VOYAGES OF MARTIN PRING TO NEW ENGLAND. 113 III. band, which was to have nestled on the Elizabeth CHAP. Islands, finding their friends about to embark for Europe, despaired of obtaining seasonable supplies of 1602. food, and determined not to remain. Fear of an assault from the Indians, who had ceased to be friendly, the want of provisions, and jealousy respecting the distribution of the risks and profits, defeated the design. The whole party soon set sail and bore for England. The return voyage lasted but five weeks; June and the expedition was completed in less than four months, during which entire health had prevailed.1 18. Gosnold and his companions spread the most favorable reports of the regions which he had visited. Could it be that the voyage was so safe, the climate so pleasant, the country so inviting? The merchants of Bristol, with the ready assent of Raleigh, and at the instance of Richard Hakluyt, the enlightened friend and able documentary historian of these commercial enterprises, a man whose fame should be vindicated and asserted in the land which he helped to colonize, determined to pursue the career of investigation. The Speedwell, a small ship of fifty tons and thirty men, the Discoverer, a bark of twenty-six tons and thirteen men, under the command of Martin 1603. Pring, set sail for America a few days after the death April of the queen. It was a private undertaking, and therefore not retarded by that event. The ship was well provided with trinkets and merchandise, suited to a traffic with the natives; and this voyage also was successful. It reached the American coast among the 1 Gosnold to his father, in Purchas, iv. 1646. Archer's Relation, ibid. iv. 1647-1651. Rosier's Notes, ibid. iv. 1651-1653. Brierton's Relation, in Smith, i. 105VOL. I. 15 108. Compare, particularly, Bel- 10. III. CHAP. islands which skirt the harbors of Maine. The mouth of the Penobscot offered good anchorage and fishing. Pring made a discovery of the eastern rivers and harbors-the Saco, the Kennebunk, and the York; and the channel of the Piscataqua was examined for three or four leagues. Meeting no sassafras, he steered for the south; doubled Cape Ann; and went on shore in Massachusetts; but, being still unsuccessful, he again pursued a southerly track, and finally anchored in Old Town harbor, on Martha's Vineyard. The whole absence lasted about six months, and was completed 1606. without disaster or danger. Pring, a few years later, repeated his voyage, and made a more accurate survey of Maine. Enterprises for discovery were now continuous. Bartholomew Gilbert, returning from the West Indies, made an unavailing search for the colony of Raleigh. It was the last attempt to trace the remains of those unfortunate men. But as the testimony of Pring had confirmed the reports of Gosnold, the career of navi1605. gation was vigorously pursued. An expedition, promoted by the Earl of Southampton and Lord Arundel, of Wardour, and commanded by George Weymouth, who, in attempting a north-west passage, had already explored the coast of Labrador, now discovered the Penobscot River. Weymouth left England in March, and, in about six weeks, came in sight of the American continent near Cape Cod. Turning to the north, he approached the coast of Maine, and ascended the western branch of the Penobscot beyond Belfast Bay; where the deep channel of the broad stream, the abundance of its spacious harbors, the neighboring 1 Purchas, iv. 1654-1656. Compare Belknap, ii. 123-133; Wil liamson's Maine, i. p. 185-187 2 Purchas, iv. 1656-1658. INTREPIDITY OF THE EARLY NAVIGATORS. 115 springs and copious rivulets, compelled the experienced CHAP. mariner to admire the noble river, which is just now beginning to have upon its banks and in its ports the 1605 flourishing settlements and active commerce that it is by nature so well adapted to sustain. Five natives were decoyed on board the ship, and Weymouth, returning to England, gave three of them to Sir Ferdinand Gorges, a friend of Raleigh, and governor of Plymouth.1 Such were the voyages which led the way to the colonization of the United States. The daring and skill of these earliest adventurers upon the ocean deserve the highest admiration. The difficulties of crossing the Atlantic were new, and it required the greater courage to encounter hazards which ignorance exaggerated. The character of the prevalent winds and currents was unknown. The possibility of making a direct passage was but gradually discovered. The imagined dangers were infinite; the real dangers, exceedingly great. The ships at first employed for discovery were generally of less than one hundred tons burthen; Frobisher sailed in a vessel of but twenty-five tons; two of those of Columbus were without a deck; and so perilous were the voyages deemed, that the sailors were accustomed, before embarking, to perform solemn acts of devotion, as if to prepare for eternity. The anticipation of disasters was not visionary; Columbus was shipwrecked twice, and once remained for eight months on an island, without any communication with the civilized world; 1 Rosier's Virginian Voyage, &c. in Purchas, iv. 1659–1667. Gorges, Brief Narration, c. ii. Compare Belknap's Am. Biog. ii. 134-150; Williamson's Maine, i. 191-195. III. CHAP. Hudson was turned adrift in a small boat by a crew whom suffering had rendered mutinous; Willoughby perished with cold; Roberval, Parmenius, Gilbert,— and how many others?-went down at sea; and such was the state of the art of navigation, that intrepidity and skill were unavailing against the elements without the favor of Heaven. CHAPTER IV. COLONIZATION OF VIRGINIA. IV. THE period of success in planting colonies in Vir- CHAP. ginia had arrived; yet not till changes had occurred, affecting the character of European politics and society, 1606. and moulding the forms of colonization. The reformation had interrupted the harmony of religious opinion in the west of Europe; and differences in the church began to constitute the basis of political parties. Commercial intercourse equally sustained a revolution. It had been conducted on the narrow seas and by land; it now launched out upon the broadest waters; and, after the East Indies had been reached by doubling the southern promontory of Africa, the great commerce of the world was performed upon the ocean. The art of printing had become known; and the press diffused intelligence and multiplied the facilities of instruction. The feudal institutions which had been reared in the middle ages, were already undermined by the current of time and events, and, swaying from their base, threatened to fall. Productive industry had, on the one side, built up the fortunes and extended the influence of the active classes; while habits of indolence and of expense had impaired the estates and diminished the power of the nobility. These changes also produced corresponding results in the institutions which were to rise in America. |