continued their song and daunce a reasonable time. When they had
satisfied themselves they made signes to our Generall to sit downe, to
whom the King and divers others made several orations, or rather
supplications, that hee would take their province and kingdome into his
own hand and become their King, making signes that they would resigne
unto him their right and title of the whole land and become his
subjects. In which to perswade us the better the King and the rest with
one consent and with great reverence, singing a song, did set the crowne
upon his head, inriched his necke with all their chains and offered unto
him many other things, honouring him by the name of Hioh, adding
thereunto as it seemed, a signe of triumph: which thing our Generall
thought not meete to reject, because he knew not what honour and profit
it might be to our Countrey. Wherefore in the name, and to the use of
her Majestie he took the scepter, crowne, and dignitie of the said
Countrey into his hands, wishing that the riches & treasure thereof
might so conveniently be transported to the inriching of her kingdom at
home, as it aboundeth in ye same.”
After these ceremonies the general and his company marched up into the
country and visited the villages of the natives. They found the land
fair and abounding particularly in deer, of which great herds, a
thousand in a herd, they reckoned, were seen. The houses in the villages
were circular in form. They were “digged about with earth,” and had
“from the uttermost brimmes of the circle clefts of wood set upon their
joyning close together at the top like a spire steeple.” The beds herein
were of rushes strewn upon the ground. The men were almost entirely
without apparel, while the women wore a single garment woven of
bulrushes with a deer-skin on their shoulders.
Of the resources of the region scant report was given beyond this
significant statement, which was left to be verified for nearly three
centuries: “There is no part of earth heere to bee taken up wherein
there is not some probable shew of gold or silver.”
Just before his departure Drake nailed upon a “faire great poste” a
plate “whereupon were engraven her Majesties name, the day, and yeere of
our arrivall there, with the free giving up of the province and people
into her Majesties hands, together with her highnesses picture and
armes, in a peace of sixe pence of current English money under [beneath]
the plate, whereunder was also written the name of our Generall.” And to
this record the chronicler adds, to clinch the English claim, “It
seemeth that the Spaniards hitherto had never bene in this part of the
Countrey, neither did ever discover the land by many degrees to the
Southwards of this place.”
While in the “New Albion” port the “Golden Hind” was careened and
refitted, so that she finally sailed on the next stage of her voyage in
excellent condition. The port was left on the twenty-third of July, the
kind natives, who parted with the Englishmen most reluctantly, keeping
up fires on the hills as the ship ploughed her way, now westward,
perforce with a northwest wind, into the trackless sea.
The next day the Farallones, directly west of San Francisco Bay, were
passed, Drake calling them the “Islands of St. James.” After these
islands were lost to view they sailed without sight of land for more
than two months, or sixty-eight days, when they fell in with “certain
islands 8 degrees Northward of the line,” supposed to have been the
Pellew Islands. Only a brief stay was made here, and the natives were
found so untrustworthy that Drake disgustedly named the group the
“Islands of Thieves.” In October they were among the Philippines, and
watered off Mindanao. Thence pursuing their way southward, in November
they had come to the “Spice Islands.”
At Tenate, where they first anchored, they spent three weeks, the while
receiving flattering attentions from the native king, with great show of
barbaric splendour. Drake began the exchange of courtesies the morning
after his arrival by sending a messenger to the king bearing a velvet
cloak as a present to him and also as a token that the Englishmen were
here in peace, requiring nothing but traffic. The king responded
graciously, and sending Drake a signet, he offered himself and his
kingdom to the service of the queen of England. Afterward he made a
formal call at the ship. Preceding him there came four great canoes
bringing out his men of state and their retinues. The dignitaries were
all attired in “white lawne of cloth of Calicut,” and sat in the order
of their rank beneath an awning of thin perfumed mats on a frame of
reeds. With those in each canoe were “divers young and comely men,” also
dressed in white. Guarding them were lines of soldiers, standing, on
either side. Without the soldiers were the rowers, sitting in galleries,
four score in each gallery, of which there were three rising one above
the other and extending out from the canoe’s sides three or four yards.
