CHAPTER IV

A SCHOOL HISTORY

OF THE

UNITED STATES

BY

JOHN BACH McMASTER

PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY

OF PENNSYLVANIA

1897

PREFACE

It has long been the custom to begin the history of our country with the

discovery of the New World by Columbus. To some extent this is both wise

and necessary; but in following it in this instance the attempt has been

made to treat the colonial period as the childhood of the United States;

to have it bear the same relation to our later career that the account

of the youth of a great man should bear to that of his maturer years,

and to confine it to the narration of such events as are really

necessary to a correct understanding of what has happened since 1776.

The story, therefore, has been restricted to the discoveries,

explorations, and settlements within the United States by the English,

French, Spaniards, and Dutch; to the expulsion of the French by the

English; to the planting of the thirteen colonies on the Atlantic

seaboard; to the origin and progress of the quarrel which ended with the

rise of thirteen sovereign free and independent states, and to the

growth of such political institutions as began in colonial times. This

period once passed, the long struggle for a government followed till our

present Constitution--one of the most remarkable political instruments

ever framed by man--was adopted, and a nation founded.

Scarcely was this accomplished when the French Revolution and the rise

of Napoleon involved us in a struggle, first for our neutral rights, and

then for our commercial independence, and finally in a second war with

Great Britain. During this period of nearly five and twenty years,

commerce and agriculture flourished exceedingly, but our internal

resources were little developed. With the peace of 1815, however, the

era of industrial development commences, and this has been treated with

great--though it is believed not too great--fullness of detail; for,

beyond all question, _the_ event of the world's history during the

nineteenth century is the growth of the United States. Nothing like it

has ever before taken place.

To have loaded down the book with extended bibliographies would have

been an easy matter, but quite unnecessary. The teacher will find in

Channing and Hart's _Guide to the Study of American History_ the best

digested and arranged bibliography of the subject yet published, and

cannot afford to be without it. If the student has time and disposition

to read one half of the reference books cited in the footnotes of this

history, he is most fortunate.

JOHN BACH McMASTER.

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. EUROPE FINDS AMERICA

II. THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES

III. ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND SWEDES ON THE SEABOARD

IV. THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND

V. THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES

VI. THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY

VII. THE INDIANS

VIII. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA

IX. LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763

X. "LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS"

XI. THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE

XII. UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION

XIII. MAKING THE CONSTITUTION

XIV. OUR COUNTRY IN 1790

XV. THE RISE OF PARTIES

XVI. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY

XVII. STRUGGLE FOR "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS"

XVIII. THE WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE

XIX. PROGRESS OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815

XX. SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES

XXI. THE RISING WEST

XXII. THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE

XXIII. POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845

XXIV. EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA

XXV. THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL

XXVI. PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1840 AND 1860

XXVII. WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865

XXVIII. WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA

XXIX. THE COST OF THE WAR

XXX. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH

XXXI. THE NEW WEST (1860-1870)

XXXII. POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880

XXXIII. GROWTH OF THE NORTHWEST

XXXIV. MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS

XXXV. POLITICS SINCE 1880

APPENDIX

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

STATE CONSTITUTIONS

INDEX

LIST OF IMPORTANT MAPS

DISCOVERY ON THE EAST COAST OF AMERICA

EUROPEAN CLAIMS AND EXPLORATIONS, 1650

FRENCH CLAIMS, ETC., IN 1700

BRITISH COLONIES, 1733

EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS, 1763

THE BRITISH COLONIES IN 1764

BRITISH COLONIES, 1776

RESULTS OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE

THE UNITED STATES, 1783

THE UNITED STATES, 1789

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1790

SLAVE AND FREE SOIL IN 1790

THE UNITED STATES, 1801

THE UNITED STATES, 1810

NORTH AMERICA AFTER 1824

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1820

FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN 1820

THE UNITED STATES, 1826

TERRITORY CLAIMED BY TEXAS IN 1845

THE OREGON COUNTRY

ROUTES OF THE EARLY EXPLORERS

TERRITORY CEDED BY MEXICO, 1848 AND 1853

RESULTS OF THE COMPROMISE OF 1850

THE UNITED STATES IN 1851

EXPANSION OF SLAVE SOIL, 1790-1860

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1850

THE UNITED STATES, 1861

WAR FOR THE UNION

INDUSTRIAL AND RAILROAD MAP OF THE UNITED STATES

A SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE

UNITED STATES

* * * * *

_DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS_

CHAPTER I

EUROPE FINDS AMERICA

%1. Nations that have owned our Soil.%--Before the United States

became a nation, six European powers owned, or claimed to own, various

portions of the territory now contained within its boundary. England

claimed the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. Spain once held

Florida, Texas, California, and all the territory south and west of

Colorado. France in days gone by ruled the Mississippi valley. Holland

once owned New Jersey, Delaware, and the valley of the Hudson in New

York, and claimed as far eastward as the Connecticut river. The Swedes

had settlements on the Delaware. Alaska was a Russian possession.

Before attempting to narrate the history of our country, it is

necessary, therefore, to tell

1. How European nations came into possession of parts of it.

2. How these parts passed from them to us.

3. What effect the ownership of parts of our country by Europeans had on

our history and institutions before 1776.

%2. European Trade with the East; the Old Routes.%--For two hundred

years before North and South America were known to exist, a splendid

trade had been going on between Europe and the East Indies. Ships loaded

with metals, woods, and pitch went from European seaports to Alexandria

and Constantinople, and brought back silks and cashmeres, muslins,

dyewoods, spices, perfumes, ivory, precious stones, and pearls. This

trade in course of time had come to be controlled by the two Italian

cities of Venice and Genoa. The merchants of Genoa sent their ships to

Constantinople and the ports of the Black Sea, where they took on board

the rich fabrics and spices which by boats and by caravans had come up

the valley of the Euphrates and the Tigris from the Persian Gulf. The

men of Venice, on the other hand, sent their vessels to Alexandria, and

carried on their trade with the East through the Red Sea.

[Illustration: Routes to India]

%3. New Routes wanted.%--Splendid as this trade was, however, it was

doomed to destruction. Slowly, but surely, the Turks thrust themselves

across the caravan routes, cutting off one by one the great feeders of

the Oriental trade, till, with the capture of Constantinople in 1453,

they destroyed the commercial career of Genoa. As their power was

spreading rapidly over Syria and toward Egypt, the prosperity of Venice,

in turn, was threatened. The day seemed near when all trade between the

Indies and Europe would be ended, and men began to ask if it were not

possible to find an ocean route to Asia.

Now, it happened that just at this time the Portuguese were hard at work

on the discovery of such a route, and were slowly pushing their way down

the western coast of Africa. But as league after league of that coast

was discovered, it was thought that the route to India by way of Africa

was too long for the purposes of commerce.[1] Then came the question, Is

there not a shorter route? and this Columbus tried to answer.

[Footnote 1: Read the account of Portuguese exploration in search of a

way to India, in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. I., pp. 274-334.]

%4. Columbus seeks the East and finds America.%[2]--Columbus was a

native of Genoa, in Italy. He began a seafaring life at fourteen, and in

the intervals between his voyages made maps and globes. As Portugal was

then the center of nautical enterprise, he wandered there about 1470,

and probably went on one or two voyages down the coast of Africa. In

1473 he married a Portuguese woman. Her father had been one of the King

of Portugal's famous navigators, and had left behind him at his death a

quantity of charts and notes; and it was while Columbus was studying

them that the idea of seeking the Indies by sailing due westward seems

to have first started in his mind. But many a year went by, and many a

hardship had to be borne, and many an insult patiently endured in

poverty and distress, before the Friday morning in August, 1492, when

his three caravels, the _Santa Maria_ (sahn'-tah mah-ree'-ah), the

_Pinta_ (peen'-tah), and the _Niña_ (neen'-yah), sailed from the port of

Palos (pah'-los), in Spain.

[Footnote 2: There is reason to believe that about the year 1000 A.D.

the northeast coast of America was discovered by a Norse voyager named

Leif Ericsson. The records are very meager; but the discovery of our

country by such a people is possible and not improbable. For an account

of the pre-Columbian discoveries see Fiske's _Discovery of America_,

Vol. I., pp. 148-255.]

