October. Sir R. the coast. On his arrival, he immediately held a court of admiralty, and received complaints from one hundred and seventy masters of English vessels of injuries, done in trade and navigation; a fact, which shews the flourishing state of the English cod fishery, at that early period. Many thousands of English, French, Portuguese, and others, were already settled at Newfoundland.* Sir Richard Hawkins, by commission from the Voyage of Plymouth company, of which he was this year the Hawkins. president, made a voyage to New England, to search the country and its commodities; but, finding the natives at war among themselves, he passed along to Virginia, and returned home, without making a ny new observations.3 Virginia Tobacco, Eight ships 1616. Sir George Yeardley, to whom the govern ment of the Virginian colony was now committed, having sent to the Chickahominies for the tribute corn, and received an insolent answer, proceeded with one hundred men to their principal town, where he was received with contempt and scorn. Perceiving the Indians to be in a hostile and menacing posture, he ordered his men to fire on them; and twelve were killed on the spot. Twelve also were taken prisoners, two of whom were senators, or elders; but they paid one hundred bushels of corn for their ransom, and, as the price of peace, loaded three English boats with corn. Tobacco was about this time first cultivated by the English in Virginia. Four ships sailed from London, and four from England. Plymouth, to New England, whence they carried sent to N. 1 Univ. Hist. xxxix. 249. 2 Prince, 43. 3 Gorges N. Eng. 22. Prince, 43. Belknap Biog. i. 360. great quantities of fish and oil, which were sold ad- 1616. vantageously in Spain and the Canary islands.' The Edwin, a vessel from one of the West India Bermudas. islands, coming into Bermudas with figs, pines, sugar canes, plantanes, papanes, and various other plants, they were immediately replanted there, and cultivated with success. B. Bylot. Sir Thomas Smith and other gentlemen in Eng- Voyage of land sent out the ship Discovery the fifth time, under the command of Robert Bylot. After passing Davis's Straits, he came to some islands, in seventy two degrees forty five minutes north latitude, where he found women only, whom he treated with kindness, making them presents of iron. These islands he called Women's Isles. Proceeding one degree Women's farther north, he put into a harbour, and was visited by the inhabitants, who brought him seal skins and horns, in exchange for iron. He named the Horn place Horn Sound. On this voyage he also discoV- other ered and named Cape Dudley Digges, Wolsten- sounds and holme's Sound, Whale Sound, Hakluyt's Island, Cary's Islands, Alderman Jones's Sound, and James Lancaster's Sound. Sound, and islands, Baflin. William Baffin, on a voyage for the discovery of Voyage E a northwest passage to China, sailed to the seventy eighth degree of north latitude, where he discovered a bay, which he called by his own name; but he Baffin's returned, without finding the desired passage.* 1 Smith Virg. 228. Purchas, v. 1839. Harris Voy. i. 851. Anderson, ii. 269. A quarto volume, published this year at London, shows the progressive attention of the English to the northern parts of this country. It was entitled: "A Description of NEW ENGLAND, Or, the Observations and Discoveries of Capt. John Smith (Admiral of that country) in 1614, with the success of 6 ships that went the next year 1615, and the accidents befel him among the French men of War; with the proof of the present benefit this country affords, whither, this year 1616, eight voluntary ships are gone, to make further trial." Prince, 145. 2 Smith Virg. 184. 3 Forster Voy. 352-357. Whale Sound is in 77 deg. 30 min. 4 Brit. Emp. i. 3. Anderson, ii. 268. Baffin, in a letter to J. Wolstenholme Esq. writes: "In Sir Thomas Smith's Sound in 78 deg. by divers good observations I found the compass varied above 5 points, or 56 degrees to the westward; so that a N. E. by E. is true north, a thing incredible, and Bay: 1616. The States General of Holland having, in favour Voyage of of their East India company, prohibited all others Schouten. from going to India, either by the Cape of Good Le Maire's Hope eastward, or through the Straits of Magellan westward; it was projected to attempt the discovery of a new western passage into the South Sea, southward of those straits. Isaac le Maire, a merchant of Amsterdam, the first projector of the design, and William Cornelitz Schouten, a merchant of Hoorn, fitted out two ships, on this enterprise, of which Schouten took the command. Having sailed from the Texel in June the preceding year, he in January, three degrees to the southward of the Magellannic January. Straits, discovered land, the east part of which he Discovers named States Land, and the west, Maurice Land, Strait. between which he found a new strait, which he named after his partner, Le Maire. Passing through this strait, he doubled a cape, which he called Cape Hoorn. Crossing the Southern ocean, he proceeded to the East Indies, and thence to Holland. This was the sixth circumnavigation of the globe. In this voyage Schouten took formal possession of several islands in the southern hemisphere, in the name of the States General, 3 Cape Hoorn. matchless in all the world besides." Harris Voy. i. 593. After this voy age, the English made no attempts to discover the Northwest passage un til the year 1631. Ibid. 634. I Monson Nav. Tracts Churchill Voy. iii. 403. 