Lyon Gardiner Tyler - England in America, 1580 to 1652

L >> Lyon Gardiner Tyler >> England in America, 1580 to 1652

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Meanwhile, the idea of building up another English nation across the
seas had taken a firm hold on Gilbert, and among those who communed
with him were his half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh, his brothers Adrian
and John Gilbert, besides Richard Hakluyt, Sir Philip Sydney, Sir
Richard Grenville, Sir George Peckham, and Secretary of State Sir
Francis Walsingham. The ill success of Frobisher had no influence upon
their purpose; but four years elapsed after Gilbert's petition to the
crown in 1574 before he obtained his patent. How these years preyed
upon the noble enthusiasm of Gilbert we may understand from a letter
commonly attributed to him, which was handed to the queen in November,
1577: "I will do it if you will allow me; only you must resolve and
not delay or dally--the wings of man's life are plumed with the
feathers of death."[28]

At length, however, the formalities were completed, and on June 11,
1578, letters to Gilbert passed the seals for planting an English
colony in America.[29] This detailed charter of colonization is most
interesting, since it contains several provisions which reappear in
many later charters. Gilbert was invested with all title to the soil
within two hundred leagues of the place of settlement, and large
governmental authority was given him. To the crown were reserved only
the allegiance of the settlers and one-fifth of all the gold and
silver to be found. Yet upon Gilbert's power two notable limitations
were imposed: the colonists were to enjoy "all the privileges of free
denizens and persons native of England"; and the protection of the
nation was withheld from any license granted by Gilbert "to rob or
spoil by sea or by land."

Sir Humphrey lost no time in assembling a fleet, but it was not till
November 19, 1578, that he finally sailed from Plymouth with seven
sail and three hundred and eighty-seven men, one of the ships being
commanded by Raleigh. The subsequent history of the expedition is only
vaguely known. The voyagers got into a fight with a Spanish squadron
and a ship was lost.[30] Battered and dispirited as the fleet was,
Gilbert had still Drake's buccaneering expedient open to him; but,
loyal to the injunctions of the queen's charter, he chose to return,
and the expedition broke up at Kinsale, in Ireland.[31]

In this unfortunate voyage Gilbert buried the mass of his fortune,
but, undismayed, he renewed his enterprise. He was successful in
enlisting a large number of gentlemen in the new venture, and two
friends who invested heavily--Sir Thomas Gerard, of Lancaster, and Sir
George Peckham, of Bucks--he rewarded by enormous grants of land and
privileges.[32] Raleigh adventured L2000 and contributed a ship, the
_Ark Raleigh_;[33] but probably no man did more in stirring up
interest than Richard Hakluyt, the famous naval historian, who about
this time published his _Divers Voyages_, which fired the heart and
imagination of the nation.[34] In 1579 an exploring ship was sent out
under Simon Ferdinando, and the next year another sailed under John
Walker. They reached the coast of Maine, and the latter brought back
the report of a silver-mine discovered near the Penobscot.[35]

[Footnote 1: Cf. Bourne, _Spain in America_, chap. xvi.]

[Footnote 2: Cf. Cheyney, _European Background of American History_,
chap. v.]

[Footnote 3: Prescott, _Hist. of the Reign of Philip II._, III., 443.]

[Footnote 4: Ibid., chaps, xi., xii.]

[Footnote 5: Maine Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 2d series, II., 59.]

[Footnote 6: Hakluyt, _Discourse on Western Planting_.]

[Footnote 7: Robertson, _Works_ (ed. 1818), XI., 136.]

[Footnote 8: _Nova Britannia_ (Force, _Tracts_, I., No. vi.).]

[Footnote 9: Purchas, _Pilgrimes_ (ed. 1625), III., 809; Hakluyt,
_Voyages_ (ed. 1809), III., 167-174.]

[Footnote 10: Hakluyt, _Voyages_, III., 171; IV., 198.]

