Nation in a Nutshell | Page 6

accordingly sent
out to Florida by King Philip, and assumed its governorship; and on
September 8, 1565, Saint Augustine, the oldest town in the United
States, was founded, and Philip of Spain was solemnly proclaimed
sovereign of all North America. Menendez lost no time in attacking the
Huguenot colonists of Carolina. They were speedily defeated, and most
of them were ruthlessly massacred; and our almost virgin soil was thus
early the scene of another St. Bartholomew.
Meanwhile, England was not idle in contesting with France and Spain
the supremacy of the western land. Very early in the sixteenth century

projects of colonizing America were formed in England.
[Sidenote: English Colonization.]
Numerous voyages hither were undertaken during the reign of Henry
VIII.; but the accounts which remain of them are rare and meagre.
Some of them resulted in terrible disasters of shipwreck and death. Late
in the century a courageous and determined navigator, Martin Frobisher,
made three voyages to America, but without establishing a colony, or
finding the treasures of gold and gems which he sought. Later, Sir
Humphrey Gilbert, the half-brother of Raleigh, and Barlow, made
attempts to found colonies, but in vain.
[Sidenote: Raleigh's Expedition.]
It was in the spring of 1585 that Sir Walter Raleigh fitted out his
famous expedition of seven ships, and one hundred and eight emigrants,
and sent it forth, bound for the shores of Carolina. At first it seemed as
it art English colony were really about to prosper in the new land. They
established themselves at Roanoke, and explored the country. Hariot,
one of the shrewdest of them, discovered the seductive proper- ties of
tobacco, the succulence of Indian corn, and the nutritive quality of
potatoes.
[Sidenote: Sir Francis Drake.]
The hostility of the natives, however, soon became so bitter, and their
attacks so frequent, that the colony was glad to return to England in the
visiting ships of Sir Francis Drake. Two years later Raleigh,
undismayed by the failure of his first colony, sent out another, under
John White, which settled on the Isle of Roanoke, and founded the "city
of Raleigh." It was here that, on the 18th of August, 1587, the first child
of English parents was born on American soil. Her name was Virginia
Dare, and she was the granddaughter of Governor White. The Governor
returned to England, leaving the emigrants behind; and on his going
back to Roanoke, three years afterwards, no vestige of the colony could
be discovered. It is supposed that they were all massacred by the
Indians during White's absence. The first permanent settlement in
America, was made by the French, at Port Royal, in 1605.
[Sidenote: Port Royal.]
[Sidenote: Colonies in Virginia.]
English enterprise was now at last ready to found and perpetuate states
on the new continent. In little more than a year after the French

occupation of Port Royal, a patent was granted by King James the First
to a party of colonists, under Newport and Smith, authorizing them to
form a government in Virginia, subject to the English crown. Imagine,
then, three small ships setting forth, on the bleak 19th of December,
1606, and directing their way to Virginia, with one hundred and five
men on board, and freighted with a goodly store of arms and provisions.
Most of the party were gallant and courtly cavaliers: there were but
twelve laborers and four carpenters in all the company. After a stormy
voyage they passed up the James River, and landing, on its shores, they
founded Jamestown.
[Sidenote: Heinrich Hudson.]
The news of the colonization of Virginia, the success of the
adventurous emigrants in maintaining their settlement, and the fertility,
beauty, and salubriousness of the continent, soon inspired other
enterprises of a similar kind. The Dutch have always been famous
navigators; and it was in 1609 that gallant Heinrich Hudson, alter two
previous futile attempts to find a western passage to India, reached
these shores, and sailed up the noble river which now bears his name.
Five years after, a Dutch colony was formed on Manhattan Island,
whereon the city of New York now stands, to which was first given the
name of "New Amsterdam." The colony prospered, and in 1624 the
island was purchased of the Indians for twenty four pounds English
money.
[Sidenote: The Pilgrims and Puritans.]
We now reach the fourth permanent colony on American soil; that
which was more powerful in shaping our destinies and determining our
national traits than any other. The story of the Pilgrims and Puritans is
almost too familiar to be rehearsed. Every schoolboy knows of their
adventures and trials, their hardships and their dauntless energy, their
piety and rigidity of rule, the great qualities by the exercise of which it
may be justly claimed that they made themselves the true founders of
the American Republic.