OTHER ENGLISH NORTH AMERICAN COLONIES (1605-1750).
98. References.
Bibliographies.--Larned, _Literature of American History_, 430-438,
458-462; Winsor, VIII. 65-80, 175-177, 188-190, 270-291.
Historical Maps.--Nos. 2, 3, and 4, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, Nos. 2, 3,
4); Winsor, MacCoun, and school histories already cited.
General Accounts.--H. Fox-Bourne, _Story of our Colonies_, chs. i.-xi.;
Egerton, _British Colonial Policy_; Morris, _History of Colonization_; E.
Payne, _European Colonies_; Cotton and Payne, _Colonies and Dependencies_.
Special Histories.--West Indies: Lucas, _Historical Geography_, II., secs.
i., ii.; C. Eden, _West Indies_; J. Froude, _English in West Indies_
(answered by J. Thomas, _Froudacity_); A. Kennedy, _Story of West Indies_;
J. Rodway, _West Indies and Spanish Main_; J. Lefroy, _Discovery and Early
Settlement of Bermudas_; J. Esquemeling, _Buccaneers of America_ (and
similar books by Archenholtz, Burney, and Pyle); J. Masefield, _On the
Spanish Main_.--Newfoundland: D. Prowse, _Newfoundland_; also histories of
the island by Hatton and Harvey, Smith, and Pedley; S. Dawson, _Canada and
Newfoundland_; W. Greswell, _Geography of Canada and Newfoundland_.--Nova
Scotia: J. Bourinot, _Builders of Nova Scotia_; T. Haliburton, _Nova
Scotia_; B. Murdoch, _Nova Scotia_; E. Richard, _Acadia_.--Canada: see §
107.--Hudson's Bay Company: G. Bryce, _Remarkable History of Hudson's Bay
Company_; L. Burpee, _Search for the Western Sea_; A. Laut, _Conquest of
Great Northwest_; B. Willson, _Great Company_. Consult also publications of
Royal Society of Canada, and provincial historical and antiquarian
societies.
Contemporary Accounts.--Whitbourne, _Discourse and Discovery of
Newfoundland_ (1620); Mason, _Brief Discourse of Newfoundland_ (1620); Du
Tertre, _Histoire Générale des Antilles_ (1654); Denys, _Description and
Natural History of Arcadia_ (1672); Labat, _Nouveau Voyage aux Isles
d'Amérique_ (1724); Oldmixon, _British Empire in America_ (1741); Dobbs,
_Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay_ (1744); Ellis, _Voyage to Hudson Bay_
(1748); Hakluyt, _Voyages_. Reprints in publications of historical and
antiquarian societies.
99. Outlying English Colonies.
Sidenote: Differences between the thirteen colonies and their English
neighbors to the south and north.
It is usual to think and speak of the English colonies in North America as
though they included only the thirteen which, in 1775, revolted against the
mother-country. In the eyes of the home government, however, and of the
colonists themselves, the relations between the mother-land and the English
West India Islands, the Bermudas, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay,
and, after 1763, Canada, were much the same as between it and Virginia or
New Hampshire or Pennsylvania. The chief differences between the colonies
were of race and occupation. Nova Scotia had, before the Revolution, but a
few thousand English inhabitants; the West Indies were almost exclusively
sugar-producing colonies. Both on the north and on the southeast the
English colonies touched elbows with the French in active commercial and
territorial competition. The West Indies were the emporium for sugar and
slaves, and an extensive traffic was had in both commodities with the
continental colonies. This important commerce has already been frequently
referred to, particularly in the treatment of New England (page 185, § 77),
whose vessels did the bulk of the colonial carrying trade.
Sidenote: Why those neighbors did not revolt against England.
Various causes conspired to prevent Englishmen in these outlying
plantations from joining their brethren of New England, the middle
colonies, and the South, in the movement for independence. The West India
planters were largely aided by English capital, and in England, where many
of them had summer residences, they enjoyed a profitable and exclusive
market for sugar, cotton, and other tropical products. It was considered
good policy by English statesmen to favor the island colonies as against
the continental, for the products of the former did not compete with those
of Great Britain; so that while the Navigation Acts (page 104, § 44),
restricting all colonial trade to British ports, at first bore heavily on
the island planters, they were compensated in part by numerous
discriminations in their favor. Many of these planters were the sons of
Cavaliers who had fled to the islands of the Caribbean Sea to escape from
the rule of the Commonwealth; or wealthy men who had, in times of popular
disturbance, been made to feel uncomfortable in their old homes on the
American mainland. In Nova Scotia and Newfoundland the ports were filled
with English traders and officers; and a great belt of untraversed forest
separated them from the New Englanders, with whom they had little in
common. But perhaps above all was the fact that His Majesty's fleet easily
commanded these outlying colonies, and revolt was not to be thought of
within the reach of the guns of ships.
