley, for the sake of deceiving them and +preventing them from attacking us, so as not to give them any time to +wait. This bold maneuver having succeeded, we sought the river Seloy +and port, of which I have spoken, where we had the good fortune to +find our galley, and another vessel which had planned the same thing +we had. Two companies of infantry now disembarked: that of Captain +Andres Soyez Patino, and that of Captain Juan de San Vincente, who is +a very distinguished gentleman. They were well received by the +Indians, who gave them a large house belonging to a chief, and +situated near the shore of a river. Immediately Captain Patino and +Captain San Vincente, both men of talent and energy, ordered an +intrenchment to be built around this house, with a slope of earth and +fascines, these being the only means of defense possible in that +country, where stones are nowhere to be found. Up to to-day we have +disembarked twenty-four pieces of bronze guns of different calibers, +of which the least weighed fifteen hundred weight. Our fort is at a +distance of about fifteen leagues from that of the enemy (Fort +Carolin). The energy and talents of those two brave captains, joined +to the efforts of their brave soldiers, who had no tools with which to +work the earth, accomplished the construction of this fortress of +defence; and, when the general disembarked he was quite surprized with +what had been done. + +On Saturday, the 8th, the general landed with many banners spread, to +the sound of trumpets and salutes of artillery. As I had gone ashore +the evening before, I took a cross and went to meet him, singing the +hymn _Te Deum laudamus_. The general marched up to the cross, followed +by all who accompanied him, and there they all kneeled and embraced +the cross. A large number of Indians watched these proceedings and +imitated all they saw done. The same day the general took formal +possession of the country in the name of his Majesty, and all the +captains took the oath of allegiance to him, as their general and +governor of the country.... + +Our general was very bold in all military matters, and a great enemy +of the French. He immediately assembled his captains and planned an +expedition to attack the French settlement and fort on the river with +five hundred men; and, in spite of the opinion of a majority of them, +and of my judgment and of another priest, he ordered his plan to be +carried out. Accordingly, on Monday, September 17, he set out with +five hundred men, well provided with fire-arms and pikes, each soldier +carrying with him a sack of bread and supply of wine for the journey. +They also took with them two Indian chiefs, who were the implacable +enemies of the French, to serve as guides.... + +I have previously stated that our brave captain-general set out on the +17th of September with five hundred arquebusiers and pikemen, under +the guidance of two Indian chiefs, who showed them the route to the +enemy's fort. They marched the whole distance until Tuesday evening, +the 17th of September, 1565, when they arrived within a quarter of a +league of the enemy's fort (Carolin), where they remained all night up +to their waists in water. When daylight came, Captains Lopez, Patino, +and Martin Ochoa had already been to examine the fort, but, when they +went to attack the fort, a greater part of the soldiers were so +confused they scarcely knew what they were about. + +On Thursday morning our good captain-general, accompanied by his +son-in-law, Don Pedro de Valdes, and Captain Patino, went to inspect +the fort. He showed so much vivacity that he did not seem to have +suffered by any of the hardships to which he had been exposed, and, +seeing him march off so brisk, the others took courage, and without +exception followed his example. It appears the enemy did not perceive +their approach until the very moment of the attack, as it was very +early in the morning and had rained in torrents. The greater part of +the soldiers of the fort were still in bed. Some arose in their +shirts, and others, quite naked, begged for quarter; but, in spite of +that, more than one hundred and forty were killed. A great Lutheran +cosmographer and magician was found among the dead. The rest, +numbering about three hundred, scaled the walls, and either took +refuge in the forest or on their ships floating in the river, laden +with treasures, so that in an hour's time the fort was in our +possession, without our having lost a single man, or even had one +wounded. There were six vessels on the river at the time. They took +one brig, and an unfinished galley and another vessel, which had been +just discharged of a load of rich merchandise, and sunk. These vessels +were placed at the entrance to the bar to blockade the harbor, as they +expected we would come by sea. Another, laden with wine and +merchandise, was near the port. She refused to surrender, and spread +her sails, when they fired on her from the fort, and sunk her in a +spot where neither the vessel nor cargo will be lost. + +The taking of this fort gained us many valuable objects, namely, two +hundred pikes, a hundred and twenty helmets, a quantity of arquebuses +and shields, a quantity of clothing, linen, fine cloths, two hundred +tons of flour, a good many barrels of biscuit, two hundred bushels of +wheat, three horses, four asses, and two she-asses, hogs, tallow, +books, furnace, flour-mill, and many other things of little value. But +the greatest advantage of this victory is certainly the triumph which +our Lord has granted us, and which will be the means of the holy +Gospel being introduced into this country, a thing necessary to +prevent the loss of many souls.... + +When we had reached the sea, we went about three leagues along the +coast in search of our comrades. It was about ten o'clock at night +when we met them, and there was a mutual rejoicing at having found +each other. Not far off we saw the camp fires of our enemies, and our +general ordered two of our soldiers to go and reconnoiter them, +concealing themselves in the bushes, and to observe well the ground +where they were encamped, so as to know what could be done. About two +o'clock the men returned, saying that the enemy was on the other side +of the river, and that we could not get at them. Immediately the +general ordered two soldiers and four sailors to return to where we +bad left the boats, and bring them down the river, so that we might +pass over to where the enemy was. Then he marched his troops forward +to the river, and we arrived before daylight. We concealed ourselves +in a hollow between the sandhills, with the Indians who were with us; +and, when it became light, we saw a great many of the enemy go down to +the river to get shell-fish for food. Soon after we saw a flag +hoisted, as a war-signal. + +Our general, who was observing all that, enlightened by the Holy +Spirit, said to us, "I intend to change these clothes for those of a +sailor, and take a Frenchman with me (one of those whom we had brought +with us from Spain), and we will go and talk with these Frenchmen. +Perhaps they are without supplies, and would be glad to surrender +without fighting." He had scarcely finished speaking before he put his +plan into execution. As soon as he had called to them, one of them +swam toward and spoke to him; told him of their having been +shipwrecked, and the distress they were in; that they had not eaten +bread for eight or ten days; and, what is more, stated that all, or at +least the greater part of them, were Lutherans. Immediately the +general sent him back to his countrymen, to say they must surrender, +and give up their arms, or he would put them all to death. A French +gentleman, who was a sergeant, brought back the reply that they would +surrender on condition their lives should be spared. After having +parleyed a long time, our brave captain-general answered "that he +would make no promises, that they must surrender unconditionally, and +lay down their arms, because, if he spared their lives, he wanted them +to be grateful for it, and, if they were put to death, that there +should be no cause for complaint." Seeing that there was nothing else +left for them to do, the sergeant returned to the camp; and soon after +he brought all their arms and flags, and gave them up to the general, +and surrendered unconditionally. Finding they were all Lutherans, the +captain-general ordered them all to be put to death; but, as I was a +priest, and had bowels of mercy, I begged him to grant me the favor of +sparing those whom we might find to be Christians. He granted it; and +I made investigations, and found ten or twelve of the men Roman +Catholics, whom we brought back. All the others were executed, because +they were Lutherans and enemies of our Holy Catholic faith. All this +took place on Saturday (St. Michael's Day), September 29, 1565.[3] + + [1] Francisco Lopez de Mendoza was the chaplain of the expedition. + His account is printed in "Old South Leaflets." + + [2] These ships, commanded by Ribault,--seven in number, with 500 + men besides families of artizans on board,--had arrived at the + mouth of the St. John's River on August 29, 1565. The four left + outside, as seen by Menendez, were at the time disembarking their + passengers. + + [3] When the French Government learned of this massacre, the event + did not arouse any particular interest. Indeed, the colony seems + not to have had any special protection from the home authorities. + Had the contrary been the case, it would have been easily possible + for the French to have built up a flourishing colony in America + nearly half a century before the English were ever established in + the new world. + + + + +SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S VIRGINIA COLONIES + +(1584-1587) + +I + +THE ACCOUNT BY JOHN A. DOYLE[1] + + +The task in which Gilbert[2] had failed was to be undertaken by one +better qualified to carry it out. If any Englishman in that age seemed +to be marked out as the founder of a colonial empire, it was Raleigh. +Like Gilbert, he had studied books; like Drake, he could rule men. The +pupil of Coligny, the friend of Spenser, traveler-soldier, scholar, +courtier, statesman, Raleigh with all his varied graces and powers +rises before us, the type and personification of the age in which he +lived. The associations of his youth, and the training of his early +manhood, fitted him to sympathize with the aims of his half-brother +Gilbert, and there is little reason to doubt that Raleigh had a share +in his undertaking and his failure. + +In 1584 he obtained a patent precisely similar to Gilbert's. His first +step showed the thoughtful and well-planned system on which he began +his task. Two ships were sent out, not with any idea of settlement, +but to examine and report upon the country. Their commanders were +Arthur Barlow and Philip Amidas. To the former we owe the extant +record of the voyage: the name of the latter would suggest that he was +a foreigner. Whether by chance or design, they took a more southerly +course than any of their predecessors.... + +Coasting along for about a hundred and twenty miles the voyagers +reached an inlet and with some difficulty entered. They solemnly took +possession of the land in the Queen's name, and then delivered it over +to Raleigh according to his patent. They soon discovered that the land +upon which they had touched was an island about twenty miles long and +not above six broad, named, as they afterward learned, Roanoke. +Beyond, separating them from the mainland, lay an enclosed sea, +studded with more than a hundred fertile and well-wooded islets.... + +Barlow and Amidas returned to England in the middle of September. With +them they brought two of the savages, named Wanchese and Manteo. A +probable tradition tells us that the Queen herself named the country +Virginia, and that Raleigh's knighthood was the reward and +acknowledgement of his success. On the strength of this report Raleigh +at once made preparations for a settlement. A fleet of seven ships was +provided for the conveyance of a hundred and eight settlers. The fleet +was under the command of Sir Richard Grenville, who was to establish +the settlement and leave it under the charge of Ralph Lane.... + +On the 20th of June the fleet reached the coast of Florida, and three +days later narrowly escaped being cast away off Cape Fear. In a few +days more they anchored at Wococon, an island near Roanoke. In +entering the harbor the largest ship, the _Tiger_, struck a sand-bar, +and was nearly lost, either through the clumsiness or treachery of the +pilot, Simon Fernando, a Portuguese. On the 11th of July Grenville, +with forty others, including Lane, Amidas, and the chief men of the +expedition, crossed over to the mainland. Taking northerly direction, +they explored the coast as far as Secotan, an Indian town some sixty +miles mouth of Roanoke, where they were hospitably received by the +savages. It is melancholy, after the bright picture of the intercourse +between the natives and the English drawn by Barlow, to have to record +hostilities, in which by far the greater share of blame lay with our +countrymen. On the voyage back to Roanoke a silver cup was stolen from +the English at one of the Indian villages. In revenge the English put +the inhabitants to flight, burnt the village and destroyed the crops. +On the 3d of August one ship sailed home, and on the 25th Grenville +left the colony, followed, as it would seem, during the course of the +next month by the rest of the fleet[3].... + +The site of the settlement was at the northeast corner of the island +of Roanoke, whence the settlers could command the strait. There, even +now, choked by vines and underwood, and here and there broken by the +crumbling remains of an earthen bastion, may be traced the outlines of +the ditch which enclosed the camp, some forty yards square, the home +of the first English settlers in the New World.... + +If the failure of his colony was likely to deter Raleigh from further +efforts, this was more than outweighed by the good report of the +country given both by Lane and Heriot. Accordingly, in the very next +year, Raleigh put out another and a larger expedition under the +leadership of John White. The constitution of White's expedition would +seem to show that it was designed to be more a colony, properly +speaking, than Lane's settlement at Roanoke. A government was formed +by Raleigh, consisting of White and twelve others, incorporated as the +governor and assistants of the city of Raleigh. Of the hundred and +fifty settlers seventeen were women, of whom seven seem to have been +unmarried. The emigrants evidently did not go as mere explorers or +adventurers; they were to be the seed of a commonwealth.... + +On the 2d of July the fleet reached Haterask, the port at which +Grenville had landed on his last voyage. There White took fifty men +ashore to search for the fifteen whom Grenville had left there. They +found nothing but the bones of one man, slain, as they afterward +learned, by the Indians. The rest had disappeared, and it was not till +some time afterward that their countrymen learned any tidings of their +fate. Ignorant, no doubt, of the altered feelings of the natives, +Grenvile's men had lived carelessly, and kept no watch. Pemissapan's +warriors had seized the opportunity to revenge the death of their +chief, and had sent a party of thirty men against the English +settlement. Two of the chief men were sent forward to demand a parley +with two of the English. The latter fell into the trap, and sent out +two of their number. One of these was instantly seized and killed, +whereupon the other fled. The thirty Indians then rushed out and fired +the house, in which the English settlers took refuge. The English, +thus dislodged, forced their way out, losing one man in the skirmish, +and at last, after being sorely prest by the arrows of their enemies, +and by their skill in fighting behind covert, they reached the boat +and escaped to Haterask. After this neither Indians nor English ever +heard of them again.... + +A more hopeful omen might be drawn from the birth of a child five days +later, the first born to English parents in the New World. Her father, +Ananias Dare, was one of the twelve assistants, and her mother, +Eleanor, was the daughter of John White. Each event, the birth of +Virginia Dare, the baptism and ennobling of Manteo, was trivial in +itself, yet when brought together, the contrast gives a solemn +meaning. It seemed as if within five days the settlement of Roanoke +had seen an old world pass away, a new world born. + +In August White wished to send home two of the assistants to represent +the state of the colony, but, for some reason, none of them were +willing to go. The wish of the colony generally seemed to be that +White himself should undertake the mission. After some demur, chiefly +on the ground that his own private interests required his presence in +the settlement, White assented, and on the 27th of August he +sailed.... + +Soon after White's return Raleigh fitted out a fleet under the command +of Grenville. Before that fleet could sail Raleigh and Grenville were +called off to a task even more pressing than the relief of the +Virginia plantation. Yet, notwithstanding the prospect of a Spanish +invasion, White persuaded Raleigh to send out two small vessels, with +which White himself sailed from Bideford on the 25th of April, 1588. +The sailors, however, fell into the snare so often fatal to the +explorers of that age. In the words of a later writer, whose vigorous +language seemed to have been borrowed from some contemporary +chronicler, the captains, "being more intent on a gainful voyage than +the relief of the colony, ran in chase of prizes; till at last one of +them, meeting two ships of war, was, after a bloody fight, overcome, +boarded and rifled. In this maimed, ransacked, and ragged condition +she returned to England in a month's time; and in about three weeks +after the other also returned, having perhaps tasted of the same fare, +at least without performing her intended voyage, to the distress, and, +as it proved, the utter destruction of the colony of Virginia, and to +the great displeasure of their patron at home." + +Raleigh had now spent forty thousand pounds on the colonization of +Virginia, with absolutely no return. In March, 1589, he made an +assignment, granting to Sir Thomas Smith, White and others the +privilege of trading in Virginia, while he proved at the same time +that he had not lost his interest in the undertaking by a gift of a +hundred pounds for the conversion of the natives. The unhappy +colonists gained nothing by the change. For a whole year no relief was +sent. When, at length, White sailed with three ships, he or his +followers imitated the folly of their predecessors, and preferred +buccaneering among the Spaniards in the West Indies to conveying +immediate relief to the colonists. On their arrival nothing was to be +seen of the settlers. After some search the name Croaton was seen +carved on a post, according to an arrangement made with White before +his departure, by which the settlers were thus to indicate the course +they had taken. Remnants of their goods were found, but no trace of +the settlers themselves. Years afterward, when Virginia had been at +length settled by Englishmen, a faint tradition found its way among +them of a band of white captives, who, after being for years kept by +the Indians in laborious slavery, were at length massacred. Such were +the only tidings of Raleigh's colonists that ever reached the ears of +their countrymen. White, with his three ships, returned, and the +colonization of Virginia was for a time at an end. Even Raleigh's +indomitable spirit gave way, and he seems henceforth to have abandoned +all hope of a plantation. Yet he did not, till after fifteen years of +disappointment and failure, give up the search for his lost settlers. +Before he died the great work of his life had been accomplished, but +by other hands. In spite of the intrigues of the Spanish court and the +scoffs of playwrights, Virginia had been settled and had become a +flourishing colony. A ship had sailed into London laden with Virginia +goods, and an Indian princess,[4] the wife of an Englishman, had been +received at court, and had for a season furnished wonder and amusement +to the fashionable world. + + [1] From Doyle's "English Colonies in America." By permission of + the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. + + [2] Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a half-brother of Raleigh, is here + referred to. In 1578 he had obtained royal permission to found a + colony in America, but his expedition, after starting, turned back, + a failure. In 1588 he again set out, landing at St. John's, + Newfoundland, where he established the first English colony in + North America. On returning home his ship was lost in a storm off + the Azores. + + [3] See in the next chapter an account of Lane's return with Drake. + + [4] Pocahontas, married to John Rolfe, went to England with Rolfe + and there died about a year later. She left a son who returned to + Virginia, where he left descendants, among whom was the famous John + Randolph of Roanoke. John Smith's account of the saving of his life + by Pocahontas is printed in Volume I of "The Best of the World's + Classics." + + + + +II + +THE RETURN OF THE COLONISTS WITH SIR FRANCIS DRAKE + +(1586) + +BY RALPH LANE[1] + + +This fell out the first of June, 1586, and the eight of the same came +advertisement to me from captaine Stafford, lying at my lord Admirals +Island, that he had discovered a great fleet of three and twentie +sailes: but whether they were friends or foes, he could not yet +discerne. He advised me to stand upon as good guard as I could. + +The ninth of the sayd moneth he himselfe came unto me, having that +night before, and that same day travelled by land twenty miles: and I +must truely report of him from the first to the last; hee was the +gentleman that never spared labour or perill either by land or water, +faire weather or foule, to performe any service committed unto him. + +He brought me a letter from the Generall Sir Francis Drake, with a +most bountifull and honourable offer for the supply of our necessities +to the performance of the action wee were entred into; and that not +only of victuals, munition, and clothing, but also of barks, +pinnesses, and boats; they also by him to be victualled, manned and +furnished to my contentation. + +The tenth day he arrived in the road of our bad harborow: and comming +there to an anker, the eleventh day I came to him, whom I found in +deeds most honourably to performe that which in writing and message he +had most curteously offered, he having aforehand propounded the matter +of all the captaines of his fleet, and got their liking and consent +thereto. + +With such thanks unto him and his captaines for his care both of us +and of our action, not as the matter deserved, but as I could both for +my company and myselfe, I (being aforehand prepared what I would +desire) craved at his hands that it would please him to take with him +into England a number of weake and unfit men for any good action, +which I would deliver to him; and in place of them to supply me of his +company with oare-men, artificers, and others. + +That he would leave us so much shipping and victuall, as about August +then next following would cary me and all my company into England, +when we had discovered somewhat, that for lacke of needfull provision +in time left with us as yet remained undone. + +That it woulde please him withall to leave some sufficient Masters not +onely to cary us into England, when time should be, but also to search +the coast for some better harborow, if there were any, and especially +to helpe us to some small boats and oare-men. Also for a supply of +calievers, hand weapons, match and lead, tooles, apparell, and such +like. + +He having received these my requests, according to his usuall +commendable maner of government (as it was told me) calling his +captains to counsell; the resolution was that I should send such of my +officers of my company as I used in such matters, with their notes, to +goe aboord with him; which were the Master of the victuals, the Keeper +of the store, and the Vicetreasurer: to whom he appointed forthwith +for me _The Francis_, being a very proper barke of 70 tun, and tooke +present order for bringing of victual aboord her for 100 men for foure +moneths, with all my other demands whatsoever, to the uttermost. + +And further, he appointed for me two pinnesses, and foure small boats: +and that which was to performe all his former liberality toward us, +was that he had gotten the full assents of two of as sufficient +experimented Masters as were any in his fleet, by judgment of them +that knew them, with very sufficient gings to tary with me, and to +employ themselves most earnestly in the action, as I should appoint +them, untill the terme which I promised of our returne into England +againe. The names of one of those Masters was Abraham Kendall, the +other Griffith Herne. + +While these things were in hand, the provision aforesaid being +brought, and in bringing aboord, my sayd Masters being also gone +aboord, my sayd barks having accepted of their charge, and mine owne +officers, with others in like sort of my company with them (all which +was dispatched by the sayd Generall the 12 of the sayde moneth) the 13 +of the same there arose such an unwoonted storme, and continued foure +dayes, that had like to have driven all on shore, if the Lord had not +held his holy hand over them, and the Generall very providently +foreseene the woorst himselfe, then about my dispatch putting himselfe +aboord: but in the end having driven sundry of the fleet to put to Sea +the _Francis_ also with all my provisions, my two Masters, and my +company aboord, she was seene to be free from the same, and to put +cleere to Sea. + +This storme having continued from the 13 to the 16 of the moneth, and +thus my barke put away as aforesayd, the Generall comming ashore made +a new proffer unto me; which was a ship of 170 tunne, called The barke +_Bonner_, with a sufficient Master and guide to tary with me the time +appointed, and victualled sufficiently to cary me and my company into +England, with all provisions as before: but he tolde me that he would +not for any thing undertake to have her brought into our harbour, and +therefore he was to leave her in the road, and to leave the care of +the rest unto my selfe, and advised me to consider with my company of +our case, and to deliver presently unto him in writing what I would +require him to doe for us; which being within his power, he did assure +me as well for his Captaines as for himselfe, shoulde be most +willingly performed. + +Heereupon calling such Captaines and gentlemen of my company as then +were at hand, who were all as privy as my selfe to the Generals offer; +their whole request was to me, that considering the case that we stood +in, the weaknesse of our company, the small number of the same, the +carying away of our first appointed barke, with those two speciall +Masters, with our principall provisions in the same, by the very hand +of God as it seemed, stretched out to take us from thence; considering +also, that his second offer, though most honourable of his part, yet +of ours not to be taken, insomuch as there was no possibility for her +with any safety to be brought into the harbour: seeing furthermore, +our hope for supply with Sir Richard Greenville, so undoubtedly +promised us before Easter, not yet come, neither then likely to come +this yeere, considering the doings in England for Flanders, and also +for America, that therefore I would resolve my selfe with my company +to goe into England in that fleet, and accordingly to make request to +the Generall in all our names, that he would be pleased to give us +present passage with him. Which request of ours by my selfe delivered +unto him, hee most readily assented unto: and so he sending +immediately his pinnesses unto our Island for the fetching away of a +few that there were left with our baggage, the weather was so +boisterous, and the pinnesses so often on ground, that the most of all +we had, with all our Cards, Books and writings were by the Sailers +cast overboard, the greater number of the fleet being much agrieved +with their long and dangereus abode in that miserable road. + +From whence the Generall in the name of the Almighty, weying his +ankers (having bestowed us among his fleet) for the reliefe of whom +hee had in that storme susteined more perill of wracke then in all his +former most honourable actions against the Spanyards, with praises +unto God for all, set saile the nineteenth of June 1596, and arrived +in Portsmouth the seven and twentieth of July the same yeere. + + [1] Ralph Lane went out to Virginia in 1585 with the ships + dispatched in that year by Raleigh and commanded by Sir Richard + Grenville, the company numbering one hundred householders. After + landing at Roanoke, Grenville returned to England for supplies, + leaving the colony in charge of Lane. Lane has left an important + account of the experiences and sufferings of the colonists during + the absence of Grenville, whose return was delayed. Drake, + meanwhile coming up from St. Augustine, which he had just + destroyed, put in at Roanoke in 1586, and the whole company + returned to England with him. Grenville afterward arrived in + Roanoke, finding no one there. He then returned to England, leaving + on the island fifteen men. In the following year Raleigh sent out + to Roanoke John White. When White arrived he found that these men + had all been massacred by the Indians. Other expeditions were sent + out later, but none was able to establish any colony at Roanoke. + Lane's account is printed In "Old South Leaflets." + + + + +III + +THE BIRTH OF VIRGINIA DARE[1] + +(1587) + +BY JOHN WHITE + + +The two and twentieth day of July we came safely to Cape Hatteras, +where our ship and pinnace anchored. The Governor went aboard the +pinnace accompanied by forty of his best men, intending to pass up to +Roanoke. He hoped to find those fifteen Englishmen whom Sir Richard +Grenville had left there the year before. With these he meant to have +a conference concerning the state of the country and the savages, +intending then to return to the fleet and pass along the coast to the +Bay of Chesapeake. Here we intended to make our settlement and fort +according to the charge given us among other directions in writing +under the hand of Sir Walter Raleigh. We passed to Roanoke and the +same night at sunset went ashore on the island, in the place where our +fifteen men were left. But we found none of them, nor any sign that +they had been there, saving only that we found the bones of one of +them, whom the savages had slain long before. + +The Governor with several of his company walked the next day to the +north end of the island, where Master Ralph Lane, with his men the +year before, had built his fort with sundry dwelling houses. We hoped +to find some signs here, or some certain knowledge of our fifteen men. + +When we came thither we found the fort razed, but all the houses +standing unhurt, saving that the lower rooms of them, and of the fort +also, were overgrown with melons of different sorts, and deer were in +rooms feeding on those melons. So we returned to our company without +the hope of ever seeing any of the fifteen men living. + +The same day an order was given that every man should be employed in +remodelling those houses which we found standing, and in making more +cottages. + +On the eighteenth a daughter was born in Roanoke to Eleanor, the +daughter of the Governor and the wife of Ananias Dare. This baby was +christened on the Sunday following, and because this child was the +first Christian born in Virginia she was named Virginia Dare. + +By this time our shipmasters had unloaded the goods and victuals of +the planters and taken wood and fresh water, and were newly calking +and trimming their vessels for their return to England. The settlers +also prepared their letters and news to send back to England. + + [1] Virginia Dare was the first child of English parentage born in + America. Her father was Ananias Dare. She was named Virginia after + the colony which had already received the name in compliment to + Queen Elizabeth. + + + + +BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLD'S DISCOVERY OF CAPE COD[1] + +(1602) + +I + +BY GABRIEL ARCHER, ONE OF HIS COMPANIONS + + +The said captain [Gosnold] did set sail from Falmouth the day and year +above written accompanied with thirty-two persons, whereof eight +mariners and sailors, twelve purposing upon the discovery to return +with the ship for England, the rest remain there for population. The +fourteenth of April following, we had sight of Saint Mary's, an island +of the Azores.... + +The fifteenth day of May we had again sight of the land, which made +ahead, being as we thought an island, by reason of a large sound that +appeared westward between it and the main, for coming to the west end +thereof, we did perceive a large opening, we called it Shoal Hope. +Near this cape we came to anchor in fifteen fathoms, where we took +great store of codfish, for which we altered the name, and called it +Cape Cod.