Hoorn. doubled a cape, which he called Cape Hoorn. Crossing the 1616. Southern ocean, he proceeded to the East Indies, and thence to Holland. This was the sixth circumnavigation of the globe. Cape In this voyage Schouten took formal possession of several islands in the southern hemisphere, in the name of the States General.2 Richard Hakluyt, compiler of Voyages and Discoveries of the R. Hakluyt. English Nation, died, aged 61.3 1617. CAPTAIN ARGAL, arriving at Virginia as governor, found all State of Virginia. the public works and buildings in James Town fallen to decay; five or six private houses only, fit to be inhabited; the store house used for a church; the market place, streets, and all other spare places, planted with tobacco; the people of the colony dispersed, according to every man's convenience for planting; and their entire number reduced nearly to 400, not more than 200 of whom were fit for husbandry and tillage. Pocahontas, having accompanied her English husband, Mr. Death of Rolfe, to England, was taken sick at Gravesend, while waiting to Pocahonembark for Virginia, and died at the age of about 22 years.4 1 Spieghel der Australische Navigatie, Door Jacob le Maire. Alcedo, Art. MAIRA, Strait of, and HORN, Cape. Rees, Cyclopæd. Art. MAIRE. Monson, Naval Tracts, Churchill, Voy. iii. 403. Harris' Voy. i. 37-45. Anderson, ii. 268. One of the two ships was lost by fire. The other, on its arrival at Jacatra (now Batavia), was seized, together with the goods on board, by the president of the Dutch East India company; and Schouten and his men took passage home in one of that company's ships, completing their navigation in two years and eighteen days. In Bibliotheca Americ. [81] there is this title of a book: "Diarium vel Descriptio laboriosissimi et molestissimi Itineris facti, a Gulielmo Cornelii Schoutenio Hornano annis 1615, 1616, et 1617. Cum Fig. Quarto. Amst. 1619." Purchas [v. 1391.] says, "the Hollanders challenge the discovery of new straits by Mayre and Schouten before twice sailed about by Sir F. Drake;" but I have found no satisfactory evidence to set aside the Dutch claim, the justness of which is conceded by the best English historians. Rees says, Le Maire and Schouten were the first who ever entered the Pacific Ocean by the way of Cape Horn. To the Dutch account, in the first cited authority, printed in 1622, is prefixed a print of JACOB LE MAIRE, with this line on the top: 66 Obyt in reditu 14 Decembris Anni 1616. ætatis suæ 31;" and these lines at the bottom : "Qui freta lustravit Batavis incognita Nautis, 2 Chalmers, i. 595. See Harris' Voy. ii. 805. 3 Lempriere, Univ. Biog. Dict. Art. HAKLUYT. He was a native of Eyton, Herefordshire, and educated at Oxford. He had the living of Wetheringset, in Suffolk, and a prebend in Bristol cathedral, and afterwards at Westminster. A promontory on the coast of Greenland was called by his name by Hudson in 1608; and he deserves an honourable memorial in our own country, whose early history he has greatly illustrated. See A. d. 1606. 4 Smith, Virg. 123. Stith, 146. Beverly, 50. Keith, 129. Stith says of Pocahontas, that conformably to her life, she died "a most sincere and pious VOL I. 20 tas. 1617. Unsuccessful as repeated attempts had been, for settling New England, the hope of success was not abandoned. Captain John N. England. Smith was provided at Plymouth with three ships for a voyage to this country, where he was to remain with 15 men; but he was wind bound for three months; and lost the season. The ships went to Newfoundland; and the projected voyage was frustrated.1 Last voyage Sir Walter Raleigh, having been liberated from the tower, obtained a royal commission to settle Guiana. Several knights and gentlemen of quality furnished a number of ships, and accompanied him in the enterprise. They left Plymouth about the last of June, with a fleet of 14 sail, but were obliged, through stress of weather, to put in at Cork in Ireland. Arriving at Guiana on the 12th of November, they assaulted the New Spanish city of St. Thome, which they sacked, plundered, and burned. Having staid at the river Caliana until the 4th of December, Raleigh deputed captain Keymis to the service of the discovery of the mines, with five vessels, on board of which were five companies of 50 men each, who, after repeated skirmishes with the Spaniards, returned in February without success. Disappointed again in his sanguine expectations, he abandoned the enterprise, and sailed back to England. The hostile assault made on St. Thome, having given umbrage, king James had issued a proclamation against Raleigh, who, on his arrival, was again committed to the tower; and not long after was beheaded.2 66 Christian." Smith says: Lady Rebecca, alias Pocahontas, daughter to Powhatan, by the diligent care of Master John Rolfe her husband and his friends, was well instructed in Christianity ;-shee had also by him a childe which she loved most dearely, and the Treasurer and Company tooke order both for the maintenance of her and it." She left this son only, Thomas Rolfe; whose posterity is still numerous and respectable in Virginia, and inherit lands there by descent from her, though every other branch of the aboriginal imperial family has long been extinct. The marquis de Chastellux mentions madam Bowling, a lady in Virginia with whom he was acquainted in 1782, as, by a female descent, having the blood of the amiable Pocahontas then running in her veins. The governor and council, in their letters to the Company in England, observe: "Powhatan laments his daughter's death, but is glad her child is living; so doth Opechancanough: Both want to see him, but desire he may be stronger before he returns." Burke, Virg. i. 193. 