[Illustration: Santa Maria]

His course led first to the Canary Islands, where he turned and went

directly westward. The earth was not then generally believed to be

round. Men supposed it to be flat, and the only parts of it known to

Europeans were Iceland, the British Isles, the continent of Europe, a

small part of Asia, and a strip along the coast of the northern part of

Africa. The ocean on which Columbus was now embarked, and which in our

time is crossed in less than a week, was then utterly unknown, and was

well named "The Sea of Darkness." Little wonder, then, that as the

shores of the last of the Canaries sank out of sight on the 9th of

September, many of the sailors wept, wailed, and loudly bemoaned their

cruel fate. After sailing for what seemed a very long time, they saw

signs of land. But when no land appeared, their hopes gave way to fear,

and they rose against Columbus in order to force him to return.

[Illustration: Niña]

But he calmed their fears, explained the sights they could not

understand, hid from them the true distance sailed, and kept steadily on

westward till October 7, when a flock of land birds were seen flying to

the southwest. Pinzon (peen-thon'), who commanded one of the vessels,

begged Columbus to follow the birds, as they seemed to be going toward

land. Had the little fleet kept on its way, it would have brought up on

the coast of Florida. But Columbus yielded to Pinzon. The ships were

headed southwestward, and about ten o'clock on the night of October 11,

Columbus saw a light moving in the distance. It was made by the

inhabitants going from hut to hut on a neighboring coast. At dawn the

shore itself was seen by a sailor, and Columbus, followed by many of his

men, hastened to the beach, where, October 12, 1492, he raised a huge

cross, and took possession of the country in the name of Ferdinand and

Isabella, King and Queen of Spain, who had supplied him with caravels

and men.[1] He had landed on one of a group of islands which we call the

Bahamas.[2]

[Footnote 1: Columbus called the new land San Salvador (sahn

sahl-vah-dor', Holy Savior), because October 12, the day on which it was

discovered, was so named in the Spanish calendar.]

[Footnote 2: Three islands of this group, Cat, Turks, and Watlings, have

rival claims as the landing place of Columbus. At present, Watlings

Island is believed to be the one on which he first set foot. Read an

account of the voyage in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. I., pp.

408-442; Irving's _Life and Voyages of Columbus_, Vol. I., Book III.]

[Illustration: Coat of arms of Columbus]

During ten days he sailed among these islands. Then, turning southward,

he coasted along Cuba to the eastern end, and so to Haiti, which he

named Hispaniola, or Little Spain. There the _Santa Maria_ was wrecked.

The _Pinta_ had by this time deserted him, and, as the _Niña_ could not

carry all the men, forty were left at Hispaniola, to found the first

colony of Europeans in the New World. Giving the men food enough to last

a year, Columbus set sail for Spain on the 3d of January, 1493, and on

March 15 was safe at Palos.

Of the greatness of his discovery, Columbus had not the faintest idea.

That he had found a new world; that a continent was blocking his way to

the East, never entered his mind. He supposed he had landed on some

islands off the east coast of Asia, and as that coast was called the

Indies, and as the islands were reached by sailing westward, they came

to be called the West Indies, and their inhabitants Indians; and the

native races of the New World have ever since been called Indians.

Although Columbus in after years made three more voyages to the New

World, he never found out his mistake, and died firm in the belief that

he had discovered a direct route to Asia.[1]

[Footnote 1: Columbus began his second voyage in September, 1493, and

discovered Jamaica, Porto Rico (por'-to ree'-co), and the islands of the

Caribbean Sea. On his third voyage, in 1498, he discovered the island of

Trinidad, off the coast of Venezuela, and saw South America at the mouth

of the Orinoco River. During his fourth and last voyage, 1502-1504, he

explored the shores of Honduras and the Isthmus of Panama in search of a

strait leading to the Indian Ocean. Of course he did not find it, and,

going back to Spain, he died poor and broken-hearted on May 20, 1506.]

%5. The Atlantic Coast explored.%--And now that Columbus had shown

the way, others were quick to follow. In 1497 and 1498 came John and

Sebastian Cabot (cab'-ot), sailing under the flag of England, and

exploring our coast from Labrador to Cape Cod; and Pinzon and Solis,

with Vespucius[2] for pilot, sailing under the flag of Spain along the

shores of the Gulf of Mexico, around the peninsula of Florida, and

northward to Chesapeake Bay. Between 1500 and 1502 two Portuguese

navigators named Cortereal (cor-ta-ra-ahl') went over much the same

ground as the Cabots. For the time being, however, these voyages were

fruitless. It was not a new world, but China and Japan, the Indian

Ocean, and the spice islands, that Europe was seeking. When, therefore,

in 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon, passed around the end of

Africa, reached India, and came back to Portugal in 1499 with his ship

laden with the silks and spices of the East, all explorers turned

southward, and for eleven years after the visit of the Cortereals no

voyages were made to North America.

[Footnote 2: As this man was an Italian, his name was really Amerigo

Vespucci (ah-ma'-ree-go ves-poot'-chee), but it is usually given in its

Latinized form, Americus Vespucius (a-mer'-i-cus ves-pu'-she-us).]

%6. Why the Continent was called America.%--But some great voyages

meantime were made to South America. In 1500 a Portuguese fleet of

thirteen vessels, commanded by Cabral, started from Portugal for the

East. In place of following the usual route and hugging the west coast

of Africa, Cabral went off so far to the westward that one day in April,

1500, he was amazed to see land. It proved to be what is now Brazil, and

after sailing along a little way he sent one of his vessels home to

Portugal with the news.

[Illustration: %DISCOVERY% ON THE EAST COAST OF %AMERICA%]

He did this because six years before, in June, 1494, Spain and Portugal

made a treaty and agreed that a meridian should be drawn 370 leagues

west of the Cape Verde Islands and be known as "The Line of Demarcation"

All heathen lands discovered, no matter by whom, to the east of this

line, were to belong to Portugal; all to the west of it were to be the

property of Spain. Now, as the strange coast seemed to be east of the

line of demarcation, and therefore the property of Portugal, Cabral sent

word to the King that he might explore it.

Accordingly, in May, 1501, the King sent out three ships in charge of

Americus Vespucius. Vespucius sighted the coast somewhere about Cape St.

Roque, and, finding that it was east of the line of demarcation,

explored it southward as far as the mouth of the river La Plata. As he

was then west of the line, and off a coast which belonged to Spain, he

turned and sailed southeastward till he struck the island of South

Georgia, where the Antarctic cold and the fields of floating ice stopped

him and sent him back to Lisbon.

The results of this great voyage were many. In the first place, it

secured Brazil for Portugal. In the second place, it changed the

geographical ideas of the time. The great length of coast line explored

proved that the land was not a mere island, but that Vespucius had found

a new continent in the southern hemisphere,--off the coast of Asia, as

was then supposed. This for a time was called the "Fourth Part" of the

world,--the other three parts being Europe, Asia, and Africa. But in

1507 a German professor published a little book on geography, in which

he suggested that the new part of the world discovered by Americus, the

part which we call Brazil, should be called America.

As Columbus was not supposed to have discovered a new world, but merely

a new route to Asia, this suggestion seemed very proper, and soon the

word "America" began to appear on maps as the name of Brazil. After a

while it was applied to all South America, and finally to North

America also.

%7. The Pacific discovered; the Mexican Gulf Coast explored.%--A few

years after the publication of the little book which gave the New World

the name of America, a Spaniard named Balboa landed on the Isthmus of

Panama, crossed it (1513), and from the mountains looked down on an

endless expanse of blue water, which he called the South Sea, because

when he first saw it he was looking south.

Meantime another Spaniard, named Ponce de Leon (pon'tha da la-on'),

sailed with three ships from Porto Rico, in March, 1513, and on the 27th

of that month came in sight of the mainland. As the day was Easter

Sunday, which the Spaniards call Pascua (pas'-coo-ah) Florida, he called

the country Florida.

[Illustration: Map of 1515][1]

[Footnote 1: Showing what was then supposed to be the shape and position

of the newly discovered lands.]

Six years later (1519) Pineda (pe-na'-da) skirted the shores of the Gulf

from Florida to Mexico.

%8. Spaniards sail round the World.%--In the same year (1519) that

Pineda explored the Gulf coast, a Portuguese named Magellan (ma-jel'-an)

led a Spanish fleet across the Atlantic. He coasted along South America

to Tierra del Fuego, entered the strait which now bears his name, passed

well up the western coast, and turning westward sailed toward India. He

was then on the ocean which Balboa had discovered and named the South

Sea. But Magellan found it so much smoother than the Atlantic that he

called it the Pacific. Five ships and 254 men left Spain; but only one

ship and fifteen men returned to Spain by way of India and Cape of Good

Hope. Magellan himself was among the dead.[1]

[Footnote 1: Magellan was killed by the natives of one of the Philippine

Islands. The captain of the ship which made the voyage was greatly

honored. The King of Spain ennobled him, and on his coat of arms was a

globe representing the earth, and on it the motto "You first sailed

round me."]