All of the canoes were armed, and most of their passengers carried their
weapons, the dignitaries or their young attendants each with sword,
target, and dagger, the soldiers bearing lances, calivers, darts, and
bows and arrows. Reaching the ship the canoes were rowed around her in
order one after another, while the dignitaries “did their homage with
great solemnity.” The king followed, accompanied by six “grave and
ancient persons,” all of whom “did their obeisance with marveilous
humilitie.” The king seemed most delighted with the music of the ship’s
band.
The next day a deputation composed of several of the gentlemen in the
ship’s company, the vice-king being retained aboard as hostage, received
a great entertainment ashore. They were conducted with great honour to
the “castle,” where, the chronicler avers, were at least a thousand
persons assembled. Sixty “grave personages,” said to be the king’s
council, sat in seats of honour. Presently the king entered, walking
beneath a rich canopy and guarded by twelve “launces.” He was
sumptuously attired in a garment of cloth of gold depending from his
waist to the ground. His legs were bare, but on his feet were shoes of
cordovan skin. His head was topped with finely wreathed hooped rings of
gold. About his neck was a gold chain in great links. On his fingers
were six jewels. He took his chair of state, and a page standing at his
right began “breathing and gathering the ayre” with a gorgeous fan, “in
length two foote, and in breadth one foote, set with 8 saphyres, richly
imbroidered, and knit to a staffe 3 foote in length.” At the conclusion
of their entertainment Drake’s men were escorted back to their ship by
one of the king’s council.
From Ternate, with an abundance of cloves added to their rich cargo,
they sailed to the southward of Celebes, and anchored off a small
uninhabited island, where they remained twenty-six days refreshing
themselves, and meanwhile graving the ship (cleaning the ship’s bottom).
Again underway, after sighting Celebes, by contrary winds they became
entangled among islands and barely escaped wreck on a rock. They escaped
only by lighting the ship of three tons of their precious cloves and
several pieces of ordnance, and the sudden coming of a “happy gale”
which blew them off. In February they fell in with the fruitful island
of “Barateve” (Batjan), where they rested three days enjoying the
hospitality of the friendly people and repairing the ship. Thence their
course was set for Java major. Here they arrived in March, and also met
much courtesy from the natives, with “honourable entertainment” by the
rajahs then governing the island. From Java they steered for the Cape of
Good Hope. This they passed in June. They found it not at all the
dangerous cape that the Portuguese had reported, but a “most stately
thing,” and the finest cape they had seen in all their travels. A month
later they were at Sierra Leone. Here they stopped long enough to take
in fresh provisions. Then setting sail for the last time, they finally
arrived at their home port in England on the third of November, 1580,
after an absence of three years.
Their arrival with their astonishing freight of riches in gold, silver,
pearls, precious stones, silks, spices, and with their amazing tales of
adventure, was a momentous event. All England was stirred by the story
of the marvellous voyage. At first men of affairs were chary and avoided
a recognition of Drake’s achievements, knowing that they must lead to
complications with Spain. The queen withheld her approbation while an
official inquiry into his conduct was proceeding. In the meantime some
critics in high places raised a clamour against him, and termed him the
“Master Thief of the Unknown World.” But, with the increasing tension in
the relations between the two nations, sentiment changed. On the fourth
of April, 1581, five months after his return, the queen visited him in
state on the “Golden Hind,” now at Deptford, and at the close of a
banquet on the deck of the famous ship, she formally knighted him for
his services, and conferred upon him a coat of arms and a crest. At the
same time she gave directions for the preservation of the “Golden Hind,”
as a monument to his own and England’s glory. So this ship remained for
more than a century. Then, having fallen into decay, she was broken up,
and from remnants of her frame a chair was made which found a permanent
place in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
Drake made no more voyages of discovery. His subsequent exploits on the
sea were all for the harassment of Spain. In 1585 he was admiral, with
Martin Frobisher vice-admiral, as we have seen, of a fleet sent to
intercept the Spanish galleons from the West Indies, and to “revenge the
wrongs” offered England by Spain. In 1587 he sailed a fleet to Lisbon
and there burned many ships, which he termed “singeing the King of
Spain’s beard.” In 1588 he was the resourceful vice-admiral of the great
fleet against the Spanish Armada. In 1589 he commanded the fleet sent to
restore Dom Antonio to the throne of Portugal. Lastly, he was with his
old leader, Sir John Hawkins, again in the West Indies and on the
Spanish Main.
