EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.

39

Portuguese settlements in Brazil; San Salvador de Bahia (bah-e'ah), founded in 1549, the capital. Portuguese colonies in the East Indies extensive and prosperous. Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands, under the Emperor Charles V. John III. king of Portugal. Henry II. king of France. Edward VI. king of England.

Review.-Let one member of the class write on the blackboard the names of all the Spanish discoverers mentioned in Chapters II. and IV. Let another place opposite to each the name of the country he discovered or explored, and a third supply the dates. Do the same with the English, Portuguese, and French, discoverers and explorers.

CHAPTER V.

EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.—SETTLEMENT OF

VIRGINIA.

Hawkins.-Hore.—England had not forgotten the discoveries of her Cab'ots. Her fishermen had brought back many a good cargo from the Banks of Newfoundland; and Sir John Hawkins, the first Englishman to engage in the slave-trade (1562), had made his voyaging still more profitable, for he had found that "store of Negros were to be had in Guinea, and that they were "very good marchandise" in Hispaniola. But little had been done in the way of exploration. A Londoner named Hore, it is true, with a small company, spent a summer in Newfoundland during the reign of Henry VIII. But they nearly starved to death, and, on the arrival of a French vessel, stole aboard and sailed off while the crew were ashore, leaving the poor Frenchmen to get home as best they could.

Francis Drake, also, commissioned by Queen Elizabeth, had made several voyages to the New World, but it was chiefly for the purpose of harrying the Spanish settlements. His most notable voyage lasted three years (1577-1580).

Sailing through the Strait of Magellan, he entered the Pacific, capturing Spanish galleons with their rich freight, and pillaging the ports of Chili and Peru. Afraid of encountering the Spaniards in superior force if he retraced his way, he kept on in search of a north-east passage to the Atlantic, but was at last driven back by the cold off the coast of Oregon. He passed several weeks in the harbor of San Francisco, and took possession of California, under the name of New Albion, in behalf of his royal mistress—then crossed the Pacific, and returned to England by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Drake was thus the first English commander that circumnavigated the globe, and Queen Elizabeth showed her approval of his enterprise by knighting him on the deck of his own vessel.

The North-west Passage.-Meanwhile English navigators became more and more of the opinion that the coveted passage to Cathay, which Spain had failed to discover in the south, would be found, if at all, in the north. FROB'ISHER made three voyages in quest of it (1576-1578). He reached the inlet in the far north since called by his name, but found no passage to the Indies; and the supposed gold ore with which he filled his vessels for the return-voyage, turned out to be nothing but worthless stones.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a firm believer in the North-west Passage, after a previous unsuccessful effort, sailed in 1583, under a charter from Queen Elizabeth, but with the purpose of colonization rather than discovery. He reached Newfoundland, read his commission to the motley crowd of fishermen assembled there, and erected the arms of England. Then turning south to plant his colony in a more genial climate, he lost his largest vessel off the coast of Nova Scotia. Provisions ran short, no hospitable haven appeared, and it was decided to return to England. But Gilbert lived not to plant his colony; the little vessel that bore him foundered in a storm.

1585]

RALEIGH'S SETTLEMENT.

41

Among the most intrepid searchers for the North-west Passage was JOHN DAVIS (1585-7). He made three bold voyages, pushing up among the icebergs and floes west of Greenland (to which he gave the name of Desolation), and discovering the strait that still preserves his name (see Map. p. 8). But his search, like that of many a later Arctic explorer, was fruitless.

Raleigh's Settlement.-Sir Humphrey Gilbert's attempt at colonization was promptly followed up by his half-brother WALTER RALEIGH, one of

the great men of the age, under a new patent from Queen Elizabeth. An exploring party sent out in 1584 reached the coast of North Carolina, and on its return drew such inviting pictures of the "sweete, fruitfull, and wholesome soile" and the "handsome and goodly" natives, that the Virgin Queen knighted Raleigh, and allowed him to call the land Virginia in honor of herself.

The next year, a colony

was sent out under Sir Richard Grenville, and planted on Roanoke Island, near the entrance to Albemarle Sound (see Map, p. 42). But the Indians were provoked by Grenville's severity; and under Lane, who became governor on Grenville's departure, their hostility and the shortness of provisions threatened to exterminate the colony. The arrival of Drake, fresh from the plunder of St. Augustine, gave the settlers an opportunity of returning to England. They took with them two products of the New World whose use

has since become widely extended-potatoes and tobacco. Smoking soon became fashionable at the English court; even Queen Elizabeth and her ladies are said to have indulged in it.

An attempt to renew the settlement on Roanoke Island (1587) succeeded no better. Such as survived sickness and famine were cut off by the Indians; at least so it was supposed, for no traces of them could ever be found by those who afterward visited the region. Raleigh's means were now exhausted, and his efforts to colonize Virginia at an end, though he still predicted that he should live to see it 66 an Inglishe nation."

Settlement of Virginia.-We next hear of English voyages farther north, and the discovery of Cape Cod (1602), and various bays and islands on the coast of Maine (1603).

The favorable reports brought back, led once more to zealous efforts at colonization. King James I. encouraged the movement by dividing (1606) the whole territory from the mouth of the Cape Fear River to the eastern extremity of Maine, without any limit on the west, between two companies the London Company to have jurisdiction over the southern portion, the Plymouth Company over the northern. The latter at once sent out

1607]

SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA.

43

settlers to New England, but they did not succeed in establishing themselves; and the first permanent English settlement was planted by the London Company in Virginia, in 1607.

This first English colony, consisting of 105 men, was taken out by Captain Newport. Bearing north of Roanoke Island, they entered Chesapeake Bay, giving the names of the princes Charles and Henry to the capes at its entrance. Ascending a noble river, they finally established themselves on a peninsula about fifty miles above its mouth, calling the river James, and the settlement JAMESTOWN, after the reigning king. A small party, intent on finding that much talked-of passage to the South Sea, soon started on a voyage of discovery, and explored the river fifty miles farther, to the falls on which the present city of Richmond is situated. Here, in a village of twelve wigwams, they were well received by Powhatan', the head of twenty native tribes that occupied the adjacent region.

The country around Jamestown was delightful. But unfortunately the new settlers were mostly "vagabond gentlemen," not fond of work. So, not long after Newport returned to England, food became scarce. Sickness set in, many died, dissensions arose, affairs were badly managed, and it was only by placing the prudent and energetic SMITH at the head of the infant colony that it was saved from destruction.

Captain John Smith has been justly called "the Father of Virginia." His previous life had been full of adventure. As a traveller and a soldier, he had seen much of Europe. He had borne himself gallantly in divers wars, and had received from the Prince of Transylvania a patent of nobility and a coat of arms—a shield bearing three Turks' heads -in commemoration of his slaying three Turkish cavaliers, whom he met in single combat like the knights of old. Afterward taken prisoner, he had been sent to Constanti