%9. Importance of Magellan's Voyage.%--Of all the voyages ever made

by man this was the greatest.[2] In the first place, it proved beyond

dispute that the earth is round. In the second place, it proved that

South America is a great continent, and that there is no short southwest

passage to India.

[Footnote 2: By all means read the account of this voyage by Fiske, in

his _Discovery of America_, Vol. II., pp. 190-211.]

%10. Search for a Northwest Passage; our North Atlantic Coast

explored.%--All eyes, therefore, turned northward; the quest for a

northwest passage began, and in that quest the Atlantic coast of the

United States was examined most thoroughly.

SUMMARY

1. Towards the close of the fifteenth century the Turks cut off the old

route of trade between Asia and Europe.

2. In attempting to find a new way to Asia, the Portuguese then began to

explore the west coast of Africa.

3. When at last they got well down the African coast it was thought that

such a route was too long.

4. Columbus (1492) then attempted to find a shorter way to Asia by

sailing westward across the Atlantic Ocean, and landed on some islands

which he supposed to be the East Indies.

5. The explorations of men who followed Columbus proved that a new

continent had been discovered and that it blocked the way to India.

6. The attempts to find a southwest passage or a northwest passage

through our continent led to the exploration of the Atlantic and

Pacific coasts.

7. The new world was called America, after the explorer Americus.

8. The voyage of Magellan proved that the earth is round.

CHAPTER II

THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES

%11. The Spaniards explore the Southwest.%--Now it must be noticed

that up to 1513 no European had explored the interior of either North or

South America. They had merely touched the shores. In 1513 the work of

exploration began. Balboa then crossed the Isthmus of Panama. In 1519

Cortes (cor'-tez) landed on the coast of Mexico with a body of men, and

marched boldly into the heart of the country to the city where lived the

great Indian chief or king, Montezuma. Cortes took the city and made

himself master of Mexico. This was most important; for the conquest of

Mexico turned the attention of the Spaniards from our country for many

years, and finally led to the exploration of the Southwest. But the

first explorers of what is now the United States came from Cuba in 1528.

[Illustration: Map of 1530, Sloane MS.[1]]

[Footnote 1: Notice that the two continents begin to take shape, and

that as the result of Magellan's voyage is not generally known, North

America is placed very near to Java.]

In that year Narvaez (nar-vah-eth), excited by Pineda's accounts of the

Mississippi Indians and their golden ornaments, set forth with 400 men

to conquer the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico. At Apalachee Bay he

landed, and made a raid inland. On returning to the shore, he missed his

ships, and after traveling westward on foot for a month, built five rude

vessels, and once more put to sea. For six weeks the little fleet hugged

the shore, till it came to the mouth of the Mississippi, where two of

the boats were upset and Narvaez was drowned. The rest reached the coast

of Texas in safety. But famine and the tomahawk soon reduced the number

of the survivors to four. These were captured by bands of wandering

Indians, were carried over eastern Texas and western Louisiana, till,

after many strange adventures and vicissitudes, they met beyond the

Sabine River.[1] Protected by the fame they had won for sorcery, and led

by one Cabeza de Vaca, they now wandered westward to the Rio Grande[2]

(ree'-o grahn'-da) and on by Chihuahua (chee-wah'-wah) and Sonora to the

Gulf of California, and by this to Culiacan, a town near the west coast

of Mexico, which they reached in 1536. They had crossed the continent.

[Footnote 1: Now the western boundary of Louisiana.]

[Footnote 2: Rio Grande del Norte---Great River of the North.]

%12. "The Seven Cities of Cibola."%--The story these men told of the

strange country through which they had passed, aroused a strong desire

in the Spaniards to explore it, for somewhere in that direction they

believed were the Seven Cities. According to an ancient legend, when the

Arabs invaded the Spanish peninsula, a bishop of Lisbon with many

followers fled to a group of islands in the Sea of Darkness, and on them

founded seven cities. As one of the Indian tribes had preserved a story

of Seven Caves in which their ancestors had once lived, the credulous

and romantic Spaniards easily confounded the two legends. Firmly

believing that the seven cities must exist in the north country

traversed by Vaca, Mendoza, the Spanish governor of Mexico, selected

Fray Marcos, a monk of great ability, and sent him forth with a few

followers to search for them. Directed by the Indians through whose

villages he passed, he came at last in sight of the seven Zuñi

(zoo'-nyee) pueblos (pweb'-loz) of New Mexico, all of which were

inhabited in his time. But he came no nearer than just within sight of

them. For one of the party, who went on in advance, having been killed

by the Zuñi, Fray Marcos hurried back to Culiacan. Understanding the

name of the city he had seen to be Cibola (see'-bo-la), he called the

pueblos the "Seven Cities of Cibola," and against them the next year

(1540) Coronado marched with 1100 men. Finding the pueblos were not the

rich cities for which he sought, Coronado pushed on eastward, and for

two years wandered to and fro over the plains and mountains of the West,

crossing the state of Kansas twice.[1]

[Footnote 1: Do not fail to read a delightful little book called _The

Spanish Pioneers_, by Charles F. Lummis. In it the story of these great

journeys is told on pp. 77-88, 101-143.]

[Illustration: The kind of cities found by Marcos and Coronado in the

Rio Grande valley.]

[Illustration: CORONADO'S EXPEDITION 1540]

%13. The Spaniards on the Mississippi.%--In 1537 De Soto was

appointed governor of Cuba, with instructions to conquer and hold all

the country discovered by Narvaez. On this mission he set out in May,

1539, and landed at Tampa Bay, on the west coast of our state of

Florida. He wandered over the swamps and marshes, the moss-grown

jungles, and the forests of the Gulf states, and spent the winter of

1541 near the Yazoo River. Crossing the Mississippi in the spring of

1542 at the Chickasaw Bluffs, he wandered about eastern Arkansas, till

he died of fever, and was buried in the Mississippi. His followers then

built rude boats, floated down the river to the Gulf, steered along the

coast of Texas, and in September, 1543, reached Tampico, in Mexico.

More than half a century had now gone by since the first voyage of

Columbus. Yet not a settlement, great or small, had been established by

Spain within our boundary. Between 1546 and 1561 missionaries twice

attempted to found missions and convert the Indians in Florida, and

twice were driven away. In 1582 others entered the valleys of the Gila

and the Rio Grande, took possession of the pueblos, established

missions, preached the Gospel to the Indians, and brought them under

the dominion of Spain. But when Santa Fé (sahn'-tah fa') was founded, in

1582, the only colony of Spain in the United States, besides the

missions in Arizona and New Mexico, was St. Augustine in Florida.

[Illustration: A Spanish mission]

%14. St. Augustine.%--St. Augustine was founded by the Spaniards in

order to keep out the French, who made two attempts to occupy the south

Atlantic coast. The first was that of John Ribault (ree-bo'). He led a

colony of Frenchmen, in 1562, to what is now South Carolina, built a

small fort on a spot which he called Port Royal, and left it in charge

of thirty men while he went back to France for more colonists. The men

were a shiftless set, depended on the Indians till the Indians would

feed them no longer, and when famine set in, they mutinied, slew their

commander, built a crazy ship and went to sea, where an English vessel

found them in a starving condition, and took them to London.

In 1564 a second party, under Laudonnière (lo-do-ne-ar'), landed at the

St. Johns River in Florida, and built a fort called Fort Caroline in

honor of Charles IX. of France. But the King of Spain, hearing that the

French were trespassing, sent an expedition under Menendez

(ma-nen'-deth), who founded St. Augustine in 1565. There Ribault, who

had returned and joined Laudonnière, attempted to attack the Spaniards.

But a hurricane scattered his ships, and while it was still raging,

Menendez fell suddenly on Fort Caroline and massacred men, women, and

children. A few days later, falling in with Ribault and his men, who had

been driven ashore south of St. Augustine, Menendez massacred 150

more.[1] For this foul deed a Frenchman named Gourgues (goorg) exacted a

fearful penalty. With three small ships and 200 men, he sailed to the

St. Johns River, took and destroyed the fort which the Spaniards had

built on the site of Fort Caroline, and put to death every human being

within it.