And here, in 1595, he died, on board his own ship, near Nombre de Dios,
the object of his first assault in his first voyage of reprisal, a
quarter of a century before.
XVIII
GILBERT’S VOYAGES
Less than a fortnight after the departure of Martin Frobisher on his
third and last Northwestern voyage, in May, 1578, Humphrey Gilbert had
obtained the letters-patent which he had long coveted from Queen
Elizabeth for the “inhabiting and planting of our people in America”;
and before the summer was far advanced he had organized an expedition of
his own with these objects.
This pioneer charter providing definitely for English colonization in
America bore date of eleventh of June 1578, and was limited to six
years. The full text is given in the _Principal Navigations_. It
conferred upon Sir Humphrey, his heirs and assigns, large powers, and
provided the machinery necessary for the government of a colony. It gave
him and them free liberty and license to “discover, finde, search out,
and view such remote, heathen and barbarous countreys and territories
not actually possessed by any Christian prince or people,” and to have,
hold, occupy, and enjoy such regions with all their “commodities,
jurisdictions, and royalties both by sea and land,” the single condition
being that one-fifth part of the gold and silver ore that might be
obtained be paid over to the queen. They were empowered to “encounter,
expulse, repell, and resist as well by Sea as by land” all persons
attempting to inhabit without their special license in or within two
hundred leagues of the places occupied by them. They were to have a
monopoly of the commerce of such places, no vessels being permitted to
enter their harbours for traffic except by their license. The rights of
Englishmen were promised to all people who might become members of the
colony.
Associated with Sir Humphrey in his enterprise under this charter were
“many gentlemen of good estimation,” while his right hand in all the
work of preparation was his notable half-brother, Walter Raleigh. By
autumn was assured the assemblage of a “puissant fleet able to encounter
a king’s power by sea.” There were eleven sail in all in readiness, and
a volunteer company of four hundred men, gentlemen, men-at-arms, and
sailors, collected for the venture. In the mean time, however, the
enterprise had been diverted from its apparent original object to a
secret assault upon the West Indies, with possibly an after attempt at
colonization on the southern coast of North America, while the
preparations had been hampered by divided councils and dissensions among
the captains. The breaches in the organization had the more serious
effect, for when the time for sailing had come the greater number of the
intended voyagers had dispersed, and Sir Humphrey was left with only a
few assured friends. Nevertheless, with his fleet reduced to seven ships
and his company to one hundred and fifty men, he set off from the Devon
coast, as agreed, on the twenty-first of September. But the ships had
barely got to sea when they were driven back to port by hard weather. A
second start was made on the eighteenth of November. Of the course and
of the details of this voyage nothing satisfactory is recorded; and the
fragmentary accounts are contradictory. All that appears to be clearly
known is that, after an absence of several months, the fleet in part
returned to Plymouth, Gilbert arriving first, and Raleigh with his ship
last, in May, 1579; and that there had been encounters at sea with the
Spaniards in which one of the chief vessels was lost, and also one of
the leaders in the expedition, Miles Morgan, “a valiant gentleman.”
In this venture Sir Humphrey had so heavily invested that his personal
estate was impaired. But its failure so little disheartened him that he
at once began planning another one, this one directly for colonization.
Meanwhile, in the summer immediately following his return he served with
his ships on the Irish coast. After a year or two, still being without
means to perfect his scheme, he gave assignments from his patent to
sundry persons desiring the privilege of his grant to plant in the north
parts of America “about the river of Canada,” his hope being that their
success would further his scheme which was then to colonize southward.
Time, however, went on without anything being done by his assigns, and
the six years’ limit of his charter was nearing. Consequently if the
patent were to be kept in force action was imperative.
