in Bodega Bay (1579), he sailed westward, and returned home by way of the Cape of Good Hope.*

Sir Humphrey Gilbert was not a sailor, but he had studied the accounts of American discoveries and concluded that. instead of random expeditions after gold and spices, companies should be sent out to form permanent settlements His attempts to colonize the new world, however, ended fatally. Sailing home in a bark of only ten-tons burden, in the midst of a fearful storm the light of his little vessel suddenly disappeared. Neither ship nor crew was ever seen again.

Sir Walter Raleigh† (raw′11), a half-brother of Gilbert, adopted his views of American colonization. Being a great favorite with Queen Elizabeth, he easily obtained from her a patent of an extensive territory, which was named Virginia in honor of Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen.

Raleigh's first attempt to plant a colony was on Roanoke Island. The settlers made no endeavor to cultivate the soil, but spent their time in hunting for gold and pearls.

At

* He was thus the first Englishman who explored the Pacific coast, and the second European who circumnavigated the globe.

+ Raleigh was not only a man of dauntless courage, but he also added to a handsome person much learning and many accomplishments. Meeting Queen Elizabeth one day while she was walking, he spread his mantle over a wet place in her path. She was so pleased with his gallantry that she admitted him to court, and he continued a favorite during her entire life-time. Conversing with her once upon the singular properties of tobacco, the new Indian weed which was coming into use, he assured her that he could tell the exact weight of smoke in any quantity consumed. The incredulous queen dared him to a wager. Accepting it, Raleigh weighed his tobacco, smoked it, and then carefully weighing the ashes, stated the difference. Paying the bet, Elizabeth remarked that she "had before heard of turning gold into smoke, but he was the first who had turned smoke into gold". This incident illustrates the friendly relations between Raleigh and the queen. After her death, he was accused by James I. of treason, was imprisoned for many years, and finally, executed. On the scaffold, he asked for the ax, and feeling the edge, observed, with a smile, "This is a sharp medicine, but a sound cure for all diseases." Then composedly laying his head on the block, and moving his lips as in prayer, he gave the fatal signal.

They were told that the Roanoke River had its head-waters in golden rocks, by

last, they were nearly starved, when Drake, happening to stop there on one of his exploring tours, took pity on them and carried them home. (See page 42.)

They had lived long enough in America to learn the use of tobacco from the Indians. This they introduced into England. The custom of "drinking tobacco", as it was called, soon became the fashion.*

Raleigh's Second Attempt.-Raleigh,undiscouraged by this failure, still clung to his colonizing scheme. The next time, he sent out families, instead of single men. John White was appointed governor of the City of Raleigh, which they were to found on Chesapeake Bay. A granddaughter of Gov. White, born soon after they reached Roanoke Island, was the first English child born in America. The governor, on returning to England to secure supplies, found the public attention absorbed by the threatened attack of the Spanish Armada. It was three years before he was able to come back. Meanwhile, his family, and the colony he had left alone in the wilderness, had perished. How, we do not know. The imagination can only picture what history has failed to record.

Raleigh had now spent about $200,000, a great sum for that day, on this American colony; and, disheartened, transferred his patent to other parties (1589).

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. Gos'nold,† a master

the Pacific Ocean, and that the walls of a great city near its fountain were thickly studded with pearls.

* An amusing story is told of Raleigh while he was learning to smoke. One morning his servant on entering the room with a cup of ale for his master, saw a cloud of smoke issuing from Sir Walter's mouth. Frantically dashing the liquor in his face, he rushed down stairs imploring help, lest his master should be burned to ashes i + 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

of a small bark, discovered (1602) and named Cape Cod and some of the islands about Martha's Vineyard. Loading his vessel with sassafras-root, 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.

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 thirtyeighth degrees of latitude. This was called South Virginia. They sent out a colony in 1007 under Captain Newport. He made at Jamestown* THE FIRST PERMANENT ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES.

The Plymouth Company, whose principal men resided at Plymouth, had the tract between the forty-first and fortyfifth degrees of latitude. This was called North Virginia.

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,

the track of Columbus to the West India Islands, and thence past the coast of Florida 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.

* 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.

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 person being allowed the fruit 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).*

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 Spanish confined their 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.†

* It is now believed that Verrazani (p. 30) was the true discoverer of this stream, over three quarters of a century before.

+ After this time, the English is the only nation that directly influences the his

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.

The Permanent Settlements.-At the close of the sixteenth century, neither the English nor the French had planted a single stable colony, and the only permanent settlements, north of the Gulf of Mexico, were those of the Spaniards at St. Augustine and Santa Fe. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, permanent settlements multiplied. They were made, as we have seen, by The FRENCH at Port Royal, N. S., in 1605;

The ENGLISH at Jamestown,

The FRENCH at Quebec,

The DUTCH at New York,

The ENGLISH at Plymouth,

in 1607;

in 1608

;

in 1613;

in 1620.

tory of the United States. The country was settled mainly by emigrants from Great Britain, and in the next epoch all the colonies became dependencies of that empire.

+ It is noticeable that the English grants 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 it was donating.

Here lay the shaggy continent from Florida to the Pole, outstretched in savage slumber along the sea. On the bank of the James River was a nest of woe-begone Englishmen, a handful of fur-traders at the mouth of the Hudson, and a few shivering Frenchmen among the snow-drifts of Acadia; while, deep within the wild monotony of desolation, on the icy verge of the great northern river, Champlain upheld the banner of France over the 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.