1 Purchas, v. 1839. 2 Birch, Life of Raleigh, 67, 79. Oldys, 195-232. Stow, Chron. 1030, 1039. Josselyn, Voy. 247. Heylin, Cosmog. 1086. Anderson, ii. 272. Prince, 1617. St. Thome is said to have been the only town in Guiana, then possessed by the Spaniards [Josselyn, Voy. 247.]; though the English adventurers found many fortifications there, "which were not formerly." St. Thome consisted of 140 houses, though lightly built, with a chapel, a convent of Franciscan friars, and a garrison, erected on the main channel of the Orinoco, about 20 miles distant from the place where Antonio Berreo, the governor, taken by Raleigh in his first discovery and conquest here, attempted to plant. See A. D. 1595, 1597. According to Camden, it was burnt on the 2d of January, 1618. Just before, in a sudden assault upon the English by the Spaniards at night, captain Walter Raleigh, a son of Sir Walter, was slain. He was "a brave and sprightly young He was one of the greatest and most accomplished persons of 1617. the age in which he lived. He was the first Englishman who projected settlements in America; and is justly considered as His death & the Founder of Virginia. To him and Sir Humphrey Gilbert is character. ascribed the honour of laying the foundation of the trade and naval power of Great Britain.1 1618. ON the solicitation of the Virginia colonists for a supply of Lord Delahusbandmen and implements of agriculture, the treasurer and ware sails for Virginia. council sent out lord Delaware, the captain general, with abundant supplies. He sailed from England in a ship of 250 tons, with 200 people; but died on the voyage, in or near the bay, which His death. bears his name. His ship safely arrived at Virginia; and, soon after, another ship arrived with 40 passengers.2 On the death of lord Delaware, the administration of Argal, Tyranny of deputy governor of Virginia, became severe. Martial law, which gov. Argal. had been proclaimed and executed during the turbulence of former times, was now, in a season of peace, made the common law of the land. By this law a gentleman was tried for contemptuous words that he had spoken of the governor, found man, but fonder of glory than of safety." Not waiting for the musketteers, he rushed foremost at the head of a company of pikes, and having killed one of the Spanish captains, was himself shot by another; but, pressing still forward, he was killed by the Spaniard, at whom he was aiming a thrust of his own sword.Raleigh's commission to settle Guiana is in Hazard's Collections, i. 82-85. He had been confined in the tower above 12 years. See A. D. 1606. The proclamation against him was dated 11 June 1618, and entitled "Proclamatio concernens Walterum Rawleigh Militem & Viagium suum ad Guianam." It is in Rymer's Fœdera, xvii. 92; and Hazard's Coll. i. 85, 86. Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador at the court of king James, having gained the earliest intelligence of the transaction at Guiana, complained of it to that king, "as what tended not only to the infringement of his majesty's promise, but of that happy union" from the projected match between young Charles, prince of Wales, and the Infanta of Spain, "now in a hopeful degree of maturity." Oldys. Raleigh returned from Guiana in July 1618; was committed to the tower 10 August; brought to trial at king's bench 28 October, and condemned to suffer death on his sentence of 1603; and beheaded the next morning at the age of 66 years. The sentence of 1603 was on a charge of conspiracy for dethroning king James, in favour of the king's cousin, Lady Arabella Stuart. Burnet [Hist. Own Time, i. 12.] says, the execution of Raleigh "was counted a barbarous sacrificing him to the Spaniards." See Hume, Hist. England, c. 48. 1 Biog. Britan. Art. GILBERT. Stith, 125. Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. ix. 52. 2 Purchas, v. 1774. Beverly, 51. Stith, 148. Belknap, Biog. ii. 20. Prince, 1618. Chalmers, b. 1. 37. Brit. Emp. iii. 65. Stow [Chron. 1029.] says, that lord Delaware "could not recover his perfect health" after his return about six years since from Virginia, "until the last yeare, in which he builded a very faire ship, and went now in it himselfe with about eight score persons, to make good the plantation." He was a person of a noble and generous disposition, and expended much in promoting the colonization of Virginia. His memory is, to this day, held in the highest estimation, as one of their first and most distinguished benefactors." 1618. guilty, and condemned; but his sentence was respited, and he appealed to the treasurer and council, who reversed the judgment First appeal of the court martial. This is the first instance of an appeal, from Ame carried from an American colony to England.1 rica to England. Edicts of Argal. State of Somer islands. Argal published several edicts, which "mark the severity of his rule, but some of them evince an attention to the public safety." He ordered that all goods should be sold at an advance of twenty five per centum, and tobacco taken in payment at three shillings per pound, and not more nor less, on the penalty of three years' servitude to the colony; that there should be no private trade or familiarity with the Indians; that no Indian should be taught to shoot with guns, on pain of death to the teacher and learner; that no man should shoot, excepting