Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

by George Park Fisher

CHAPTER X. COLONIZATION IN AMERICA: ASIATIC NATIONS; CULTURE AND LITERATURE (1517-1648).

COLONIZATION IN AMERICA.

The European nations kept up their religious and political rivalship in exploring and colonizing the New World.

FRENCH EXPLORERS.—The French and English sent their fishermen to the coasts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. French fishermen from Breton gave its name to Cape Breton. Francis I. sent out Verrazano, an Italian sailor, who is thought to have cruised along the coast of North America from Cape Fear northward (1524). Later, Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence as far as the site of Montreal (1535); other expeditions followed, and thus was founded the claim of the French to that region.

SPANISH EXPLORERS.—The Spaniards brought negroes from the coast of Africa to the West Indies, to take the place of the Indians; and thus the slave-trade and negro slavery were established. They gave the name of Florida to a vast region stretching from the Atlantic to Mexico, and from the Gulf of Mexico to an undefined limit in the North. From Tampa Bay, in what we now call Florida, they sent into this unexplored region an expedition under Narvaez (1528); and afterwards, on the same track, another party led by Hernando de Soto (1539), which made its way to the Mississippi near the present site of Vicksburg. Tempted by tales of rich cities, Coronado led an army to the conquest of the pueblos of the south-west. He penetrated as far as the boundary of the present Nebraska.

CONTEST IN FLORIDA.—The great Huguenot leader, Coligny, made three attempts to found Huguenot settlements in America. He wanted to provide for them an asylum, and to extend the power of France. One company went to Brazil, and failed; a second perished at Port Royal in Florida; a third (1564) built Fort Caroline on the shores of the St. John. This last company was mercilessly slaughtered by Menendez, the leader of a Spanish expedition which founded St. Augustine (1565), the oldest town in the United States. The act was avenged by the massacre of the Spanish settlers at Fort Caroline, by Dominique de Gourgues and the French company that came over with him.

ENGLISH VOYAGES.—The English, full of zeal for maritime discovery, tried to find a north-west passage to Asia. This was attempted by Martin Frobisher, a sea-captain, from whom Frobisher's Strait takes its name. After him followed John Davis, who gave his name also to a strait. As the English grew stronger and bolder on the water, they ceased to avoid a contest with Spain. In 1577 Sir Francis Drake set out from the harbor of Plymouth on his voyage around the globe. The defeat of the Spanish Armada occurred in 1588; and after that the English felt themselves to be stronger than their old adversary.

GILBERT AND RALEIGH.—Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in 1583, took possession of Newfoundland in the name of the queen of England. Walter Raleigh, his half-brother, on his voyage in 1584, visited Roanoke Island, and named the whole country between the French and the Spanish possessions, Virginia, in honor of "the Virgin Queen," Elizabeth. A colony which he sent out to Roanoke (1585) failed, and a second settlement had no better result. Bartholomew Gosnold landed on Cape Cod, and cruised along the neighboring coast (1602).

THE FRENCH IN CANADA.—In 1603 Champlain, a French gentleman, sailed to Canada, whither the fur-trade enticed explorers. A few years later he founded Quebec (1608), and explored the country as far as Lake Huron. The Jesuit missionaries commenced their efforts to convert the Indian tribes, in which they evinced an almost unparalleled fortitude and perseverance. The Huron and Algonquin Indians helped Champlain gain a victory over the hostile and warlike Iroquois, who afterwards hated the French. The French occupants of the country of the St. Lawrence devoted themselves too exclusively to trading, and too little to the tilling of the ground and to the forming of a community.

THE DUTCH SETTLEMENTS.—The Dutch were as eager as the other maritime powers to find a passage to India. In 1609 an English captain in their service, Henry Hudson, balked in this endeavor, sailed up the river now called by his name. The next year, being in the service of an English company, he discovered Hudson's Bay. Amsterdam traders established themselves on the island of Manhattan (an Indian name); which led to the formation of the New Netherlands Company, by whom a fort (Orange) was built at the place afterwards called Albany (1615). The West India Company followed (1621), with authority over New Netherlands, as the country was called. The powerful land-owners were styled patroons. Their territory reached to Delaware Bay; and they had a trading-post on the Connecticut, on the site of the present city of Hartford.