2 Harris Voy. i. 37-45. Anderson, ii. 268. One of the two ships was lost by fire. The other, on its arrival at Jacatra (now Batavia), was seized, together with the goods on board, by the president of the Dutch East India company; and Schouten and his men took passage home in one of that company's ships, completing their navigation in two years and eighteen days. Ibid. In Bibliotheca Americ, [81] there is this title of a book: "Diarium vel Descriptio laboriosissimi et molestissimi Itineris facti, a Gu lielmo Cornelii Schoutenio Hornano annis 1615, 1616, et 1617. Cum Fig. Quarto. Amst. 1619." Purchas (v. 1391.] says," the Hollanders challenge the discovery of new straits by Mayre and Schouten before twice sailed about by Sir F. Drake;" but I have found no satisfactory evidence to set aside the Dutch claim, the justness of which is conceded by the best English historians. 3 Chalmers, i, 595. See Harris Voy. ii. 805. 1617. Captain Argal, arriving at Virginia as governor, State of found all the public works and buildings in James Virginia Town fallen to decay; five or six private houses only, fit to be inhabited; the store house used for a church; the market place, streets, and all other spare places, planted with tobacco; the people of the colony dispersed, according to every man's convenience for planting and their entire number reduced nearly to four hundred, not more than two hundred of whom were fit for husbandry and tillage.3 Pocahontas Pocahontas, having accompanied her English hus- Death of band, Mr. Rolfe, to England, was taken sick at Gravesend, while waiting to embark for Virginia, and died, at the age of about twenty two years.* Unsuccessful as repeated attempts had been, for settling New England, the hope of success was not abandoned. Captain John Smith was provided at Plymouth with three ships for a voyage to this country, where he was to remain with fifteen men ; but he was wind bound for three months; and lost the season. The ships went to Newfoundland ; and the projected voyage was frustrated. 6 N.England age of Sir Sir Walter Ralegh, having been liberated from Last voy the tower, obtained a royal commission to settle W. Ralegh Guiana. Several knights and gentlemen of quality to Guiana. furnished a number of ships, and accompanied him in the enterprise. They left Plymouth about the last of June, with a fleet of fourteen sail, but were obliged, through stress of weather, to put in at Cork in Ireland. Arriving at Guiana on the twelfth of November, they soon after assaulted the new Span 1 Smith Virg. 123. Stith, 146. 2 Beverly, p. 50. 3 Smith Virg. 1234 Smith Virg. 123. Stith [146] says, that conformably to her life, she died "a most sincere and pious Christian." She left one son only, Thom as Rolfe; whose posterity was respectable, and inherited lands in Virginia by descent from her. Keith, 129. 5 Purchas, v. 1839. 6 See p. 151, note 3. He was confined in the tower above 12 years. This commission is in Hazard Coll. i. 82--85. 1617. ish city of St. Thome, which they sacked, plunder ed, and burned. Having staid at the river Caliana until the fourth of December, Ralegh deputed captain Keymis to the service of the discovery of the mines, with five vessels, on board of which were five companies of fifty men each, who, after repeated skirmishes with the Spaniards, returned in February without success., Disappointed again in his sanguine expectations, he abandoned the enterprise, and sailed back to England. The hostile assault, made on St. Thome, having given umbrage, king James had issued a proclamation against Ralegh, who, on his arrival, was again committed to the tower; and not long after was beheaded. He was one of the greatest and most accomplished persons of the age, in which he lived. He was the first Englishman, who projected settlements in America; and is justly considered as the Founder of Virginia. To This is said to have been the only town in Guiana, then possessed by the Spaniards [Josselyn Voy. 247.]; though the English adventurers found many fortifications there," which were not formerly." St. Thome consisted of 140 houses, though lightly built, with a chapel, a convent of Francis can friars, and a garrison, erected on the main channel of the Oronoque, about 20 miles distant from the place where Antonio Berreo, the governor, taken by Ralegh in his first discovery and conquest here, attempted to plant. Heylin Cosmog, 1086. See A. D. 1595 Stow Chron. 1030. Walter Ralegh, a son of the knight, having accompanied his father, was slain in the assault. Ibid. 2 It was dated 11 June, and entitled, «Proclamatio concernens Walte rum Rawleigh Militem & Viagium suum ad Guianam." It is in Rymer's Fadera, xvii. 92; and Hazard Coll. i. 85, 86. 3 Birch Life Raleigh, 67, 79. Stow Chron. 1039. Josselyn Voy. 247. Oldys Life Ral. 195-232. Anderson, ii. 272. Prince, 59. Gondemar, the Spanish ambassador at the court of king James, having gained the earliest intelligence of the transaction at Guiana, complained of it to that king," as what tended not only to the infringement of his majesty's promise, but of that happy union" from the projected match between young Charles, prince of Wales, and the Infanta of Spain, " now in a hopeful de gree of maturity." Oldys. Ralegh returned from Guiana in July 1618; was committed to the tower 10 August; brought to trial at king's bench 28 October, and condemned to suffer death on his sentence of 1603; and beheaded the next morning at the age of sixty six years. The sentence of 1603 was on a charge of conspiracy for dethroning king James, in favour of the king's cousin, Lady Arabella Stuart. Burnet [Hist. Own Time, i 12.] says, the execution of Ralegh "was counted a barbarous morifies ing him to the Spaniards." 4 Stith, 125. Coll. Hist. Soc. ix. 5% " |