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INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.

Commission of Cabot.... His voyage to America....Claims of the French to the discovery of North America....All further views of discovery, or settlement, relinquished by Henry VII....Renewed by Elizabeth....Letters patent granted to sir Humphrey Gilbert....His voyages and death....Letters patent granted to sir Walter Raleigh ....Voyage of sir Richard Grenville....Colonists carried back to England by Drake....Grenville arrives with other colonists....They are left on Roanoke island, and destroyed by the Indians....Arrival of captain John White ....White dispatched to England for succour....Raleigh assigns his patent to sir Thomas Smith and company.... Patent to sir Thomas Gates and others....Code of laws drawn up for the proposed colony by king James.

October.

THE discovery of America by Columbus, 1492. gave a new impulse, and, in some degree, a new direction, to that bold spirit of adventure which characterized the hardy age in which he lived.

The accounts given by that daring, and skilful navigator of the countries he had visited, and the still more flattering reports respecting them which were circulated by the companions of his voyage; while they made their deepest impression on Spain, inspired very generally

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I.

CHAP. I throughout Europe the desire of sharing with 1492. that nation the glory, the wealth, and the dominion, to be acquired in the new world.

To accident the English historians attribute the failure of their sovereign, to engage originally in his service, this distinguished man. While Christopher Columbus proceeded to solicit, in person, at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, those aids which were indispensably necessary to the prosecution of the grand schemes he had projected, his brother Bartholomew was dispatched to Henry VII. of England, for the purpose of engaging that cautious, but sagacious, monarch to protect his enterprise.

On his passage Bartholomew was unfortunately captured by pirates. After a long detention, he at length reached England, where his propositions were so favourably received by the sovereign of that nation, as to excite the opinion, that he would probably have acquired to himself, and his country, the honour, and advantage of having first patronized this ever memorable voyage, had not the delays experienced by Bartholomew suspended the decision of Henry, until America was discovered under the auspices of Spain.

The impression, however, which Henry had received, prepared him in some measure for the important discoveries which were made, and inclined him to countenance the propositions which, soon after the return of Columbus,

were made by his own subjects, for engaging in CHAP. I. adventures, similar to that which had already 1492. been so successful.

of Cabot.

But England, whose ships now cover every Commission ocean, and whose fleets triumph in every sea, did not then furnish a single individual, well enough acquainted with navigation, to be trusted with the direction of such an expedition. The chief command of the armament, destined to explore these unknown regions, was given to Giovanni Gaboto (John Cabot) a Venetian adventurer who had settled in Bristol. To him, and to his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sanctius, a commission was issued on the 5th of March, less than two years after 1496. the return of Columbus from America, empowering them, or either of them, and their, and each of their heirs and deputies, to sail under the banner of England, towards the east, north, or west; in order to discover countries then unknown to all christian people. The terms of this commission very strongly marked, the genius and character of the monarch who gave it. It empowered the Cabots to take possession of the countries they should discover, in the name of the king of England, and to carry on an exclusive trade with the inhabitants; but the discoveries were to be made at their own expense, and their commerce was to be charged with a fifth part of the clear profit on every voyage, payable to the crown.

CHAP. I.

The expedition contemplated at the date of

1498. this commission, appears not then to have been made; but in May 1498, Cabot with his second son Sebastian, embarked at Bristol, on board a ship furnished by the king, which was accompanied by four barks, fitted out by merchants of that city.

His voyage to America.

The opinion of Columbus, that a shorter passage to the East Indies was to be opened, by holding a western course, and that the islands he had discovered were contiguous to the great continent of India, was then generally received. Cabot therefore, who was in quest, not so much of establishments, as of the rich commerce of the east, deemed it probable that, by steering to the north-west, he might reach India by a shorter course than that which Columbus had taken. After sailing for some weeks due west, he discovered a large island which was called by him Prima Vista, and by his sailors, Newfoundland; and, in a few days, he descried a smaller isle to which he gave the name of St. John. Continuing his course westward, he soon reached the continent of North America, and sailed along it from the fifty-sixth, to the thirty-eighth degree of north latitude, from the coast of Labrador to that of Virginia. He was not a little chagrined at being unable further to prosecute his commercial views, and to discover some inlet which might open a passage to the west. It does not appear that he landed any where, during this ex

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