It is worth our while briefly to review the history of these British
American dependencies which for one reason or another did not enter the
struggle that was soon to rend the empire in twain at the moment it had
reached its greatest extent.
100. Windward and Leeward Islands (1605-1814).
Sidenote: Settlement of Barbados.
_Barbados_, the easternmost of the Windward Islands, was first visited by a
party of English adventurers in 1605, since which time it has been an
English possession. But it was not until 1625 that a colony was planted on
the island. Its plan of government was much the same as that of the
mainland colonies.
Sidenote: Refuge for loyalists.
During the Puritan uprising in England, Barbados was a place of refuge for
loyalists, who were disposed, till the appearance of a parliamentary force
(1651), to hold the island for the king. Under Cromwell's rule many
prisoners of war were sent to the island, thus increasing the royalist
population. The Restoration was promptly proclaimed.
Sidenote: Warfare.
The colony made rapid progress, although now and then checked by the fact
that its exposed position made it in time of war a favorite point of attack
by enemies of England. The numerous harbors along the coast were, in such
troublous periods, infested by privateers, who seriously interfered with
the commerce of the island. In the war between Great Britain and France,
commencing in 1756, the West Indies was the theatre of a prolonged
conflict, into which the Barbadians entered with zeal, supplying money and
troops to the English side, and oftentimes suffering from reverses.
Sidenote: Commerce.
Before the Navigation Acts (page 104, § 44), by which England sought to
compel all her colonists to trade with her alone, the Dutch were good
customers for Barbados sugar; after that, English merchants having a
monopoly of the traffic, the planters had much reason to complain.
Nevertheless, the majority were stanch Tories, and remained so throughout
the Revolutionary war. Many Barbadians settled from time to time upon the
mainland, particularly in the Carolinas. We have seen that Sir John
Yeamans, a Barbados planter, led several hundred of his fellow-islanders
thither (1664), and founded a town on Cape Fear river (page 89, § 36).
Sidenote: St. Vincent.
_St. Vincent_, a hundred miles west of Barbados, although discovered by
Columbus in 1498 was unclaimed until 1627, when it was granted to the Earl
of Carlisle by Charles I., along with others of the Windward group. In
1722, the Duke of Montagu came into possession of it; and then immigrants
were introduced, who exported sugar, rum, molasses, and arrowroot.
Sidenote: Other Windward islands.
_St. Lucia_ was settled by the English in 1639; its ownership was long
passed back and forth by France and England, but in 1794 the latter secured
permanent possession. The English flag was raised over _Tobago_ in 1580,
but the island was alternately held by English and Dutch until 1814, since
which date the proprietorship of the former has been undisputed. _Grenada_
and the _Grenadines_, colonized by the French, first came into English
possession under the treaty of 1763. _Trinidad_, the southernmost of the
chain of islands and one of the most valuable, was occupied by the Spanish
until 1797, when it was yielded up to Great Britain, under show of force;
to-day it is one of the most progressive of the smaller English
dependencies.
Sidenotes: Early settlement.
Changes in ownership.
Upon the Leeward, or northern, islands of the Caribbean group are the
colonies of Antigua, Montserrat, St. Christopher (St. Kitts), Nevis,
Dominica, and the Virgin Islands. _Antigua_, the seat of the present
colonial government, is the most important. English families settled there
in 1632, and again in 1663. Ravaged by France three years later (1666), it
was soon after restored to the English under the treaty of Breda.
_Montserrat_, the healthiest island in the West Indies, was also colonized
by the English in 1632, and remained in their possession except for two
brief terms (1664-1668 and 1782-1784), when the French were in control.
_St. Christopher_ and _Nevis_ form a united English colony which traces its
history back to 1628. Dutch buccaneers intrenched themselves on the rocky
islets of the _Virgin_ group as early as 1648, but were driven out by
English pirates in 1666, since which date the archipelago has been the
property of Great Britain; a better class of settlers came in with the
eighteenth century. _Dominica_, the largest of the Leeward Isles, was
included in Carlisle's patent (1627); but the French were already in
possession, living on friendly terms with the native Caribs, just as their
compatriots in New France were with the more warlike Algonkins. Ceded by
France to England in 1763, Dominica was several times recaptured, and not
finally relinquished to the latter until 1814.
101. Bermudas (1609-1750) and Bahamas (1522-1783).
Sidenote: Early settlement.
The fertile Bermudas, or Somers's Islands,--"still vex'd Bermoothes" of
Shakespeare,--lie about six hundred miles east of South Carolina. They bear
the names of two navigators who were cast away upon them,--Juan Bermudez, a
Spaniard (1522), and an Englishman, Sir George Somers (1609); the latter
being on his way to Virginia to administer the affairs of that colony.