[Footnote 1: The story of the French in Florida is finely told in

Parkman's _Pioneers of France in the New World_; also J. Sparks's _Life

of Ribault_; Baird's _Huguenot Emigration_.]

[Illustration: Gateway at St. Augustine[2]]

[Footnote 2: Remaining from the Spanish occupation of Florida.]

SUMMARY

1. From 1492 to 1513 the Europeans who came to America explored the

coasts of North and South America, but did not go inland.

2. In 1513 exploration of the interior of the two continents began.

Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, 1513, and Cortes conquered

Mexico, 1519-21.

3. In 1528 Narvaez made the first serious attempt to enter the

Mississippi valley. He died, and some of his followers, under Cabeza de

Vaca, crossed the continent.

4. When the Spanish governor of Mexico heard their story, he sent Fray

Marcos to find the "Seven Cities of Cibola"; and began the exploration

of the southwestern part of the United States.

5. In 1539-1541 De Soto and his band explored the southeastern part of

the United States from Florida to the Mississippi River.

6. By 1582 two Spanish settlements had been made in the United States

--St. Augustine, 1565, and Santa Fé, 1582.

EUROPE FINDS AMERICA.

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATIONS, 1492-1600.

ATLANTIC COAST.

1492. Columbus. Islands off the coast.

1493. Columbus. Islands off the coast.

1497. John Cabot. North America. Labrador.

1498. John and Sebastian Cabot. Labrador to Cape Cod.

Pinzon and Solis. Florida to Chesapeake Bay.

1500. Cabral. Discovers Brazil.

1501. Vespucius. Explores Brazilian coast.

1500-1502. Cortereals. Explore coast North America.

1513. Ponce de Leon. Discovers and names Florida.

GULF COAST.

1498. Pinzon and Solis. Explore Gulf of Mexico and

coast of Florida.

1519. Pineda. Sails from Florida to Mexico.

1528. Narvaez. Florida to Texas.

1543. Followers of De Soto sail from Mississippi River

to Mexico.

THE INTERIOR.

1519-21. Cortes. Conquers Mexico.

1534-36. De Vaca. From the Sabine River to the Gulf

of California.

1539. Fray Marcos. Search for the Seven Cities. Wanders

over New Mexico.

1540-42. Coronado, Gila River, Rio Grande, Colorado

River.

1539-41. De Soto. Wanders over Florida, Georgia, and

Alabama, and reaches the Mississippi River.

1582-1600. Spaniards in the valleys of the Gila and Rio

Grande.

PACIFIC COAST.

1513. Balboa. Discovers the Pacific Ocean.

1520. Magellan. Sails around South America into the

Pacific.

1578-1580. Drake. Sails around South America and

up the Pacific coast to Oregon. (See p. 26.)

CHAPTER III

ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND SWEDES ON THE SEABOARD

%15. The English Claim to the Seaboard.%--After the Spaniards had

thus explored the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and what is now Arizona,

New Mexico, and Texas, the English attempted to take possession of the

Atlantic coast. The voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot in 1497 and 1498

were not followed up in the same way that Spain followed up those of

Columbus, and for nearly eighty years the flag of England was not

displayed in any of our waters.[1] At last, in 1576, Sir Martin

Frobisher set out to find a northwest passage to Asia. Of course he

failed; but in that and two later voyages he cruised about the shores of

our continent and gave his name to Frobisher's Bay.[2] Next came Sir

Francis Drake, the greatest seaman of his age. He left England in 1577,

crossed the Atlantic, sailed down the South American coast, passed

through the Strait of Magellan, and turning northward coasted along

South America, Mexico, and California, in search of a northeast passage

to the Atlantic. When he had gone as far north as Oregon the weather

grew so cold that his men began to murmur, and putting his ship about,

he sailed southward along our Pacific coast in search of a harbor, which

in June, 1579, he found near the present city of San Francisco. There he

landed, and putting up a post nailed to it a brass plate on which was

the name of Queen Elizabeth, and took possession of the country.[3]

Despairing of finding a short passage to England, Drake finally crossed

the Pacific and reached home by way of the Cape of Good Hope. He had

sailed around the globe.[4]

[Footnote 1: For Cabot's voyages read Fiske's _Discovery of America_,

Vol. II., pp. 2-15.]

[Footnote 2: See map of 1515.]

[Footnote 3: The white cliffs reminded Drake strongly of the cliffs of

Dover, and as one of the old names of England was Albion (the country of

the white cliffs), he called the land New Albion.]

[Footnote 4: For Drake read E.T. Payne's _Voyages of Elizabethan

Seamen_.]

%16. Gilbert and Ralegh attempt to found a Colony.%--While Drake was

making his voyage, another gallant seaman, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, was

given (by Queen Elizabeth) any new land he might discover in America.

His first attempt (1579) was a failure, and while on his way home from a

landing on Newfoundland (1583), his ship, with all on board, went down

in a storm at sea. The next year (1584) his half-brother, Sir Walter

Ralegh, one of the most accomplished men of his day and a great favorite

with Queen Elizabeth, obtained permission from the Queen to make a

settlement on any part of the coast of America not already occupied by a

Christian power; and he at once sent out an expedition. The explorers

landed on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now North Carolina,

and came home with such a glowing description of the "good land" they

had found that the Virgin Queen called it "Virginia," in honor of

herself, and Ralegh determined to colonize it.[1]

[Footnote 1: For Ralegh read E. Gosse's _Raleigh_ (in English Worthies

Series); Louise Creighton's _Sir W. Ralegh_ (Historical

Biographies Series).]

%17. Roanoke Colony; the Potato and Tobacco.%--In 1585, accordingly,

108 emigrants under Ralph Lane left England and began to build a town on

Roanoke Island. They were ill suited for this kind of pioneer life, and

were soon in such distress that, had not Sir Francis Drake in one of his

voyages happened to touch at Roanoke, they would have starved to death.

Drake, seeing their helplessness, carried them home to England. Yet

their life on the island was not without results, for they took back

with them the potato, and some dried tobacco leaves which the Indians

had taught them to smoke.

Ralegh, of course, was greatly disappointed to see his colonists again

in England. But he was not discouraged, and in 1587 sent forth a second

band. The first had consisted entirely of men. The second band was

composed of both men and women with their families, for it seemed likely

that if the men took their wives and children along they would be more

likely to remain than if they went alone. John White was the leader, and

with a charter and instructions to build the city of Ralegh somewhere on

the shores of Chesapeake Bay he set off with his colonists and landed on

Roanoke Island. Here a little granddaughter was born (August 18, 1587),

and named Virginia. She was the child of Eleanor Dare, and was the first

child born of English parents in America.

[Illustration: Roanoke Island and vicinity]

Governor White soon found it necessary to go back to England for

supplies, and, in consequence of the Spanish war, three years slipped by

before he was able to return to the colony. He was then too late. Every

soul had perished, and to this day nobody knows how or where. Ralegh

could do no more, and in 1589 made over all his rights to a joint-stock

company of merchants. This company did nothing, and the sixteenth

century came to an end with no English colony in America.[1]

[Footnote 1: Doyle's _English Colonies in America_, Virginia, pp. 56-74;

Bancroft's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 60-79;

Hildreth's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 80-87.]

%18. Gosnold in New England.%--With the new century came better

fortune. Ralegh's noble efforts to plant a colony aroused Englishmen to

the possibility of founding a great empire in the New World, and

especially one named Bartholomew Gosnold.

Instead of following the old route to America by way of the Canary

Islands, the West Indies, and Florida, he sailed due west across the

Atlantic,[2] and brought up on the shore of a cape which he named Cape

Cod.[3] Following the shore southward, he passed through Nantucket Sound

and Vineyard Sound, till he came to Cuttyhunk Island, at the entrance of

Buzzards Bay. On this he landed, and built a house for the use of

colonists he intended to leave there. But when he had filled his ship

with sassafras roots and cedar logs, nobody would remain, and the whole

company went back to England.[4]

[Footnote 2: By thus shortening the journey 3000 miles, he practically

brought America 3000 miles nearer to Europe.]

[Footnote 3: Because the waters thereabout abounded in codfish. For a

comparison of Gosnold's route with those of the other early explorers

see the map on p. 15.]

[Footnote 4: Bancroft's _United States_, Vol. I., pp. 70-83. Hildreth's

_United States,_ Vol. I., p. 90.]

%19. The Two Virginia Companies.%--As a result of this voyage,

Gosnold was more eager than ever to plant a colony in Virginia, and this

enthusiasm he communicated so fully to others that, in 1606, King James

I. created two companies to settle in Virginia, which was then the name

for all the territory from what is now Maine to Florida.

