iii North American continent, from 28 to 50 degrees of north latitude; discovered Nantucket, or Martha's Vineyard, and is said to have entered the harbor of New York. To the country he gave the name of New France. In the following year he made another voyage, and with his crew was lost. The success of the Spaniards in amassing wealth in the southern parts of America, stimulated the king of France to further efforts in the north. In 1534, James Cartier was appointed to the command of two ships and one hundred and twenty two men, for the purpose of making discoveries in that quarter; Leaving St. Malo in April; he on the tenth of May arrived at Newfoundland-coasted nearly round the Island-entered what is now called the Gulph of St Lawrence-saw the mouth of Canada river, and discovered the bays of Gaspe and Chaleurs; but returned to France without attempting a settlement. The next year, Cartier sailed again for Canada, under a royal commission, with three ships, accompanied by a number of volunteers, desirous of making their fortunes in the new world. After a boisterous passage, he arrived at the mouth of the river of Canada, which he named St. Lawrence. Continuing his voyage up the river, he reached the Isle of Orleans, to which he gave the name of Bacchus Island, from the great quantity of vines with which it abounded. At a river higher up, which he named after himself Jaques Cartier, he left two of his ships, and proceeded with the other into lake St. Pierre, where finding the water shallow, he left the ship, and with two boats and a pinnace, well manned and armed, continued up the river to Hochelaga, now Montreal, and landed the second of October. Here he found a large body of Indians, who. gave him a very friendly reception. Their village consisted of about fifty dwelling houses, each fifty paces long and fourteen broad, the whole inclosed with palisades, through which was but one passage; and around the inside of the fortification, an elevated stage, which could be ascended only by ladders. On this stage were deposited a large quantity of stones, to be thrown upon an enemy in case of an attack; the surrounding grounds were covered with handsome groves of oak, and fields of corn; provisions were abundant, and wholesome; the houses warm and convenient, and well supplied with skins and furs for lodgings: the whole exhibiting a degree of improvement, much beyond what had been seen any where among the northern savages of America. During his continuance in the river, Cartier and his men, though kindly treated by the natives, and well supplied with provisions, suffered severely from the scurvy. A remedy was at length prescribed by the Indians; but previously to its application, twenty five men died of the disease.* For the humane treatment he had received from the Indians, Cartier presented them hatchets, knives, beads and rings, which they received with demonstrations of high satisfaction. Before he left the place, the Indians conducted him to the summit of the hill, under which their village was built, and pointed out the course of the St. Lawrence from the west; and they informed him that he might sail on it for three moons, without reaching its source; that it ran through two or three lakes, beyond * The medicine was a decoction of the leaves and inner bark of the white pines (pinus strobeus.)-Forster's Voyages and Discoveries in the North, p. 440. which there was a sea of fresh water, to which they knew of no limits; that on the other side of the mountain, there was another river which ran to the southwest, through a country where there was neither ice nor snow; and that there were such metals as silver, gold and copper to be found in the territory.* On the fourth of October, Cartier and his men, left the place-embarked on board his ships, and returned to the Isle of Orleans on the eleventh; where they wintered, and made some ineffectual efforts to found a colony. Early next spring they sailed for France, accompanied by several of the natives, one of whom was a chief. Though Cartier, on his return, gave a very flattering account of the country on the St. Lawrence, and pointed out the advantages which would accrue to the French nation, from colonization, and a trade in furs, which were found in great abundance, yet the king was not disposed to patronize a colony in a country, in which the adventurers had not been so fortunate as to discover gold and silver mines; at that time, the grand desideratum of the European monarchs. Notwithstanding the rejection of Cartier's advice, a nobleman of Picardy-Francis de la Rogue, lord of Roberval, created by the king, lieutenant general and viceroy of Canada, fitted out several ships at his own expense, and sent Cartier with a royal commission, again to Canada, in 1540. On his arrival, Cartier built a fort and began a settlement, which he called Charlebourg, near what is now Quebec. On his return in 1542, Cartier met Roberval with three ships and two hundred men, women and children, destined to recruit the intended settlement in Canada; Cartier continued his voyage to France, and Roberval proceeded up the St. Lawrence, four leagues above the Isle of Orleans; and finding a convenient harbor, built a fort and remained at the place through the winter. what time he returned to France, or how many people he left at the settlement, does not appear. But in 1549, we find that Roberval, with his brother and a numerous train of adventurers, embarked for the St. Lawrence, and were not heard of afterwards; probably they perished The few settlers in Canada were now left to their own exertions; nor did they receive further aid from their