Samuel Argall is said to have achieved lasting fame as one of
England's maritime pioneers by establishing a shorter route to
Virginia from England in 1609, although Batholomew Gosnold took that
route in 1602, and Martin Pring did so in 1603. The usual course led
by way of the Canaries to the Island of Puerto Rico in the West
Indies, the route of Columbus, a long, circuitous pathway exposed to
pirates and interference from Spain. Argall made the round trip by the
shorter route in five months. However, the shorter route did not
supplant entirely the longer southern route for several decades.
Argall accompanied Lord De La Warr to Virginia in 1610, to point out
the northern route. While in Virginia, he was sent with Sir George
Somers to Bermuda with two pinnaces to get a supply of hogs and other
provisions for the colony. In a storm, Argall lost sight of Sir
George's pinnace and failed to locate Bermuda; so he changed his
course toward the north and went to Sagadahoc and Cape Cod where he
procured a large cargo of fish, which he brought to Jamestown. Sir
George Somers reached Bermuda, but died there on November 9, 1610.
Argall was then sent by Lord De La Warr to the river Patawomeke to
trade with the Indians for corn, where he rescued the English boy,
Henry Spelman, who had been living with the Indians. Through Spelman's
influence, the Indians "fraughted his ship with corn."
Soon after June 28, 1613, Argall sailed from Virginia on his "fishing
voyage" in a well-armoured English man-of-war. His object was the
French colony of Jesuits at Mt. Desert, now in Maine, but at that time
within the bounds of Virginia. He attacked the buildings and returned
with the priests late in July. He was sent back by Gates to destroy
the buildings and fortifications there and at St. Croix and Port
Royal. This was done and he arrived back at Jamestown, about the first
of December. On this voyage, he stopped at New Netherlands, on the
Hudson, and forced the colonists there to submit to the crown of
England.