[2] Here we saw sculls of herring, mackerel, and other small +fish, in great abundance. This is a low sandy shoal, but without +danger, also we came to anchor again in sixteen fathoms, fair by the +land in the latitude of 42 degrees. This cape is well near a mile +broad, and lieth north-east by east. The captain went here ashore and +found the ground to be full of pease, strawberries, whortleberries, +&c., as then unripe, the sand also by the shore somewhat deep, the +firewood there by us taken in was of cypress, birch, witch-hazel and +beech. A young Indian came here to the captain, armed with his bow and +arrows, and had certain plates of copper hanging at his ears; he +showed a willingness to help us in our occasions. + +The sixteenth, we trended the coast southerly, which was all champaign +and full of grass, but the island somewhat woody. Twelve leagues from +Cape Cod, we descried a point with some breach, a good distance off, +and keeping our luff to double it, we came on the sudden into shoal +water, yet well quitted ourselves thereof. This breach we called +Tucker's Terror, upon his exprest fear. The point we named Point Care; +having passed it we bore up again with the land, and in the night came +with it anchoring in eight fathoms, the ground good. + +The seventeenth, appeared many breaches round about us, so as we +continued that day without remove. The eighteenth, being fair we sent +forth the boat, to sound over a breach, that in our course lay of +another point, by us called Gilbert's Point, who returned us four, +five, six, and seven fathoms over. Also, a discovery of divers islands +which after proved to be hills and hammocks, distinct within the land. +This day there came unto the ship's side divers canoes, the Indians +apparelled as aforesaid, with tobacco and pipes steeled with copper, +skins, artificial strings and other trifles to barter; one had hanging +about his neck a plate of rich copper, in length a foot, in breadth +half a foot for a breastplate, the ears of all the rest had pendants +of copper. Also, one of them had his face painted over, and head stuck +with feathers in manner of a turkey-cock's train. These are more +timorous than those of the Savage Rock, yet very thievish. + +The nineteenth, we passed over the breach of Gilbert's Point in four +or five fathoms, and anchored a league or somewhat more beyond it; +between the last two points are two leagues, the interim, along shoal +water, the latitude here is 41 degrees two third parts. + +The twentieth, by the ship's side, we there killed penguins, and saw +many sculls of fish. The coast from Gilbert's Point to the supposed +isles lieth east and by south. Here also we discovered two inlets +which might promise fresh water, inwardly whereof we perceived much +smoke, as though some population had there been. This coast is very +full of people, for that as we trended the same savages still run +along the shore, as men much admiring at us. + +The one-and-twentieth, we went coasting from Gilbert's Point to the +supposed isles, in ten, nine, eight, seven, and six fathoms, close +aboard the shore, and that depth lieth a league off. A little from the +supposed isles, appeared unto us an opening, with which we stood, +judging it to be the end which Captain Gosnold descried from Cape Cod, +and as he thought to extend some thirty or more miles in length, and +finding there but three fathoms a league off, we omitted to make +further discovery of the same, calling it Shoal Hope. + +From this opening the main lieth southwest, which coasting along we +saw a disinhabited island, which so afterward appeared unto us: we +bore with it, and named it Martha's Vineyard; from Shoal Hope it is +eight leagues in circuit, the island is five miles, and hath 41 +degrees and one quarter of latitude. The place most pleasant; for the +two-and-twentieth, we went ashore, and found It full of wood, vines, +gooseberry bushes, whortleberries, raspberries, eglantines, &c. Here +we had cranes, stearnes, shoulers, geese, and divers other birds which +there at that time upon the cliffs being sandy with some rocky stones, +did breed and had young. In this place we saw deer: here we rode in +eight fathoms near the shore where we took great store of cod,--as +before at Cape Cod, but much better. + +The three-and-twentieth we weighed, and toward night came to anchor at +the northwest part of this island, where the next morning offered unto +us fast running thirteen savages apparelled as aforesaid, and armed +with bows and arrows without any fear. They brought tobacco, +deer-skins, and some sodden fish. These offered themselves unto us in +great familiarity, who seemed to be well-conditioned. They came more +rich in copper than any before. This island is sound, and hath no +danger about it. + +The four-and-twentieth, we set sail and doubled the Cape of another +island next unto it, which we called Dover Cliff, and then came into a +fair sound[3], where we rode all night; the next morning we sent off +one boat to discover another cape, that lay between us and the main, +from which were a ledge of rocks a mile into the sea, but all above +water, and without danger; we went about them, and came to anchor in +eight fathoms, a quarter of a mile from the shore, in one of the +stateliest sounds that ever I was in. This called we Gosnold's Hope; +the north bank whereof is the main, which stretcheth east and west. +This island Captain Gosnold called Elizabeth's isle, where we +determined our abode; the distance between every one of these islands +is, viz, from Martha's Vineyard to Dover Cliff, half a league over the +sound, thence to Elizabeth's isle[4], one league distant. From +Elizabeth's island unto the main is four leagues. On the north side, +near adjoining unto the island Elizabeth, is an islet in compass half +a mile, full of cedars, by me called Hill's Hap, to the northward of +which, in the mouth of an opening on the main, appeareth another the +like, that I called Hap's Hill, for that I hope much hap may be +expected from it. + +The eight-and-twentieth we entered counsel about our abode and +plantation, which was concluded to be in the west part of Elizabeth's +island. The north-east thereof running from out our ken. The south and +north standeth in an equal parallel.... + +The one-and-thirtieth, Captain Gosnold, desirous to see the main +because of the distance, he set sail over; where coming to anchor, +went ashore with certain of his company, and immediately there +presented unto him men, women, and children, who, with all courteous +kindness entertained him, giving him certain skins of wild beasts, +which may be rich furs, tobacco, turtles, hemp, artificial strings +colored, chains, and such like things as at the instant they had about +them. These are a fair-conditioned people. On all the sea-coast along +we found mussel shells that in color did represent mother-of-pearl, +but not having means to dredge, could not apprehend further knowledge +thereof. This main is the goodliest continent that ever we saw, +promising more by far than we any way did expect; for it is +replenished with fair fields, and in them fragrant flowers, also +meadows, and hedged in with stately groves, being furnished also with +pleasant brooks, and beautified with two main rivers that (as we +judge) may haply become good harbors, and conduct us to the hopes men +so greedily do thirst after.... + +The first of June we employed ourselves in getting sassafras, and the +building of our fort. The second, third, and fourth, we wrought hard +to make ready our house for the provision to be had ashore to sustain +us till our ship's return. This day from the main came to our ship's +side a canoe, with their lord or chief commander, for that they made +little stay only pointing to the sun, as in sign that the next day he +would come and visit us, which he did accordingly. + +The fifth, we continued our labor, when there came unto us ashore from +the main fifty savages, stout and lusty men with their bows and +arrows; amongst them there seemed to be one of authority, because the +rest made an inclining respect unto him. The ship was at their coming +a league off, and Captain Gosnold aboard, and so likewise Captain +Gilbert, who almost never went ashore, the company with me only eight +persons. These Indians in hasty manner came toward us, so as we +thought fit to make a stand at an angle between the sea and a fresh +water; I moved myself toward him seven or eight steps, and clapt my +hands first on the sides of mine head, then on my breast, and after +presented my musket with a threatening countenance, thereby to signify +unto them, either a choice of peace or war, whereupon he using me with +mine own signs of peace, I stept forth and embraced him; his company +then all sat down in manner like greyhounds upon their heels, with +whom my company fell a bartering. By this time Captain Gosnold was +come with twelve men more from aboard, and to show the savage seignior +that he was our Captain, we received him in a guard, which he passing +through, saluted the seignior with ceremonies of our salutations, +whereat he nothing moved or altered himself. Our Captain gave him a +straw hat and a pair of knives; the hat awhile he wore, but the knives +he beheld with great marveling, being very bright and sharp; this our +courtesy made them all in love with us.... + +The eighth we divided the victuals, namely, the ship's store for +England, and that of the planters, which by Captain Gilbert's +allowance could be but six weeks for six months, whereby there fell +out controversy, the rather, for that some seemed secretly to +understand of a purpose Captain Gilbert had not to return with supply +of the issue, those goods should make by him to be carried home. +Besides, there wanted not ambitious conceits in the minds of some +wrangling and ill-disposed persons who overthrew the stay there at +that time, which upon consultation thereof had, about five days after +was fully resolved all for England again. There came in this interim +aboard unto us, that stayed all night, an Indian, whom we used kindly, +and the next day sent ashore; he showed himself the most sober of all +the rest, we held him sent as a spy. In the morning, he filched away +our pothooks, thinking he had not done any ill therein; being ashore +we bid him strike fire, which with an emerald stone (such as the +glaziers use to cut glass) he did. I take it to be the very same that +in Latin is called _smiris_, for striking therewith upon touch-wood +that of purpose he had, by means of a mineral stone used therein, +sparkles proceeded and forthwith kindled with making of flame. The +ninth, we continued working on our storehouse, for as yet remained in +us a desired resolution of making stay. The tenth, Captain Gosnold +fell down with the ship to the little islet of cedars, called Hill's +Hap, to take in cedar wood, leaving me and nine more in the fort, only +with three meals meat, upon promise to return the next day.... + +The thirteenth, began some of our company that before vowed to stay, +to make revolt: whereupon the planters diminishing, all was given +over. The fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth, we spent in getting +sassafras and fire-wood of cedar, leaving house and little fort, by +ten men in nineteen days sufficient made to harbor twenty persons at +least with their necessary provisions. + +The seventeenth, we set sail, doubling the rocks of Elizabeth's +island, and passing by Dover Cliff, came to anchor at Martha's +Vineyard, being five leagues distant from our fort, where we went +ashore, and had young cranes, herneshowes, and geese, which now were +grown to pretty bigness. + +The eighteenth, we set sail and bore for England, cutting off our +shallop, that was well able to land five and twenty men or more, a +boat very necessary for the like occasions. The winds do range most +commonly upon this coast in the summer time, westerly. In our homeward +course we observed the foresaid floating weeds to continue till we +came within two hundred leagues of Europe. The three-and-twentieth of +July we came to anchor before Exmouth.[5] + + [1] Gosnold sailed from Falmouth, England, in 1602, Raleigh being + interested in the expedition. He reached the New England coast in + May of the same year, and discovered Cape Cod, to which, because of + the abundance of codfish in neighboring waters he gave the name it + bears. He afterward discovered Martha's Vineyard, and on the + neighboring island of Cuttyhunk founded a settlement called + Elizabeth, the first ever made in New England by Englishmen. This + settlement lasted only a few weeks, the settlers returning to + England. + + [2] The entire group of islands, of which Cuttyhunk is one, are now + known as the Elizabeth Islands. The township which these islands + comprize bears Gosnold's name. Gosnold became active afterward in + promoting the expedition which In 1607 resulted in the settlement + of Jamestown. The report of the expedition to Cape Cod, from which + this account is taken, is known as "The Relation of Captain + Gosnold's Voyage." It was "delivered by Gabriel Archer, a gentleman + in the said voyage." Archer's account is printed in "Old South + Leaflets." + + [3] Vineyard Sound. + + [4] Now Cuttyhunk, the westermost of the chain of islands called + the Elizabeth Islands, which separate Buzzard's Bay from Vineyard + Sound. + + [5] From Exmouth the ship sailed for Portsmouth, her real + destination. + + + + +II + +GOSNOLD'S OWN ACCOUNT[1] + + +I was in good hope that my occasions would have allowed me so much +liberty, as to have come unto you before this time; otherwise I would +have written more at large concerning the country from whence we +lately came, than I did: but not well remembering what I have already +written (though I am assured that there is nothing set down +disagreeing with the truth), I thought it fittest not to go about to +add anything in writing, but rather to leave the report of the rest +till I come myself; which now I hope shall be shortly, and so soon as +with conveniency I may. In the mean time, notwithstanding whereas you +seem not to be satisfied by that which I have already written, +concerning some especial matters; I have here briefly (and as well as +I can) added these few lines for your further satisfaction.... + +We cannot gather, by anything we could observe in the people, or by +any trial we had thereof ourselves, but that it is as healthful a +climate as any can be. The inhabitants there, as I wrote before, being +of tall stature, comely proportion, strong, active, and some of good +years, and as it should seem very healthful, are sufficient proof of +the healthfulness of the place. First, for ourselves (thanks be to +God) we had not a man sick two days together in all our voyage; +whereas others that went out with us, or about that time on other +voyages (especially such as went upon reprisal,) were most of them +infected with sickness, whereof they lost some of their men, and +brought home a many sick, returning notwithstanding long before us. +But Verazzano, and others (as I take it, you may read in the Book of +Discoveries), do more particularly entreat of the age of the people in +that coast. + +The sassafras which we brought we had upon the islands; where though +we had little disturbance, and reasonable plenty; yet for that the +greatest part of our people were employed about the fitting of our +house, and such like affairs, and a few (and those but easy laborers) +undertook this work, the rather because we were informed before our +going forth, that a ton was sufficient to cloy England, and further, +for that we had resolved upon our return, and taken view of our +victual, we judged it then needful to use expedition; which afterward +we had more certain proof of; for when we came to an anchor before +Portsmouth, which was some four days after we made the land, we had +not one cake of bread, nor any drink, but a little vinegar left: for +these and other reasons we returned no otherwise laden than you have +heard. And thus much I hope shall suffice till I can myself come to +give you further notice, which though it be not so soon as I could +have wished, yet I hope it shall be in convenient time. + + [1] From a letter to his father, dated September 1, 1602. + + + + +THE FOUNDING OF JAMESTOWN + +(1607) + +I + +BY CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH[1] + + +Captaine Bartholomew Gosnoll, one of the first movers of this +plantation, having many yeares solicited many of his friends, but +found small assistants; at last prevailed with some Gentlemen, as +Captaine Iohn Smith, Master Edward-maria Wingfield, Master Robert +Hunt, and divers others, who depended a yeare vpon his proiects, but +nothing could be effected, till by their great charge and industrie, +it came to be apprehended by certaine of the Nobilitie, Gentry, and +Marchants, so that his Maiestie by his letters patents, gaue +commission for establishing Councels, to direct here; and to governe, +and to execute there. To effect this, was spent another yeare, and by +that, three ships were provided, one of 100 Tuns, another of 40, and a +Pinnace of 20. The transportation of the company was committed to +Captaine Christopher Newport, a Marriner well practised for the +Westerne parts of America. But their orders for government were put in +a box, not to be opened, nor the governours knowne vntill they arrived +in Virginia.... On the 19 of December, 1606, we set sayle from +Blackwell, but by vnprosperous winds, were kept six weekes in the +sight of England; all which time, Master Hunt our Preacher, was so +weake and sicke, that few expected his recovery. + +We watered at the Canaries, we traded with the Salvages at Dominica; +three weekes we spent in refreshing our selues amongst these +west-India Isles; in Gwardalupa we found a bath so hot, as in it we +boyled Porck as well as over the fire. And a little Isle called +Monica, we tooke from the bushes with our hands, neare two hogsheads +full of Birds in three or foure houres. In Mevis, Mona, and the Virgin +Isles, we spent some time; where, with a lothsome beast like a +Crocodil, called a Gwayn, Tortoises, Pellicans, Parrots, and fishes, +we daily feasted. + +Gone from thence in search of Virginia, the company was not a little +discomforted, seeing the Marrinershad 3 dayes passed their reckoning +and found no land; so that Captaine Ratliffe (Captaine of the Pinnace) +rather desired to beare vp the helms to returns for England, then make +further search. But God the guider of all good actions, forcing them +by an extreame storme to hull all night, did driue them by his +providence to their desired Port, beyond all their expectations; for +never any of them had seene that coast. + +The first land they made they called Cape Henry; where thirtie of them +recreating themselues on shore, were assaulted by fiue Salvages, who +hurt two of the English very dangerously. + +That night was the box opened, and the orders read, in which +Bartholomew Gosnoll, Iohn Smith, Edward Wingfield, Christopher +Newport, Iohn Ratliffe, Iohn Martin, and George Kendall, were named to +be the Councell, and to choose a President amongst them for a year, +who with the Councell should governs. Matters of moment were to be +examined by a Iury, but determined by the maior part of the Councell, +in which the President had two voyces. + +Untill the 13 of May they sought a place to plant in; then the +Councell was sworne, Master Wingfield was chosen President, and an +Oration made, why Captain Smith was not admitted of the Councell as +the rest. + +Now falleth every man to works, the Councell contriue the Fort, the +rest cut downe trees to make place to pitch their Tents; some provide +clapbord to relade the ships, some make gardens, some nets, &c. The +Salvages often visited vs kindly. The Presidents overweening iealousie +would admit no exercise at armes, or fortification but the boughs of +trees cast together in the forms of a halfe moons by the extraordinary +paines and diligence of Captaine Kendall. + +Newport, Smith, and twentie others, were sent to discover the head of +the river: by divers small habitations they passed, in six dayes they +arrived at a Towns called Powhatan, consisting of some twelue houses, +pleasantly seated on a hill; before it three fertile Iles, about it +many of their cornefields, the place is very pleasant, and strong by +nature, of this place the Prince is called Powhatan, and his people +Powhatans. To this place the river is navigable: but higher within a +myle, by reason of the Rocks and Isles, there is not passage for a +small Boat, this they call the Falles[2]. The people in all parts +kindly intreated them, till being returned within twentie myles of +Iames towns, they gaue iust cause of iealousie: but had God not +blessed the discoverers otherwise than those at the Fort, there had +then beene an end of that plantation; for at the Fort, where they +arrived the next day, they found 17 men hurt, and a boy slaine by the +Salvages, and had it not chanced a crosse barre shot from the Ships +strooke downe a bough from a tree amongst them, that caused them to +retire, our men had all beene slams, being securely all at works, and +their armes in dry fats. + +Herevpon the President was contented the Fort should be pallisadoed, +the Ordnance mounted, his men armed and exercised: for many were the +assaults, and ambuscadoes of the Salvages, and our men by their +disorderly stragling were often hurt, when the Salvages by the +nimblenesse of their heels well escaped. + +What toyle we had, with so small a power to guard our workemen adayes, +watch all night, resist our enemies, and effect our businesse, to +relade the ships, cut downe trees, and prepare the ground to plant our +Corne, &c. I referre to the Readers consideration. Six weekes being +spent in this manner, Captaine Newport (who was hired onely for our +transportation) was to returne with the ships.... + +Being thus left to our fortunes, it fortuned that within ten days +scarce ten amongst vs could either goe, or well stand, such extreame +weaknes and moknes oppressed vs. And thereat none need marvaile, if +they consider the cause and reason, which was this. + +Whilst the ships stayed, our allowance was somewhat bettered, by a +daily proportion of Bisket, which the sailers would pilfer to sell, +giue, or exchange with vs, for money, Saxefras, furres, or loue. But +when they departed, there remained neither taverne, beere house, nor +place of reliefe, but the common Kettell. Had we beene as free from +all sinnes as gluttony, and drunkennesse, we might haue beene +canonized for Saints; But our President would never haue beene +admitted, for ingrossing to his private, Oatmeale, Sacks, Oyle, +_Aquavitoe_, Beefs, Egges, or what not, but the Kettell; that indeed +he allowed equally to be distributed, and that was halfe a pint of +wheat, and as much barley boyled with water for a man a day, and this +having fryed some 6 weekes in the ships hold, contained as many wormes +as graines; so that we might trudy call it rather so much bran than +corns, our drinks was water, our lodgings Castles in the ayre. + +With this lodging and dyet, our extreame toils in bearing and planting +Pallisadoes, so strained and bruised vs, and our continuall labour in +the extremitie of the heat had so weakened vs, as were cause +sufficient to haue made vs as miserable in our natiue Countrey, or any +other place in the world. + +From May, to September, those that escaped, lined vpon Sturgeon, and +Sea-crabs, fiftie in this time we buried, the rest seeing the +Presidents projects to escape these miseries in our Pinnace by flight +(who all this time had neither felt want nor sicknes) so moved our +dead spirits, as we deposed him; and established Ratcliffe in his +place, (Gosnoll being dead) Kendall deposed. Smith newly recovered, +Martin and Ratcliffe was by his care preserved and relieued, and the +most of the souldiers recovered with the skilfull diligence of Master +Thomas Wotton our Chirurgian generall. + +But now was all our provision spent, the Sturgeon gone, all helps +abandoned, each houre expecting the fury of the Salvages; when God the +patron of all good indevours, in that desperate extremitie so changed +the hearts of the Salvages, that they brought such plenty of their +fruits, and provision, as no man wanted.... + +The new President, and Martin, being little beloved, of weake +iudgement in dangers, and lesse industrie in peace, committed the +managing of all things abroad to Captaine Smith: who by his owne +example, good words, and faire promises, set some to mow, others to +binde thatch, some to build houses, others to thatch them, himselfe +alwayes bearing the greatest tasks for his owns share, so that in +short time, he provided most of them lodgings, neglecting any for +himselfe. + +This done, seeing the Salvages superfluitie beginne to decrease (with +some of his workmen) shipped himselfe in the Shallop to search the +Country for trade. The want of the language, knowledge to mannage his +boat without sailes, the want of a sufficient power (knowing the +multitude of the Salvages), apparell for his men, and other +necessaries, were infinite impediments. + +Being but six or seauen in company he went downe the river to +Kecoughtan: where at first they scorned him, as a famished man; and +would in derision offer him a handfull of Corne, a peece of bread, for +their swords and muskets, and such like proportions also for their +apparell. But seeing by trade and courtesie there was nothing to be +had, he made bold to try such conclusions as necessitie inforced, +though contrary to his Commission: Let fly his muskets, ran his boat +on shore; whereat they all fled into the woods. + +So marching towards their houses, they might see great heapes of +corne: much adoe he had to restraine his hungry souldiers from present +taking of it, expecting as it hapned that the Salvages would assault +them, as not long after they did with a most hydeous noyse. Sixtie or +seaventie of them, some blacke, some red, some white, some +party-coloured, came in a square order, singing and dauncing out of +the woods, with their Okee (which was an Idoll made of skinnes, +stuffed with mosse, all painted and hung with chaines and copper) +borne before them: and in this manner, being well armed with Clubs, +Targets, Bowes and Arrowes, they charged the English, that so kindly +receiued them with their muskets loaden with Pistoll shot, that downe +fell their God, and divers lay sprauling on the ground; the rest fled +againe to the woods, and ere long sent one of their Quiyoughkasoucks +to offer peace, and redeeme their Okee. + +Smith told them, if onely six of them would come vnarmed and loade his +boat, he would not only be their friend, but restore them their Okee, +and gins them Beads, Copper, and Hatchets besides: which on both sides +was to their contents performed: and then they brought him Venison, +Turkies, wild foule, bread, and what they had; singing and dauncing in +signs of friendship till they departed. + +In his returns he discovered the Towne and Country of Warraskoyack. + + Thus God vnboundlesse by his power, + Made them thus kind, would vs deuour. + +Smith perceiving (notwithstanding their late miserie) not any regarded +but from hand to mouth: (the company being well recovered) caused the +Pinnace to be provided with things fitting to get provision for the +years following; but in the interim he made 3, or 4, iournies and +discovered the people of Chickahamania: yet what he carefully provided +the rest carelesly spent. + +Wingfield and Kendall liuing in disgrace, seeing all things at randome +in the absence of Smith, the companies dislike of their Presidents +weaknes, and their small loue to Martins never mending sicknes, +strengthened themselues with the sailers and other confederates, to +regaine their former credit and authority, or at least such meanes +abord the Pinnace, (being fitted to saile as Smith had appointed for +trade) to alter her course and to goe for England. + +Smith vnexpectedly returning had the plot discovered to him, much +trouble he had to prevent it, till with store of sakre and musket shot +he forced them stay or sinke in the riuer: which action cost the life +of captaine Kendall. + +These brawles are so disgustful, as some will say they were better +forgotten, yet all men of good iudgement will conclude it were better +their basenes should be manifest to the world, then the busines beare +the scorne and shame of their excused disorders. + +The President and captaine Archer not long after intended also to haue +abandoned the country, which project also was curbed, and suppressed +by Smith. The Spaniard never more greedily desired gold than he +victuall; nor his souldiers more to abandon the Country, then he to +keepe it. But finding plentis of Corns in the riuer of Chickahamania, +where hundreds of Salvages in diuers places stood with baskets +expecting his comming. + +And now the winter approaching, the rivers became so covered with +swans, geese, duckes, and cranes, that we daily feasted with good +bread. Virginia pease, pumpions, and putchamins, fish, fowls, and +diverse sorts of wild beasts as fat as we could eate them: so that +none of our Tuftaffaty humorists desired to goe for England. + +But our Comoedies never endured long without a Tragedie; some idle +exceptions being muttered against Captaine Smith, for not discovering +the head of Chickahamania river, and taxed by the Councell, to be slow +in so worthy an attempt. The next voyage hee proceeded so farre that +with much labour by cutting of trees insunder he made his passage; but +when his Barge could passe no farther, he left her in a broad bay out +of danger of shot, commanding none should goe a shore till his +returne; himselfe with two English and two Salvages went vp higher in +a Canowe; but hee was not long absent, but his men went a shore, whose +want of government gaue both occasion and opportunity to the Salvages +to surprise one George Cassen, whom they slew, and much failed not to +have cut of the boat and all the rest. + +Smith, little dreaming of that accident, being got to the marshes at +the rivers head, twentie myles in the desert, had his two men slaine +(as is supposed) sleping by the Canowe, whilst himselfe by fowling +sought them victuall: who finding he was beset with 200 Salvages, two +of them hee slew still defending himselfe with the ayd of a Salvage +his guid, whom he bound to his arme with his garters, and vsed him as +a buckler, yet he was shot in his thikh a little, and had many arrowes +that stucke in his cloathes but no great hurt, till at last they tooke +him prisoner. + +When this newes came to Iames towne, much was their sorrow for his +losse, fewe expecting what ensued. Sixe or seuen weekes those +Barbarians kept him prisoner, many strange triumphes and coniurations +they made of him, yet hee so demeaned himselfe amongst them, as he not +onely diverted them from surprising the Fort, but procured his owns +libertie, and got himselfe and his company such estimation amongst +them, that those Salvages admired him more than their owns +Quiyouckosucks. + +At last they brought him to Meronocomoco, where was Powhatan their +Emperor. Here more than two hundred of those grim Courtiers stood +wondering at him, as he had beene a monster; till Powhatan and his +trayne had put themselues in their greatest braveries. Before a fire +vpon a seat like a bedsted, he sat covered with a great robe, made of +Rarowcun skinnes, and all the tayles hanging by. On either hand did +sit a young wench of 15 or 18 yeares, and along on each side the +house, two rowes of men, and behind them as many women, with all their +heads and shoulders painted red: many of their heads bedecked with the +white downe of Birds; but every one with something: and a great chayne +of white beads about their necks. + +At his entrance before the king, all the people gaue a great shout. +The Queene of Appamatuck was appointed to bring him water to wash his +hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers, in stead of a +Towell to ry them: having feasted him after their best barbarous +manner they could, a long consultation was held, but the conclusion +was, two great stones were brought before Powhatan; then as many as +could layd hands on him, dragged him to them, and thereon laid his +head, and being ready with their clubs, to beate out his braines, +Pocohontas, the King's dearest daughter, when no intreaty could +prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laide her owne vpon his to +saue him from death: whereat the Emperour was contented he should liue +to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper; for they +thought him aswell of all occupations as themselues. For the King +himselfe will make his owne robes, shooes, bowes, arrowes, pots; +plant, hunt, or doe any thing so well as the rest. + + They say he bore a pleasant shew, + But sure his heart was sad. + For who can pleasant be, and rest, + That lives in fears and dreads: + And having life suspected, doth + It still suspected lead. + +Two dayes after, Powhatan having disguised himselfe in the most +fearefullest manner he could, caused Captain Smith to be brought forth +to a great house in the woods, and there vpon a mat by the fire to be +left alone. Not long after from behinde a mat that divided the house, +was made the most dolefullsst noyse he ever heard; then Powhatan more +like a devill than a man, with some two hundred more as blacke as +himselfe, came vnto him and told him now they were friends, and +presently he should goe to Iames towns, to send him two great gunnes, +and a gryndstone, for which he would giue him the Country of +Capabowosick, and for ever esteeme him as his sonne Nantaquoud. + +So to Iames towne with 12 guides Powhatan sent him. That night they +quartered in the woods, he still expecting (as he had done all this +long time of his imprisonment) every houre to be put to one death or +other: for all their feasting. But almightie God (by his divine +providence) had mollified the hearts of those sterne Barbarians with +compassion. The next morning betimes they came to the Fort, where +Smith having vsed the Salvages with what kindnesss he could, he shewed +Rawhunt, Powhatans trusty servant, two demi-Culverings and a millstone +to carry Powhatan: they found them somewhat too heavie; but when they +did see him discharge them, being loaded with stones, among the boughs +of a great tree loaded with Isiekles the yce and branches came so +tumbling downe, that the poore Salvages ran away halfa dead with +feare. But at last we regained some conference with them, and gaue +them such toyes; and sent to Powhatan, his women, and children such +presents, as gaue them in generall full content. + +Now in Iames Towne they were all in combustion, the strongest +preparing once more to run away with the Pinnace; which with the +hazzard of his life, with Sakre falcon and musket shot, Smith forced +now the third time to stay or sinke. + +Some no better than they should be, had plotted with the President, +the next day to haue put him to death by the Leviticall law, for the +liues of Robinson and Emry; pretending the fault was his that had led +them to their ends; but he quickly tooke such order with such Lawyers, +that he layd them by the heeles till he sent some of them prisoners +for England. + +Now ever once in foure or fiue dayes, Pocahontas with her attendants, +brought him so much provision, that saved many of their liues, that +els for all this had starved with hunger.... + +Thus you may see what difficulties still crossed any good indevour; +and the good successe of the businesse being thus oft brought to the +very period of destruction; yet you see by what strange means God hath +still delivered it. + +Now whether it had beane better for Captaine Smith, to haue concluded +with any of those severall proiects, to haue abandoned the Countrey, +with some ten or twelue of them, who were called the better sort, and +haue left Master Hunt our Preacher, Master Anthony Gosnoll, a most +honest, worthy, and industrious Gentleman, Master Thomas Wotton and +some 27 others of his Countrymen to the fury of the Salvages, famine, +and all manner of mischiefes, and inconveniences, (for they were but +fortie in all to keepe possession of this large Country;) or starue +himselfe with them for company, for want of lodging: or but +adventuring abroad to make them provision, or by his opposition to +preserve the action, and saue all their liues; I leaue to the censure +of all honest men to consider. + + [1] From Smith's "General History of Virginia." Edward Arbor has + contended that, had not John Smith "strove, fought and endured as + he did the present United States of America might never have come + into existence." Spaniards and French alike had failed in their + attempts at colonization and so had the repeated expeditions sent + out by Sir Walter Raleigh. Smith carried the Jamestown settlement + through its difficulties.