navigating the world in the three years 1577-80, and brought back a large quantity of bullion captured from the Spaniards. Eleven years afterwards Cavendish did the same, and these two expeditions gave the English a reputation for enterprise and skill in navigation which they had previously by no means deserved. After Drake's famous voyage came the unsuccessful expedition of Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1582-83, which ended in his death and his failure to plant a colony in Newfoundland—where the fisheries, by the way, were becoming already very important. Then in 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh gained a charter from Queen Elizabeth allowing him to take into possession any country not actually belonging to any Christian prince, and to seize all ships that should come without leave into his harbours, except those engaged in the Newfoundland fisheries. Raleigh sent two ships to the coast north of Florida, and these brought back such a glowing report of the colony that the Queen gave it the name of Virginia, in her own honour. In 1585 Sir Richard Grenville, famous to all Englishmen by the ballad of The Revenge, established a colony of 180 persons, under Raleigh's directions, in the island of Roanoke. But this failed, and the colonists were only saved from death by starvation or at the hands of the natives by the timely arrival of Drake, who took them back home. Tobacco was first introduced into England at this time.

120. The English Colonies.-Another attempt failed in 1587 because the colonists set out without sufficient necessaries. But the spirit of adventure was now aroused, and it was sustained by the publications of Hakluyt, prebendary of Westminster; and in 1606 James I. granted charters to two companies for colonising America. The London Company was to colonise South Virginia, and the Plymouth Company North Virginia. These colonists founded James Town, and after many hardships from scarcity of necessaries and fights with the Indians, finally became firmly established. The cultivation of tobacco was introduced in 1616, and became a source of great wealth to the new colony. But the London Company's charter

was taken away in 1624 and the government of the colony fell into the hands of the crown. Royalist governors managed its affairs, and, owing to the freedom they were wise enough to allow, it flourished greatly. At the beginning of the Civil War in England the population was 20,000, and all of these were of English blood.

The colonisation of the northern states was undertaken by settlers without any royal charter, nor were they any the worse off on that account. As all know, the "Pilgrim Fathers" colonised New England, at Plymouth first, in 1620. Ten years later came the colonisation of Massachusetts (1630), at Charles Town first, under a royal charter. New Hampshire was settled in 1631. Then Connecticut was colonised in 1636 by settlers from Plymouth and Massachusetts. Providence was founded in 1637, Rhode Island about the same time; and both were united in 1644, while in 1685 the numbers of the settlers were increased by an accession of French Huguenots. When Maine was first colonised is not accurately known. The other colonies were occupied as follows: Maryland in 1634, North and South Carolina in 1663, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware (taken from the Dutch) in 1664, Pennsylvania in 1683, Georgia last of all in 1733.

121. Colonial Trade. The West Indian Colonies.These colonies grew with great rapidity, considering all the difficulties with which they had to deal; for the population numbered already 200,000 in 1688, rose to 375,750 in 1714 at the accession of George I., and to 1,300,000 by 1756. They exported tobacco, rice, grain, hides, skins, furs, and fish to England, but their trade was restricted to dealings with the mother country, which, unfortunately, looked upon her colonies solely as means for her own enrichment, and adopted the theories of the sole market and monopoly system with fatal rigour towards them. This mistake led to the War of Independence, the cause of which we shall discuss in the next chapter. Meanwhile a Greater Britain was growing up in the west, nor was it confined only to America. It was extended, chiefly under Cromwell's régime, to the West Indies, where, be it noted, our maritime

ascendency, so conspicuous under the Commonwealth, first made itself most clearly felt. Barbadoes had been colonised, under a charter from James I. in 1625, and prospered greatly in the cultivation of indigo, cotton, tobacco, and sugar. St. Christopher, Nevis, and Montserrat also became, between 1623 and 1632, English possessions. Then came a grand attack upon the power of Spain by Cromwell, who boldly sent out a squadron which seized Jamaica in 1655, and thus the English gained a permanent foothold in the West Indies, which they were afterwards enabled considerably to increase. But the growth of our colonial power led to a maritime duel with the Dutch in the time of Cromwell and Charles II., which only ended in 1674, and led to the decline of Holland, though it gave to us our present maritime supremacy. We must speak of it more

fully elsewhere (§ 129).

122. French Colonies in America. Meanwhile, besides a Greater Britain there had been growing up in America a Greater France, that was to cause us a great deal of trouble and anxiety. The development of colonial ambition in France was largely due to the policy of the great statesman and financier Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV. in the middle of the seventeenth century. The French explorer whose name is chiefly connected with the American discovery was Jacques Cartier, of St. Malo, who led an expedition to Newfoundland in 1535, before either Frobisher or Drake ; while Norman and Breton fishermen had frequented the Newfoundland fisheries almost ever since Cabot's discovery of the island in 1496. Settlements were made there by the French; as also in "Acadie," now Nova Scotia, which was granted in 1602 by Henri IV. to a Huguenot nobleman who led a colony to that region. Acadie was subject to continual quarrels between the French and English, who both claimed it. It was finally colonised by the English in 1749, and in 1755 they turned out the French who remained there in a somewhat arbitrary manner.

Other French possessions were New Brunswick, colonised in 1672; and Cape Breton Island, settled in 1714. But the most important French colony was Canada, settled in