Voyage of May 6. ton. 1604. The Sieur de Monts, taking Champlain as his pilot, and attended by M. Poutrincourt with a number of volunteer adventurers,' embarked with two vessels for America. Arriving at Acadie, he a vessel at confiscated an interloping vessel in one of its harPort Ros- bours, which was now called Port Rossignol.* signol. Coasting thence he arrived at another port, which Port Mut his people named Port Mutton. From this port they coasted the peninsula to the southwest; doubled Cape Sable; and came to anchor in the bay of St. Mary. After sixteen days, they proceeded to examine an extensive bay on the west of the peninsula, to which they gave the name of La Baye Francoise. On the eastern side of this bay they discovered a narrow strait, into which they entered, and soon found themselves in a spacious bason, environed with hills, and bordered with fertile meadows. Poutrincourt was so delighted with this place, that he determined to take his residence Port Royal. here; and, having received a grant of it from De Monts, he called it Port Royal. From Port Roy Baye Fran coise. 5 This estimate includes seamen, fishermen, and shoremen. They were accustomed to sail in March, and to return in September; and to spend every winter at home what they acquired in their summer fishery, that is, upwards of £100,000. Ibid. 1 Some were Protestants and some Catholics. "Il assembla nombre de Gentils-hommes, et de toutes sortes d' artisans, soldats et autres, tant d' une que d'autre religion, Prestres et Ministres." Champlain, 43, who says (ibid.) that they were one month only in the voyage to Cap de la Héve, which lies several leagues to the eastward of Port Rossignol, in 44 deg. 5 min. After they left this cape, it appears, that Champlain parted from De Monts and went by his order in quest of a place for settlement. Ibid. 44, 57, 60. 2 From Rossignol, one of his countrymen, who was trading there with the Indians without licence; for which reason his ship and cargo were seized. Charlevoix Nouv. France, i. 115. The harbour is on the southeast side of Nova Scotia, and is now called Liverpool. Belknap Biog. i. 324. 3 Because a sheep leaped overboard there, and was drowned. L'Escarbot. 4 Now called The Bay of Fundy. Belknap. 5 Now called Annapolis. Belknap. "In this port (says Escarbot) we dwelt three yeeres after this voyage." Henry IV confirmed this gift to Poutrincourt: "en l' an 1607 le feu Roy Henry le grand luy ratifica et confirma ce don." Champlain. al De Monts sailed farther into the great bay, to 1604. visit a copper mine.' Champlain in the mean time, in examining this bay pursuant to the instructions of De Monts, came to a great river, which 2 he called St. John. From this river he coasted the St. John's bay southwesterly twenty leagues, and came to river. an island, in the middle of a river. De Monts, on his arrival, built a fort, and passed the winter Builds a on this island, which he called St. Croix. 3 This fort at St. situation proving very inconvenient, he, the ensuing Croix, and spring, removed his settlement over the Baye Fran- there. coise to Port Royal. This was the first settlement 4 I It was a high rock, on a promontory, between two bays [Menis]. Belknap. 2 This was along the coast of the Etechemins: "The people that be from Saint John's river to Kinnibeki (wherein are comprised the rivers of St. Croix and Norombega) are called Etechemins." Escarbot. The river St. John was called by the natives Ouygondy. Champlain. The French did not now sail 50 leagues up this river (as Dr. Belknap seems to have supposed), but in 1608. Purchas, v. 1622. 3 The river, named by the natives Scoodick, in which this Island lies, is also called St. Croix; and, being part of the boundary between the territory of the United States and the British Province of New Brunswick, it has become a stream of great importance. After the treaty of 1783, by which the river St. Croix was made a boundary, it became a question, which was the real St. Croix; whether the river, known by the name of Scoodick, or that, known by the name of Magaguadavick. It has however been satisfactorily determined, by Commissioners appointed for that purpose, that the Scoodick is the river, originally named St. Croix ; and the line has been settled accordingly. Professor Webber, who accompanied the Commissioners in 1798, informs me, that they found an island in this river, corresponding to the French descriptions of the island St. Croix, and, near the upper end of it, the remains of a very ancient fortification, overgrown with large trees; that the foundation stones were traced to a considerable extent; and that bricks (a specimen of which he showed me) were found there. There is no doubt, but that these were the reliques of De Monts' fortification. 4 Escarbot, in Churchill Voy. iii. 798-815. Purchas, i. 751, 752. v. 1620—1626. Champlain, 42-44. Charlevoix, Nouv. France, i. 115, and Fastes Chron. 28. Harris Voy. i. 813-815. Belknap Biog. i. 324330. Univ. Hist. xxxix. 411. Minot Mass. i. 127. The stores, which had been deposited at St. Croix, were removed across the bay, but the buildings were left standing. New houses were erected at the mouth of the river L'Equille, which runs into the bason of Port Royal; and here the people and stores were lodged. The winter had been severe; all the people had been sick; 36 had died, and 40 only were left alive. As soon as these were recovered, De Monts sought a comfortable station in a warmer climate. He sailed along the coast to Penobscot, Kennebeck, Casca, Saco, and ultimately to Malebarre, which was at that time the French winters 1604. in Acadie [Nova Scotia]; and was begun four years after the temporary residence of Pontgrave's company in Canada.' Voyage of G. Weymouth. Two Jesuits, introduced by Poutrincourt into Port Royal, leaving that place soon after on account of some controversy, went to Mount Desert, and began a plantation there.