--Smith, the "self-denying, energetic, so + full of resources, and so trained in dealing with the savage + races." Had Jamestown failed the Pilgrim fathers "would not have + gone to New England." Smith was not the sole author of the "History + of Virginia." Others contributed to the work. + + [2] Richmond. + + + + +THE FIRST AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY + +(1619) + +BY JOHN TWINE, ITS SECRETARY[1] + + +A reporte of the manner of proceedings in the General assembly +convented at James citty in Virginia, July 30, 1619, consisting of the +Gouvernor, the Counsell of Estate and two Burgesses elected out of +eache Incorporation and Plantation, and being dissolved the 4th of +August next ensuing. + +First. Sir George Yeardley, Knight Governor & Captaine general of +Virginia, sente his sumons all over the Country, as well to invite +those of the Counsell of Estate that were absente as also for the +election of Burgesses.... + +The most convenient place we could finde to sitt in was the Quire of +the Churche Where Sir George Yeardley, the Governour, being sett down +in his accustomed place, those of the Counsel of Estate sate nexte him +on both handes, excepte onely the Secretary then appointed Speaker, +who sate right before him, John Twine, clerke of the General assembly, +being placed nexte the Speaker, and Thomas Pierse, the Sergeant, +standing at the barre, to be ready for any Service the Assembly should +comaund him. But forasmuch as men's affaires doe little prosper where +God's service is neglected, all the Burgesses tooke their places in +the Quire till a prayer was said by Mr. Bucke, the Minister, that it +would please God to guide and sanctifie all our proceedings to his +owne glory and the good of this Plantation. Prayer being ended, to the +intente that as we had begun at God Almighty, so we might proceed w^th +awful and due respecte towards the Lieutenant, our most gratious and +dread Soveraigne, all the Burgesses were intreatted to retyre +themselves into the body of the Churche, w^ch being done, before they +were fully admitted, they were called in order and by name, and so +every man (none staggering at it) tooke the oathe of Supremacy, and +then entred the Assembly.... + +These obstacles removed, the Speaker, who a long time had bene +extreame sickly and therefore not able to passe through long +harrangues, delivered in briefe to the whole assembly the occasions of +their meeting. Which done, he read unto them the comission for +establishing the Counsell of Estate and the general Assembly, wherein +their duties were described to the life. + +Having thus prepared them, he read over unto them the greate Charter, +or comission of priviledges, orders and lawes, sent by Sir George +Yeardly out of Englande. Which for the more ease of the Committies, +having divided into fower books, he read the former two the same +forenoon for expeditious sake, a second time over and so they were +referred to the perusall of twoe Comitties, w^ch did reciprocally +consider of either, and accordingly brought in their opinions. But +some men may here objecte to what ende we should presume to referre +that to the examination of the Comitties w^ch the Counsell and Company +in Enggland had already resolved to be perfect, and did expecte +nothing but our assente thereunto? To this we answere that we did it +not to the ende to correcte or controll anything therein contained, +but onely in case we should finde ought not perfectly squaring wth the +state of this Colony or any lawe w^ch did presse or binde too harde, +that we might by waye of humble petition, seeke to have it redressed, +especially because this great Charter is to binde us and our heyers +for ever.... + +After dinner the Governor and those that were not of the Comitties +sate a seconde time, while the said Comitties were employed in the +perusall of those twoe bookes. And whereas the Speaker had propounded +fower severall objects for the Assembly to consider on: namely, first, +the great charter of orders, lawes, and priviledges; Secondly, which +of the instructions given by the Counsel in England to my lo: la: +warre, Captain Argall or Sir George Yeardley, might conveniently putt +on the habite of lawes; Thirdly, what lawes might issue out of the +private conceipte of any of the Burgesses, or any other of the Colony; +and lastly, what petitions were fitt to be sente home for England. It +pleased the Governour for expedition sake to have the second objecte +of the fower to be examined & prepared by himselfe and the +Non-Comitties. Wherein after having spente some three howers +conference, the twoe Committies brought in their opinions concerning +the twoe former bookes, (the second of which beginneth at these words +of the Charter: And forasmuche as our intente is to establish one +equall and uniforme kinde of government over all Virginia &c.,) w^ch +the whole Assembly, because it was late, deffered to treatt of till +the next morning.... + +There remaining no farther scruple in the mindes of the Assembly, +touching the said great Charter of lawes, orders and priviledges, the +Speaker putt the same to the question, and so it had both the general +assent and the applause of the whole assembly, who, as they professed +themselves in the first place most submissivily thankfull to almighty +god, therefore so they commaunded the Speaker to returne (as nowe he +doth) their due and humble thankes to the Treasurer, Counsell and +company for so many priviledges and favours as well in their owne +names as in the names of the whole Colony whom they represented. + +This being dispatched we fell once more debating of suche instructions +given by the Counsell in England to several Governo^rs--as might be +converted into lawes, the last whereof was the Establishment of the +price of Tobacco, namely, of the best at 3d and the second at 18d the +pounde,... + +Here begin the lawes drawen out of the Instructions given by his +Mat^ies Counsell of Virginia in England to my lo: la warre, Captain +Argall and Sir George Yeardley, knight. By this present Generall +Assembly be it enacted, that no injury or oppression be wrought by the +Englishe against the Indians whereby the present peace might be +disturbed and antient quarrells might be revived. And farther be it +ordained that the Chicohomini are not to be excepted out of this lawe; +untill either that suche order come out of Englande, or that they doe +provoke us by some newe injury. + +Against Idleness, Gaming, drunkeness & excesse in apparell the +Assembly hath enacted as followeth: + +First, in detestation of Idlenes be it enacted, that if any men be +founde to live as an Idler or renagate, though a freedman, it shal be +lawfull for that Incorporation or Plantation to w^ch he belongeth to +appoint him a M^r to serve for wages, till he shewe apparent signes of +amendment. + +Against gaming at dice & Cardes be it ordained by this present +assembly that the winner or winners shall lose all his or their +winninges and both winners and loosers shall forfaicte ten shillings a +man, one ten shillings whereof to go to the discoverer, and the rest +to charitable & pious uses in the Incorporation where the faulte is +comitted. + +Against drunkenness be it also decreed that if any private person be +found culpable thereof, for the first time he is to be reprooved +privately by the Minister, the second time publiquely, the thirde time +to lye in boltes 12 howers in the house of the Provost Marshall & to +paye his fee, and if he still continue in that vice, to undergo suche +severe punishment as the Governor and Counsell of Estate shall thinke +fitt to be inflicted on him. But if any officer offende in this crime, +the first time he shall receive a reprooff from the Governour, the +second time he shall openly be reprooved in the churche by the +minister, and the third time he shall first be comitted and then +degraded. Provided it be understood that the Governor hath alwayes +power to restore him when he shall, in his discretion thinke fitte. + +Against excesse in apparell that every man be cessed in the churche +for all publique contributions, if he be unmarried according to his +owne apparrell, if he be married according to his owne and his wives, +or either of their apparrell.... + +Be it enacted by this present assembly that for laying a surer +foundation of the conversion of the Indians to Christian Religion, +eache towne, citty, Borrough, and particular plantation do obtaine +unto themselves by just means a certaine number of the natives' +children to be educated by them in the true religion and civile course +of life--of w^ch children the most towardly boyes in witt & graces of +nature to be brought up by them in the first elements of litterature, +so to be fitted for the Colledge intended for them that from thence +they may be sente to that worke of conversion. + +As touching the business of planting come this present Assembly doth +ordaine that yeare by yeare all & every householder and householders +have in store for every servant he or they shall keep, and also for +his or their owne persons, whether they have any Servants or no, one +spare barrell of come, to be delivered out yearly, either upon sale or +exchange as need shall require. For the neglecte of w^ch duty he +shalbe subject to the censure of the Governr and Counsell of Estate. +Provided always that the first yeare of every newe man this lawe shall +not be of force.... + +All ministers shall duely read divine service, and exercise their +ministerial function according to the Ecclesiastical lawes and orders +of the churche of Englande, and every Sunday in the afternoon shall +Catechize suche as are not yet ripe to come to the Com. And whosoever +shalbe found negligent or faulty in this kinde shalbe subject to the +censure of the Governor and Counsell. + +All persons whatsoever upon the Sabaoth daye shall frequente divine +service and sermons both forenoon and afternoon, and all suche as +beare arms shall bring their pieces, swordes, poulder and shotte. And +every one that shall transgresse this lawe shall forfaicte three +shillings a time to the ues of the churche, all lawful and necessary +impediments excepted. But if a servant in this case shall wilfully +neglecte his M^r's he shall suffer bodily punishmente. + +No maide or woman servant, either now resident in the Colonie or +hereafter to come, shall contract herselfe in marriage w^th_out either +the consente of her parents, or of her M^r or M^ris, or of the +magistrat and minister of the place both together. And whatsoever +minister shall marry or contracte any suche persons w^th_out some of +the foresaid consentes shalbe subjecte to the severe censure of the +Governr and Counsell of Estate... + +In sume Sir George Yeardley, the Governor prorogued the said General +Assembly till the firste of Marche, which is to fall out this present +yeare of 1619, and in the mean season dissolved the same. + + [1] This account is taken from the official report of the assembly, + of which Twine was clerk. It is printed in the "Colonial Records of + Virginia," and in Hart's "American History Told by Contemporaries." + + + + +THE ORIGIN OF NEGRO SLAVERY IN AMERICA + +I + +IN THE WEST INDIES + +(1518) + +BY SIR ARTHUR HELPS[1] + + +The outline of Las Casas'[2] scheme was as follows: The King was to +give to every laborer willing to emigrate to Española his living +during the journey from his place of abode to Seville, at the rate of +half a real a day throughout the journey, for great and small, child +and parent. At Seville the emigrants were to be lodged in the Casa de +la Contratacion (the India House), and were to have from eleven to +thirteen maravedis a day. From thence they were to have a free passage +to Epañola, and to be provided with food for a year. And if the +climate "should try them so much" that at the expiration of this year +they should not be able to work for themselves, the King was to +continue to maintain them; but this extra maintenance was to be put +down to the account of the emigrants, as a loan which they were to +repay. The King was to give them lands--his own lands--furnish them +with plowshares and spades, and provide medicines for them. Lastly, +whatever rights and profits accrued from their holdings were to become +hereditary. This was certainly a most liberal plan of emigration. And, +in addition, there were other privileges held out as inducements to +these laborers. + +In connection with the above scheme, Las Casas, unfortunately for his +reputation in after-ages, added another provision, namely, that each +Spanish resident in the island should have license to import a dozen +negro slaves. The origin of this suggestion was, as he informs us, +that the colonists had told him that, if license were given them to +import a dozen negro slaves each, they, the colonists, would then set +free the Indians. And so, recollecting that statement of the +colonists, he added this provision. Las Casas, writing his history in +his old age, thus frankly owns his error: + + "This advice, that license should be given to bring negro slaves to + these lands, the _cleriqo_ Casas first gave, not considering the + injustice with which the Portuguese take them and make them slaves; + which advice, after he had apprehended the nature of the thing, he + would not have given for all he had in the world. For he always held + that they had been made slaves unjustly and tyrannically; for the + same reason holds good of them as of the Indians." + +The above confession is delicately and truthfully worded--"not +considering"; he does not say, not being aware of; but though it was a +matter known to him, his moral sense was not watchful, as it were, +about it. We must be careful not to press the admissions of a generous +mind too far, or to exaggerate the importance of the suggestion of Las +Casas. It would be quite erroneous to look upon this suggestion as +being the introduction of negro slavery. From the earliest times of +the discovery of America, negroes had been sent there. But what is of +more significance, and what it is strange that Las Casas was not aware +of, or did not mention, the Hieronymite Fathers had also come to the +conclusion that negroes must be introduced into the West Indies. +Writing in January, 1518, when the fathers could not have known what +was passing in Spain in relation to this subject, they recommended +licenses to be given to the inhabitants of Española, or to other +persons, to bring negroes there. From the tenor of their letter it +appears that they had before recommended the same thing. Zuazo, the +judge of residencia, and the legal colleague of Las Casas, wrote to +the same effect. He, however, suggested that the negroes should be +placed in settlements and married. Fray. Bernardino de Manzanedo, the +Hieronymite father, sent over to counteract Las Casas, gave the same +advice as his brethren about the introduction of negroes. He added a +proviso, which does not appear in their letter--perhaps it did exist +in one of the earlier ones--that there should be as many women as men +sent over, or more. + +The suggestion of Las Casas was approved of by the Chancellor; and, +indeed, it is probable there was hardly a man of that time who would +have seen further than the excellent clerigo did. Las Casas was asked +what number of negroes would suffice? He replied that he did not know; +upon which a letter was sent to the officers of the India House at +Seville to ascertain the fit number in their opinion. They said that +four thousand at present would suffice, being one thousand for each of +the islands, Española, Porto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica. Somebody now +suggested to the Governor, De Bresa, a Fleming of much influence and a +member of the council, that he should ask for this license to be given +to him. De Bresa accordingly asked the King for it, who granted his +request; and the Fleming sold this license to certain Genoese +merchants for twenty-five thousand ducats, having obtained from the +King a pledge that for eight years he should give no other license of +this kind. + +The consequence of this monopoly enjoyed by the Genoese merchants was +that negroes were sold at a great price, of which there are frequent +complaints. Both Las Casas and Pasamonte--rarely found in +accord--suggested to the King that it would be better to pay the +twenty-five thousand ducats and resume the license, or to abridge its +term. Figueroa, writing to the Emperor from Sonto Domingo, says: +"Negroes are very much in request; none have come for about a year. It +would have been better to have given De Bresa the customs +duties--_i.e._, the duties that had been usually paid on the +importation of slaves--than to have placed a prohibition." I have +scarcely a doubt that the immediate effect of the measure adopted in +consequence of the clerigo's suggestion was greatly to check that +importation of negro slaves which otherwise, had the license been +general, would have been very abundant. + +Before quitting this part of the subject, something must be said for +Las Casas which he does not allege for himself. This suggestion of his +about the negroes was not an isolated one. Had all his suggestions +been carried out, and the Indians thereby been preserved, as I firmly +believe they might have been, these negroes might have remained a very +insignificant number in the general population. By the destruction of +Indians a void in the laborious part of the community was being +constantly created, which had to be filled up by the labor of negroes. +The negroes could bear the labor in the mines much better than the +Indians; and any man who perceived that a race, of whose Christian +virtues and capabilities he thought highly, were fading away by reason +of being subjected to labor which their natures were incompetent to +endure, and which they were most unjustly condemned to, might prefer +the misery of the smaller number of another race treated with equal +injustice, but more capable of enduring it. I do not say that Las +Casas considered all these things; but, at any rate, in estimating his +conduct, we must recollect that we look at the matter centuries after +it occurred, and see all the extent of the evil arising from +circumstances which no man could then be expected to foresee, and +which were inconsistent with the rest of the clerigo's plans for the +preservation of the Indians. + +I suspect that the wisest among us would very likely have erred with +him; and I am not sure that, taking all his plans together, and taking +for granted, as he did then, that his influence at court was to last, +his suggestion about the negroes was an impolite one. + + [1] Helps was an English writer who is best known for his social + essays entitled "Friends in Council." He was the author of several + works on America, including "The Spanish Conquest in America." + + [2] Las Casas was a Dominican, born in Spain, who came to the West + Indies in 1502 and devoted himself to protecting the Indians + against slavery at the hands of their conquerors. In 1544 he was + made a Mexican bishop. + + + + +II + +ITS BEGINNINGS IN THE UNITED STATES + +(1620) + +BY JOHN A. DOYLE[1] + + +The economical success which had attended the introduction of negroes +into the West Indies made it almost certain that the American colonies +would betake themselves to the same resource. The first introduction +of negroes is commonly placed in the year 1620, when a Dutch ship +landed twenty of them for sale at Jamestown. For some years their +numbers increased but slowly. In 1649 Virginia contained only three +hundred. By 1661 they had increased to two thousand, while the +indented servants were four times that number. Twenty-two years later, +if we may trust Culpepper's statement, the number of white servants +was nearly doubled, while that of the negroes had only increased by +one-half. Of their numbers and proportions in Maryland and North +Carolina we have no definite evidence. In South Carolina negro slavery +seems to have been almost from the outset the prevalent form of +industry. + +As early as 1708 we are told that three-fifths of the population were +blacks. This alteration in the relative numbers of white servants and +black slaves was accelerated by a change which had come over the +commercial policy of the English Government. In 1662 the Royal African +Company was incorporated. At the head of it was the Duke of York, and +the King himself was a large shareholder. The chief profit of this +company was derived from the exportation of negroes from Guinea to the +plantations. The King and his brother henceforth had a direct interest +in limiting the supply of indented servants, and it is not unlikely +that this explains why Jeffreys for once deviated into the paths of +humanity and justice.... + +Had negro slavery never existed, had the natural resources of the +Southern colonies favored the growth of a free yeomanry, the system of +indenture would have been admirably fitted to establish a population +of small proprietors, trained in habits of industry and in a competent +knowledge of agriculture. The social and industrial life of the +colonies forbade this. A peasant proprietary can only exist under +severe restraints as to increase, or where there is urban life to take +off the surplus population for trades and handicrafts. The Southern +colonies fulfilled neither of these conditions. When the servant was +out of his indentures there was no place for him. He could not become +a shopkeeper or craftsman or a free agricultural laborer, for none of +these callings existed. Moreover, the very same conditions of soil and +climate which enabled slavery to exist, made it possible for the +freeman to procure a scanty livelihood, without any habits of settled +industry. Thus the liberated servant became an idler, socially +corrupt, and often politically dangerous. He furnished that class +justly described by a Virginian of that day as "a foeculum of beings +called overseers, a most abject, unprincipled race." He was the +forerunner, and possibly in some degree the progenitor, of that class +who did so much to intensify the evils of slavery, the "mean whites" +of later times.... + +When once negro slavery was firmly established, any rival form of +industry was doomed. For it is an economical law of slavery, that +where it exists it must exist without a rival. It can only succeed +where it is a predominant form of labor. The utility of the slave is +that of a machine. When once he has been trained to any special kind +of industry, no attempts to enlarge his sphere of activity can be +attended with profit. The time given to the new acquisition is so much +waste, and his mental incapacity and absence of any moral interest in +his work almost necessarily limits him to a single task. Thus, as we +have seen, the many attempts to develop varied forms of production in +the Southern colonies all failed. Maryland and Virginia grew only +tobacco. South Carolina grew mainly rice. Moreover, the spectacle of +the free laborer working on the same soil and at the same task, would +be fatal to that resignation, and that complete moral and intellectual +subjection, which alone can make slave labor possible. Thus the +cheaper and more efficient system obtained the mastery so completely +that by the beginning of the eighteenth century slave and negro had +become well-nigh synonymous terms. + + [1] From Doyle's "English Colonies in America." By permission of + the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. + + + + +NEW ENGLAND BEFORE THE PILGRIM FATHERS LANDED + +(1614) + +BY CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH[1] + + +In the moneth of Aprill, 1614, with two Ships from London, of a few +Marchants, I chanced to arriue in New-England, a parte of Ameryca, at +the Ile of Monahiggan, in 43-1/2 of northerly latitude: our plot was +there to take Whales and make tryalls of a Myne of Gold and Copper. If +those failed, Fish and Furres was then our refuge, to make our selues +sauers howsoeuer: we found this Whale fishing a costly conclusion: we +saw many, and spent much time in chasing them; but could not kill any: +They beeing a kinde of Iubartes, and not the Whale that yeeldes Finnes +and Oyle as wee expected. For our Golde, it was rather the Masters +deuice to get a voyage that proiected it, then any knowledge hee had +at all of any such matter. Fish & Furres was now our guard: & by our +late arriual, and long lingring about the Whale, the prime of both +those seasons were past ere wee perceiued it; we thinking that their +seasons serued at all times: but wee found it otherwise; for, by the +midst of Iune, the fishing failed. + +Yet in Iuly and August some was taken, but not sufficient to defray so +great a charge as our stay required. Of dry fish we made about 40000. +of Cor fish about 7000. + +Whilest the sailers fished, my selfe with eight or nine others of them +might best bee spared; Ranging the coast in a small boat, wee got for +trifles neer 1100 Beuer skinnes, 100 Martins, and neer as many Otters; +and the most of them within the distance of twenty leagues. We ranged +the Coast both East and West much furder; but Eastwards our +commodities were not esteemed, they were so neare the French who +affords them better: and right against vs in the Main was a Ship of +Sir Frances Popphames, that had there such acquaintance, hauing many +years vsed onely that porte, that the most parte there was had by him. +And 40 leagues westwards were two French Ships, that had made there a +great voyage by trade, during the time wee tryed those conclusions, +not knowing the Coast, nor Saluages habitation. With these Furres, the +Traine, and Corfish I returned for England in the Bark: where within +six monthes after our departure from the Downes, we safe arriued back. +The best of this fish was solde for fiue pound the hundreth, the rest +by ill vsage betwixt three pound and fifty shillings. The other Ship +staied to fit herselfe for Spaine with the dry fish which was sould, +by the Sailers reporte that returned, at forty ryalls the quintall, +each hundred weighing two quintalls and a halfe. + +New England is that part of America in the Ocean Sea opposite to Noua +Albyon in the South Sea; discouered by the most memorable Sir Francis +Drake in his voyage about the worlde. In regarde whereto this is +stiled New England, beeing in the same latitude. New France, off it, +is Northward: Southwardes is Virginia, and all the adioyning +Continent, with New Grenada, New Spain, New Andolosia and the West +Indies. Now because I haue beene so oft asked such strange questions, +of the goodnesse and greatnesse of those spatious Tracts of land, how +they can bee thus long vnknown, or not possessed by the Spaniard, and +many such like demands; I intreat your pardons, if I chance to be too +plaine, or tedious in relating my knowledge for plaine mens +satisfaction. + +That part wee call New England is betwixt the degrees of 41. and 45: +but that parte this discourse speaketh of, stretcheth but from +Penobscot to Cape Cod, some 75 leagues by a right line distant each +from other: within which bounds I haue scene at least 40. seuerall +habitations vpon the Sea Coast, and sounded about 25 excellent good +Harbours; In many whereof there is ancorage for 500 sayle of ships of +any burthen; in some of them for 5000: And more than 200 Iles +ouergrowne with good timber, of diuers sorts of wood, which doe make +so many harbours as requireth a longer time then I had, to be well +discouered.... + +And surely by reason of those sandy cliffes and cliffes of rocks, both +which we saw so planted with Gardens and Corne fields, and so well +inhabited with a goodly, strong and well proportioned people, besides +the greatnesse of the Timber growing on them, the greatnesse of the +fish and the moderate temper of the ayre (for of twentie fiue, not any +was sicke, but two that were many yeares diseased before they went, +notwithstanding our bad lodging and accidentall diet) who can but +approue this a most excellent place, both for health & fertility? And +of all the foure parts of the world that I haue yet seene not +inhabited, could I haue but meanes to transport a Colonie, I would +rather liue here than any where: and if it did not maintaine it selfe, +were wee but once indifferently well fitted, let vs starue. + +The maine Staple, from hence to bee extracted for the present to +produce the rest, is fish; which howeuer it may seeme a mean and a +base commoditie: yet who will but truely take the pains and consider +the sequell, I thinke will allow it well worth the labour.... + +First, the ground is so fertill, that questionless it is capable of +producing any Grain, Fruits, or Seeds you will sow or plant, growing +in the Regions afore named: But it may be, not euery kinde to that +perfection of delicacy; or some tender plants may miscarie, because +the Summer is not so hot, and the winter is more colde in those parts +wee haue yet tryed neere the Sea side, then we finde in the same +height in Europe or Asia; Yet I made a Garden vpon the top of a Rockie +Ile in 43-1/2, 4 leagues from the Main, in May, that grew so well, as +it serued vs for sallets in Iune and Iuly. All sorts of cattell may +here be bred and fed in the Iles, or Peninsulaes, securely for +nothing. In the Interim till they encrease if need be (obseruing the +seasons) I durst vndertake to haue corne enough from the Saluages for +300 men, for a few trifles; and if they should bee vntoward (as it is +most certaine they are) thirty or forty good men will be sufficient to +bring them all in subjection, and make this prouision; if they +vnderstand what they doe: 200 whereof may nine monethes in the yeare +be imployed in making marchandable fish, till the rest prouide other +necessaries, fit to furnish vs with other commodities.... + +But, to retumne a little more to the particulars of this Countrey, +which I intermingle thus with my proiects and reasons, not being so +sufficiently yet acquainted in those parts, to write fully the estate +of the Sea, the Ayre, the Land, the Fruites, the Rocks, the People, +the Gouernment, Religions, Territories, and Limitations, Friends, and +Foes: but, as I gathered from the niggardly relations in a broken +language to my vnderstanding, during the time I ranged those Countries +&c. The most Northern part I was at, was the Bay of Penobscot, which +is East and West, North and South, more than ten leagues; but such +were my occasions, I was constrained to be satisfied of them I found +in the Bay, that the Riuer ranne farre vp into the Land, and was well +inhabited with many people, but they were from their habitations, +either fishing among the Iles, or hunting the Lakes and Woods, for +Deer and Beuers. The Bay is full of great Ilands, of one, two, six, +eight, or ten miles in length, which diuides it into many faire and +excellent good harbours. On the East of it, are the Tarrantines, their +mortall enemies, where inhabit the French, as they report that line +with those people, as one nation or family. And Northwest of +Pennobscot is Mecaddacut, at the foot of a high mountaine, a kinde of +fortresse against the Tarrantines adioyning to the high mountaines of +Pennobscot, against whose feet doth beat the Sea. + +But ouer all the Land, Iles, or other impediments, you may well see +them sixteene or eighteene leagues from their situation. Segocket is +the next; then Nufconcus, Pemmaquid, and Sagadahock. Vp this Riuer +where was the Westerne plantation are Aumuckcawgen, Kinnebeck, and +diuers others, where there is planted some corne fields. Along this +Riuer 40 or 50 miles, I saw nothing but great high cliffes of barren +Rocks, ouergrowne with wood: but where the Saluages dwelt there the +ground is exceeding fat & fertill. Westward of this Riuer, is the +Countrey of Aucocisco, in the bottome of a large deepe Bay, full of +runny great Iles, which diuides it into many good harbours. Sowocotuck +is the next, in the edge of a large sandy Bay, which bath many Rocks +and Iles, but few good harbours, but for Barks, I yet know. But all +this Coast to Pennobscot, and as farre I could see Eastward of it is +nothing but such high craggy Cliffy Rocks & stony Iles that I wondered +such great trees could growe vpon so hard foundations. It is a +Countrie rather to affright, then delight one. And how to describe a +more plaine spectacle of desolation or more barren I knowe not. Yet +the Sea there is the strangest fish-pond I euer saw; and those barren +Iles so furnished with good woods, springs, fruits, fish, and foule, +that it makes mee thinke though the Coast be rockie, and thus +affrightable; the Values, Plaines, and interior parts, may well +(notwithstanding) be verie fertile. + +But there is no kingdome so fertile bath not some part barren: and New +England is great enough, to make many Kingdomes and Countries, were it +all inhabited. As you passe the Coast still Westward, Accominticus and +Passataquack are two conuenient harbors for small barks; and a good +Countrie, within their craggie cliffs. Angoam is the next; This place +might content a right curious iudgement: but there are many sands at +the entrance of the harbor: and the worst is, it is inbayed too farre +from the deepe Sea. Heere are many rising hilles, and on their tops +and descents many come fields, and delightfull groues. On the East, is +an Ile of two or three leagues in length; the one halfe, plaine morish +grasse fit for pasture, with many faire high groues of mulberrie trees +gardens: and there is also Okes, Pines, and other woods to make this +place an excellent habitation, beeing a good and safe harbor. + +Naimkeek though it be more rockie ground (for Angoam is sandie) not +much inferior; neither for the harbor, nor any thing I could perceiue, +but the multitude of people. From hence doth stretch into the sea the +faire headland Tragabigzanda, fronted with three lies called the three +Turks heads: to the North of this, doth enter a great Bay, where wee +founde some habitations and corne fields: they report a great +Riuer[2], and at least thirtie habitations, doo possesse this +Countrie. But because the French had got their Trade, I had no leasure +to discouer it. + +The Iles of Mattahunts are on the West side of this Bay, where are +many Iles, and questionlesse good harbors: and then the Countrie of +the Massachusets, which is the Paradise of all those parts: for, heere +are many lies all planted with corne; groues, mulberries, saluage +gardens, and good harbors: the Coast is for the most part, high clayie +sandie cliffs. The Sea Coast as you passe, shewes you all along large +corne fields, and great troupes of well proportioned people: but the +French hauing remained heere neere sixe weekes, left nothing, for vs +to take occasion to examine the inhabitants relations, viz, if there +be neer three thousand people vpon these Iles; and that the Riuer doth +pearce many daies iourneies the intralles of that Countrey. We found +the people in those parts verie kinde; but in their furie no lesse +valiant. For, vpon a quarrell wee had with one of them, hee onely with +three others crossed the harbor of Quonahassit to certaine rocks +whereby wee must passe; and there let flie their arrowes for our shot, +till we were out of danger. + +Then come you to Accomack, an excellent good harbor, good land; and no +want of any thing, but industrious people. After much kindnesse, vpon +a small occasion, wee fought also with fortie or fiftie of those: +though some were hurt, and some slaine; yet within an houre after they +became friendes. Cape Cod is the next presents it selfe; which is +onely a headland of high hils of sand, ouergrowne with shrubbie pines, +hurts, and such trash; but an excellent harbor for all weathers. This +Cape is made by the maine Sea on the one side, and a great Bay on the +other in forme of a sickle: on it doth inhabit the people of Pawmet: +and in the bottome of the Bay, the people of Chawum. + + [1] From Smith's "Description of New England," published in London + in 1616. Smith's exploration of New England was made after he had + become separated from the Jamestown colony, of which in 1608, he + had been president. He went there under an engagement with London + merchants to fish for cod, barter for furs and explore the country + for settlement. It was he who at the request of Prince Charles + named the country New England. + + [2] Probably the Merrimac. + + + + +THE FIRST VOYAGE OF THE "MAYFLOWER" + +(1620) + +BY GOVERNOR WILLIAM BRADFORD[1] + + +Sept^r: 6. These troubls being blowne over, and now all being compacte +togeather in one shipe, they put to sea againe with a prosperus winde, +which continued diverce days togeather, which was some incouragemente +unto them; yet according to y^e usuall maner many were afflicted with +sea-sicknes.... + +After they had injoyed faire winds and weather for a season, they were +incountred many times with crosse winds, and mette with many feirce +stormes, with which y^e shipe was shroudly shaken, and her upper works +made very leakie; and one of the maine beames in y^e midd ships was +bowed & craked, which put them in some fear that y^e shipe could not +be able to performe y^e vioage. So some of y^e cheefe of y^e company, +perceiving y^e mariners to feare y^e suffisiencie of y^e shipe, as +appeared by their mutterings, they entred into serious consulltation +with y^e m^r. & other officers of y^e ship, to consider in time of y^e +danger; and rather to returne then to cast them selves into a +desperate & inevitable perill. And truly ther was great distraction & +differance of opinion amongst y^e mariners themselves; faine would +they doe what could be done for their wages sake, (being now halfe the +seas over,) and on y^e other hand they were loath to hazard their +lives too desperatly. But in examening of all opinions, the m^r. & +others affirmed they knew y^e ship to be stronge & firme under water; +and for the buckling of y^e maine beame, ther was a great iron scrue +y^e passengers brought out of Holland, which would raise y^e beame +into his place; y^e which being done, the carpenter & m^r. affirmed +that with a post put under it, set firme in y^e lower deck, & +otherways bounde, he would make it sufficiente. + +And as for y^e decks & uper workes they would calke them as well as +they could, and though with y^e workeing of y^e ship they would not +longe keepe stanch, yet ther would otherwise be no great danger, if +they did not overpress her with sails. So they comited them selves to +y^e will of God, & resolved to proseede. In sundrie of these stormes +the winds were so feirce, & y^e seas so high, as they could not beare +a knote of saile, but were forced to hull, for diverce days togither. +And in one of them, as they thus lay at hull, in a mighty storme, a +lustie yonge man (called John Rowland) coming upon some occasion above +y^e grattings, was, with a seele of y^e shipe throwne into [y^e] sea; +but it pleased God y^t he caught hould of y^e tope-saile halliards, +which hunge over board, & rane out at length; y^et he held his hould +(though he was sundrie fadomes under water) till he was hald up by y^e +same rope to y^e brime of y^e water, and then with a boat hooke & +other means got into y^e shipe againe, & his life saved; and though he +was something ill with it, y^et he lived many years after, and became +a profitable member both in church & comone wealthe. In all this siage +ther died but one of y^e passengers, which was William Butten, a +youth, servant to Samuel Fuller, when they drew near y^e coast.... + +But to omite other things, (that I may be breefe,) after longe beating +at sea they fell with that land which is called Cape Cod; the which +being made & certainly knowne to be it, they were not a little +joyfull. After some deliberation had amongst them selves & with y^e +m^r. of y^e ship, they tacked aboute and resolved to stande for y^e +southward (y^e wind & weather being faire) to find some place aboute +Hudsons river for their habitation. But after they had sailed y^t +course aboute half y^e day, they fell amongst deangerous shoulds and +roring breakers, and they were so farr intangled ther with as they +conceived them selves in great danger; & y^e wind shrinking upon them +withall, they resolved to bear up againe for the Cape, and thought +them selves hapy to gett out of those dangers before night overtooke +them, as by Gods providence they did. And y^e next day they gott into +y^e Cape-harbor wher they ridd in saftie.