[Footnote 11: Purchas, _Pilgrimes_, III., 808; Hakluyt, _Voyages_,
III., 31.]

[Footnote 12: Hakluyt, _Voyages_, I., 270.]

[Footnote 13: Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, III., 7.]

[Footnote 14: Hakluyt, _Voyages_, III., 593, 618.]

[Footnote 15: Ibid., 618-623.]

[Footnote 16: Hakluyt, _Voyages_, IV., 1; Winsor, _Narrative and
Critical History_, III., 59-84.]

[Footnote 17: Camden, _Annals_, in Kennet, _England_, II., 478.]

[Footnote 18: Harris, _Voyages and Travels_, II., 15.]

[Footnote 19: Harris, _Voyages and Travels_, II., 15.]

[Footnote 20: Camden, _Annals_, in Kennet, _England_, II., 478, 479.]

[Footnote 21: Camden, _Annals_, in Kennet, _England_, II., 479, 480;
Hakluyt, _Voyages_, IV., 232-246.]

[Footnote 22: Ibid., 316-341.]

[Footnote 23: Edwards, _Life of Raleigh_, I., 77.]

[Footnote 24: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1513-1616, p. 8.]

[Footnote 25: Hakluyt, _Voyages_, III., 32-46; Edwards, _Life of
Raleigh_, I., 77; Doyle, _English in America_, I., 60.]

[Footnote 26: Hakluyt, _Voyages_, III., 53.]

[Footnote 27: Hakluyt, _Voyages_, III., 52-104, 132.]

[Footnote 28: Brown, _Genesis of the United States_, I., 9.]

[Footnote 29: Hakluyt, _Voyages_, III., 174-176.]

[Footnote 30: Hakluyt, _Voyages_, III., 186.]

[Footnote 31: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1674, p. 17.]

[Footnote 32: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1674, pp. 8-10.]

[Footnote 33: Edwards, _Life of Raleigh_, I., 82, 83.]

[Footnote 34: Stevens, _Thomas Hariot_, 40.]

[Footnote 35: _Cal. of State Pap., Col._, 1574-1660, p. 2.]

CHAPTER II

GILBERT AND RALEIGH COLONIES

(1583-1602)

Preparations for Gilbert's second and fateful expedition now went
forward, and public interest was much aroused by the return of Drake,
in 1580, laden with the spoils of America. Gilbert invited Raleigh to
accompany him as vice-admiral, but the queen would not let him
accept.[1] Indeed, she seemed to have a presentiment that all would
not go well, and when the arrangements for the voyage were nearing
completion she caused her secretary of state, Walsingham, to let
Gilbert also know that, "of her special care" for him, she wished his
stay at home "as a man noted of no good hap by sea."[2] But the
queen's remark only proved her desire for Gilbert's safety; and she
soon after sent him word that she wished him as "great goodhap and
safety to his ship as if herself were there in person," and requested
his picture as a keepsake.[3] The fleet of Sir Humphrey Gilbert,
consisting of five ships bearing two hundred and sixty men, sailed
from Plymouth June 11, 1583, and the "mishaps" which the queen feared
soon overtook them. After scarcely two days of voyage the ship sent by
Raleigh, the best in the fleet, deserted. Two more ships got
separated, and the crew of one of them, freed from Gilbert's control,
turned pirates and plundered a French ship which fell in their way.
Nevertheless, Gilbert pursued his course, and on August 3, 1583, he
reached the harbor of St. John's in Newfoundland, where he found the
two missing ships. Gilbert showed his commission to the fishing
vessels, of which there were no fewer than thirty-six of all nations
in port, and their officers readily recognized his authority. Two days
later he took possession of the country in the name of Queen
Elizabeth, and as an indication of the national sovereignty to all men
he caused the arms of England engraved on lead to be fixed on a pillar
of wood on the shore side.