countrymen, for about fifty years. åt sea. At These efforts to colonize Canada, were considered by the English, as encroachments on their territory, and to defeat the projects of the French, "Queen Elizabeth, in 1578, granted letters patent to sir Humphrey Gilbert, authorising him to discover and take possession of all remote and barbarous lands, unoccupied by any Christian prince or people. She vested in him, his heirs and assigns forever, the full right of property in the soil of those countries, of which he should take possession, to hold of the crown of England by homage, on payment of the fifth part of the gold or silver ore, found there-conferred complete jurisdiction within the said lands; and prohibited all persons from attempting to settle within two hundred leagues of any place which sir Humphrey or his associates, should have occupied during the space of six years,"+ In virtue of his patent, in 1583, Gilbert sailed from England with two ships, three barks, and two hundred and sixty men, and discovered land * Holmes' Annals, Vol. i. 111. ↑ Williams' Vermont, Vol. I. about 51° north latitude; but finding the country rocky and sterile, he steered southward, and entered the bay of St. John, in Newfoundland, where he found thirty six vessels of various nations, employed in the fishing trade. Gilbert took possession of the harbor and country, two hundred leagues around, for the crown of England. Intent on further discoveries, he sailed from the island, and one of his ships was cast away among shoals, and almost one hundred souls perished.* He soon after sailed for England; but his ship foundering in a violent storm, he was lost with all his crew; other vessels in company rode out the storm, and arrived without accident. The territory now comprehended within the United States, though blest with a soil and climate more inviting than the northern regions, had received no colonies from Europe. In 1584, Elizabeth, queen of England, granted to sir Walter Raleigh "liberty to discover such remote heathen and barbarous lands, not actually possessed by any Christian prince, nor inhabited by Christian people, as to him should seem good; with prerogatives and jurisdictions as ample as had been granted to his brother, sir Humphrey Gilbert." In July, this year, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow, two experienced commanders, who had been sent out by Raleigh, arrived on the coast of North America, and took possession of the country in the neighborhood of the Island of Wocokon, on the coast of North Carolina, where they had some intercourse with the natives; they afterwards landed on the Island of Roanoke, which they found inhabited by Indians. After various transactions, the adventurers returned to England, and gave so flattering an account of the country, that Elizabeth bestowed on it the name of Virginia, as a memorial that the discovery was made under a virgin queen. The next year, a fleet of seven sail, under sir Richard Grenville, proceeded to Virginia, and made various discoveries on the coast. Touching at Wocokon, he afterwards landed on the Island of Roanoke, where he left one hundred and seven persons, under the government of Ralph Lane, to commence a plantation, and returned to England. These colonists had to contend with many difficulties, among which were, a want of provisions, and a hostile disposition of the Indians, who formed a conspiracy to massacre the whole of the adventurers. In 1586, sir Francis Drake, who had been in the West Indies with a fleet, to prosecute hostilities against the Spaniards, arrived at the English settlement in Virginia; and after a conference with governor Lane, received the whole of the colonists on board, and carried them to England. Still intent on planting a colony in Virginia, sir Walter Raleigh, the next year, sent out another company of one hundred and fifty adventurers, in three ships, under governor White, with orders to establish a plantation and fortify a post at Chesapeake Bay. Arriving at Hatteras, June twenty-second, governor White and forty of his men, proceeded in a pinnace to Roanoke, and landed with expectation of finding the fifteen men left by Grenville; but none were to be seen, excepting the bones of one who had been slain by the Indians. The fort built by Lane, was razed, * Among these was Stephen Parmenius, of Buda, in Hungary. He was a learned man, and wrote the Latin with great elegance. A Poem in that language, written by him, a short time before the voyage, is inserted in the 9th Vol. Mass. Hist. Col. the houses standing, but overgrown with weeds and vines, indicating that they they had been sometime deserted. The remainder of the people were soon landed from the ships, to the number of 117 persons, and they took possession of the deserted houses and erected others. It was afterwards ascertained, that the fifteen men left at the place, had been attacked by the Indians, some slain, while others embarking in their boat, landed on a small island near Hatteras, whence they afterwards departed, and were heard of no more. The people under governor White, prosecuted the business of the plantation without interruption from the natives. On the eighteenth of August, Mrs. Dare, a daughter of the governor, was delivered of a female child, who was baptised by the name of Virginia, the first English child born in the country. Supplies being now wanted, the governor, at the urgent solicitations of the people, sailed for England to obtain them. In the course of the next year, he procured two small vessels, and sailed from England with fifteen planters, and supplies of provisions for the Virginia colony; but meeting