[2] A word or too by y^e way +of this cape; it was thus first named by Capten Gosnole & his company, +An^o: 1602, and after by Capten Smith was caled Cape James; but it +retains y^e former name amongst sea-men. Also y^t pointe which first +shewed those dangerous shoulds unto them, they called Point Care, & +Tuckers Terrour; but y^t French & Dutch to this day call it Malabarr, +by reason of those perilous shoulds, and y^e losses they have suffered +their. + +Being thus arived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell +upon their knees & blessed y^e God of heaven, who had brought them +over y^e vast & furious ocean, and delivered them from all y^e periles +& miseries thereof, againe to set their feete on y^e firme and stable +earth, their proper elemente. And no marvell if they were thus +joyefull, seeing wise Seneca was so affected with sailing a few miles +on y^e coast of his owne Italy; as he affirmed, that he had rather +remaine twentie years on his way by land, then pass by sea to any +place in a short time; so tedious & dreadfull was y^e same unto +him.... + +But hear I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half amased at +this poore peoples presente condition; and so I thinke will the reader +too, when he well considers yo same. Being thus passed y^e vast ocean, +and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as may be remembred +by y^t which wente before), they had now no friends to well come them, +nor inns to entertaine or refresh their weatherbeaten bodys, no houses +or much less townes to repaire too, to seeke for succoure. It is +recorded in scripture as a mercie to y^e apostle & his shipwraked +company, y^t the barbarians shewed them no smale kindnes in refreshing +them, but these savage barbarians, when they mette with them (as after +will appeare) were readier to fill their sids full of arrows then +otherwise. And for y^e season it was winter, and they that know y^e +winters of y^t cuntrie know them to be sharp & violent, & subjecte to +cruell & feirce stormes, deangerous to travill to known places, much +more to serch an unknown coast. Besids, what could they see but a +hidious & desolate wildernes, full of wild beasts & willd men? and +what multituds ther might be of them they knew not. Nether could they, +as it were, goe up to y^e tope of Pisgah, to vew from this willdernes +a more goodly cuntrie to feed their hops; for which way soever they +turnd their eys (save upward to y^e heavens) they could have little +solace or content in respecte of any outward objects. + +For sumer being done, all things stand upon them with a wetherbeaten +face; and y^e whole countrie, full of woods & thickets, represented a +wild & savage view. If they looked behind them, ther was y^e mighty +ocean which they had passed, and was now as a maine barr & goulfe to +seperate them from all y^e civil parts of y^e world. If it be said +they had a ship to sucour them, it is trew; but what heard they daly +from y^e m^r. & company? but y^e with speede they should looke out a +place with their shallop, wher they would be at some near distance; +for y^e season was shuch as he would not stirr from thence till a safe +harbor was discovered by them wher they would be, and he might goe +without danger; and that victells consumed apace, but he must & would +keepe sufficient for them selves & their returne. Yea, it was muttered +by some, that if they gott not a place in time, they would turne them +& their goods ashore & leave them. + +Let it also be considred what weake hopes of supply & succoure they +left behinde them, y^e might bear up their minds in this sade +condition and trialls they were under; and they could not but be very +smale. It is true, indeed, y^e affections & love of their brethren at +Leyden was cordiall & entire towards them, but they had litle power to +help them, or them selves; and how y^e case stode between them & y^e +marchants at their coming away, hath allready been declared. What +could now sustaine them but y^e spirite of God & his grace?... + +Being thus arrived at Cape-Codd y^e 11. of November, and necessitie +calling them to looke out a place for habitation, (as well as the +maisters & mariners importunitie,) they having brought a large shalop +with them out of England, stowed in quarters in y^e ship, they now +gott her out & sett their carpenters to worke to trime her up; but +being much brused & shatered in y^e shipe w^th foule weather, they saw +she would be longe in mending. Whereupon a few of them tendered them +selves to goe by land and discovere those nearest places, whilst y^e +shallop was in mending; and y^e rather because as they wente into y^t +harbor ther seemed to be an opening some 2. or 3. leagues of, which +y^e maister judged to be a river. It was conceived ther might be some +danger in y^e attempte yet seeing them resolute, they were permited to +goe, being 16. of them well armed, under y^e conduct of Captain +Standish, having shuch instructions given them as was thought meete. + +They sett forth y^e 15. of Nove^br: and when they had marched aboute +y^e space of a mile by y^e sea side, they espied 5. or 6. persons with +a dogg coming towards them, who were salvages; but they fled from +them, & rane up into y^e woods, and y^e English followed them, partly +to see if they could speake with them, and partly to discover if ther +might not be more of them lying in ambush. But y^e Indeans seeing them +selyes thus followed, they again forsooke the woods, & rane away on +y^e sands as hard as they could, so as they could not come near them, +but followed them by y^e tracte of their feet sundrie miles, and saw +that they had come the same way. So, night coming on, they made their +randevous & set out ther sentinels, and rested in quiete y^e night, +and the next morning followed their tracte till they had headed a +great creeke, & so left the sands, & turned an other way into y^e +woods. But they still followed them by guess, hopeing to find their +dwellings; but they soone lost both them & them selves, falling into +shuch thickets as were ready to tear their cloaths & armore in peeces, +but were most distressed for wante of drinke. + +But at length they found water & refreshed them selves, being y^e +first New-England water they drunke of, and was now in thir great +thirste as pleasante unto them as wine or bear had been in for-times. +Afterwards they directed their course to come to y^e other shore, for +they knew it was a necke of land they were to crosse over, and so at +length gott to y^e sea-side, and marched to this supposed river, & by +y^e way found a pond of clear fresh water, and shortly after a good +quantitie of clear ground wher y^e Indeans had formerly set corne, and +some of their graves. And proceeding furder they saw new-stuble wher +corne had been set y^e same year, also they found wher latly a house +had been, wher some planks and a great ketle was remaining, and heaps +of sand newly padled with their hands, which they, digging up, found +in them diverce faire Indean baskets filled with corne, and some in +eares, faire and good, of diverce collours, which seemed to them a +very goodly sight, (haveing never seen any shuch before). + +The month of November being spente in these affairs, & much foule +weather falling in, the 6. of Desem^r: they sente out their shallop +againe with 10. of their principall men, & some sea men, upon further +discovery, intending to circulator that deepe bay of Cape-Codd. The +weather was very could, & it frose so hard as y^e sprea of y^e sea +lighting on their coats, they were as if they had been glased; yet +that night betimes they gott downe into y^e botome of y^e bay, and as +they dine nere y^e shore they saw some 10. or 12. Indeans very busie +aboute some thing. They landed about a league or 2. from them, and had +much flats. Being landed, it grew late, and they made themselves a +barricade with loggs & bowes as well as they could in y^e time, & set +out their sentenill & betooke them to rest, and saw y^e smoake of y^e +fire y^e savages made y^t night. + +When morning was come they devided their company, some to coast alonge +y^e shore in y^e boate, and the rest marched throw y^e woods to see +y^e land, if any fit place might be for their dwelling. They came also +to y^e place whom they saw the Indeans y^e night before, & found they +had been cuting up a great fish like a grampus, being some 2. inches +thike of fate like a hogg, some peeces wher of they had left by y^e +way; and y^e shallop found 2. more of these fishes dead on y^e sands, +thing usuall after storms in y^t place, by reason of y^e great flats +of sand that lye of. So they ranged up and doune all y^t day, but +found no people, nor any place they liked. When y^e sune grue low, +they hasted out of y^e woods to meete with their shallop, to whom them +made signes to come to them into a creeke hardby, which they did at +high-water; of which they were very glad, for they had not seen each +other all y^t day, since y^e morning. + +So they made them a barricado (as usually they did every night) with +loggs, staks, & thike pine bowes, y^e height of a man, leaving it open +to leeward, partly to shelter them from y^e could & wind (making their +fire in y^e midle, & lying round aboute it), and partly to defend them +from any sudden assaults of y^e savags, if they should surround them. +So being very weary, they betooke them to rest. But about midnight +they heard a hideous & great crie, and their sentinall caled, "Arme, +arme"; so they bestired them & stood to their armes, & shote of a +cupple of moskets, and then the noys seased. They concluded it was a +companie of wolves, or such like willd beasts; for one of y^e sea men +tould them he had often heard shuch a noyse in New-found land. So they +rested till about 5. of y^e clock in the morning; for y^e tide, & ther +purposs to goe from thence, made them be stiring betimes. So after +praier they prepared for breakfast, and it being day dawning, it was +thought best to be carring things downe to y^e boate. But some said it +was not best to carrie y^e armes downe, others said they would be the +readier, for they had laped them up in their coats from y^e dew. + +But some 3. or 4. would not cary theirs till they wente them selves, +yet as it fell out, y^e water being not high enough, they layed them +downe on y^e banke side, & came up to breakfast. But presently, all on +y^e sudain, they heard a great & strange crie, which they knew to be +the same voyces they heard in y^e night, though they varied their +notes, and & one of their company being abroad came runing in, & +cried, "Men, Indeans, Indeans"; and wth all, their arowes came flying +amongst them. Their men rane with all speed to recover their armes, as +by y^e good providence of God they did. In y^e mean time, of those +that were ther ready, two muskets were discharged at them, & 2. more +stood ready in y^e entrance of ther randevoue, but were comanded not +to shoote till they could take full aime at them; & y^e other 2. +charged againe with all speed, for ther were only 4. had armes ther, & +defended y^e baricado which was first assalted. The crie of y^e +Indeans was dreadfull, espetially when they saw ther men rune out of +y^e randevoue towourds y^e shallop, to recover their armes, the +Indeans wheeling aboute upon them. But some runing out with coats of +malle on, & cutlasses in their hands, they soone got their armes, & +let flye amongst them, and quickly stopped their violence. + +Yet ther was a lustie man, and no less valiante, stood behind a tree +within halfe a musket shot, and let his arrows flie at them. He was +seen shoot 3. arrowes, which were all avoyded. He stood 3. shot of a +musket, till one taking full aime at him, and made y^e barke or +splinters of y^e tree fly about his ears, after which he gave an +extraordinary shrike, and away they wente all of them. They left some +to keep y^e shalope, and followed them aboute a quarter of a mile, and +shouted once or twise, and shot of 2. or 3. peces, & so returned. This +they did, that they might conceive that they were not affrade of them +or any way discouraged. Thus it pleased God to vanquish their enimies, +and give them deliverance; and by his spetiall providence so to +dispose that not any one of them were either hurte, or hitt, though +their arrows came close by them, & on every side them, and sundry of +their coats which hunge up in y^e barricado, were shot throw & throw. +Afterwards they gave God sollamme thanks & praise for their +deliverance, & gathered up a bundle of their arrows, & sente them into +England afterward by y^e m^r. of y^e ship, and called that place y^e +first encounter. + +From hence they departed, and costed all along, but discerned no place +likly for harbor & therfore hasted to a place that their pillote, (one +M^r. Coppin who had bine in y^e cuntrie before) did assure them was a +good harbor, which he had been in, and they might fetch it before +night; of which they were glad, for it begane to be foule weather. +After some houres sailing, it begane to snow & raine, & about y^e +midle of y afternoone, y^e wind increased, & y^e sea became very +rough, and they broake their rudder, & it was as much as 2. men could +doe to steere her with a cupple of oares. But their pillott bad them +be of good cheere, for he saw y^e harbor; but y^e storme increasing, & +night drawing on, they bore what saile they could to gett in, while +they could see. But herwith they broake their mast in 3 peeces, & +their saill fell over herd, in a very grown sea, so as they had like +to have been cast away; yet by Gods mercie they recovered themselves, +& having y^e floud with them, struck into y^e harbore. But when it +came too, y^e pillott was deceived in y^e place, and said, y^e Lord be +merciful unto them, for his eys never saw y^t place before; & he & the +m^r. mate would have rune her ashore, in a cove full of breakers, +before y^e winde. But a lusty seaman which steered, bad those which +rowed, if they were men, about with her, or ells they were all cast +away; the which they did with speed. So he bid them be of good cheere +& row lustly, for ther was a faire sound before them, & he doubted not +but they should find one place or other wher they might ride in +saftie. + +And though it was very darke, and rained sore, yet in y^e end they +gott under y^e lee of a smalle iland, and remained ther all y^t night +saftie. But they knew not this to be an iland till morning, but were +devided into their minds; some would keepe y^e boate for fear they +might be amongst y^e Indians; others were so weake and could, they +could not endure, but got ashore, & with much adoe got fire, (all +things being so wett,) and y^e rest were glad to come to them; for +after midnight y^e wind shifted to the north-west, & it frose hard. +But though this had been a day & night of much trouble & danger unto +them, yet God gave them a morning of comforte and refreshing (as +usually he doth to his children), for y^e next day was a faire +sunshinig day, and they found them selvs to be on an iland secure from +y^e Indeans, wher they might drie their stufe, fixe their peeces, & +rest them selves, and gave God thanks for his mercies, in their +manifould deliverances. And this being the last day of y^e weeke, they +prepared ther to keepe y^e Sabath. On Munday they sounded y^e harbor, +and founde it fitt for shipping; and marched into y^e land, & found +diverse cornfields, & little runing brooks, a placed (as they +supposed) fitt for situation; at least it was y^e best they could +find, and y^e season, & their presente necessitie, made them glad to +accept of it. So they returned to their shipp againe with this news to +y^e rest of their people, which did much comforte their harts. + +On y^e 15. of Desem^r. they wayed anchor to goe to y^e place they had +discovered, & came within 2. leagues of it, but were faine to bear up +againe; but y^e 16. day y^e winde came faire, and they arrived safe in +this harbor.[3] And afterwards took better view of y^e place, and +resolved wher to pitch their dwelling; and y^e 25. day begane to +erecte y^e first house for comone use to receive them and their goods. + +I shall a litle returne backe and begine with a combination made by +them before they came ashore, being y^e first foundation of their +governmente in this place; occasioned partly by y^e discontented and +mutinous speeches that some of the strangers amongst them had let fall +from them in y^e ship--That when they came ashore they would use their +own libertie; for none had power to comand them, the patente they had +being for Virginia, and not for New-england, which belonged to an +other Government, with which y^e Virginia Company had nothing to doe. +And partly that shuch an acte by them done (this their condition +considered) might be as firme as any patent, and in some respects more +sure. The forme was as followeth: + +"In y^e name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwriten, the loyall +subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by y^e Grace of +God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of y^e faith, +&c., having undertaken, for y^e glorie of God, and advancemente of y^e +Christian faith, and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant +y^e first colonie in y^e Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these +presents solemnly & mutualy in y^e presence of God, and one of +another, covenant & combine our selves together into a civill body +politick, for our better ordering & preservation & furtherance of y^e +ends aforesaid; and by vertue hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame +such just & equall lawes, ordinances, acts, constitutions, & offices, +from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient for y^e +generall good of y^e Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission +and obedience. In witness wherof we have hereunder subscribed our +names at Cape-Codd y^e 11. of November, in y^e year of England, Franc, +& Ireland y^e eighteenth, and of Scotland y^e fiftie fourth. An^o: +Dom. 1620." + + [1] William Bradford had already been a leading member of a little + dissenting congregation in England, when, in 1608, it fled from + England to Holland, and in 1620 settled at Plymouth, Mass. A year + after the arrival at Plymouth Bradford was elected Governor of the + Colony, and, with the exception of two short intervals, held this + office until his death nearly forty years afterward. + + Bradford's "History of Plymouth" is a classic in New England + historical literature--the foundation-stone, in fact, of the + history of New England. A curious item in the survival of the + manuscript is that, at the time of the evacuation of Boston by the + British, during the Revolution, it disappeared mysteriously, to be + discovered eighty years afterward in the palace of the Bishop of + London. More than forty years after this discovery, the manuscript + was restored by the diocese of London to the commonwealth of + Massachusetts, which now preserves it in the State Library in + Boston. + + [2] Now known as Provincetown, where a lofty monument on a hilt + back of the harbor, dedicated in 1910, commemorates the landing + there of the Pilgrim Fathers. While the Mayflower lay in this + harbor, Paregrine White was born, the first child of English + parentage born in New England. + + [3] The landing at Plymouth was effected on December 21. + + + + +THE FIRST NEW YORK SETTLEMENTS + +(1623-1628) + +BY NICHOLAS JEAN DE WASSENAER[1] + + +We treated in our preceding discourse of the discovery of some rivers +in Virginia; the studious reader will learn how affairs proceeded. The +West India Company being chartered to navigate these rivers, did not +neglect so to do, but equipped in the spring [of 1623] a vessel of 130 +lasts, called the _New Netherland_ whereof Cornelis Jacobs of Hoorn +was skipper, with 30 families, mostly Walloons, to plant a colony +there. They sailed in the beginning of March, and directing their +course by the Canary Islands, steered towards the wild coast, and +gained the westwind which luckily (took) them in the beginning of May +into the river called, first Rio de Montagnes, now the river +Mauritius, lying in 40-1/2 degrees. He found a Frenchman lying in the +mouth of the river, who would erect the arms of the King of France +there; but the Hollanders would not permit him, opposing it by +commission from the Lords States General and the directors of the West +India Company; and in order not to be frustrated therein, with the +assistance of those of the _Mackerel_ which lay above, they caused a +yacht of 2 guns to be manned, and convoyed the Frenchman out of the +river, who would do the same thing in the south river, but he was also +prevented by the settlers there. This being done, the ship sailed up +to the Maykans, 44 miles, near which they built and completed a fort +named "Orange," with 4 bastions, on an island, by them called Castle +Island.... + +Respecting these colonies, they have already a prosperous beginning; +and the hope is that they will not fall through provided they be +zealously sustained, not only in that place but in the South river. +For their increase and prosperous advancement, it is highly necessary +that those sent out be first of all well provided with means both of +support and defense, and that being freemen, they be settled there on +a free tenure; that all they work for and gain be theirs to dispose of +and to sell it according to their pleasure; that whoever is placed +over them as commander act as their father not as their executioner, +leading them with a gentle hand; for whoever rules them as a friend +and associate will be beloved by them, as he who will order them as a +superior will subvert and nullify everything; yea, they will excite +against him the neighbouring provinces to which they will fly. `Tis +better to rule by love and friendship than by force.... + +As the country is well adapted for agriculture and the raising of +every thing that is produced here, the aforesaid Lords resolved to +take advantage of the circumstances, and to provide the place with +many necessaries, through the Honble. Pieter Evertsen Hulst, who +undertook to ship thither, at his risk, whatever was requisite, to +wit: one hundred and three head of cattle; stallions, mares, steers +and cows, for breeding and multiplying, besides all the hogs and sheep +that might be thought expedient to send thither; and to distribute +these in two ships of one hundred and forty lasts, in such a manner +that they should be well foddered and attended to.... + +In company with these, goes a fast sailing vessel at the risk of the +directors. In these aforesaid vessels also go six complete families +with some freemen, so that forty five newcomers or inhabitants are +taken out, to remain there. The natives of New Netherland are very +well disposed so long as no injury is done them. But if any wrong be +committed against them they think it long till they be revenged.... + +They are a wicked, bad people, very fierce in arms. Their dogs are +small. When the Honble. Lebrecht van Twenhuyzen, once a skipper, had +given them a big dog, and it was presented to them on ship-board, they +were very much afraid of it; calling it, also a Sachem of dogs, being +the biggest. The dog, tied with a rope on board, was very furious +against them, they being clad like beasts with skins, for he thought +they were game; but when they gave him some of their bread made of +Indian corn, which grows there, he learned to distinguish them, that +they were men. + +The Colony was planted at this time, on the Manhates where a Fort was +staked out by Master Kryn Frederyeke, an engineer. It will be of large +dimensions.... + +The government over the people of New Netherland continued on the 15th +of August of this year in the aforesaid Minuit, successor to Verhulst, +who went thither from Holand on 9th January, Anno, 1626, and took up +his residence in the midst of a nation called Manhates, building a +fort there, to be called Amsterdam, having four points and faced +outside entirely with stone, as the walls of sand fall down, and are +now more compact. + +The population consists of two hundred and seventy souls, including +men, women, and children. They remained as yet without the Fort, in no +fear, as the natives live peaceably with them. They are situate three +miles from the Sea, on the river by us called Mauritius, by others, +Rio de Montagne.... + +After the Right Honble Lords Directors of the Privileged West India +Company in the United Netherlands, had provided for the defence of New +Netherland and put everything there in good order, they taking into +consideration the advantages of said place, the favorable nature of +the air, and soil, and that considerable trade and goods and many +commodities may be obtained from thence, sent some persons, of their +own accord, thither with all sorts of cattle and implements necessary +for agriculture, so that in the year 1628 there already resided on the +island of the Manhates, two hundred and seventy souls, men, women, and +children, under Governor Minuit, Verhulst's successor, living there in +peace with the natives. But as the land, in many places being full of +weeds and wild productions, could not be properly cultivated in +consequence of the scantiness of the population, the said Lords +Directors of the West India Company, the better to people their lands, +& to bring the country to produce more abundantly, resolved to grant +divers privileges, freedoms, and exemptions to all patroons, masters +or individuals who should plant any colonies and cattle in New +Netherland, and they accordingly have constituted and published in +print (certain) exemptions, to afford better encouragement and infuse +greater zeal into whomsoever should be inclined to reside and plant +his colonie in New Netherland. + + [1] From Wassenaer's "Description of the first settlement of New + Netherland." Printed in Hart's "American History Told by + Contemporaries." Wassenaer was a Dutchman, and wrote + contemporaneously with the events he describes. After Hudson's + discovery of the Hudson River, Dutch ships were sent over to + Manhattan Island to establish an agency for the collection of furs. + Rude cabins were pitched and lived in at the southern end of the + island but these did not constitute a permanent settlement; they + were a mere trading-post. The trade became so profitable, however, + that something more permanent was desired, and in 1623 the West + India Company dispatched ships with thirty families as the nucleus + of a colony to be established near the present site of Albany. Not + until two years later was it decided that the headquarters of the + colony should be on Manhattan Island. Two ships were then sent out + to establish there a permanent and more extensive settlement. + + + + +THE SWEDES AND DUTCH IN NEW JERSEY AND DELAWARE + +(1627) + +BY ISRAEL ACRELIUS[1] + + +After that the magnanimous Genoese Christopher Columbus, had, at the +expense of Ferdinand, King of Spain, in the year 1492, discovered the +Western hemisphere, and the illustrious Florentine, Americus +Vespucius, sent out by King Emanuel of Portugal, in the year 1502, to +make a further exploration of its coasts, had had the good fortune to +give the country his name, the European powers have, from time to +time, sought to promote their several interests there. Our Swedes and +Goths were the less backward in such expeditions, as they had always +been the first therein. They had already, in the year 996 after the +birth of Christ, visited America, had named it Vinland the Good, and +also Skrællings Land, and had called its inhabitants "the Skrællings +of Vinland." It is therefore evident that the Northmen had visited +some part of North America before the Spaniards and Portuguese went to +South America.... + +From that time until 1623, when the West India Company obtained its +charter, their trade with the Indians was conducted almost entirely on +shipboard, and they made no attempts to build any house or fortress +until 1629. Now, whether that was done with or without the permission +of England, the town of New Amsterdam was built and fortified, as also +the place Aurania, Orange, now called Albany, having since had three +general-governors, one after the other. But that was not yet enough. +They wished to extend their power to the river Delaware also, and +erected on its shores two or three small forts, which were, however, +soon after destroyed by the natives of the country. + +It now came in order for Sweden also to take part in this enterprise. +William Usselinx,[2] a Hollander, born at Antwerp in Brabant, +presented himself to King Gustaf Adolph, and laid before him a +proposition for a Trading Company, to be established in Sweden, and to +extend its operations to Asia, Africa, and Magellan's Land (Terra +Magellanica), with the assurance that this would be a great source of +revenue to the kingdom. Full power was given him to carry out this +important project; and thereupon a contract of trade was drawn up, to +which the Company was to agree and subscribe it. Usselinx published +explanations of this contract, wherein he also particularly directed +attention to the country on the Delaware, its fertility, convenience, +and all its imaginable resources. To strengthen the matter, a charter +(octroy) was secured for the Company, and especially to Usselinx, who +was to receive a royalty of one thousandth upon all articles bought or +sold by the Company. + +The powerful king, whose zeal for the honor of God was not less ardent +than for the welfare of his subjects, availed himself of this +opportunity to extend the doctrines of Christ among the heathen, as +well as to establish his own power in other parts of the world. To +this end he sent forth Letters Patent, dated at Stockholm on the 2d of +July, 1626, wherein all, both high and low, were invited to contribute +something to the Company, according to their means. The work was +completed in the Diet of the following year, 1627, when the estates of +the realm gave their assent, and confirmed the measure.... + +But when these arrangements were now in full progress, and duly +provided for, the German war and the king's death occurred, which +caused this important work to be laid aside. The Trading Company was +dissolved, its subscriptions nullified, and the whole project seemed +about to die with the king. But, just as it appeared to be at its end, +it received new life. Another Hollander by the name of Peter Menewe, +sometimes called Menuet,[3] made his appearance in Sweden. + +As a good beginning, the first colony was sent off; and Peter Menewe +was placed over it, as being best acquainted in those regions. They +set sail from Götheborg, in a ship-of-war called the _Key of Colmar_, +followed by a smaller vessel bearing the name of the _Bird Griffin_, +both laden with people, provisions, ammunition, and merchandise, +suitable for traffic and gifts to the Indians. The ships successfully +reached their place of destination. The high expectations which our +emigrants had of that new land were well met by the first views which +they had of it. They made their first landing on the bay or entrance +to the river Poutaxat, which they called the river of New Sweden; and +the place where they landed they called Paradise Point.[4] + +A purchase of land was immediately made from the Indians; and it was +determined that all the land on the western side of the river, from +the point called Cape Inlopen or Hinlopen,[5] up to the fall called +Santickan, and all the country inland, as much as was ceded, should +belong to the Swedish crown forever. Posts were driven into the ground +as landmarks, which were still seen in their places sixty years +afterward. A deed was drawn up for the land thus purchased. This was +written in Dutch, because no Swede was yet able to interpret the +language of the heathen. The Indians subscribed their hands and marks. +The writing was sent home to Sweden to be preserved in the royal +archives. Mans Kling was the surveyor. He laid out the land and made a +map of the whole river, with its tributaries, islands, and points, +which is still to be found in the royal archives in Sweden. Their +clergyman was Reorus Torkillus of East Gothland. + +The first abode of the newly arrived emigrants was at a place called +by the Indians Hopokahacking. There, in the year 1638, Peter Menuet +built a fortress which he named Fort Christina, after the reigning +queen of Sweden.