Mishaps did not end with the landing in Newfoundland. The emigrants
who sailed with Gilbert were better fitted for a crusade than a
colony, and, disappointed at not at once finding mines of gold and
silver, many deserted; and soon there were not enough sailors to man
all the four ships. Accordingly, the _Swallow_ was sent back to
England with the sick; and with the remainder of the fleet, well
supplied at St. John's with fish and other necessaries, Gilbert
(August 20) sailed south as far as forty-four degrees north latitude.
Off Sable Island a storm assailed them, and the largest of the
vessels, called the _Delight_, carrying most of the provisions, was
driven on a rock and went to pieces.

Overwhelmed by this terrible misfortune, the colonists returned to
Newfoundland, where, yielding to his crew, Gilbert discontinued his
explorations, and on August 31 changed the course of the two ships
remaining, the _Squirrel_ and _Golden Hind_, directly for England. The
story of the voyage back is most pathetic. From the first the sea was
boisterous; but to entreaties that he should abandon the _Squirrel_, a
little affair of ten tons, and seek his own safety in the _Hind_, a
ship of much larger size, Gilbert replied, "No, I will not forsake my
little company going homeward, with whom I have passed so many storms
and perils." Even then, amid so much danger, his spirit rose supreme,
and he actually planned for the spring following two expeditions, one
to the south and one to the north; and when some one asked him how he
expected to meet the expenses in so short a time, he replied, "Leave
that to me, and I will ask a penny of no man."

A terrible storm arose, but Gilbert retained the heroic courage and
Christian faith which had ever distinguished him. As often as the
_Hind_, tossed upon the waves, approached within hailing distance of
the _Squirrel_, the gallant admiral, "himself sitting with a book in
his hand" on the deck, would call out words of cheer and
consolation--"We are as near heaven by sea as by land." When night
came on (September 10) only the lights in the riggings of the
_Squirrel_ told that the noble Gilbert still survived. At midnight the
lights went out suddenly, and from the watchers on the Hind the cry
arose, "The admiral is cast away." And only the _Golden Hind_ returned
to England.[4]

The mantle of Gilbert fell upon the shoulders of his half-brother Sir
Walter Raleigh, whose energy and versatility made him, perhaps, the
foremost Englishman of his age. When the _Hind_ returned from her
ill-fated voyage Raleigh was thirty-one years of age and possessed a
person at once attractive and commanding. He was tall and well
proportioned, had thick, curly locks, beard, and mustaches, full, red
lips, bluish gray eyes, high forehead, and a face described as "long
and bold."

By service in France, the Netherlands, and Ireland he had shown
himself a soldier of the same fearless stamp as his half-brother Sir
Humphrey Gilbert; and he was already looked upon as a seaman of
splendid powers for organization. Poet and scholar, he was the patron
of Edmund Spenser, the famous author of the _Faerie Queene_; of
Richard Hakluyt, the naval historian; of Le Moyne and John White, the
painters; and of Thomas Hariot, the great mathematician.

Expert in the art of gallantry, Raleigh won his way to the queen's
heart by deftly placing between her feet and a muddy place his new
plush coat. He dared the extremity of his political fortunes by
writing on a pane of glass which the queen must see, "Fain would I
climb, but fear I to fall." And she replied with an encouraging--"If
thy heart fail thee, climb not at all." The queen's favor developed
into magnificent gifts of riches and honor, and Raleigh received
various monopolies, many forfeited estates, and appointments as lord
warden of the stannaries, lieutenant of the county of Cornwall,
vice-admiral of Cornwall and Devon, and captain of the queen's guard.

