ENGLAND AND AMERICA.

IN the fifteenth century came the revival of learning in Europe. This brought a rivalry in efforts to extend the knowledge of geography and increase the commerce of the world. The great problem of Henry VII. the age was to reach India by sea. In the age just fading 1485-1509. out those who sailed ships crept timidly along the coast, or, if they ventured out of sight of land, had only the sun by day and the stars by night to steer by. The period in which Columbus lived showed great improvements in navigation. In the new mariner's compass the magnetic needle was beginning to be depended upon, better sea-charts were prepared, and valuable additions were made to the instrument for reckoning latitude. It was now possible for the navigator losing sight of land to ascertain the position of his ship and tell the direction in which she should be steered. When Columbus made his great discovery, Henry had been on the throne of England seven years and had yet eighteen years of kingly life to live. Scotland was not yet a part of the British realm. It was still an independent power with James IV. at its head. None of the vast domain in France known as Normandy, except a small strip of land on which Calais stood, was any longer an English possession. It had passed to the control of France more than forty years before. It has been asserted that Columbus, long before Isabella of Spain consented to aid him, had sent one of his brothers to Henry VII. of England with an offer similar to the one made to Spain, but our information on this point is very meagre. We know, however, that Henry wrote to Columbus in 1488, inviting him to England and holding out promises of encouragement. The news of the great discovery made by Columbus produced among the English people a feeling of deep regret that the great navigator had not made his voyage under their flag. feeling prevailing, it was not difficult for Henry to encourage navigation and discovery if such encouragement should be without expense to himself. John Cabot's petition therefore met with favor, and to him and his three sons the king issued a commission to sail at their own cost and charge with five ships, upon condition that the king should have one fifth part of their gains. John Cabot's discovery of the mainland of the New World precedes that of Columbus more than a year, and Amerigo Vespucci's more than two years (p. 30). The year 1498 stands out conspicuously in the annals of navigation: Da Gama, for Portugal, sailing around the southern point of Africa reached India by sea, thus solving the problem of the age; Columbus discovered South America; and one of John Cabot's sons explored a large part of the North American coast. This king, the second but only surviving son of Henry VII., was a Catholic when he began to reign, and he so gained the approbation of the pope (Leo X.) by writing a book against the doctrines of Henry VIII. Luther that he was awarded the title of "Defender of the 1509-1547. Faith." He afterwards, however, quarrelled with the pope (Clement VII.) because the latter would not sanction his divorce from his wife Catharine. Henry then threw off his allegiance to the pope, and, by acts of Parliament, the English Church was established. Beyond an attempt to find a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific (in 1527), no westward expeditions were made by the English. Their foreign commerce was mostly confined to the Netherlands. Their first merchant ship reached India the same year in which Parliament for the first time favored the fisheries of Newfoundland, and the Spaniards under De Soto discovered the Mississippi (1541). Eminent men.-Cardinal

This

England and America.

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Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, Henry Howard (Earl of Surrey), William Tyndall, and Sir Thomas Wyatt.

The son of Henry VIII. by his third wife, Jane Seymour, succeeded to the throne. During his reign the first attempt was made to find a northeast passage (that is, around the northern part of Europe Edward VI. and Asia) to China. The farthest point reached was Archangel, a port in Russia. Spitzbergen was discovered, but was then supposed to be a part of Greenland.

1547-1553.

Mary I.

Mary was the daughter of Henry VIII. by his first wife, Catharine. She was a Catholic, and one of the first acts of her reign was to restore the religion of that church. She married Philip II. of 1553-1558. Spain, and having engaged in a war with France to please her husband, lost Calais, "the brighest jewel in her crown,' the last English possession on the Continent. The port of Archangel having been discovered, a trade with Russia was begun.

Elizabeth.

This queen was the daughter of Henry VIII. by his second wife, Anne Boleyn. The laws for the establishment of the English Church, which had been enacted during Edward's reign but abro1558-1603. gated during Mary's, were again enacted. The Puritans, largely composed of English Protestants, who had been in exile in Switzerland and Germany during Mary's reign, contended for greater changes in religious forms and doctrines. The Pilgrims (p. 61) formed their first church organization under the preaching and teaching of Robert Brown (1581). John Knox completed what is known in history as the " Reformation in Scotland. Mary Queen of Scots, whose subjects had rebelled against her, fled to England, where, after being held a captive by Elizabeth more than eighteen years, she was executed. In the contest between the Netherlands and Spain, Elizabeth espoused the cause of the former; in consequence Philip, of Spain, sent an immense fleet, known as the "Invincible Armada," to invade England. It was attacked and defeated with terrible destruction by a fleet under Lord Howard, assisted by the renowned captains Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins, and Raleigh (1588). Trade with the west coast of Africa was begun; from thirty to fifty English fishing ships came annually to the bays and banks of Newfoundland; tobacco and potatoes were introduced into England from America; Drake, while making a voyage around the world, explored the coast of New Albion (California and Oregon); and Frobisher and Davis endeavored to find a northwest passage to the Pacific. The attempts to provide an asylum in Carolina and Florida for the persecuted Huguenots (p. 96) were followed by the efforts of Gilbert to plant a settlement on Newfoundland, and by Raleigh's to plant a colony in Carolina (pp. 40, 98). Gosnold was the first Englishman to tread upon the soil of New England (p. 60); and though the French, under Huguenot leaders, and the English, under Raleigh, Gilbert, and Gosnold, had made great exertions to establish colonies in America, at the close of Elizabeth's reign-more than a hundred years after Columbus first crossed the Atlantic-there was not so much as one European family between Florida and Hudson's Bay. The few Spaniards who had driven the Huguenots from Florida and were in turn driven by Sir Francis Drake out of the small fort at St. Augustine, into which they had crowded (1586), but were still lingering in Florida, were, besides their countrymen in Mexico, the only people not Indians in all the continent of North America. The eminent men were Sir Edward Coke, Bacon, Shakspeare, Spenser, and Raleigh.

