PROGRESS OF THE COLONY.

49

9. Much is said by historians in praise of the wisdom, firmness, and piety of Lord Delaware. It is recorded that the first business of each day was to assemble early in the morning in their “little church, which was kept trimmed with the wild flowers of the country," and there to invoke the presence and blessing of God, after which they repaired o their daily labors.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Progress of the Colony at Jamestown.-Lord Delaware's Government.—Administration of Governor Dale.

1. EVERY thing now wore a better appearance. Famine no longer stared the colonists in the face; their health was improved considerably; and the Indians were less troublesome than they had been. Under the administration of Lord Delaware, the people began to enjoy not only safety, but comfort. Their wretched cabins were even exchanged for framed houses covered with boards.

2. Unfortunately for the colony, Lord Delaware's health failed, and he returned to England. He was succeeded, however, soon after his departure, by Sir Thomas Dale. This governor made an important change in the condition of the colony. Hitherto they had held their property and labored in common. Governor Dale assigned to each settler a lot of three acres to cultivate as his own. The quantity was afterward increased to fifty acres.

3. In September, 1611, six ships and 300 new emigrants arrived. There must have been also other arrivals during the year, for it is the concurrent testimony of historians that the population was at this time about 700. Among other things which came were 112 cows, 20 goats, 200 swine, and a large stock of provisions. It must be remembered that none of these domestic animals were natives of America; a fact which we have already stated.

4. A new colony was formed this year, further up the river, and enclosed with a palisade; it was named Hen-ri'-co, in honor of Henry, the eldest son of king James, then on the throne of England. Another settlement, five miles from Henrico, was called New Bermu'-da. There was peace now with the Indians, and this peace was

CHAP. XVIII.-1. What good consequences flowed from the administration of Lord Delaware? 2. What of Sir Thomas Dale? Division of property? 3. What occurred in September, 1611? What of domestic animals? New colonies? Peace? Rolfe and

Pocahontas?

prolonged by the marriage, in 1613, of Rolfe with Pocahontas-an event which has already been mentioned.

5. Tobacco, which, as we have stated, had been discovered by Columbus in his first voyage, and had now come into use, was first introduced into Virginia in the year 1614. In 1615, the fields, the gardens, and even the streets and squares of Jamestown were planted with it, and its culture was found highly profitable.

6. It does not appear that more than two women came over till 1311, when twenty arrived. In 1620, when the number of the colohists was suddenly raised from six hundred to eighteen hundred and sixty, there was a reinforcement of ninety "respectable young women," according to the language of the historians. They were procured by the planters as wives, by paying from one hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco each, to defray the expenses of their passage.

7. A number of unfortunate measures were adopted about this time. One was the sending over to the colony, as laborers, by order of king James, one hundred criminals; another, the introduction of the silk manufacture, for which the colony was not yet prepared. At this period twenty African slaves were purchased from the coinmander of a Dutch vessel-these being the first introduced into the English settlements.

8. There were frequent and numerous changes in the officers of the government, especially that of the chief magistrate, near this period, and some changes, also, in the mode of administration. Still the colony was more flourishing in 1620 than at any former period. Within three years fifty patents of land had been granted, and three thousand five hundred new emigrants received. There were now in the commonwealth eleven parishes and five ministers.

9. Such were the difficulties and dangers which beset the colony of Virginia, the earliest successful English settlement in North America, Such was the founding of the state of Virginia, now one of the most extensive and populous states of our federal Union.

5. Tobacco? 6. What of the arrival of women in 1620? 7. What mistakes were com mitted? 8. Changes in the government? Land patents? 9. What of the first colony a e present day?

SETTLEMENT OF NEW YORK.

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CHAPTER XIX.

Discoveries of Henry Hudson.-Settlement of New York

by the Dutch.

1. WHILE the colony of Virginia was thus

advancing, another settlement, to the north, had been es tablished. The isl and of Man-hat'tan, on which the city of New York was afterwards built, was first discovered by Captain Henry Hudson, in 1609. This person was the distinguished navigator who made discoveries to the northward of Canada and Labra

dor, and explored the large bay in that quarter which is called by his name to this day.

