In 1496 John Cabot, a merchant of Venice, but of English birth, under
the patronage of Henry VII., made a voyage of discovery, accompanied by
his son Sebastian, who became eminent as a bold, skilful navigator. They
sailed into Hudson’s Bay, exploring the shore line for some hundreds of
miles, and returned. This was really the first discovery of America, and
some months before Columbus reached the main land. No important results
followed immediately.
Two years later Sebastian Cabot sailed for the new continent in command
of a squadron of well manned vessels. The northwest passage to India was
doubtless the objective point of the voyage; but, failing in that, he
gained much valuable knowledge of the country.
The whole coast of New England, and of the Middle States, was now, for
the first time since the days of the Erricksons, traced by Europeans.
In 1498 a fruitless attempt was made to colonize the country he had
discovered. Some three hundred men were left on the coast of Labrador for
this purpose, many of whom perished, and all who survived were a year
after carried back to England.
For reasons that do not fully appear Cabot was during most of his active
life in the service of Spain, having been appointed chief pilot, and
honored beyond all others who then sailed the seas. When seventy years
old he again visited his native country; was received with much favor,
and remained some years the active patron of English enterprise.
Though for almost a century there was no actual possession of the lands
thus made known, Cabot’s work proved of inestimable importance to the
British crown. He traced the eastern coast of North America through more
than twenty degrees of latitude, and established the claim of England to
the best portion of the New World.
Others of like adventurous spirit followed in the work of discovery.
Frobisher, Drake, Gilbert and Grenville, all men of influence,
successively came to America, but failed to establish permanent
settlements. In a few months the colonists either returned in
disappointment or perished. The last voyage made by the English before
their permanent occupancy of the country was in 1605. George Waymouth,
under the patronage of the Earl of Southampton, came to anchor off the
coast of Maine. He explored the harbor, sailed some distance up the
river, and opened a profitable trade with the Indians, some of whom
learned to speak English, and accompanied Waymouth on his homeward
voyage. Efforts that continued at intervals through a century, though for
the most part barren of the immediate results that were sought, were not
altogether in vain, and they served to keep secure the partial knowledge
that had been gained, and to sustain the hopes that were often dashed
with disappointment.
In April, 1606, King James I. issued two patents, one to an association
of noble gentlemen and merchants, called the “London Company,” the other
to an association organized in the southwest part of England, called the
“Plymouth Company.” The grants were alike liberal, but only the London
Company succeeded under its charter, in planting an American colony.
The other company lost their first ship that was sent out, captured by
a Spanish man-of-war. The year following they sent out a company of one
hundred colonists, and began a settlement on the Kennebec river under
what seemed favorable circumstances. But the winter of 1607-’8 proved
very severe. Some were starved, some frozen, their storehouse burned, and
when summer came the survivors, as in other unfortunate attempts, escaped
to England.
The London Company’s fleet of three vessels, under command of Christopher
Newport, carried one hundred and five colonists, reached the American
coast in April, intending to land in the neighborhood of Roanoke Island,
but a storm carried them into the Chesapeake. Coasting along the southern
shore of the magnificent bay, they entered the mouth of a broad,
beautiful river that they called James, in honor of the King. Proceeding
up the river about fifty miles they founded Jamestown, the first English
settlement in America. This was more than a hundred years after the
discovery of the continent by Cabot, so long a time did it take for the
English to get any permanent possession of the country discovered. For
all these long years they seemed to reap nothing but loss and misfortune
from their enterprise. Not a single spot on the vast continent, now
mostly peopled by their children, was as yet the settled habitation
of an Englishman; while Spain and France had wonderful successes in
the first century of their career of conquest and colonization. But
their prosperity was not enduring. The invaders who treated the native
inhabitants with murderous cruelty, were in turn oppressed by the home
government, and, struggling for relief, plunged into the most deplorable
anarchy. By injustice, mismanagement and tyranny, Spain alienated her
once numerous dependencies. France too, whose subjects planted many
flourishing colonies, lost them, not because of her oppression, but from
want of ability to afford them sufficient protection.