1. Each company was to own a block of land 100 miles square; that is,

100 miles along the coast,--50 miles each way from its first

settlement,--and 100 miles into the interior.

2. The First Company, a band of London merchants, might establish its

first settlement anywhere between 34° and 41° north latitude.

3. The Second Company, a band of Plymouth merchants, might establish its

first settlement anywhere between 38° and 45°.

4. These settlements were to be on the seacoast.

5. In order to prevent the blocks from overlapping, it was provided that

the company which was last to settle should locate at least 100 miles

from the other company's settlement.[1]

[Footnote 1: Over the affairs of each company presided a council

appointed by the King, with power to choose its own president, fill

vacancies among its own members, and elect a council of thirteen to

reside on the company's lands in America. Each company might coin money,

raise a revenue by taxing foreign vessels trading at its ports, punish

crime, and make laws which, if bad, could be set aside by the King. All

property was to be owned in common, and all the products of the soil

deposited in a public magazine from which the needs of the settlers were

to be supplied. The surplus was to be sold for the good of the company.

The charter is given in full in Poore's _Charters and Constitutions_,

pp. 1888-1893.]

%20. The Jamestown Colony.%--Thus empowered, the two companies made

all haste to gather funds, collect stores and settlers, and fit out

ships. The London Company was the first to get ready, and on the 19th of

December, 1606, 143 colonists set sail in three ships for America with

their charter, and a list of the council sealed up in a strong box. The

Plymouth Company soon followed, and before the year 1607 was far

advanced, two settlements were planted in our country: the one at

Jamestown, in Virginia, the other near the mouth of the Kennebec, in

Maine. The latter, however, was abandoned the following year (see

Chapter IV).

The three ships which carried the Virginia colony reached the coast in

the spring of 1607, and entering Chesapeake Bay sailed up a river which

the colonists called the James, in honor of the King. When about thirty

miles from its mouth, a landing was made on a little peninsula, where a

settlement was begun and named Jamestown.[1] It was the month of May,

and as the weather was warm, the colonists did not build houses, but,

inside of some rude fortifications, put up shelters of sails and

branches to serve till huts could be built. But their food gave out, the

Indians were hostile, and before September half of the party had died of

fever. Had it not been for the energy and courage of John Smith, every

one of them would have perished. He practically assumed command, set the

men to building huts, persuaded the Indians to give them food, explored

the bays and rivers of Virginia, and for two dreary years held the

colony together. When we consider the worthless men he had to deal with,

and the hardships and difficulties that beset him, his work is

wonderful. The history which he wrote, however, is not to be trusted.[2]

[Footnote 1: Nothing now remains of Jamestown but the ruined tower of

the church shown in the picture. Much of the land on which the town

stood has been washed away by the river, so that its site is now

an island.]

[Footnote 2: Read the _Life and Writings of Captain John Smith_, by

Charles Dudley Warner; also John Fiske in _Atlantic Monthly_, December,

1895; Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 31-38. Smith's _True

Relation_ is printed in _American History Leaflets_, No. 27, and

_Library of American Literature_ Vol. I.]

[Illustration: All that is left of Jamestown]

Bad as matters were, they became worse when a little fleet arrived with

many new settlers, making the whole number about 500. The newcomers were

a worthless set picked up in the streets of London or taken from the

jails, and utterly unfit to become the founders of a state in the

wilderness of the New World. Out of such material Smith in time might

have made something, but he was forced by a wound to return to England,

and the colony went rapidly to ruin. Sickness and famine did their work

so quickly that after six months there were but sixty of the 500 men

alive. Then two small ships, under Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George

Somers, arrived at Jamestown with more settlers; but all decided to

flee, and had actually sailed a few miles down the James, when, June 8,

1610, they met Lord Delaware with three ships full of men and supplies

coming up the river. Delaware came out as governor under a new charter

granted in 1609.[1]

[Footnote 1: Read "The Jamestown Experiments," in Eggleston's _Beginners

of a Nation,_ pp. 25-72.]

[Illustration: Vicinity of Jamestown]

%21. The Virginia Charter of 1609% made a great change in the

boundary of the company's property. By the 1606 charter the colony was

limited to 100 miles along the seaboard and 100 miles west from the

coast. In 1609 the company was given an immense domain reaching 400

miles along the coast,--200 miles each way from Old Point

Comfort,--and extending "up into the land throughout _from sea to sea_,

west and northwest." This description is very important, for it was

afterwards claimed by Virginia to mean a grant of land of the shape

shown on the map.[1]

[Footnote 1: Read Hinsdale's _Old Northwest_, pp. 74, 75.]

[Illustration]

%22. The First Representative Assembly in America.%--Under the new

charter and new governors Virginia began to thrive. More work and less

grumbling were done, and a few wise reforms were introduced. One

governor, however, Argall, ruled the colony so badly that the people

turned against him and sent such reports to England that immigration

almost ceased. The company, in consequence, removed Argall, and gave

Virginia a better form of government. In future, the governor's power

was to be limited, and the people were to have a share in the making of

laws and the management of affairs. As the colonists, now numbering 4000

men, were living in eleven settlements, or "boroughs," it was ordered

that each borough should elect two men to sit in a legislature to be

called the House of Burgesses. This house, the first representative

assembly ever held by white men in America, met on July 30, 1619, in the

church at Jamestown, and there began "government of the people, by the

people, for the people."

%23. The Establishment of Slavery in America.%--It is interesting to

note that at the very time the men of Virginia thus planted free

representative government in America, another institution was planted

beside it, which, in the course of two hundred and fifty years, almost

destroyed free government. The Burgesses met in July, and a few weeks

later, on an August day, a Dutch ship entered the James and before it

sailed away sold twenty negroes into slavery. The slaves increased in

numbers (there were 2000 in Virginia in 1671), and slavery spread to the

other colonies as they were started, till, in time, it existed in every

one of them.

%24. Virginia loses her Charter, 1624.%--The establishment of popular

government in Virginia was looked on by King James as a direct affront,

and was one of many weighty reasons why he decided to destroy the

company. To do this, he accused it of mismanagement, brought a suit

against it, and in 1624 his judges declared the charter annulled, and

Virginia became a royal colony.[1]

[Footnote 1: On the Virginia colony in general read Doyle's volume on

_Virginia_, pp. 104-184; Lodge's _English Colonies in America_, pp.

1-12; of course, Bancroft and Hildreth. For particular epochs or events

consult Channing and Hart's _Guide to American History_, pp. 248-253.]

%25. Maryland begun.%--A year later James died, and Charles I. came

to the throne. As Virginia was now a royal colony, the land belonged to

the King; and as he was at liberty to do what he pleased with it, he cut

off a piece and gave it to Lord Baltimore. George Calvert, Lord

Baltimore, was a Roman Catholic nobleman who for years past had been

interested in the colonization of America, and had tried to plant a

colony in Newfoundland. The severity of the climate caused failure, and

in 1629 he turned his attention to Virginia and visited Jamestown. But

religious feeling ran as high there as it did anywhere. The colonists

were intolerantly Protestant, and Baltimore was ordered back to England.

Undeterred by such treatment, Baltimore was more determined than ever to

plant a colony, and in 1632 obtained his grant of a piece of Virginia.

The tract lay between the Potomac River and the fortieth degree of north

latitude, and extended from the Atlantic Ocean to a north and south

line through the source of the Potomac.[1] It was called Maryland in

honor of the Queen, Henrietta Maria.

[Footnote 1: It thus included what is now Delaware, and pieces of

Pennsylvania and West Virginia.]

[Illustration: ORIGINAL BOUNDARY OF MARYLAND]

The area of the colony was not large; but the authority of Lord

Baltimore over it was almost boundless. He was to bring to the King each

year, in token of homage, two Indian arrowheads, and pay as rent one

fifth of all the gold and silver mined. This done, the "lord

proprietary," as he was called, was to all intents and purposes a king.

He might coin money, make war and peace, grant titles of nobility,

establish courts, appoint judges, and pardon criminals; but he was not

permitted to tax his people without their consent. He must summon the

freemen to assist him in making the laws; but when made, they need not

be sent to the King for approval, but went into force as soon as the

lord proprietary signed them. Of course they must not be contrary to the

laws of England.

%26. Treatment of Catholics.%--The deed for Maryland had not been

issued when Lord Baltimore died. It was therefore made out in the name

of his son, Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, who, like the

first, was a Roman Catholic, and was influenced in his attempts at

colonization by a desire to found a refuge for people of his own faith.

