1609, and his report of the goodly land he had discovered set in motion those commercial measures which resulted in the founding of a Dutch empire in the New World.

With these discoveries commenced the epoch of settlements. The whole Atlantic coast of North America had been thoroughly or partially explored, the general character and resources of the soil had become known, and henceforth the leading commercial nations of Western Europe-England, France, Spain, and Holland-regarded the transat antic continent, not as merely a rich garden without a wall, where depredators from every shore might come, and, without hinderance, bear away its choicest fruit, but as a land where the permanent foundations of vast colonial empires might be laid, from which parent states would receive almost unlimited tribute to national wealth and national glory.

When we contemplate these voyages across the stormy Atlantic, and consider the limited geographical knowledge of the navigators, the frailty of their vessels' and equipments, the vast labors and constant privations endured by them, and the dangers to which they were continually exposed, we can not but feel the highest respect and reverence for all who were thus engaged in opening the treasures of the New World to the advancing nations of Europe. Although acquisitiveness, or the desire for worldly possessions, was the chief incentive to action, and gave strength to resolution, yet it could not inspire courage to encounter the great dangers of the deep and the wilderness, nor fill the heart with faith in prophecies of success. These sentiments must have been innate: and those who braved the multitude of perils were men of true courage, and their faith came from the teachings of the science of their day. History and Song, Painting and Sculpture, have all commemorated their deeds. If Alexander the Great was thought worthy of having the granite body of Mount Athos hewn into a colossal image of himself," might not Europe and America appropriately join in the labor of fashioning some lofty summit of the Alleghanies3 into a huge monument to the memory of the NAVIGATORS who lifted the vail of forgetfulness from the face of the New World ?*

1 The first ships were generally of less than one hundred tons burden. Two of the vessels of Columbus were without decks; and the one in which Frobisher sailed was only twenty-five tons burden.

2 Dinocrates, a celebrated architect, offered to cut Mount Athos into a statue of Alexander the Great, so large, that it might hold a city in its right hand, and in its left a basin of sufficient capa3 Note 3, page 19. city to hold all the waters that poured from the mountain.

4 Page 47. There has been much discussion concerning the claims of certain navigators, to the honor of first discovering the Continent of America. A "Memoir of Sebastian Cabot," illustrated by documents from the Rolls, published in London in 1832, appears to prove conclusively that he, and not his father, was the navigator who discovered North America. John Cabot was a man of science, and a merchant, and may have accompanied his son, in his first voyage in 1497. Yet, in the patent of February, 1498, in which the first voyage is referred to, are the words, "the land and isles of late found by the said John, in our name, and by our commandment." The first commission being issued in the name of John Cabot, the discoveries made by those employed by him, would of course be in his name. A little work, entitled "Researches respecting Americus Vespucius, and his Voyages," prepared by Viscount Santarem, ex-prime minister of Portugal, casts just doubts upon the statements of Vespucius, concerning his command on a voyage of discovery when, he claims, he discovered South America [page 41] in 1499. He was doubtless an officer under Ojeda; and it is quite cer The most tain that he got possession of the narratives of Ojeda and published them as his own. accessible works on American discoveries, are Irving's "Life of Columbus;" Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella;" Lives of Cabot and Hudson, in Sparks's "American Biography," and Histories of the United States by Bancroft and Hildreth.

JOHN SMITH.

in considering settlements and colonies. The act of forming a settlement is not equivalent to the establishment of a colony or the founding of a State. It is the initiatory step toward such an end, and may or may not exhibit permanent results. A colony becomes such only when settlements assume permanency, and organic laws, subservient to those of a parent government, are framed for the guidance of the people. It seems proper, therefore, to consider the era of settlements as distinct from that of colonial organization.