The manner in which Raleigh went about the work of colonization showed
remarkable forethought and system. In order to enlist the active
cooperation of the court and gentry, he induced Richard Hakluyt to
write for him, in 1584, his _Discourse on Western Planting_, which he
circulated in manuscript.[5] He not only received from the queen in
1584 a patent similar to Gilbert's,[6] but by obtaining a confirmation
from Parliament in 1585 he acquired a national sanction which
Gilbert's did not possess.[7]

In imitation of Gilbert he sent out first an exploring expedition
commanded by Arthur Barlow and Philip Amidas; but, warned by his
brother's experience, he directed them to go southward. They left the
west of England April 27, 1584, and arrived upon the coast of North
Carolina July 4, where they passed into Ocracoke Inlet south of Cape
Hatteras. There, landing on an island called Wokokon--part of the
broken outer coast--Barlow and Amidas took possession in the right of
the queen and Sir Walter Raleigh.[8]

Several weeks were spent in exploring Pamlico Sound, which they found
dotted with many small islands, the largest of which, sixteen miles
long, called by the Indians Roanoke Island, was fifty miles north of
Wokokon. About the middle of September, 1584, they returned to England
and reported as the name of the new country "Wincondacoa," which the
Indians at Wokokon had cried when they saw the white men, meaning
"What pretty clothes you wear!" The queen, however, was proud of the
new discovery, and suggested that it should be called, in honor of
herself, "Virginia."

Pleased at the report of his captains, Sir Walter displayed great
energy in making ready a fleet of seven ships, which sailed from
Plymouth April 9, 1585. They carried nearly two hundred settlers, and
the three foremost men on board were Sir Richard Grenville, the
commander of the fleet; Thomas Cavendish, the future circumnavigator
of the globe; and Captain Ralph Lane, the designated governor of the
new colony. The fleet went the usual way by the West Indies, and June
20 "fell in with the maine of Florida," and June 26 cast anchor at
Wokokon.

After a month the fleet moved out again to sea, and passing by Cape
Hatteras entered a channel now called New Inlet. August 17, the colony
was landed on Roanoke Island, and eight days later Grenville weighed
anchor for England. On the way back Grenville met a Spanish ship
"richly loaden," and captured her, "boording her with a boate made
with boards of chests, which fell asunder, and sunke at the ships
side, as soone as euer he and his men were out of it." October 18,
1585, he arrived with his prize at Plymouth, in England, where he was
received with great honor and rejoicing.[9]

The American loves to connect the beginnings of his country with a
hero like Grenville. He was one of the English admirals who helped to
defeat the Spanish Armada, and nothing in naval warfare is more
memorable than his death. In an expedition led by Lord Charles Howard
in 1591 against the Spanish plate-fleet, Grenville was vice-admiral,
and he opposed his ship single-handed against five great Spanish
galleons, supported at intervals by ten others, and he fought them
during nearly fifteen hours. Then Grenville's vessel was so battered
that it resembled rather a skeleton than a ship, and of the crew few
were to be seen but the dead and dying. Grenville himself was captured
mortally wounded, and died uttering these words, "Here die I, Richard
Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended my
life, as a true soldier ought to do, fighting for his country, queen,
religion, and honor."[10]

Of the settlers at Roanoke during the winter after their landing
nothing is recorded, but the prospect in the spring was gloomy. Lane
made extensive explorations for gold-mines and for the South Sea, and
found neither. The natives laid a plot to massacre the settlers, but
Lane's soldierly precaution saved the colonists. Grenville was
expected to return with supplies by Easter, but Easter passed and
there was no news. In order to get subsistence, Lane divided his men
into three parties, of which one remained at Roanoke Island and the
other two were sent respectively to Hatteras and to Croatoan, an
island just north of Wokokon.

Not long after Sir Francis Drake, returning from sacking San Domingo,
Cartagena, and St. Augustine, appeared in sight with a superb fleet of
twenty-three sail. He succored the imperilled colonists with supplies,
and offered to take them back to England. Lane and the chief men,
disheartened at the prospects, abandoned the island, and July 28,
1586, the colonists arrived at Plymouth in Drake's ships, having lost
but four men during the whole year of their stay.[11]

A day or two after the departure of the colonists a ship sent by
Raleigh arrived, and about fourteen or fifteen days later came three
ships under Sir Richard Grenville, Raleigh's admiral. Grenville spent
some time beating up and down Pamlico Sound, hunting for the colony,
and finally returned to England, leaving fifteen men behind at Roanoke
to retain possession.[12] This was the second settlement.