* 1605. King James having recently made peace with Spain, and the passion for the discovery of a North West passage being now in its full vigour, a ship was sent out with a view to this discovery, by the earl of Southampton and lord Arundel, under the command of George Weymouth. He sailed from the Downs with twenty eight persons on the last of March 31. March; and on the fourteenth of May discovered land in about forty one degrees, thirty minutes, north latitude. Being entangled here among shoals, he quitted this land, and about fifty leagues distant discovered several islands, on one of which he landed, and called it St. George. Within three leagues of this island he came into a harbour, which he called Pentecost harbour; then sailed up a great harbour. river forty miles; set up crosses in several places; Sails. May 18. Lands on an island, which he calls St. George. Pentecost name of Cape Cod; but the natives appearing numerous and unfriendly, and his company being small, he returned to St. Croix, and then to Port Royal, where he found Dupont, in a ship from France, with supplies and a reinforcement of 40 men. Having put his affairs into good order, he embarked for France in September 1605, leaving Dupont as his lieutenant, with Champlain and Champdore, to perfect the settlement, and explore the country. Escarbot. Belknap. M. de Poutrincourt returned to France with De Monts, if he had not indeed previously returned; for he "made the voyage into these parts with some men of good sort, not to winter there, but as it were to seeke out his seate, and find out a land that might like him. Which he having done, had no need to sojourn there any longer. So then the ships being ready for the returne, he shipped himselfe, and those of his companie, in one of them." Purch. v. 1622. 1 "Ce fut en 1604 que les François s'établirent en Acadie, quatre ans avant d'avoir eleve la plus petite cabane dans le Canada." Precis sur l' Amerique, 56. 2 Belknap Biog. i. 41. Purchas, v. 1807, 1808. 3 "The discovery of which they seem to be proudest was that of a river, which they do upon many accounts prefer to any known American river." and had some traffic with the natives. In July he 1606. Although one hundred and nine years had elapsed since the discovery of the continent of America by the Cabots, in the service of Henry VII of England; yet the English had made no effectual settlement in any part of the New World. Twenty years had passed since the first attempt of Sir Walter Ralegh to establish a colony in Virginia; but not an Englishman was now to be found in all the Virginian territory. The period however of English colonization at length arrived. The grant, made to Sir Walter Ralegh, being void by his attainder, several gentlemen, by the incitement of Mr. Richard Hakluyt, petitioned king James, to Dr. Belknap, in his first volume of American Biography, says, this great river is supposed to be either Penobscot, or Kennebeck; but, before the publication of his second volume, he had satisfied himself, after careful examination and inquiry, that it was the Penobscot. Americ. Biog. i. 41; ii. 149. Purchas [i. 755.] says, Weymouth "discovered three score miles up a most excellent river." See Harris Voy. i. 817. 1 Rosier's account of this voyage is in Purchas v. 1659-1676; and in Smith Virg. 18-20. See also Harris Voy. i. 817, 818. Keith, 52. Prince, 14, Stith, 34. 2 Three years before, at the time of queen Elizabeth's death (1603), which was 110 years after the discovery of America by Columbus, neither the French, Dutch, nor English, nor any other nation, excepting the Spanish, had made any permanent settlement in this New World. In North America not a single European family could be found. The French had now (1606) just begun to make settlements in Canada and Acadie; and these, with the Spanish soldiers, maintained at two or three posts in Florida, appear to have been all the Europeans in North America. 3 He had been arraigned for high treason, and declared guilty; but was reprieved, and committed to the Tower of London. Ralegh, 152-157. Oldys Life of 4 Mr. Hakluyt, at that time prebendary of Westminster, was "the most active and efficacious promoter" of the English settlements in America; and to him "England is more indebted for its American possess ions than to any man of that age." Robertson, book ix, 55, where there is a sketch of his character. He published his first volume of Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation in 1589, and the third, in 1600; a 151 1606. April 10. K. James by patent divides Virginia into two allotted to grant them a patent for the settling of two plantations on the main coasts of America. The king accordingly, by a patent, dated the tenth day of April, divided that portion of North America, which stretches from the thirty fourth to the forty fifth colonies. degree of latitude, into two districts, nearly equal.' The First The Southern, called the First Colony, he granted Colony is to the London Company; the Northern, called the the London Second Colony, he granted to the Plymonth ComCompany; pany. He authorized Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, Edward Maria Wingfield, and their associates, chiefly resident in London, to settle any part, that they should choose, of the Southern district; and vested in them a right of property to the land, extending along the coast fifty miles on each side of the place of their first habitation, and reaching into the interior counthe Second, try a hundred miles. The Northern district he alto the Ply- lotted, as a place of settlement, to several knights, Company. gentlemen, and merchants of Bristol, Plymouth, and other parts of the west of England, with a similar grant of territory. mouth Colonial government. The supreme government of the colonies, that were to be settled, was vested in a Council, resident in England, to be named by the king, according to such laws and ordinances, as should be giv en under his sign manual; and the subordinate ju work, which will perpetuate the praise, due to his learning, diligence, and fidelity; and which will always furnish some of the best materials for American history. I "That vast country, being found upon experience and tryal too large to be moulded upon one entire government, it was thought meet should be divided into a first and second colony." Hubbard MS. N. Eng. 29. 2 The Southern Colony was desirous of "beginning their Plantation and Habitation in some fit and convenient place" between 34 and 41 degrees north latitude, along the coasts of Virginia; the Northern Colony was desirous of planting between 38 and 45 degrees; and the Charter gave liberty accordingly: "Provided that the Plantation and Habitation of such of the said Colonies, as shall last plant themselves shall not be made within one hundred English miles of the other of them, that first began to make their Plantation." Charter. |