At that time in England no Roman Catholic was permitted to educate his

children in a foreign land, or to employ a schoolmaster of his religious

belief; or keep a weapon; or have Catholic books in his house; or sit in

Parliament; or when he died be buried in a parish churchyard. If he did

not attend the parish church, he was fined £20 a month. But it is

needless to mention the ways in which he suffered for his religion. It

is enough to know that the persecution was bitter, and that the purpose

of Lord Baltimore was to make Maryland a Roman Catholic colony. Yet he

set a noble example to other founders of colonies by freely granting to

all sects full freedom of conscience. As long as the Catholics remained

in control, toleration worked well. But in the year 1691 Lord Baltimore

was deprived of his colony because he had supported King James II., and

in 1692 sharp laws were made in Maryland against Catholics by the

Protestants. In 1716 the colony was restored to the proprietor.

The first settlement was made in 1634 at St. Marys. Annapolis was

founded about 1683; and Baltimore in 1729.[1]

[Footnote 1: Read Scharf's _History of Maryland_; Doyle's _Virginia_;

Lodge's _English Colonies_; Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation,_.]

%27. The Dutch on the Hudson.%--Meantime great things had been

happening to the northward. In 1609 Henry Hudson, an English sailor in

the service of Holland, was sent to find a northwest passage to India.

He reached our coast not far from Portland, Maine, and abandoning all

idea of finding a passage, he sailed alongshore to the southward as far

as Cape Cod. Here he put to sea, and when he again sighted land was off

Delaware Bay. In attempting to sail up it, his ship, the _Half-Moon,_

grounded, and Hudson turned about. Running along the Jersey coast, he

entered New York Bay, and sailed up the river which the Dutch called

the North River, but which we know as the Hudson. Hudson's voyage gave

the Dutch a claim to all the country drained by the Delaware or South

River and the Hudson River, and some Dutch traders at once sent out

vessels, and were soon trading actively with the Indians. By 1614 a rude

fort had been erected near the site of Albany, and some trading huts had

been put up on Manhattan Island. These ventures proved so profitable

that numbers of merchants began to engage in the trade, whereupon those

already in it, in order to shut out others, organized a company, and in

1615 obtained a trading charter for three years from the States General

of Holland, and carried on their operations from Albany to the

Delaware River.

[Illustration: View of New Amsterdam in 1656]

%28. Dutch West India Company.%--On the expiration of the charter (in

1618) it was not renewed, but a new corporation, the Dutch West India

Company (1621), was created with almost absolute political and

commercial power over all the Dutch domains in North America, which were

called New Netherland. In 1623 the company began to send out settlers.

Some went to Albany, or, as they called it, Fort Orange. Others were

sent to the South or Delaware River, where a trading post, Fort Nassau,

was built on the site of Gloucester in New Jersey. A few went to the

Connecticut River; some settled on Long Island; and others on Manhattan

Island, where they founded New Amsterdam, now called New York city.

All these little settlements were merely fur-trading posts. Nobody was

engaged as yet in farming. To encourage this, the company (in 1629) took

another step, and offered a great tract of land, on any navigable river

or bay, to anybody who would establish a colony of fifty persons above

the age of fifteen. If on a river, the domain was to be sixteen miles

along one bank or eight miles along each bank, and run back into the

country as far "as the situation of the occupiers will admit." The

proprietor of the land was to be called a "patroon," [1] and was absolute

ruler of whatever colonies he might plant, for he was at once owner,

ruler, and judge. It may well be supposed that such a tempting offer did

not go a-begging, and a number of patroons were soon settled along the

Hudson and on the banks of the Delaware (1631), where they founded a

town near Lewes. The settlements on the Delaware River were short-lived.

The settlers quarreled with the Indians, who in revenge massacred them

and drove off the garrison at Fort Nassau; whereupon the patroons sold

their rights to the Dutch West India Company.[2]

[Footnote 1: The patroon bound himself to (1) transport the fifty

settlers to New Netherland at his own expense; (2) provide each of them

with a farm stocked with horses, cattle, and farming implements, and

charge a low rent; (3) employ a schoolmaster and a minister of the

Gospel. In return for this the emigrant bound himself (1) to stay and

cultivate the land of the patroon for ten years; (2) to bring his grain

to the patroon's mill and pay for grinding; (3) to use no cloth not made

in Holland; (4) to sell no grain or produce till the patroon had been

given a chance to buy it.]

[Footnote 2: Lodge's _English Colonies_, pp. 295-311; Winsor's

_Narrative and Critical History_, Vol. III., pp. 385-411; Bancroft's

_History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 501-508.]

%29. The Struggle for the Delaware; the Swedes on the Delaware.%--And

now began a bitter contest for the ownership of the country bordering

the Delaware. A few leading officials of the Dutch Company, disgusted at

the way its affairs were managed, formed a new company under the lead of

William Usselinx. As they could not get a charter from Holland, for she

would not create a rival to the Dutch Company, they sought and obtained

one from Sweden as the South Company, and (1638) sent out a colony to

settle on the Delaware River.[1] The spot chosen was on the site of

Wilmington. The country was named New Sweden, though it belonged to

Maryland. The Dutch West India Company protested and rebuilt Fort

Nassau. The Swedes, in retaliation, went farther up the river and

fortified an island near the mouth of the Schuylkill. Had they stopped

here, all would have gone well. But, made bold by the inaction of the

Dutch, they began to annoy the New Netherlanders, till (1655) Peter

Stuyvesant, the governor of New Netherland, unable to stand it any

longer, came over from New Amsterdam with a few hundred men, overawed

the Swedes, and annexed their territory west of the Delaware. New Sweden

then became part of New Netherland.[2]

[Footnote 1: Sweden had no right to make such a settlement. She had no

claim to any territory in North America.]

[Footnote 2: Lodge's _English Colonies_, pp. 205-210; Bancroft's

_History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 509, 510; Hildreth's

_History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 413-442.]

SUMMARY

1. After the discovery of the North American coast by the Cabots,

England made no attempt to settle it for nearly eighty years; and even

then the colonies planted by Gilbert and Ralegh were failures.

2. Successful settlement by the English began under the London Company

in 1607.

3. In 1609 the London Company obtained a grant of land from sea to sea,

and extending 400 miles along the Atlantic; but in 1624 its charter was

annulled, and in 1632 the King carved the proprietary colony of Maryland

out of Virginia.

4. Meantime Henry Hudson, in the employ of the Dutch, discovered the

Delaware and Hudson rivers (1609), and the Dutch, ignoring the claims of

England, planted colonies on these rivers and called the country New

Netherland.

5. Then a Swedish company began to colonize the Delaware Bay and River

coast of Virginia, which they called New Sweden.

6. Conflicts between the Dutch and the Swedes followed, and in 1655 New

Sweden was made a part of New Netherland.

CHAPTER IV

THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND

%30. The Beginnings of New England.%--When the Dutch put up their

trading posts where New York and Albany now stand, all the country east

of New York, all of what is now New England, was a wilderness. As early

as 1607 an attempt was made to settle it and a colony was planted on the

coast of Maine by two members of the Plymouth Company, Sir John Popham,

Lord Chief Justice of England, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, governor of

Plymouth. But the colonists were half starved and frozen, and in the

spring of 1608 gladly went home to England.

Six years later John Smith, the hero of Virginia, explored and mapped

the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod. He called the country New

England; one of the rivers, the Charles; and two of the promontories,

Cape Elizabeth and Cape Ann. Three times he attempted to lead out a

colony; but that work was reserved for other men.

%31. The Separatists.%--The reign of Queen Elizabeth had witnessed in

England the rise of a religious sect which insisted that certain changes

should be made in the government and ceremonials of the Established or

State Church of England. This they called purifying the Church, and in

consequence they were themselves called Puritans.[1] At first they did

not intend to form a new sect; but in 1580 one of their ministers, named

Robert Brown, urged them to separate from the Church of England, and

soon gathered about him a great number of followers, who were called

Separatists or Brownists. They boldly asserted their right to worship as

they pleased, and put their doctrines into practice. So hot a

persecution followed, that in 1608 a party, led by William Brewster and

John Robinson, fled from Scrooby, a little village in northern England,

to Amsterdam, in Holland; but soon went on to Leyden, where they dwelt

eleven years.[2]

[Footnote 1: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 50-71. The

teacher may read "Rise and Development of Puritanism" in Eggleston's

_Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 98-140.]