[6] The place, situated upon the west side of the +river, was probably chosen so as to be out of the way of the +Hollanders, who claimed the eastern side,--a measure of prudence, +until the arrival of a greater force from Sweden. The fort was built +upon an eligible site, not far from the mouth of the creek, so as to +secure them in the navigable water of the Maniquas, which was +afterward called Christina Kihl, or creek. + +Peter Menuet made a good beginning for the settlement of the Swedish +colony in America. He guarded his little fort for over three years, +and the Hollanders neither attempted nor were able to overthrow it. +After some years of faithful service he died at Christina. In his +place followed Peter Hollendare, a native Swede, who did not remain at +the head of its affairs more than a year and a half. He returned home +to Sweden, and was a major at Skkepsholm, in Stockholm, in the year +1655. + +The second emigration took place under Lieutenant Colonel John Printz, +who went out with the appointment of Governor of New Sweden. He had a +grant of four hundred six dollars for his traveling expenses, and one +thousand two hundred dollars silver as his annual salary. The Company +was invested with the exclusive privilege of importing tobacco into +Sweden, altho that article was even then regarded as unnecessary and +injurious, altho indispensable since the establishment of the bad +habit of its use. Upon the same occasion was also sent out Magister +John Campanius Holm, who was called by their excellencies the Royal +Council and Admiral Claes Flemming, to become the government chaplain, +and watch over the Swedish congregation. + +The ship on which they sailed was called the _Fama_. It went from +Stockholm to Götheborg, and there took in its freight. Along with this +went two other ships of the line, the _Swan_ and the _Charitas_, laden +with people, and other necessaries. Under Governor Printz, ships came +to the colony in three distinct voyages. The first ship was the _Black +Cat_, with ammunition, and merchandise for the Indians. Next, the ship +_Swan_, on a second voyage, with emigrants, in the year 1647. +Afterward, two other ships, called the _Key_ and the _Lamp_. During +these times the clergymen, Mr. Lawrence Charles Lockenius and Mr. +Israel Holgh, were sent out to the colony.... + +The voyage to New Sweden was at that time quite long. The watery way +to the West was not yet well discovered, and, therefore, for fear of +the sand-banks off Newfoundland, they kept their course to the east +and south as far as to what were then called the Brazates. The ships +which went under the command of Governor Printz sailed along the coast +of Portugal, and down the coast of Africa, until they found the +eastern passage, then directly over to America, leaving the Canaries +high up to the north. They landed at Antigua, then continued their +voyage northward, past Virginia and Maryland, to Cape Hinlopen. Yet, +in view of the astonishingly long route which they took, the voyage +was quick enough in six months' time,--from Stockholm on August 16, +1642, to the new fort of Christina, in New Sweden, on February 15, +1643. + +The Swedes who emigrated to America belonged partly to a trading +company, provided with a charter, who for their services, according to +their condition of agreement, were to receive pay and monthly wages; a +part of them also went on their own impulse to try their fortune. For +these it was free to settle and live in the country as long as they +pleased or to leave it, and they were therefore, by way of distinction +from the others, called freemen. At first, also, malefactors and +vicious people were sent over, who were used as slaves to labor upon +the fortifications. They were kept in chains and not allowed to have +intercourse with the other settlers; moreover, a separate place of +abode was assigned to them. The neighboring people and country were +dissatisfied that such wretches should come into the colony. It was +also, in fact, very objectionable in regard to the heathen, who might +be greatly offended by it. Whence it happened that, when such persons +came over in Governor Printz's time, it was not permitted that one of +them should set foot upon the shore, but they had all to be carried +back again, whereupon a great part of them died during the voyage or +perished in some other way. Afterward it was forbidden at home in +Sweden, under a penalty, to take for the American voyage any persons +of bad fame; nor was there ever any lack of good people for the +colony. + +Governor Printz was now in a position to put the government upon a +safe footing to maintain the rights of the Swedes, and to put down the +attempts of the Hollanders. They had lately, before his arrival, +patched their little Fort Nassau. On this account he selected the +island of Tenaekong as his residence, which is sometimes also called +Tutaeaenung and Tenicko, about three Swedish miles from Fort +Christina. The convenient situation of the place suggested its +selection as also the location of Fort Nassau,[7] which lay some miles +over against it, to which he could thus command the passage by water. +The new fort, which was erected and provided with considerable +armament, was called New Götheborg. His place of residence, which he +adorned with orchards, gardens, a pleasure-house, etc., he named +Printz Hall. A handsome wooden church was also built at the same +place, which Magister Campanius consecrated, on the last great +prayer-day which was celebrated in New Sweden, on the 4th of +September, 1646. Upon that place also all the most prominent freemen +had their residences and plantations. + + [1] From Acrelius's "History of New Sweden." Printed in "Old South + Leaflets." Acrelius from 1749 until 1756 was provost over Swedish + Congregations in America and pastor of their church at Christina, + now Wilmington, on the Delaware. His complete work is an exhaustive + one, and covers not only the early but the later years of Swedish + history on the Delaware. It has long been esteemed the best work we + have on the subject. + + [2] Usselinx had proposed the formation of a company to trade in + foreign countries, including America, as early as 1604. + + [3] Peter Minuit, the Governor of New Amsterdam, who purchased + Manhattan Island from the Indians for goods worth $24, is here + referred to. + + [4] Paradise Point was near the present town of Lewes, in the State + of Delaware. The site is near where the Bay merges in the ocean. + + [5] This name has been corrupted Into Henlopen. The cape was named + by Captain Cornelius May after a towu in Friesland. May's name was + given to the southern point of New Jersey now known as Cape May. + He visited Delaware Bay in or about 1614. + + [6] Ft. Christina was within the limits of the present city of + Wilmington. The ancient Swedish church, built in 1698 and still + standing in Wilmington, marks the site of this, the original + settlement of Swedes in Delaware. + + [7] Fort Nassau was on Delaware Bay at the mouth of Timber Creek, + below Gloucester Point, in New Jersey. + + + + +THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY + +(1627-1631) + +BY GOVERNOR THOMAS DUDLEY[1] + + +Touching the plantacon which wee here haue begun, it fell out thus +about the yeare 1627 some friends beeing togeather in Lincolnesheire, +fell into some discourse about New England and the plantinge of the +gospell there; and after some deliberation, we imparted our reasons by +l'res [letters] & messages to some in London & the west country where +it was likewise deliberately thought vppon [upon], and at length with +often negociation soe ripened that in the year 1628. wee procured a +patent from his Ma'tie for our planting between the Matachusetts Bay, +and Charles river on the South; and the River of Merimack on the North +and 3 miles on ether side of those Rivers & Bay, as allso for the +government of those who did or should inhabit within that compass and +the same year we sent Mr. John Endecott & some with him to beginne a +plantacon & to strengthen such as he should find there which wee sent +thether from Dorchester & some places adioyning [adjoining]; ffrom +whom the same year receivinge hopefull news. + +The next year 1629 wee sent diverse shipps over w'th about 300 people, +and some Cowes, Goates & Horses many of which arrived safely. Theis +[these] by their too large comendacons [commendations] of the country, +and the comodities thereof, invited us soe strongly to goe on that Mr. +Wenthropp of Soffolke (who was well knowne in his own country & well +approved heere for his pyety, liberality, wisedome & gravity) comeinge +in to us, wee came to such resolution that in April 1630, wee sett +saile from Old England with 4 good shipps. And in May following 8 more +followed, 2 having gone before in February and March, and 2 more +following in June and August, besides another set out by a private +merchant. Theis 17 Shipps arrived all safe in New England, for the +increase of the plantacon here theis yeare 1630.... + +Our 4 shipps which sett out in April arrived here in June and July, +where wee found the colony in a sadd and unexpected condicon above 80 +of them being dead the winter before and many of those alive weake and +sicke: all the corne & bread amongst them all hardly sufficient to +feed them a fortnight, insoemuch that the remainder of 180 servants +wee had the 2 years before sent over, comeinge to vs for victualls to +sustaine them wee found ourselves wholly unable to feed them by reason +that the p'visions [provisions] shipped for them were taken out of the +shipp they were put in, and they who were trusted to shipp them in +another failed us, and left them behind; whereupon necessity enforced +us to our extreme loss to giue them all libertie; who had cost us +about: 16 or 20 £s [sterling] a person furnishing and sending over. + +But bearing theis things as wee might, wee beganne to consult of the +place of our sitting downe: ffor Salem where wee landed, pleased us +not. And to that purpose some were sent to the Bay[2] to search vpp +the rivers for a convenient place; who vppon their returne reported to +haue found a good place vppon Mistick; but some other of us seconding +theis to approoue [approve] or dislike of their judgment; we found a +place [that] liked vs better 3 leagues vp Charles river--And there +vppon vnshipped our goods into other vessels and with much cost and +labour brought them in July to Charles Towne; but there receiveing +advertisements by some of the late arived shipps from London and +Amsterdam of some Ffrench preparations against vs (many of our people +brought with vs beeing sick of ffeavers [fevers] & the scurvy and wee +thereby vnable to car[r]y vp our ordinance and baggage soe farr) wee +were forced to change counsaile and for our present shelter to plant +dispersedly, some at Charles Towne which standeth on the North Side of +the mouth of Charles River; some on the South Side thereof, which +place we named Boston (as wee intended to haue done the place wee +first resolved on) some of vs vppon Mistick, which wee named Meadford; +some of vs westward on Charles river, 4 miles from Charles Towne, +which place wee named Watertoune; others of vs 2 miles from Boston in +a place wee named Rocksbury, others vppon the river of Sawgus betweene +Salem and Charles Toune. And the westerne men 4 miles South from +Boston at a place wee named Dorchester. + +This dispersion troubled some of vs, but helpe it wee could not, +wanting abillity to remove to any place fit to build a Toune vppon, +and the time too short to deliberate any longer least [lest] the +winter should surprize vs before wee had builded our houses.... of the +people who came over with vs from the time of their setting saile from +England in Aprill 1630. vntill December followinge there dyed by +estimacon about 200 at the least--Soe lowe hath the Lord brought vs! +Well, yet they who survived were not discouraged but bearing God's +corrections with humilitye and trusting in his mercies, and +considering how after a greater ebb hee had raised vpp our neighbours +at Plymouth we beganne againe in December to consult about a fitt +place to build a Toune [town] vppon, leavinge all thoughts of a fort, +because vppon any invasion wee were necessarily to loose our howses +when we should retire thereinto; soe after diverse meetings at Boston, +Rocksbury and Waterton on the 28th of December wee grew to this +resolution to bind all the Assistants Mr. Endicott & Mr. Sharpe +excepted, which last purposeth to returne by the next ships into +England to build howses at a place, a mile east from Waterton neere +Charles river,[3] the next Springe, and to winter there the next +yeare, that soe by our examples and by removeinge the ordinance and +munition thether, all who were able, might be drawne thether, and such +as shall come to vs hereafter to their advantage bee compelled soe to +doe; and soe if God would, a fortifyed Toune might there grow vpp, the +place fitting reasonably well thereto.... + +But now haueing some leasure to discourse of the motiues for other +mens comeinge to this place or their abstaining from it, after my +brief manner I say this--That if any come hether [hither] to plant for +worldly ends that canne live well at home hee co[m]mits an errour of +which hee will soon repent him. But if for spirittuall [ends] and that +noe particular obstacle hinder his removeall, he may finde here what +may well content him: vizt: materialls to build, fewell [fuel] to +burn, ground to plant, seas and rivers to ffish in, a pure ayer [air] +to breath[e] in, good water to drinke till wine or beare canne be +made, which togeather with the cowes, hoggs and goates brought hether +allready may suffice for food, for as for foule [fowl] and venison, +they are dainties here a well as in England. Ffor cloaths and beddinge +they must bring them with them till time and industry produce them +here. In a word, wee yett enioy [enjoy] little to bee envyed but +endure much to be pittyed in the sicknes & mortalitye of our people. + + [1] From Dudley's letter to the Countess of London. Printed in + Hart's "Source Book of American History." Dudley came over with + Winthrop, and at one time was governor of the Colony. + + [2] Boston Harbor is here referred to. + + [3] The place was alterward called Newtown, and is now Cambridge. + + + + +HOW THE BAY COLONY DIFFERED FROM PLYMOUTH + +BY JOHN G. PALFREY[1] + + +The emigration of the Englishmen who settled at Plymouth had been +prompted by religious dissent. In what manner Robinson, who was +capable of speculating on political tendencies, or Brewster, whose +early position had compelled him to observe them, had augured +concerning the prospect of public affairs in their native country, no +record tells; while the rustics of the Scrooby congregation, who fled +from a government which denied them liberty in their devotions, could +have had but little knowledge and no agency in the political sphere. +The case was widely different with the founders of the Colony of +Massachusetts Bay. That settlement had its rise in a state of things +in England which associated religion and politics in an intimate +alliance.... + +Winthrop, then forty-two years old, was descended from a family of +good condition, long seated at Groton, in Suffolk, where he had a +property of six or seven hundred pounds a year, the equivalent of at +least two thousand pounds at the present day. His father was a lawyer +and magistrate. Commanding uncommon respect and confidence from an +early age, he had moved in the circles where the highest matters of +English policy were discust, by men who had been associates of +Whitgift, Bacon, Essex, and Cecil. Humphrey was "a gentleman of +special parts, of learning and activity, and a godly man"; in the home +of his father-in-law, Thomas, third earl of Lincoln, the head in that +day of the now ducal house of Newcastle, he had been the familiar +companion of the patriotic nobles. + +Of the assistants, Isaac Johnson, esteemed the richest of the +emigrants, was another son-in-law of Lord Lincoln, and a landholder in +three counties. Sir Richard Saltonstall of Halifax, in Yorkshire, was +rich enough to be a bountiful contributor to the company's operations. +Thomas Dudley, with a company of volunteers which he had raised, had +served, thirty years before, under Henry IV of France; since which +time he had managed the estates of the Earl of Lincoln. He was old +enough to have lent a shrill voice to the huzzas at the defeat of the +armada, and his military services had indoctrinated him in the lore of +civil and religious freedom. Theophilus Eaton, an eminent London +merchant, was used to courts and had been minister of Charles I in +Denmark. Simon Bradstreet, the son of a Non-conformist minister in +Lincolnshire, and a grandson of "a Suffolk gentleman of a fine +estate," had studied at Emanuel College, Cambridge. William Vassall +was an opulent West India proprietor. "The principal planters of +Massachusetts," says the prejudiced Chalmers, "were English country +gentlemen of no inconsiderable fortunes; of enlarged understandings, +improved by liberal education; of extensive ambition, concealed under +the appearance of religious humility." + +But it is not alone from what we know of the position, character, and +objects of those few members of the Massachusetts Company who were +proposing to emigrate at the early period now under our notice, that +we are to estimate the power and the purposes of that important +corporation. It had been rapidly brought into the form which it now +bore, by the political exigencies of the age. Its members had no less +in hand than a wide religious and political reform--whether to be +carried out in New England, or in Old England, or in both, it was for +circumstances, as they should unfold themselves, to determine. The +leading emigrants to Massachusetts were of that brotherhood of men +who, by force of social consideration as well as of the intelligence +and resolute patriotism, molded the public opinion and action of +England in the first half of the seventeenth century. While the large +part stayed at home to found, as it proved, the short-lived English +republic, and to introduce elements into the English Constitution +which had to wait another half-century for their secure reception, +another part devoted themselves at once to the erection of free +institutions in this distant wilderness. + +In an important sense the associates of the Massachusetts Company were +builders of the British, as well as of the New England, commonwealth. +Some ten or twelve of them, including Cradock, the Governor, served in +the Long Parliament. Of the four commoners of that Parliament +distinguished by Lord Clarendon as first in influence, Vane had been +governor of the company, and Hampden, Pym, and Fiennes--all patentees +of Connecticut--if not members, were constantly consulted upon its +affairs. The latter statement is also true of the Earl of Warwick, the +Parliament's admiral, and of those excellent persons, Lord Say and +Sele and Lord Brooke, both of whom at one time proposed to emigrate. + +The company's meetings placed Winthrop and his colleagues in relations +with numerous persons destined to act busy parts in the stirring times +that were approaching--with Brereton and Hewson, afterward two of the +Parliamentary major-generals; with Philip Nye, who helped Sir Henry +Vane to "cozen" the Scottish Presbyterian Commissioners in the +phraseology of the Solemn League and Covenant; with Samuel Vassall, +whose name shares with those of Hampden and Lord Say and Sele the +renown of the refusal to pay ship-money, and of courting the suit +which might ruin them or emancipate England; with John Venn, who, at +the head of six thousand citizens, beset the House of Lords during the +trial of Lord Strafford, and whom, with three other Londoners, King +Charles, after the battle of Edgehil, excluded from his offer of +pardon; with Owen Rowe, the "firebrand of the city"; with Thomas +Andrews, the lord mayor, who proclaimed the abolition of royalty.... + +He who well weighs the facts which have been presented in connection +with the principal emigration to Massachusetts, and other related +facts which will offer themselves to notice as we proceed, may find +himself conducted to the conclusion that when Winthrop and his +associates prepared to convey across the water a charter from the King +which, they hoped, would in their beginnings afford them some +protection both from himself and through him from the powers of +Continental Europe, they had conceived a project no less important +than that of laying, on this side of the Atlantic, the foundations of +a nation of Puritan Englishmen, foundations to be built upon as future +circumstances should decide or allow. It would not perhaps be pressing +the point too far to say that in view of the thick clouds that were +gathering over their home, they contemplated the possibility that the +time was near at hand when all that was best of what they left behind +would follow them to these shores; when a renovated England, secure in +freedom and pure in religion, would rise in North America; when a +transatlantic English empire would fulfil, in its beneficent order, +the dreams of English patriots and sages of earlier times.... + +The _Arbella_ arrived at Salem after a passage of nine weeks, and was +joined in a few days by three vessels which had sailed in her company. +The assistants, Ludlow and Rossiter, with a party from the west +country, had landed at Nantasket a fortnight before, and some of the +Leyden people, on their way to Plymouth, had reached Salem a little +earlier yet. Seven vessels from Southampton made their voyages three +or four weeks later. Seventeen in the whole came before winter, +bringing about a thousand passengers.... + +It is desirable to understand how this population, destined to be the +germ of a state, was constituted. Of members of the Massachusetts +Company, it cannot be ascertained that so many as twenty had come +over. That company, as has been explained, was one formed mainly for +the furtherance, not of any private interests, but of a great public +object. As a corporation, it had obtained the ownership of a large +American territory, on which it designed to place a colony which +should be a refuge for civil and religious freedom. By combined +counsels, it had arranged the method of ordering a settlement, and the +liberality of its members had provided the means of transporting those +who should compose it. This done, the greater portion were content to +remain and await the course of events at home, while a few of their +number embarked to attend to providing the asylum which very soon +might be needed by them all. + +The reception of the newcomers was discouraging. More than a quarter +part of their predecessors at Salem had died during the previous +winter, and many of the survivors were ill or feeble. The faithful +Higginson was wasting with a hectic fever, which soon proved fatal. +There was a scarcity of all sorts of provisions, and not corn enough +for a fortnight's supply after the arrival of the fleet. "The +remainder of a hundred eighty servants," who, in the two preceding +years, had been conveyed over at heavy cost, were discharged from +their indentures, to escape the expense of their maintenance. Sickness +soon began to spread, and before the close of autumn had proved fatal +to two hundred of this year's emigration. Death aims at the "shining +mark" he is said to love. Lady Arbella Johnson, coming "from a +paradise of plenty and pleasure, which she enjoyed in the family of a +noble earldom, into a wilderness of wants," survived her arrival only +a month; and her husband, esteemed and beloved by the colonists, died +of grief a few weeks after. "He was a holy man and wise and died in +sweet peace." + + [1] From Palfrey's "History of New England." By permission of and + by arrangement with the authorized publishers, Houghton, Mifflin + Co. Copyright, 1873. + + + + +LORD BALTIMORE IN MARYLAND + +(1633) + +BY CONTEMPORARY WRITERS[1] + + +On Friday the 22 of November 1633, a small gale of winde comming +gently from the Northwest, weighed from the Cowes, in the Ile of +Wight, about ten in the morning; & (having stayed by the way twenty +dayes at the Barbada's, and fourtene dayes at St. Christophers, upon +some necessary occasions,) wee arrived at Point-Comfort in Virginia, +on the 24. of February following, the Lord be praised for it. At this +time one Captaine Claybourne was come from parts where wee intended to +plant, to Virginia, and from him wee vnderstood, that all the natiues +of these parts were in preparation of defence, by reason of a rumour +somebody had raised amongst them, of sixe ships that were come with a +power of Spanyards, whose meaning was to driue all the inhabitants out +of the Countrey. + +On the 3. of March wee came into Chesapeake Bay, and made sayle to the +North of Patoemeck river, the Bay running betweene two sweete lands in +the channell of 7. 8. and 9 fathome deepe, 10 leagues broad, and full +of fish at the time of the yeere; It is one of the delightfullest +waters I euer saw, except Potoemeck, which wee named St. Gregories. +And now being in our own Countrey, wee began to give names to places, +and called the Southerne Pointe, Cape Saint Gregory; and the Northerly +Point, Saint Michaels. + +This river, of all I know, is the greatest and sweetest, much broader +than the Thames; so pleasant, as I for my part, was never satisfied in +beholding it. Few marshes or swamps, but the greatest part sollid good +earth, with great Curiosity of woods which are not Choaked up with +under-shrubbes, but set commonly one from the other in such distance, +as a Coach and foure horses may easily trauell through them. + +At the first loaming of the ship vpon the river, wee found (as was +foretold us) all the Countrey in Armes. The King of the Paschattowayes +had drawen together 1500 bowe-men, which wee ourselves saw, the woods +were fired in manner of beacons the night after; and for that our +vessel was the greatest that euer those Indians saw, the scowtes +reported wee came in a Canoe, as bigge as an Island, and had as many +men as there bee trees in the woods. + +Wee sayled vp the river till wee came to Heron Ilands, so called from +the infinite swarmes of that fowle there. The first of those Ilands we +called Saint Clement's: The second Saint Katharine's; And the third, +Saint Cicilie's. We took land first in Saint Clement's, which is +compassed about with a shallow water, and admitts no accesse without +wading; here by the overturning of the Shallop, the maids which had +been washing at the land were almost drowned, beside the losse of much +linnen, and amongst the rest, I lost the best of mine which is a very +maine losse in these parts. The ground is couered thicke with +pokickeries (which is a wild Wall-nut very hard and thick of shell; +but the meate (though little) is passing sweete,) with black +Wall-nuts, and acorns bigger than Ours. It abounds with Vines and +Salletts, hearbs and flowers, full of Cedar and Sassafras. It is but +400 acres bigg, & therefore too little for vs to settle vpon. + +Heere we went to a place, where a large tree was made into a Crosse; +and taking it on our shoulders, wee carried it to the place appointed +for it. The Gouernour and Commissioners putting their hands first vnto +it, then the rest of the chiefest adventurers. At the place prepared +wee all kneeled downe, & said certain Prayers; taking possession of +the Countrey for our Saviour, and for our soueraigne Lord the King of +England... The Gouernour being returned, wee Came some nine leagues +lower to a river on the North Side of that land, as bigg as the +Thames: which wee called Saint Gregorie's river.[2] It runs vp to the +North about 20 miles before it comes to the fresh. This river makes +two excellent Bayes, for 300 sayle of Shippes of 1000. tunne, to +harbour in with great safety. The one Bay we named Saint George's; the +other (and more inward) Saint Marie's. The King of Yaocomico, dwells +on the left-hand or side thereof: & we tooke vp our Seate on the +right, one mile within the land. It is as braue a piece of ground to +set down on as most is in the Countrey, & I suppose as good, (if not +much better) than the primest parcel of English ground. + +Our Town we call Saint Marie's; and to auoid all iust occasion of +offence, & collour of wrong, wee bought of the King for Hatchets, +Axes, Howes, and Cloathes, a quantitie of some 30 miles of Land, which +wee call Augusta Carolina; And that which made them the more willing +to sell it, was the warres they had with the Sasqusa-han-oughs,[3] a +mighty bordering nation, who came often into their Countrey, to waste +& destroy; & forced many of them to leaue their Countrey, and passe +ouer Patoemeck to free themselues from perill before wee came. God no +doubt disposing all this for them, who were to bring his law and light +among the Infidells. Yet, seeing wee came soe well prepared with +armes, their feare was much lesse, & they could be content to dwell by +vs: Yet doe they daily relinquish their houses, lands, & Cornefields, +& leaue them to vs. Is not this a piece of wonder that a nation, which +a few dayes before was in armes with the rest against vs, should yeeld +themselues now vnto vs like lambes, & giue vs their houses, land & +linings, for a trifle? _Digitus Dei est hic_: and surely some great +good is entended by God to his Nation. Some few families of Indians, +are permitted to stay by vs till next yeere, & then the land is +free.... + +And now to returne to the place itself, chosen for our plantation. Wee +have been vpon it but one month, and therefore can make no large +relation of it. Yet thus much I can say of it allready; For our own +safety, we haue built a good strong Fort or Palizado, & haue mounted +vpon it one good piece of Ordnance, and 4 Murderers, and haue seuen +pieces of Ordnance more, ready to mount forthwith. For our prouision, +heere is some store of Peasen, and Beanes, and Wheate left on the +ground by the Indians, who had satisfaction for it. + +Wee haue planted since wee came, as much Maize (or Indian Wheate) as +will suffice (if God prosper it) much more company than we haue. It is +vp about knee high aboue ground allready, and wee expect return of +1000. for one, as wee have reason for our hope, from the experience of +the yeelde in other parts of this Countrey, as is very credibly +related to vs. + +Wee haue also English Peasen, & French-beanes, Cotten, Oringes, +Limons, Melocotunes, Apples, Peares, Potatos, and Sugar-Canes of our +owne planting, beside Hortage comming vp very finely. + +But such is the quantity of Vines and Grapes now allready vpon them +(though young) as I dare say if wee had Vessells and skill, wee might +make many a tonne of Wine, euen from about our Plantation; and such +Wine, as those of Virginia say (for yet we can say nothing) as is as +good as the Wine of Spaine. I feare they exceede; but surely very +good. For the Clime of this Countrey is neere the same with Sivill and +Corduba: lying betweene 38 & 40 degrees of Northerlie latitude. + +Of Hoggs wee haue allready got from Achomack (a plantation in +Virginia) to the number of 100, & more: and some 30 Cowes; and more +wee expect daily, with Goates and Hennes; our Horses and Sheepe wee +must have out of England, or some other place by the way, for wee can +haue none in Virginia. + + [1] This account was compiled from letters written to friends in + England by some of the original settlers about a year after their + arrival. George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, founder of Maryland, + had sent a group of colonists to Newfoundland in 1621, but the + venture being unsuccessful he secured a new grant north of the + Potomac, to which, at the request of Charles I, he gave the name of + Maryland, in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria. Calvert, after a visit + to Virginia, returned to England and there died before his charter + was actually issued. In consequence the grant was made out to + Calvert's son, Cecil. Cecil Calvert at once organized a company of + more than two hundred men, who effected a permanent settlement at + St. Mary's, which for sixty years was the capital of the colony of + Maryland, Annapolis being afterward chosen. Baltimore was not + founded until 1729. + + The account here given was published in London in 1634, and is the + first extant description of the province. It has been conjectured + that Cecil Calvert prepared it from letters written by his + brothers, Leonard and George. The account is believed to preserve + the exact language of the original writers of the letters. Printed + in "Old South Leaflets." + + [2] Now called the Susquehanna. + + [3] The Susquehanna Indians. + + + + +ROGER WILLIAMS IN RHODE ISLAND + +(1636) + +BY NATHANIEL MORTON[1] + + +In the year 1634 Mr. Roger Williams removed from Plymouth to Salem: he +had lived about three years at Plymouth, where he was well accepted as +an assistant in the ministry to Mr. Ralph Smith, then pastor of the +church there, but by degrees venting of divers of his own singular +opinions, and seeking to impose them upon others, he not finding such +a concurrence as he expected, he desired his dismission to the Church +of Salem, which though some were unwilling to, yet through the prudent +counsel of Mr. Brewster (the ruling elder there) fearing that his +continuance amongst them might cause division, and [thinking that] +there being then many able men in the Bay, they would better deal with +him then [than] themselves could ... the Church of Plymouth consented +to his dismission, and such as did adhere to him were also dismissed, +and removed with him, or not long after him, to Salem.... + +But he having in one year's time filled that place with principles of +rigid separation, and tending to Anabaptistry, the prudent Magistrates +of the Massachusetts Jurisdiction, sent to the Church of Salem, +desiring them to forbear calling him to office, which they not +hearkening to, was a cause of much disturbance; for Mr. Williams had +begun, and then being in office, he proceeded more vigorously to vent +many dangerous opinions, as amongst many others these were some; That +it is not lawful for an unregenerate man to pray, nor to take an Oath, +and in special, not the Oath of Fidelity to the Civil Government; nor +was it lawful for a godly man to have communion either in Family +Prayer, or in an Oath with such as they judged unregenerate: and +therefore he himself refused the Oath of Fidelity, and taught others +so to do; also, That it was not lawful so much as to hear the godly +Ministers of England, when any occasionally went thither; & therefore +he admonished any Church-members that had done so, as for hainous sin: +also he spake dangerous words against the Patent, which was the +foundation of the Government of the Massachusets Colony: also he +affirmed, That the Magistrates had nothing to do in matters of the +first Table [of the commandments], but only the second; and that there +should be a general and unlimited Toleration of all Religions, and for +any man to be punished for any matters of his Conscience, was +persecution.... + +He persisted, and grew more violent in his way, insomuch as he staying +at home in his own house, sent a Letter, which was delivered and read +in the publick Church assembly, the scope of which was to give them +notice, That if the Church of Salem would not separate not only from +the Churches of Old-England, but the Churches of New-England too, he +would separate from them: the more prudent and sober part of the +Church being amazed at his way, could not yield unto him: whereupon he +never came to the Church Assembly more, professing separation from +them as Antichristian, and not only so, but he withdrew all private +religious Communion from any that would hold Communion with the Church +there, insomuch as he would not pray nor give thanks at meals with his +own wife nor any of his family, because they went to the Church +Assemblies ... which the prudent Magistrates understanding, and seeing +things grow more and more towards a general division and disturbance, +after all other means used in vain, they passed a sentence of +Banishment against him out of the Massachusets Colony, as against a +disturber of the peace, both of the Church and Commonwealth. + +After which Mr. Williams sat down in a place called Providence, out of +the Massachusets Jurisdiction, and was followed by many of the members +of the Church of Salem, who did zealously adhere to him, and who cried +out of the Persecution that was against him: some others also resorted +to him from other parts. They had not been long there together, but +from rigid separation they fell to Anabaptistry, renouncing the +Baptism which they had received in their Infancy, and taking up +another Baptism, and so began a Church in that way; but Mr. Williams +stopt not there long, for after some time he told the people that had +followed him, and joyned with him in a new Baptism, that he was out of +the way himself, and had mis-led them, for he did not finde that there +was any upon earth that could administer Baptism, and therefore their +last Baptism was a nullity, as well as their first; and therefore they +must lay down all, and wait for the coming of new Apostles: and so +they dissolved themselves, and turned Seekers, keeping that one +Principle, That every one should have liberty to Worship God according +to the Light of their own Consciences; but otherwise not owning any +Churches or Ordinances of God any where upon Earth. + + [1] From Morton's "New England Memorial," published at the request + of the Commismoners of the Four United Colonies of New England. + Morton lived in the family of Governor Bradford and served as + secretary of the court at Plymouth. This fact should be kept in + mind when reading his account. + + + + +THE FOUNDING OF CONNECTICUT + +(1633-1636) + +BY ALEXANDER JOHNSTON[1] + + +During the ten years after 1620, the twin colonies of Plymouth and +Massachusetts Bay had been fairly shaken down into their places, and +had even begun to look around them for opportunities of extension. It +was not possible that the fertile and inviting territory to the +southwest should long escape their notice. In 1629, De Rasières, an +envoy from New Amsterdam, was at Plymouth. He found the Plymouth +people building a shallop for the purpose of obtaining a share in the +wampum trade of Narragansett Bay; and he very shrewdly sold them at a +bargain enough wampum to supply their needs, for fear they should +discover at Narragansett the more profitable peltry trade beyond. This +artifice only put off the evil day. + +Within the next three years, several Plymouth men, including Winslow, +visited the Connecticut River, "not without profit." In April, 1631, a +Connecticut Indian visited Governor Winthrop at Boston, asking for +settlers, and offering to find them corn and furnish eighty beaver +skins a year. Winthrop declined even to send an exploring party. In +the midsummer of 1633, Winslow went to Boston to propose a joint +occupation of the new territory by Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay; but +the latter still refused, doubting the profit and the safety of the +venture. + +Three months later Plymouth undertook the work alone. A small vessel, +under command of William Holmes, was sent around by sea to the mouth +of the Connecticut River, with the frame of a trading house and +workmen to put it up. When Holmes had sailed up the river as far as +the place where Hartford was afterward built, he found the Dutch +already in possession. For ten years they had been talking of erecting +a fort on the Varsche River; but the ominous and repeated appearance +of New Englanders in the territory had roused them to action at last. + +John Van Corlear, with a few men, had been commissioned by Governor +Van Twiller, and had put up a rude earthwork, with two guns, within +the present jurisdiction of Hartford. His summons to Holmes to stop +under penalty of being fired into met with no more respect than was +shown by the commandant of Rensselaerswyck to his challengers, +according to the veracious Knickerbocker. Holmes declared that he had +been sent up the river, and was going up the river, and furthermore he +went up the river. His little vessel passed on to the present site of +Windsor. Here the crew disembarked, put up and garrisoned their +trading house, and then returned home. Plymouth had at least planted +the flag far within the coveted and disputed territory. + +In December of the following year a Dutch force of seventy men from +New Amsterdam appeared before the trading house to drive out the +intruders. He must be strong who drives a Yankee away from a +profitable trade; and the attitude of the little garrison was so +determined that the Dutchmen, after a few hostile demonstrations, +decided that the nut was too hard to crack, and withdrew. For about +twenty years thereafter the Dutch held post at Hartford, isolated from +Dutch support by a continually deepening mass of New Englanders, who +refrained from hostilities, and waited until the apple was ripe enough +to drop. + +With respect to the claims of the Indians, the attitudes of the two +parties to the struggle were directly opposite. The Dutch came on the +strength of purchase from the Pequots, the conquerors and lords +paramount of the local Indians. Holmes brought to the Connecticut +River in his vessel the local sachems, who had been driven away by the +Pequots, and made his purchases from them. The English policy will +account for the unfriendly disposition of the Pequots, and, when +followed up by the tremendous overthrow of the Pequots, for +Connecticut's permanent exemption from Indian difficulties. The +Connecticut settlers followed a straight road, buying lands fairly +from the Indians found in possession, ignoring those who claimed a +supremacy based on