THE ENGLISH COLONIZATION CF AMERICA fiuring 1.lrz‘S2‘i.1z’1'i.t"w'cth Qtzntnrg ..--. -. -.-... BY E‘DWA§P. 1). NEILL CONSUL OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A1‘ DUBLXN STRAHAN & CO., PUBLISHERS 56 LUDGATE HILL, LONDON 1871 .—I__—-__— EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY THOMAS AND ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN, AND TO THE UNIVERSITY. Tn: GIFT m-' \VILLIAM DEERING AND LYMAN .1. GAGE, Of Evnnston, Ill. Rzcei.rrd Nov. 10, I878. THE ENGLISH COLONIZATION OF AMERICA “Ne: faba dztere, nec 1/era reticere.” PREFACE. THE tracing of the successive steps of the English colonization of North America, during the seventeenth century, is the object of the following chapters. The writer has carefully searched for facts, in the manuscript transactions, of the great London trading company, under whose auspices the first colonists were despatched, and in other original documents. Those acquainted with the standard historians of America, will find in this volume, statements contradictory of the assertions of Robertson, and other eminent writers. Myths creep into history, as noiselessly as book<worms between the leaves of an old volume, and it is as diiii cult to dislodge the former, as the latter. A century hence, the sentimentalist will not thank the writer, ;< who calmly states that the touching story of the Scotch maiden, who was the first to hear the slogan and > \ pibroch, and announce the coming of her countrymen vi PREFACE. to the relief of Lucknow, is a pure and beautiful fiction. As the naturalist, to examine the silk.worm, is obliged to mutilate its delicate and glossy residence, so the historian will not be deterred from tearing away, with the hard steel.pen, the delicate web with which ima gination has frequently surrounded the beginnings of a great nation, like Rome. The accomplished Bancroft speaks of John Bolfe—“ a young Englishman, an amiable enthusiast, who had emi grated to the forests of Virginia, daily, hourly, and, as it were, in his very sleep”—hearing a voice, crying in his ears, that he should strive to make Pocahontas, a young Indian maiden, a Christian, and, constrained by the love of Christ, uniting her, to him, by the holy bonds of matrimony. But the prosaic pages of the London Company’s transactions, and the old folios of Purchas, show that Rolfe was a married man, some years before this union, and that after his death, there was a white Widow and her children, beside the son he had by Pocahontas. The same historian assures us, that the set tlers of Maryland were “ most of them Roman Catholic gentlemen,” while Lord Baltimore, in a letter to the Earl of Straiford, states that the colonists were chiefly poor labouring men, and there is reason to believe that they were mostly Protestants. PREFACE. vii The temptation to theorize, and employ rhetorical embellishment, has, as far as possible, been overcome, and naked facts have been submitted to the reader. In the preparation of this volume upon the seed.time of American civilization, the method of the old Roman Vegetius, in his treatise on the “ Military Art,” has been pursued z “ N ihil enim mihi auctoritatis assumo, sed quæ dispersa sunt, velut in ordinem epitomata conscribo.” linum lnwn. December 1, 1870. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. EDWARD Mzmu WINGYIRLD mm Assocwrns, CHAPTER 11. Losn DELAWARE, CAPTAIN.GENERAL or Vmomu, CHAPTER III. C.u>'mm Suaum. ARGALL, Dsrunr.Govsxxon or VmoIxm, 59 CHAPTER IV. PocanoNns AND HER CoMmmoNs, 68 CHAPTER V. Nomn Vmomu CoLouv, 90 CHAPTER VI. WILLIAM Bnswsnm AND Lmrmm NoNcoNronmsws, . 95 CHAPTER VII. Pxnucx Cormxn, CHAPLAIN 01-‘ Eur Ixnm CoMruv, 104 CHAPTER VIII. C01»1.nm‘s SmwIcss TO VIRGINIA COMPANY, I11 CHAPTER IX. Co1>1.ANI>’s Ssmuos AT Bow Cmmcn, 144 b x CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. PAGE COP1.ANn’s RssmrzNcs AT BBRMUDA8 : AND rm: EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT or Ammroa, . I67 CHAPTER XI. Gsonos, Fmsr Losn BALTIMORE, . 182 CHAPTER XII. HENRY FLEET, Exrnomm or THE POTOMAC RIVER, . 219 CHAPTER XIII. CEGILIUS, sscoNv Lonn BALTIMORE, AND rm: SrrrLsMsm 01-" MARY LAND, . 238 CHAPTER XIV. Ronsrrr EVELYN mm EARLY ExrLomms'or DsLawamz RrvsR, . 259 CHAPTER XV. Fnnsn ANmuzw Wurrra, S.J., . 266 CHAPTER XVI. DR. Tnonms HARRISON AND THE VIRGINIA PURITANS, . 278 CHAPTER XVII. Fnmcis HOWGILL AND EARLY QUAKIZRS, . 290 CHAPTER XVIII. Tm: PmuwNo or rm; Cmmcn or ENGLAND IN rHE CoLoums, . 