in his own necessary defence against an enemy, until a new supply of ammunition were received, on pain of a year's servitude; and that every person should go to church on Sundays and holidays, or be kept confined the night succeeding the offence, and be a slave to the colony the following week; for the second offence, a slave for a month; and for the third, a year and a day. Twelve years had elapsed since the settlement of the colony; yet, after an expense of more than £80,000 of the public stock, beside other sums of private planters and adventurers, there were remaining in the colony about 600 persons only, men, women, and children, and about 300 cattle; and the Virginia company was left in debt nearly £5000. The only commodities, now exported from Virginia, were tobacco and sassafras; but the labour of the planter was diminished, and the agricultural interest advanced, by the introduction of the plough.3 Powhatan, the great Virginia king, died this year.1 The Somer Isles, by direction of the council and company of Virginia, were divided by lot into tribes; and a share was assigned to every adventurer. This measure essentially promoted the interests of the infant colony settled in those islands.5 1 Chalmers, b. 1. 38. "It is equally remarkable, that it was made to the company, and not to the king in council; to whom appeals were not probably transmitted till, by the dissolution of the corporation, the reins of government were grasped by royal hands: Nor were they commonly prosecuted till a period subsequent to the Restoration." 2 Marshall, Life of Washington, i. 60. 3 Stith, 147, 149, 159, 281. Chalmers, i. 37. 4 Smith, Virg. 125. He was a prince of eminent sense and abilities, and deeply versed in all the savage arts of government and policy. Penetrating, crafty, insidious, it was as difficult to deceive him, as to elude his own stratagems. But he was cruel in his temper, and showed little regard to truth or integrity. Beverly, 51. Keith, 132. Stith, 154. Belknap, Biog. ii. 63. 5 Smith's Virg. Bermudas, b. 5. 187-189, where are the names of the adventurers and the number of the several shares; also in Ogilvie's map of Bermudas. Smith says, the colony had previously been "but as an unsettled and confused chaos; now it begins to receive a disposition, form, and order, and becomes 1619. First Gen THIS is the memorable epoch, in the history of Virginia, of the introduction of a provincial legislature, in which the colonists were represented. Sir George Yeardley, appointed governor general of the colony, arriving in April with instructions favourable to freedom, convoked a colonial assembly, which met at June 19. James Town on the 19th of June. The people were now so eral Assemincreased in their numbers, and so dispersed in their settlements, bly in Virthat eleven corporations appeared by their representatives in ginia. this convention, where they exercised the noblest function of freemen, the power of legislation. They sat in the same house with the governor and council, in the manner of the Scotch parliament.1 Henrico. The king of England having formerly issued his letters to the College at several bishops of the kingdom for collecting money, to erect a college in Virginia for the education of Indian children, nearly £1500 had been already paid toward this benevolent and pious design, and Henrico had been selected as a suitable place for the seminary. The Virginia company, on the recommendation of Sir Edwin Sandys, its treasurer, now granted 10,000 acres of land, to be laid off for the university at Henrico. This donation, while it embraced the original object, was intended also for the foundation of a seminary of learning for the English.2 King James, by proclamation, prohibited the sale of tobacco in Tobacco. gross or retail, either in England or Ireland, until the custom should be paid, and the royal seal affixed. Twenty thousand indeed a plantation." In 1618, governor Moor was succeeded by captain Butler, who, in 1619, brought over "four good ships with at least 500 people along with him," and there were "500 there before." Harris' Voy. i. c. 27. In 1619, 1620, 1621, there were sent to Bermudas 9 ships, employing 240 mariners, and carrying about 500 people for settlement. Purchas, v. 1785. In 1622, the English had 10 forts at Bermudas, 3000 people, and 50 pieces of ordnance. Josselyn, Voy. 250. 1 Smith, Virg. 126. Stith, 160, 161. Of the 11 corporations, 4 had been recently, set off. The governours have bounded foure Corporations; which is the Companies, the University, the Governour's, and Gleabe land." Smith, 127. The next year was held another assembly, “which has through mistake and the indolence and negligence of our historians in searching such ancient records as are still extant in the country, been commonly reputed the first General Assembly of Virginia." Stith. See A. D. 1621. The colonists had been hitherto ruled rather as soldiers in garrison, by martial law, or as the slaves of a despot, than as English subjects who settled in a desert territory of the crown, and who were justly entitled to possess former privileges, as fully as so distant a situation admitted. Yet it will be somewhat difficult to discover, in this most ancient portion of colonial annals, peculiar immunities, or provincial authority, exclusive of parliamentary jurisdiction." Chalmers, b. 1. c. 2. 2 Stith, 162, 163. Anderson. A. D. 1618. The first design was, "to erect and build a college in Virginia, for the training up and educating infidel children in the true knowledge of God." |