England, the last to commence settling the western hemisphere, but
finally bringing to the task a spirit of progress and strength unknown to
her predecessors, has founded an empire mightier and more enduring than
any of its compeers; now lost indeed to her private aggrandizement, but
not to the honor of her name, or the best interest of mankind; an empire
already prosperous beyond all example in history, and destined, it is
probable, to yet unite under its genial protection every league of the
vast continent, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the
tropical forests of Darien to the eternal snows of the Arctic circle.[C]
Among the gentlemen in the colony on James river there were those of
better culture and higher position, but none equaled, in intrepid
courage, force of character and practical wisdom, Captain John Smith.
There were none who contributed so much to the success of the enterprise.
He had been, from his early life, an adventurer, inured to hardships, and
fearless in danger. He returned to England from the war with the Turks,
in which he became distinguished for prowess and valor, in time to join
the colonists, and was appointed by King James a member of the council.
As the appointments were, very unwisely, under seal, and made known only
after they reached their destination, there was no legitimate authority
during the voyage, and a state of almost anarchy prevailed. Though no one
of the number possessed a truer manhood, Smith was accused of plotting
the massacre of the council, and for a time deprived of his liberty, but
when tried, fully acquitted.
Many of the colonists being gentlemen unused to labor or hardships of
any kind, were sadly unfit for the difficult enterprise. Exposure and
want brought on malignant diseases. The fort, built for defense, was
filled with the sick, and in a few months half their number perished. Bad
management and dishonesty added to the calamities that were suffered. The
first two Governors were found guilty of embezzlement and of attempting
to desert in the company’s ship. The third had neither talents nor
courage, and gave up the office, for which he was incompetent. In their
distress Smith was chosen Governor, and did much to avert the calamities
which all, at length, saw impending. Unable, at first, to induce the
colonists to labor, or to seek the needed supplies by cultivating the
soil, he obtained corn and other provisions from the Indians by trading,
making some quite extensive trips for the purpose, and, by his courage
and address, acquired great influence over the savages. In one of his
excursions up the Chickahominy three of his company were killed, and he,
after a terrible struggle, taken captive, and came near losing his life.
When condemned to die, bound and placed in position to be slain by the
war-club of a stalwart, painted savage, ready for the bloody tragedy,
the stern chief yielded to the entreaties of his favorite daughter,
Pocahontas, released his captive, and made a covenant of peace with
him. This was not only a most touching event, but of great historical
importance. The loss of their Governor at that critical juncture would
have taken away all hope of continuing the settlement at Jamestown. His
influence with the colonists was great, and greater with the natives of
the country. He seemed to them without fear, while the natural dignity,
kindness and manliness of his bearing awed and conciliated the most
hostile tribes. Soon after his departure from the colony a most trying
crisis came, and they were saved only by the timely arrival of men and
supplies from the mother country. Other Governors succeeded, some of whom
did wisely. The lands first held in common were divided, and the owners
required to cultivate them.
In 1619 a Dutch trader brought some negroes from Africa, which were sold
to the richer planters. Thus slavery began, and its blighting influence
was long felt both there and in the other colonies. It was at first
found profitable, and the population increased so rapidly that in less
than forty years from the date of the first charter the little band in
Virginia had grown to over twenty thousand.
In the meantime some settlements were made in Carolina by Virginians, and
also by Puritans from New England, without chartered rights, and with
alternations of success and disaster.
In 1663 liberal grants were issued by Charles II., and colonization
advanced more rapidly. But the colonial government, adopted not by the
people but by the proprietors, was a kind of landed aristocracy, that was
distasteful, and the arrogant demands of the ruling class were met with
rebellion.
An attempt was made at self-government, which succeeded so far as to
show that aristocratic institutions and customs were not suited to the
wilderness; and the famous constitution, framed with much labor by Lord
Shaftsbury and the justly celebrated Dr. Locke, was abandoned, as its
provisions were found oppressive and impracticable. The Indians, once
numerous in the Carolinas, for a time gave much trouble, but through
pestilence, wars and drunkenness their power was broken, and they rapidly
faded away.