violence, and, in ease of resistance by the latter, +asserting and maintaining for Connecticut an exactly similar +title,--the right of the stronger. Those who claimed right received +it; those who preferred force were accommodated. + +One route to the new territory by Long Island Sound and the +Connecticut River, had thus been appropriated. The other, the overland +route through Massachusetts, was explored during the same year, 1633, +by one John Oldham, who was murdered by the Pequots two years +afterward. He found his way westward to the Connecticut River, and +brought back most appetizing accounts of the upper Connecticut Valley; +and his reports seem to have suggested a way out of a serious +difficulty which had come to a head in Massachusetts Bay. + +The colony of Massachusetts Bay was at this time limited to a district +covering not more than twenty or thirty miles from the sea, and its +greatest poverty, as Cotton stated, was a poverty of men. And yet the +colony was to lose part of its scanty store of men. Three of the eight +Massachusetts towns, Dorchester, Watertown, and Newtown (now +Cambridge), had been at odds with the other five towns on several +occasions; and the assigned reasons are apparently so frivolous as to +lead to the suspicion that some fundamental difference was at the +bottom of them. The three towns named had been part of the great +Puritan influx of 1630. Their inhabitants were "newcomers," and this +slight division may have been increased by the arrival and settlement, +in 1633, of a number of strong men at these three towns, notably +Hooker, Stone, and Haynes at Newtown. Dorchester, Watertown, and +Newtown showed many symptoms of an increase of local feeling: the two +former led the way, in October, 1633, in establishing town governments +under "selectmen;" and all three neglected or evaded, more or less, +the fundamental feature of Massachusetts policy,--the limitation of +office-holding and the elective franchise to church-members. The three +towns fell into the position of the commonwealth's opposition, a +position not particularly desirable at the time and under all the +circumstances. + +The ecclesiastical leaders of Dorchester were Warham and Maverick; of +Newtown, Hooker and Stone; of Watertown, Phillips. Haynes of Newtown, +Ludlow of Dorchester, and Pynchon of Roxbury, were the principal lay +leaders of the half-formed opposition. Some have thought that Haynes +was jealous of Governor Winthrop, Hooker of Cotton, and Ludlow of +everybody. But the opposition, if it can be fairly called an +opposition, was not so definite as to be traceable to any such +personal source. The strength which marked the divergence was due +neither to ambition nor to jealousy, but to the strength of mind and +character which marked the leaders of the minority. + +Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone were of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. +Hooker began to preach at Chelmsford in 1626, and was silenced for +non-conformity in 1629. He then taught school, his assistant being +John Eliot, afterward the apostle to the Indians; but the chase after +him became warmer, and in 1630 he retired to Holland and resumed his +preaching. In 1632 he and Stone came to New England as pastor and +teacher of the church at Newtown; and the two took part in the +migration to Hartford. Here Hooker became the undisputed +ecclesiastical leader of Connecticut until his death in 1647. John +Warham and John Maverick, both of Exeter in England, came to New +England in 1630, as pastor and teacher of Dorchester. Maverick died +while preparing to follow his church, but Warham settled with his +parishioners at Windsor, and died there in 1670. George Phillips, also +a Cambridge man, came to New England in 1630, as pastor of the church +at Watertown. He took no part in the migration, but lived and died at +Watertown. Fate seems to have determined that Wendell Phillips should +belong to Massachusetts. + +Roger Ludlow was Endicott's brother-in-law. He came to New England in +1630, and settled at Dorchester. He was deputy governor in 1634, and +seems to have been "slated," to use the modern term, for the +governorship in the following year. But this private agreement among +the deputies was broken, for some unknown reason, by the voters, who +chose Haynes, perhaps as a less objectionable representative of the +opposition. Ludlow complained so openly and angrily of the failure to +carry out the agreement that he was dropped from the magistracy at the +next election. He went at once to Connecticut, and was deputy governor +there in alternate years until 1654. Incensed at the interference of +New Haven to prevent his county, Fairfield, from waging an independent +warfare against the Dutch, he went to Virginia in 1654, taking the +records of the county with him. It is not known when or where he died. +Pynchon, the third lay leader of the opposition, took part in the +migration, but remained within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, +founding the town of Springfield. + +At the May session of the Massachusetts General Court in 1634, an +application for "liberty to remove" was received from Newtown. It was +granted. At the September session the request was changed into one for +removal to Connecticut. This was a very different matter, and, after +long debate, was defeated by the vote of the Assistants, tho the +Deputies passed it. Various reasons were assigned for the request to +remove to Connecticut,--lack of room in their present locations, the +desire to save Connecticut from the Dutch, and "the strong bent of +their spirits to remove thither;" but the last looks like the +strongest reason. In like manner, while the arguments to the contrary +were those which would naturally suggest themselves, the weakening of +Massachusetts, and the peril of the emigrants, the concluding +argument, that "the removing of a candlestick" would be "a great +judgment," seems to show the feeling of all parties that the secession +was the result of discord between two parties. + +Haynes was made governor at the next General Court. Successful +inducements were offered to some of the Newtown people to remove to +Boston, and some few concessions were made. But the migration which +had been denied to the corporate towns had probably been begun by +individuals. There is a tradition that some of the Watertown people +passed this winter of 1634-35 at the place where Wethersfield now +stands. In May, 1635, the Massachusetts General Court voted that +liberty be granted to the people of Watertown and Roxbury to remove +themselves to any place within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. In +March, 1636, the secession having already been accomplished, the +General Court issued a "Commission to Several Persons to govern the +people at Connecticut." + +Its preamble reads: "Whereas, upon some reasons and grounds, there are +to remove from this our Commonwealth and body of the Massachusetts in +America divers of our loving friends and neighbors, freemen and +members of Newtown, Dorchester, Watertown, and other places, who are +resolved to transport themselves and their estates unto the river of +Connecticut, there to reside and inhabit; and to that end divers are +there already, and divers others shortly to go." This tacit permission +was the only authorization given by Massachusetts; but it should be +noted that the unwilling permission was made more gracious by a kindly +loan of cannon and ammunition for the protection of the new +settlements. + +If it be true that some of the Watertown people had wintered at +Wethersfield in 1634-35, this was the first civil settlement in +Connecticut; and it is certain that, all through the following spring, +summer, and autumn, detached parties of Watertown people were settling +at Wethersfield. During the summer of 1635, a Dorchester party +appeared near the Plymouth factory, and laid the foundations of the +town of Windsor. In October of the same year a party of sixty persons, +including women and children, largely from Newtown, made the overland +march and settled where Hartford now stands. Their journey was begun +so late that the winter overtook them before they reached the river, +and, as they had brought their cattle with them, they found great +difficulty in getting everything across the river by means of rafts. + +It may have been that the echoes of all these preparations had reached +England, and stirred the tardy patentees to action. During the autumn +of 1635, John Winthrop, Jr., agent of the Say and Sele associates, +reached Boston, with authority to build a large fort at the mouth of +the Connecticut River. He was to be "Governor of the River +Connecticut" for one year, and he at once issued a proclamation to the +Massachusetts emigrants, asking "under what right and preference they +had lately taken up their plantation." + +It is said that they agreed to give up any lands demanded by him, or +to return on having their expenses repaid. A more dangerous influence, +however, soon claimed Winthrop's attention. Before the winter set in +he had sent a party to seize the designated spot for a fort at the +mouth of the Connecticut River. His promptness was needed. Just as his +men had thrown up a work sufficient for defense and had mounted a few +guns, a Dutch ship from New Amsterdam appeared, bringing a force +intended to appropriate the same place. Again the Dutch found +themselves a trifle late; and their post at Hartford was thus finally +cut off from effective support. + +This was a horrible winter to the advanced guard of English settlers +on the upper Connecticut. The navigation of the river was completely +blocked by ice before the middle of November; and the vessels which +were to have brought their winter supplies by way of Long Island Sound +and the river were forced to return to Boston, leaving the wretched +settlers unprovided for. For a little while some scanty supplies of +corn were obtained from the neighboring Indians, but this resource +soon failed. About seventy persons straggled down the river to the +fort at its mouth. There they found and dug out of the ice a sixty-ton +vessel, and made their way back to Boston. Others turned back on the +way they had come, and struggled through the snow and ice to "the +Bay." But a few held their grip on the new territory. Subsisting first +on a little corn bought from more distant Indians, then by hunting, +and finally on ground-nuts and acorns dug from under the snow, they +fought through the winter and held their ground. But it was a narrow +escape. Spring found them almost exhausted, their unsheltered cattle +dead, and just time enough to bring necessary supplies from home. The +Dorchester people alone lost cattle to the value of two thousand +pounds. + +The Newtown congregation, in October, 1635, found customers for their +old homes in a new party from England; and in the following June +Hooker and Stone led their people overland to Connecticut. They +numbered one hundred, with one hundred and sixty head of cattle. Women +and children were of the party. Mrs. Hooker, who was ill, was carried +on a litter; and the journey, of "about one hundred miles," occupied +two weeks. Its termination was well calculated to dissipate the evil +auguries of the previous winter. The Connecticut Valley in early June! +Its green meadows, flanked by wooded hills, lay before them. Its oaks, +whose patriarch was to shelter their charter, its great elms and +tulip-trees, were broken by the silver ribbon of the river; here and +there were the wigwams of the Indians, or the cabins of the survivors +of the winter; and, over and through all, the light of a day in June +welcomed the newcomers. The thought of abandoning Connecticut +disappeared forever. + + [1] From Johnston's "History of Connecticut." By permission of, and + by arrangement with, the authorized publishers, Houghton, Mifflin + Co. Copyright, 1887, by Alexander Johnston. + + + + +WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND + +(1647-1696) + +BY JOHN G. PALFREY[1] + + +The people of Massachusetts in the seventeenth century, like all other +Christian people at that time and later,--at least, with extremely +rare individual exceptions,--believed in the reality of a hideous +crime called witchcraft. They thought they had Scripture for that +belief, and they knew they had law for it, explicit and abundant; and +with them law and Scripture were absolute authorities for the +regulation of opinion and of conduct. + +In a few instances, witches were believed to have appeared in the +earlier years of New England. But the cases had been sporadic. The +first instance of an execution for witchcraft is said to have occurred +in Connecticut, soon after the settlement [1647, May 30th]; but the +circumstances are not known, and the fact has been doubted. A year +later, one Margaret Jones, of Charlestown in Massachusetts, and it has +been said, two other women in Dorchester and Cambridge, were convicted +and executed for the goblin crime. These cases appear to have excited +no more attention than would have been given to the commission of any +other felony, and no judicial record of them survives.... + +With three or four exceptions,--for the evidence respecting the +asserted sufferers at Dorchester and Cambridge is imperfect,--no +person appears to have been punished for witchcraft in Massachusetts, +nor convicted of it, for more than sixty years after the settlement, +though there had been three or four trials of other persons suspected +of the crime. At the time when the question respecting the colonial +charter was rapidly approaching an issue, and the public mind was in +feverish agitation, the ministers sent out a paper of proposals for +collecting facts concerning witchcraft [1681]. This brought out a work +from President Mather entitled "Illustrious Providences," in which +that influential person related numerous stories of the performances +of persons leagued with the Devil [1684]. + +The imagination of his restless young son[2] was stimulated, and +circumstances fed the flame. In the last year of the government of +Andros [1688], a daughter, thirteen years old, of John Goodwin,--a +mason living at the South End of Boston,--had a quarrel with an Irish +washerwoman about some missing clothes. The woman's mother took it up, +and scolded provokingly. Thereupon the wicked child, profiting, as it +seems, by what she had been hearing and reading on the mysterious +subject, "cried out upon her," as the phrase was, as a witch, and +proceeded to act the part understood to be fit for a bewitched person; +in which behavior she was presently joined by three others of the +circle, one of them only four or five years old. Now they would lose +their hearing, now their sight, now their speech; and sometimes all +three faculties at once. They mewed like kittens; they barked like +dogs. + +Cotton Mather prayed with one of them; but she lost her hearing, he +says, when he began, and recovered it as soon as he finished. Four +Boston ministers and one of Charlestown held a meeting, and passed a +day in fasting and prayer, by which exorcism the youngest imp was +"delivered." The poor woman, crazed with all this pother,--if in her +right mind before,--and defending herself unskilfully in her foreign +gibberish and with the volubility of her race, was interpreted as +making some confession. A gossiping witness testified that six years +before she had heard another woman say that she had seen the accused +come down a chimney. She was required to repeat the Lord's Prayer in +English,--an approved test; but being a Catholic, she had never +learned it in that language. She could recite it, after a fashion, in +Latin; but she was no scholar, and made some mistakes. The helpless +wretch was convicted and sent to the gallows. + +Cotton Mather took the oldest "afflicted" girl to his house, where she +dexterously played upon his self-conceit to stimulate his credulity. +She satisfied him that Satan regarded him as his most terrible enemy, +and avoided him with especial awe. When he prayed or read in the +Bible, she was seized with convulsion fits. When he called to family +devotion she would whistle, and sing, and scream, and pretend to try +to strike and kick him; but her blows would be stopt before reaching +his body, indicating that he was unassailable by the Evil One. Mather +published an account of these transactions,[3] with a collection of +other appropriate matter. The treatise circulated not only in +Massachusetts, but widely also in England, where it obtained the warm +commendation of Richard Baxter; and it may be supposed to have had an +important effect in producing the more disastrous delusion which +followed three years after. The Goodwin children soon got well: in +other words, they were tired of their atrocious foolery; and the death +of their victim gave them a pretense for a return to decent +behavior.... + +Martha Corey and Rebecca Nourse were cried out against. Both were +church-members of excellent character; the latter seventy years of +age. They were examined by the same magistrates, and sent to prison, +and with them a child of Sarah Good, only four or five years old, also +charged with diabolical practises. Mr. Parris preached upon the text, +"Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" Sarah +Cloyse, understanding the allusion to be to Nourse, who was her +sister, went out of church, and was accordingly cried out upon, +examined, and committed. Elizabeth Procter was another person charged. +The Deputy-Governor and five magistrates came to Salem for the +examination of the two prisoners last named. Procter appealed to one +of the children who was accusing her. "Dear child," she said, "it is +not so; there is another judgment, dear child:" and presently they +denounced as a witch her husband, who stood by her side. A week +afterward warrants were issued for the apprehension of four other +suspected persons; and a few days later for three others, one of whom, +Philip English, was the principal merchant of Salem. On the same day, +on the information of one of the possessed girls, an order was sent to +Maine for the arrest of George Burroughs, formerly a candidate for the +ministry at Salem Village, and now minister of Wells. The witness said +that Burroughs, besides being a wizard, had killed his first two +wives, and other persons whose ghosts had appeared to her and +denounced him.... + +Affairs were in this condition when the King's Governor arrived. About +a hundred alleged witches were now in jail, awaiting trial. Their case +was one of the first matters to which his attention was called. +Without authority for so doing,--for by the charter which he +represented, the establishment of judicial courts was a function of +the General Court,--he proceeded to institute a special commission of +Oyer and Terminer, consisting of seven magistrates, first of whom was +the hard, obstinate, narrow-minded Stoughton. The commissioners +applied themselves to their office without delay. Their first act was +to try Bridget Bishop, against whom an accusation twenty years old and +retracted by its author on his death-bed, had been revived. The court +sentenced her to die by hanging, and she was accordingly hanged at the +end of eight days. Cotton Mather, in his account of the proceedings, +relates that as she passed along the street under guard, Bishop "had +given a look toward the great and spacious meeting-house of Salem, and +immediately a dæmon, invisibly entering the house, tore down a part of +it." It may be guessed that a plank or a partition had given way under +the pressure of the crowd of lookers-on collected for so extraordinary +a spectacle. + +At the end of another four weeks the court sat again and sentenced +five women, two of Salem, and one each of Amesbury, Ipswich, and +Topsfield, all of whom were executed, protesting their innocence. In +respect to one of them, Rebecca Nourse, a matron eminent for piety and +goodness, a verdict of acquittal was first rendered. But Stoughton +sent the jury out again, reminding them that in her examination, in +reference to certain witnesses against her who had confest their own +guilt, she had used the expression, "they came among us." Nourse was +deaf, and did not catch what had been going on. When it was afterward +repeated to her she said that by the coming among us she meant that +they had been in prison together. But the jury adopted the court's +interpretation of the word as signifying an acknowledgment that they +had met at a witch orgy. The Governor was disposed to grant her a +pardon. But Parris, who had an ancient grudge against her, interfered +and prevailed. On the last communion day before her execution she was +taken into church, and formally excommunicated by Noyes, her +minister.... + +In the course of the next month, in which the Governor left Boston for +a short tour of inspection in the Eastern country, fifteen +persons--six women in one day, and on another eight women and one +man--were tried, convicted, and sentenced. Eight of them were hanged. +The brave Giles Corey, eighty years of age, being arraigned, refused +to plead. He said that the whole thing was an imposture, and that it +was of no use to put himself on his trial, for every trial had ended +in a conviction,--which was the fact. It is shocking to relate that, +suffering the penalty of the English common law for a contumacious +refusal to answer,--the _peine forte et dure_,--he was prest to death +with heavy weights laid on his body. By not pleading he intended to +protect the inheritance of his children, which, as he had been +informed, would by a conviction of felony have been forfeit to the +crown. + +There had been twenty human victims, Corey included; besides two dogs, +their accomplices in the mysterious crime. Fifty persons had obtained +a pardon by confessing; a hundred and fifty were in prison awaiting +trial; and charges had been made against two hundred more. The +accusers were now flying at high quarries. Hezekiah Usher, known to +the reader as an ancient magistrate of fair consideration, was +complained of; and Mrs. Thacher, mother-in-law of Corwin, the justice +who had taken the earliest examinations. Zeal in pushing forward the +prosecution began to seem dangerous; for what was to prevent an +accused person from securing himself by confession, and then revenging +himself on the accuser by arraigning him as a former ally?... + +The drunken fever-fit was now over, and with returning sobriety came +profound contrition and disgust. A few still held out against the +return of reason. There are some men who never own that they have been +in the wrong, and a few men who are forever incapable of seeing it. +Stoughton, with his bull-dog stubbornness, that might in other times +have made him a St. Dominic, continued to insist that the business had +been all right, and that the only mistake was in putting a stop to it. +Cotton Mather was always infallible in his own eyes. In the year after +the executions he had the satisfaction of studying another remarkable +case of possession in Boston; but when it and the treatise which he +wrote upon it failed to excite much attention, and it was plain that +the tide had set the other way, he soon got his consent to let it run +at its own pleasure, and turned his excursive activity to other +objects.... + +Members of some of the juries, in a written public declaration, +acknowledged the fault of their wrongful verdicts, entreated +forgiveness, and protested that, "according to their present minds, +they would none of them do such things again, on such grounds, for the +whole world; praying that this act of theirs might be accepted in way +of satisfaction for their offense." A day of General Fasting was +proclaimed by authority, to be observed throughout the jurisdiction, +in which the people were invited to pray that "whatever mistakes on +either hand had been fallen into, either by the body of this people, +or by any orders of men, referring to the late tragedy raised among us +by Satan and his instruments, through the awful judgment of God, he +would humble them therefor, and pardon all the errors of his servants +and people." + + [1] From Palfrey's "History of New England." By permission of, and + by arrangement with, the authorized publishers, Houghton, Miffin + Co. Copyright, 1873. + + [2] Cotton Mather, son of Increase Mather, the president of Harvard + College. + + [3] This work was entitled "Wonders of the Invisible World." It is + now much sought after by collectors of Americana. + + + + +THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF NEW YORK + +(1664) + +BY JOHN R. BRODHEAD[1] + + +England now determined boldly to rob Holland of her American province. +King Charles II accordingly sealed a patent granting to the Duke of +York and Albany a large territory in America, comprehending Long +Island and the islands in its neighborhood--his title to which Lord +Stirling had released--and all the lands and rivers from the west side +of the Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay. This +sweeping grant included the whole of New Netherlands and a part of the +territory of Connecticut, which, two years before, Charles had +confirmed to Winthrop and his associates. + +The Duke of York lost no time in giving effect to his patent. As lord +high admiral he directed the fleet. Four ships, the _Guinea_, of +thirty-six guns; the _Elias_, of thirty; the _Martin_, of sixteen; and +the _William and Nicholas_, of ten, were detached for service against +New Netherlands, and about four hundred fifty regular soldiers, with +their officers, were embarked. The command of the expedition was +intrusted to Colonel Richard Nicolls, a faithful Royalist, who had +served under Turenne with James, and had been made one of the +gentlemen of his bedchamber. Nicolls was also appointed to be the +Duke's deputy-governor, after the Dutch possessions should have been +reduced. + +With Nicolls were associated Sir Robert Carr, Colonel George +Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, as royal commissioners to visit the +several colonies in New England. These commissioners were furnished +with detailed instructions; and the New England governments were +required by royal letters to "join and assist them vigorously" in +reducing the Dutch to subjection. A month after the departure of the +squadron the Duke of York conveyed to Lord Berkeley and Sir George +Carteret all the territory between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers, +from Cape May north to 41° 40' latitude, and thence to the Hudson, in +41° latitude, "hereafter to be called by the name or names of Nova +Cæsarea or New Jersey." + +Intelligence from Boston that an English expedition against New +Netherlands had sailed from Portsmouth was soon communicated to +Stuyvesant by Captain Thomas Willett; and the burgomasters and +_schepens_ of New Amsterdam were summoned to assist the council with +their advice. The capital was ordered to be put in a state of defense, +guards to be maintained, and _schippers_ to be warned. As there was +very little powder at Fort Amsterdam a supply was demanded from New +Amstel, and a loan of five or six thousand guilders was asked from +Rensselaerswyck. The ships about to sail for Curaçao were stopt; +agents were sent to purchase provisions at New Haven; and as the enemy +was expected to approach through Long Island Sound, spies were sent to +obtain intelligence at West Chester and Milford. + +But at the moment when no precaution should have been relaxed, a +dispatch from the West India directors, who appear to have been misled +by advices from London, announced that no danger need be apprehended +from the English expedition, as it was sent out by the King only to +settle the affairs of his colonies and establish episcopacy, which +would rather benefit the company's interests in New Netherlands. +Willett now retracting his previous statements, a perilous confidence +returned. The Curacao ships were allowed to sail; and Stuyvesant, +yielded to the solicitation of his council, went up the river to look +after affairs at Fort Orange. + +The English squadron had been ordered to assemble at Gardiner's +Island. But, parting company in a fog, the _Guinea_, with Nicolls and +Cartwright on board, made Cape Cod, and went on to Boston, while the +other ships put in at Piscataway. The commissioners immediately +demanded the assistance of Massachusetts, but the people of the Bay, +who feared, perhaps, that the King's success in reducing the Dutch +would enable him the better to put down his enemies in New England, +were full of excuses. Connecticut, however, showed sufficient +alacrity; and Winthrop was desired to meet the squadron at the west +end of Long Island, whither it would sail with the first fair wind. + +When the truth of Willett's intelligence became confirmed, the council +sent an express to recall Stuyvesant from Fort Orange. Hurrying back +to the capital, the anxious director endeavored to redeem the time +which had been lost. The municipal authorities ordered one-third of +the inhabitants, without exception, to labor every third day at the +fortifications; organized a permanent guard; forbade the brewers to +malt any grain; and called on the provincial government for artillery +and ammunition. Six pieces, besides the fourteen previously allotted, +and a thousand pounds of powder were accordingly granted to the city. +The colonists around Fort Orange, pleading their own danger from the +savages, could afford no help; but the soldiers of Esopus were ordered +to come down, after leaving a small garrison at Ronduit. + +In the meantime the English squadron had anchored just below the +Narrows, in Nyack Bay, between New Utrecht and Coney Island. The mouth +of the river was shut up; communication between Long Island and +Manhattan, Bergen and Achter Cul, interrupted; several yachts on their +way to the South River captured; and the block-house on the opposite +shore of Staten Island seized. Stuyvesant now dispatched Counsellor de +Decker, Burgomaster Van der Grist, and the two domines Megapolensis +with a letter to the English commanders inquiring why they had come, +and why they continued at Nyack without giving notice. The next +morning, which was Saturday, Nicolls sent Colonel Cartwright, Captain +Needham, Captain Groves, and Mr. Thomas Delavall up to Fort Amsterdam +with a summons for the surrender of "the town situate on the island +and commonly known by the name of Manhatoes, with all the forts +thereunto belonging." + +This summons was accompanied by a proclamation declaring that all who +would submit to his majesty's government should be protected "in his +majesty's laws and justice," and peaceably enjoy their property. +Stuyvesant immediately called together the council and the +burgomasters, but would not allow the terms offered by Nicolls to be +communicated to the people, lest they might insist on capitulating. In +a short time several of the burghers and city officers assembled at +the Stadt-Huys. It was determined to prevent the enemy from surprizing +the town; but, as opinion was generally against protracted resistance, +a copy of the English communication was asked from the director. On +the following Monday the burgomasters explained to a meeting of the +citizens the terms offered by Nicolls. But this would not suffice; a +copy of the paper itself must be exhibited. Stuyvesant then went in +person to the meeting. "Such a course," said he, "would be disapproved +of in the Fatherland--it would discourage the people." All his +efforts, however, were in vain; and the director, protesting that he +should not be held answerable for the "calamitous consequences," was +obliged to yield to the popular will. + +Nicolls now addrest a letter to Winthrop, who with other commissioners +from New England had joined the squadron, authorizing him to assure +Stuyvesant that, if Manhattan should be delivered up to the King, "any +people from the Netherlands may freely come and plant there or +thereabouts; and such vessels of their own country may freely come +thither, and any of them may as freely return home in vessels of their +own country." Visiting the city under a flag of truce Winthrop +delivered this to Stuyvesant outside the fort and urged him to +surrender. The director declined; and, returning to the fort, he +opened Nicolls' letter before the council and the burgomasters, who +desired that it should be communicated, as "all which regarded the +public welfare ought to be made public." Against this Stuyvesant +earnestly remonstrated, and, finding that the burgomasters continued +firm, in a fit of passion he "tore the letter in pieces." The citizens +suddenly ceasing their work at the palisades, hurried to the +Stadt-Huys, and sent three of their number to the fort to demand the +letter. + +In vain the director hastened to pacify the burghers and urge them to +go on with the fortifications. "Complaints and curses" were uttered on +all sides against the company's misgovernment; resistance was declared +to be idle; "The letter! the letter!" was the general cry. To avoid a +mutiny Stuyvesant yielded, and a copy, made out from the collected +fragments, was handed to the burgomasters. In answer, however, to +Nicolls' summons he submitted a long justification of the Dutch title; +yet while protesting against any breach of the peace between the King +and the States-General, "for the hinderance and prevention of all +differences and the spilling of innocent blood, not only in these +parts, but also in Europe," he offered to treat. "Long Island is gone +and lost;" the capital "can not hold out long," was the last dispatch +to the "Lord Majors" of New Netherlands, which its director sent off +that night "in silence through hell Gate." + +Observing Stuyvesant's reluctance to surrender, Nicolls directed +Captain Hyde, who commanded the squadron, to reduce the fort. Two of +the ships accordingly landed their troops just below Breuckelen +(Brooklyn), where volunteers from New England and the Long Island +villages had already encamped. The other two, coming up with full sail +passed in front of Fort Amsterdam and anchored between it and Nutten +Island.