Somers founded the first settlement.
Sidenote: In the possession of Virginia.
Under the third patent to the Virginia Company in 1612 (page 72, § 30), the
Bermudas and all islands within three hundred leagues of the Virginia shore
were ceded to that corporation. Except Nova Scotia, therefore, the Bermudas
are the only present English colony which ever formed an integral part of
any of the present States or Territories of the United States. The Virginia
Company afterwards (1616) parted with its right to the Bermuda Company,
which carried thither a considerable company of Virginians. During the
Commonwealth, the Bermudas, like Barbados, were a refuge for royalists from
England. Representative government, similar to that of the mainland
colonies, was established in 1620, and has been ever since maintained.
Tobacco was the staple of the colony until about 1707, when a salt-making
industry sprang up and soon became the chief interest.
Sidenote: Strategic importance.
The Bermudas were from the earliest times recognized as an important marine
station. During the Revolutionary war Washington wrote: "Let us annex the
Bermudas, and thus possess a nest of hornets to annoy the British trade."
But the place was undisturbed, and remained loyal to the king.
Sidenote: The landfall of Columbus.
The first American soil trod by Columbus was an island in the fruitful
Bahama group. "This country," he wrote, "excels all others as far as the
day surpasses the night in splendor." The natives were numerous; "their
conversation is the sweetest imaginable; their faces always smiling; and so
gentle and so affectionate are they that I swear to your highness there is
not a better people in the world." Yet (commencing in 1509) the Spaniards
almost depopulated the islands; forty thousand of these innocent aborigines
were carried away to a wretched death in the mines of Cuba.
Sidenote: Spanish and French opposition to English settlement.
In 1629, an English colony was planted on New Providence, in the then
deserted archipelago. But the French and Spanish persisted in harrying the
settlement, which was frequently the scene of stormy conflicts. At last, in
1718, the English government drove out the pirates who had come to resort
there in great numbers, resettled the islands, and an era of progress
opened.
Sidenote: Americans capture the colony.
During the Revolutionary war many wealthy Tories went from the continental
colonies to the Bahamas and opened up large plantations, with slave labor.
The colony was captured by the Americans (1776),--the only conquest of
British territory during the Revolution, except the Canadian campaign of
1775 and the occupation of the Northwest by Virginia troops in 1778. The
Spanish took it in 1782, but it was soon retaken by the English (1783).
Three quarters of a century later the islands became famous as the point of
departure for blockade-runners bound into Confederate ports.
102. Jamaica (1655-1750).
Sidenote: England captures the island.
Jamaica was under Spanish control until 1655, when an English fleet under
Admirals Penn and Venables--the former, father of the founder of
Pennsylvania--compelled the surrender of the island to the Commonwealth.
The opposition of the Spanish planters and their negro slaves--the latter
were called Maroons--long made English government difficult; the Spaniards
were finally driven off, but the Maroons, fleeing to the mountains, were
troublesome until the close of the eighteenth century. Much annoyance was
also suffered in the seventeenth century from the buccaneers, who infested
the Jamaica coast and preyed indiscriminately on all West Indian commerce;
they were suppressed with great difficulty. In 1728, English laws and
statutes became applicable to the island.
Sidenote: The Tory element.
Like other islands in the West Indies, Jamaica was resorted to by many Tory
planters from the continental colonies, and apparently had no sympathy with
the struggle of the latter for independence. It was a colony having a large
slave population, and after the separation of the continental colonies
became, to some degree, a competitor with them. The abolition of slavery in
the island (1830-1837) had a great influence on the slavery conflict in the
United States.
103. British Honduras (1600-1798).
Sidenote: Lawless character of English settlers.
Belize, or British Honduras, on the eastern shore of the Yucatan peninsula,
was not occupied by Englishmen until after the suppression of freebooting
in the Spanish main,--about the opening of the eighteenth century. At that
time parties of English dyewood and mahogany cutters, many of whom had been
pirates, established themselves at Belize. Their holdings were frequently
beset by rival Spanish logging companies, but in 1798 the latter were
expelled.
Sidenote: English rights questioned.
Since that day Belize has existed as a prosperous Crown colony, although
England's legal right to the country is still questioned by some
authorities, and in 1846 this fact gave rise to serious diplomatic
difficulties with the United States.
104. Newfoundland (1497-1783).
Sidenote: Early settlements.
Newfoundland is the oldest of the colonial possessions of Great Britain. We
have seen (page 25, § 8) that John Cabot discovered it in 1497, that
Cortereal was there for the Portuguese in 1500, and that by 1504 fishermen
from Normandy, Brittany, and the Basque provinces were regularly engaged on
its shores. It was the nucleus for both French and English occupation of
the mainland, and from the first an important fishery station.