The colonists who returned in Drake's ships brought back to Raleigh
two vegetable products which he speedily popularized. One was the
potato,[13] which Raleigh planted on his estate in Ireland, and the
other was tobacco, called by the natives "uppowoc," which he taught
the courtiers to smoke.

Most of the settlers who went with Lane were mere gold-hunters, but
there were two who would have been valuable to any society--the
mathematician Thomas Hariot, who surveyed the country and wrote an
account of the settlement; and John White, who made more than seventy
beautiful water-colors representing the dress of the Indians and their
manner of living. When the engraver De Bry came to England in 1587 he
made the acquaintance of Hakluyt, who introduced him to John White,
and the result was that De Bry was induced to turn Hariot's account of
Virginia into the first part of his celebrated _Peregrinations_,
illustrating it from the surveys of Hariot and the paintings of John
White.[14]

If Raleigh was disappointed with his first attempt at colonization he
was encouraged by the good report of Virginia given by Lane and
Hariot, and in less than another year he had a third fleet ready to
sail. He meant to make this expedition more of a colony than Lane's
settlement at Roanoke, and selected as governor the painter John
White, who could appreciate the natural productions of the country.
And among the one hundred and fifty settlers who sailed from Plymouth
May 8, 1587, were some twenty-five women and children.

The instructions of Raleigh required them to proceed to Chesapeake
Bay, of which the Indians had given Lane an account on his previous
voyage, only stopping at Roanoke for the fifteen men that Grenville
had left there; but when they reached Roanoke Simon Ferdinando, the
pilot, refused to carry them any farther, and White established his
colony at the old seating-place. None of Grenville's men could be
found, and it was afterwards learned that they had been suddenly
attacked by the Indians, who killed one man and so frightened the rest
as to cause them to take to sea in a row-boat, which was never heard
of again.

Through Manteo, a friendly Indian, White tried to re-establish
amicable relations with the natives, and for his faithful services
Manteo was christened and proclaimed "Lord of Roanoke and
Dasamon-guepeuk"; but the Indians, with the exception of the tribe of
Croatoan, to which Manteo belonged, declined to make friends. August
18, five days after the christening of Manteo, Eleanor Dare, daughter
to the governor and wife of Ananias Dare, one of White's council, was
delivered of a daughter, and this child, Virginia, was the first
Christian born in the new realm.[15]

When his granddaughter was only ten days old Governor White went to
England for supplies. He reached Hampton November 8, 1587.[16] He
found affairs in a turmoil. England was threatened with the great
Armada, and Raleigh, Grenville, Lane, and all the other friends of
Virginia were exerting their energies for the protection of their
homes and firesides.[17] Indeed, the rivalry of England and Spain had
reached its crisis; for at this time all the hopes of Protestant
Christendom were centred in England, and within her borders the
Protestant refugees from all countries found a place of safety and
repose. In 1585 the Dutch, still carrying on their struggle with
Spain, had offered Queen Elizabeth the sovereignty of the Netherlands,
and, though she declined it, she sent an army to their assistance. The
French Huguenots also looked to her for support and protection. Spain,
on the other hand, as the representative of all Catholic Europe, had
never appeared so formidable. By the conquest of Portugal in 1580 her
king had acquired control over the East Indies, which were hardly less
valuable than the colonies of Spain; and with the money derived from
both the Spanish and Portuguese possessions Philip supported his
armies in Italy and the Netherlands, and was the mainstay of the pope
at Rome, the Guises in France, and the secret plotters in Scotland and
Ireland of rebellion against the authority of Elizabeth.