At this juncture (in 1583) he was successful in effecting a new
organization. Raleigh was again in close hand with him; but the chief
adventurer was Sir George Peckham, who had been an associate with Sir
Richard Grenville and others in support of a second petition of
Gilbert’s to the queen in 1574, for a charter to discover “riche and
unknowen landes.” A good deal of time was spent by the projectors in
debating the best course to adopt,—whether to begin the intended
discovery of a fit place to colonize from the south northward or from
the north southward. Finally it was decided that the voyagers should
take the north course and follow as directly as they might the “trade
way unto Newfoundland,” whence, after their “refreshing and reparation
of wants,” they should proceed southward, “not omitting any river or bay
which in all that large tract of land” appeared to their view worthy of
search.
This programme arranged, five ships were assembled and made ready for
the voyage. These were the “Delight, alias the George,” of one hundred
and twenty tons, the “Bark Raleigh,” two hundred tons, the “Golden
Hind,” forty tons, the “Swallow,” forty tons, and the “Squirrel,” ten
tons. The “Delight” was designated “admiral” of the fleet to carry Sir
Humphrey as general. The “Raleigh,” the largest vessel in the squadron,
was to be “vice-admiral,” and the “Golden Hind” "rear admiral." The
“Raleigh” had been built and manned at the expense of Raleigh, but he
did not personally join the expedition, the queen refusing to give her
permission for him to go out with it. The company brought together
numbered in all two hundred and sixty men of all sorts and condition.
Among them were shipwrights, masons, carpenters, smiths; a “mineral man”
and refiner; gentlemen, adventurers, and sea-rovers. For entertainment
of the company and for allurement of the savages who might be met,
“musick in good variety,” and toys, as “Morris dancers, Hobby horses,
and Mayfair conceits,” were provided. Also a stock of petty haberdashery
wares was put in to barter with “those simple people.”
The account of this voyage which Hakluyt gives was the official one,
prepared by Edward Hayes, the captain, and also owner of the “Golden
Hind,” which alone of the fleet completed it and returned to Plymouth
with its tragic story. His narrative appears in the _Principal
Navigations_ under this much-embracing title: “A Report of the Voyage
and successe thereof, attempted in the yeere of our Lord 1583 by Sir
Humfrey Gilbert knight, with other gentlemen assisting him in that
action, intended to discover and to plant Christian inhabitants in place
convenient, upon those large and ample countreys extended Northward from
the Cape of Florida, lying under very temperate Climes esteemed fertile
and rich in Minerals, yet not in actual possession of any Christian
prince, written by M. Edward Haie gentleman, and principall actour in
the same voyage, who alone continued unto the end, and by Gods speciall
assistance returned safe and sound.” To Captain Hayes we are also
indebted for some particulars of Sir Humphrey’s efforts that culminated
in his first abortive voyage of 1578–1579, which are detailed by way of
preface to his story of this voyage.
The start was auspiciously made from Plymouth harbour on the eleventh of
June, 1583, Gilbert wearing on his breast the queen’s gift of an
emblematical jewel,—a pearl-tipped golden anchor guarded by a
woman,—sent him on the eve of the departure as a token of her good
wishes for his venture. But when only the third night out, with a
prosperous wind, consternation was occasioned by the desertion of the
“Raleigh.” Earlier in the evening she had signified that her captain and
many of her men had fallen sick; then later, with no further
communication, she put about on a homeward course. Although after his
return from the voyage Captain Hayes heard it “credibly reported” that
her men were really affected with a contagious sickness, and that she
arrived back at Plymouth greatly distressed, he could not accept this as
sufficiently accounting for her act. The real reason he “could never
understand.” Therefore he left it “to God.”
With this desertion of the “Raleigh” Captain Hayes’s “Golden Hind”
succeeded to the place of vice-admiral, and accordingly her flag was
shifted from the mizzen to the foretop. Thus the remaining ships sailed
till the twenty-sixth of July when the “Swallow” and the “Squirrel” were
lost in a fog. The “Delight” and the “Golden Hind,” now alone, four days
later sighted the Newfoundland coast,—seven weeks from the time that the
fleet had left the coast of England.