[Footnote 2: Read Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 141-157;

Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 71-80; Doyle's _Puritan

Colonies_, Vol. I., pp. 47-81; Palfrey's _New England_, Vol. I.,

pp. 176-232.]

%32. Why the Separatists went to New England%.--They had come to

Holland as an organized community, practicing English manners and

customs. For a temporary residence this would do. But if they and their

children's children after them were to remain and prosper, they must

break up their organization, forget their native land, their native

speech, their national traditions, and to all intents and purposes

become Dutch. This they could not bring themselves to do, and by 1617

they had fully determined to remove to some land where they might still

continue to be Englishmen, and where they might lay the foundations of a

Christian state. But one such land could then be found, and that was

America. To America, therefore, they turned their attention, and after

innumerable delays formed a company and obtained leave from the London

Company to settle on the coast of what is now New Jersey.[1]

[Footnote 1: Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 159-176.]

This done, Brewster and Bradford and Miles Standish, with a little band,

sent out as an advance guard, set sail from the Dutch port of Delft

Haven in July, 1620, in the ship _Speedwell_. The first run was to

Southampton, England, where some friends from London joined them in the

_Mayflower_, and whence, August 5, they sailed for America. But the

_Speedwell_ proved so unseaworthy that the two ships put back to

Plymouth, where twenty people gave up the voyage. September 6, 1620,

such as remained steadfast, just 102 in number, reëmbarked on the

_Mayflower_ and began the most memorable of voyages. The weather was so

foul, and the wind and sea so boisterous, that nine weeks passed before

they beheld the sandy shores of Cape Cod. Having no right to settle

there, as the cape lay far to the northward of the lands owned by the

London Company, they turned their ship southward and attempted to go on.

But head winds drove them back and forced them to seek shelter in

Provincetown harbor, at the end of Cape Cod.

[Illustration: The Mayflower[1]]

[Footnote 1: From the model in the National Museum, Washington.]

[Illustration: THE MASSACHUSETTS COAST (map)]

%33. The Mayflower Compact%.--Since it was then the 11th of November,

the Pilgrims, as they are now called, decided to get permission from

the Plymouth Company to remain permanently. But certain members of the

party, when they heard this, became unruly, and declared that as they

were not to land in Virginia, they were no longer bound by the contracts

they had made in England regarding their emigration to Virginia. To put

an end to this, a meeting was held, November 21, 1620, in the cabin of

the _Mayflower_, and a compact was drawn up and signed.[1] It declared

1. That they were loyal subjects of the King.

2. That they had undertaken to found a colony in the northern parts of

Virginia, and now bound themselves to form a "civil body politic."

3. That they would frame such just and equal laws, from time to time, as

might be for the general good.

4. And to these laws they promised "all due submission and obedience."

[Footnote 1: The compact is in Poore's _Charters and Constitutions_, p.

931, and in Preston's _Documents Illustrative of American History_, pp.

29-31. Read, by all means, Webster's _Plymouth Oration_.]

[Illustration: Plymouth Rock]

%34. The Founding of Plymouth%.--The selection of a site for their

home was now necessary, and five weeks were passed in exploring the

coast before Captain Standish with a boatload of men entered the harbor

which John Smith had noted on his map and named Plymouth. On the sandy

shore of that harbor, close to the water's edge, was a little granite

bowlder, and on this, according to tradition, the Pilgrims stepped as

they came ashore, December 21, 1620. To this harbor the _Mayflower_ was

brought, and the work of founding Plymouth was begun. The winter was a

dreadful one, and before spring fifty-one of the colonists had died.[1]

But the Pilgrims stood fast, and in 1621 obtained a grant of land[2]

from the Council for New England, which had just succeeded the Plymouth

Company, under a charter giving it control between latitudes 40° and

48°, from sea to sea.[3] It was from the same Council that for fifteen

years to come all other settlers in New England obtained their rights

to the soil.

[Footnote 1: In the trying times which followed, William Bradford was

chosen governor and many times reëlected. He wrote the so-called "Log of

the Mayflower,"--really a manuscript _History of the Plymouth

Plantation_ from 1602 to 1647,--a fragment of which is reproduced on the

opposite page.]

[Footnote 2: This grant had no boundary. Each settler might have 100

acres. Fifteen hundred acres were set aside for public buildings.]

[Footnote 3: Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 80-87; Palfrey's

_New England_, Vol. I, pp. 176-232; Thatcher's _History of the Town of

Plymouth_.]

[Illustration: Fragment of _History of the Plymouth Plantation_.]

%35. A Puritan Colony proposed.%--Among those who obtained such

rights was a company of Dorchester merchants who planted a town on Cape

Ann. The enterprise failed, and the colonists went off and settled at a

place they called Naumkeag. But there was one man in Dorchester who was

not discouraged by failure. He was John White, a Puritan rector. What

had been done by the Separatists in a small way might be done, it seemed

to White, on a great scale by an association of wealthy and influential

Puritans. The matter was discussed by them in London, and in 1628 an

association was formed, and a tract of land was bought from the Council

for New England.

%36. The "Sea to Sea" Grant%.--Concerning the interior of our

continent absolutely nothing was known. Nobody supposed it was more than

half as wide as it really is. The grant to the association, therefore,

stretched from three miles north of the Merrimac River to three miles

south of the Charles River, along these rivers to their sources, and

then westward across the continent from sea to sea.[1]

[Footnote 1: You will notice that when this grant was made in 1628 the

Dutch had discovered the Hudson, and had begun to settle Albany. To this

region (the Hudson and Mohawk valleys) the English had no just claim.]

As soon as the grant was obtained, John Endicott came out with a company

of sixty persons, and took up his abode at Naumkeag, which, being an

Indian and therefore a pagan name, he changed to Salem, the Hebrew word

for "peace."

%37. The Massachusetts Charter, 1629%.--The next step was to obtain

the right of self-government, which was secured by a royal charter

creating a corporation known as the Governor and Company of

Massachusetts Bay in New England. Over the affairs of the company were

to preside a governor, deputy governor, and a council of eighteen to be

elected annually by the members of the company.[2]

[Footnote 2: The charter is printed in Poore's _Charters and

Constitutions_, pp. 932-942, and in Preston's _Documents_, pp. 36-61.]

Six ships were now fitted out, and in them 406 men, women, and children,

with 140 head of cattle, set sail for Massachusetts. They reached Salem

in safety and made it the largest colony in New England.

%38. Why the Puritans came to New England.%--It was in 1625 that

Charles I. ascended the throne of England. Under him the quarrel with

the Puritans grew worse each year. He violated his promises, he

collected illegal taxes, he quartered troops on the people, he threw

those into prison who would not contribute to his forced loans, or

pressed them into the army or the navy. His Archbishop Laud persecuted

the Puritans with shameful cruelty.

Little wonder then that in 1629 twelve leading Puritans met in

consultation and agreed to head a great migration to the New World,

provided the charter and the government of the Massachusetts Bay Company

were both removed to New England. This was agreed to, and in April,

1630, John Winthrop sailed with nearly one thousand Puritans for Salem.

From Salem he moved to Charlestown, and later in the year (1630) to a

little three-hilled peninsula, which the English called Tri-mountain or

Tremont. There a town was founded and called Boston.

The departure of Winthrop was the signal, and before the year 1630

ended, seventeen ships, bringing fifteen hundred Puritans, reached

Massachusetts. The newcomers settled Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury,

Dorchester, Watertown, and Newtown (now Cambridge). New England was

planted.[1]

[Footnote 1: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 75-105.

Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 188-219.]

%39. New Hampshire and Maine.%--When it became apparent that the

Plymouth colony was permanently settled, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, whose

interest in New England had never lagged, together with John Mason

obtained (1622) from the Council for New England a grant of Laconia, as

they called the territory between the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers,

and from the Atlantic "to the great river of Canada." Seven years later

(1629) they divided their property. Mason, taking the territory between

the Merrimac and Piscataqua rivers, called it New Hampshire because he

was Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire in England. Gorges took the region

between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec, and called it Maine. After the

death of Mason (1635) his colony was neglected and from 1641 to 1679 was

annexed to Massachusetts. The King separated them in 1679, joined them

again in 1688, and finally parted them in 1691, making New Hampshire a

royal colony.

Gorges took better care of his part and (in 1639) was given a charter

with the title of Lord Proprietor of the Province or County of Maine,

which extended, as before, from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec, and

backward 120 miles from the ocean. But after his death the province fell

into neglect, and the towns were gradually absorbed by Massachusetts,

which, in 1677, bought the claims of the heir of Gorges for £1250 and

governed Maine as lord proprietor under the Gorges charter.

