much reduced. These mines continued to supply, for more than three hundred years, the main part of the gold and silver used for business or for ornament. Their productiveness has only been surpassed by the recent mines of the Rocky Mountains and of Australasia.

FRENCH EXPLORATION AND SETTLEMENT.

31. The Spaniards had secured their conquests before any other nation had gained a foothold in America, except the Portuguese in Brazil. John Verazzani (-zah nee) a Florentine, sent out by Francis I., of France, had explored, in a single vessel, the coast of North Carolina and the mouth of 1524. the Chesapeake Bay. He had sailed along the shores of New England and Nova Scotia.

32. Ten years later, while Cortez was ruling Mexico and Pizarro overrunning Peru, Jacques Cartier (zhak carť'ya) started from the French harbor of St. Malo's, sailed to Newfoundland, and ascended the broad river of Canada. On a second voyage, next year, he reached the great basin between Newfoundland and New Brunswick on the day of St. Lawrence, and gave the name of that saint to both the Gulf and the noble stream which pours into it the waters of the great lakes in the interior of the continent. He passed up the St. Lawrence River nearly 500 miles, to the Isle of Orleans (Hochelaque), below the heights of Quebec, and took possession of the country for the crown of France.

33. At the opening of the French War of Religion, Admiral Coligny (co-leen'ye), the great and good leader of the 1562. Huguenots, sought a safe retreat in America for his fellow-Protestants. John Ribault (re-bo') was put in command of the emigrants. He settled a colony on Port Royal harbor, and called it Fort Charles, or Carolina, after Charles

FRENCH SETTLEMENT.

23

IX., the reigning king. The post was abandoned on Ribault's return to France soon after.

34. A second attempt was made. Laudonnière (lodon-yare) carried the exiles in three ships, and built a second Fort Carolina at the mouth of the River of May-the St. John's -in Florida. The settlers became discontented, and longed to

THE OLD GATEWAY AT ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA.

return home. Ribault arrived with fresh their families, farm implements, and stock. within the dominions claimed by Spain.

1565. 28 Aug.

colonists, bringing Fort Carolina was

Philip II. had granted a commission to Melendez de Avila (ma-len'deth da av'e-lah) to settle and govern Florida. Reaching the coast on the day of St. Augustine, he gave that name to the fine harbor and the river which he discovered, and to the town which he built there.

This is now the oldest town in the United States.

About three weeks after his arrival, he surprised Fort Carolina in the absence of Ribault, and massacred all who fell into his handsnot as Frenchmen, but as Huguenots."

66

35. This butchery was soon avenged.

1568.

Dominic de

Gourgues (goorg), a Gascon gentleman, fitted out three ships, sailed to Florida, recaptured the fort, and hanged his prisoners. He placed over them the inscription: "Not as Spaniards, but as traitors, robbers, and murderers." The Civil Wars in France prevented the restoration of the French colony, and the prosecution of French adventure.

36. When the wars were over, Henry IV. renewed the effort to secure French settlements in America. The first attempts failed. At length Samuel Champlain was sent by the merchants of Rouen to establish a colony.

1608. He founded Quebec, high up on the St. Lawrence.

He was the father of French settlements in America. He devoted the last thirty years of his life to extending them along the valley of the St. Lawrence, and creating the dominion of New France or Canada.

37. The missionary zeal of the Jesuits greatly aided the efforts of Champlain. In fifty years from his death, they had discovered the Great Lakes, had reached the Mississippi, had descended that long and noble stream, and had gained for France the unbounded territory of Louisiana. In the reign of Louis XIV. the French claimed the whole valley of the St. Lawrence, and that of the Mississippi, besides the unknown region round Lake Superior.

DUTCH AND SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS. 38. The Dutch began their trading voyages to North America the year after the foundation of Quebec, but as soon as their independence of Spain was assured

DUTCH AND SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS.

25

Henry Hudson, an English captain, was employed by the Dutch East India Company, to search for a north-west passage to the Indies. He was driven back by ice, and followed the American coast down to the capes of the Chesapeake. He would not enter that splendid bay, as he knew that its waters were already occupied by England. He turned back, 1609. entered the bay of New York, discovered the North, or Hudson River, and ascended it to the neighborhood of Albany. Next year he perished in the great northern gulf, called after him Hudson's Bay.

39. Hudson's report of "the goodly land" which he had visited, induced the merchants of Amsterdam to send vessels to trade with the Indians of that country, for skins and furs, and other wild commodities. A fort was erected on Manhattan Island. The town which spread around the fort was called New Amsterdam. It has grown into the populous, busy, and wealthy city of New York. A settlement was begun just below the site of what is now Albany. Trading posts were established on the Connecticut River. For ten years, trade with the Indians was all that was thought of, as the Hudson River and its banks were included in the claims and in the grants of England. These claims were, however, disregarded by the Dutch West India Company, who took possession of the country from the mouth of the Delaware to Cape Cod, and gave it the name of New Netherlands.

40. To secure their settlements along the Delaware and the Hudson, the Dutch granted extensive tracts, or manors, to those who transported settlers and established plantations. These large estates did not encourage population, and they caused enduring discontent. The thinly inhabited and scattered settlements were exposed to Indian attack; and the Indians were provoked by harshness and injustice. Other dangers arose from the conflicting claims to the country.

41. Gustavus Adolphus, the great Protestant King of Sweden, recommended colonization in America, in order

to strengthen Protestantism, and to further Swedish trade. He was too deeply engaged in war to carry his recommendations into effect. After his death, Swedish emigrants established themselves on Delaware Bay. They were left undisturbed for some years. The Dutch, however, became jealous of them; and the West India Company ordered their officers in the New Netherlands "to drive the Swedes into the river, or to compel them to submission."

42. Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch Governor, called out the colonial troops, and, in a single campaign, forced all the Swedish forts to surrender. Resistance was vain. The army of the assailants was neither numerous nor formidable. The Swedes were only a few hundred, and were too much scattered to offer any combined opposition.*

43. The Dutch did not long enjoy their unjust triumph over the Swedes. England had always claimed the country occupied by both. The Dutch had given frequent provocations to the English in Europe, in America, and in the East Indies. On the restoration of Charles II. to the British throne, he granted to his brother, the Duke of York, afterwards James II., the country between the Delaware and the Connecticut rivers.

An expedition was sent against the Dutch colony 1664. on the Hudson. New Amsterdam surrendered at once, and received the name of New York, from the title of the Duke. The dominion of Holland in North America was closed after an existence of fifty years. Descendants of the early Dutch settlers are prominent citizens of the States of New York and New Jersey to the present day. Names of places also perpetuate the memory of the Dutch rule.

* This mean and petty war has been humorously related by Washington Irving, is Knickerbocker's History of New York.