SECTION II.

COLONIAL PERIOD.

Virginia.

1. The English claim to terrritory in America had for its principal foundation stone the discoveries of the Cabots. By virtue of this claim, James I. granted to an association of "noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants," known as the London company, "the exclusive right to occupy the regions from thirty-four to thirty-eight degrees of north latitude;" and, to an association of "knights, gentlemen, and merchants," known as the Plymouth company, an equal right to the regions from forty-one to forty-five degrees. "Collision

was not probable, for each company was to possess the soil extending fifty miles north and south of its first settlement, so that neither might plant within one hundred miles of its rival." The northern regions were called North Virginia; the southern, South Virginia.

Settlement

2. "The London company spent several months in preparations for planting a colony. At length three vessels, fitted out under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, a navigator experienced in voyages to the New World, sailed from England. After passing three weeks in the West Indies, they sailed in quest of Roanoke islof and; and, having exceeded their reckoning three Jamestown. days without finding land, the crew grew impatient. At this juncture, a violent storm, compelling them to scud all night under bare poles, providentially drove them into the mouth of Chesapeake bay. The first land they came in sight of they called Cape Henry, in honor of the

1607

Settlement of Jamestown.

53

Prince of Wales, eldest son of King James, as the opposite point, Cape Charles, was named after the king's second son, then Duke of York, afterwards Charles the First.

3. A party of twenty or thirty, with Newport, landing here, found a variety of pretty flowers and goodly trees. While recreating themselves on the shore, they were attacked by five savages, who came creeping upon all fours from the hills like bears, and with their arrows wounded two, but retired at the discharge of muskets. Seventeen days were spent in quest of a place for the settlement. A point on the western side of the mouth of Chesapeake bay they named Point Comfort, because they found a good harbor there, which, after the recent storm, put them in good comfort.

4. On the 8th of May (1607), the colonists went farther up the river to the country of the Ap-po-mat'-tocks, who came forth to meet them in a most warlike manner, with bows and arrows, and formidable war clubs; but the whites, making signs of peace, were suffered to land unmolested. At length they selected for the site of the colony a peninsula lying on the north side of the James river, about forty miles from its mouth. The western end of this peninsula, where it is connected by a little isthmus with the main land, was the spot pitched upon for the erection of a town, which was named, in honor of the king, Jamestown. This was the first permanent settlement effected by the English in North America.1

5. Upon landing, the council to govern the colony took the oath of office. Wingfield, a member of the council, was elected president. John Smith, another member, was excluded from the council upon some false pretences. Dean Swift says: When a great genius appears in the world, the dunces are all in confederacy against him.' All hands fell to

The first permanent settlement made by Europeans within the pres ent limits of the United States was made by the Spaniards at St. Augus tine, Florida, in 1565. Santa Fe, New Mexico, is also a very old city. When first visited by the Spaniards, about 1542, it was a populous Indian pueblo. When it was first settled by the Spaniards is not known.'

work, the council planning a fort, the rest clearing ground for pitching tents, preparing clapboards for freighting the vessels, laying off gardens, and making fishing-nets.

6. On the fourth of June, Newport, Smith (restored to his position in the council), and twenty others were dispatched to discover the head of the river on which they had located their settlement. This stream was called by the Indians Pow-ha-tan', and by the English the James river. The natives everywhere received the strangers kindly, feasting them with fish, straw. berries, and mulberries, for which Newport requited them with bells, pins, needles, and lookingglasses, which so pleased them that they danced before their guests and followed them from place to place. In six days they reached a town called Powhatan, one of the seats of the great chief of that name, whom they found there. It consisted of twelve wigwams, pleasantly situated on a bold range of hills overlooking the river, with three inlets in front and many cornfields around. This picturesque spot lies on the north bank of the river, about a mile below the falls, and still retains the same name."

JOHN SMITH.

Character

66

7. The men sent out were but poorly fitted to settle in a wild country. Of the number, only twelve were laborers. "There were forty-eight gentlemen to four carpenters." Quarrels occurred, the provisions were spoiled, the natives became hostile, and sickness prevailed. In less of the than four months fifty men, one half of the colony," were carried to the grave, among them being Bartholomew Gosnold. The president of the coun cil, accused of dishonest acts, was deposed, and his successor, "possessing neither judgment nor industry, the management of affairs fell into the hands of Smith, whose

Colonists.