[5] (p. [33]).—The General: this was Sir Thomas Gates, one of the prominent men of his time in both military and civil service. He was of Devonshire, and probably at this time a little over 50 years of age; had been an officer in the Drake-Sidney expedition to America (1585-86) and published an account of it in 1589; later, had military commands in Spain and Holland; was commander of the English expedition to Virginia in 1608, and appointed the first sole and absolute governor to the colony there; returned to England in April, 1614. He lived about six years longer, and took much interest in the affairs of Virginia. Both he and Dale were men of energy and executive ability; to their efforts are mainly ascribed the establishment and continuance of the Jamestown colony.
[6] (p. [69]).—The French name for the English Channel; given on account of its shape, resembling a sleeve (Fr. manche). It gives its name to the maritime department of France in which are situated Cherbourg and St. Lô.
[7] (p. [75]).—The ambassador: see vol. [ii]., note [94].
[8] (p. [85]).—On Betsabes, see vol. [iii]., note [16].
[9] (p. [91]).—River of smelts: the Liesse River of Lescarbot (see vol. [ii]., note [37]).
[10] (p. [95]).—On this point, cf. Maurault (Hist. Abenakis, p. 95, note 4): "The Abnakis always exhibited profound grief at the death of a child; the parents were inconsolable. The cause of this great sorrow was the belief of the savages that a child was wretched in the other world, because it was too young and weak to procure for itself the necessities of life there."
[11] (p. [101]).—The letters patent here referred to were those issued to Sir Thomas Gates and others, for the establishment of colonies in Virginia, and constituted the colonial charter. This document, dated April 10, 1606, granted some 20,000 square miles to the two companies, but claimed for the crown all of North America between 34° and 45° north latitude, presumably amounting to some 2,000,000 square miles, as the width of the continent was then understood. The text is given, with collateral and illustrative papers, in Brown's Genesis, pp. 52 et seq.
[12] (p. [105]).—For a graphic account of the colonial enterprises of Jean Ribaut and René de Laudonnière in Florida (1562-65), consult Parkman's Pioneers, pp. 33-150. Cf. Laudonnière's own narrative, and Ribaut's journal, as given in Goldsmid's Hakluyt, vol. xiii., pp. 407-507; also Guérin's Navigateurs Français, (Paris, 1846), pp. 180-204.
[13] (p. [105]).—Concerning these early discoveries by the French, see vol. [ii]., notes [49], [72]; and vol. [iii]., notes [5], [9].
[14] (p. [107]).—Biard here refers to the colony established in 1610 by John Guy and others at Cupids Harbor (opening into Conception Bay), N. F. Lord Bacon was prominent in this enterprise, and it was his influence that secured the charter and subsidies granted to the Newfoundland Colonization Company, as it was called. The company seems to have existed till at least 1628. For Guy's charter, and letters written by him, with an account of his enterprise and of other early colonies in that region, see Prowse's Hist. N.F., pp. 92-133.