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morning to bring his master a cup of ale, his servant saw a cloud of smoke issuing from Sir Walter's mouth.
Frantically dashing the liquor in his face, he rushed down stairs imploring help, for his master would soon be
burnt to ashes!]
_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 Governor 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.
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.
[Footnote: 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 the track of Columbus to the West India
Islands, and thence along the coast of Florida]
Gosnold, a master of a small bark (1602), discovered and named Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and other
neighboring localities. Loading his vessel with sassafras-root, which was 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.
[Footnote: 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.]
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 thirty-eighth degrees of latitude. This was called South Virginia. They sent out a colony in 1607 under
Captain Newport. He made at Jamestown the first permanent English settlement in the United States.
[Footnote: 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.]
Brief History of the United States 19
THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY, whose principal men resided in Plymouth, had the tract between the
forty-first and forty-fifth degrees of latitude. This was called North Virginia.
[Footnote: They sent out a colony under Captain Popham (poo-am), in the same year with the London
Company. He settled at the mouth of the Kennebec, but the entire party returned home the next spring,
discouraged by the severity of the climate.]
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 which was 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 one being allowed the fruits 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).
[Illustration: Henry Hudson]
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 Spaniards confined their settlements and 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.
[Footnote: After this time, the English is the only nation that directly influences the history of the United
States. The country was settled mainly by emigrants from Great Britain, and in the next epoch all the colonies
become dependencies of that empire.]
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