This wide distribution of power was, however, an inherent weakness
which created demands enough to exhaust the treasury even of Philip,
and he instinctively recognized in England a danger which must be
promptly removed. England must be subdued, and Philip, determining on
an invasion, collected a powerful army at Bruges, in Flanders, and an
immense fleet in the Tagus, in Spain. For the attack he selected a
time when Amsterdam, the great mart of the Netherlands, had fallen
before his general the duke of Palma; when the king of France had
become a prisoner of the Guises; and when the frenzied hatred of the
Catholic world was directed against Elizabeth for the execution of
Mary, queen of Scots.

How to meet and repel this immense danger caused many consultations on
the part of Elizabeth and her statesmen, and at first they inclined to
make the defence by land only. But Raleigh, like Themistocles at
Athens under similar conditions, urgently advised dependence on a
well-equipped fleet, and after some hesitation his advice was
followed. Then every effort was strained to bring into service every
ship that could be found or constructed in time within the limits of
England, so that in May, 1588, when Philip's huge Armada set sail from
the Tagus, a numerous English fleet was ready to dispute its onward
passage. A great battle was fought soon after in the English Channel,
and there Lord Charles Howard of Effingham, and Raleigh and Drake and
Hawkins joined with Grenville and Cavendish and Frobisher and Lane,
and all the other glorious heroes of England, in the mighty overthrow
of the Spanish enemy.[18]

Under the inspiration of this tremendous victory the Atlantic Ocean
during the next three years swarmed with English cruisers, and more
than eight hundred Spanish ships fell victims to their attacks. So
great was the destruction that the coast of Virginia abounded in the
wreckage.[19] But the way to a successful settlement in America was
not entirely opened until eight years later, when the English fleet,
under Howard, Raleigh, and Essex, completed the destruction of the
Spanish power by another great naval victory won in the harbor of
Cadiz.

Amid all this excitement and danger Raleigh did not forget his colony
in Virginia. Twice he sent relief expeditions; but the first was
stopped because in the struggle with Spain all the ships were demanded
for government service; and the second was so badly damaged by the
Spanish cruisers that it could not continue its voyage. Raleigh had
spent L40,000 in his several efforts to colonize Virginia, and the
burden became too heavy for him to carry alone. As Hakluyt said, "It
required a prince's purse to have the action thoroughly followed out."
He therefore consented, in 1589, to assign a right to trade in
Virginia to Sir Thomas Smith, John White, Richard Hakluyt, and others,
reserving a fifth of all the gold and silver extracted, and they
raised means for White's last voyage to Virginia.[20]

It was not until March, 1591, that Governor White was able to put to
sea again. He reached Roanoke Island August 17, and, landing, visited
the point where he had placed the settlement. As he climbed the sandy
bank he noticed, carved upon a tree in Roman letters, "CRO," without a
cross, and White called to mind that three years before, when he left
for England, it had been agreed that if the settlers ever found it
necessary to remove from the island they were to leave behind them
some such inscription, and to add a cross if they left in danger or
distress. A little farther on stood the fort, and there White read on
one of the trees an inscription in large capital letters, "Croatoan."
This left no doubt that the colony had moved to the island of that
name south of Cape Hatteras and near Ocracoke Inlet. He wished the
ships to sail in that direction, but a storm arose, and the captains,
dreading the dangerous shoals of Pamlico Sound, put to sea and
returned to England without ever visiting Croatoan.[21] White never
came back to America, and his separation from the colony is heightened
in tragic effect by the loss of his daughter and granddaughter.

What became of the settlers at Roanoke has been a frequent subject of
speculation. When Jamestown was established, in 1607, the search for
them was renewed, but nothing definite could be learned. There is,
indeed, a story told by Strachey that the unfortunate colonists,
finally abandoning all hope, intermixed with the Indians at Croatoan,
and after living with them till about the time of the arrival at
Jamestown were, at the instigation of Powhatan, cruelly massacred.
Only seven of them--four men, two boys, and a young maid--were
preserved by a friendly chief, and from these, as later legends have
declared, descended a tribe of Indians found in the vicinity of
Roanoke Island in the beginning of the eighteenth century and known as
the Hatteras Indians.[22]

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