[2] Standing on one of the angles of the fortress--an +artilleryman with a lighted match at his side--the director watched +their approach. At this moment the two domines Megapolensis, imploring +him not to begin hostilities, led Stuyvesant from the rampart, who +then, with a hundred of the garrison, went into the city to resist the +landing of the English. Hoping on against hope, the director now sent +Counsellor de Decker, Secretary Van Ruypen, Burgomaster Steenwyck, and +"Schepen" Cousseau with a letter to Nicolls stating that, as he felt +bound "to stand the storm," he desired if possible to arrange on +accommodation. But the English commander merely declared, "To-morrow I +will speak with you at Manhattan." + +"Friends," was the answer, "will be welcome if they come in a friendly +manner." + +"I shall come with ships and soldiers," replied Nicolls; "raise the +white flag of peace at the fort, and then something may be +considered." When this imperious message became known, men, women, and +children flocked to the director, beseeching him to submit. His only +answer was, "I would rather be carried out dead." The next day the +city authorities, the clergymen, and the officers of the burgher +guard, assembling at the Stadt-Huys, at the suggestion of Domine +Megapolensis, adopted a remonstrance to the director, exhibiting the +hopeless situation of New Amsterdam, on all sides encompassed and +hemmed in by enemies, and protesting against any further opposition to +the will of God. Besides the _schout_, burgomasters, and schepens, the +remonstrance was signed by Wilmerdonck and eighty-five of the +principal inhabitants, among whom was Stuyvesant's own son, Balthazar. + +At last the director was obliged to yield. Although there were now +fifteen hundred souls in New Amsterdam, there were not more than two +hundred and fifty men able to bear arms, besides the one hundred fifty +regular soldiers. The people had at length refused to be called out, +and the regular troops were already heard talking of "where booty is +to be found, and where the young women live who wear gold chains." The +city, entirely open along both rivers, was shut on the northern side +by a breastwork and palisades[3], which, though sufficient to keep out +the savages, afforded no defense against a military siege. There were +scarcely six hundred pounds of serviceable powder in store. + +A council of war had reported Fort Amsterdam untenable; for though it +mounted twenty-four guns, its single wall of earth, not more than ten +feet high and four thick, was almost touched by the private dwellings +clustered around, and was commanded, within a pistol-shot, by hills on +the north, over which ran the "Heereweg" or Broadway. + +Upon the faith of Nicolls' promise to deliver back the city and fort +"in case the difference of the limits of this province be agreed upon +betwixt his majesty of England and the high and mighty States-General," +Stuyvesant now commissioned Counsellor John de Decker, Captain +Nicholas Varlett, Dr. Samuel Megapolensis, Burgomaster Cornelius +Steenwyck, old Burgomaster Oloff Stevenson van Cortlandt, and old +Schepen Jacques Cousseau to agree upon articles with the English +commander or his representatives. Nicolls, on his part, appointed Sir +Robert Carr and Colonel George Cartwright, John Winthrop, and Samuel +Willys, of Connecticut, and Thomas Clarke and John Pynchon, of +Massachusetts. "The reason why those of Boston and Connecticut were +joined," afterward explained the royal commander, "was because those +two colonies should hold themselves the more engaged with us if the +Dutch had been overconfident of their strength." + +At eight o'clock the next morning, which was Saturday, the +commissioners on both sides met at Stuyvesant's "bouwery" and arranged +the terms of capitulation. The only difference which arose was +respecting the Dutch soldiers, whom the English refused to convey back +to Holland. The articles of capitulation promised the Dutch security +in their property, customs of inheritance, liberty of conscience and +church discipline. The municipal officers of Manhattan were to +continue for the present unchanged, and the town was to be allowed to +chose deputies, with "free voices in all public affairs." Owners of +property in Fort Orange might, if they pleased, "slight the +fortifications there," and enjoy their houses "as people do where +there is no fort." + +For six months there was to be free intercourse with Holland. Public +records were to be respected. The articles, consented to by Nicolls, +were to be ratified by Stuyvesant the next Monday morning at eight +o'clock, and within two hours afterward, the "fort and town called New +Amsterdam, upon the Isle of Manhatoes," were to be delivered up, and +the military officers and soldiers were to "march out with their arms, +drums beating, and colors flying, and lighted matches." + +On the following Monday morning at eight o'clock Stuyvesant, at the +head of the garrison, marched out of Fort Amsterdam with all the +honors of war, and led his soldiers down the Beaver Lane to the +water-side, whence they were embarked for Holland. An English +corporal's guard at the same time took possession of the fort; and +Nicolls and Carr, with their two companies, about a hundred seventy +strong, entered the city, while Cartwright took possession of the +gates and the Stadt-Huys. The New England and Long Island volunteers, +however, were prudently kept at the Breuckelen ferry, as the citizens +dreaded most being plundered by them. The English flag was hoisted on +Fort Amsterdam, the name of which was immediately changed to "Fort +James." Nicolls was now proclaimed by the burgomasters deputy-governor +for the Duke of York, in compliment to whom he directed that the city +of New Amsterdam should thenceforth be known as "New York." + +To Nicolls' European eye the Dutch metropolis, with its earthen fort, +enclosing a windmill and high flag-staff, a prison and a governor's +house, and a double-roofed church, above which loomed a square tower, +its gallows and whipping-post at the river's side, and its rows of +houses which hugged the citadel, presented but a mean appearance. Yet +before long he described it to the Duke as "the best of all his +majesty's towns in America," and assured his royal highness that, with +proper management, "within five years the staple of America will be +drawn hither, of which the brethren of Boston are very sensible."... + +The reduction of New Netherlands was now accomplished. All that could +be further done was to change its name; and, to glorify one of the +most bigoted princes in English history, the royal province was +ordered to be called "New York." Ignorant of James' grant of New +Jersey to Berkeley and Carteret, Nicolls gave to the region west of +the Hudson the name of "Albania," and to Long Island that of +"Yorkshire," so as to comprehend all the titles of the Duke of York. +The flag of England was at length triumphantly displayed, where, for +half a century, that of Holland had rightfuly waved; and from Virginia +to Canada, the King of Great Britain was acknowledged as sovereign. + +Viewed in all its aspects, the event which gave to the whole of that +country a unity in allegiance, and to which a misgoverned people +complacently submitted, was as inevitable as it was momentous. But +whatever may have been its ultimate consequences, this treacherous and +violent seizure of the territory and possessions of an unsuspecting +ally was no less a breach of private justice than of public faith. + +It may, indeed, be affirmed that, among all the acts of selfish +perfidy which royal ingratitude conceived and executed, there have +been few more characteristic and none more base. + + [1] From Brodhead's "History of New York." + + [2] Now called Governor's Island. + + [3] A fortification from which has come the modern name of Wall + Street. + + + + +BACON'S REBELLION IN VIRGINIA + +(1676) + +BY AN ANONYMOUS WRITER[1] + + +There is no nation this day under the copes of Heaven can so +experimentaly speak the sad effects of men of great parts being +reduc't to necessity, as England; but not to rake up the notorious +misdemeanours of the dead, I shall endeavour to prevent the sad +effects of so deplorable a cause, by giving you an account of the +remarkable life and death of this gentleman of whom I am about to +discourse. And because when a man has once ingag'd himself in an ill +action, all men are ready to heap an innumerable aspersions upon him, +of which he is no ways guilty, I shall be so just in the History of +his Life as not to rob him of those commendations which his Birth and +Acquisitions claim as due, and so kind both to Loyalty and the wholsom +constituted Laws of our Kingdom, as not to smother any thing which +would render him to blame. + +This Gentleman who has of late becconed the attention of all men of +understanding who are any ways desirous of Novelty, [or] care what +becomes of any part of the World besides that themselves live in, had +the honour to be descended of an Ancient and Honourable Family, his +name Nathanael Bacon, to whom to the long known Title of Gentleman, by +his long study [at] the Inns of Court he has since added that of +Esquire. He was the Son of Mr. Thomas Bacon of an ancient Seat known +by the denomination of Freestone-Hall, in the County of Suffolk, a +Gentleman of known loyalty and ability. His Father as he was able so +he was willing to allow this his Son a very Gentile Competency to +subsist upon, but he as it proved having a Soul too large for that +allowance, could not contain himself within bounds; which his careful +Father perceiving, and also that he had a mind to Travel (having seen +divers parts of the World before) consented to his inclination of +going to Virginia, and accommodated him with a Stock for that purpose, +to the value of 1,800l. Starling, as I am credibly informed by a +Merchant of very good wealth, who is now in this City, and had the +fortune to carry him thither. + +He began his Voyage thitherwards about Three years since, and lived +for about a years space in that Continent in very good repute, his +extraordinary parts like a Letter of recommendation rendring him +aceptable in all mens company, whilst his considerable Concerns in +that place were able to bear him out in the best of Society. These +Accomplishments of mind and fortune rendred him so remarkable, that +the worthy Governour of that Continent thought it requisite to take +him into his Privy Council. + +That Plantation which he chose to settle in is generally known by the +name of Curles, situate in the upper part of James River and the time +of his revolt was not till the beginning of March, 1675-6. At which +time the Susquo-hannan Indians (a known Enemy to that Country) having +made an Insurrection, and kild divers of the English, amongst whom it +was his misfortune to have a Servant slain; in revenge of whose death, +and other dammage(s) he received from those turbulent Susquo-hanians, +without the Governeur's consent he furiously took up Arms against +them, and was so fortunate as to put them to flight, but not content +therewith; the aforesaid Governour hearing of his eager pursuit after +the vanquisht Indians, sent out a select Company of Souldiers to +command him to desist; but he instead of listning thereunto, persisted +in his Revenge, and sent to the Governour to intreat his Commission, +that he might more chearfully prosecute his design; which being denyed +him by the Messenger he sent for that purpose, he notwithstanding +continued to make head with his own Servants, and other English then +resident in Curles against them. + +In this interim the people of Henrico had returned him Burgess of +their county; and he in order thereunto took his own Sloop and came +down towards James Town, conducted by thirty odd Souldiers, with part +of which he came ashore to Mr. Laurences House, to understand whether +he might come in with safety or not, but being discovered by one +Parson Clough, and also it being perceived that he had lined the +Bushes of the said Town with Souldiers, the Governour thereupon +ordered an allarm to be beaten through the whole Town, which took so +hot, that Bacon thinking himself not secure whilst he remained there +within reach of their Fort, immediately commanded his men aboard, and +tow'd his Sloop up the River; which the Governour perceiving, ordered +the Ships which lay at Sandy-point to pursue and take him; and they by +the industry of their Commanders succeeded so well in the attempt, +that they presently stopt his passage; so that Mr. Bacon finding +himself pursued both before and behind, after some capitulations, +quietly surrendered himself Prisoner to the Governours Commissioners, +to the great satisfaction of all his Friends; which action of his was +so obliging to the Governour, that he granted him his liberty +immediately upon Paroll, without confining him either to Prison or +Chamber, and the next day, after some private discourse passed betwixt +the Governour, the Privy Council, and himself, he was amply restored +to all his former Honours and Dignities, and a Commission partly +promised him to be General against the Indian Army; but upon further +enquiry into his Affairs it was not thought fit to be granted him; +whereat his ambitious mind seem'd mightily to be displeas'd; insomuch +that he gave out, that it was his intention to sell his whole concerns +in Virginia, and to go with his whole Family to live either in +Merry-land or the South, because he would avoid (as he said) the +scandal of being accounted a factious person there. + +But this resolution it seems was but a pretence, for afterwards he +headed the same Runnagado English that he formerly found ready to +undertake and go sharers with him in any of his Rebellions, and adding +to them the assistance of his own Slaves and Servants, headed them so +far till they toucht at the Occonegies Town, where he was treated very +civilly, and by the Inhabitants informed where some of the +Susquohanno's were inforted, whom presently he assails, and after he +had vanquished them, slew about seventy of them in their Fort: But as +he returned back to the Occoneges, he found they had fortified +themselves with divers more Indians than they had at his first +arrival; wherefore he desired Hostages of them for their good +behaviour, whilst he and his followers lay within command of their +Fort. But those treacherous Indians grown confident by reason of their +late recruit, returned him this Answer, That their Guns were the only +Hostages he was like to have of them, and if he would have them he +must fetch them. Which was no soner spoke, but the Indians salied out +of the Fort and shot one of his Sentinels, whereupon he charged them +so fiercely, that the Fight continued not only all that day, but the +next also, till the approach of the Evening, at which time finding his +men grow faint for want of Provision, he laid hold of the opportunity, +being befriended by a gloomy night, and so made an honourable retreat +homewards. Howbeit we may judge what respect he had gain'd in +James-Town by this subsequent transaction. + +When he was first brought hither it was frequently reported among the +Commonalty that he was kept close Prisoner, which report caused the +people of that Town, those of Charles-city, Henrico, and New-Kent +Countries, being in all about the Number of eight hundred, or a +thousand, to rise and march thitherwards in order to his rescue; +whereupon the Governor was forced to desire Mr. Bacon to go himself in +Person, and by his open appearance quiet the people. + +This being past, Mr. Bacon, about the 25th of June last, dissatisfied +that he could not have a Commission granted him to go against the +Indians, in the night time departed the Town unknown to any body, and +about a week after got together between four and five hundred men of +New-Kent County, with whom he marched to James-Town, and drew up in +order before the House of State; and there peremptorily demanded of +the Governor, Council and Burgesses (there then collected) a +Commission to go against the Indians, which if they should refuse to +grant him, he told them that neither he nor ne're a man in his Company +would depart from their Doors till he had obtained his request; +whereupon to prevent farther danger in so great an exigence, the +Council and Burgesses by much intreaty obtain'd him a Commission +Signed by the Governor, an Act for one thousand men to be Listed under +his command to go against the Indians, to whom the same pay was to be +granted as was allowed to them who went against the Fort. But Bacon +was not satisfied with this, but afterwards earnestly importuned, and +at length obtained of the House, to pass an Act of Indemnity to all +Persons who had sided with him, and also Letters of recommendations +from the Governor to his Majesty in his behalf; and moreover caused +Collonel Claybourn and his Son, Captain Claybourn, Lieutenant Collonel +West, and Lieutenant Collonel Hill, and many others, to be degraded +for ever bearing any Office, whether it were Military or Civil. + +Having obtained these large Civilities of the Governor, &c. one would +have thought that if the Principles of honesty would not have obliged +him to peace and loyalty, those of gratitude should. But, alas, when +men have been once flusht or entred with Vice, how hard is it for them +to leave it, especially it tends towards ambition or greatness, which +is the general lust of a large Soul, and the common error of vast +parts, which fix their Eyes so upon the lure of greatness, that they +have no time left them to consider by what indirect and unlawful means +they must (if ever) attain it. + +This certainly was Mr. Bacon's Crime, who, after he had once lanched +into Rebellion, nay, and upon submission had been pardoned for it, and +also restored, as if he had committed no such hainous offence, to his +former honour and dignities (which weer considerable enough to content +any reasonable mind) yet for all this he could not forbear wading into +his former misdemeanors, and continued his opposition against that +prudent and established Government, ordered by his Majesty of Great +Brittain to be duely observed in that Continent. + +In fine, he continued (I cannot say properly in the Fields, but) in +the Woods with a considerable Army all last Summer, and maintain'd +several Brushes with the Governors Party: sometime routing them, and +burning all before him, to the great damage of many of his Majesties +loyal Subjects there resident; sometimes he and his Rebels were beaten +by the Governor, &c., and forc't to run for shelter amongst the Woods +and Swomps. In which lamentable condition that unhappy Continent has +remain'd for the space of almost a Twelve-month, every one therein +that were able being forc't to take up Arms for security of their own +lives, and no one reckoning their Goods, Wives, or Children to be +their own, since they were so dangerously expos'd to the doubtful +Accidents of an uncertain War. + +But the indulgent Heavens, who are alone able to compute what measure +of punishments are adequate or fit for the sins of transgressions of a +Nation, has in its great mercy thought fit to put a stop, at least, if +not a total period and conclusion to these Virginian troubles, by the +death of this Nat. Bacon, the great Molestor of the quiet of that +miserable Nation; so that now we who are here in England, and have any +Relations or Correspondence with any of the Inhabitants of that +Continent, may by the arrival of the next Ships from that Coast expect +to hear that they are freed from all their dangers, quitted of all +their fears, and in great hopes and expectations to live quietly under +their own Vines, and enjoy the benefit of their commendable labours. + +I know it is by some reported that this Mr. Bacon was a very hard +drinker, and that he dyed by inbibing, or taking in two much Brandy. +But I am informed by those who are Persons of undoubted Reputation, +and had the happiness to see the same Letter which gave his Majesty an +account of his death, that there was no such thing therein mentioned: +he was certainly a Person indued with great natural parts, which +notwithstanding his juvenile extravagances he had adorned with many +elaborate acquisitions, and by the help of learning and study knew how +to manage them to a Miracle, it being the general vogue of all that +knew him, that he usually spoke as much sense in as few words, and +delivered that sense as opportunely as any they ever kept company +withal: Wherefore as I am my self a Lover of Ingenuity, though an +abhorrer of disturbance or Rebellion, I think fit since Providence was +pleased to let him dye a Natural death in his Bed, not to asperse him +with saying he kill'd himself with drinking. + + [1] This account was written a year after the events described by + an author whose name is unknown. Internal evidence points to his + intimate personal knowledge of what took place. Writing after the + failure of the rebellion; moreover, after Bacon himself was dead, + and the strong popular movement led by him had consequently much + disintegrated, the writer's view is naturally somewhat out of + sympathy with Bacon. Printed in Hart's "American History Told by + Contemporaries." + + John Easton Cooke, in his "History of Virginia," declares that + Bacon was "the soul of the rebellion" and his rising "not a + hair-brained project, but the result of deliberate calculation." As + a representative of the Virginia people Bacon "protested strongly + against public grievances, compelling redress." He anticipated that + the country would profit from his uprising, "and his anticipation + was justified." The result as against Berkeley, "compelled the + dissolution of the Royal Assembly, which had remained unchanged + since 1680, and resulted in 'Bacon's assembly,' which began by + raising the public revenue, extending suffrage to freemen, and was + so defiant that Berkeley dissolved it." + + + + +KING PHILIP'S WAR + +(1676) + +BY WILLIAM HUBBARD[1] + + +The Occasion of Philips so sudden taking up Arms the last Year, was +this: There was one John Sausaman, a very cunning and plausible +Indian, well skilled in the English Language, and bred up in the +Profession of Christian Religion, employed as a Schoolmaster at +Natick, the Indian Town, who upon some Misdemeanor fled from his Place +to Philip, by whom he was entertained in the Room and Office of +Secretary, and his chief Councellor, whom he trusted with all his +Affairs and secret Counsels: But afterwards, whether upon the Sting of +his own Conscience, or by the frequent Sollicitations of Mr. Eliot, +that had known him from a Child, and instructed him in the Principles +of our Religion, who was often laying before him the heinous Sin of +his Apostacy, and returning back to his old Vomit; he was at last +prevailed with to forsake Philip, and return back to the Christian +Indians at Natick where he was baptised, manifested publick Repentance +for all his former Offences, [15] and made a serious profession of the +Christian Religion; and did apply himself to preach to the Indians, +wherein he was better gifted than any other of the Indian Nation; so +as he was observed to conform more to the English Manners than any +other Indian. + +Yet having Occasion to go up with some others of his Country men to +Namasket, whether for the Advantage of Fishing or some such Occasion, +it matters not; being there not far from Phillips Country, he had +Occasion to be much in the Company of Philips Indians, and of Philip +himself: by which Means he discerned by several Circumstances that the +Indians were plotting anew against us; the which out of Faithfulness +to the English the said Sausaman informed the Governour of; adding +also, that if it were known that he revealed it, he knew they would +presently kill him. There appearing so many concurrent Testimonies +from others, making it the more probable, that there was certain Truth +in the Information; some Inquiry was made into the Business, by +examining Philip himself, several of his Indians, who although they +could do nothing, yet could not free themselves from just Suspicion; +Philip therefore soon after contrived the said Sausamans Death, which +was strangely discovered; notwithstanding it was so cunningly +effected, for they that murdered him, met him upon the Ice on a great +Pond, and presently after they had knocked him down, put him under the +Ice, yet leaving his Gun and his Hat upon the Ice, that it might be +thought he fell in accidentally through the Ice and was drowned: but +being missed by his Friend, who finding his Hat and his Gun, they were +thereby led to the Place, where his Body was found under the Ice: when +they took it up to bury him, some of his Friends, specially one David, +observed some Bruises about his Head, which made them suspect he was +first knocked down, before he was put into the Water: however, they +buried him near about the Place where he was found, without making any +further Inquiry at present: nevertheless David his Friend, reported +these Things to some English at Taunton (a Town not far from +Namasket), occasioned the Governour to inquire further into the +Business, wisely considering, that as Sausaman had told him, If it +were known that he had revealed any of their Plots, they would murder +him for his Pains. + +Wherefore by special Warrant the Body of Sausaman being digged again +out of his Grave, it was very apparent that he had been killed, and +not drowned. And by a strange Providence an Indian was found, that by +Accident was standing unseen upon a Hill, had seen them murther the +said Sausaman, but durst never reveal it for Fear of losing his own +Life likewise, until he was called to the Court at Plimouth, or before +the Governour, where he plainly [16] confessed what he had seen. The +Murderers being apprehended, were convicted by his undeniable +Testimony, and other remarkable Circumstances, and so were all put to +Death, being but three in Number; the last of them confessed +immediately before his Death, that his Father (one of the Councellors +and special Friends of Philip) was one of the two that murdered +Sausaman, himself only looking on. + +This was done at Plimouth Court, held in June, 1674. Insomuch that +Philip apprehending the Danger his own Head was in next, never used +any further Means to clear himself from what was like to be laid to +his Charge, either about his plotting against the English, nor yet +about Sausamans Death: but by keeping his Men continually about him in +Arms, and gathering what Strangers he could to join with him, marching +up and down constantly in Arms, both all the while the Court sat, as +well as afterwards. The English of Plimouth hearing of all this, yet +took no further Notice, than only to order a Militia Watch in all the +adjacent Towns, hoping that Philip finding himself not likely to be +arraigned by Order of the said Court, the present Cloud might blow +over, as some others of like Nature had done before; but in +Conclusion, the Matter proved otherwise; for Philip finding his +Strength daily increasing, by the flocking of Neighbour-Indians unto +him, and sending over their Wives and Children to the Narhagansets for +Security (as they use to do when they intend War with any of their +Enemies,) immediately they began to alarm the English at Swanzy, (the +next Town to Philips Country,) as it were daring the English to begin; +at last their Insolences grew to such an Height, that they began not +only to use threatening Words to the English, but also to kill their +Cattel and rifle their Houses; whereat an English-man was so provoked, +that he let fly a Gun at an Indian, but did only wound, not kill him; +whereupon the Indians immediately began to kill all the English they +could, so as on the 24th of June, 1675, was the Alarm of War first +sounded in Plimouth Colony, when eight or nine of the English were +slain in and about Swanzy.... + +About this Time several Parties of English, within Plimouth +Jurisdiction, were willing to have a Hand in so good a Matter, as +catching of Philip would be, who perceiving that he was now going down +the Wind, were willing to hasten his Fall. Amongst others, a small +Party, July 31 [1676], went out of Bridgewater upon discovery, and by +Providence were directed to fall upon a Company of Indians where +Philip was; they came up with them, and killed some of his special +Friends; Philip himself was next to his Uncle, that was shot down, and +had the Soldier had his Choice which to shoot at, known which had been +the right Bird, he might as well have taken him as his Uncle, but `tis +said that he had newly cut off his Hair, that he might not be known: +the Party that did this Exploit were few in Number, and therefore not +being able to keep altogether close in the Reer, that cunning Fox +escaped away through the Bushes undiscerned, in the Reer of the +English.... + +Within two Days after, Capt. Church, the Terror of the Indians in +Plimouth Colony, marching in pursuit of Philip, with but thirty +English-men, and twenty reconciled Indians, took twenty three of the +Enemy, and the next Day following them by their Tracts, fell upon +their Head-Quarters, and killed and took about an hundred and thirty +of them, but with the Loss of one English Man; in this Engagement God +did appear in a more than ordinary Manner to fight for the English: +for the Indians by their Number, and other Advantages of the Place, +were so conveniently provided, that they might have made the first +Shot at the English, and done them much Damage; but one of their own +Country-men in Capt. Church's Company espying them, called aloud unto +them in their own Language, telling them that if they shot a Gun, they +were all dead Men; with which they were so amazed, that they durst not +once offer to fire at the English, which made the Victory the more +remarkable: Philip made a very narrow Escape at that Time, being +forced to leave his Treasures, his beloved Wife and only Son to the +Mercy of the English, Skin for Skin, all that a Man hath will he give +for his Life. + +His Ruine being thus gradually carried on, his Misery was not +prevented but augmented thereby; being himself made acquainted with +the Sence and experimental Feeling of the captivity of his Children, +loss of his Friends, slaughter of his Subjects, bereavement of all +Family Relations, and being stript of all outward Comforts, before his +own Life should be taken away. Such Sentence sometimes passed upon +Cain, made him cry out, that his Punishment was greater than he could +bear. + +This bloody Wretch had one Week or two more to live, an Object of +Pity, but a Spectacle of Divine Vengeance; his own Followers beginning +now to plot against his Life, to make the better Terms for their own, +as they did also seek to betray Squaw Sachim of Pocasset, Philips near +Kinswoman and Confederate.... + +Philip, like a Salvage and wild Beast, having been hunted by the +English Forces through the Woods, above an hundred Miles backward and +forward, at last was driven to his own Den, upon Mount-hope, where +retiring himself with a few of his best Friends into a Swamp, which +proved but a Prison to keep him safe, till the Messengers of Death +came by Divine Permission to execute Vengeance upon him, which was +thus accomplished. + +Such had been his inveterate Malice and Wickedness against the +English, that despairing of Mercy from them, he could not bear that +any thing should be suggested to him about a Peace, insomuch as he +caused one of his Confederates to be killed for propounding an +Expedient of Peace; which so provoked some of his Company, not +altogether so desperate as himself, that one of them (being near of +kin that was killed) fled to Road-Island (whither, that active +Champion Capt. Church was newly retired, to recruit his Men for a +little Time, being much tired with hard Marches all that Week) +informing them that Philip was fled to a Swamp in Mount-hope whither +he would undertake to lead them that would pursue him. This was +welcome News, and the best Cordial for such martial Spirits: whereupon +he immediately with a small Company of Men, part English and part +Indians, began another March, which shall prove fatal to Philip, and +end that Controversie betwixt the English and him: for coming very +early to the side of the Swamp, his Soldiers began presently to +surround it, and whether the Devil appeared to him in a Dream that +Night, as he did unto Saul, forboding his tragical End (it matters +not); as he intended to make his Escape out of the Swamp, he was shot +through the Heart by an Indian of his own Nation, as is said, that had +all this while kept himself in a Neutrality until this Time, but now +had the casting-vote in his Power, by which he determined the Quarrel +that had held so long in Suspense. + + [1] From Hubbard's "Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians of + New England." Hubbard was graduated from Harvard in 1642 in the + first class sent out by the college. In 1666 he was settled as + minister at Ipswich, Mass., and died in 1704. His qualities as a + minister, his learning and his ability as a writer were praised by + John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians. + + + + +THE FOUNDING OF PENNSYLVANIA + +I + +PENN'S ACCOUNT OF THE COLONY[1] + +(1684) + + +The first planters in these parts were the Dutch, and soon after them +the Swedes and Finns. The Dutch applied themselves to traffic, the +Swedes and Finns to husbandry. There were some disputes between them +for some years; the Dutch looking upon them as intruders upon their +purchase and possession, which was finally ended in the surrender made +by John Rizeing, the Swedish governor, to Peter Stuyvesant, governor +for the States of Holland, anno 1655. + +The Dutch inhabit mostly those parts of the province that lie upon or +near the bay, and the Swedes the freshes of the river Delaware. There +is no need of giving any description of them, who are better known +there than here; but they are a plain, strong, industrious people, yet +have made no great progress in culture, or propagation of fruit-trees; +as if they desired rather to have enough than plenty or traffic. But I +presume the Indians made them the more careless by furnishing them +with the means of profit, to wit, skins and furs for rum and such +strong liquors. They kindly received me as well as the English, who +were few before the people concerned with me came among them. I must +needs commend their respect to authority, and kind behaviour to the +English. They do not degenerate from the old friendship between both +kingdoms. As they are people proper and strong of body, so they have +fine children, and almost every house full: rare to find one of them +without three or four boys and as many girls; some six, seven, and +eight sons. And I must do them that right; I see few young men more +sober and laborious. + +The Dutch have a meeting-place for religious worship at Newcastle; and +the Swedes three; one at Christina, one at Tenecum, and one at Wicoco, +within half a mile of this town. + +There rests that I speak of the condition we are in, and what +settlement we have made; in which I will be as short as I can. The +country lieth bounded on the east by the river and bay of Delaware and +Eastern Sea. It hath the advantage of many creeks, or rivers, that run +into the main river or bay, some navigable for great ships, some for +small craft. Those of most eminency are Christina, Brandywine, +Skilpot, and Sculkil, any one of which has room to lay up the royal +navy of England, there being from four to eight fathom of water. + +The lesser creeks or rivers, yet convenient for sloops and ketches of +good burthen, are Lewis, Mespillion, Cedar, Dover, Cranbrook, +Feversham, and Georges below; and Chichester, Chester, Toacawny, +Pammapecka, Portquessin, Neshimenck, and Pennberry in the freshes: +many lesser, that admit boats and shallops. Our people are mostly +settled upon the upper rivers, which are pleasant and sweet, and +generally bounded with good land. + +The planted part of the province and territories is cast into six +counties: Philadelphia, Buckingham, Chester, Newcastle, Kent, and +Sussex, containing about four thousand souls. Two general assemblies +have been held, and with such concord and despatch that they sat but +three weeks, and at least seventy laws were passed without one dissent +in any material thing. But of this more hereafter, being yet raw and +new in our gear. However, I cannot forget their singular respect to me +in this infancy of things, who, by their own private expenses, so +early considered mine for the public, as to present me with an impost +upon certain goods imported and exported, which, after my +acknowledgment of their affection, I did as freely remit to the +province and the traders to it. And for the well-government of the +said counties, courts of justice are established in every county, with +proper officers, as justices, sheriffs, clerks, constables; which +courts are held every two months. But, to prevent lawsuits, there are +three peacemakers chosen by every county court, in the nature of +common arbitrators, to hear and end differences between man and man. +And spring and fall there is an orphans' court in each county, to +inspect and regulate the affairs of orphans and widows. + +Philadelphia: the expectation of those who are concerned in this +province is at last laid out, to the great content of those here who +are any ways interested therein. The situation is a neck of land, and +lieth between two navigable rivers, Delaware and Sculkill, whereby it +hath two fronts upon the water, each a mile, and two from river to +river. Delaware is a glorious river; but the Sculkill, being an +hundred miles boatable above the falls, and its course north-east +toward the fountain of Susquehannah, (that tends to the heart of the +province, and both sides our own), it is like to be a great part of +the settlement of this age. I say little of the town itself, because a +platform will be shown you by my agent, in which those who are +purchasers of me, will find their names and interests. But this I will +say, for the good providence of God, that of all the many places I +have seen in the world, I remember not one better seated; so that it +seems to me to have been appointed for a town, whether we regard the +rivers, or the conveniency of the coves, ducks, and springs, the +loftiness and soundness of the land, and the air, held by the people +of those parts to be very good. + +It is advanced within less than a year, to about fourscore houses and +cottages, such as they are, where merchants and handicrafts are +following their vocations as fast as they can; while the countrymen +are close at their farms. Some of them got a little winter corn in the +ground last season; and the generality have had a handsome +summer-crop, and are preparing for their winter corn. They reaped +their barley this year, in the month called May, the wheat in the +month following; so that there is time in these parts for another crop +of divers things before the winter season. We are daily in hopes of +shipping to add to our number; for, blessed be God! here is both room +and accommodation for them: the stories of our necessity being either +the fear of our friends, or the scarecrows of our enemies; for the +greatest hardship we have suffered hath been salt meat, which, by fowl +in winter and fish in summer, together with some poultry, lamb, +mutton, veal, and plenty of venison, the best part of the year, hath +been made very passable. I bless God I am fully satisfied with the +country and entertainment I got in it; for I find that particular +content, which hath always attended me, where God in his providence +hath made it my place and service to reside. You cannot imagine my +station can be at present free of more than ordinary business; and, as +such, I may say it is a troublesome