with two French men of war, by whom he was rifled, he put back to England. Raleigh having then expended a large sum of money, in his abortive attempts to colonize Virginia, made an assignment of his patent to Thomas Smith, and other merchants, and gave up further attempts. In 1590, governor White sailed for Virginia with three ships, and arrived in the Chesapeake, the fifteenth of August. After various incidents, he landed at the place where he had left his colony, and found that the houses had been taken down, and the place strongly fortified with palisades; but the people were not to be found. From the word CROATOAN, which was found carved on a tree, it was concluded they had removed to that place, to which White resolved to proceed. But tempestuous weather coming on, and his provisions being nearly expended, he sailed to the West Indies, and thence returned to England, leaving the unfortunate colony to their fate; and whether the people were slain by the natives, or perished from a want of provisions, is a problem which remains to be solved, as they have not since been found. No further attempts were made to colonize Virginia for several years; but efforts were continued by the English and French, in the northerly part of the continent. In 1600, M. de Chauvin, having obtained a commission from Henry IV. of France, sailed up the river St. Lawrence ninety leagues, to a place called Tadoussac, near the mouth of the Saguenia river, below what is now Quebec, where he left some of his people, who suffered severely the following winter, and were saved from starvation by provisions procured of the natives. The next year Chaurin sailed up the river to Tadoussac and Trois Rivieres. The spirit of colonization now began to revive in England. In 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold sailed from Falmouth with thirty two men, for the northern part of Virginia-the name by which North America was then known by the English-with a design of beginning a plantation; and after a voyage of seven weeks, he discovered the American coast in the latitude of 42°, which he named Cape Cod. Coasting southerly, he saw Martha's Vinyard, and anchored in the northwest part of the Island; soon after he discovered Buzzard's bay, and several capes and Islands, vii one of which he called Elizabeth Island, on which he resolved to make a settlement. A small rocky islet, situated in the centre of a pond about two miles in circumference, was selected for the site of a fort and store house, and the buildings were soon completed. But discontent arising among the people who were to remain at the place, Gosnold relinquished his design, and the whole company returned to England. So late as 1797, the cellar of Gosnold's store-house was to be seen.* Another voyage was undertaken by several merchants of Bristol, in 1603. Two small vessels under the command of Martin Pring, carrying forty six men and boys, sailed from Milford haven, April the tenth, and arriving on the coast of North America, fell in with several Islands in Penobscot bay, in the beginning of June. Steering to the southward, they entered the bay of Massachusetts, and landed at a point called Savage rock; continuing the voyage, they discovered Vineyard sound, and cast anchor in an excellent harbor, which they named Whiston bay, now called Edgarton. Here Pring built a hut and enclosed it with a barricade, in which a guard was kept, while the remaining people were collecting sassafras-the chief object of the voyage. After a stay of almost eleven weeks, in which time the ships were visited by the natives, who appeared amicable, they returned to England with cargoes of sassafras. The same year Samuel Champlain, a French officer sailed up the St. Lawrence-touched at Tadaussac, the place where Chauvin had left people in 1600, and continuing up the river, anchored at what is now Quebec, which from its elevation and peninsular form, he found an eligible position for a fortification. He afterwards ascended the river to Hochelaga, and obtained much information from the Indians of the neighboring country concerning the southern lakes and Iroquois, a warlike people situated to the southwest; he then returned to France. The French at this time, appear to have been determined on making permanent settlements on various parts of the coast of North America. This year, 1603, Henry fourth "granted to Pierre du Gast, Sieur de Ments, a patent of the American territory, from the fortieth, to the fortysixth degree of north latitude, constituting him lieutenant general of that portion of the country, with power to colonize and rule it, and to subdue and christianize its native inhabitants." Soon after, the exclusive right of the trade in peltry in Canada, and the gulph of St Lawrence, was given to de Ments. Clothed with this authority, de Ments in 1604, with Champlain for his pilot, and M. Poutrincourt, with a number of volunteers, in two ships, embarked for America, and arrived on the coast of Nova Scotia, then called Acadie. Coasting south west, and touching at several harbours, de Ments doubled Cape Sable, and entered the bay of Fundy, which he named La Baye, Francoise; and soon after, discovered a narrow strait, leading into a spacious bason, environed by hills and skirted by fertile meadows, which he called Port Royal, since named Annapolis. Here Poutrincourt, having received a grant from de Ments, remained and commenced a settlement. Champlain was dispatched to make further discoveries on the coast of Acadie, and on his voyage, saw the mouth of St. John's river; and coasting southwest, twenty leagues, arrived at * Holmes' Annals, Vol. i. p. 144. |