The period of settlements within the bounds of the thirteen original colonies which formed the Confederacy in the War for Independence,' extends from 1607 to 1733. For fifty years previous to the debarkation [1607] at Jamestown,2 fishing stations had been established at various points on the Atlantic coast: and at St. Augustine, the Spaniards had kept a sort of military post alive. Yet the time of the appearance of the English in the James River, is the true point from which to date the inception or beginning of our great confederacy of

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free States. Twelve years [1607 to 1619] were spent by English adventurers in efforts to plant a permanent settlement in Virginia. For seventeen years [1609 to 1623] Dutch traders were trafficking on the Hudson River, before a permanent settlement was established in New York. Fourteen years [1606 to 1620] were necessary to effect a permanent settlement in Massachusetts; and for nine years [1622 to 1631] adventurers struggled for a foothold in New Hampshire. The Roman Catholics were only one year [1634-5] in laying the foundation of the Maryland colony. Seven years [1632 to 1639] were employed in effecting permanent settlements in Connecticut; eight years [1636 to 1643] in organizing colonial government in Rhode Island; and about fifty years [1631 to 1682] elapsed from the landing of the Swedes on South River,* before Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (whose several histories of settlements are interwoven), presented colonial features. Almost sixty years [1622 to 1680] passed by before the first settlements in the Carolinas became fully developed colonies; but Georgia, the youngest of the thirteen States, had the foundation of its colonial government laid when Oglethorpe, with the first company of settlers, began to build Savannah in the winter of 1733."1 The first permanent settlement within the bounds of the original colonies, was in

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VIRGINIA. [1607—1619].

A century had not elapsed after the discoveries of Columbus [1492]," before a great social and political revolution had been effected in Europe. Commerce, hitherto confined to inland seas and along the coasts, was sending its ships across oceans. The art of printing had begun its wonderful work:13 and, through its instrumentality, intelligence had become generally diffused. Mind thus acting upon mind, in vastly multiplied opportunities, had awakened a great moral and intellectual power, whose presence and strength had not been suspected. The Protestant Reformation" had weakened the bonds of spiritual dominion, and allowed the moral faculties fuller play; and the shadows of feudal institutions,13 so chilling to individual effort, were rapidly disappearing before

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13 About the year 1450. Rude printing from engraved blocks was done before that time; but when Peter Schoeffer cast the first metal types, each letter separately, at about 1450, the art of printing truly had birth. John Faust established a printing-office at Mentz, in 1442. John Guttenberg invented cut metal types, and used them in printing a Bible which was commenced in 1445, and finished in 1460. The names of these three men are usually associated as the inventors of printing.

14 Commenced by Wickliffe, in England, in 1360; by Huss, in Bohemia, in 1405; by Luther, in Germany, in 1517. From this period until 1562, the movement was general throughout Europe. It was an effort to purge the Christian Church of great impurities, by reforming its doctrine and ritual. The Reformers protested against the practices of the Roman Catholic Church, and the title of the movement was, therefore, the Protestant Reformation. The name of Protestants was first given to Luther and others, in 1529.

15 The nature of feudal laws may be illustrated by a single example: William, the Norman conqueror of England, divided the land of that country into parts called baronies, and gave them to certain of his favorites, who became masters of the conquered people on their respective estates. For these gifts, and certain privileges, the barons, or masters, were to furnish the king with a stipu

the rising sun of the new era in the history of the world. Freedom of thought and action expanded the area of ideas, and gave birth to those tolerant principles which lead to brotherhood of feeling. The new impulse developed nobler motives for human action than the acquisition of wealth and power, and these soon engendered healthy schemes for founding industrial empires in the New World. Aspirations for civil freedom, awakened by greater religious liberty, had begun the work, especially in England, where the Protestants were already divided into two distinct parties, called, respectively, Churchmen and Puritans. The former supported the throne and all monarchic ideas.; the latter were more republican; and from their pulpits went forth doctrines inimical to kingly power. These religious differences had begun to form a basis of political parties, and finally became prime elements of colonization.