314 THE ENGLISH COLONIZATION OF AMERICA CHAPTER I. EDWARD MARIA WXNGFIELD AND ASSOCIATES. A PUPIL of Westminster School one day visited a rela -L tive in the Middle Temple, upon whose table were opened books of travel and a map of the world. As distant seas and vast kingdoms but little known were exhibited, the schoolboy resolved, if .he ever entered the University, he would pursue geographical studies, and in consequence of the purpose then formed, became Richard Hakluyt, the best authority in England relative to the climate, races, and productions of the four quarters of the ‘globe. At the time that Sir Francis Drake was fitting out his expedition for America, he was acting as chaplain to the English Embassy in Paris, and so great was his interest in the project, that he wrote he was ready to fly to England “ with wings of Pegasus,” to devote his reading and observation to the furtherance of the work. And after the gallant navigator sailed up the Pacific coast to the fortieth degree north, “ the first to loose the girdle of thi /vvorld, and encompass ' her in his fortunate A 2 HAKLLTYT, THE IIISTORI‘OGR/IPHER. arms,”1 he was delighted with listening to the tales of .returning mariners. The Muscovy, Greenland, and other trading companies did not plan expeditions with out seeking his advice. In the minutes of the East India Company, under date of January 29, 1601.2, is the following.:—“ Mr. Hakluyt, the historiographer of the East India Company, being here before the Com mittees, and having .1jea.d.u.n.to them out of his notes and books, was requested to set down in writing a note of the principal places in the East Indies,.and where trade is to be had, to the end that the same may be used for the better instruction of our factors in the said voyage.”2 On the 14th of May 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold, a man of integrity, landed from the ship “ Concord,” with Gabriel Archer and others, on the coast of what is now called Massachusetts, and passed a month in examining the shores now conspicuous with the domes and monu ments of Boston, the church spires of peaceful villages, and the tall chimneys of manufacturing towns, and gave to one of its headlands a name still retained, Cape Cod. Embarking for the return voyage on the 18th of June, he cast anchor in English waters on the 23d of July, and astonished the mercantile world not only by the shortness of his passage by the new route, but by his calm and reasonable statements as to the healthfulness of the region visited, and its capabilities for sustaining an English.speaking population. 1 Pnrchas’s Pi/griwwge, p. 779. ’ Cal. of State Papers, East Indies, 1513.1616, p. 120. GOSNOLUS PROYECT. 3 Prominent among eager listeners to his statement was Hakluyt, then connected with the cathedral at Bristol, who cordially seconded his desire to found a Nova Britannia on the western continent. Many meet ings were held by Gosnold and Hakluyt with the Bristol merchants, and Robert Salterne, who had accompanied the former in the voyage to America, was appointed with Hakluyt to obtain permission from Sir Walter Raleigh to make a settlement under his patent} Raleigh’s consent obtained, Salterne in 1603 made a second visit with an expedition that left Bristol, who was followed in 1605 by Captain George Weymouth, who returned with several Indians, who remained for more than two years in England. These successive voyages, under the auspices of the most distinguished and enterprising men of Bristol, Ply mouth, and London, deepened the conviction that British pride and interests demanded that they should separate the French settlements on the St. Lawrence, and the Spanish plantations near the Gulf of Mexico, by an English colony. The stage is always quick to allude to the absorbing questions of the hour, and in 1605 the play of “ Eastward Ho,” in the coarse language of the period, reproduced the conversations that had taken place on the pavements around the Royal Exchange :— “ Sea Gull.-—Come, Drawer, pierce your neatest hogs head, and let ’s have cheer, not fit for your Billingsgate tavern, but for our Virginian Colonel; he will be here . instantly. 1 Gorges. 4 THE PLAY OF “EASTWARD HO.” “ Drawer..—You shall have all things fit, sir; please you have anymore Wine ? “ Spend All.—More wine, slave! whether we drink it or no ; spill it and draw more. “ Sea Gull.—Come, boys, Virginia longs till we share the rest of her maidenhead. “ Spend All.—Why, is she inhabited already with .' any English '! - " . “ Sea G'ull.—A whole.country of English is there, man, bred of those left there in ’79 ; they have married with the Indians, and make ’hem bring forth as beauti ful faces as any we have in England ; and therefore the Indians are so in love with ’hem that all the treasure . they have they lay at their feet.’ “ Scapetkrz.'ft.—But is there such treasure there, Captain, as I have heard ? “ Sea Gull..—I tell thee, gold is more plentiful there than copper is with us, and for as much red copper as I can bring I ’11 have thrice weight in gold. Why, man, all their dripping.pans and chamber.pots are pure gold ; and all the chains with which they chain up their streets are massive gold ; all the prisoners they take are fettered in gold ; and for rubies and diamonds they go forth in holy days and gather ’hem by the sea.shore to hang on their children’s coats and stick in their children’s caps as commonly as our children wear saffron.gilt brooches and groates with holes in ’hem.