A Brief History of the United States. Joel Dorman Steele
TRADING VOYAGES.—Fortunately for American interests, trading ventures were more profitable than colonizing ones. English vessels frequented the Banks of Newfoundland, and probably occasionally visited Virginia.
[Footnote: The English ships were at that time accustomed to steer southward along the coast of Spain, Portugal, and Africa, as far as the Canary Islands, then they followed the track of Columbus to the West India Islands, and thence along the coast of Florida]
Gosnold, a master of a small bark (1602), discovered and named Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and other neighboring localities. Loading his vessel with sassafras-root, which was then highly esteemed as a medicine, he returned home to publish the most favorable reports of the region he had visited. Some British merchants accordingly sent out the next year a couple of vessels under Captain Pring. He discovered several harbors in Maine, and brought back his ships loaded with furs and sassafras.
[Footnote: northward to the point they wished to reach. Navigators knew this was a roundabout way, but they were afraid to try the northern route straight across the Atlantic. Gosnold made the voyage directly from England to Massachusetts, thus shortening the route 3,000 miles. This gave a great impulse to colonization, since it was in effect bringing America 3,000 miles nearer England.]
As the result of these various explorations, many felt an earnest desire to colonize the new world. James I. accordingly granted the vast territory of Virginia, as it was called, to two companies, the London and the Plymouth.
THE LONDON COMPANY, whose principal men resided at London, had the tract between the thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth degrees of latitude. This was called South Virginia. They sent out a colony in 1607 under Captain Newport. He made at Jamestown the first permanent English settlement in the United States.
[Footnote: The river was called James, and the town Jamestown, in honor of the king of England. The headlands received the names of Cape Henry and Cape Charles from the king's sons; and the deep water for anchorage "which put the emigrants in good comfort," gave the name Point Comfort.]
THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY, whose principal men resided in Plymouth, had the tract between the forty-first and forty-fifth degrees of latitude. This was called North Virginia.
[Footnote: They sent out a colony under Captain Popham (poo-am), in the same year with the London Company. He settled at the mouth of the Kennebec, but the entire party returned home the next spring, discouraged by the severity of the climate.]
THE CHARTER granted to these companies was the first under which English colonies were planted in the United States. It is therefore worthy of careful study. It contained no idea of self-government. The people were not to have the election of an officer. The king was to appoint a council which was to reside in London, and have general control of all the colonies; and also a council to reside in each colony, and have control of its local affairs. The Church of England was the established religion. Moreover, for five years, all the proceeds of the colonial industry and commerce were to be applied to a common fund, no one being allowed the fruits of his individual labor.
DUTCH EXPLORATIONS.
During all this time, the Dutch manifested no interest in the new world. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, however, Captain Henry Hudson, an English navigator in the Dutch service, entered the harbor of New York. Hoping to reach the Pacific Ocean, he afterward ascended the noble river which bears his name (1609).
[Illustration: Henry Hudson]
On this discovery, the Dutch based their claim to the region extending from the Delaware River to Cape Cod. They gave to it the name of New Netherland.
EXTENT OF THESE EXPLORATIONS.
1. The Spaniards confined their settlements and explorations to the West Indies and the adjacent mainland, and in the United States made settlements only in Florida and New Mexico.
2. The French claimed the whole of New France, and made their first settlements in Acadia and Canada.
3. The English explored the Atlantic coast at various points, and claimed this vast territory, which they termed Virginia, having made their first settlement at Jamestown.
[Footnote: After this time, the English is the only nation that directly influences the history of the United States. The country was settled mainly by emigrants from Great Britain, and in the next epoch all the colonies become dependencies of that empire.]
4. The Dutch laid claim to New Netherland, but made no settlement till 1613.
The Rival Claims.—These four claims overlapped one another, and necessarily produced much confusion. While the first few settlements were separated by hundreds of miles of savage forests, this was of little account. But as the settlements increased, the rival claims became a source of constant strife, and were decided principally by the sword.
[Footnote: It is noticeable that the English grants all extended westward to the Pacific Ocean, the French southward from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, and the Spanish northward to the Arctic Ocean. None of the European nations had any idea of the immense territory they were donating.]
Two Centuries of Exploration and One of Settlement.—These explorations had lasted during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and at the close of the sixteenth century, the only permanent settlements were those of the Spaniards at St. Augustine and Santa Fe. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, permanent settlements multiplied. They were made by
The FRENCH at Port Royal, N S., in 1605;
The ENGLISH at Jamestown, in 1607;
The FRENCH at Quebec, in 1608;
The DUTCH at New York, in 1613;
The ENGLISH at Plymouth, in 1620.
[Footnote: Here lay the shaggy continent from Florida to the Pole, outstretched in savage slumber. On the bank of the James River was a nest of woebegone Englishmen, a handful of fur-traders at the mouth of the Hudson, and a few shivering Frenchmen among the snowdrifts of Acadia; while amid still wilder desolation Champlain upheld the banner of France over the icy rock of Quebec. These were the advance guard of civilization, the messengers of promise to a desert continent. Yet, not content with inevitable woes, they were rent by petty jealousies and miserable quarrels, while each little fragment of rival nationalities, just able to keep up its own wretched existence on a few square miles, begrudged to all the rest the smallest share in a domain which all the nations of Europe could not have sufficed to fill.—Parkman.]
Summary of the History of the First Epoch, arranged in Chronological Order.
1492. Columbus discovered the New World, October 12 1497. The Cabots discovered Labrador, July 3 1498. The Cabots explored the Atlantic Coast South America was discovered by Columbus, August 10 Vasco de Gama sailed round the Cape of Good Hope and discovered a passage to India 1512. Ponce de Leon discovered Florida, April 6 1513. Balboa saw the Pacific Ocean, September 29 1519–21. Cortez conquered Mexico 1520. Magellan discovered and sailed through the straits which bear his name, into the Pacific Ocean; and his vessel returning home by the Cape of Good Hope, had made the first circumnavigation of the globe 1524. Verrazani explored the coast of North America 1528. Narvaez explored part of Florida 1534–35. Cartier discovered the Gulf of St. Lawrence and ascended the river to Montreal 1539–41. De Soto rambled over the Southern States and in 1541 discovered the Mississippi River 1540–42. Cabrillo explored California and sailed along the Pacific Coast 1541–42. Roberval attempted to plant a colony on the St. Lawrence, but failed 1562. Ribaut attempted to plant a Huguenot colony at Port Royal, but failed 1564. Laudonniere attempted to plant a Huguenot colony on the St.