Not until 1583 did the English take formal possession, and it was much
later before any of their numerous colonizing schemes attained any great
measure of success.
Sidenote: Growth of the colony.
By the treaty of Utrecht (1713) Newfoundland was acknowledged as English
territory, but the French were given fishing privileges on the western and
northern coasts. This led to diplomatic contentions, not yet ended;
nevertheless settlement at once increased, and a satisfactory growth has
since been maintained. In 1728, a form of civil government was for the
first time established.
Sidenote: Loyalty to England.
During the American Revolution Newfoundland had sufficient inducement to
remain loyal; since French and American competitors in the fisheries were
kept out by British fleets, her merchants had a monopoly of the European
markets, and were enabled to maintain high prices.
105. Nova Scotia, Acadia. (1497-1755).
Sidenote: French and English rivalry.
First visited by the Cabots in 1497, it was not until 1604 that European
colonization was attempted in Nova Scotia, under the Frenchman De Monts
(page 35, § 13). In 1613, the Virginia privateer, Argall, basing his excuse
on Cabot's previous discovery, swooped down on the French settlements,
demolished the cabins, and expelled the inhabitants. A grant of the
peninsula--called Acadia by the French, but in this document styled Nova
Scotia by the king--was made by James I. to Sir William Alexander; the
latter was, however, prevented by the French (1623) from carrying out his
colonizing scheme. Nevertheless, several Englishmen and Scotchmen came into
the country and mingled with the French, who were slowly re-populating it.
Sidenote: New England captures the country.
Recaptured by an English force in 1654, Nova Scotia was, thirteen years
later (1667), ceded to France. But the ease of communication by water made
the colony an uncomfortably close neighbor for the English colonies farther
south. In 1710 the Massachusetts men captured Port Royal; and in 1713
France relinquished possession to England by the treaty of Utrecht. Again
in 1745, Massachusetts volunteers captured Louisbourg on Cape Breton (§§
111, 112).
Sidenote: Deportation of the Acadians.
England paid little attention to Nova Scotia until 1749, when four thousand
emigrants were sent over to found Halifax. The French settlers, known as
Acadians, had meanwhile become numerous, and greatly abused their
privileges as neutrals by fostering and joining Indian war-parties against
the New England settlers. In 1755, the Acadians were easily reduced by
General Monkton, and seven thousand transported to the British provinces
southward, many of them finally drifting to the French settlement at the
mouth of the Mississippi.
Sidenote: An asylum for Tories.
A colonial constitution of the regulation English pattern was granted to
Nova Scotia in 1758, and France formally released her claim by the treaty
of 1763. At the same time Cape Breton, which had been a second time
captured (1758), was added. The Englishmen in Nova Scotia were largely of
the official and trading class, having little in common with their
neighbors of the more southern colonies. In the Revolution several thousand
loyalist refugees found an asylum in the peninsula.
For the remaining French colony, Canada, special treatment will be
necessary.
106. Hudson's Bay Company.
Sidenote: Similarity to the Massachusetts Bay Company.
The Hudson's Bay Company, from the time it was chartered by Charles II.
(1670) until its lands were sold to the British Government (1869), was a
joint-stock association, with exclusive commercial and political
privileges, very similar to the Company of Massachusetts Bay. To-day it
trades as a private corporation; its former territory--the lands draining
into Hudson's Bay--is now open to all on equal terms.
Sidenote: French opposition.
Fur-trade factories, protected by strong forts, were early planted by the
company at the mouths of several sub-arctic rivers, such as the Rupert,
Moore, Albany, Nelson, and Churchill, the only inhabitants being the small
garrisons and the company's trading servants. Several expeditions were
successively made to Hudson's Bay by French war vessels; much devastation
was wrought and blood spilled, until in 1697 the treaty of Ryswick put an
end to the trouble, and left the company in undisputed possession. It had
lost more than £200,000 in this predatory warfare, but soon regained its
position, through the profits of the fur-trade.
Sidenote: American rivals.
After the fall of New France (1763), the Hudson's Bay Company met
formidable rivals in the enterprising Northwest and American organizations;
the story of the fierce competition which ensued, with its effect on
American settlement and international boundaries, belongs to the period
covered by other volumes of this series.
Sidenote: Summary.
From the foregoing sketch it will be seen that for all the American
colonies to the south of Georgia the English were obliged to fight a
changeful battle with the Spaniards and the French. It was not till after
the Revolutionary war that the permanent ownership of the islands was
assured to Great Britain. A similar struggle, though briefer and sooner
concluded, went on for the possession of the colonies north of Maine. But
twelve years before the Revolution the last of them had been yielded to the
British. In Nova Scotia, and later in Canada, English residents were not
numerous till the beginning of the nineteenth century. In Newfoundland and
Hudson's Bay, in colonial times, the settlers were English, but in numbers
they were few.