Another event, favorable to the new impulse, now exerted a powerful influence. A long contest between England and France ceased in 1604. Soldiers, an active, restless class in England, were deprived of employment, and would soon become dangerous to the public peace. While population and general prosperity had greatly increased, there was another large class, who, by idleness and dissipation, had squandered fortunes, and had become desperate men. The soldiers needed employment, either in their own art, or in equally exciting adventures; and the impoverished spendthrifts were ready for any thing which promised gain. Such were the men who stood ready to brave ocean perils and the greater dangers of the Western World, when such minds as those of Fernando Gorges, Bartholomew Gosnold, Chief Justice Popham, Richard Hakluyt, Captain John Smith, and others, devised new schemes for colonization. The weak and timid James the First,' who desired and maintained peace with other nations during his reign, was glad to perceive a new field for restless and adventurous men to go to, and he readily granted a liberal patent [April 20, 1606] to the first company formed after his accession to the throne, for planting settlements in Virginia. The English then claimed dominion over a belt of territory extending from Cape Fear, in North Carolina, to Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and indefinitely westward. This was divided into two districts. One extended from the vicinity of New York city northward to the present southern boundary of Canada, including the whole of New England, and westward of it, and was called NORTHI VIRGINIA. This territory was granted to a company of “knights, gentlemen, and merchants" in the west of England, called the Plymouth Company. The other district extended from the mouth of the Potomac southward to Cape Fear, and was called SOUTH VIRGINIA. It was lated amount of money, and a stated number of men for soldiers, when required. The people had no voice in this matter, nor in any public affairs, and were made essentially slaves to the barons. Out of this state of things originated the exclusive privileges yet enjoyed by the nobility of Europe. Except in Russia, the people have been emancipated from this vassalage, and the ancient forms of feudal power have disappeared.

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1 He was the Sixth James of Scotland, of the house of Stuart, and son of Mary, Queen of Scotland, by Lord Darnley. The crowns of England and Scotland were united by his accession to the throne of the former kingdom, in March, 1603.

2 The chief members of the company were Thomas Hanham, Sir John and Raleigh Gilbert (sons of Sir Humphrey Gilbert), William Parker, George Popham, Sir John Popham (Lord Chief Justice of England), and Sir Fernando Gorges, Governor of Plymouth Fort.

granted to a company of "noblemen, gentlemen and merchants," chiefly residents of London, called the London Company.1 The intermediate domain of almost two hundred miles, was a dividing line, so broad that disputes about territory could not occur, as neither company was allowed to make settlements more than fifty miles beyond its own boundary.

The idea of popular freedom was as yet the heritage of a favored few, and the political character of the first colonial charter, under which a permanent settlement was made within the territory of the United States, was unfavorable to the best interests of all. The king reserved to himself the right of appointing all officers, and of exercising all executive and legislative power. The colonists were to pay homage to the sovereign, and a tribute of one fifth of the net products of gold and silver found in Virginia; yet they possessed no rights of self-government. They were to be governed by a council of seven appointed by the king, who were allowed to choose a president from among themselves. There was also a Supreme Council in England, appointed by the king, who had the general supervision of the colonies, under the direction of the monarch. That charter was the conception of a narrow mind, and despotic temper, and proved totally inadequate as a constitution of government for a free people.

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The North Virginia, or Plymouth Company, made the first attempt at settlement, and failed. The South Virginia, or London Company, sent Captain Christopher Newport, with three vessels and one hundred and five emigrants [Dec., 1606], to make a settlement upon Roanoke Island, where Raleigh's colony had perished almost twenty years before. Among them was Bartholomew Gosnold, the projector of the expedition. materials for a colony. There was no family among them, and only "twelve laborers and a few mechanics." The remainder were "gentlemen," many of whom were vicious, dissolute men, totally unfit for such an enterprise, and quite unworthy to be actors in the glorious events anticipated by Gosnold and his enlightened associates at home. The voyage was a long and tedious one. Newport pursued the old route by the Canaries and the West Indies, and did not arrive upon the American coast until April, 1607, when a storm drove his vessels into Chesapeake Bay, where he found a good harbor. He named the capes at the entrance, Charles and Henry, in honor of the king's sons. A pleasant point of the Virginia peninsula, between the York and James Rivers, which they next landed upon and enjoyed repose, he named Point Comfort; and the noble Powhatan River which he soon afterward entered he called James. Sailing up the broad stream about fifty miles, the immigrants landed upon a beautiful, shaded peninsula," where they chose a site for the capital of the new empire, and called it JAMESTOWN.

1 The chief members of the company were Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt (the historian), and Edward Maria Wingfield, who was the first governor of Virginia. Page 73. 3 Page 55. * This name was given to wealthy men, who were not engaged in any industrial pursuit, and often spent their lives in idleness and dissipation; a class which, in our day and country, number, happily, very few. Labor is worthily honored as more noble than idleness.

5 This may be called an island, for the marsh which connects it with the mainland is often overflowed. The currents of the river have washed away large portions of the original island.