The two ships continued along the east coast to Conception Bay, where
the “Swallow” was met again. After her disappearance in the fog she had
engaged in piratical performances on the sea. An especially mean act had
been the despoiling of a fishing bark and leaving her sailless to make
her homeward voyage, some seven hundred leagues away. The “Swallow’s”
crew were hilarious over their exploits, and many of them appeared in
motley garb made up of the clothing filched from the despoiled
fishermen. Her captain, an “honest and religious man,” was held
blameless in this business. He had had put upon him men “not to his
humour or desert”: a crew of pirates, whom he evidently could not
control. Later, the same day, the now three ships had come before the
harbour of St. John’s, and here the “Squirrel” was found. She was lying
at anchor off the harbour mouth, entrance having been forbidden her by
the “English merchants” of St. John’s, who, as the elected “admirals,”
represented the Newfoundland fishing fleets of different nationalities,
of which thirty-six sail happened then to be inside this harbour.
Sir Humphrey prepared to enter by force if necessary, “any resistance to
the contrary notwithstanding.” But when he had shown his commission to
the “admirals,” and explained that he was here to take possession of the
lands in behalf of the crown of England and “the advancement of the
Christian religion in those Paganish regions,” and that all he required
was their “lawful aid” in refreshing and provisioning his fleet, he was
cordially received, and all the great guns of the fishermen belched
forth salutes of welcome.
A landing was made on the next morning, Sunday, the fourth of August.
The general and his company were that day courteously escorted about the
place by the English merchants. They were shown their hosts’ accustomed
walks in a part called by them “The Garden.” This was found to be a
product of “Nature it selfe without art,” comprising a pleasant tangle
of wild roses, “odoriferous and to the sense very comfortable,” and
“raspis berries” in great plenty. The next day the ceremony of taking
possession was performed, which the narrator thus describes in faithful
detail:
"Monday following, the Generall had his tent set up, who being
accompanied with his own followers summoned the marchants and masters
[of the fishing barks in the harbours] both English and strangers to be
present at his taking possession of those Countries. Before whom openly
was read & interpreted unto the strangers his Commission: by vertue
whereof he tooke possession in the same harbour of S. John, and 200
leagues every way, invested the Queens Majestie with the title and
dignitie thereof, had delivered unto him (after the custome of England)
a rod & a turffe of the same soile, entring possession also for him, his
heires, and assigns for ever: And signified unto al men, that from that
time forward, they should take the same land as a territorie
appertaineing to the Queene of England, and himselfe authorised under
her Majestie to possesse and enjoy it. And to ordaine lawes for the
government thereof, agreeable (so neere as conveniently might be) unto
the lawes of England: under which all people comming thither hereafter,
either to inhabit, or by way of traffique, should be subjected and
governed.
"And especially at the same time for a beginning, he proposed &
delivered three lawes to be in force immediately. That is to say: the
first for Religion, which in publique exercise should be according to
the Church of England. The 2. for maintenance of her Majesties right and
possession of those territories, against which if any thing were
attempted prejudiciall the parties offending should be adjudged and
executed as in case of high treason, according to the lawes of England.
The 3. if any person should utter words sounding to the dishonour of her
Majestie, he should loose his eares, and have his ship and goods
confiscate.
“These contents published, obedience was promised by generall voyce and
consent of the multitude aswell of Englishmen as strangers, praying for
continuance of this possession and government begun. After this, the
assembly was dismissed. And afterward were erected not farre from that
place the Armes of England ingraven in lead, and infixed upon a pillar
of wood.”
The next step was to grant in fee farms, or parcels of land, lying by
the waterside on this and neighbouring harbours, the grantees
covenanting to pay a certain rent and service to Sir Humphrey, his heirs
and assigns, and yearly to maintain possession by themselves or their
assigns. Thus the grantees were assured of grounds convenient to dress
and dry their fish, which had not previously been enjoyed, the first
comers into these harbours in the fishing season taking possession of
the available places.