2. He was by birth an Englishman, but had been sent by the Dutch East India Company to try to find the East Indies by sailing in a northwesterly direction. Unable to proceed on account of the ice, he returned to Newfoundland, and coasted along the shores of the United States, discovering Manhattan Island, where New York now stands, and at the same time sailing up and giving name to what has since been called the North River, and more commonly Hudson's River.

3. As he was in the service of the Dutch* when he made these discoveries, the Dutch government claimed the country. The English, however, set up an earlier claim to it, as being a part of North

CHAP. XIX.-1. What of Henry Hudson? 2. Hudson's birth? Object of his voyage? His discovery of the Hudson River, &c.? 8. Why were his discoveries claimed for the benefit of the Dutch?

* The name Dutch is applied to the inhabitants of what is now called Holland, and which, in history, passes under the various names of Netherlands and Low Countries. An inhabitant of this country is called Deutscher, in his own language, whence we have the name Dutch.

Virginia. They also maintained that, as Hudson was an English subject, the countries he discovered were theirs.

4. But the Dutch were determined to hold the territory, if possible. They, therefore, in 1610, opened a trade with the natives at Manhattan Island, on the spot where the city of New York now stands, and erected a fort on or near the present site of Albany. To the country in general they gave the name of New Neth'-er-lands; and to the station on Manhattan Island, when it afterwards came to be settled, that of New Am'-ster-dam.

5. In 1613, Captain Argall, of Virginia, who had sailed to the north to break up a settlement the French were forming on the Pe-nob'-scot River, stopped at New York on his return, and demanded the surrender of the island of Manhattan, and indeed of the whole country, to the British king.

6. But though the Dutch yielded their claim at this time, it was simply because they were unable to defend it; the Dutch traders continued to occupy it, and a new Dutch governor, in 1614, threw off the English yoke, and put the fort at New Amsterdam in a position of defence. The desire of the Dutch to hold the place is not surprising, for a very profitable trade with the Indians for furs of various kinds had been established; in 1624, the skins of beavers and other wild animals which they obtained were valued at over ten thousand dollars.

7. The Dutch continued to resist the claims of the English to the country till the year 1664, and, in the mean time, kept up a profitable trade with the natives. The progress of the settlement was, however, exceedingly slow as long as it remained in the hands of the Dutch.

CHAPTER XX.

Various Settlements in New England.-Captain Smith's Survey of the Coast.

1. LEAVING for a brief space the Dutch settlements in what has since become the great state of New York, we turn our attention to New England. Nothing had been known as to the interior of this region till the year 1605. Captain Gosnold had, indeed, explored the coasts, and attempted a settlement on Elizabeth Island, in 1602, but withThe country went by the general name of North Vir

out success.

4. What did the Dutch do? 5. What occurred in 1618? 6. What took place in 1614! What of the fur trade? 7. What of the Dutch and the English claims?

CHAP. XX.-1 What of New England?

THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY.

53

ginia, South Virginia extending only so far north as to include the

country near the mouth of Hudson River.

2. About the year 1605, Captain Wey'-mouth, an Englishman, while searching for a north-west passage to the East Indies, discovered the Penob'-scot River, in Maine, and carried home five of the native In dians with him,

to be educated. These Indians excited great curiosity in England; and their accounts of the country led other navigators to the same coast.

3. There was a company formed in England about this time; called The Plymouth Company, whose object was to prosecute discoveries and make settlements along the coast of North Virginia, as the London Company were then about to do with regard to the coast of South Virginia.

4. In 1606, the Plymouth Company sent out two ships of discovery, under Captains Cha-long' and Prynne. The former took with him two of the five Indians brought over by Captain Weymouth. But he did not reach America, for his vessel was taken by the Spaniards, and he himself carried a prisoner to Spain.

5. Captain Prynne, more successful, surveyed the coasts of the country very extensively, and carried with him to England such a glowing account of its excellent harbors, rivers, forests, and fisheries, that, in 1607, one hundred adventurers, in two ships, went out to seek their fortune in America. Yet, so filled were the minds of Europeans with ideas of the mineral riches of America, that even in the depths of the green woods, these emigrants expected to find "mines of gold, and silver, and diamonds."

6. They first fell in with the island of Mon-he'-gan, on the coast of

2. Captain Weymouth? 8. The Plymouth Company? 4. What was done in 1961 5 What of Captain Prynne? What occurred in 1607?