work. But the method things are +putting in will facilitate the charge, and give an easier motion to +the administration of affairs. However, as it is some men's duty to +plow, some to sow, some to water, and some to reap, so it is the +wisdom as well as the duty of a man to yield to the mind of +providence, and cheerfully as well as carefully embrace and follow the +guidance of it. + + [1] Penn had already been part proprietor of West Jersey when in + 1681 he received the grant of Pennsylvania, as compensation for a + claim of his father's estate against the English Government. He + came out in person to America in 1682, made his famous treaty with + the Indians and founded Philadelphia. He returned to England in + 1684, and again visited Pennsylvania in 1699-1701. His account is + printed in Hart's "American History Told by Contemporaries." + + + + +II + +PENN'S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS + +(1683) + +HIS OWN ACCOUNT[1] + + +Every king hath his council; and that consists of all the old and wise +men of his nation, which perhaps is two hundred people. Nothing of +moment is undertaken, be it war, peace, selling of land, or traffic, +without advising with them, and, which is more, with the young men, +too. It is admirable to consider how powerful the kings are, and yet +how they move by the breath of their people. I have had occasion to be +in council with them upon treaties for land, and to adjust the terms +of trade. + +Their order is thus: The king sits in the middle of an half-moon, and +has his council, the old and wise, on each hand. Behind them, or at a +little distance, sit the younger fry in the same figure. Having +consulted and resolved their business, the king ordered one of them to +speak to me. He stood up, came to me, and in the name of the king +saluted me, then took me by the hand, and told me that he was ordered +by his king to speak to me, and that now it was not he but the king +who spoke, because what he should say was the king's mind. He first +prayed me to excuse them, that they had not complied with me the last +time. He feared there might be some fault in the interpreter, being +neither Indian nor English. Besides, it was the Indian custom to +deliberate and take up much time in council before they resolved; and +that, if the young people and owners of the land had been as ready as +he, I had not met with so much delay. + +Having thus introduced his matter, he fell to the bounds of the land +they had agreed to dispose of, and the price; which now is little and +dear, that which would have bought twenty miles not buying now two. +During the time that this person spoke, not a man of them was observed +to whisper or smile--the old grave, the young reverent, in their +deportment. They, speak little, but fervently, and with elegance. I +have never seen more natural sagacity, considering them without the +help (I was going to say the spoil) of tradition: and he will deserve +the name of Wise who outwits them in any treaty about a thing they +understand. + +When the purchase was agreed, great promises passed between us of +kindness and good neighborhood, and that the English and Indians must +live in love as long as the sun gave light; which done, another made a +speech to the Indians, in the name of all the sachamakers or kings; +first, to tell them what was done; next, to charge and command them to +love the Christians, and particularly to live in peace with me and the +people under my government; that many governors had been in the river; +but that no governor had come himself to live and stay here before; +and having now such an one, who had treated them well, they should +never do him or his any wrong; at every sentence of which they +shouted, and said Amen in their way.... + +We have agreed, that in all differences between us, six of each side +shall end the matter. Do not abuse them, but let them have justice, +and you win them. + + [1] Letter from Penn to the Free Society of Traders, dated Aug. + 16, 1683. + + + + +III + +THE REALITY OF PENN'S TREATY + +(1682) + +BY GEORGE E. ELLIS[1] + + +There has been much discussion of late years concerning the far-famed +Treaty of Penn with the Indians. A circumstance, which has all the +interest both of fact and of poetry, was confirmed by such unbroken +testimony of tradition that history seemed to have innumerable records +of it in the hearts and memories of each generation. But as there +appears no document or parchment of such criteria as to satisfy all +inquiries, historical skepticism has ventured upon the absurd length +of calling in question the fact of the treaty. The Historical Society +of Pennsylvania, with commendable zeal, has bestowed much labor upon +the questions connected with the treaty, and the results which have +been attained can scarcely fail to satisfy a candid inquirer. All +claim to a peculiar distinction for William Penn, on account of the +singularity of his just proceedings in this matter is candidly waived, +because the Swedes, the Dutch, and the English had previously dealt +thus justly with the natives. It is in comparison with Pizarro and +Cortés that the colonists of all other nations in America appear to an +advantage; but the fame of William Penn stands, and ever will stand, +preeminent for unexceptionable justice and peace in his relations with +the natives. + +Penn had several meetings for conference and treaties with the +Indians, besides those which he held for the purchase of lands. But +unbroken and reverently cherished tradition, beyond all possibility of +contradition, has designated one great treaty held under a large +elm-tree, at Shackamaxon (now Kensington)[2], a treaty which Voltaire +justly characterizes as "never sworn to, and never broken." In Penn's +Letter to the Free Society of Traders, dated August 16, 1683, he +refers to his conferences with the Indians. Two deeds, conveying land +to him, are on record, both of which bear an earlier date than this +letter; namely, June 23d and July 14th of the same year. He had +designed to make a purchase in May; but having been called off to a +conference with Lord Baltimore, he postponed the business till June. + +The "Great Treaty" was doubtless unconnected with the purchase of +land, and was simply a treaty of amity and friendship, in confirmation +of one previously held, by Penn's direction, by Markham, on the same +spot; that being a place which the Indians were wont to use for this +purpose. It is probable that the treaty was held on the last of +November, 1682; that the Delawares, the Mingos, and other Susquehanna +tribes formed a large assembly on the occasion; that written minutes +of the conference were made, and were in possession of Governor +Gordon, who states nine conditions as belonging to them in 1728, but +are now lost; and that the substance of the treaty is given in Penn's +Letter to the Free Traders. These results are satisfactory, and are +sufficient corroborated by known facts and documents. The Great +Treaty, being distinct from a land purchase, is significantly +distinguished in history and tradition. + +The inventions of romance and imagination could scarcely gather round +this engaging incident attractions surpassing in its own simple and +impressive interest. Doubtless Clarkson has given a fair +representation of it, if we merely disconnect from his account the +statement that the Indians were armed, and all that confounds the +treaty of friendship with the purchase of lands. Penn wore a sky-blue +sash of silk around his waist, as the most simple badge. The pledges +there given were to hold their sanctity "while the creeks and rivers +run, and while the sun, moon, and stars endure." + +While the whites preserved in written records the memory of such +covenants, the Indians had their methods for perpetuating in safe +channels their own relations. They cherished in grateful regard, they +repeated to their children and to the whites, the terms of the Great +Treaty. The Delawares called William Penn _Miquon_, in their own +language, though they seem to have adopted the name given him by the +Iroquois, _Onas_; both which terms signify a quill or pen. Benjamin +West's picture of the treaty is too imaginative for a historical +piece. He makes Penn of a figure and aspect which would become twice +the years that had passed over his head. The elm-tree was spared in +the war of the American Revolution, when there was distress for +firewood, the British officer, Simcoe, having placed a sentinel +beneath it for protection. It was prostrated by the wind on the night +of Saturday, March 3, 1810. It was of gigantic size, and the circles +around its heart indicated an age of nearly three centuries. A piece +of it was sent to the Penn mansion at Stoke Poges, in England, where +it is properly commemorated. A marble monument, with suitable +inscription was "placed by the Penn Society A.D. 1827 to mark the site +of the Great Elm Tree." + + [1] Mr. Ellis was a Unitarian clergyman, long pastor of a church + at Charlestown, Mass. + + [2] Kensington is now a part of Philadelphia, being the northeastern + section. It lies on the Delaware River, about two miles distant + from the City Hall, and is a center of the ship-building industry. + + + + +THE CHARTER OAK AFFAIR IN CONNECTICUT + +(1682) + +BY ALEXANDER JOHNSTON[1] + + +In December, 1686, the Hartford authorities were called upon to +measure their strength again with their old antagonist. Andros had +landed at Boston, commissioned as governor of all New England, and +bent on abrogating the charters. Following Dudley's lead, he wrote to +Treat, suggesting that by this time the trial of the writs had +certainly gone against the colony; and that the authorities would do +much to commend the colony to his majesty's good pleasure by entering +a formal surrender of the charter. The colony authorities were +possibly as well versed in the law of the case as Andros, and they +took good care to do nothing of the sort; and, as the event showed, +they thus saved the charter. + +The assembly met as usual in October, 1687; but their records show +that they were in profound doubt and distress. Andros was with them, +accompanied by some sixty regular soldiers, to enforce his demand for +the charter. It is certain that he did not get it, tho the records, as +usual, are cautious enough to give no reason why. Tradition is +responsible for the story of the charter oak. The assembly had met the +royal governor in the meeting-house; the demand for the charter had +been made; and the assembly had exhausted the resources of language to +show to Andros how dear it was to them, and how impossible it was to +give it up. Andros was immovable; he had watched that charter with +longing eyes from the banks of the Hudson, and he had no intention of +giving up his object now that the king had put him in power on the +banks of the Connecticut. + +Toward evening the case had become desperate. The little democracy was +at last driven into a corner, where its old policy seemed no longer +available; it must resist openly, or make a formal surrender of its +charter. Just as the lights were lighted, the legal authorities +yielded so far as to order the precious document to be brought in and +laid on the table before the eyes of Andros. Then came a little more +debate. Suddenly the lights were blown out; Captain Wadsworth, of +Hartford, carried off the charter, and hid it in a hollow oak-tree on +the estate of the Wyllyses, just across the "riveret;" and when the +lights were relighted the colony was no longer able to comply with +Andros's demand for a surrender. + +Altho the account of the affair is traditional, it is difficult to +see any good grounds for impeaching it on that account. It supplies, +in the simplest and most natural manner, a blank in the Hartford +proceedings of Andros which would otherwise be quite unaccountable. +His plain purpose was to force Connecticut into a position where she +must either surrender the charter or resist openly. He failed: the +charter never was in his possession; and the official records assign +no reason for his failure. The colony was too prudent, and Andros too +proud to put the true reason on record. Tradition supplies the gap +with an exactness which proves itself. + +Having done all that men could do, Treat and his associates bowed for +the time to superior force. Andros was allowed to read his commission, +and Treat, Fitz-John and Wait Winthrop, and John Allyn received +appointments as members of his council for New England. John Allyn +made what the governor doubtless considered to be the closing record +for all time. But it is noteworthy that the record was so written as +to flatter Andros's vanity, while it really put in terms a declaration +of over-powering force, on which the commonwealth finally succeeded in +saving her charter from invalidation, it is as follows: + + "At a General Court at Hartford, October 31st, 1887, his excellency, + Sir Edmund Andross, knight and Captain General and Governor of His + Majesty's territories and dominions in New England, by order of His + Majesty James the Second, King of England, Scotland, France, and + Ireland, the 31st of October, 1687, took into his hands the + government of the colony of Connecticut, it being by His Majesty + annexed to Massachusetts and other colonies under his excellency's + government. + + "FINIS." + +The government was destined to last far longer than either the governor +or his government. But, while it lasted, Andros's government was +bitterly hated, and with good reason. The reasons are more peculiarly +appropriate to the history of Massachusetts, where they were felt more +keenly than in Connecticut; but even in Connecticut, poor as was the +field for plunder, and distant as it was from the "ring" which +surrounded Andros, the exactions of the new system were wellnigh +intolerable to a people whose annual expense of government had been +carefully kept down to the lowest limits, so that, says Bancroft, they +"did not exceed four thousand dollars; and the wages of the chief +justice were ten shillings a day while on service."... + +April, 1689, came at last. The people of Boston, at the first news of +the English Revolution, clapped Andros into custody. May 9, the old +Connecticut authorities quietly resumed their functions, and called the +assembly together for the following month. William and Mary were +proclaimed with great favor. Not a word was said about the +disappearance or reapeparance of the charter; but the charter +government was put into full effect again, as if Andros had never +interrupted it. An address was sent to the king, asking that the +charter be no further interfered with; but operations under it went on +as before. No decided action was taken by the home government for some +years, except that its appointment of the New York governor, Fletcher, +to the command of the Connecticut militia, implied a decision that the +Connecticut charter had been superseded. + +Late in 1693 Fitz-John Winthrop was sent to England as agent to obtain +a confirmation of the charter. He secured an emphatic legal opinion +from Attorney General Somers, backed by those of Treby and Ward, that +the charter was entirely valid, Treby's concurrent opinion taking this +shape: "I am of the same opinion, and, as this matter is stated, there +is no ground of doubt." The basis of the opinion was that the charter +had been granted under the great seal; that it had not been surrendered +under the common seal of the colony, nor had any judgment of record +been entered against it; that its operation had merely been interfered +with by overpowering force; that the charter therefore remained valid; +and that the peaceable submission of the colony to Andros was merely an +illegal suspension of lawful authority. In other words, the passive +attitude of the colonial government had disarmed Andros so far as to +stop the legal proceedings necessary to forfeit the charter; and then +prompt action, at the critical moment, secured all that could be +secured under the circumstances. William was willing enough to retain +all possible fruits of James's tyranny, as he showed by enforcing the +forfeiture of the Massachusetts charter; but the law in this case was +too plain, and he ratified the lawyers' opinion in April, 1694. The +charter had escaped its enemies at last, and its escape is a monument +of one of the advantages of a real democracy. + + [1] From Johnston's "History of Connecticut." By permission of, + and by arrangement with, the authorized publishers, Houghton, + Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1887, by Alexander Johnston. + + + + +THE COLONIZATION OF LOUISIANA + +(1699) + +BY CHARLES E.T. GAYARRE[1] + + +On February 27, 1699, Iberville and Bienville reached the Mississippi. +When they approached its mouth they were struck with the gloomy +magnificence of the sight. As far as the eye could reach, nothing was +to be seen but reeds which rose five or six feet above the waters in +which they bathed their roots. They waved mournfully under the blast of +the sharp wind of the north, shivering in its icy grasp, as it tumbled, +rolled, and gambolled on the pliant surface. Multitudes of birds of +strange appearance, with their elongated shapes so lean that they +looked like metamorphosed ghosts, clothed in plumage, screamed in the +air, as if they were scared of one another. There was something +agonizing in their shrieks that was in harmony with the desolation of +the place. On every side of the vessel, monsters of the deep and huge +alligators heaved themselves up heavily from their native or favorite +element, and, floating lazily on the turbid waters, seemed to gaze at +the intruders.... + +It was a relief for the adventurers when, after having toiled up the +river for ten days, they at last arrived at the village of the +Bayagoulas. There they found a letter of Tonty to La Salle, dated in +1685. The letter, or rather that "speaking bark" as the Indians called +it, had been preserved with great reverence. Tonty, having been +informed that La Salle was coming with a fleet from France to settle a +colony on the banks of the Mississippi, had not hesitated to set off +from the northern lakes, with twenty Canadians and thirty Indians, and +to come down to the Balize to meet his friend, who had failed to make +out the mouth of the Mississippi, and had been landed by Beaujeu on the +shores of Texas. After having waited for some time, and ignorant of +what had happened, Tonty, with the same indifference to fatigues and +dangers of an appalling nature, retraced his way back, leaving a letter +to La Salle to inform him of his disappointment. Is there not something +extremely romantic in the characters of the men of that epoch? Here is +Tonty undertaking, with the most heroic unconcern, a journey of nearly +three thousand miles, through such difficulties as it is easy for us to +imagine, and leaving a letter to La Salle, as a proof of his visit, in +the same way that one would, in these degenerate days of effeminacy, +leave a card at a neighbor's house. + +The French extended their explorations up to the mouth of the Red +River. On their return the two brothers separated when they arrived at +Bayou Manchac. Bienville was ordered to go down the river to the French +fleet, to give information of what they had seen and heard. Iberville +went through Bayou Manchac to those lakes which are known under the +names of Pontchartrain and Maurepas. Louisiana had been named from a +king: was it not in keeping that those lakes should be called after +ministers? + +From the Bay of St. Louis, Ibervile returned to his fleet, where, after +consultation, he determined to make a settlement at the Bay of Biloxi. +On the east side, at the mouth of the bay, as it were, there is a +slight swelling of the shore, about four acres square, sloping gently +to the woods in the background, and on the bay. Thus this position was +fortified by nature, and the French skilfully availed themselves of +these advantages. The weakest point, which was on the side of the +forest, they strengthened with more care than the rest, by connecting +with a strong intrenchment the two ravines, which ran to the bay in a +parallel line to each other. The fort was constructed with four +bastions, and was armed with twelve pieces of artillery.... + +A few huts having been erected round the fort, the settlers began to +clear the land, in order to bring it into cultivation. Iberville having +furnished them with all the necessary provisions, utensils, and other +supplies, prepared to sail for France.... As the country had been +ordered to be explored, Sauvolle availed himself of that circumstance +to refresh the minds of his men by the excitement of an expedition into +the interior of the continent. He therefore hastened to dispatch most +of them with Bienville, who, with a chief of the Bayagoulas for his +guide, went to visit the Colapissas. They inhabited the northern shore +of Lake Pontchartrain, and their domains embraced the sites now +occupied by Lewisburg, Mandeville, and Fontainebleau.... + +Ibervile had been gone for several months, and the year was drawing to +a close without any tidings of him. A deeper gloom had settled over the +little colony at Biloxi, when, on December 7th, some signal-guns were +heard at sea, and the grateful sound came booming over the waters, +spreading joy in every breast.... It was Iberville returning with the +news that, on his representations, Sauvolle had been appointed by the +King governor of Louisiana; Bienville, lieutenant-governor; and +Boisbriant, commander of the fort at Biloxi, with the grade of major. +Iberville, having been informed by Bienville of the attempt of the +English to make a settlement on the banks of the Mississippi, and of +the manner in which it had been foiled, resolved to take precautionary +measures against the repetition of any similar attempt. Without loss of +time he departed with Bienville, on January 16, 1700, and running up +the river, he constructed a small fort, on the first solid ground which +he met, and which is said to have been at a distance of fifty-four +miles from its mouth. + +When so engaged the two brothers one day saw a canoe rapidly sweeping +down the river and approaching the spot where they stood. It was +occupied by eight men, six of whom were rowers, the seventh was the +steersman, and the eighth, from his appearance, was evidently of a +superior order to that of his companions, and the commander of the +party. Well may it be imagined what greeting the stranger received, +when leaping on shore he made himself known as the Chevalier de Tonty, +who had again heard of the establishment of a colony in Louisiana, and +who, for the second time, had come to see if there was any truth in the +report. With what emotion did Therville and Bienville fold in their +arms the faithful companion and friend of La Salle, of whom they had +heard so many wonderful tales from the Indians, to whom he was so well +known under the name of "Iron Hand!" With what admiration they looked +at his person, and with what increasing interest they listened to his +long recitals of what he had done and had seen on that broad continent, +the threshold of which they had hardly passed! + +After having rested three days at the fort, the indefatigable Tonty +reascended the Mississippi, with Ibervile and Bienvile, and finally +parted with them at Natchez. Iberville was so much pleased with that +part of the bank of the river where now exists the city of Natchez that +he marked it down as a most eligible spot for a town, of which he drew +the plan, and which he called Rosalie, after the maiden name of the +Countess Pontchartrain, the wife of the chancellor. He then returned to +the new fort he was erecting on the Mississippi, and Bienville went to +explore the country of the Yatasses, of the Natchitoehes, and of the +Ouachitas. What romance can be more agreeable to the imagination than +to accompany Iberville and Bienville in their wild explorations, and to +compare the state of the country in their time with what it is in our +days?... + +After these explorations Iberville departed again for France, to +solicit additional assistance from the government, and left Bienville +in command of the new fort on the Mississippi. It was very hard for the +two brothers, Sauvolle and Bienville, to be thus separated, when they +stood so much in need of each other's countenance, to breast the +difficulties that sprung up around them with a luxuriance which they +seemed to borrow from the vegetation of the country. The distance +between the Mississippi and Biloxi was not so easily overcome in those +days as in ours, and the means which the two brothers had of communing +together were very scanty and uncertain. + +Sauvolle died August 22, 1701, and Louisiana remained under the sole +charge of Bienville, who, tho very young, was fully equal to meet that +emergency, by the maturity of his mind and by his other qualifications. +He had hardly consigned his brother to the tomb when Iberville returned +with two ships of the line and a brig laden with troops and provisions. + +According to Iberville's orders, and in conformity with the King's +instructions, Bienville left Boisbriant, his cousin, with twenty men, +at the old fort of Biloxi, and transported the principal seat of the +colony to the western side of the river Mobile, not far from the spot +where now stands the city of Mobile. Near the mouth of that river there +is an island, which the French had called Massacre Island from the +great quantity of human bones which they found bleaching on its shores. +It was evident that there some awful tragedy had been acted; but +Tradition, when interrogated, laid her choppy fingers upon her skinny +lips, and answered not.... + +The year 1703 slowly rolled by and gave way to 1704. Still, nothing was +heard from the parent country. There seemed to be an impassable barrier +between the old and the new continent. The milk which flowed from the +motherly breast of France could no longer reach the parched lips of her +new-born infant; and famine began to pinch the colonists, who scattered +themselves all along the coast, to live by fishing. They were reduced +to the veriest extremity of misery, and despair had settled in every +bosom, in spite of the encouragements of Bienville, who displayed the +most manly fortitude amid all the trials to which he was subjected.... + +Iberville had not been able to redeem his pledge to the poor colonists, +but he sent his brother Chateaugué in his place, at the imminent risk +of being captured by the English, who occupied, at that time, most of +the avenues of the Gulf of Mexico. He was not the man to spare either +himself or his family in cases of emergency, and his heroic soul was +inured to such sacrifices. Grateful the colonists were for this act of +devotedness, and they resumed the occupation of their tenements which +they had abandoned in search of food. The aspect of things was suddenly +changed; abundance and hope reappeared in the land, whose population +was increased by the arrival of seventeen persons, who came, under the +guidance of Chateaugue, with the intention of making a permanent +settlement, and who had provided themselves with all the implements of +husbandry. + +This excitement had hardly subsided when it was revived by the +appearance of another ship, and it became intense when the inhabitants +saw a procession of twenty females, with veiled faces, proceeding arm +in arm, and two by two, to the house of the Governor, who received them +in state and provided them with suitable lodgings. What did it mean? +The next morning, which was Sunday, the mystery was cleared by the +officiating priest reading from the pulpit, after mass, and for the +general information, the following communication from the minister to +Bienville: + +"His majesty sends twenty girls to be married to the Canadians and to +the other inhabitants of Mobile, in order to consolidate the colony. +All these girls are industrious and have received a pious and virtuous +education. You will take care to settle them in life as well as may be +in your power, and to marry them to such men as are capable of +providing them with a commodious home."... + +Many were the gibes and high was the glee on that occasion; pointed +were the jokes aimed at young Bienville on his being thus transformed +into a matrimonial agent and _pater familiæ_. The intentions of the +King, however, were faithfully executed, and more than one rough but +honest Canadian boatman of the St. Lawrence and of the Mississippi +closed his adventurous and erratic career and became a domestic and +useful member of that little commonwealth, under the watchful influence +of the dark-eyed maid of the Loire or of the Seine. + + [1] From Gayarré's "History of Louisiana" (1847). La Salle's + expedition to the mouth of the Mississippi, when he took + possession of the country in the name of the King of France, had + taken place in 1682. Louis XIV in 1689 sent out an expedition to + colonize the lower Mississippi. It comprized about two hundred men + and was commanded by Sieur d'Therville. Among his companions were + two brothers, one of whom, Sieur de Bienville, was the real + founder of New Orleans, and long served as Governor of Louisiana. + Gayarré describes the arrival and experiences of these brothers. + + Gayarré lived in New Orleans. He began to practise law there in + 1880, and afterward served as reporter of the State Supreme Court. + He died in 1895. + + + + +OGLETHORPE IN GEORGIA + +(1733) + +BY JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS[1] + + +General James Edward Oglethorpe, the founder of the Colony of Georgia, +was among the few really good and great men that history tells us of. +We need to keep a close eye on the antics of history. She places the +laurels of fame in the hands of butchers, plunderers, and adventurers, +and even assassins share her favors; so that, if we are going to enjoy +the feast that history offers us, we must not inquire too closely into +the characters of the men whom she makes heroes of. We find, when we +come to look into the matter, that but few of those who figured as the +great men of the world have been entirely unselfish; and unselfishness +is the test of a man who is really good and great. Judged by this test, +General Oglethorpe stands among the greatest men known to history.... + +Born in 1689, Oglethorpe entered the English army when twenty-one years +of age. In 1714 he became captain-lieutenant of the first troop of the +Queen's life guards. He shortly afterward joined Eugene on the +continent, and remained with that soldier until the peace of 1718. On +the death of his brother he succeeded to the family estate in England. +In 1722 he was elected to Parliament from Haslemere, County of Surrey, +and this borough he represented continuously for thirty-two years. His +parliamentary career was marked by wise prudence and consistency; and +his sympathies were warmly enlisted for the relief of unfortunate +soldiers, and in securing reform in the conduct of prisons. In this way +Oglethorpe became a philanthropist, and, without intending it, +attracted the attention of all England. Pope, the poet, eulogizes his +"strong benevolence of soul." + +In that day and time men were imprisoned for debt in England. The law +was brutal, and those who executed it were cruel. There was no +discrimination between fraud and misfortune. The man who was unable to +pay his debts was judged to be as criminal as the man who, though able, +refused to pay.... + +This condition of affairs Oglethorpe set himself to reform; and while +thus engaged he became imprest with the idea that many of the +unfortunates, guilty of no crime, and of respectable connections, might +benefit themselves, relieve England of the shame of their imprisonment, +and confirm and extend the dominion of the mother country in the New +World, by being freed from the claims of those to whom they owed money, +on condition that they would consent to become colonists in America. To +this class were to be added recruits from those who, through lack of +work and of means, were likely to be imprisoned on account of their +misfortunes. Oglethorpe was also of the opinion that men of means, +enterprise, and ambition could be enlisted in the cause; and in this he +was not mistaken. + +He had no hope whatever of personal gain or private benefit. The plan +that he had conceived was entirely for the benefit of the unfortunate, +based on broad and high ideas of benevolence; and so thoroughly was +this understood that Oglethorpe had no difficulty whatever in securing +the aid of men of wealth and influence. A charter or grant from the +government was applied for, in order that the scheme might have the +sanction and authority of the government. Accordingly a charter was +granted, and the men most prominent in the scheme of benevolence were +incorporated under the name of "The Trustees for establishing the +Colony of Georgia in America." Georgia in America was, under the terms +of the charter, a pretty large slice of America. It embraced all that +part of the continent lying between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers, +and extending westly from the heads of these rivers in direct lines to +the South Seas; so that the original territory of Georgia extended from +ocean to ocean. + +In aid of this enterprise, Oglethorpe not only contributed largely from +his private means, and solicited contributions from his wealthy +friends, but wrote a tract in which he used arguments that were +practical as well as ingenious. + +On the 17th of November, 1732, all arrangements having been completed, +the _Anne_ set sail for the Colony of Georgia, accompanied by +Oglethorpe, who furnished his own cabin, and laid in provisions not +only for himself, but for his fellow-passengers. On the 13th of +January, 1733, the _Anne_ anchored in Charleston harbor. From +Charleston the vessel sailed to Port Royal; and the colonists were soon +quartered in the barracks of Beaufort-town, which had been prepared for +their reception. Oglethorpe left the colonists at Beaufort and, in +company with Colonel William Bull, proceeded to the Savannah River. He +went up this stream as far as Yamacraw Bluff, which he selected as the +site of the settlement he was about to make. He marked out the town, +and named it Savannah. The site was a beautiful one in Oglethorpe's +day, and it is still more beautiful now. The little settlement that the +founder of the colony marked out has grown into a flourishing city, and +art has added its advantages to those of nature to make Savannah one of +the most beautiful cities in the United States.... + +On the 30th of January, 1733, the immigrants set sail from Beaufort, +and on the afternoon of the next day they arrived at Yamacraw Bluff. On +the site of the town that had already been marked off they pitched four +tents large enough to accommodate all the people. Oglethorpe, after +posting his sentinels, slept on the ground under the shelter of the +tall pines, near the central watch fire. As a soldier should, he slept +soundly. He had planted the new colony, and thus far all had gone well +with him and with those whose interests he had charge of. + +To bring these colonists across the ocean and place them in a position +where they might begin life anew was not a very difficult undertaking; +but to plant a colony amongst savages already suspicious of the whites, +and to succeed in obtaining their respect, friendship, and aid, was +something that required wisdom, courage, prudence, and large +experience. This Oglethorpe did; and it is to his credit that, during +the time he had charge of the colony, he never, in any shape or form, +took advantage of the ignorance of the Indians. His method of dealing +with them was very simple. He conciliated them by showing them that the +whites could be just, fair, and honorable in their dealings; and thus, +in the very beginning, he won the friendship of those whose enmity to +the little colony would have proved ruinous. + +Providence favored Oglethorpe in this matter. He had to deal with an +Indian chief full of years, wisdom, and experience. This was +Tomochichi, who was at the head of the Yamacraws. From this kindly +Indian the Georgia Colony received untold benefits. He remained the +steadfast friend of the settlers, and used his influence in their +behalf in every possible way, and on all occasions. Altho he was a very +old man, he was strong and active, and of commanding presence. He +possessed remarkable intelligence; and this, added to his experience, +made him one of the most remarkable of the Indians whose names have +been preserved in history.... Thus, with Oglethorpe to direct it, and +with Tomochichi as its friend, the little Georgia Colony was founded, +thrived and flourished. + + [1] From Mr. Harris's "Georgia from the Invasion of De Soto to + Recent Times." By permission of, and by arrangement with, the + publishers, D. Appleton & Co. Copyright, 1899. + + +END OF VOL. 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