CHAPTER V.

ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.

THE MAYFLOWER.

HE efforts of the

THE

English to plant col

onies in America were

to be continued

for more than a

century, and in time they resulted in making the new land essentially English. The first name which presents itself to our

notice is that of

the gallant Sir

Martin Frobisher, who fitted out an expedition to discover a northwest passage to China, under the patronage of the Earl of Warwick, and was the first Englishman to make this attempt. He did not succeed, but he left his name on "Frobisher's Strait." His expedition left England June 8th, 1576, being bidden Godspeed by Queen Elizabeth, who waved her hand towards the vessels as they passed Greenwich. Fro

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE.

81

bisher discovered in the New World something that he considered gold, and the queen lent him a vessel for a second voyage, which he made in 1578, but without greater success than he had on the first occasion. He accompanied Sir Francis Drake to the West Indies in 1585, and in 1588 battled bravely against the Spanish Armada at home, but did not visit America again.

British progress in naval domination was accel

erated by the irregular expeditions of Sir Francis. Drake, who appears to us now as little better than a pirate, but who by his voyage around the world, and his raids on the ships of Spain, had exceedingly

excited the spirit of adventure and the cupidity of his countrymen. Two step-brothers, Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, courtiers of Queen Elizabeth and true Protestants, appear next among the venturous discoverers. Gilbert had obtained a patent in 1578, authorizing him to make a plantation in Amer ica, when Raleigh returned from assisting Admiral Coligni and the Huguenots in France, and the Prince of Orange in the Netherlands, and the two

put to sea,

but were

obliged to re

turn without having made land.

In 1583, another expe

dition set out.

Raleigh was prevented from accom

panying it, but sub

scribed the

very generous sum of two thousand pounds towards It was no more successful than the

its expenses.

former venture.

Newfoundland was reached and

SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

83

taken possession of in the name of the queen, but on the return voyage Gilbert went down with one of the vessels.*

Raleigh was not daunted, and having himself obtained another patent, in 1584 sent out two vessels, which, under the command of Sir Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow, touched on the coast of North Carolina, named the land "Virginia," after the virgin queen, and returned to England. In 1585, 1586 and 1587, Raleigh sent out colonies, a town called Raleigh, on Roanoke Island, being founded by John White in the last mentioned year. The colonists all disappeared in a manner not now known, and with the colony perished the first child of English parents ever born on American soil, Virginia Dare, granddaughter of John White, the Governor of the settle

ment.

The era of colonization in America is coincident with the Stuart dynasty (1603-1727), though the abortive efforts of Raleigh had occurred in the reign. of Elizabeth, and though the colonization of Georgia was not begun by Oglethorpe until 1733. As the reign of Elizabeth was closing, Bartholomew Gosnold, one of those who had accompanied Raleigh to Virginia, was placed by the Earl of Southampton in command of an expedition to plant a colony in "Virginia." He sailed directly west, starting March 26th, 1602, and in seven weeks reached Massachusetts Bay, making land probably not far from Nahant. He visited and named Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, and anchoring at the mouth of Buzzard's Bay, began his colony on an island that is now known by its

See Longfellow's "Sir Humphrey Gilbert."

Indian name, Cuttyhunk. It was not long, however, before disputes arose, and dangers from the Indians and from scarcity of food, and the colony returned to England, where they arrived by the eighteenth of June.

The reports of Gosnold excited much curiosity and desire to see the land of "Virginia," an indication of which is found in one of the plays of John Marston, long popular, entitled "Eastward Ho." In it there is a conversation about the wondrous land, in which the following words occur:

I tell thee, gold is more plentiful there than copper is with us, and for as much red copper as I can bring, I'll have thrice the weight in gold. Why, man, all their dripping-pans are pure gold, and all the chains with which they chain up their streets are massy gold; all the prisoners they take are fettered in gold; and for rubies and diamonds, they go forth in holidays and gather 'em by the seashore to hang on their children's coats and stick in their children's caps as commonly as our children wear saffron gilt brooches, and groats with holes in 'em... (It is as pleasant a country withal) as ever the sun shined on, temperate, and full of all sorts of excellent viands. . . Then for your means to advancement, there it is simple and not preposterously mixt. You may be an alderman there, and never be scavenger; you may be any other officer, and never be a slave. . . Besides, there we shall have no more law than conscience, and not too much of either; serve God enough, eat and drink enough, and “enough is as good as a feast."

The conversation from which the above is taken, occurred in a tavern by "Billingsgate," and gives a clue to the persons interested in Virginia, as well as the sort of expectations they desired to satisfy. The persons were "Seagull," "Spendall," and "Scapethrift." The interest was not limited to such characters, for Raleigh and Sir Richard Hakluyt united to further an investigation of the country by Martin