%40. Church and State in Massachusetts.%--Down to the moment of their

arrival in America the Puritans had not been Separatists. They were

still members of the Church of England who desired to see her form of

worship purified. But the party under Endicott had no sooner reached

Salem than they seceded, and the first Congregational Church in New

England was founded.

Some in Salem were not prepared for so radical a step, and attempted to

establish a church on the episcopal model; but Endicott promptly sent

two of the leaders back to England. Thus were established two facts: 1.

The separation or secession of the Colonial Church from that of England.

2. That the episcopal form of worship would not be tolerated in

the colony.

In 1631 another step was taken which united church and state, for it was

then ordered that "no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this body

politic, but such as are members of some of the churches within the

limits of the same."

This was intolerance of the grossest kind, and soon became the cause of

troubles which led to the founding of Rhode Island and Connecticut.

%41. The Planting of Rhode Island.%--There came to Salem (from

Plymouth), in 1633, a young minister named Roger Williams. He dissented

heartily from the intolerance of the people of Massachusetts, and,

though a minister of the Salem church, insisted

1. On the separation of church and state.

2. On the toleration of all religious beliefs.

3. On the repeal of all laws requiring attendance on religious worship.

To us, in this century, the justice of each of these principles is

self-evident. But in the seventeenth century there was no country in the

world where it was safe to declare them. For doing so in some parts of

Europe, a man would most certainly have been burned at the stake. For

doing so in England, he would have been put in the pillory, or had his

ears cut off, or been sent to jail. That Williams's teachings should

seem rank heresy in New England was quite natural. But, to make matters

worse, he wrote a pamphlet in which he boldly stated

1. That the soil belonged to the Indians.

2. That the settlers could obtain a valid title only by purchase from

the Indians.

3. That accepting a deed for the land from a mere intruder like the King

of England was a sin requiring public repentance.

In the opinion of the people of New England such doctrine could not fail

to bring down on Massachusetts the wrath of the King. When, therefore, a

little later, Endicott cut the red cross of St. George out of the colors

of the Salem militia, the people considered his act a defiance of royal

authority, attributed it to the teachings of Williams, and proceeded to

punish both. Endicott was rebuked by the General Court (or legislature)

and forbidden to hold office for a year. Williams was ordered to go

back to England. But he fled to the woods, and made his way through the

snow to the wigwam of the Indian chief, Massasoit, on Narragansett Bay,

and there in the summer of 1636 he founded Providence. About the same

time another teacher of what was then thought heresy, Anne Hutchinson,

was driven from Massachusetts, and with some of her followers went

southward and founded Portsmouth and Newport, on the island of Rhode

Island. For a while each of these settlements was independent, but in

1643 Williams went to London and secured a patent from Parliament which

united them under the name of "The Incorporation of Providence

Plantations on the Narragansett Bay in New England."

%42. Connecticut begun.%--In the same year that Roger Williams began

his settlement at Providence, several hundred people from the towns near

Boston went off and settled in the Connecticut valley. For a long time

past there had been growing up in Massachusetts a strong feeling that

the law that none but church members should vote or hold office was

oppressive. This feeling became so strong that in 1635 some hardy

pioneers from Dorchester pushed through the wilderness and settled at

Windsor. A party from Watertown went further and settled Wethersfield.

These were small movements. But in 1636 the Newtown congregation, led by

its pastor, Thomas Hooker, walked to the Connecticut valley and founded

Hartford. The congregations of the Dorchester and Watertown churches

soon followed, while a party from Roxbury settled at Springfield. During

three years these four towns were part of Massachusetts. But in 1639,

Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield adopted a constitution and formed a

little republic which in time was called Connecticut. Their "Fundamental

Orders of Connecticut" was the first written constitution made in

America. Their republic was the first in the history of the world to be

founded by a written constitution, and marks the beginning of democratic

government in our country.

%43. The New Haven Colony.%--Just at the time these things were

happening in the Connecticut valley, the beginnings of another little

republic were made on the shores of Long Island Sound. One day in the

summer of 1637 there came to Boston a company of rich London merchants

under the lead of an eloquent preacher named John Davenport. The people

of Boston would gladly have kept the newcomers at that town. But the

strangers desired to found a state of their own, and so, after spending

some months in seeking for a spot with a good harbor, they left Boston

in 1638 and founded New Haven. In 1639 Milford and Guilford were laid

out, and Stamford was started in 1640. Three years later these four

towns joined in a sort of federal union and took the name of the New

Haven colony.[1]

[Footnote 1: Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 134-137.]

[Illustration: NEW ENGLAND AND NEW NETHERLAND]

%44. "The United Colonies of New England."%--There were now five

colonies in New England; namely, Plymouth, or the "Old Colony,"

Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Haven.

Geographically, they were near each other. But each was weak in numbers,

and if left without the aid of its neighbors, might easily have fallen

a prey to some enemy. Of this the settlers were well aware, and in 1643

four of the colonies, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New

Haven[1] united for defense against the Indians and the Dutch, who

claimed the Connecticut valley and so threatened the English colonies

on the west.

[Footnote 1: Rhode Island was not allowed to come in, for the feeling

against the followers of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson was still

very strong.]

The name of this league was "The United Colonies of New England," and it

was the first attempt in America at federal government. All its affairs

were managed by a board of eight commissioners,--two from each

colony,--who must be church members. They had no power to lay taxes or

to meddle with the internal concerns of the colonies, but they had

entire control over all dealings with Indians or with foreign powers.

%45. The Year 1643.%--The year 1643 is thus an important one in

colonial history. It was in that year that the New Haven colony was

founded; that the league of The United Colonies of New England was

formed; and that Roger Williams obtained the first charter of

Rhode Island.

%46. New Charters.%--During the next twenty years no changes took

place in the boundaries of the colonies. This was the period of the

Civil War in England, of the Commonwealth, of the rule of Cromwell and

the Puritans; and affairs in New England were left to take care of

themselves. But in 1660 Charles II. was restored to the throne of

England, and a new era opens in colonial history. In 1661 the little

colony of Connecticut promptly acknowledged the restoration of Charles

II. and applied for a charter. The application was more than granted;

for to Connecticut (1662) was given not only a charter and an immense

tract of land, but also the colony of New Haven.[1] The land grant was

comprised in a strip that stretched across the continent from Rhode

Island to the Pacific and was as wide as the present state.[2] In 1663

Rhode Island was given a new charter.

[Footnote 1: In 1660, after the restoration of Charles II., Edward

Whalley and William Goffe (the regicides, "king-killers," as they were

called), two of the judges who had condemned Charles I. to be beheaded,

fled to New Haven and were protected by the people. This act had much to

do with the annexation of New Haven to Connecticut.]

[Footnote 2: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 192-196. Many

of the New Haven colonists were disgusted by the union of their colony

with Connecticut, and in June, 1667, migrated to New Jersey, where they

founded "New-Ark" or Newark.]

In 1684 the King's judges declared the Massachusetts charter void, and

James II. was about to make New England one royal colony, when the

English people drove him from the throne. William and Mary in 1691

granted a new charter and united the Plymouth colony, Massachusetts,

Maine, and Nova Scotia, in one colony called Massachusetts Bay. This

charter was in force when the Revolution opened.

SUMMARY

1. The first colony established by the Plymouth Company (1607, on the

coast of Maine) was a failure.

2. Captain John Smith explored the New England coast and mapped it

(1613), but did not succeed in planting any colonies.

3. The permanent settlement of New England began with the arrival of a

body of Separatists in the _Mayflower_ (1620), who founded the colony

of Plymouth.

4. The Separatist migration from England was followed in a few years by

a great exodus of Puritans, who planted towns along the coast to the

north of Plymouth, and obtained a charter of government and a great

strip of land, and founded the colony of Massachusetts Bay.

5. Religious disputes drove Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson out of

Massachusetts, and led to the founding of Rhode Island (1636).

6. Other church wrangles led to an emigration from Massachusetts to the

Connecticut valley, where a little confederacy of towns was created and

called Connecticut.

7. Some settlers from England went to Long Island Sound and there

founded four towns which, in their turn, joined in a federal union

called the New Haven Colony.

8. In time, New Haven was joined to Connecticut, and Plymouth and Maine

to Massachusetts; New Hampshire was made a royal colony; and the four

New England colonies--Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and

Connecticut--were definitely established.

9. The territory of Massachusetts and Connecticut stretched across the

continent to the "South Sea," or Pacific Ocean.